How would you define yourself as a gamer? Allegiance wise?

[Mr-Paul]

@Jonnas, thanked for LBA and Theme Hospital. They were my absolute favourites as a child.

 

Seems like a lot of you started gaming a lot earlier than me, that or you're all just very old! I didn't get a console of my own until my eighth birthday. Before then I had played PC games and on my cousin's Megadrive (particular memories playing Sonic and the Disney games, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker!)

 

So my own collection started July 1998 with a Turquoise Game Boy Color. I got it with Wario Land II and Conker's Pocket Tales. The next year saw the rise of Pokémon, and I remember getting Gold six months early while on holiday in Florida.

 

My second console was a NINTENDO SIXTY FOOOOOOOOUR My next door neighbour had one, on which we spent hours playing Goldeneye. I received this at Christmas in 1999 and have fond memories of competing with my friends - as well as helping each other when stuck - to see who could complete Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask first. Other friends owned Playstations, where I enjoyed the likes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro.

 

Next up was the Clear Blue Game Boy Advance. I bought it on holiday in France as there was a more favourable exchange rate back then, and in the days before console with rechargeable batteries there were no worries about the plugs! The GBA was where I experienced A Link to the Past for the first time.

 

The Gamecube was the first console I got at launch. My mum bought it for me and my brother for our birthdays. This is the era in which I really started buying games for myself, thanks to my paper round and lack of any other outgoings! Brilliant console. Towards the end of the generation I was tempted to pick up a PS2 or Xbox due to the more sparse release schedule, but I never got round to it as I'm tight with my money

 

I also got a NES Classic Game Boy Advance SP in 2003. Beautiful little console.

 

Sometime in this generation my mum discovered eBay and went on a retro spree and bought a NES with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros; a SNES with Super Mario World and the Super Scope; and an original Game Boy with Tetris.

 

Then came the DS. I bought the original model at launch, never replaced it with a Lite or DSi/XL. My highlights were Elite Beat Agents, Professor Layton and Advance Wars DS.

 

We then come to the Wii. Another christmas present, my mum bought it at launch from Argos and saved it for the big day. That was an awesome day. Wii Sports with the family, and Twilight Princess. My Wii collection seems to be bigger than that of the Gamecube, although the amount I bought in the last few years of its life declined due to being at uni.

 

In 2008, my brother got an Xbox 360, mainly to play FIFA against his mates. To be honest, not a lot appealed to me enough (as well as being away at uni) to bother buying any games for it, expect for the Batman Arkham series. Love them.

 

In 2011, I got a Aqua Blue 3DS. I bought it around 3 months after its launch, just before they brought out the Ambassador games. This is probably my favourite console of recent memory. So many good games - Fire Emblem Awakening being the stand-out choice.

 

Jump forward to this year. In September I bought a PS3 Super Slim with GTA5, The Last of Us and a Playstation Plus Subscription. Used my brother taking the Xbox away to uni as an excuse, and at £199, it was a bargain. Loving the console and the chance to catch up on many of the games I missed out on on the other consoles this generation.

 

In November I bought a Wii U Premium with New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U. To be honest I haven't played it enough to love it yet, but I do enjoy being able to play off screen and look forward to seeing how its future pans out.

 

PC has always been there alongside the others, although I wouldn't say I'm a massive PC gamer. As mentioned above, I loved the Little Big Adventure series and Theme Hospital. I also spent hours playing Lego Island, Worms World Party, Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Sims (1, 2 and 3!) and the Football Manager series. In the last couple of years, I have welcomed the likes of Steam as well as the Humble Bundles to expand my PC collection. I loved Portal and its sequel, and this year I really enjoyed The Walking Dead.

 

So to conclude, what allegiance am I? I would definitely say I am a Nintendo gamer, but have always had an open mind for everything else, but a lack of time for much else!

[Jonnas]

@Jonnas, thanked for LBA and Theme Hospital. They were my absolute favourites as a child.

 

I actually found my old Theme Hospital CD last year, but my modern PC couldn't run it properly (no music, colours would often load wrong, sometimes the game crashed for no reason, etc.).

 

Thanks to GOG, I rebought it recently for 2 Dollars (1,48€). After exams, I'm definitely spending some time playing that game till the end That, as well as LBA 1&2.

[Mr-Paul]

I actually found my old Theme Hospital CD last year, but my modern PC couldn't run it properly (no music, colours would often load wrong, sometimes the game crashed for no reason, etc.).

 

Thanks to GOG, I rebought it recently for 2 Dollars (1,48€). After exams, I'm definitely spending some time playing that game till the end That, as well as LBA 1&2.

 

I did exactly the same a week ago, re-bought all three! GOG is great.

 

And the humour of Theme Hospital is still as brilliant 15 years on.

[pratty]

Nintendo all the way, ever since the N64, Mario 64 and the two Zelda's hooked me.

 

I wouldn't describe myself as a Nintendo fanboy in the sense that I'd defend everything they ever do, or worship them unconditionally, or trash other companies just for the sake of it. But I have a preference for Nintendo games and subsequently their consoles.

 

I've nothing against gaming on other systems but I just have to play the latest Zelda, Mario and Metroid etc, so I prioritise Nintendo. Ideally I'd like to play everything but realistically I only have the time and money to own one console per generation, so I stick with Nintendo. They're not perfect but I can't say I've ever regretted it, the N64, Gamecube and Wii were all awesome, haven't got round to getting a Wii-U yet but I'm sure I will, it looks fab.

 

Why Nintendo? The games. I really don't think people actually appreciate how good a developer (including their subsidiaries) Nintendo are. Every generation Nintendo knock out scores of highly rated (and diverse) games across two platforms, often bucking the trends and starting new ones, it's rediculous consistency. Who else does that?

[The Peeps]

I've been firmly in the Nintendo camp until the Gamecube. I got an Xbox like half way through the generation or something but was still mostly playing on the Gamecube. I got a Wii on launch and a year or two later I got a 360 and I shifted way more towards the xbox. During this whole time I'd still been more active on the PC but just with one game so I always considered myself still more of a console gamer as that's where I got the most variety.

 

For the current generation I only have a Wii U (and 3DS) but now I play most of my games on the PC. I'll get a PS4 rather than an Xbox One but that won't be until the price comes down. I definitely consider myself a PC gamer now.

[Rummy]

The whole time of gaming, i didn't get a Playstation. I had this feeling that Sony were a "curse on the industry" and didn't want to contribute to that. However, that opinion changed after E3 and in November, when i bought my first Playstation in the PS4. Following soon behind with a PS Vita. Having some good gaming moments already on both machines, and it makes me think why didn't i get a Sony machine earlier in life.

 

Out of interest - what aspect of Sony made you feel they were a curse on the industry? I disliked the company for a number of things I learnt about them, and don't think I've bought many/any brand new products from them due to it.

[Jimbob]

Out of interest - what aspect of Sony made you feel they were a curse on the industry? I disliked the company for a number of things I learnt about them, and don't think I've bought many/any brand new products from them due to it.

 

Just personal opinion really, plus at the time i could never get to grips with Circle, Triangle, Square and X as buttons.

[rizz]

I play pretty much just on PC atm. But I think I will always prefer Nintendo when it comes to consoles, they're the only company that strike me as having personality.

[Hero-of-Time]

I started my gaming hobby with the Commodore 64 and apart from a few obscure consoles, like the 3DO and Jaguar, i've had pretty much all of them at some point in my life.

 

I do have a preference for Nintendo but I don't like the idea of picking a company and sticking with it. There's just far too many quality titles spread out across all platforms. There's also the fact that brand loyalty is a crazy thing.

 

To be fair I never even did this as a kid. We didn't have a lot of cash as a family so anytime I wanted another console I had to sell or trade in my existing one. I often jumped between consoles, sampling the best games each one had to offer.

 

When I was able to support myself with my own income that's when I started to become a multiconsole owner and i've never looked back since.

 

Basically, i'm a gamer who goes where the games I wish to play are.

[Shorty]

I'm just a gamer. My allegiance is to awesome gaming wherever it lives. Sometimes it probably looks like I'm defending Microsoft on these boards, but really I'm just trying to stand up to the Sony fanboy brigade.

 

I grew up with Nintendo (NES), then Sega (Mega Drive), back to Nintendo (N64, GC, Wii), played PC games and the varying Nintendo handhelds all the while, then moved to Xbox 360 during Uni years, supplemented with a PS3/Vita. Just bought a Wii U, and over the course of the next few years, when the games are there for them, I'll probably move to the PS4 and Xbox One. It's pretty much all I spend my money on.

 

The only thing I probably missed during years of "allegiance" of any kind, was a huge era of amazing PS2 games. So many great games passed me by from all over the globe, because I had an N64 and was not particularly interested in upping that to anything else (not that I would've been able to afford having both systems/many games at that age anyway). I'm making up for lost time now though!

 

Commodore64 - Family console, highlights are definitely Ghostbusters and a game I think was called Swag?

 

Ghostbusters on the C64 was the bomb. If I remember rightly, it had Space Invaders during loading (which was pretty great back when loading took 10 mins). That said, I have no idea how you were meant to beat it. I'd be making money, catching ghosts, watching the Gatekeeper and Keymaster get closer to each other on the map, constantly driving past them to see if there was anything you could do about it, until eventually the Marshmallow Man showed up and started flattening buildings.

 

Other C64 highlights for me: Rainbow Islands, Pang, Thundercats, Crack-up (breakout clone), Batman, Bart vs. the Space Mutants.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Shorty

[Hero-of-Time]

Did anyone else play the following game on the C64?

 

 

I have fond memories of this one. It was such a crazy game, what with you beating up gorillas and old grannies.

[flameboy]

Did anyone else play the following game on the C64?

 

 

I have fond memories of this one. It was such a crazy game, what with you beating up gorillas and old grannies.

 

No but I desperately want to now.

[MoogleViper]

Sega Master System

Commodore Amiga

Sega Game Gear

Sony Playstation

Nintendo 64

Nintendo Pocket Gameboy

Sega Dreamcast

Nintendo Gameboy Advance

Nintendo Gamecube

Sony Playstation 2

Nintendo DS

Nintendo Wii

Microsoft Xbox 360

 

So that's 3 Segas, 2 Sonys, 6 Nintendos, 1 Microsoft and 1 Commodore. Although removing handhelds that's 3 Nintendos and 2 Segas.

 

Never really seen the point in any allegiance. Out of those consoles, only 5 were bought at or near release (Dreamcast, GBA, Gamecube, DS[imported], and Wii). The rest were bought well after release. Once you have one, console (especially when most of the games are multi platform) I don't see the point in rushing to buy another until the prices have dropped considerably, and you can get all the exclusives at once.

 

 

Although now I only play on the PC.

[dazzybee]

Spectrum (pretty much every variation) - fave game - chuckie egg

Commodore - little computer people

Atari st - stunt car racing (I THINK that was its name)

Amstrad - rocky horror show

Amiga - syndicate

NES - super mario

Master system - none specifically

Snes - street fighter 2 turbo

Mega drive - sonic

32x - Star Wars trilogy

Mega CD - Snatcher

Jaguar - tempest

 

I'm getting bored now. I've had pretty much everything (including the lynx). And although I've bought everything (bar one and ps4) I'm definitely a Nintendo gamer. I just prefer their games, their controllers, their ethos, creativity. It may change, I don't think I'm blinded by them, they just constantly impress and wow me. Even during the GameCube era, I was getting bored by gaming, felt like maybe I was done with it, then the DS came out and really excited me, then the Wii and I was completely reinvigorated, I love gamers as much now as I ever have done again.