The oldest gaming console I've owned was the original XBOX released sometime in the year 2001. I actually never played it since I was born in '06 there were better options out such as the PS3, Wii, and my favorite the XBOX 360. Man I played the hell out of that thing whenever I got the chance. I never really cared for the Wii besides tennis or bowling. But unfortunately I don't own any of my old consoles due to me moving a bunch and not understanding that they could be a potential relic since I was so young. I'd like to see if anyone has owned anything older as I'm pretty interested in how they ran and how different it is from modern gaming.
Amiga CD32 back in ‘94 or thereabouts on the back of having an Amiga A600 then later A1200 as my first gaming computers.
I mean, this is a difficult one because it gets into how you define it, I had assorted micros back in the day, since the UK market was bigger on those and it wasn't until the late 80s and early 90s that Sega managed to make the penetration with dedicated consoles that Nintendo had crashed and burned attempting with the NES. I had the old Acorn Electron for software compatibility with the BBC micros every school had a bunch of, but like, I also had a two player or single player mechanical Pong game which used electronic dial inputs to move physicalised paddles and a single LED sitting on a gantry behind a tinted glass screen that could move in the X and Y axis and had logic for individual play. Do we draw the line at my Master System? Or do we allow it to blur and include all the gaming I was doing for years before that on the micros, at which point we need to ask if the definition extends beyond that to the electronic/analogue hybrid devices?
The oldest console I have owned which was a console, I mean that took a cartridge and had a joy stick was an atari 2600. You could call it the rolls Royce of consoles with it's walnut dash.
The oldest console I own is an Atari 2600. I have others though which are: Sinclair ZX Spectrum + (currently not working) Sega Master System * Sega Mega Drive (needs a new power cable) Nintendo 64 Nintendo Game Cube * Amiga 600+ * Sony PSOne (the little one) * Sony PS2 * Sony PS3 * Sony PS4 * Sony PS4 Pro (x2) * Microsoft XBox One * Owned since new
I started my interest in Computer games with a Sinclair ZX81 when I was 15.. My first actual console though was much later and was a Sega Megadrive. I only ever had 3 games for it that I can remember. Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Monaco GP and Populous. I’ve had a lot of consoles since, starting with a PS1 through to my current PS5 Pro. Also had a few Xboxes. I mainly like handhelds though. My biggest collections are DS, Switch and PSP.
I'd be interested to know how many invested in a Panasonic 3do as it wasn't really a mainstream console at the time but had fairly decent graphics for the period.
Atari 2600 and my dad's homemade console with Pong and Tank Pong. We're talking early 70's with the homemade games.
Growing up my parents had a Sega Genesis that I would play Sonic on, while at my grandparents they had an NES that I enjoyed playing Tetris and Donkey Kong with. As I got older my parents traded the Genesis in for an N64 as a birthday gift for me one year. At some point that got traded in for a PS2 (which my dad still has and uses, funnily enough). After moving out on my own I bought a 360, which evolved into an Xbox One (the COD Advanced Warfare version). The One became a One X, with the X going to my wife for her to use after I bought my Series X during COVID. I've also owned a Gameboy Color and a Gameboy Advanced over the years, but much to my deep regret they've been lost to time. Thankfully the MyOldBoy emulator on Android works really well! Currently, aside from my Series X, I have both a refurb N64 and Gamecube set up with modernized controllers and proper HDMI adapters. I don't play either very often, but aside from emulation they're the only way for me to play the older Star Wars games (and Starfox lol).
Oh, are we doing our complete collections? Do I need to pull out the Master System, Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Wii, XBox, 360, One, and Series X/S from where they are all hooked up (be it to CRTs or via HDMI adaptors) and line them all up for a glamour shot now?
Before I had a console, I had a Commodore 64, an Amiga 500, and an Atari 1024, I think. On the Amiga, I had all the MiroProse simulations available at the time. My first console was a PS1 or 2 for Gran Tourismo. My second console was an N64 with an expansion card for the game Zelda. Then came my first PC.
Not a console, more like a home computer, but my late father let my brother and me experiment with coding games from a book on a Dragon computer. Also had several Spectrum models. First console, however, was a NES. (Image of a Dragon 32 taken from an eBay sale page, brings back huge memories!)
One thing about those early consoles, or Amigas was that the developers had to work hard to get the best out of the limited hardware and storage. Games had to run from the floppy discs or CD's, no copying 100's of Mb or several Gb of data to a hard drive. The PS1 had memory sticks with an 8Mb capacity. And they had to get it right first time. No Internet to supply patches or updates. The original media was it.
Indeed, Vern, part of the reason for the Video Game crash of the 1980s was due in part to the release of many sloppy and shoddy games. Everyone points to E.T., but that wasn't the only schlock going around at the time. The market became oversaturated with rubbish, and the market collapsed as people were put off. Sadly, it seems history is repeating itself with the amount of shovelware that now clogs the Steam store... (and, to some small extent, the Epic Games store.)
Luckily things had started to rally by the early 90's and I had hours of fun out of titles like F16 Combat Pilot, Lemmings 2, Gunship 2000, Wing Commander etc. Though the writing was already on the wall for the Amiga sadly. Titles like Tornado only got a cut down version compared to the PC where you could plan and fly custom missions. Wing Commander 2 was PC only and it was WC3 with its revolutionary FMV that brought me across to my first PC - a 486SX 100Mhz loaned from Radio Rentals!
Commodore C64. Dizzy on Tape. Spectrum ZX or Sinclair. Then moved on to Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, then NES, had the PS1 from then on. Had a of the Atari Jaguar. Panasonic 3DO I think it was called. Actually the Nintendo 3DO I think a console was called with James Bonds Golden eye. Even had a sega dream cast for a while. Had a few games consoles in my time but never a full on computer or PC. So when I hear people moan about loading speed then the early 80s was nothing but waiting. Complete with the lovely loading sounds, crazy colours and static on the monitor. One things games gave back then was fun with ya mates. Two player sat in your room not messing around with internet and high priced gaming, with small micro transactions. What happened to actually playing a game to win rewards not buy them. ✌
That’s correct, I remember the Memory cards. Still have one or two hanging around. Even the AC power bank or pack wasn’t built in yet. I never used floppy disk much as I had the separate tape reader to the keyboard or Commodore C64. Cream white it was.
That’s fancy looking. Mad how far technology has come, even looking back at the Apple Mac the multiple colour ones. ✌
I tried one out but didn’t have it for long. Well it’s wasn’t mine but for the house. All I can remember is playing the original NfS. We got rid of and replaced it with a PS1. My memory is not very good but I remember having the Atari Jaguar but that overheated or something so sent it back. There were a few companies playing around with 32Bit consoles then up to 64bit. I remember Sega Genesis and the add on drive for I think it was the Seag mega drive. Had a base you fitted in. The only company that got it right eventually was Sony. When the PS1 came out that set the standard for all consoles ever since. But yes I remember them well, we had to get it from a TV store, maybe from Radio Rentals. No one else had one on the estate, non of my friends. It wasn’t very common for kids. I think it was more an entertainment based system. So for better audio and visual quality. I guess what later PS consoles became with CD player then DVD now Blu Ray. The price was way out of most people’s price range to so again looking back I think the Panasonic 3DO was ahead of it’s time. Just not marketed right. ✌
It was crazy expensive for the time, but you get what you pay for. Zilog Z80 @4MHz, 64KB of memory, plus 16KB of VRAM for 500 quid, which in today's Freddos is... a lot. Solid workhorse for someone getting their degree and about to embark on a career in the sector though.
Oh it was very different back then. I most had consoles yet my first experience was with a Commodore C64 and the Atari with wood on top. I can’t remember its code. Just a kid in the 80s. So tapes was my first experience of gaming with a game tape called Dizzy’s adventures. An Egg. That’s right an Egg. lol. I’d have to load the tape in a top loader and wait for what seemed ages. (Maybe 5 mins). There was nothing fancy in movements. Up dowm, left and right. Oh and jump or fire something. Very very basic. Things advanced a little when 8Bit consoles game out. That was a Seag Master System. Again very basic but game with cartridges. New characters like Alex kid, or Golden Quest. Out Run. Basic Arcade graphics or retro style in today’s language. Then there was a sudden shift in newer technology, it all happened quite fast. Jumping from 8Bit to 16Bit then 32Bit. CDs started taking over. Loading times improved significantly so did the games. Mortal combat stayed using green screen for laying players. Whooooopsie. That game was so funny for if you did a Death move at the end or Finish Him a player could do a combo move send your opponent up in the air and they would fall down on to spikes. A guy would pop out from the bottom of the screen and say something daft. Basically most games prior to 32Bit was mostly side on or top down view perspectives. When 32Bit came more mainstream it offered more options in menu’s graphics improved, frame rates etc. Games got better overall. Yet they were in some ways still limited as no standard had been set in technical specifications and price. Developers for games wasn’t sure which console to commit to yet, some failed some dragged on, but when Sony announced PS1 that changed everything. Amiga gave up, Sega started to felt it and did eventually give up in the game console market. Nintendo was always going to survive because as kids on the street the word was Nintendo for babies, kids. Sega was for the older player so most wanted that. Yet Nintendo was what they got because back then we got what we was given. No demanding for 500 pound game consoles or fifa games at 100 quid. Nintendo had its own niche market and one that’s it continued with to this day. The family focused or share play on the move. This is memories of their LCD screen games, the game boy, game boy advance then colour. They couldn’t compete head on with how Sony came out of nowhere and changed the way we played games. Because the way I seen or understand it is this. When we played games we played them for fun, they was so simple that they was no risk of being in doors all day. We had a play on a console for a hour or two and then we went out. Kids would enjoy doing that still over playing games. All consoles was marketed for children and mid teens. Yet when PS1 game out and became popular more developers flooded Sony with games. You see back then Devs wasn’t sure who to start committing to with title or exclusive content. Loads of small independent developers and publishers. Team 17 and Maxi even code master. That’s when bigger companies like Electronic Arts evolved into EA by buying up most of the smaller studios. Games became more about money than fun. Don’t get me wrong they offered hours of fun. But the bigger games got the better the graphics so GT driving was something we could only dream of a few years back. The split where as I say Nintendo took a beating but survived today with Wii etc. See the differences between that and Sony or Microsoft. Each time gamers wanted more they got more, yet with that each one kept looking for the next big thing to keep gamers hooked. Millions can go into making games now so publishers want money back. It all got bigger and bigger the risks were higher and then the internet came along. This again changed everything because now gaming isn’t about having fun but we’ve become so used to having them in our lives now. Hooked even. This is where looking back at gaming it not really about having fun or a laugh. Then going out for a kick about with ya mates. Games now are so commercial that fun has been replaced with money. Years ago devs worked hard because to survive it was about content and fun keeping the gamer entertained. A entertainment system is what games consoles was called. They are still that, but we again don’t use for entertainment as such. We do because games are so good so addictive that once one buys a console at 500 quid pumped a few grand in games then I feel gamers feel the need to play not for fun but because gaming makes us hooked. Why because like I say now massive commercial enterprises run the show keeping players addicted is how they make money. Micro transactions etc. all this we would have won as a reward. Now it’s seem you have to pay to enjoy not play the game to win at anything. That’s the difference I feel between games consoles and gaming as whole today. I’m not wrong either because seeing all the videos on YT of rage quitting shows how bad games are today. Is it fun seeing a kid smash their control up, stress out nearly giving them selfs a heart attack at 15. Crying because they can’t by the latest skin on fortnight, when they try to play they get trolled by sweats. Playing the game for YT and money so on their all day. A sweat a pro doing it as a Job not for fun or playing a game. Graphics, speed and all that was an issue in the past but we still had hours of fun. Today tho yes things have changed but so has gaming as I once knew it. It seem the most popular games you simply can’t by and own. We learned that with Ubisoft. And so has Ubisoft learned about how expensive it is to maintain online servers. Why again games are about money. Years ago we bought a game and we owned it. Played it had fun and completed it. It gave us entertainment. Yet today if I buy any game is it ever finished, do I have to keep spending to enjoy. I feel this way with TSW, never have time to finish the last title or DLC before something else comes out. Rush Rush Rush while quality suffers. Hence leaving game’s frustrated not entertained. It’s not just aimed at DTG because it’s become a common practice in the industry. EA games shown publishers they can charge the earth for a game. Then all the silly season passes etc. when does it stop. Can’t we win these things by playing for the entertainment instead. No, because we don’t win nothing. Just the developers when they take our money and run. That’s my personal perspective of games and how it’s all changed. People are no longer willing to pay anymore because society doesn’t have lose change anymore. Online games companies know this and why I feel there will be sudden shift soon if not already from online gaming to actually owing a game again. One we play win something and enjoy. Sorry it’s a long one. I’ve been playing games for over 30 odd years or more so seen it all. ✌
I can imagine back in them days. The prices were high and reason why I never owned many computers in my time. Still don’t. Thanks for sharing tho, it’s really interesting seeing what people have used in the past. ✌
Funnily enough NFS was the game that come with it. I swapped it for a BMX. My friend wanted a BMX for Xmas and got a 3do and I wanted a games console and got a BMX!
Man I bet that was a tough one. I’d have to say Christmas wasn’t great for me either. Opening the presents with hope only for them to crushed in one swift blow. (Never got my Thomas the Tank train set. Damn you Santa?. I can’t remember that game coming with it. Did come with a disk but no game. All I remember it’s a white arrow van dropping it off. Thinking back I’m sure that had to be sent back as the eye of the laser was rubbing on the disk. And man I’ve did something similar with my Saga, oh what was they called now the hand held one. Way before the Sony PSP. Anyway I swapped that for a skateboard with wings. I think as kids back then swapped all shorts especially around Boxing Day. You’d see parents dragging kids to get their stuff back. Haha. Loved my BMX tho, made by Peugeot I think. Had a Drifter too including the Raleigh Chopper. Cost a Bob or two to buy one of those now in mint condition. But NfS offered loads of fun, did you find the hidden track at the end?. I think it was all space like. The sound track was ace too. Even in the Wipeout franchise. I do still have an original NfS PS1 copy somewhere but I found these instead. These were my number ones games on PS2, why I still own them. The Getaway was such a great game for the day. I’d love to see that brought back. The story boards for both games are well written. Something that’s missing from some basic games these days. A solid story. Did Santa ever bring what you placed on your Christmas wish list?. ✌
It wasn't that tough, I had a mountain bike that I was happy with. There was a bit of disappointment when I hooked up the 3do to my TV and it was all black and white and fuzzy. Luckily my dad knew that the 3do was NTSC and run it thru the VCR that converted it to pal. Yeah I had the sega game gear portable console. Was a wow thing at the time compared to my Gameboy that had a basic green LCD display. I seem to remember being able to use the game gears battery pack to power the mega drive or something like that. I definitely remember the getaway. Was a really cool game, spent many hours playing it yet I don't recall completing it. Had a good story line and was quite hard as I remember. As I remember Santa barely came through at Xmas! Still got some cool stuff though. I was lucky enough to get a Thomas train set one year.
That shift from tapes to cartridges was wild, suddenly having games instantly on demand able to run. And it didn't last, because games got heavier, and we ended up turning to optical media with larger capacities but slow read speeds, with notable outliers that really tried hard to minimise that, like Soul Reaver. We saw load times get longer and longer even as internal installs became mandatory for the faster read speeds. The only comparable experience I'd say has been the shift to standardisation of SSDs this generation, and the impact we could immediately see in our backwards compatible collections on the eradication of minute long loading screens in some games from the prior two generations of consoles...
The Getaway games were awesome and reminded me of Driver. I still have the original getaway game for PS2 but never fully completed it. One particular mission I could never finish was the one where you have to get access to the police station and sneak around. I have eJay Clubworld somewhere too in my game stash.
More resilient back than us kids. Now MTB they to started arriving on the scene around mid 80s. If a kid had one they were considered posh. And I think back about the Panasonic 3DO I do remember seeing it launched with the NfS. One reason it caught my eye. There were tricky tho as I say it was purchased as a house thing, so not mine to mess with. Only a kid so only knew about Aerial sockets, scart leads. Yes that was it. Game Gear. Quite large, I preferred it over Gameboy. Not sure about the battery thing tho. Sure it ran off 6 or 4 batteries like the Gameboy did. Don’t remember any AC packs. Had loads of AC packs for a Fast Traxx I owned. I have two brand new still in the boxes. Green and Red, need the Tyco AC packs for them which is about 20 quid in today’s prices. Oh the Gateaway was a cracking game. I did complete it, I can’t remember completing Black Monday tho. I know there’s like a house fire or something at the end. The Triads. Not sure if some kidnapping is involved too. Ace game it was. Driving around in a London Cab or Bus, listening to all the cockney slang. Similar to GTA London top down view, getting off in a little mini hahaha. Great games back then all because devs worked hard on story boards because the graphics just weren’t right yet. Santa, I’ve given up on him. For the past twenty years Ive been asking for a Bentley but all I receive is socks!. Congratulations on receiving a Thomas Train set. You must have been a good boy that year. I was a naughty boy so probably why I never saw Thomas as a child. ✌
That’s right the changes were rapid. Cartridges that was easy to use and throw in a rucksack. Had to blow the chips before inserting them. I must say you sound more clued up on these things. All I can remember with the jump to disk is time loading from plug and play. CDs introduced issues like long waiting times. Frustrating at times, even how games looked. I loved NfS and only wish they had way of getting away from blocky graphics. But that was the limitations of technology I guess. The better tech became so did the game, leading us to today. Like a shift from owning a CD to DLC. The next step in game evolution. I think so. Transparency in that a company needs revenue to keep servers going. Are micro transactions the way or a subscription service way of playing. For basically what online games create is like what we’ve seen in the past with Ubisoft quotes. We do not own the games. So will the move from CD to online be based on Subscription. First two or three months at 9.99 then down to 3.99 for the remaining time until cancellation. You could even buy a subscription service to games like PSN does. The bigger the upfront cost the less you pay if paying each month. Would that give better quality games and servers, and remove all the extra little cost for skins or other DLCs. Could make devs lives better to because they don’t have to keep thinking of new things to add. What’s the next step. We’ve moved from Floppy Disk to Tapes, Cartridge, CD to more internet based games. For me the writing is on the wall, so I feel their must be better rules and legislation to protect customers and help the online gaming industry grow if that’s the future of gaming. Where do you feel the next big step in game development or evolution will come?. ✌
Driver that right they were similar. Wasn’t Driver set in San Francisco. I do remember it yet I had more fun playing with The Gateaway and the Die Hard game. So funny the Ai were like Roblox characters. So bad yet well funny for a kid to have fun with. If you still own it have you got the PS2 console, get back on it and try completing it if you do I might have a go with Black Monday. Been years since playing tho with one scene I remember being in some art gallery where I had to get some woman boss I think. It quite a long game actually. Get in, eJay offered budding DJs some club days vibes. Like HedKandi CD release did with that world club sound going on. Pacha, Ministry of Sound, Gate Crasher. From Chilled House to Dub and Trance. Made a few mix tapes in my time playing that game. Had it hooked up to my HiFi so I could record the music I’d made. ✌
Yep, I still have my fully functioning PS2 with quite a lot of games (20+), The Getaway and 2 8MB memory cards. I sometimes fire it up to play the Timesplitters series of games (2 was best) and I actually bought a multi-tap adaptor when I was at uni so that my flatmates could join in. I'm not sure where driver was set but my copy was in French as it was bought for me whilst my family were on holiday. I had driver 2 also and I seem to remember part of that being set in cuba. There was a Driver: San Francisco game for the PS3 though. I can't actually remember playing eJay. I may have abandoned it because it might have been too complex for my autistic brain to handle.
Well in, a true games fan always keeps their old systems. I still have three PS3’s but they seemed to pack in at once. Not to recent either. You have quite a bit still tho with 20 plus games. I moved around a lot in my time so lost a few things over the years. I kinda remember Time Splitters yet I’d prefer playing the NfS especially when the Underground Series game out. “Riders in the Storm” Another great game soundtrack. For the first Driver location you might be right, not sure myself but I do remember the game Taxi Driver. And then you had the film Taxi Driver with the white 407 Pug tuned to death. (That was all French). Well not sure how that should stop you as I’m somewhat on the spectrum or the last thing that’s been mentioned is neurodivergence. Ie I don’t think like most or do what most consider normal. I like complicated things or being creative you see. Thinking non stop, it’s like thinking relaxes me. Games like EJay clubbing, Sim City, doing cars up on NFS then Grid when that came out. Loved that game when it first came out. By Code Masters I think who did the TOCA racing games on PS. It’s all creative stuff to relax too and why I’ve moved on to TSW to focus primarily on liveries than driving. ✌
