I don't know exact years for all my consoles but vaguely speaking:
- 1991/2: Began with an NES and my dad's old Atari 2600. Mainly played late gen stuff like Mario 3 and Bubble Bobble 2 as the NES gen was nearing the end of its life by the time I jumped on board as a little kid.
- GB was around the same time. My grandpa and dad both had one that I bummed in the early 90's until eventually getting my own brick and later a GBC in the mid 90's.
- 1993(?): Got a SNES for x-mas shortly after launch along w/Super Mario World and Final Fight 2. Still might be my overall favorite console.
- 1996: Got an N64 shortly after launch w/Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. Soon got Goldeneye as a gift which would become probably my biggest surprise hit ever. Probably still my favorite console for local multiplayer.
- 2001: Got a Cube and GBA during their respective launches in 2001. Went searching Wisconsin stores for GBA when vacationing in the Dells and my buddy and I waited in like 3 lines in search for a Cube, which I eventually landed at Walmart along with Lugi's Mansion and Tony Hawk 3. Heh good times..
- 2003 (I think?) My sister oddly enough bought a Dreamcast simply because she was obsessed with Space Channel 5 at the time. We managed to snag one right as Sega was calling it quits in the hardware business and was slashing DC prices to $99 I believe it was. Ended up finding a surprise RPG hit in Grandia 2 on the console and loved Crazy Taxi, Chu Chu Rocket, and Power Stone 2 (which my buddies and I still play on occasion). This was also around the time I was allowed to buy my own gaming stuff and my dad's rigid rule of "one console per generation" (which was naturally going to be Nintendo for me) was null and void as I was starting to make my own money (albeit very little). I think I picked up a Gamegear around this time as well, as I was jumping on the Sega bandwagon just as they were crashing and burning, go figure.
- 2004: Snagged a custom-made gaming PC at my local PC shop primarily to play Everquest 2 and later WoW which a few buddies were super into, but also used it to played the crap out of Starcraft. Also got a DS, which I wasn't crazy about at first, but began to love more and more as the library was filled out with more DS-focued and quality titles.
- 2005: My first Xbox console, which was the original Xbox 360. I knew I wanted to venture out from the Nintendo and Sega camps and try a console that touted horsepower and solid third parties, but wavering between Sony and MS. Couldn't really afford both. I was leaning towards Sony actually until their lame E3 2006 conference. I also was further swayed w/Rare, one of my favorite companies now developing for Xbox, and Gears looked awesome. So I made the leap into the HD gen w/Microsoft and actually haven't looked back.
- 2006: Waited in line w/my cousin at Best Buy to pick up a Wii. That was a memorable weekend hanging out and having our minds blown by Wii Tennis for the first time and yucking it up making Mii's of all our friends and family. Great times there..
- 2008: Upgraded my old 360 to the more slick black version w/more HDD space and better hardware (if this counts).
- 2013: Picked up a Wii U, but ended up selling it back to put towards a Switch a few years later. Wasn't crazy about it, though I did enjoy Mario maker and had some good times with family and friends playing some Nintendoland stuff.. My least favorite Nintendo console.
- 2013: Found a Cyber Monday deal on a new gaming PC, though it's getting dated pretty quickly, it's roughly mid Xbox One level in terms of power. These days I mostly just play steam indie titles for the purpose of reviews, but it was cool playing Far Cry 3 for the first time in all it's crisp 1080p glory. At the time I had been confined to 720p on consoles.
- 2015: Got a deal on an Xbox One w/digital copies of the Halo games along with a couple other games for like $350 I want to say? Too lazy to look it up. Also picked up a 3DS, which I eventually sold back. Wasn't really for me.
- 2017: Me and my buddy went hunting for a Switch before midnight on launch, which we eventually scored at our local 24/7 Walmart. Snagged Zelda and played the crap out of that. Now it's sort of become my Nintendo+Indie machine, as I have a ton of indies I snag mainly for reviews. Love the portability/table top mode and usually kick back with the console outside or when I'm on the go.
That's about it I think, at least in terms of the major gaming purchases. I'm probably going to take a long break from new hardware as I'm pretty set for quite awhile and my finances aren't in amazing shape.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident - all men and women created by the, go-you know.. you know the thing!" - Joe Biden
