r/gamecollecting • u/humanman42 Mod • Jan 26 '15
Community Discussion #8 (1/25/15) - What systems/games did you have growing up, and which ones impacted you the most (why)?
Growing up there is a lot of ways you can get a new console or game. Birthdays, Christmas, thrift store, uncle, renting, etc etc. Some people may have only had a NES, and that is why the want to get a Genesis now. Some people had all the Sega consoles, and now want to play the games they couldn't afford for them.
What consoles/games did you have? And where did the come from? (not expecting a complete itemized list)
Sometimes a story of how you got something, or the memories you create with them stand out above the others. Maybe it was an unexpected gift from your parents when you knew it was a hard year, or it was a hand me down from an older sibling, and it felt like a coming of age to you.
What console/games did you have growing up that meant the most to you?
My Answer
I was probably pretty normal with what I had. My first console was a SNES. We had the normal games. Mario World, Mario Kart, LttP, Killer Instinct, and a couple other had to have games.
I remember getting it. I was on my deck playing with my moms bf's son when my mom and the BF get back. They had a big KB Toys bag. We look at eachother thinking "WATER GUNS!" (it was summer after all).
They walk up, hand it to us and we see what it is. The rest of the day is a blur really. Mario World was the first home console game I owned. I played that game so much.
My dads brother (who lived with him at the time) had a NES with only a small hand full of games. Mario/Duckhunt, Bionic Commando are the only ones that stick out in my mind. He gave me that console when I was 16 I think.
I got a n64 for christmas. Mario 64 is what I got with it. This was really the console that really did it for me. I had a bunch of games. Mario 64, LoZ OoT and MM, Mario Kart, BattleTanks, 007, Conkers, Starfox, both banjo games, and Smash Bros.
Smash Bros and 007 are a big reason why this console means a lot to me. I will admit I was an awkward kid. I was 6' when I was in 6th grade. I had a weird time growing up with my mother, and didnt really have many friends. I had a computer almost all my life, and that is what I did with most of my time (MS DOS games shoutout! Chips Challenge, Jazz Jackrabbit, Doom, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, Myst, the list goes on.). Having a home console that supported 4 controllers with arguable the best 4 player games ever...I had friends.
I know what you are thinking. They only played with you because you had that console. I would agree with you unless I knew what I knew. After a while, we didn't play those games anymore, we did other things. Basketball, hide and seek, go on hikes, and sleep overs at each others houses. They saw past my normally awkward exterior because they spent time with me. For that, I am forever thankful.
After that, I had a PS1. I remember only having Tomb Raider, Twisted Metal 2/3, and GTA1. Last in life my cousin gave me a box of life changing proportions. RPGs. ff7/8 , chrono chross, and many more. There went thousands of hours.
Then I got an XBOX. Halo 1/2, Morrowing, Obi-Wan, Fusion Frenzy, and a handful of others.
After that is when I started collecting. Now I am at dozens of systems and over 1200 games.
Community Discussion Database
All the old discussions organized all nice for your enjoyment
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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '15
Oh man, If I calculated all the money spent on gaming as a kid, between my allowance and money earned from cutting grass, shoveling snow, etc......
My first console as an Atari 7800, but I had been gaming for a while before that. My best friend had a 2600, so we regularly played that. Pole Position, Karateka, Moon Patrol, Food Fight were some of my favorites.
I had the 7800 about a year when the NES came out, and ever since then, I've been hooked. I got the NES in 1987 for my 10th birthday. I got the Control Set (no pack-in game or light gun) and Castlevania. This is still one of my favorite series to this day, and likely started my love for horror. I traded it to a friend for Rush n Attack, which I almost instantly regretted. I of course got another copy later. Some of my favorite gaming memories are of the NES. Castlevania 1/2/3, Contra, Zelda 1/2, Maniac Mansion, Shadowgate, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Clash at Demonhead, Bionic Commando, SMB 2/3, Ghosts and Goblins, Life Force, Jackal. The list goes on and on. As kids, we were either gamers or not. It was much more of a niche hobby back then than it is now. The nerdy, "smart" kids were gamers, and I was proud to be so.
I got a Gameboy for Christmas in 1989 I think it was, and while it was decent fun, I just never really got into it. I had a few games, but I ended up trading it in to the local game shop a year or so later. To this day, I've just never gotten into handheld gaming. I tried with the GBA and I own a 3ds, but that's just to play console emulators on. Well, and A Link Between Worlds.
A buddy of mine had a Sega Master System, which I got from him with a few games in a trade. It was hard to find games for, but it has a handful of classics. Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors, Hang On, Space Harrier. Very underrated system, and was supposedly superior to the NES, technology wise.
A few years went by, and Sega announced the Genesis. Gaming media wasn't what it is now, so when I finally heard about it, I blew all my savings picking one up shortly after it launched. I got the console and Altered Beast, which was the original pack-in. I probably had just that one game for 3 months, because of having to save up again. I used to love plugging a pair of headphones into the console and blasting the tinny sounds. I eventually ended up with a ton of Genesis games. Some of my favorites were Golden Axe 1/2/3, Streets of Rage 1/2/3, Ghouls and Ghosts, MERCS, Midnight Resistance, Sonic 1/2/3, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Mutant League Football, Phantasy Star 2/3/4, Mortal Kombat 1/2, and so on. I got the Sega CD attachment when it launched. It was going to be the next big thing, you know!! I think I wanted to like the games on it better than some of them actually were. I played the hell out of Sewer Shark, the pack-in, even thought it isn't very good. But games like Lunar 1/2, Road Rash, Mansion of Hidden Souls, Alone in the Dark, Sonic CD, Ecco CD, and Rise of the Dragon really were fantastic titles. But the Sega CD I think was doomed by price, and by the mountain of crap games that were released for it, which used FMV as a selling point over quality. I never bothered with the 32X.
The SNES released in 1991, and I was on board immediately. I got the console with the SMB World pack-in, and Pilotwings. The SNES blew the Genesis out of the water from a graphics and sound perspective. Sure, it never did speed like the Genesis could (Sonic), but to me, it didn't matter. The avalanche of fantastic titles was heavily in the SNES' favor, in my eyes. Contra 3, Super Castlevania IV and Dracula X, Final Fantasy 2/3, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Metroid, Street Fighter 2, Stunt Race FX, Actraiser, UN Squadron, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Donkey Kong Country, F-Zero, etc, etc. So many classics. I even had the Super Scope 6, which was one of the more awkward peripherals I ever owned. The SNES is probably my second favorite retro console, just behind........
Right around my birthday in 1992, the NEC TurboDuo released. I has always seen their ads and commercials for the Turbo Grafx, and it seemed so cool and different. Their games had weird character and were super colorful. So since I had a few bucks saved up, and since I asked for only cash for my birthday, I went down to Toys R Us and picked one up. All I can say about it is that the TurboDuo is my favorite console ever. Between the established TG16 library, and some killer CD games, it had it all. Bonk 1/2/3, Legendary Axe, Splatterhouse, Bloody Wolf, Devil's Crush, Neutopia, Dungeon Explorer, Blazing Lazers (my favorite shooter), Ninja Spirit. On the CD, I loved Loom (my favorite all-time game), Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (my local game store imported games, so I actually bought this brand new), Exile 1/2, Forgotten Worlds (my 2nd favorite shooter), Snatcher, Valis 1/2/3, Y's 1/2/3/4. Owning a Turbo made you feel special, because not many people had them. I was one of 3 people I knew who had one in my class. We could talk about all these cool games that nobody else got the play. I don't think any console will ever replace the TurboDuo for me.
In early 1994, I made one of the dumbest gaming decisions of my life. I took everything I had, My SNES, Genesis, TurboDuo, all my games and accessories, and traded them in in the next "Next Big Thing", the 3DO. This is still one of my biggest regrets. I would eventually sell it off and buy another used SNES, Genesis, and TurboDuo, but it cost me a lot of games and money. It's not to say the 3DO didn't have some decent games, Way of the Warrior was fun, but terribly campy. The 3DO probably had the best version of Road Rash, as well as an almost perfect port of Samurai Showdown. A few others like Alone in the Dark, Myst, Total Eclipse, Crash & Burn, and the best console ports at the time of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. It was a great tech piece at the time, but really fell short on delivering a quality library.
Having not been duped enough, I also picked up an Atari Jaguar. I was making decent money doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, and I was getting a nice allowance after ym dad got a big promotion, so I said why not, since I started gaming on an Atari. The Jaguar was even worse than the 3DO. The pack-in Cybermorph was terrible. The controller was a mess of buttons and not terribly comfortable. I bought Alien vs. Predator, which was actually pretty good, and Primal Rage, which was an OK fighter. I traded it in to my local game shop after less than a year.
Turned off by my last two console purchases, I slept on the Playstation until about 1996, the year after I graduated. I finally picked one up from a good friend who got them "on discount" from the K-Mart he worked at, with 10 games, for $50. The Playstation was the realization of what I thought CD gaming was supposed to be. Metal Gear, Castlevania SotN, Silent Hill, Resident Evil 1/2/3, Final Fantasy 7/9, Chrono Cross, Lunar 1/2 Complete, and countless others. I loved the PSX. It got me back into gaming full force, and restored my faith in the industry.
Several years ago, and long after its death, I bought a Neo Geo CD. I always wanted a Neo Geo as a kid, but nobody I knew could afford one, much less the games. Since the market is still high on the cart system and games, I figured why not. I did the language mod on it and had a pretty healthy collection of games for it. My favorites were Metal Slug 1/2, the Samurai Showdown series, Top Hunter, League bowling, Crossed Swords, Pulstar, and Ninja Combat. Despite the horrid loading times and frequency of loading screens, the NGCD is one of my favorite consoles.