Your Gaming History!

[taurusnipple]

Bored.

I'm now 25. I started playing videogames, say when I was 7? My 1st experiance was a Atari 2600, playing chopper command or something along them lines. I was really excited. Once the Master System came out though I was hooked. This was when I got into the scene, playing the likes of R-Type, Shinobi and Wonderboy, great days! Around the same time I got hold of a C64 along with a NES. Had great fun with the C64, getting cassettes and typing in code to play games. Such fun! After that, it was the Mega Drive/SNES era, got hold of both systems, along with a MEGA CD, (best version of Final Fight IMO) Paid a fortune for a Playstation, though when I got hold of Tekken I wasn't so worried. Some of my fondest memories are with my trusty PS, despite some of the worrying facts of PS breaking down, I was fortunate enough for that experiance to never happen to me. Treat my consoles with love! Purchased a N64 on UK launch date with Turok and Mario 64. Then I grabbed a Dreamcast upon release, along with Virtue Fighter 3TB and not long after Power Stone. Would have thought I'd learnt my lesson with the N64 but I got an XBOX on launch too. Halo I waited some months before I got a Gamecube though. Lesson learnt! Only things I've really lost out on are perhaps the Saturn, Game Gear, Neo Geo & PS2. I forgot my Gameboys and ! Atari Lynx, more hours/days/months lost with them too.

The point? I dunno, lets hear your gaming history, how you got gaming & your love affair with it. If you can be arsed yeah?

[Naiera]

I started with a PSX in 1996, and it wasn't until after getting a Dreamcast, GC and Xbox, that I bought my Saturn roughly a year and a half ago. From then on, I've bought a SNES, an few MD2's, and a lot of other neat consoles and rare games. My most recent console is a superb-looking PC Engine DUO, for which I plan on bying Dracula X within the next few weeks.

Collection highlights:

Chrono Trigger
Radiant Silvergun
Battle Garegga
Samba De Amigo official controller set
Panzer Dragoon Saga

All can be seen here (no Duo at the time at which the pictures were taken, though).

[RLench]

Brief history of mine:

NES - 1989
Megadrive - 1993
PSX - 1996
PS2 - 2002
N64 - 2002
GC - 2002
DC - 2003
2nd PSX - 2003

You can see where my hiatus was, and where I made up for it

[evilmatt]

Erm, talk about hazy distant history
1985 ish Atari XE - aged 6, first memories being Gauntlet multiplayer, Missile Command, and a football management game.
1990 ish Amiga 500 - which I still have for SWOS and Project X Easily my favourite format of all time
1991 Gameboy
1993 Amiga CD32 - the Microcosm and Tower Assault intros at the time were amazing, but watch them nowadays and its funny how incredibly bad the acting is Great early examples of the potential evils of the CD format!
1995 ish first PC - have since bought 3 more, upgraded each of those at least once, and then built my own from scratch this year. Expensive business being a PC gamer
1997 PlayStation
2001 GBA
2002 Xbox, GC
2003 Dreamcast, PS2

And the 229 games (those I still have anyway!) are all listed on the link in my sig if anyone is that bored!

[Tokyo Trash Baby]

- Started on Master System, Sonic got me hooked. 1990 to 1994

- Went to PC gaming. 1994 to 1996 (bad move!)

- About to buy a Megadrive but discoved the overpriced Playstation. 1996 to 2000

- Obtained Gameboy, Mario never did it for me. 1999

- Playstation2 was a natural progression. 2000 to 2003

- Bought first GBA SP, now collecting dust. 2003

- Bought a JAP PS2, first experience of import gaming. Havent touched a PAL game since. 2003

[Crispin]

Brief history.
1985 - Born
Latter half of the 80s and the 90s - marvelled at the amazing Vic 20 that we had. Was impressed by my brother's ability to program games, even if it did involve copying it out of a book.

Early 90s Brother got a NES. Introduced to Super Mario Bros. 3, Spiderman: Revenge of the Sinister Six, Turrican and Probotector (Contra). These four games would go on to shape my four core beliefs about games. Each would contribute to one idea.:

1) Design is law (SMB3)
2) Using the game environment to gain a tactical advantage never gets old and is always rewarding (Spiderman)
3) Sound and atmosphere can help make a brilliant game (Turrican)
4) Playing with other people in order to achieve a common goal can elevate a game to dizzy highs (Probotector)

Early 90s again, post NES era. Received a Game Gear Was the first ever non-PC (think Postman Pat kid PC games) game and console that was for me, and me alone.

The only good titles for it were ones that fulfilled at least one of the above core beliefs (Dynamite Headdy, Sonic games, Columns, Space Harrier, Mickey Mouse game (actually very good!))

Early 90s, mid 90s - after support for the GameGear died a death I was reduced to playing the old NES games again and PC games Realised that only a few titles such as Duke Nukem, Zool and Bullfrog games were any good. Found Doom and other games not to my liking as did not fulfill my golden rules.

1997 - the year it all changed. Played a very special game. One that made me realise what I could do, the twitch ability inside me. The ability to shoot guards in the head before my brain could even catch up with my instincts. Goldeneye fulfilled all my golden rules, improved upon them and created at least another two rules:

5) Games with missions that have multiple solutions increase the immersion factor.
6) Done right, counter-op games can be just as fun as Co-op.

After that discovered the N64 classics (almost anything from Nintendo and Rare). Was a golden halcyon era and one that will be fondly remembered

2002) After a (relatively - for no. of releases)the disappointing year for my GC, Halo seduced me the same way Goldeneye did, over half a decade ago. Finally dropped my Sega/Nintendo fanboy attitude and became a true game, experiencing what I wanted, regardless of console. Never looked back since.

The rest they say is History.

[Welrain]

From start to finish:

Amstrad CPC (1986) - the best of the 8 bits!
SNES (1993?)
Playstation (1998)
Dreamcast (1999)
Gamecube (2002)
Xbox (2002)
PS2 (2003)

[Tokyo Trash Baby]

Brief history.
1985 - Born
Latter half of the 80s and the 90s - marvelled at the amazing Vic 20 that we had. Was impressed by my brother's ability to program games, even if it did involve copying it out of a book.

Early 90s Brother got a NES. Introduced to Super Mario Bros. 3, Spiderman: Revenge of the Sinister Six, Turrican and Probotector (Contra). These four games would go on to shape my four core beliefs about games. Each would contribute to one idea.:

1) Design is law (SMB3)
2) Using the game environment to gain a tactical advantage never gets old and is always rewarding (Spiderman)
3) Sound and atmosphere can help make a brilliant game (Turrican)
4) Playing with other people in order to achieve a common goal can elevate a game to dizzy highs (Probotector)

Early 90s again, post NES era. Received a Game Gear Was the first ever non-PC (think Postman Pat kid PC games) game and console that was for me, and me alone.

The only good titles for it were ones that fulfilled at least one of the above core beliefs (Dynamite Headdy, Sonic games, Columns, Space Harrier, Mickey Mouse game (actually very good!))

Early 90s, mid 90s - after support for the GameGear died a death I was reduced to playing the old NES games again and PC games Realised that only a few titles such as Duke Nukem, Zool and Bullfrog games were any good. Found Doom and other games not to my liking as did not fulfill my golden rules.

1997 - the year it all changed. Played a very special game. One that made me realise what I could do, the twitch ability inside me. The ability to shoot guards in the head before my brain could even catch up with my instincts. Goldeneye fulfilled all my golden rules, improved upon them and created at least another two rules:

5) Games with missions that have multiple solutions increase the immersion factor.
6) Done right, counter-op games can be just as fun as Co-op.

After that discovered the N64 classics (almost anything from Nintendo and Rare). Was a golden halcyon era and one that will be fondly remembered

2002) After a (relatively - for no. of releases)the disappointing year for my GC, Halo seduced me the same way Goldeneye did, over half a decade ago. Finally dropped my Sega/Nintendo fanboy attitude and became a true game, experiencing what I wanted, regardless of console. Never looked back since.

The rest they say is History.

BRIEF HISTORY ? Hmmmmmmmm

[Crispin]

Well, it was brief by my standards. Everyone on this board knows how I love to go off on a tangent. And that was only brief as my computer is struggling to cope with this message and someone accessing all my Blood Gulch Chronicles videos over the network (about 2 or 3 videos at a time). So i keeps creating words that I didn't put in, as well as lagging in typing a message.

I might message the guy and tell him not to load so many at once. I am so "leet" I even know what video he is up to and where he is and his name.

Fear me!

[Tokyo Trash Baby]

Well, it was brief by my standards. Everyone on this board knows how I love to go off on a tangent. And that was only brief as my computer is struggling to cope with this message and someone accessing all my Blood Gulch Chronicles videos over the network (about 2 or 3 videos at a time). So i keeps creating words that I didn't put in, as well as lagging in typing a message.

I might message the guy and tell him not to load so many at once. I am so "leet" I even know what video he is up to and where he is and his name.

Fear me!

COOLIES

[Rsdio]

Hmm, can't remember dates and stuff but I'll give it a shot..

First up my family had a BBC, on which Repton kept me busy for vast amounts of time (one of the great lost franchises I reckon). Then I got an Atari ST one Christmas, which I still have now, and that was the start of my love for Sega games with Outrun, Hang-On and Space Harrier amongst others (Sensible Soccer comes to mind too). I think I probably spent about a year of my young life trying to finish Monkey Island on it too, at least it seemed that long what with all the pixel-searching and trying random items with other random items in the hope of progress..

Got a Megadrive a couple of years later, my main memory of which was being picked up by my dad one famous 'Two's-day' and him giving me Sonic 2 in Burger King. Remember that clear as a bell . Then came the Playstation and I started to lose interest in games.. Maybe the one thing that could've stopped that was when my mate was playing on Final Fantasy VII and telling me how great it was, and I didn't believe him. I'm sure if I'd played it then, it would've revived my interest.

Went 5 or 6 years barely laying a finger on games (barring Championship Manager 2 for which I developed a life-ruining addiction). Then 2 years ago I went off work long term (nothing to do with Championship Manager, before you ask ), got bored and discovered emulation. Soon that wasn't enough and since then I've ammassed a Megadrive (again), Mega CD, SNES, white Japanese Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast, Gamecube, N64, PS2 and a GBA SP.

Who says emulation takes money away from the industry? They must've got thousands out of me since I discovered it

[2097]

I started in the late 80's on my older brothers Dragon 32, i wasnt really interested in it that much and thought my fellow siblings were complete geeks for liking it

Later on I got into the Amstrad CPC 464 (with its own screen!) and the Atari 2600.. Fruit Machine and Outrun (if it ever loaded) were my faves and Pole Position and Pacman (even if it was a horrid conversion) on the 2600.. We also had a gameboy, then a NES and a few PC games but i still wasnt that interested..

Then we got the SNES and I fell in love with Theme Park, Sim City and F-Zero Got into more PC games, got a PSX, got the internet and became a complete geek .. newer PC's, PS2, PSOne, GC then GBA-SP followed on

[hoathenfold]

With age being on my side I've been here since the very beginning!!

I can remember playing Pong on a trip to the USA in a Diner with my dad and the lovely wood veneer cabinet it was in. I can even remember getting one of those lovely orange and black Binatone 4 game units that only played pong and the sound came out of the unit itself and not the TV.

I've had just about everything else since!!

[androo]

It all started in the Early 80's with:

Vic 20 (How cool was Omega Race)

C64 (Plenty good games like Beach Head II, Bruce Lee etc.)

Amiga 500 (Fantastic, My favourite machine!)

Classic Gameboy (Everyone at school had them back then - trading games was common place)

Super Nintendo ( A friend had one with Mario Kart, so naturally I needed to practice to beat him - oh and I beat him to completing Zelda!)

Amiga 600 (Big mistake)

Amiga 1200 ( Great Machine at the end of the Amiga's life cycle)

Playstation (Decent machine, lots of games, broke the lid on the first day)

Nintendo 64 (Goldeneye, Mario, Diddy Kong Racing were sadly the only games I bought)

Dreamcast (Brilliant Machine, only recently bought more games for it)

Playstation II ( Post GTA, I havent really got into this machine as much as I did with the PSX)

Gamecube (Brilliant Nintendo Console as ever - made a promise to buy more games than I did on the N64)

Gameboy Advance SP (Zelda again, Marios - Classic Stuff!)

Xbox (Live is fantastic, Halo was dissapointing, but Kotor has been superb!)




That about sums it up!

[Paul3704]

Started off with a Pong console. the whole family loved it.

Then on to the Atari 2600, which i think was a christmas present for my dad more than me, but i remember losing countless hours to Reactor, Amidar, H.E.R.O. and multiplayer Combat. My folks were hooked on Pacman.

The MSX came next, Toshiba version. Only memorable game on that was Jet Set Willy 2, and some game Toshiba designed themselves. You controlled the Toshiba Robot through some pretty piss poor mazes.

Spectrum +3. The Great Escape held me for months, as did Robocop, Rastan and Finders Keepers.

Amiga 500. This is when i first noticed a jump in performance. Crisp, clear graphics and small loading times. FA 18 Interceptor, Batman, Carrier Command, Powermonger, Populous, Paradroid 90, Shadow of The Beast and the mighty, unbeatable Rainbow Islands.

Then, a break for a couple of years.

Back with the SNES. Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario World and Streetfighter 2. Hours of my life wasted, but thoroughly enjoyable.

PSX, another jump in quality, with Gran Turismo, Bishi Bashi Special, Tempest X3, R-Type Delta.

N64 - Mario Party, Goldeneye, Mario 64, Zelda OOT, Blast Corps.

Dreamcast - Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, Samba De Amigo

Gamecube - Pikmin, Animal Crossing, SSBM

PS2 - Rez, Ico, GTA3, Gran Turismo 3, Kuri Kuri Mix.

Xbox - Halo.

And now I'm bored again, and considering packing the whole lot in.

All good things must come to an end . . . .