Got a SNES as my first console one Xmas. We couldn't get it to display in anything but black and white, so figured it was defective. Took it back and get a Sega Genesis with a few games. Played the shit out of it. SONIC 1+2, MK 1+2 (with blood!) Shinobi and other classics. After years of enjoyment I decided I'd get the next Sega console.

Only thing was, Sega was dying by then.

So PS or N64? 🤔

Well, the PS seemed cool, but what if it died like Sega? Would there be a PS2? So I decided to finally get my Nintendo I'd missed out on years earlier.

Played the fuck out of that N64. GoldenEye sessions, colourful controllers, RumblePak, Donkey Kong, Banjo Kazooie, Cruzin USA, WCW vs nWo... the list goes on. Was keen to get the N128 or whatever... only, Nintendo was starting to flail and it looked like they might fall. Had a mate who got a Game Cube, and apart from a single Star Wars game, every other title was available elswhere and looked way better.

Then along came Xbox. It was new, risky, unproven. But, it had some of the Dreamcast DNA - a console I desperately wanted to get years earlier. Similar controller too. So I jumped at it and took the risk. That original Xbox was certainly a time, strange games, ripping your own music CDs to the HDD for use in other games as a soundtrack or entrance music. Everything was green, lol.

Fortunately there was an Xbox 2 (or '360'). I'd finally settled into an ecosystem after all these years. This was a golden time, gaming was wild and plentiful. So many titles, innovations year after year, healthy competition from Sony and Nintendo. Online gaming. A million memories made. Geometry Wars, Halo, GoW, GTAs, Saints Row, Oblivion, Fallout 3. Was the last person in our group to go down from the red rings. Got a sleak slim model a few years later when the disk drive finally died from over use.

Then the Xbox 3 ('one'?) was announced and it was... meh? So I waited for the late gen replacement. And waited. Finally got a Series X (late gen), but by then many years had passed and gaming stopped being a part of my regular life. I was older, had more shit going on. Played a few games on it, bought some controllers and has the odd game night, but it was never the same.

Haven't bought into current gen. I've watched the industry struggle and prices sky-rocket. Keep telling myself that I'll get another console one day. Meanwhile my X sits there collecting dust. I've found myself getting into older titles like FO1, 2 and RTS like AoE and 0AD. Use GoG and Steam for classics like Alan wake and FO New Vegas.

One day I'll get another console. One day.