The gaming platforms of our lives

[JohnT]

Last night, after 9 years of marriage (and 7 prior years of dating) Laura actually asked me about video games - essentially, "have you played these things your entire life?"

And it struck me - Yeah, I have been playing these things my entire life, a history that would take me back to the birth of the industry. I then started thinking about all the gaming platforms that I've owned and I was kinda stunned - there sure are a lot of them:

Magnavox Odyssey
Sears Pong
Atari VCS
Mattel handheld LED games (big in the late 70's)
Colecovision
Adam ( )
Atari 400
Atari 800
Atari 5200
NES
SNES (or am I confusing this with the NES? There have been so many Nintendo machines its hard to keep track of them)
PC - easily my favorite platform of all time.
Arcade machines: Asteroids, Battlezone, Gravitar, Pac Man and one other I can't remember right now.

Never owned an Intellivision, and I've pretty much missed all the console action of the 1990's because of my PC addiction - Consoles don't play Civ1, MOO, or MoM!

What about y'all?

[loinburger]

Originally posted by JohnT
I've pretty much missed all the console action of the 1990's because of my PC addiction - Consoles don't play Civ1, MOO, or MoM!

I've missed the console action because I'm too frugal, but for some reason I just absolutely love the Zelda games (which they never bother to port to PC) so it's only a matter of time until I cave in and buy myself a Gamecube.

Consoles are great if you've got a girlfriend or are married -- my mom's never played a computer game in her life (not even solitaire or minesweeper), but even she used to try her hand at Super Mario Brothers back when we owned an NES. Similarly, one of my friend's girlfriends is pretty computer illiterate, but she can still kick my butt at Halo. The problem is that if you get a console to addict Laura to gaming, then Sophie might wind up gravitating to the console rather than the PC, and the world will be short one more PC gamer.

[JohnT]

Yeah, Sophie already has a few games for the PC. I'm not too thrilled with the idea of three people/one computer, but that's why God invented money I guess.

[Kuciwalker]

I was only born in '88 so I started with an NES. I loved that thing - especially Super Mario 3 I get a Gamegear (STILL the best handheld around), we got a computer, and (much) later we got an N64 and a Gamecube. I still even have the NES

[centrifuge]

TRS-80

Atari 2600

PC

NES

Sega Genesis

Now it's strictly the PC

[Q Classic]

more computers == good.

[Harovan]

The first game ever against a non-human I played 1979. It was a game of chess against a program running on a computer named SM-4, which filled a whole room with several racks, terminals, line printers, magnetic and punched tape+card readers etc, etc. I won that game and was very proud of it, until I realized, what lousy chess players computers were at this time. I wouldn't say this again today.

Later I played text console games like "Star Trek", "Moon landing" and again chess on other business computers. The first halfway graphical game I played in the 80's was "Ladder". It was still in text mode, but already qualified as full flesh jump'n'run.

Then came the time of home computers. I played games on the Atari-800, C-64 and others of this class. In the early 90's I bought a PC, which is still my favorite platform. My son had a Sega Megadrive and I played a couple of games on it too.

[Cruddy]

Back in 1976, I remember a trip to the London Science Museum. That kind of set the stage - I loved all the interactive exhibits, especially the "20 questions" computer demo.

I remember my first Space Invaders at a motorway service station, and after that I was hooked.

Owned; VCS, C64, Spectrum, Timex, Amstrad CPC (not a PC - used CPM) before I got a beloved Amiga 1000.

Only had a PC for 2 years!

[Whaleboy]

Draughts
Backgammon
Chess

[Sava]

Atari 2600
NES
SNES
Genesis
Nintendo 64
Playstation
Dreamcast
Nintendo Gamecube

[Japher]

I had an Intelevision; it's what got me into gaming and AD&D... NES and SNES through HS. PC and SNES through college. I now have an X-box and a Gamecube, but my wife usually plays thoughs when I play CIV.

[Spec]

Intelevision
Atari 2600
Commodore 64
Amiga 2000
Sega Genesis
Nintendo 64
Playstation
Sega DreamCast
And my PC

Wow....that's a lot....

Spec.

[Japher]

oh yeah, PS, I have 2 of those...

[Sava]

My Dreamcast died... I was playing NFL2k... beating the Vikings like 140-0... and in the 4th quarter... last play of the game, Randy ****ing Moss scored like a 90 yard TD. I got so pissed, I threw my controller, but it hit the Dreamcast and killed it.

it was a stupid system anyways.

[asleepathewheel]

Atari **** (don't remember which one)
Intelevision
Nes
Gameboy
Snes
PS
PS2
Gamecube