Whose side were you on as a kid? (Retrogaming)

[AdvHedge]

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[MetalSkulkBane]

I was born in middle 90... in middle Europe.

I had not consoles as a kid, I beat SA1DX or Rayman 2 using keyboard. I wasn't even aware Genesis existed. I was sure 8-bit version I unlocked in DX was Sonic's first game.

Maybe 5 people in school had gameboy, and all of them played Pokemon. We would gather behind their backs and gaze in amazement as he walks for 10 minutes through grass, grinding.

In short, which ever generations you are, YOU WERE SPOILED!!!!Unless you played those early Atari things, Then I pity you

[Thrippa]

Yay, you got ColecoVision on there!  That was the only generation, to my mind, where the graphics truly mattered.  People who came in and saw us playing Donkey Kong would say, 'Oh, Donkey Kong!'.  People who saw our friends playing Donkey Kong on their Ataris looked puzzled and finally asked, 'What's that brown blob at the top of the screen?" (Yes I exaggerate, but not as much as you might think, who call Nintendo's recent graphics "unplayable" vs the equivalent Sony or MS versions.)  My brother, a few years younger, bought an NES with his own money after they came out and that was the only game system we knew of at that time.  I bought a Genesis after college (because of Sonic the Hedgehog), but fell out again during vet school and didn't return until late Gamecube -which I got because it had 'all' the Sonic games on it, plus I could now go back to Mario and Zelda.  For the last two generations I run Nintendo and Sony, and all four consoles still get fairly regular use. (I wasn't DONE with my PS3 and Wii U games!)

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Born in 1991. Sega Master System & Mega Drive in the 1990s. PS1 & PS2 in the 2000s.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

Born in 1990. Played the NES until it gave up the ghost in 1999. Briefly played the N64 from 1999 to early 2001. Didn't play the Gamecube until 2005 which I played until 2011 due to a recession that was going on and was short on cash. Still own my original DS from 2005. Briefly owned a PSP but I had to sell it as the disks were too easy to scratch. Got the 3DS (both the original and New) as well as Vita with decently sized libraries of games. Got the Switch in late 2017 as I passed on most the HD era consoles due to owning a powerful PC with the lions share of games on it.

[Detective Kaito]

I was born in 1998, but I'm somewhere between Y and Z.

My first console was an NES, then a GBA, PS2, PSP, PS Vita, PS4, and most recently, Nintendo Switch.

[Mr Loopone]

Born in 1988 but I don't use the generation gaps because they aren't reflective for outside of the US (probably the lost/forgotten generation).

Anyway my first console was a Sega Mega Drive played in the mid 90s probably 1996-1997 if I have to guess. Then moved towards the PS1 and the N64, let's just say that Crash 2 and Super Mario 64 got me hooked, was also console neutral unlike others before where people fought to this day what was the better home computer/console. Yes, I was one of the first generations where people played and focused playing on consoles rather than home computers such as the Spectrum, Commodore 64 or the Amiga due to differences when compared to the US or Japan, the NES was not a thing where I'm from. To fast forward a lot got a Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube (at launch), SNES, Master System (was gifted), big gap in gaming due to bitterness regarding the PS2 that lasted 6 years but still played on the DS and the PSP, PS3, Wii U, original Xbox, 360 and hoping to get a Switch. No interest in the PS4 or the Xbox One (or future consoles). Also got the handhelds as well from Game Boy Pocket and Game Gear to the 3DS and the Vita.

Thinking about it, I might have actually played in the arcades before getting my Mega Drive but I can't remember. Do remember that I kept playing in them until they died out around the mid 2000s. Last time that I went to an arcade, it was last year to play that Mario Kart one, was the only one left and was at a different country. A shame since I wanted to try Time Crisis 5 and Point Blank X but nowhere has them.

Apart from the PS1 and the PS2, I still have my consoles and go back to play on them except the Game Gear that no longer works.

[Patticus]

Being born in '88, I missed entirely the Gen X era of gaming, and based on what little of it I've experienced since, I don't feel like I missed out on very much. Fans of the era will wax lyrical about how wrong I am, I'm sure.

I didn't have much choice as to what Gen Y side I took, because, being a child, my parents were the sole source of my game systems. Nevertheless, I'll record them here anyway, just for the hell of it:

Early Gen Y: Sega MegaDrive/Genesis (1 & 2)

Spoiler

My first proper games console was a Sega MegaDrive 2, played on an old black and white portable TV from the late 1970s. It was so popular with my siblings and I that we eventually acquired a second portable TV, this one colour (what a revelation it was!), and a Sega MegaDrive 1 to play on it. For several weeks, my parents suffered the ordeal of moving the colour TV between our two bedrooms and setting it up, because nobody wanted to be stuck with the black and white one. I was all about Sonic, my mother bought the Fleetway comics, I had the bed spread and everything...

I was only vaguely aware that Nintendo existed at the time. I knew that Nintendo and Mario were things that existed, and that Mario was in some fashion a rival for Sonic, but had little idea what he was all about beyond my infrequent experiences of the Mario Bros. cartoon, and their satirical depiction as the Marxio Brothers (still an awesome concept, btw) in the Fleetway Sonic comics. Nintendo was, from my memory, not as popular as Sega in the UK at this time, so Sega products were probably a bit easier to acquire. I didn't actually get the MegaDrive 2 until 1996, and it came with the Sonic Compilation, so the Core Gen Y had already begun by the time I first experienced the Early era.

I did not own any handhelds from this era, but I recall seeing a GameGear in action in ads on TV, with the music of Sonic & Knuckles' Sandopolis Zone playing. Believing it to be a true portable MegaDrive, I wanted it, badly. I never got it. Oh well, I'm sure I would only have been disappointed anyway!

A Sega loyalist during this era, but not by choice. Moving on...

Core Gen Y: Sony PlayStation, and the Nintendo 64

Spoiler

My Core console era began in mid-late 1998 with the PS1, followed soon after by Gameboy Colours for my siblings and I. In 1999, they were followed by the acquisition of an N64. The PS1 was by far the most played system in the house, followed by the GBCs, while the N64 was my baby, and Perfect Dark 64 my game of choice on it. My brother and best friend preferred Goldeneye 64, which I was fine with, sometimes.

It's difficult to say I chose a side in this era, as I was in deep with both Sony and Nintendo. I became aware of the console wars during this period, as I began buying gaming magazines while shopping with mum, but nevertheless I didn't consider that I was more on one side than another. I'm sure that the size of my PS1 gaming library probably put me in Sony's camp, as I only owned maybe half a dozen Nintendo 64 games at most, and fewer GBC titles, but I put a lot of hours into the few Nintendo games I did play. That said, a lot of time was spent on the PS1 too...

Neutral, possibly Sony-leaning, for this era.

Late Gen Y: Sega Dreamcast, followed by the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo GameCube

Spoiler

My Late era began in mid-2001 with the acquisition of the Sega Dreamcast. It only lived a year or so before disc read issues killed it, and I didn't have a big library for games for it, but I loved it nevertheless. My siblings and I all graduated onto the GameBoy Advance system, which was a bit of a slow burner really. I think their interest in handheld gaming mostly fizzled at that time, while mine thrived, mainly on Pokemon and Sonic. I eventually upgraded to the GameBoy Advance SP, Nintendo's first true back-lit handheld game system,  which my little sister inherited in time.

After the Dreamcast died, my Nintendo GameCube era began, and it was glorious; I spent hundreds of hours on it over the following years, and I became a solid Nintendo fanboy, a real zealot. But as with earlier on in Gen Y, it wasn't really my choice. I mean, yes, I pestered my mum endlessly for the Dreamcast and GameCube both, but she could have opted to buy the PS2 instead.

Hardcore in the Nintendo camp for this era, definitely.

Early Gen Z: Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS

Spoiler

I began Gen Z as a firm Nintendo fanboy, opening the period up with a Nintendo DS - first Phat, then Lite. Some time later, I used my first couple of months' pay at my first job to buy a Wii, which I enjoyed thoroughly. However, having suffered during the Late Gen Y era from a lack of third party gaming goodness, some 18 months after that, in the summer of 2008, I bought myself an Xbox 360 as well, and enjoyed it tremendously, pouring many hours into it, discovering many new franchises in the process.

This period opened with me as an avowed Nintendo fanboy, but by the end, Microsoft had won out. Nintendo put up a decent fight, though.

Thoughts!

Being a child without financial independence, I had no control over what "side" I took in the so-called "console wars," having to make do with what my parents thought I might like. I owe my Classic-oriented Sonic fandom, and presence here, to their judgment while shopping for presents, one day many years ago.

After a couple of years, once I got into reading gaming magazines and I began learning what was coming, I started actually asking for systems, and utilizing the so-called "Pester Power" manipulation ability most children possess to try to get what I wanted. It usually worked.

Over the years, my allegiance (if you could ever call it that) shifted from one company to the next, veering hard into zealotry during my adolescence, and thereafter mellowing considerably. By the end of my "Gamer Kid" period, I had experienced and enjoyed products from all four of the major players in the console business.

The rest of the hidden post, below, is post-gamer kid, typed up because I'd forgotten the original intended scope of the post, but I decided to take a swing at it anyway, so for what little it may be worth, here...

Spoiler

Core Gen Z: Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Sony PlayStation 4

Spoiler

My Core Gen Z period began with the acquisition of a Nintendo Wii U, which I was much impressed with. However, by this time I was no Nintendo fanboy, and I found the system lacking in appealing software. Reports of bad sales compounded the uneasy feeling that it would return to the GCN's bad old days of third party abandonment, and I never did put much time into it, beyond a small handful of titles. Shortly afterwards, I acquired a PS4 for my birthday, and after a short transition period, it pretty became the main console of the house. I bought a much larger HDD to fit into it, and have poured a great many hours into its library.

Not long after, I got myself a Nintendo 3DS XL. I haven't used it very much, but it does see some use, primarily with Pokemon and Metroid.

Sony knocked it out of the park this period, no contest.

Late Gen Z: Nintendo Switch

Spoiler

I own a Switch, but frankly I never use it. I only have one game for it (Mario) and it bores me, and I'm well past being interested in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, despite its numerous (and I'm sure well-deserved) accolades. The state of Nintendo's online infrastructure, along with its persistent refusal to adopt HDD/SSD storage as standard, make me extremely wary of having much to do with them any more. Just fucking get with the times already, God damn...

No winner/loser, but let's see what happens.

Final Thoughts!

I care a lot less for company allegiances now than I used to; today I just buy whatever system has what I want on it, when I can afford to do so. But at the same time, I can understand why I used to hold those sometimes ridiculously fanatical allegiances: Being dependent on my parents, having no choice in what I received, even when I asked for things and could be assured of getting them, I knew that, as we were a household of limited income, I could not afford to get a dud system. Consequently, conscious that I was limited to what I had received at Christmas or my birthday, I retreated into fanboyish company loyalty, to avoid the specter of buyers' remorse, and to feel better about what I had.

At the end of my Gamer Kid period, once I began working and earning enough money to buy my own systems, my fanboyism faded away, pretty well because I didn't need it any more.

[Tara]

@AdvHedge The replies have been well thought out so I'm not going to take any kind of action, I guess, but as a note, unsubstantial OP's like this aren't really allowed here.  Image-only posts aren't really allowed in general.  In the future, please try to give at least a few sentences worth of thought.