I'll bet nowadys many gamers here has touch/played more than 1 consoles or handhelds. Why not list down here what's your past experience, the current one and the future console you gonna get

I'll start with mine first

I started gaming around the age of 9 or less... during the Nintendo handheld & Atari era...
Gameboy was unheard of during that time. The first handheld I have is the Nintendo handheld called Manhole bought from Singapore... dunno how much as it's a gift from my uncle. You are basically controlling a guy under a 2 layer bridge with 4 manholes holes at each corner, and you'll have to cover the manhole for ppl to walk past... I can spend hours playing that simple yet addictive game.

The bottom right is teh one
Then we would swap the handheld with friends or classmates to play... we had games like DonkeyKong Jr, where mario played the bad guys who has the key to DonkeyKong's cage, Snoopy, Oil Panic & many many more...

Then came the Atari, where you start to play the game on TV, then we spend even more time on games... glued to the Space Invader, trying to beat your friend for high scores and forgot about dinner, untill Mom's rotan come and invite us to the dinner table... I don't have the Atari, but my much elder cousin is kind enough to borrow me during the school break.

Then the 8-bit Nintendo console era... spent countless hours at my fren's house playing Contra & Mario. I got my first Nintendo console as my X-mas gift after UPSR... first game was Fist of the North Star, and boy that was a really tough game especially the maze, and you'll have to remember all the correct doors for each levels. But I think I've finish the game hundred times...
Also there are Little Genius or Famicom... played countless games and spend proabally thousands of gaming hours My very first RPG was FF3.

Then came the 16-bit era, the heated console war era... Sega's Megadrive Vs Super Nintendo. My bro bought a megadrive, and the bundled game was ESWAT, also a nice shoot-em-up game. Finish countless times... Most of my other frens all bought the SNES together with the Super UFO. I think that's the time where ppl starts to depreciate the games, bcos you'll have sooo many choice of games to choose from, and it's cheap!! You just need to pay a few ringgit and ask the game shop to copy the game into diskette, kinda like the current situation, RM10 for 3 games... :sweats:
And not to forgetting playing street fighter 2 until having a sorethumbs

Then came the 64-bit era... Sony started to join the console war from here, I have stop catching up with the console trend, but "defect" to PC, where I found it more interesting and more things to play around with. OS, programming, hardware, upgrade & etc...
My best fren he still playing catch-up with the consoles until now... that time he also bought the Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 & Sony PS1. I'll just drop by his house for gaming.. Finish all of the Sonic, Zelda & FF series there

Then the Sony PS2 Vs Sega Dreamcast Vs Nintendo Gamecube Vs the new player M$ Xbox. Again my best fren got all 4 of it (he's a rich fella)... So I didn't missed out any of the great games
Got myself a PS2 three years back... still kicking & alive until now except already spoilt a few controllers lar. Now hardly play PC games anymore... "defect" back to console liaw... bcos now is kinda hard to play catch-up with the PC hardware spec, especially the GC... cost a bomb! and I can buy a shining brand new console with a high-end GC. Now thinking of getting an old Xbox to use as media center.

The the future next gen consoles: PS3 vs Wii vs Xbox360.
My target is locked on the Wii. Don't think I'll get PS3 or 360. Why? as a long time gamer... I'll prefer more on a good gameplay... rather than the same old formula again. For me... PS3 & 360 there's not much differences compared to the consoles b4 them... except more powerful processor & better nicer graphic. They are just repeating what was done previously in the console history, like NES => SNES => Gamecube... just added better processor & nicer graphics... gameplay more or less is still the same, except it's more complex. And the control is getting harder & more buttons to press... and sometimes you'll get frustrated bcos you pressed the wrong button and caused a game over...
For me, Wii is a new innovation in gameplay... back to the root of simplicity, where they emphasis more on the gaming experience... where your grandpa grandma also can play... now that's really Family Entertainment.
So I'll be getting a Wii and a NDSL

Btw... I'm not a Nintendo or M$ or Sony fanboy... I'm just choosing which console which suit my taste & preference.

This post has been edited by greyshadow: May 13 2006, 11:50 AM

heheh.. I got the same game age as stringfellow.... gaming for 22 years liaw... but not as loaded as him
Me also stepping into 30 this year..