Poll: The first console wars

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

When I was a kid I was straining
At the leash for a console for gaming
"A Nintendo, or Sega, anything!" I said
My fantastic old man bought a PC instead.

 

[Arcadian Legend]

I had both and played them to death. I always thought console wars a very dumb thing, and I still think that today. I was the odd one out of my friends because they were only loyal to one system or the other, they all went multiplatform though when the next generation came around.

 

[Mr. Happy Face]

I once had an SNES.
I though it was really the best.
No Sega for me.
I like RPGs.
And Genesis really had less!

But my schoolmates all had their retorts
"The Genesis has better sports!
The buttons are fewer
And the graphics look newer
On all of the similar ports!"

But I didn't quite care much at all
For a game where you're chasing a ball
Thus sports games for me
Just weren't my cup of tea.
So that argument meant fuck all.

And as for the buttons, oh please!
That logic, to me, stunk like cheese.
Say you're playing a fighter,
And the buttons are lighter.
Do you think that makes playing a breeze?

Not really, I found out one day
When I want to a friend's house to play.
Loaded Street Fighter 2
And the controls were poo.
"This controller sucks!," I did say.

No invites would come after that.
Seems calling the Genesis scat
Would bring one no fame.
And would get one called lame.
So no friends...but I still had my cat.

But the SNES, I still had.
And I just never found it so bad.
I played what I love
And heavens above!
I never did find myself sad.

That console still sits on my shelf.
The lessons it taught me were wealth.
You can have lots of fun
Even if it's just one.
Yes...it taught me to play with myself!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

For the most part I grew up with Nintendo Consoles. Dad had an NES up until I was about 6 then I eventually got his SNES because I was an inconsolable divorce kid. My Step-Dad had a Genesis though so I eventually got to experience both. I couldn't use the Genesis as often as the SNES and I didn't really get games for it either. I think I only had up to 4 games (which were all eventually sold off) but I was a kid then and couldn't really do anything about it.

What's the Genesis platformer where you're this punk kid in a leather jacket? You break blocks with your head and use the power-ups to transform into a knight and other such things? That was one of the games I had as a kid but I can't remember the name.

 

[loc978]

I uh... had an SNES first, but then bought a Genesis for its exclusive RPGs (Phantasy Star IV is still worth a system all to itself, I say). In the early war, I'd say I definitely sided with Nintendo if only for the sheer stupidity of Sega's marketing ("Blast Processing!" "Sonic's so FAST!"). As far as I remember, there was no "war" before those two. The NES supplanted the 2600 and... that... other... console... whose name escapes me... the one that died horribly after a short stint of popularity... basically unopposed by the minor blip that was the Master System.

In the end, though, both systems of the 16-bit era were great... and so was my 386. Master race vote it is, apparently.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I had a NES first but it was so totally shit that i went back to playing my Commodore 64 until i got a Megadrive.

Nintendo games have always seemed to target 8 year olds and even when i was 8 that wasn't good enough.

 

[Rack]

Neither, I'm from the UK where it was all about Commodore vs Spectrum, and I ended up with the Amstrad.

It was awful, the games were cheap but in general they were terrible.

 

[Rellik San]

Neither, I'm from the UK where it was all about Commodore vs Spectrum, and I ended up with the Amstrad.

It was awful, the games were cheap but in general they were terrible.

I always considered it to be Spectrum vs BBC Micro.

I had a Spectrum, I wish I had a Micro so I could play Elite.

 

[Miyenne]

I started with a Nintendo. The hours spent playing Duck Hunt, and there was this exercise game with a mat where you'd run and jump and such, it was actually kinda cool.

Then SNES and all the JRPGs when I was like 8 years old. I didn't always understand what I was doing, but my mom played them a lot too, I still have many of the old classic games on the shelf with all my newer console games.

I'd kinda wanted a Sega as I'd see in the magazines all these cool games I never got to try, but all my mom ever bought us was Nintendos, and then when PS1 came out my sister, mom and I split the cost. I remember it being stupidly expensive, too.

But I still have my old Nintendo and SNES. The Nintendo's in a box in the garage (I think, or the spare bedroom closet) with all the games, and my SNES is in the cupboard with my Wii, N64, Xbox and PS2, all ready to be set up.

I still play Secret of Mana and a few other games every few years, so I guess I still am a Nintendo fan girl. That and the old Breath of Fire games (I and II) but I only have them now in their Gameboy versions, but that's what my N64 with it's Gameboy player is for.

So I guess Nintendo all the way.

 

[Schadrach]

I had an Atari 2600 back in the day, then a 7800 when the 2600 broke down, then a NES, Game Boy, and SNES. I got the GameBoy when I was in the hospital over my birthday in '92. First game I played on it was Final Fantasy Legend II.

 

[___________________]

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
No, they're violet,
So fuck you.

SEGA! Although, I did play Nintendo a lot at my mate's place.

 

[tahrey]

There was a young man from Britain
By the computer bug he soon was bitten
He said to his mammi
"Buy me an Atari"
And now his earphones are just full of tunes chippin'

Two brothers from deep in the Midland
Wished for something to poke with their hand
Come Christmas one year
They let out a cheer
"Santa's brought us a Gamegear, how grand!"

Yeah they suck, but you try doing it, it's bloody difficult.

Anyway, we didn't even really know what a Nintendo WAS until our friends - and one of our uncles, oddly - started getting SNESes. And then only the richer ones - the Master System and Genesis (and 16 bit home computers) were more common. The Famicom didn't really take off much in the UK.

As the homegrown computer industry was fizzling, our first machine was instead an ST shared by the family, and then the next year a handheld Sega to share. The Gameboy was a vaguely known element, but when neither of them actually ran THAT long on a set of batteries, and we already had a NiCad charger, what 9-year-old can be bothered with Tetris and Super Mario World on a blurry dark-aqua-and-olive screen when the full colour world of Columns and Sonic awaits? We never had a ZX81, we hadn't learned to tolerate monochrome gaming and to make the best interpretation of what the screen was trying to show; the ST's graphics were instead quite comparable to the GG/SMS, albeit higher resolution. Given how much these things cost, why should we settle for less?

 

[Mr. Happy Face]

Ok, that's EIGHT frigging limericks. And it took me 45 minutes to write them all. I know they aren't that great, but I at least tried to make them funny.

So where are my damned internets?

 

[Fimbulvetr3822]

I once had an SNES.
I though it was really the best.
No Sega for me.
I like RPGs.
And Genesis really had less!

But my schoolmates all had their retorts
"The Genesis has better sports!
The buttons are fewer
And the graphics look newer
On all of the similar ports!"

But I didn't quite care much at all
For a game where you're chasing a ball
Thus sports games for me
Just weren't my cup of tea.
So that argument meant fuck all.

And as for the buttons, oh please!
That logic, to me, stunk like cheese.
Say you're playing a fighter,
And the buttons are lighter.
Do you think that makes playing a breeze?

Not really, I found out one day
When I want to a friend's house to play.
Loaded Street Fighter 2
And the controls were poo.
"This controller sucks!," I did say.

No invites would come after that.
Seems calling the Genesis scat
Would bring one no fame.
And would get one called lame.
So no friends...but I still had my cat.

But the SNES, I still had.
And I just never found it so bad.
I played what I love
And heavens above!
I never did find myself sad.

That console still sits on my shelf.
The lessons it taught me were wealth.
You can have lots of fun
Even if it's just one.
Yes...it taught me to play with myself!

Someone get this man a medal and a crate of resonably priced regional beer as I believe that he has just won the thread

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I wasn't gaming back in the days of the SNES and Genesis. My first console was a PS1.

That being said, I would probably choose the SNES since it looked like that's where most of the JRPG's were at the time.

Same here (Except my first console was the N64). I too would've picked the SNES, although I currently have a Genesis (Which I hardly play).

 

[rob_simple]

Challenge accepted:
My instinct says go with Nintendo
They had Zelda and Metroid and Mario
The games were all fun, but none of them run
As fast as my favourite blue hero.

In reality, I think I'd have been just as happy with a SNES, but my aunt had a Mega Drive so that was the first console I played and that's what I ended up getting.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I put Nintendo, though that really wasn't in any way the first console war. Even if you don't consider some of the older single game screen mat machines, you'd still have Atari vs Coleco or whatever.

Dont count out Intellivision. That wasn't a bad little system.
I liked them both. Maybe NES a little more because it had a better variety of games but it also had the most shovelware. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[Ratties]

Remember the Genesis coming out with lame commercials to attack the Super Nintendo. Of course they were just bad. Didn't take a genius to figure out that it felt like Sega was desperate. Did feel even worse when they were trying to hype the Sega Cd and 32x. Know I liked the Genesis, even though I didn't own it. Eventually they came out with a ad that bashed Mario Kart. You know that was like final nail in the coffin for sleaziness with Sega.
[http://photobucket.com/images/nintendont]

Nintendon't. Really Sega, Nintendon't. Did you have a 6th grader come up with that?