you guys are lucky

[Zentazuken]

refferring too the people old enough to have been there when all this retro shiznit was mainstream, yeah, im looking at you, im so jealous of you guys...what i wouldnt give to have been born at least 10 years earlier, at least to have experienced the saturn, sure ive got one now and will start collecting for it, but its not the same when nobody else has one, you are going to tell me now, people do have them, look at us all, but what i mean is, its not like my best friend is going to ring me up and announce he just got hold of radiant silvergun and do i wanna go stayover to play on it all night, no, hes more likely to say "oh i picked up metal gear solid 4 yesterday, completed it in a few hours, easy, cant wait to mgs5 is out"

really i envy you who lived in the time when everyone owned one...how cool it must have been..the weekly/monthly sega/X system magazines, im actually trying to buy some of them so i can have a read and try and get some experience of the past out of them..

thats just my view of how it must have been anyway...those who are old enough (dont have to share your exact age guys!!!) to have be around then, share the memories! i was only a little sprog just as the saturn died out =(

[butchcvc]

im 25, been playing games since 1986. I've only been playing imports for several months, so all views are based on pal games & hardware!

the best pal era for me was 1991-1993! (snes,amiga,gameboy,game gear, md)

the worst pal era was 1994-1996 (philips cd-i,saturn,psx)

special mention to 1996-2001 (n64 & dreamcast!)

[Baseley09]

I can't find the suitable Risc OS bios fiiles to get an Archimedes emulator running.

[RetroRevival]

I was workinf for Tempo when the PS1 and Saturn came out, and remember having a "lock in" with the manager the day before the Saturn release day. We got a few crates in and played Virtua Fighter till the early hours :-)

Ive never been excited about a console launch since.

Regards
Simon

[Zentazuken]

cool.

(Tempo?)

my names simon too

[Zanza]

I guess it wasn't really before my time (being 21), but I never owned a NES, Snes, Mastersystem, Megadrive, Saturn or Dreamcast, mainly because my parents thought I was more of an Amiga kinda kid. Looking back, I enjoyed my c64, Amiga 500+ and CD32 more than anything, and I played them all to death. Like you say, I enjoyed the fantastic magazines every month, but it was the 'Official Commodore 64 Gamer' mag, rather than the 'Official Nintendo64 Mag'

The Amiga machines (except the CD32) wern't really consoles tho, more like home computers, or at least thats what my parents probably thought they were buying me. I never really owned a 'games console' untill I got my ps1, which was around the same time the first Tombraider game was released, think I was 16, and it was the pioneering moment in my gaming hobby/addiciton.

I share some of the same feelings, especialy now I own all these great consoles, 5 minuties before I typed this I was putting down my DC pad (throwing it at the floor) after a good game (annoying defeat) on Powerstone. Makes me think of how many amazing Dreamcast gaming session I could of had with mates as a kid; playing 4 player Powerstone 2, Chu Chu Rocket or Phantasy Sar Online. Sure I can play the games whenever I want now, but I feel like I have missed out on all the playground hype, magazines, and after school gaming sessions.

All that said, if someone would have offered me the chance to trade in all my Amiga machines, and have enjoyed my youth with the companionship of a Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast, I still would have chosen the Amiga stuff....which made this post completely pointless.....

[Zentazuken]

I share some of the same feelings, especialy now I own all these great consoles, 5 minuties before I typed this I was putting down my DC pad (throwing it at the floor) after a good game (annoying defeat) on Powerstone. Makes me think of how many amazing Dreamcast gaming session I could of had with mates as a kid; playing 4 player Powerstone 2, Chu Chu Rocket or Phantasy Sar Online. Sure I can play the games whenever I want now, but I feel like I have missed out on all the playground hype, magazines, and after school gaming sessions.

exactly what i was trying to say right there, but just couldnt get the right words out, ive played powerstone 1/2 with a mate, alright but would have been so much better 4 player! pso..i managed to play it for a month or two just before the servers finally closed down...what a sad day that was...hardly anyone online around then anyway...

[gossi the dog]

Yeah, I wish I was 5 or so years older. I didn't really get into videogaming until I purchased an N64 shortly after turning 14 in 1997. I missed out on both the Mega Drive and SNES, both of which tempt me so. Mind you I didn't become an import gamer until 2001.

[dj898]

i still rermber when we sneaked out during lunch break and gather together around then latest Xevious to break others scores...

[tokyochojin]

My best school gaming memory must have been the SFII craze, way back on the Snes.
Now that was a cool time, everyone rushing home to practice so they could go round to their mates after tea to show off their new sKilLZ. Trust me to think Dhalsim was the best, while everyone else was picking Ryu and Blanka. ^0^

[Yakumo]

I'm 29 and have been gaming since the days of the Master System. I remember the Mega Drive and SFC times as if they were yesterday ! To me they were the best times with the saturn following just a little short thanks to the piss poor PAL releases (Soon go better however) and not having enough money to buy all the imports. Still, The Saturn's lauch was a very exciting time that I'll never forget. These days it's not exciting at all. I don't give a **** about the PS3 or even about the PS2 when that was released. XBOX 360 doesn't interest me either but Revolution does a little but nowhere near what the Saturn or even PSX did back in their days. The Dreamcast was probably the last console to really excite me.

Yakumo

[Duddyroar]

I'm 26 this year and my favourite era is the 16-bit days. Happy days indeed.

Tempo - they used to sell cheap hardware - I recall at one point they were selling the PS1 for the lowest price in the UK!

[anephric]

I iz Old Man - I remember my Atari 2600 and playing Combat, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers etc as a nipper. Then a Speccy, then Amstrad C128 (along with a C64), then Amiga...

I was also SEGA BOI No.1 and wouldn't touch anything console-related not Service Games. Had a Master System, Master System 2, Game Gear, Mega Drive, Mega CD, 32X... right about then my *love* (and money) ran out and I realised what a mug I was. Went down the Sony route come PS/Saturn bifurcation as I rubbed the SEGA manfat from my face, looked at Virtua Fighter and though it looked like pig**** running next to Tekken (hell, even Toshinden).

I'm more open-minded now.

[Mayhem]

Two old men? Well I'm 30 and I started my playing career with an Atari 2600 pre crash. I feel ancient

[babs]

28 here and weaned on Sir Clive Sinclair's creations The time I'd give a game back then compared to now is almost criminal. You youngsters should be appreciative of the fact that you are only playing rehashed genres for the 2nd or 3rd time, and that you aren't truly bored by most of what comes out now.

But I concur with the older chaps above, 8/16 bit days were golden. The excitement of a new game was unbelievable, I'd spend hours analyzing magazines and reviews (in particular I remember EA Hockey and Super Mario World) and building my own expectations up.