A History of My Gaming Habits
8-Bit and older
My first game console that I can remember was mom and dad’s old Atari. I think it was the 2600 but I can’t quite remember. I do remember the crazy Joysticks with the one red button and the games were extremely basic. It was fun, but the games were limited. Then mom brought home a defective NES from work. Where she worked at was a small retailer that allowed devices returned as defective to be sold to the employees at a reduced cost if the device couldn’t be sent back for credit. It apparently just need to be cleaned with compressed air because it was perfectly functional. Even now it still works! It requires some magic incantations and placing the cartridges juuuuust right, but a new ZIF connector would fix that.
So the NES was a night and day difference compared to the old Atari. the graphics were better, the music was better, and the controllers were also a hell of a lot better, even though they had sharp corners that would bite into your hands after extended hours of play. We amassed quite a few games for it, from Final Fantasy and Tetris to Ultima and Jeopardy. Super Mario Bros 1 – 3, you bet. My family didn’t have a lot of money just lying around, and game consoles then were not cheap, nor were the games. Adjusting for inflation, the PlayStation (PSX) was close to $500 in 2020 money, which is the same cost as a PS5 in 2020. I’d see advertisements for the PlayStation or Nintendo 64 (N64) on TV, but I continued playing my cool little NES. If I was lucky, one of my friends would get the new console, or their older siblings got it and we could play on it. Most of my fond multi-player memories come from game nights at a friends house playing 007 Goldeneye or Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the N64.
16…Wait 32-bit Era
None of my friends had purchased the SNES and only one friend had a Genesis. The 16-bit era of video games is largely non-existent for me. I vaguely remember playing Sonic and Jurassic Park on the Genesis, but nothing else seems to stick out from that era. Instead I went for the new consoles out on the market, with 3D graphics and more familiar controls.
So it was probably 1997 or 1998 when I finally convinced my parents to get me a PlayStation. The price had come down and there were now bundles with some great games included. I remember getting the PlayStation, a memory card, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Spyro the Dragon. This time I wasn’t as blown away simply because I had been playing PlayStation or N64 at my friends’ houses, so I was well acquainted with the hardware and games. The one thing that was a surprise was how expansive games could be. Playing multiplayer games at the time meant you really didn’t get a chance to experience the depth of a game, but when you were playing single-player games at your house you got to live in the rich lore and environments. I became a huge JRPG fan, playing all the Final Fantasies and Chrono Cross, and the horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The platformers were great, too. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro had many hours devoted to them, too. There were also some quirky games like Bushido Blade that was a fighting game using ancient Japanese weapons with one-hit kills. It was all about timing.
Of all the game consoles I’ve owned, the PlayStation by far has the most play time on it and the most games enjoyed. It really is the foundational game console for me, even though the NES was my first real console. The games I played on the PlayStation have stayed in my memory the most, and I have the fondest memories of those games. The experiences I had on the PlayStation have influenced the types of games I still currently enjoy.
6th Gen
The consoles I played on from this era are known as 6th Gen and consist of the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), The Nintendo GameCube, and the Microsoft Xbox. Once again I was late to this party and didn’t get a 6th Gen console until they had been released for a few years. I rocked the PlayStation for a while, but eventually I wanted to try the new games and new systems. My next console was the PS2, naturally, as it was backwards compatible with the PlayStation’s huge library of games. The PS2 was a great console with even more Single-Player goodness, and most of my other friends also made the jump to PS2. That was around 2002. I had a job and was pulling in enough income and saved up enough to purchase one. Only one of my friends purchased a GameCube, and another one of my friends bought the Xbox. The PS2 had some great RGPs, like Dark Cloud and Jade Cocoon 2, and of course Kingdom Hearts. I also ended up buying a Sega Dreamcast that same year because City Market (King Soopers or Krogers for other places) was selling them refurbished. This was when you could still rent movies and games from them. I ended up spending $60 on the Dreamcast and then the games were cheap, like $5 a game. This was probably so they could get rid of as much overstock as possible.
So I had the PS2 for my single player games, and the Dreamcast with games like Crazy Taxi, Chu Chu Rocket, and Phantasy Star Online. I only had a few controllers for the Dreamcast and the PS2 only had 2 controller ports without shelling out more money for the multi-port adapter. The PS2 also really didn’t have a great library of multi-player titles for more than 2 people, so it wasn’t worth the investment. Both consoles were pretty amazing, but the PS2 did some witch-craft to look as good as it did. It still looks and sounds impressive, almost 20 years later. The Dreamcast was a cool little system, but it just didn’t stand a chance against the juggernauts of Sony and Nintendo. I eventually sold my Dreamcast, and even profited I think, and bought a used GameCube instead. The GameCube was neat and had some great multi-player games, the ability to have multiple controllers and even a GBA hooked up to it. There were a few key games for it, but after the Wii released there was no real reason to keep it, so I donated it to my nephew years later.
In 2003 I was staying at my friend’s house who had the Xbox. We had played Halo on it many times, and we were usually playing TimeSplitters 2 or something else multi-player. Then he introduced me to Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. I was blown away. I’d played RPGs before, and I’d played FPSs before. But never before had I seen them melded together like this. Furthermore, there was some level of customization on the character. The world was also so alien, so weird. It wasn’t just your average european-inspired castles and people RPG, it was different. There were things hidden everywhere, you could go wherever you wanted, and do whatever you wanted. You have to realized that until 2002 we didn’t have a computer at my house. We didn’t get internet until 2003, and it was 28.8K Earthlink Dialup. So I hadn’t seen any games for the PC and didn’t know that Morrowind was available for PC, too. Besides, the PC was just for Homework and Solitaire and stuff. You didn’t actually game on it (which was fine because our first computer was a pile of crap). So seeing Morrowind on a game console was amazing.
I knew that I had to have an Xbox. I ended up trading in all my PS2 Games, my PSX games, and the PS2 itself to get an Xbox, 4 controllers, Halo, and Morrowind. From there on I played the few RPGs on the Xbox, but primarily Morrowind, or I’d hang out with friends and we’d play whatever multi-player game was hot at the time. The other cool thing about the Xbox was that it doubled as a DVD player, so I could watch movies on it, too. I took the Xbox with me to college, and even after flunking out it was my primary console.
7th Gen and PC Gaming
The Xbox was my primary console until the Xbox 360 was released. Like before I didn’t buy the new console “Day One” because funds were short and I still enjoyed playing on the Xbox. There wasn’t a game on the Xbox 360 that I had to have, not yet anyway. So as the Xbox 360 released, and then the PS3 and Wii. At the time I was working at a big retailer selling electronics and a second job at a smaller retailer that specialized in music and movies. I’d also become familiar with building computers and had started dabbling in PC gaming. This was mostly because I had wanted to play World of Warcraft with my friends. So PC gaming was starting to infiltrate my life bit by bit. I’d still play the Xbox on occasion, but I had Morrowind on PC now, and had discovered mods. I played Diablo 2 and older games from the late 90’s I had missed out on. Valve’s Steam launcher was also beginning to be the massive success we see now with multiple publishers and a wide array of games available for purchase. Storage was getting relatively cheap for computers and broadband was more accessible, generally.
When the Nintendo Wii was announced, I decided I wanted one. It was almost spur of the moment, but the control system and the promise for a new way to game was too alluring not to take the dive. I preordered a Wii through one of my jobs and waited. I still had my GameCube and games, and since the Wii was supposed to be backwards compatible with GameCube games I was pretty excited. At the time, the Wii was a massive letdown. The graphics weren’t much better than the GameCube, the games were fun but mostly gimicky, and there just weren’t any hardcore games with blood and guts and killing. In the many years since then, and after owning a Wii U, I feel like the Wii didn’t get a fair chance from me, and that it didn’t appeal to my demographic at the time. As a parent, I adore the Wii and Wii U, but as a young adult it was lame.
So I kept the Wii for a while, mostly out of guilt, until my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to get an Xbox 360. Gaming on the computer was fine, but most of my friends were still on consoles and Xbox Live was becoming a better and better service. There were some exclusives, like the Halo franchise, and more importantly Gears of War was coming out. By this point we had moved to a new city and new jobs, still at retail with another big electronics vendor. So I ordered an Xbox 360 and Gears of War because it looked amazing, and computer parts were getting expensive. We went through 3 or 4 Xbox 360s because of the Red Ring of Death. But during that time the Xbox 360 became the second game console that I had played the most out of compared to the PlayStation. While I did play a lot of Xbox I ended up playing on a 360 for far longer. Left 4 Dead, Halo, Gears of War, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Mass Effect, and many others. Xbox Live Arcade was becoming a thing, and most console games were going to the 360 first before going to the PS3. The problem with the Xbox 360, other than the RRoD killing them off, was that there weren’t a lot of great RPGs, especially JRPGs, available. After our last 360 RRoD’d again and I had to bake it in the oven, again, to fix it I decided I’d had enough.
We sold the Xbox 360 and all the games and purchased a PS3, used. The PS3 Slim was what we initially bought, and it was great. At this stage in my life I didn’t really play online with any of my friends anymore, and I didn’t play with other people in person. I was getting back in to single-player games and playing on PC again. The PS3 has a huge collection of single-player games, which is good because their online system was terrible compared to Xbox Live. The PS3 and PC gaming were the main sources of gaming in the household. We generally only bought games that were PS3 or Console exclusive on the PS3 and everything else on the PC. That was true even after my 1st child was born. I was primarily a PC gamer when Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim released and played the heck out of it. But, as she grew older and I had less time to game and less money to dedicate to it, we started playing strictly on the PS3.
8th Gen and Beyond
Eventually we splurged and bought a Nintendo Switch when it came out. That was the main console we played on outside of the PS3, and indeed it almost replaced the PS3. We enjoyed the Switch, but at the time it came out game selection was a little sparse. There were some excellent couch co-op games like Duck Game or Puyo Puyo Tetris and some fun indie games. There wasn’t a large selection of first-party titles out other than Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and that goes for RPGs. So I found myself looking at the PS4 and the Xbox One. The natural option seemed like the PS4 and so we ended up getting a PS4 Slim. Not too many months later we got a 4K TV and so naturally I sold the PS4 Slim and opted for a PS4 Pro, AKA the Jet Engine. The PS4 had some of the best exclusive games with God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn, and after subscribing to PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now I had more games than I knew what to do with. For a short time we even had the PSVR (not worth it) with Beatsaber.
During this time I also picked up a Wii U from a friend who was getting a Switch as well, so we picked up a bunch of used Wii and Wii U games for cheap. It’s been a great system and I have a previous post mentioning reviewing it.
Just recently we decided to purchase an Xbox One S for both the wife and I and a separate one for my daughter. I’ll have a post detailing why we chose to get her an Xbox One S and why we chose to get one for us. But after getting an Xbox One S with the Game Pass Ultimate the PS4 has fallen to the wayside as our main console. Most of the games we want to play are on the Xbox, the backwards compatibility is better, and more importantly we’ve reconnected with some friends, and new friends, on Xbox Live. I’m really enjoying the console, and there’s a lot of nostalgia with many of the games.
I think in the future we’ll be getting both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X. Both are going to be compatible with the older games from the previous gen, the PS5 is going to have some amazing exclusives, but the Series X is going to end up be being the main console I think. Something else to consider is that with Game Pass Ultimate, PlayStation Now, Nintendo Online, and Stadia owning games in physical format is becoming a memory and playing games anywhere on any device is becoming a greater reality. 2021 will be an interesting year for gaming in the household and I can’t wait to see what we end up playing, and what my kids end up playing.