A video game console retrospective
Join me on a journey as I recount the gaming systems that shaped my youth
This year I got my 5 year old daughter a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. It honestly wasn't something that she was clamoring for. It was a gift mostly driven by me. We had stayed in a house this summer that had a Switch and it made for some fun family game nights.
And it had me thinking back about my own video game journey. I received the original Nintendo Entertainment System back when I was about her age. I believe it was for my fourth or fifth birthday. Fourth seems a little young, so let's assume it was when I was turning five.
You don't need me to tell you how revolutionary the NES was. I remember spending countless hours playing that thing. I built quite the library of games and enhanced my powers with the magic of the extremely underrated Game Genie. For those uninitiated, the Game Genie let you enter cheat codes for your games. Yeah, it's hard to explain just how amazing this was for a young boy. All of those levels that proved too hard prior to Game Genie would now succumb to the immense power that I possessed. Or something like that.
Once the Game Genie novelty wore off, I needed a new system. You would think that I would have seamlessly graduated to the Super Nintendo like any logical kid but I had other plans. The allure of the Sega Genesis was too much. I quickly said goodbye to Mario and hello to Sonic the Hedgehog.
The Genesis was a marvelous system. The fighting and sports games really benefited from the enhanced graphics and audio compared to the NES. They were even smart enough to partner with the likes of Joe Montana, Tommy Lasorda, and Pat Riley to really bring the star-power to the system. The games just had a different vibe to them. You could call them edgy or less wholesome than the typical Nintendo game. It was mostly just good marketing to make you feel like you were a rebel when playing Sega. It was just anti-authority enough to feel cool. I can't say that I ever really felt like I was missing out on the Super Nintendo.
Sega games held me over for quite some time. It was the glory days of early Madden football games and some very memorable editions of EA's NBA Live. I probably spent more time making sure the NBA rosters were 100 percent accurate rather than actually playing the game, but it was fun just the same.
I even picked up a Sega Game Gear to take my games on the road. No Gameboy for me, the Game Gear offered a full-color screen and all the testosterone a pre-teen could handle. The tactical feedback of the Game Gear's buttons was outstanding. That thing could be dropped off a skyscraper and would probably still work. It was built like a tank and got super hot to the touch after playing it for hours. And it was my essential companion on a several seasons of family roadtrips.
When the Genesis was getting long in the tooth, Sega pushed out a half-baked product called the 32X. I'm sure some of you remember it. It was sort of like a new gaming system and it was sort of like an accessory for the Genesis. You awkwardly inserted it into the Genesis cartridge slot and it allowed you to play a very small number of games with slightly better graphics. Let's just say that it was pretty darn underwhelming. But it had its moments. It kept the Genesis interesting long enough until the original Playstation changed everything again for me.
The PS1 gave off similar vibes to the NES. Maybe it was all the gray plastic. But it played games that looked unlike anything I had seen before. Things were just more lifelike and immersive. That sounds silly to say now, but it was true at the time. Every kid needed a Playstation. Yes, there was Nintendo 64 or even Sega Saturn as a competitor, but the Playstation had no equal as far as I was concerned.
The games were played on discs! It felt so futuristic. There were even some clever workarounds to play copied versions of games made with that amazing new DVD burner on your (probably HP or Compaq) computer at the time. The original Playstation had some killer games and a fairly long shelf life.
Progressing through high school now, the PS2 was the obvious next system to get. If you liked the PS1, you were going to love the PS2. I loved the black color that harkened back to the Genesis days. And it was a tiny detail, but I loved how you could rotate the Playstation logo depending on if you were keeping the system in a horizontal or vertical position.
As I got older, I tended to play fewer games. There were the occasional Madden or NBA showdowns in the college dorms, but I didn't get into as big of a variety of games as I used to. I did buy a PS3 on a whim on a lonely Sunday afternoon when living in my first apartment in San Francisco.
The PS3 didn't see a whole lot of action. I never was compelled to get a PS4.
But I did eventually get an Xbox One. And I found a Nintendo Wii with a free sign on it hanging out on the sidewalk during the height of the pandemic. They both got some use while the world was shutdown but then gathered dust soon after.
And it seems unlikely that I'll ever buy another gaming system for myself. Now it's all about the kids. The Switch has been fun and I'm eager to see how the Switch 2 shapes up. Who knows, maybe I'll spontaneously pick up a PS5 at some point. Or maybe the PS6 will woo me on launch day. Or maybe I'm just too old for video games anymore and that's ok too!
Thanks for coming with me on my trip down video game memory lane. I imagine many of you have similar memories?
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