My 90's Gaming Console Highlights
Can it be? I’m alive? I’m writing another post for my blog?
Haha, yea it’s been quite some time since the first ALF write up that I did.
Come to think of it, I believe it’s been over a year. I do apologize to those
of you who wanted more Audio-Alpha, life just got messy. I’ve spent a long time
putting my life back together and, well here I am sitting on my couch writing
up a post that I’ve had brewing in my head for the past month.
Ah, the
90’s. The 90’s were full of so many great things like great music, amazing
cartoons, amazing tv shows, bowl cuts, rad fashion, styles and clothes. To this
day, who doesn’t secretly want to tie their jacket around their waist as they
whiz down the street on a skateboard while carrying their pogs around in a
fanny pack? Most notably, for me anyhow, the 90’s was one of the, if not THE,
greatest decades in home gaming console history. Let’s take a look at some of
the highlights. Well, let’s take a look at some of MY highlights.
I’m going to omit the handhelds, but I have
something brewing in my head for the “Greatest 90’s Handheld Gaming Systems of
My Childhood” that you will most likely see at a later date. My focus is the
nitty gritty, sitting in front of the TV, controller in hand, Doritos and Surge
fueled home gaming.
Sega Genesis
Technically the Sega Genesis made its debut in the US in 1989; however it wasn’t released in Europe until 1990. I think that all of us would agree that the Sega Genesis is a 90’s console. This is the system that gave us our beloved, “Sonic The Hedgehog”. I believe the first game was released in 1991. Anyhow, I’m including this in my highlights because the Sega Genesis is a console that was enjoyed by an unfathomable amount of people around the world for many years in the early 90’s. I grew up on the Genesis. In fact, my earliest memories of gaming are on the Sega Genesis. I played Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic and Knuckles locked on Sonic 2 and 3 more times than you or I have taken a breath. I remember my older brother and I hooking the Sega up to our VCR and recording ourselves beating the games! When we ran out of blank VHS tapes, my brother showed me how to record over VHS tapes that we shouldn’t have recorded over. There is probably a, “Beauty And The Beast” or a, “Land Before Time” VHS floating around a Goodwill somewhere that is actually nothing but Sonic 3 gaming haha. That good memory beats the bad memory of him making me sit on the cold basement floor and lose in Mortal Kombat 2 while he practiced moves and fatalities. If I won a match he literally kicked my ass! Oh oh, I have to include a great memory of my sister Molly and I playing, “Toejam and Earl in Panic on Funkotron” together one summer. I think my brother had borrowed it from a friend down the street. Oh, I’ll never forget playing Beavis and Butt head for the first time on Sega Channel HAHA. Anyways, let’s move on!
Super Nintendo
I don’t
recall having a Super Nintendo in our home when I was really young. It’s
probably because it was released a full TWO years after the Genesis. Back then
you either had the Sega Genesis or the Super Nintendo, that’s just kind of the way
it was. However, I’m including it in my highlights because we eventually did
get one and there are a few games for the SNES that were a big part of my
childhood. I wanted to mention them. Some of my greatest gaming memories, as a
kid, with the Super Nintendo have to be of Earthworm Jim 1 and 2, Super Mario
Kart, Street Fighter, Ultimate MK 3, and Super Mario All Stars. However, THE
greatest SNES gaming memory for me has to be of Super Mario RPG. I can’t even
begin to tell you how much I loved that game. Notice that I didn’t include, “Zelda:
A Link To The Past”? Sadly, I didn’t get to experience this game as a child. Don’t
worry, I did just recently beat the entire game and absolutely loved it!
Anyhow, moving on!
Nintendo 64
THIS!
That’s really the only word that I need to use to describe how most of us 90’s
gaming enthusiasts feel about the N64. I STILL remember the very moment that I
saw the 64 for the first time. I was a little kid playing the Genesis in our
basement and my older brother’s friend came over. He wanted to show it to my
brother, so I had to stop what I was doing and turn off Sonic 2. Or was it
Altered Beast? Anyways, I had no clue what to expect, but when he turned on, “Super
Mario 64” I literally gasped and staggered backward. It blew my mind. I’m sure many
of you recall that moment when you went from 2D side scrolling to seeing full,
interactive, functional, 3D gaming environments for the first time. There are 3
games for this console that will FOREVER have a place in my heart. Perhaps my
greatest gaming memories of all time have to come from the many, many, many
late night sleep overs with my cousin Billy, and our friends, where we drank
Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and Sunkist and ate Doritos as we played, “007: Golden Eye”,
“Super Smash Brothers” and “Zelda: Ocarina of Time” all night long, for hours
upon hours on end. I do have to mention playing, “Perfect Dark” quite a bit
with my cousin too. A few more painful memories are of, “Donkey Kong 64” and “Earthworm
Jim 3D” haha. Again, moving on!
PlayStation
Ok, so
this is going to be short and I almost didn’t think to add it to my highlights,
but the Sony PlayStation is included in some of my favorite gaming memories of
the 90’s. There is a pretty funny story behind the first PlayStation we had in
our home. My older brother randomly came home and said to me, “I want to show
you something! It’s the PlayStation!” We went into the basement and he hooked
it up, but here is the catch. He said, “It works just fine, but you have to
turn it upside down to get it to play games.” To this day, that’s one of the
weirdest gaming memories I have, period. We had a PlayStation that would only
work if it was turned upside down. He ended up trading it to a friend for a
3DO. That obviously ended up being a mistake. Anyways, the PlayStation is in my
highlights because of the game, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater”. I spent hours playing
that game with my friend Josh. We made it a goal to beat the entire game. I’m
sure we did time and time again. It was one of those games that functioned well
and just kind of blew my mind. I can’t say that not having a PlayStation in our
home, permanently, bothered me, but it does play its small role in my greatest
gaming memories. Moving on!
Sega Dreamcast
The
Sega Dreamcast is actually the entire reason that I started writing this in the
first place. I picked one up not too long ago and was instantly hit with this
overwhelming nostalgic feeling. It sent me on this “gaming blast from the past”
journey in my head. I STILL remember the
Dreamcast commercials on TV and I believe that there was one on display in a
local store in my area that you could play a demo of, “Sonic Adventure” on. I
recall passing by a person as they were playing it when I was really young. The
Dreamcast is one console that I always wanted in the 90’s but I never owned. It
was one of those moments in time where you look at something through a window
wishing you could have it, but are never able to obtain it. I think that the
biggest reason why is because it was here and then it was gone in a flash. I
remember a friend telling me in grade school, “Yea, Sega isn’t going to be
making the Dreamcast anymore…” I remember being so sad and wondering why.
Everything about the system from the graphics, to the aesthetically pleasing
design, to the controllers, and the VMU’s blew me away. I thought it was such a
win for Sega and I KNEW that it was an important piece of gaming history.
Looking back, its’ role was being a necessary sacrifice for the good of the
gaming world.
I first
acquired a Sega Dreamcast in Junior High, I believe. Maybe it was the summer of
6th grade. I traded a Playstation for it. I had begun to collect
gaming consoles and randomly stumbled upon a friend of mine who was eager to
play something aside from the Sonic Adventure games. I happened to have 2
Playstations, so I jumped on the opportunity to make a trade. I think that
maybe I gave him a Crash Bandicoot game along with a demo disc of multiple
games. That was the day that Dreamcast burned itself into my heart and fused
with my soul. The fluidity of the gaming, the controllers, and the graphics
really had an impact on how I viewed gaming from that point on. I recall
comparing the school level in, “Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2” for Dreamcast to the
Playsation version and was in awe at how much better the Dreamcast version looked.
There is graffiti on the wall in a certain area of the level and on Dreamcast
it looks amazing, where on PlayStation is looks “crappy”. I think that it even
held its own graphically in comparison to the PS2 in many ways. Anyways…
It’s
hard to really gauge and say what it is that I want to say about the Dreamcast.
I just finished playing through both, “Sonic Adventure” and “Sonic Adventure 2”
for the console. At first this whole write up was going to be about that
experience, but when I sat down to write it, everything quickly changed.
Writing this brought back so many great memories, with multiple gaming consoles,
that I felt the desire to comb through and write about my gaming console
highlights from the 90’s. I do plan on dedicating an entire blog entry to Just
the Sonic Adventure games at a later date. It will most likely be a comparison
entry.
To wrap
this up, if you made it this far, just want to say thank you for reading! I
hope you enjoyed reading about my 90’s gaming console highlights. I know I
enjoyed writing it. I’m going to try to keep Audio-Alpha going so stay tuned
for more from me! Have a good day people!
