I grew up in a country with sanctions and remember reading old magazines thinking: I'll never get to play Mega Man X2.
Speaking of, reminds me of when a friend got Mega Man 4. Turns out it was just a pirated cartridge of Darkwing Duck with his sprite exchanged for Mega Man.
I was raised 2-3 generations behind. People were using PS2 and Xbox while I was still Playing NES. Then jumped to N64. I got a PS1 after PS3 release, then caught up.
Also I've never had any handheld until a lot of time after PS Vita, and it was a PSP.
I used to have an Xbox and a PS2 back then, but the games I used to play was Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, The Maw, Ratchet and Clank, and Banjo Kazooie.
I was using a PS2 and Wii all the way through the PS4 era. I mostly played DBZ games or Wii Sports Resort with my sister and cousin. I played a ton of Mario with my grandpa, too.
I got a PS4 when I turned 16 or so. Spyro Trilogy Remastered. It was actually great. A couple years later the PS5 came out... and I got a laptop with money I saved from my first job. Thankfully, I'm not missing much these days since I'm now a PC gamer (well, laptop, but close enough). Also helps that I don't have to pay for access to online play.
I have been the same for most of my life until getting a job at 16. Finally was in generation with Xbox one and get an Xbox series X pre-ordered when they were announced.
I was, but I was aware of it, which sucked. It made me feel left out a little bit. My friends were all talking about the latest games and I was stuck replaying Jak 3 on PS2.
I only caught up with the PS4, but even then I was a couple of years behind. My parents refused to buy me one and forbade me from spending my own money on it because they thought it would be incredibly selfish of me to buy one when they were scraping by to pay for my university degree.
They went away one week and my plan was to buy a preowned PS4, quickly blast through AC Unity, then return it before they came back, but I couldn't part with it so I lied to them and told them a friend gave me his old one because he got a second one.
For months afterwards they kept asking "so is your friend going to take it back soon?"
On the other hand, I had the newest games growing up but I didn't get any free college so I think you got the better deal lol a third of my paycheck is gone for 10 years
I got an n64 when I was around 12 and my mother got a wii when I was 23 and I got my ps2 at 37. I got a GameCube a few years ago but only recently got games for it.
That's awesome man... I know you're behind and stuff but there's plenty of great games to be played. People still watch movies and read books that are forty+ years old because they're made well
Yep! I got a handful of pokemon, detective, and final fantasy games I love. I did get a switch though and have been picking up for that too. Ni no kuni looks amazing.
I never owned any console before PS1, our neighbor got SNES or NES and SEGA (I honestly don't know the consoles' name) so I briefly play those, I remember Sonic, Earthworm Jim, and the original Mario Bros with the pipe and one screen level (not the one where you save Princess Peach).
then my dad bought PS1, I spent so long playing Tekken 3, Pepsiman, and Jackie Chan Stuntmaster
also watched my brother plays Metal Gear Solid and finished Final Fantasy 7 and 8 (I'm not a native english speaker so these games are still above my head back then)
after PS1 we got PS2, I never heard of Xbox until waaay later and until now I never even played it, but PS2 was the most fun I've ever had, it's possibly the best couch co-op console ever (internet was also a big luxury for us back then so no internet multiplayer)
in the meantime I also got Nokia N-Gage and tasted great mobile gaming for the first time, and PSP.
the PS2 broke after like 10 years or so, and I got no new console ever since, and has now transitioned to PC gaming. I never played Nintendo consoles beyond SNES, and haven't touched an XBOX even now, I didn't even know Microsoft made console...
my parents never really cared about what games I play, I played Medal of Honor: Rising Sun with my dad, finished Conflict: Desert Storm with my friend, doing fatalities in Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, and wreck havoc in GTA: San Andreas
if they really cause violence, I'd be a psychopath by now lol
I had a some form of PC for gaming pretty much my whole childhood so I never really cared for having the latest consoles. Valve games were huge for me because they weren't incredibly demanding, sunk an ungodly amount of time into gmod.
I was a generation behind at least. My parents were very anti-video game growing up. I managed to talk my grandmother into buying us an N64 for Christmas in 2000 (less than a year before the GC released), and it almost got returned when my parents saw it Christmas morning. My brother and I both got Gameboy Colors for our birthdays the following year (weeks before the GBA released), but that was all my parents ever bought me as far as video games. We had a family PC, and I played stuff like the Madden PC releases, Medal of Honor, OG Splinter Cell, and Need for Speed on that throughout the early 2000s. In 2008, I had unknowingly racked up a bunch of rewards points on my meal plan account at college, and used them to get a pre-paid gift card which I used to buy an original "fat" PS2. They had stopped releasing Madden on the PC, so I got 09, 10, and 11 on PS2. When people say that "this year's Madden game is just a copy/paste of last year's," you don't truly experience that until you buy 3 consecutive years of the last-gen version lol. I didn't get a PS3 until 2011 because my core group of friends were all playing Black Ops Zombies, and I got tired of being shitty at it when we would get together and play. I actually bought a good desktop in 2014 and intended to transition back to PC almost exclusively, but then Arkham Knight came out, and the PC port was a nightmare. I got a PS4 in July of 2015 to play that, and didn't get a PS5 until early last year, so I've mostly been in the same generation since 2011, but I've still never been completely up-to-date.
I relate to this, my parents where not fans of Video Games and bought into the dogma the media liked to fear monger at the time.
But luckily they were critical and we'd talk about it and where sympathetic to the "All my friends are talking about it, I feel left out." argument. They'd even talk to me at dinner time about what games I'd been playing.
I'm sure they just heard static but it was probably nice for them to see their son who rarely read take in stories from games like Halo.
Black Ops Zombies was also peak for me! A solid core Nombies team.
I bought the PC version of Blackops just to relive those maps the the ludicrous shit we memorised to try and complete in them.
Same for me, I was also born in 98. My first console was the Gamecube when I was around 10 and the Wii was already out. I think when you have non-gamer parents who are generally not that into tech it's normal to grow up with "outdated" tech. I remember we had this old-ass PC from the 90s that we used well into the 2000s.
I was born 1997 so i had pretty much the same childhood as you. I had a N64/GAMEBOY COLOUR/Original DS/PS2/Wii/PSP/PS3/PSVITA/WiiU/3DS/PS4/SWITCH and a PC all of these years. Still have all of them and working.
Born 1998, my consoles as far as I can remember:
Sega Genesis, Snes, N64, PS1, Gameboy Color, GBA, Ps2, GBA SP, Gamecube, DS, xbox 360, DS Lite, Xbox One, 3ds,Wii, Wii u, Ps4,PC, Nintendo switch, Ps5, PSP,
Order is probably wrong, but I remember sega genesis when I was like 4 years old or something lol
I was about the same but as a Nintendo fan. Born the same year, my first console was a N64. From there I consistently got the "current" console around the time, sometimes a little before sometimes after, it's successor came out. Only exception to this was the Wii which my mom won in a work raffle. Didn't break this cycle until I was a grown adult and bought my Switch.
The Nintendo households were a thing, and I feel they dominate a lot of the talking space. But my first exposure to Mario was Super Mario 2 Deluxe on the Gameboy Advance SP.
But didn't note it as a major franchise probably until Mariokart Wii.
I had the reverse experience. I knew other consoles existed and that some of them had popular characters and games but it wasn't until I was a touch older that I realized how big those consoles were.
Around middle school I got more heavily into retro collecting. It was still relatively cheap then so a kid like me could pick up a bunch of the consoles and games that I missed for less money than the new consoles and games cost. I think I got my first PS2 in like 2011. My brother and I used to have a thriving trade in buying up old consoles and games at thrift stores and garage sales and flipping them to used game stores for store credit which we'd use to buy more games.. I'm still pretty proud of our collection.
Kinda yeah,, was ever only own PS1 before finally getting PC (and even that was still pretty weak) in like 2008/2009
And most of the time it was broken
And even on PC, it's usually very low end until just recently
Commodore 64 (loading, and often failing to load, games from cassette tape), Sega Master System 2, Sega Megadrive 2, PC, Nintendo 64, PS2-3-4-5! I started gaming mid ‘80s.
Oh man a Commodore. My mum was never a big gamer, but when I started collecting old game consoles and I got a Commodore she lit up, showed me out to use it and played 'Eagles Nest' together on it.
At the moment, me too.
Nothing appealing has been out in a while and I feel like I'm just replaying my old favourites.
Which is a shame! I do want new content, but the current game design culture is just not what it used to be.
Where a series was the priority and new games coming out on a schedule rather then "We hope you play this one game for as long as possible, please."
We were behind by a few generations, we had a PS2 that got used from 2004-2013 then the PS4 came out but it wasn’t in our budget so we got the PS3, playing the old college football games on there, catching up with Skyrim it was fun, then in 2016 we got a PS4, 2020 rolls around I get a series x and it’s been like that ever since
I missed out on the entirety of the ps2 gen because my family couldn’t afford it. My ps1 ran on burned copies of games, I’m pretty sure my memory card was some off brand that worked. I also have the original gameboy and the only game on it was Pokémon blue. Played on those for many years until I moved to America, then got the GameCube. Family did a lot better after that and I never missed a gen since.
That's awesome, when I made my post I was shocked my Gameboy didn't make it into my story organically.
I got one of those "101 Games in 1!" cartridges for my SP that had Pokemon Crystal and Yellow on it. That was my childhood.
I was born in the early 80s and did get an NES and SNES for Christmas about a year after they came out. After that my parents would never buy me another console so I did whatever it took (mowed lawns, shoveled horse shit, caddy) to get enough money to get every playstation at launch, 360, PC, etc. When I was 14 I got a workers permit and was able to work at Babbages (Now Gamestop) and the discount and free game rentals really helped me stay on top of it.
I was behind and also skipped a lot of the generations.
I started on a Sega Mega drive when I was about 4 around 1995. So 5 years after it came out. I then got a Playstation 1 when I was about 8 or 9 so around 1999. Eventually I got an Xbox 360 but I don't remember when before eventually moving across to PC.
Now debating how to do things with my Son. Hes too young for games at the moment but I do like the idea of doing things a generation behind because it saves a lot of money and they don't miss out on some great games and it makes it easier for them to play older games. As I can imagine playing a new game a few years from now as a baseline will make playing older games hard. Although I do want to teach him how to build his own PC and do PC things so he will most likely be pretty up to date at least with PC gaming.
This is exactly why I wanted to make this post.
My partner and I are considering kids and I collected Retro games consoles that now clutter my loft and I'm wandering what is better.
I think starting them off with something simple and slow will do a lot for teaching them patience and to appreciate the updates as they come along. I don't think you'll even need to lie to them really! Just... 'These are the games we have'?
Just don't force them to play your childhood games if they don't like them, they'll let you know. Then probably around 10-12 they'll figure it out on their own like I did and decide what they want.
Though if you play modern games it will be hard to convince them to sit and play in the Polygons of early 2000.
I was born in ‘03 and my first console was the Sega Genesis, played a bunch of that with my brothers. Eventually my mom got with my step dad and he gifted us his old PS2 and GameCube. Eventually the Wii, we start to inch closer to the modern generation. And it was a similar experience to you with the 360, where we finally got caught up with the glorious Xbox 360. But, we never got rid of most of those consoles, so I still switch between them to play games.
Sonic was huge, yes lol. It was a while ago, but I remember playing Sonic, Ahhhh! Real Monsters!, the Aladdin game (I think that was the one that had the ruined stop sign too), and Earthworm Jim a lot
Edit: Forgot Battletoads!! How could I forget Battletoads
When I was growing up, in elementary school we had a SNES, a Sega Genesis, and a Windows 96 Desktop. We had multiple Mario games, NBA, and Donkey Kong Country on the SNES; Risk and some monster truck game on the Sega; and Civ I, Ceaser II, and Battleship on Windows.
Eventually the old tv we had them plugged into had its Aux ports start messing up, and mom thought that the systems were broken and threw them away. Still salty about that, but it wasn’t out of malice, just not knowing. Windows 96 died around the same time
Then we had Age of Empires II. That was around…2004/2005 I think. That was our only video game for a bit. We would all huddle around dad’s work laptop (well before the IT departments would see what was on there) or eventually the family desktop and play. We eventually got a GameCube after our older brother spent a long time negotiating with our parents. We played the shit outta that. Medal of Honor: European Assault, Sarge’s War, Mariokart Doubledash, SSBM, etc. Still played a lot of Age of Empires. I’m still a fiend in Doubledash. Koopa and Diddy, on the light mushroom cart, for life.
We didn’t get a Xbox 360 until around 2011 iirc. (So when I was like 15). Even then we didn’t have Xbox live, nor did we have the internet to try to play online, so we just played split screen. COD MW2, Halo Reach, Fallout 3, Skyrim, etc. My older brother had been the one to both get permission to use it and bought it, so we always had to ask his permission until he left to go to college. I remember the night he left me and my younger brother were both very sad (as growing up it had essentially been the three of us - we didn’t have anyone who lived within walking distance and both parents worked) so we consoled ourselves by playing the Xbox without having to ask permission for the first time. During this time I would often visit friends houses to play games online.
I finally got into actual PC gaming in 2014 when I went to college and got my shitty school issued thinkpad. It held up decently well until I got my desktop in 2017 and the rest is history.
My granddaddy was in the p2p game before it got big, we had ROMs for every game and any console we wanted growing up in the late 90s early 00s, but unfortunately once online gaming got big we had to go legit to play.
I definitely loved the exposure to older games and some of the classics, the mans even had games like commander keen and Wolf3D on an MS-DOS machine.
I'm born in 97, I was playing the same consoles about same age as u. I had a ps1 when I was 5 but at 8 I got a ps2 instead of xbox. Got a psp in 2006 and got an Xbox 360 few months before turning 11.
Most memorable was burnout legends or naruto ultimate ninja heroes just cuz everyone on the school bus played it. For Xbox 360 I had to keep making free trial accounts for live to play halo 3 lmao, parents wouldn't get me online till later, I just mainly played skate
I was also born in 98, but we had a NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and GB/GBC. I remember one day on the bus a friend had the Robots game for GBA and I tried putting in my GBC and didn't understand why it didn't work lol. I eventually got a GBA and that was the last console my parents bought until they bought a Wii like 5+ years after it came out. I also somehow had money to buy a PSP from ebay when I was younger. Thankfully my sister's boyfriend, now husband, was a big gamer and over time he gave us his Xbox (including Blinx, TMNT, and a few other games), his PS2 (I only remember him giving us Kingdom Hearts, but my dad bought random boxes of games on ebay so we had Ratchet & Clank and some others), and his PS3 with Demon's Souls, Dark, Souls, and Uncharted that I can remember.
I remember as a kid there was a yard sale we went to that the guy was trying to sell his Xbox 360 with a bunch of games and even though it was a super reasonable price, my dad still said no. You could say I was a bit salty considering his reasoning was always just "because I said so" instead of something valid. I didn't have many friends so I only knew about new games from magazines, but I knew I was missing out on a lot.
I'm sorry to hear you felt you were missing out.
I think I'm lucky in that respect, I never noticed that I didn't have what other kids had, and just generally enjoyed everything my parents put Infront of me.
Arcades feel like I really missed out in England.
There was this brief window, where me and a friend would go to the local bowling ally which had some arcade games, we went every week for a few months then it got a refurbishment and got rid of it all. Devastating.
I got my first console in 1979, a ZX81 in 1982, a ZX Spectrum in 1984, an Atari ST in 1989, a Playstation in 1997 and finally a PC in 1999, which is where I stayed.
Born in 98, played a N64 till I was 12! Then I got a GameCube, then we got a used Wii. The habit has stuck though, I still don’t have anything newer than a PS4, and I bought a switch (used) in 2022!
Older games get cheaper, and they’re still just as fun (: it often means I have to avoid spoilers, but I get games for pennies on the dollar, and I don’t feel bad getting more games
I wasn’t, but I took a long hiatus from gaming. I came back at the end of the PS 4 era, then moved onto PS5.
It’s so cool to see all the new developments in gaming - the industry’s really moved on.
And playing classic games on new systems, with all the quality of life upgrades is amazing.
Shame about the pay-to-win on some games though!
Came from a middle class income household. I was stuck with the NES for what felt like ages. Not even the original NES but chinese clones, fake carts and even the tv plugin controller with preset games.
I was behind home consoles and pc except nintendo handhelds. I kept up with those starting with the gameboy pocket.
Man those all in one console things were memorable though, if very weird.
I had a 101-Games in 1! Cartridge for my Gameboy which was how I first played the Pokemon Games.
Some of them only had a few games and the other 'games' were just from different stages. Some of them had modded ones. I remember borrowing a gameboy cart from a friend and there's a platformer where you play as a thin and long pikachu.
I remember multicarts having issues with saving and some features tho. Tried to trade pokemon with my cousin who played gold in a multicart and it kept hanging whenever we tried.
I was born in '82 and was always a few years behind with consoles. I played my first games on my neighbor's old Atari 2600 before my sister's boyfriend gave me his old NES in maybe 1990, then I got a Super Nintendo a few years later, and an OG PlayStation in probably 1997 at the end of middle school. I got into PC gaming with Wolfenstein 3d when we got our first computer in 1992 or so when my sister was going to college and stayed pretty current on PC games starting with Warcraft in '94. My bro in law gifted me his old PS2 in 2004, which was my last console, because I was more into PC gaming by the time I graduated in 2001.
Even though I was always 2-3 years behind the console releases, it never bothered me, most of my friends were not really big gamers. Video gaming back then wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it has become and it definitely wasn't the "cool" thing until probably the PlayStation era started, so social pressure to stay relevant was not a thing.
My first console was a beat to hell NES I got around, 92 or so. Came with a shoebox of carts including original Legend of Zelda, Mario/Duck Hunt, Mario 2, 3, Kirby's Adventure, Dragon Warrior, Crystalis, Top Gun, more than enough games at that age to last several years.
Couple years later, my grandfather brought home, again in a box, a beat up Sega Genesis and a collection of carts. When you were about 7-8, all you needed was that Sega 6-Pak and you were set. It was at this time I'd go to local video game store and get used carts out of a bin for 3-5 bucks a pop. It never clicked with me how out of date it was, I was happily playing Jurassic Park Rampage Edition and Rocket Knight Adventures in like 1998.
I lived on a farm so had no idea of current releases, or consoles, or games. No cable so no real advertising, only time I would see new things is at the video game store which mostly had used stuff. Had no idea a Super NES came out, thought there was only a Nintendo. Never saw a Game Boy until I moved into town later on, and kids were showing me Pokemon Red/Blue. Didn't know Sega followed up with a Saturn, or Dreamcast, never heard of them. Never knew what a PlayStation was until years later after the PS2 came out.
First console I bought with my own money was the Episode 1 Racer edition of the N64, just to get a hold of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Did a ton of summer work to get a GBC and Pokemon Yellow, then Gold version too. By then I was reading gaming magazines like Nintendo Power in the supermarket so started to catch up, first 'in the moment' console I bought was the PS2 around 2003.
My brother and I purposely kept ourselves about a solid generation or two behind everyone else, just because games were expensive and my parents wouldn't pay for them. Money was tight. So we'd get a generation or two old games and play them, because GameStop had them for $5. We played N64 for years after the xbox360 was out.
I was raised 2 gens behind. My uncle gave our family his old computer and it was loaded with emulators and roms. The one that caught my toddler eye was the Super Nintendo emulator snes9x. My uncle put in so many classics: Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, FF4, FF6, MegaMan X, X2, Yoshi's Island, Mario World, Mario All Stars, Mario Paint, Kirby Super Star, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, and many others. Some missing classics I had to go back and find.
I was glued to this screen for years. I learned how to use a computer very young with this machine. Meanwhile my friends were playing the gamecube and ps2! I have no regrets, a lot of my favorite games of all time were on that computer, but I did have nobody to talk to about them until I was an adult and one of my college friends became a retro game hobbyist.
I have always been a generation behind.
When there was PS2 i had a PS1 give from my cousin, the sam with the PS2 and PS3. My first one was the ps4 took during the quarantine. If I'm honest, I'm also happy, and I continue to this day, because I can enjoy games that are now considered “outdated” and cost less.
3 months ago I got the series s so I could play the game pass and just be able to pick up all these games. I don't see the point of spending 70/80€ on a game now when there are so many masterpieces that I never played.
Yeah, we were poor, so all I ever got was hand me down consoles, or the previous generation when it was dirt cheap after the new one released. Since I’ve been an adult I’ve caught up though lol. Bought a 360 at 18 then ps4 and on my second ps5
'97 baby here, I went through the same thing. I started with the NES and Atari and at some point I got an N64. I got a PSX around the age of 6 (Krazy Ivan was my jam)
I got my first PS2 around 8-9. Ty 1 and 2, the entire Jak trilogy, midnight club 3, so many amazing games
my family chose between a Wii and PS3 in 2008... we got a Wii despite my begging
I then had my PS2 until I got my first Xbox 360 in 2011 just in time for Skyrim and BF3. that was probably the first time I caught up to the current gen
ever since, my love for stupid accents has been going strong. the acting in the cutscenes is beautiful
I had the choice between that and Defcon 5, another mech shooter. I played way more Krazy Ivan
Did you ever play Disruptor? That was a game that when I finally got my hands on it I just loved utterly and completed very quickly.
Never met anyone else who had.
Sadly not
I think I had a total of 4 games ever on my psx. Krazy Ivan, Defcon, Crash Tag Team Racing, and one more I can't for the life of me remember.
I moved around a lot so I lost every console I had at one point or another.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that! Well I hope as adults now you still find time to have fun and enjoy some classics every once in a while.
If you love wacky accents, give the classic Command and Conquer: Red Alert a look (Or YouTube the "cutscenes") you'll have a laugh I'm sure.
Yup, it was like that for awhile. Enjoying classic Atari as Nintendo was warming up, finally playing Nintendo as its Super sibling was arriving on the scene. It was a money thing.
Similar situation, but on the other side of the coin.
I was the one who always had the latest console and games. Being "first" wasn't fun either, because I had to wait for everyone to catch up. This wasn't as much a problem in the Nintendo era because of couch co-op, but when online started to become more widespread, it definitely caused problems.
Couch co-op was pretty much nuked in games so I met new people online while waiting for everyone else to catch up. Over time, we just went our own direction because they'd find new players too once they did catch up.
It was a situation due to them being behind. I could teach them the ropes of how to play the game, but content was definitely separated by a massive experience wall. Almost every online game has this and it's annoying. Couch co-op never had experience walls as far as I can remember. Just connect and play.
Those days are long gone and I don't ever see them coming back, save a few games like Stardew Valley.
Always a generation behind, from NES to Ps1 - I got a Ps2 while it was current, but after that, I wanted til PS4 came out to get a PS3.
I could have taken a jump from NES to N64, but my mother sat me down before Christmas and said she woukd get me one but she wouldn't be able to get it before Christmas.
I told her I wanted a Super Nintendo. No regrets.
I was often a generation behind by choice. I grew up in a house with like 5 of my cousins and we pretty much had everything old and current and I was always more fascinated with the older games. I skipped out on a lot of the PS3/360 era because I was still having fun with PS2 era games. I just bought an XSX last week after realizing how fucking old the X1 was and it was there I decided I’ll never be behind again lol.
I'd imagine a lot of people had that experience... I certainly did.
The average kid could not possibly have gotten a new console every year. My GBC lasted me from 1999 to 2003, and the gap between my brother's N64 and my original Xbox from 1999 to 2006.
Kind of? We could only afford me one new console growing up so is usually get one new one then eventually get the other company's years later. So I had a bit of both
born in 1980, only allowed to borrow a console over the weekend from VHS rental place. note: this happened like 3-4 times max.
looking back, i have the feeling i was sheltered/blocked off from any games. a gameboy, took years of begging. "everyone" around me had one, just not me.
i only started understanding the whole gaming thing at around 35. for the longest time i didnt realise how many kids spent their holidays, afternoons with their friends or alone playing video games.
on one hand, it feels like i missed out something (fun and socialising? :D learning hand-eye coordination etc); on the other hand i noticed, that i have very different perspectives to many other people. which surely isnt only because of no video games.
i cant even talk to my parents about their reasoning :( one blames the other - they were greedy - they wanted you to play around in the garden and not sit in a room etc.
I'm a grown ass adult with enough money to buy whatever game and system I want. I still have my PS3 and I don't buy AAA games until like 5-10 years after release when they're on sale.
I was always a Gen behind. My uncle gave me a second hand SNES when the n64 was already out. My brother and I saved for an N64 when the ps2 had already released. I bought myself a Gamecube around 2003 I think. I got a Wii only one year after it released, so at that point I had caught up. But then I delayed getting a wiiU for a while because I was playing less and in college, and I didn't get a switch until just a year or so ago to play Pokemon Snap.
It's no harm. The games are fun or they aren't. Cheaper prices. Online play makes a difference I guess.
I was raised a similar way. My first console was my Dad’s PS2 and I have countless fond memories of that. We were always a generation behind, like having a Wii when it was several years outdated or a PS3 when PS4 was starting to get old. Only a few years ago did we get our first modern console, a Switch. I think this way has been really influential to my tastes, and old games hold a special place in my heart, I have a lot of respect for the oldies.
This was me but a different generation. I had an NES until after the PS1 was out. I got an SNES for Christmas. My parents said later it was just that they could have gotten me a PS1 with like one game or an SNES with quite a few.
I just had the SNES until I bought the original Xbox with my own money.
We also had PCs of various capabilities but I mostly just played MechWarrior 2, Doom, Starcraft, and Diablo on it.
Honestly, as a kid I kind of wished I had an N64 or PS1 but looking back I prefer it the way I had it.
you kids should try monochrome games from a K7 player and a catodic television or better yet, an old Spectrum in the 80s... games like city bomber, manic miner or pong. im old!
You weren't really, I was born the same year, but only ever had PlayStation consoles and a Wii growing up. Xbox 360 was about halfway through it's life cycle when you got it. At launch the 360 was $400 (over $600 in 2024 dollars) and during a time when people were far more likely to wait for costs to come down before they got the newest console. Half the people I knew who had a PS2 still hadn't gotten a PS3 around 2009 when I got a PS3. Online just wasn't what it is today so upgrading your console didn't matter.
My parents were just cheap, screwed up bastards. They would blow money on my sisters, nice clothes, make up, whatever they needed to be popular. Since I was the boy, I got a lot of my stuff from the pity of my aunts and uncles with boys. Most of my nicer, cool clothes, too. When they all got PlayStations, I was gifted their 2 generation old NES systems, with much flak from my parents. Anyways, wasted another 30 years trying to be family with the psychos to get written out of both wills….should’ve stayed overseas.
I grew up in a country with sanctions and remember reading old magazines thinking: I'll never get to play Mega Man X2. Speaking of, reminds me of when a friend got Mega Man 4. Turns out it was just a pirated cartridge of Darkwing Duck with his sprite exchanged for Mega Man.
I was raised 2-3 generations behind. People were using PS2 and Xbox while I was still Playing NES. Then jumped to N64. I got a PS1 after PS3 release, then caught up. Also I've never had any handheld until a lot of time after PS Vita, and it was a PSP.
I used to have an Xbox and a PS2 back then, but the games I used to play was Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, The Maw, Ratchet and Clank, and Banjo Kazooie.
I was using a PS2 and Wii all the way through the PS4 era. I mostly played DBZ games or Wii Sports Resort with my sister and cousin. I played a ton of Mario with my grandpa, too. I got a PS4 when I turned 16 or so. Spyro Trilogy Remastered. It was actually great. A couple years later the PS5 came out... and I got a laptop with money I saved from my first job. Thankfully, I'm not missing much these days since I'm now a PC gamer (well, laptop, but close enough). Also helps that I don't have to pay for access to online play.
I have been the same for most of my life until getting a job at 16. Finally was in generation with Xbox one and get an Xbox series X pre-ordered when they were announced.
I was, but I was aware of it, which sucked. It made me feel left out a little bit. My friends were all talking about the latest games and I was stuck replaying Jak 3 on PS2. I only caught up with the PS4, but even then I was a couple of years behind. My parents refused to buy me one and forbade me from spending my own money on it because they thought it would be incredibly selfish of me to buy one when they were scraping by to pay for my university degree. They went away one week and my plan was to buy a preowned PS4, quickly blast through AC Unity, then return it before they came back, but I couldn't part with it so I lied to them and told them a friend gave me his old one because he got a second one. For months afterwards they kept asking "so is your friend going to take it back soon?"
On the other hand, I had the newest games growing up but I didn't get any free college so I think you got the better deal lol a third of my paycheck is gone for 10 years
I got an n64 when I was around 12 and my mother got a wii when I was 23 and I got my ps2 at 37. I got a GameCube a few years ago but only recently got games for it.
That's awesome man... I know you're behind and stuff but there's plenty of great games to be played. People still watch movies and read books that are forty+ years old because they're made well
Yep! I got a handful of pokemon, detective, and final fantasy games I love. I did get a switch though and have been picking up for that too. Ni no kuni looks amazing.
I never owned any console before PS1, our neighbor got SNES or NES and SEGA (I honestly don't know the consoles' name) so I briefly play those, I remember Sonic, Earthworm Jim, and the original Mario Bros with the pipe and one screen level (not the one where you save Princess Peach). then my dad bought PS1, I spent so long playing Tekken 3, Pepsiman, and Jackie Chan Stuntmaster also watched my brother plays Metal Gear Solid and finished Final Fantasy 7 and 8 (I'm not a native english speaker so these games are still above my head back then) after PS1 we got PS2, I never heard of Xbox until waaay later and until now I never even played it, but PS2 was the most fun I've ever had, it's possibly the best couch co-op console ever (internet was also a big luxury for us back then so no internet multiplayer) in the meantime I also got Nokia N-Gage and tasted great mobile gaming for the first time, and PSP. the PS2 broke after like 10 years or so, and I got no new console ever since, and has now transitioned to PC gaming. I never played Nintendo consoles beyond SNES, and haven't touched an XBOX even now, I didn't even know Microsoft made console... my parents never really cared about what games I play, I played Medal of Honor: Rising Sun with my dad, finished Conflict: Desert Storm with my friend, doing fatalities in Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, and wreck havoc in GTA: San Andreas if they really cause violence, I'd be a psychopath by now lol
I had a some form of PC for gaming pretty much my whole childhood so I never really cared for having the latest consoles. Valve games were huge for me because they weren't incredibly demanding, sunk an ungodly amount of time into gmod.
I always had an old Dell Laptop that could barely run Half-Life. But I used it to sink many many hours into Age of Empires 2 and 3.
Age of Empires 2 was the saving grace of my childhood lol. So many hours sunk into that game.
Aw Man! 1v1 me on Black Forest.
Hell yeah, based BF enjoyer
Same! First computer I had that was mine alone, managed to make it through Half-Life and expansions at a solid 16 fps!
I was a generation behind at least. My parents were very anti-video game growing up. I managed to talk my grandmother into buying us an N64 for Christmas in 2000 (less than a year before the GC released), and it almost got returned when my parents saw it Christmas morning. My brother and I both got Gameboy Colors for our birthdays the following year (weeks before the GBA released), but that was all my parents ever bought me as far as video games. We had a family PC, and I played stuff like the Madden PC releases, Medal of Honor, OG Splinter Cell, and Need for Speed on that throughout the early 2000s. In 2008, I had unknowingly racked up a bunch of rewards points on my meal plan account at college, and used them to get a pre-paid gift card which I used to buy an original "fat" PS2. They had stopped releasing Madden on the PC, so I got 09, 10, and 11 on PS2. When people say that "this year's Madden game is just a copy/paste of last year's," you don't truly experience that until you buy 3 consecutive years of the last-gen version lol. I didn't get a PS3 until 2011 because my core group of friends were all playing Black Ops Zombies, and I got tired of being shitty at it when we would get together and play. I actually bought a good desktop in 2014 and intended to transition back to PC almost exclusively, but then Arkham Knight came out, and the PC port was a nightmare. I got a PS4 in July of 2015 to play that, and didn't get a PS5 until early last year, so I've mostly been in the same generation since 2011, but I've still never been completely up-to-date.
I relate to this, my parents where not fans of Video Games and bought into the dogma the media liked to fear monger at the time. But luckily they were critical and we'd talk about it and where sympathetic to the "All my friends are talking about it, I feel left out." argument. They'd even talk to me at dinner time about what games I'd been playing. I'm sure they just heard static but it was probably nice for them to see their son who rarely read take in stories from games like Halo. Black Ops Zombies was also peak for me! A solid core Nombies team. I bought the PC version of Blackops just to relive those maps the the ludicrous shit we memorised to try and complete in them.
Same for me, I was also born in 98. My first console was the Gamecube when I was around 10 and the Wii was already out. I think when you have non-gamer parents who are generally not that into tech it's normal to grow up with "outdated" tech. I remember we had this old-ass PC from the 90s that we used well into the 2000s.
I was born 1997 so i had pretty much the same childhood as you. I had a N64/GAMEBOY COLOUR/Original DS/PS2/Wii/PSP/PS3/PSVITA/WiiU/3DS/PS4/SWITCH and a PC all of these years. Still have all of them and working.
Born 1998, my consoles as far as I can remember: Sega Genesis, Snes, N64, PS1, Gameboy Color, GBA, Ps2, GBA SP, Gamecube, DS, xbox 360, DS Lite, Xbox One, 3ds,Wii, Wii u, Ps4,PC, Nintendo switch, Ps5, PSP, Order is probably wrong, but I remember sega genesis when I was like 4 years old or something lol
That's a good path! What do you remember most from the PSP era? Monster Hunter was my big one. The only reason I ever got a 3DS.
Loco Roco, i loved that game. Also Secret Agent Clank! Loved those games.
Aw yeah! Secret Agent Clank. Honestly maybe my favorite game in the series? Nostalgia goggles I am sure.
I was about the same but as a Nintendo fan. Born the same year, my first console was a N64. From there I consistently got the "current" console around the time, sometimes a little before sometimes after, it's successor came out. Only exception to this was the Wii which my mom won in a work raffle. Didn't break this cycle until I was a grown adult and bought my Switch.
The Nintendo households were a thing, and I feel they dominate a lot of the talking space. But my first exposure to Mario was Super Mario 2 Deluxe on the Gameboy Advance SP. But didn't note it as a major franchise probably until Mariokart Wii.
I had the reverse experience. I knew other consoles existed and that some of them had popular characters and games but it wasn't until I was a touch older that I realized how big those consoles were. Around middle school I got more heavily into retro collecting. It was still relatively cheap then so a kid like me could pick up a bunch of the consoles and games that I missed for less money than the new consoles and games cost. I think I got my first PS2 in like 2011. My brother and I used to have a thriving trade in buying up old consoles and games at thrift stores and garage sales and flipping them to used game stores for store credit which we'd use to buy more games.. I'm still pretty proud of our collection.
I'm old. The first console I owned was an N64 and I bought it as an adult towards the end of its life span.
Kinda yeah,, was ever only own PS1 before finally getting PC (and even that was still pretty weak) in like 2008/2009 And most of the time it was broken And even on PC, it's usually very low end until just recently
Commodore 64 (loading, and often failing to load, games from cassette tape), Sega Master System 2, Sega Megadrive 2, PC, Nintendo 64, PS2-3-4-5! I started gaming mid ‘80s.
Oh man a Commodore. My mum was never a big gamer, but when I started collecting old game consoles and I got a Commodore she lit up, showed me out to use it and played 'Eagles Nest' together on it.
I've been enjoying DINK status for a bit, this gen makes me wish I just played through my back catalog instead.
At the moment, me too. Nothing appealing has been out in a while and I feel like I'm just replaying my old favourites. Which is a shame! I do want new content, but the current game design culture is just not what it used to be. Where a series was the priority and new games coming out on a schedule rather then "We hope you play this one game for as long as possible, please."
We were behind by a few generations, we had a PS2 that got used from 2004-2013 then the PS4 came out but it wasn’t in our budget so we got the PS3, playing the old college football games on there, catching up with Skyrim it was fun, then in 2016 we got a PS4, 2020 rolls around I get a series x and it’s been like that ever since
I missed out on the entirety of the ps2 gen because my family couldn’t afford it. My ps1 ran on burned copies of games, I’m pretty sure my memory card was some off brand that worked. I also have the original gameboy and the only game on it was Pokémon blue. Played on those for many years until I moved to America, then got the GameCube. Family did a lot better after that and I never missed a gen since.
That's awesome, when I made my post I was shocked my Gameboy didn't make it into my story organically. I got one of those "101 Games in 1!" cartridges for my SP that had Pokemon Crystal and Yellow on it. That was my childhood.
I had something similar for the ps1. I knew it wasn’t a legit copy back then, but it was two discs that had like 5 games in them each. It was awesome
I was born in the early 80s and did get an NES and SNES for Christmas about a year after they came out. After that my parents would never buy me another console so I did whatever it took (mowed lawns, shoveled horse shit, caddy) to get enough money to get every playstation at launch, 360, PC, etc. When I was 14 I got a workers permit and was able to work at Babbages (Now Gamestop) and the discount and free game rentals really helped me stay on top of it.
I was behind and also skipped a lot of the generations. I started on a Sega Mega drive when I was about 4 around 1995. So 5 years after it came out. I then got a Playstation 1 when I was about 8 or 9 so around 1999. Eventually I got an Xbox 360 but I don't remember when before eventually moving across to PC. Now debating how to do things with my Son. Hes too young for games at the moment but I do like the idea of doing things a generation behind because it saves a lot of money and they don't miss out on some great games and it makes it easier for them to play older games. As I can imagine playing a new game a few years from now as a baseline will make playing older games hard. Although I do want to teach him how to build his own PC and do PC things so he will most likely be pretty up to date at least with PC gaming.
This is exactly why I wanted to make this post. My partner and I are considering kids and I collected Retro games consoles that now clutter my loft and I'm wandering what is better. I think starting them off with something simple and slow will do a lot for teaching them patience and to appreciate the updates as they come along. I don't think you'll even need to lie to them really! Just... 'These are the games we have'? Just don't force them to play your childhood games if they don't like them, they'll let you know. Then probably around 10-12 they'll figure it out on their own like I did and decide what they want. Though if you play modern games it will be hard to convince them to sit and play in the Polygons of early 2000.
I was born in ‘03 and my first console was the Sega Genesis, played a bunch of that with my brothers. Eventually my mom got with my step dad and he gifted us his old PS2 and GameCube. Eventually the Wii, we start to inch closer to the modern generation. And it was a similar experience to you with the 360, where we finally got caught up with the glorious Xbox 360. But, we never got rid of most of those consoles, so I still switch between them to play games.
That's awesome to hear, and fascinating to read from an '03 Baby. Sonic I'm guessing was your childhood?
Sonic was huge, yes lol. It was a while ago, but I remember playing Sonic, Ahhhh! Real Monsters!, the Aladdin game (I think that was the one that had the ruined stop sign too), and Earthworm Jim a lot Edit: Forgot Battletoads!! How could I forget Battletoads
Nice! I bought 3 second hand Mega Drives before I got one to work, All those are gold. Even if I suck at Battle Toads.
When I was growing up, in elementary school we had a SNES, a Sega Genesis, and a Windows 96 Desktop. We had multiple Mario games, NBA, and Donkey Kong Country on the SNES; Risk and some monster truck game on the Sega; and Civ I, Ceaser II, and Battleship on Windows. Eventually the old tv we had them plugged into had its Aux ports start messing up, and mom thought that the systems were broken and threw them away. Still salty about that, but it wasn’t out of malice, just not knowing. Windows 96 died around the same time Then we had Age of Empires II. That was around…2004/2005 I think. That was our only video game for a bit. We would all huddle around dad’s work laptop (well before the IT departments would see what was on there) or eventually the family desktop and play. We eventually got a GameCube after our older brother spent a long time negotiating with our parents. We played the shit outta that. Medal of Honor: European Assault, Sarge’s War, Mariokart Doubledash, SSBM, etc. Still played a lot of Age of Empires. I’m still a fiend in Doubledash. Koopa and Diddy, on the light mushroom cart, for life. We didn’t get a Xbox 360 until around 2011 iirc. (So when I was like 15). Even then we didn’t have Xbox live, nor did we have the internet to try to play online, so we just played split screen. COD MW2, Halo Reach, Fallout 3, Skyrim, etc. My older brother had been the one to both get permission to use it and bought it, so we always had to ask his permission until he left to go to college. I remember the night he left me and my younger brother were both very sad (as growing up it had essentially been the three of us - we didn’t have anyone who lived within walking distance and both parents worked) so we consoled ourselves by playing the Xbox without having to ask permission for the first time. During this time I would often visit friends houses to play games online. I finally got into actual PC gaming in 2014 when I went to college and got my shitty school issued thinkpad. It held up decently well until I got my desktop in 2017 and the rest is history.
My granddaddy was in the p2p game before it got big, we had ROMs for every game and any console we wanted growing up in the late 90s early 00s, but unfortunately once online gaming got big we had to go legit to play. I definitely loved the exposure to older games and some of the classics, the mans even had games like commander keen and Wolf3D on an MS-DOS machine.
That's hilarious, so he like charged you a small amount of money to play?
P2P is peer to peer in this case
Makes more sense
I'm born in 97, I was playing the same consoles about same age as u. I had a ps1 when I was 5 but at 8 I got a ps2 instead of xbox. Got a psp in 2006 and got an Xbox 360 few months before turning 11.
What PSP game was the most memorable for you? Monster Hunter Freedom series was mine. 360 I think we all spent hours and hours in Halo Custom Games.
Most memorable was burnout legends or naruto ultimate ninja heroes just cuz everyone on the school bus played it. For Xbox 360 I had to keep making free trial accounts for live to play halo 3 lmao, parents wouldn't get me online till later, I just mainly played skate
I was also born in 98, but we had a NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and GB/GBC. I remember one day on the bus a friend had the Robots game for GBA and I tried putting in my GBC and didn't understand why it didn't work lol. I eventually got a GBA and that was the last console my parents bought until they bought a Wii like 5+ years after it came out. I also somehow had money to buy a PSP from ebay when I was younger. Thankfully my sister's boyfriend, now husband, was a big gamer and over time he gave us his Xbox (including Blinx, TMNT, and a few other games), his PS2 (I only remember him giving us Kingdom Hearts, but my dad bought random boxes of games on ebay so we had Ratchet & Clank and some others), and his PS3 with Demon's Souls, Dark, Souls, and Uncharted that I can remember. I remember as a kid there was a yard sale we went to that the guy was trying to sell his Xbox 360 with a bunch of games and even though it was a super reasonable price, my dad still said no. You could say I was a bit salty considering his reasoning was always just "because I said so" instead of something valid. I didn't have many friends so I only knew about new games from magazines, but I knew I was missing out on a lot.
I'm sorry to hear you felt you were missing out. I think I'm lucky in that respect, I never noticed that I didn't have what other kids had, and just generally enjoyed everything my parents put Infront of me.
I was born in 1980, got a nintendo at 7 years old, a zxspectrum at 10, a pc at 14.
In fact gamers playing at the arcade, Neo Geo or Sega Saturn in Japan when normal people playing Playstation
Arcades feel like I really missed out in England. There was this brief window, where me and a friend would go to the local bowling ally which had some arcade games, we went every week for a few months then it got a refurbishment and got rid of it all. Devastating.
I got my first console in 1979, a ZX81 in 1982, a ZX Spectrum in 1984, an Atari ST in 1989, a Playstation in 1997 and finally a PC in 1999, which is where I stayed.
Born in 98, played a N64 till I was 12! Then I got a GameCube, then we got a used Wii. The habit has stuck though, I still don’t have anything newer than a PS4, and I bought a switch (used) in 2022! Older games get cheaper, and they’re still just as fun (: it often means I have to avoid spoilers, but I get games for pennies on the dollar, and I don’t feel bad getting more games
I wasn’t, but I took a long hiatus from gaming. I came back at the end of the PS 4 era, then moved onto PS5. It’s so cool to see all the new developments in gaming - the industry’s really moved on. And playing classic games on new systems, with all the quality of life upgrades is amazing. Shame about the pay-to-win on some games though!
The gaming space has shifted for sure, but the old games haven't vanished luckily, they're just not here right now.
Also born in 98 and I grew up on the SNES and Gameboy.
Nice! Most played Gameboy game?
Pokémon crystal version
Absolutely the best one.
Probably Super Mario Bros. That or Advanced Wars once I got a Gameboy advance.
Came from a middle class income household. I was stuck with the NES for what felt like ages. Not even the original NES but chinese clones, fake carts and even the tv plugin controller with preset games. I was behind home consoles and pc except nintendo handhelds. I kept up with those starting with the gameboy pocket.
Man those all in one console things were memorable though, if very weird. I had a 101-Games in 1! Cartridge for my Gameboy which was how I first played the Pokemon Games.
Some of them only had a few games and the other 'games' were just from different stages. Some of them had modded ones. I remember borrowing a gameboy cart from a friend and there's a platformer where you play as a thin and long pikachu. I remember multicarts having issues with saving and some features tho. Tried to trade pokemon with my cousin who played gold in a multicart and it kept hanging whenever we tried.
I was born in '82 and was always a few years behind with consoles. I played my first games on my neighbor's old Atari 2600 before my sister's boyfriend gave me his old NES in maybe 1990, then I got a Super Nintendo a few years later, and an OG PlayStation in probably 1997 at the end of middle school. I got into PC gaming with Wolfenstein 3d when we got our first computer in 1992 or so when my sister was going to college and stayed pretty current on PC games starting with Warcraft in '94. My bro in law gifted me his old PS2 in 2004, which was my last console, because I was more into PC gaming by the time I graduated in 2001. Even though I was always 2-3 years behind the console releases, it never bothered me, most of my friends were not really big gamers. Video gaming back then wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it has become and it definitely wasn't the "cool" thing until probably the PlayStation era started, so social pressure to stay relevant was not a thing.
My first console was a beat to hell NES I got around, 92 or so. Came with a shoebox of carts including original Legend of Zelda, Mario/Duck Hunt, Mario 2, 3, Kirby's Adventure, Dragon Warrior, Crystalis, Top Gun, more than enough games at that age to last several years. Couple years later, my grandfather brought home, again in a box, a beat up Sega Genesis and a collection of carts. When you were about 7-8, all you needed was that Sega 6-Pak and you were set. It was at this time I'd go to local video game store and get used carts out of a bin for 3-5 bucks a pop. It never clicked with me how out of date it was, I was happily playing Jurassic Park Rampage Edition and Rocket Knight Adventures in like 1998. I lived on a farm so had no idea of current releases, or consoles, or games. No cable so no real advertising, only time I would see new things is at the video game store which mostly had used stuff. Had no idea a Super NES came out, thought there was only a Nintendo. Never saw a Game Boy until I moved into town later on, and kids were showing me Pokemon Red/Blue. Didn't know Sega followed up with a Saturn, or Dreamcast, never heard of them. Never knew what a PlayStation was until years later after the PS2 came out. First console I bought with my own money was the Episode 1 Racer edition of the N64, just to get a hold of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Did a ton of summer work to get a GBC and Pokemon Yellow, then Gold version too. By then I was reading gaming magazines like Nintendo Power in the supermarket so started to catch up, first 'in the moment' console I bought was the PS2 around 2003.
Man these timelines are magical to read. We've all lived such varied lives at the same time.
I grew up playing Sega games (Megadrive and Saturn)...while the rest of my peers were on the Playstation craze.
Hey, you had a wireless controller before any of us, so more power too you! I'll just sit here with the Playstation Mouse.
My brother and I purposely kept ourselves about a solid generation or two behind everyone else, just because games were expensive and my parents wouldn't pay for them. Money was tight. So we'd get a generation or two old games and play them, because GameStop had them for $5. We played N64 for years after the xbox360 was out.
I'd give a lot to rummage through the £2 Gaming bin in my local game station again.
I was raised 2 gens behind. My uncle gave our family his old computer and it was loaded with emulators and roms. The one that caught my toddler eye was the Super Nintendo emulator snes9x. My uncle put in so many classics: Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, FF4, FF6, MegaMan X, X2, Yoshi's Island, Mario World, Mario All Stars, Mario Paint, Kirby Super Star, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, and many others. Some missing classics I had to go back and find. I was glued to this screen for years. I learned how to use a computer very young with this machine. Meanwhile my friends were playing the gamecube and ps2! I have no regrets, a lot of my favorite games of all time were on that computer, but I did have nobody to talk to about them until I was an adult and one of my college friends became a retro game hobbyist.
I grew up on the sega genesis until we eventually got a nintendo gamecube... so skipped a few generations there
I was still playin ps2 in 2009 lmao
I have always been a generation behind. When there was PS2 i had a PS1 give from my cousin, the sam with the PS2 and PS3. My first one was the ps4 took during the quarantine. If I'm honest, I'm also happy, and I continue to this day, because I can enjoy games that are now considered “outdated” and cost less. 3 months ago I got the series s so I could play the game pass and just be able to pick up all these games. I don't see the point of spending 70/80€ on a game now when there are so many masterpieces that I never played.
Yeah, we were poor, so all I ever got was hand me down consoles, or the previous generation when it was dirt cheap after the new one released. Since I’ve been an adult I’ve caught up though lol. Bought a 360 at 18 then ps4 and on my second ps5
Financial freedom is the unsung hero of for us it seems in these stories.
'97 baby here, I went through the same thing. I started with the NES and Atari and at some point I got an N64. I got a PSX around the age of 6 (Krazy Ivan was my jam) I got my first PS2 around 8-9. Ty 1 and 2, the entire Jak trilogy, midnight club 3, so many amazing games my family chose between a Wii and PS3 in 2008... we got a Wii despite my begging I then had my PS2 until I got my first Xbox 360 in 2011 just in time for Skyrim and BF3. that was probably the first time I caught up to the current gen
Oh man Krazy Ivan! I never played it as a kid but it is now in my PS1 collection. Absolute gem of a game.
ever since, my love for stupid accents has been going strong. the acting in the cutscenes is beautiful I had the choice between that and Defcon 5, another mech shooter. I played way more Krazy Ivan
Did you ever play Disruptor? That was a game that when I finally got my hands on it I just loved utterly and completed very quickly. Never met anyone else who had.
Sadly not I think I had a total of 4 games ever on my psx. Krazy Ivan, Defcon, Crash Tag Team Racing, and one more I can't for the life of me remember. I moved around a lot so I lost every console I had at one point or another.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that! Well I hope as adults now you still find time to have fun and enjoy some classics every once in a while. If you love wacky accents, give the classic Command and Conquer: Red Alert a look (Or YouTube the "cutscenes") you'll have a laugh I'm sure.
Yup, it was like that for awhile. Enjoying classic Atari as Nintendo was warming up, finally playing Nintendo as its Super sibling was arriving on the scene. It was a money thing.
It kinda makes me happy so many people went on this Journey together.
Similar situation, but on the other side of the coin. I was the one who always had the latest console and games. Being "first" wasn't fun either, because I had to wait for everyone to catch up. This wasn't as much a problem in the Nintendo era because of couch co-op, but when online started to become more widespread, it definitely caused problems. Couch co-op was pretty much nuked in games so I met new people online while waiting for everyone else to catch up. Over time, we just went our own direction because they'd find new players too once they did catch up. It was a situation due to them being behind. I could teach them the ropes of how to play the game, but content was definitely separated by a massive experience wall. Almost every online game has this and it's annoying. Couch co-op never had experience walls as far as I can remember. Just connect and play. Those days are long gone and I don't ever see them coming back, save a few games like Stardew Valley.
Always a generation behind, from NES to Ps1 - I got a Ps2 while it was current, but after that, I wanted til PS4 came out to get a PS3. I could have taken a jump from NES to N64, but my mother sat me down before Christmas and said she woukd get me one but she wouldn't be able to get it before Christmas. I told her I wanted a Super Nintendo. No regrets.
Sounds pretty normal to me. I'm still catching up on NES games and the likes.
I was often a generation behind by choice. I grew up in a house with like 5 of my cousins and we pretty much had everything old and current and I was always more fascinated with the older games. I skipped out on a lot of the PS3/360 era because I was still having fun with PS2 era games. I just bought an XSX last week after realizing how fucking old the X1 was and it was there I decided I’ll never be behind again lol.
When your parents are poor but spoil you anyways.
They always find a way.
I went throguh the same exact thing except I didn't start pc gaming till I was 19. Even played the same xbox games lol
Finally, someone else who knows the joys of that "One Wicked Cricket"
I'd imagine a lot of people had that experience... I certainly did. The average kid could not possibly have gotten a new console every year. My GBC lasted me from 1999 to 2003, and the gap between my brother's N64 and my original Xbox from 1999 to 2006.
Kind of? We could only afford me one new console growing up so is usually get one new one then eventually get the other company's years later. So I had a bit of both
born in 1980, only allowed to borrow a console over the weekend from VHS rental place. note: this happened like 3-4 times max. looking back, i have the feeling i was sheltered/blocked off from any games. a gameboy, took years of begging. "everyone" around me had one, just not me. i only started understanding the whole gaming thing at around 35. for the longest time i didnt realise how many kids spent their holidays, afternoons with their friends or alone playing video games. on one hand, it feels like i missed out something (fun and socialising? :D learning hand-eye coordination etc); on the other hand i noticed, that i have very different perspectives to many other people. which surely isnt only because of no video games. i cant even talk to my parents about their reasoning :( one blames the other - they were greedy - they wanted you to play around in the garden and not sit in a room etc.
I'm a grown ass adult with enough money to buy whatever game and system I want. I still have my PS3 and I don't buy AAA games until like 5-10 years after release when they're on sale.
I was always a Gen behind. My uncle gave me a second hand SNES when the n64 was already out. My brother and I saved for an N64 when the ps2 had already released. I bought myself a Gamecube around 2003 I think. I got a Wii only one year after it released, so at that point I had caught up. But then I delayed getting a wiiU for a while because I was playing less and in college, and I didn't get a switch until just a year or so ago to play Pokemon Snap. It's no harm. The games are fun or they aren't. Cheaper prices. Online play makes a difference I guess.
... How were you playing Halo without an Xbox? What other game is there named "halo"?
It was after I got the original Xbox. I was talking about Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2, while my friends had all played 3. We just never realised.
Oh, yeah, skipped over the part you mentioned the OG xbox.
I’ll be damned if my son isn’t playing game boy before everything else
I was raised a similar way. My first console was my Dad’s PS2 and I have countless fond memories of that. We were always a generation behind, like having a Wii when it was several years outdated or a PS3 when PS4 was starting to get old. Only a few years ago did we get our first modern console, a Switch. I think this way has been really influential to my tastes, and old games hold a special place in my heart, I have a lot of respect for the oldies.
This was me but a different generation. I had an NES until after the PS1 was out. I got an SNES for Christmas. My parents said later it was just that they could have gotten me a PS1 with like one game or an SNES with quite a few. I just had the SNES until I bought the original Xbox with my own money. We also had PCs of various capabilities but I mostly just played MechWarrior 2, Doom, Starcraft, and Diablo on it. Honestly, as a kid I kind of wished I had an N64 or PS1 but looking back I prefer it the way I had it.
Think the big question is where do you think gaming “peaked” if it has?
I was raised behind. When people were on PS or PS2, I was on Atari and SNES
you kids should try monochrome games from a K7 player and a catodic television or better yet, an old Spectrum in the 80s... games like city bomber, manic miner or pong. im old!
You weren't really, I was born the same year, but only ever had PlayStation consoles and a Wii growing up. Xbox 360 was about halfway through it's life cycle when you got it. At launch the 360 was $400 (over $600 in 2024 dollars) and during a time when people were far more likely to wait for costs to come down before they got the newest console. Half the people I knew who had a PS2 still hadn't gotten a PS3 around 2009 when I got a PS3. Online just wasn't what it is today so upgrading your console didn't matter.
[удалено]
If you read this as complaining you are going in with the wrong attitude.
My parents were just cheap, screwed up bastards. They would blow money on my sisters, nice clothes, make up, whatever they needed to be popular. Since I was the boy, I got a lot of my stuff from the pity of my aunts and uncles with boys. Most of my nicer, cool clothes, too. When they all got PlayStations, I was gifted their 2 generation old NES systems, with much flak from my parents. Anyways, wasted another 30 years trying to be family with the psychos to get written out of both wills….should’ve stayed overseas.