History
Personal history and times with video games
It all started for me in 1979. My parents had bought a "Pong" machine (not arcade). I was fascinated by it but only for a short time since it got very boring quickly. Then I first played an Atari 2600 in 1980 at a friends house. Pac Man was the first game I had played on it and was amazed at the sound and graphics. I didn't get an Atari 2600 until about 1987, but even before the 2600, my parents had bought an Intellevision system from Sears (I believe). This system had a little better graphics than the 2600. Over the years the system quit working and Sear's of Roebuck didn't repair them anymore so we got rid of it. I didn't have a game system to play on again for about 3 or 4 years, when I got the 2600. Since the Nintendo came out in 1985, a bunch of my friends were getting rid of their Atari stuff and one friend sold me over 60 2600 games, 4 joysticks, and one set of control paddles for $20! In the 60 games was a few of my all-time favorites such as Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Centipede, Galaxian, Pole Position, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Battlezone, Choplifter, and River Raid. My Atari games collection is now 75 games.Nintendo
I was surprised to find a Nintendo at home one day after school. My mother had one on layaway at a local department store for months. She and my brother were playing Super Mario Bros. Some friends and I would borrow games and play for hours. Personal favorites on the NES were: Castlevania series, Metal Gear, P.O.W., Spy Hunter, MTV Remote Control, Double Dragon II, Mega Man 3, and Ninja Gaiden II. First time I had seen and played Mario Bros. for the NES, I thought the graphics were just as good as the arcade. I still have the NES (original model) but not all the games I used to have such as Ninja Gaiden II and Mega Man 3.Sega Genesis
The first time I had seen a Sega Genesis was in 1988 or 1989 at a long since gone Childrens Palace toy store. It was in a display case and it had Ghouls & Ghosts playing. I was playing it for a short time 'til I had to go. At that time, that was the ultimate system to me. My brother and I put one on layaway (same store the Nintendo came from) in 1991 (which came with the Sonic The Hedgehog pack-in). The cost then was about $175.00. After a few months, we finally got it and finished Sonic the first time playing in about 2 hours or less but played the game which seems like forever! One Christmas, about a year later, I recieved the Power Base Convertor for the Genesis which allowed to play the older Master System games. Personal favorites for the Genesis were: El Viento, Streets Of Rage series, Thunderforce series, Landstalker, Alisia Dragoon, Shining Force series, and Castlevania Bloodlines. My personal collection of Genesis games is now 30.Sega CD
Back in 1991, Sega of Japan had released it's Mega CD for the Mega Drive. I was anticipating it's release in the U.S. and was hoping that the imports would make it here as well. I was very disappointed when it was released in the fall of 1992 with only very little games released and hardly any of the imports ported (such as Nostalgia 1907, Faria, Heroic Legend Of Arslan, Woodstock Funky Horror Band, and Earnest Evans). It took me a year to save up to buy the Sega CD ($299.99) and I did enjoy it with the pack-ins it came with which were Sol-Feace, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Vol. 1, Sega Arcade Classics disc with Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, my mom's favorite, Columns, a CD+G disc and a music CD. This system would have been better if it had more imports coming to the U.S. but instead, Sega was putting out crappy FMV games with grainy graphics and horrible control (if any) and very bad acting. I sold my Sega CD in 1995 for $95.00 and the games for $15.00 to $20.00 a piece in order to buy the Sony Playstation in 9/9/95. Also sold my Genesis and all my games for it too. Personal favorites were: Sol-Feace, Lunar: The Silver Star, Popful Mail, Shining Force CD, Final Fight CD, Silpheed, and Sonic CD. Collection of U.S. games is now 7.Turbo Grafx 16 / Turbo Duo
A friend of mine had bought a Turbo Grafx 16 with the CD attachment back in 1990 or 1991. This was the first time I had ever seen a CD based game system and was very amazed at the sound and graphics. The first CD game I had seen was the Jap game, Macross 2036. This was the system I SHOULD have purchased (if not the Duo) instead of the Sega CD but oh well. Later I did trade my Genesis for his Turbo Grafx but only owned it for about 2 weeks and sold it to my brother who then traded it for a Duo. After I had sold the Turbo to my brother, I had bought a 3DO from a friend. Personal favorites: Valis series, Macross 2036, Devil's Crush, Keith Courage, and Lords of Thunder. Collection of U.S. games: 0.Panasonic 3DO
When I bought the 3DO from my friend, he gave me about 13 games with it. The only reason I wanted the 3DO was because of Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The game was about as arcade exact as you could get (and still is today IMO). The only bad side to it was the bad games coming out for it and the horrible controllers. Plus, it was only running at 12 Mhz. A friend of mine in AZ also gave me his 3DO with about 20 games (in 2001) which I first had the original system (front loader) but no longer works since I hit the top of it when I got pissed off playing SSFIIT. I got to the end using Cammy and I was about to fight Akuma and the damned thing froze! But oh well. The second 3DO is the top loader version by Panasonic and works just fine! :) Personal favorites are: The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, FIFA International Soccer, Space Ace, Gex, Flashback, and Need For Speed. Collection is now 35 games.Sony Playstation
Bought on release day (9/9/95), this PSX has the RCA output. I also bought Ridge Racer and an extra controller. Graphics and gameplay were like an arcade to me (again). My parents would even fight over playing it when they came home from work which was very funny! The only thing I didn't really like about this system was the speed of it (33 Mhz) and lack of good 2-D games. Darkstalkers is one of my favorites but some of the animation was a bit choppy. About a year after I had the system, it started to have problems and I sent it off to get repaired in which I had to pay $100.00 to have fixed by Sony. The laser lense is what went bad. Personal favorites: Darkstalkers, Resident Evil 1, 2, Ridge Racer series, Castlevania Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid. Collection is now 20.Dreamcast
Bought in Phoenix, Arizona in March 2001, my brother had also bought one on the same day when he was in Ohio at the time. I bought this system mainly for the Capcom games. Capcom VS. SNK was my first game for it then following with Timestalkers which is made by the same group responsible for Landstalker on the Genesis, only this time in 3-D. Gunbird 2 (which Morrigan is in also :) is a very good (TOUGH AS HELL!) shooter. I also plan on buying the import games Vampire Chronicles and Capcom VS. SNK 2 someday. Personal favorites are what I have which is only 3 games for now.PS2
Gamecube
Bought used off of my cousin in 2004. Favorite games are the Resident Evil remakes and 0. Collection is 2 or 3.X Box 360
Haven't gotten it yet. Waiting til Christmas!