RetroGaming

Only rich kids had a Neo Geo or Turbo Grfx-16.

We were far from rich.

Kids growing up today will never know the pure awe of going in a Blockbuster Video and playing Mario64 on a Nintendo 64 store demo for the first time. It was absolutely amazing.

I'm an older millennial and I've played a lot of cool games. Nothing comes close to that, though.

Definitely PS2. My cousin had God of War and I was insanely jealous. I remember thinking that it looked just like real life. Funny to see it now and compare it to the PS5 games.

As laughable as it sounds, the Sega 32X. I was a Genesis kid and one birthday my parents bought me Star Wars Arcade not understanding that it required the 32X to play. I kept telling them that the game wouldn't work without it (even showing them that it wouldn't fit in the regular Genesis slot) and they kept insisting that I must be doing something wrong or that I could just cut the corners off the cartridge to make it fit. So I wanted the 32X to play Star Wars, as well as this strange Knuckles game I kept hearing about (which I know is Knuckles' Chaotix). Never ended up getting one. Got an N64 soon after, much better decision.

I had a Commodore 64 and really really wanted an Amiga. Saw all the games for the Amiga and Atari ST in magazines and wept. It wasn't really available in my country so I didn't know anyone with one but even if it was available we wouldn't have been able to afford it.

I was in the UK last month and went to the computer history museum in Cambridge. They have working versions of every single computer and console ever and you can play with them.

It was great nostalgia to use a ZX Spectrum, my trusty VIC-20 and C64 again. But there it was... An Amiga 500. I played a bit and the graphics and sounds still blew me away now in 2023 as a late 40s middle aged man. It was everything I dreamed it would be.

100% recommend.

PS2 in the early 2000s. I thought the graphics were something else. Up until 2005-2006-ish all I had was a bootleg NES clone with a shoebox full of unlicensed cartridges. I grew up with 80s games in the 21st century.

I finally got my hands one one off the flea market for 30$. Some modding later and it plays like a charm!

The Sega CDX. I had a Genesis, I had a Sega CD, but the thought of having both of those systems combined into one compact unit that also could be used as a discman (a really bad one, even I knew that at the time) was so appealing to me. There was one at the local game store for some absurd price ($350 I think) for literally years, and I would salivate over it every time I went in the store.

Ultimately I never got one, but at least I didn't miss out on any games or anything.

The Steel Battalion sim controller setup for the original Xbox.

Dreamcast and both PSP and PSVita. I was a Sonic fan, and in the case of Sony's portables, they were mini powerhouses.

When I was young I wanted one of these handheld pc's. I always thought it would be fun to play pc games on the go. Now I've got my steam deck and I really wish I could have had that then.

ColecoVision with their perfect-looking Donkey Kong, and later Neo-Geo with the same graphics on the very expensive home console as the arcade games.

The SAM Coupé. I'm not entirely sure why, I think the SAM demo drew me in.

Not necessarily a game console but I really, really wanted an OQO sooooo bad in the early 2000s

PSP. I remember seeing, playing and enjoying games (particularly LittleBigPlanet and Burnout Dominator) on my then-friends' consoles multiple times in a few years, before finally getting my own in 2015.

Showing my age here, but my Sega Genesis "did what Nintendont" - and so I played Super Nintendo at store kiosks every chance I got.

Many years later I bought a used SNES and some games, and it was a very good day.

We were pretty poor growing up, so whatever systems I had needed to also have bargain bin games or I wouldn't be able to get them. I had a small allowance so a 10 or 20 dollar game was attainable with a little planning.

As a kid, I only had a Sega Genesis and Game Boy Color until I was a teenager. Skipped the 5th generation entirely, but I'd play friends and family's Playstations and N64s any chance I could.

Years later I got a PS2 for Christmas, and some of the first games I got were bargain bin PS1 games. By that time, 20 bucks could get me Spyro the Dragon, Syphon Filter, FF7, Medievil, or whatever weird unknown quantity had the right price tag on it. Some of them were even great games I still have (S/O to Nuclear Strike and The Phantom Menace)

I really wanted a Vectrex as a kid. Having an all in one system and not having to fight to use the tv like we did with our Atari 2600 was a dream. The arcade quality vector graphics were so rad. I spent hours looking at it in the sears catalog, dreaming about playing it. I asked Santa for it but he didn’t deliver.

I remember seeing Stunt Car Racer and Shadow of the Beast running on an Amiga for the first time, and being absolutely blown away. They were so far above anything my trusty Speccy could do, it was almost funny.

Of course, both these games would eventually come to the Spectrum (with varying degrees of success) but to say that it wasn't really the same would be a grotesque understatement.

My family wasn't rich, but when I was a kid we had an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64 at home. When I started high school, I got an Amiga for my birthday. My mom became a huge gamer, so she tried to keep up with the times. She got an NES and then a SegaGenesis. I really wanted the Mortal Kombat games but mom said no. I had to play them at a friend's house. I was obsessed with Mortal Kombat. Anyway, I felt like I was lucky. Whatever games we didn't have at home I could play at friends' houses or at the arcade. The Dream Machine was easy to get to after school. Back then, the Dream Machine arcade often had better games with better graphics and sounds than a home console and if I couldn't have a game at home, the Dream Machine had it available for me to play. Quarters were precious treasures to hold onto and then spend at the arcade!