Systems I currently own. I suppose now that I think about it, the only system I owned in the past and no longer have is the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and I only had one game for that, so this is essentially a list of every system I have ever owned.
Systems are listed in order of when I first acquired them.
The first system I ever owned. In fact, I'm fairly certain it was the first video game system I ever played, back when it belonged to my older cousin. I used to love going to their house to be able to play Sonic 3 and I guess I did enough pleading over the years or something that I ended up getting it as a hand-me-down for my seventh birthday (March 97), along with Sonic 3 (classic), Taz-Mania (shit), and a new copy of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (a reskinned version of a Puyo Puyo). I still own the system and the games to this day, though I don't think it works anymore. I also have the redesigned, second Genesis, but the lack the proper AV cable, and a Genesis 3, the super tiny third redesign of the system. The Genesis 3 system I'm technically borrowing from a friend, but who knows if or when he'll ever want it back.
My father has always been an unabashed treasure hunter. And by that I mean, he loves to go to antique shops, search for yard sales, wander through thrift stores, or even take something that someone else has put out with their garbage. While this personality trait of his has often wasted quite a bit of time with little to show for it, never has it ever yielded something as awesome (to me) as the day when he came home from work (sometime in 97) with a fully functional front-loading NES that someone had put out with their trash. It had all necessary cables, along with two controllers, a copy of Blades of Steel, and the 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet cartridge. Amazing. Soon after, I was able to acquire a zapper to play Duck Hunt, but to this day have never been able to play World Class Track Meet due to my lack of a Power Pad. I'm not that broken up about it.
The first video game system that I got within its generation. That is to say, the first one that I got from a store, while games were still being made for it, rather than as a hand-me-down from a relative, or on the side of the road (see NES desc.) I had wanted one and had been begging my dad for so long that he finally got me one, along with Mario Kart 64 and Wave Race 64 (two racing games, I am dumb). I wasn't old enough to recognize that my dad really didn't have much money back then, so he probably had to do a bit of saving to be able to buy it for me and I wasn't really able to appreciate that at the time. Sure, I was plenty grateful, but I probably could've been a little more so.
My first portable system, a dark green Gameboy Pocket purchased to play (what else?) Pokemon Blue Version back in 98. I wish I could remember what time of year it was. Understandably, I didn't follow games back when I was a little kid. I didn't track the release of Pokemon, I just eventually became aware of its existence and knew that I could not go on living without it.
You know what? I can't rightly remember when or why I got a Gameboy Color. I know it was more around the time all the crazy colors were released, because I got stuck with a lime green one. The reason this system aquisition sticks in my mind as odd is because it's the only one I can remember that happened without occasion. It wasn't Christmas, it wasn't my birthday, I didn't even get any games for it. I just got it to play my Pokemon Red and Blue games in color. Go figure.
Got this for Christmas, 2000. I basically only wanted it because I was way into Sonic as a kid, so of course I absolutely NEEDED to play Sonic Adventure. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of choosing a second Sonic game (Sonic Shuffle) to go along with Adventure as the only two games I would have for the system for the next three months. Sure, I liked Sonic, but man, that shit got old. Then my birthday came and I got Power Stone and Crazy Taxi (Jubilation!)
I somehow suffered through the first 2 years of the PS2s existence without one to call my own. Got it on Christmas day 2002. It was some kind of aftermarket bundle with a second controller and GT3 and some NCAA/Gameday/whatever game packed in. Unfortunately, I somehow couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that you were supposed to hit the brake in GT3, so I hated it and quickly got rid of it.
Now this is a weird one. I have a "PSone." That's the small, white redesign of the Playstation with a small travel screen that was released after the PS2 to help continue sales for the fading console. The reason I say it was weird was because my sister asked for it for the same Christmas that I got a PS2. Obviously, I tried to explain to her that that was stupid since PS2s play PS1 games, but she would have none of it, insisting that she wanted a system of her own to play Spyro on, Which was probably fair enough cause I was an asshole brother who was probably a total dick to her about using my systems, but on the other hand, she really didn't play video games, so the system ended up being mine, more or less. Though she did play a pretty impressive amount of the Spyro trilogy collection on that thing.
Got this around Christmas 2003, with the bonus Zelda Collection disc, which was super awesome. You know, the Gamecube gets a bit of a harsh rap sometimes. There were a lot of bad ports, but it had a whole bunch of great exclusives.
I have the GBA SP with the retro NES coloring. I don't remember when I bought it, but I would assume it was whenever that NES-styled SP was released. EDIT: Actually I just remembered today that before I had a GBA SP, I had the GBA Player addon for the Gamecube. I got it sometime in 2004 along with the Link to the Past / Four Swords cart.
This is probably the most impulsive console purchase I've made. up until Fall 2004, I fuckin' hated the Xbox. Well, not hated, but I just thought it was stupid. Basically an asshole friend of mine who owned an Xbox sort of unintentionally ensured that I had a miserable first experience with the original Halo, so I just couldn't really understand why anyone would own an Xbox over a PS2. Then all of a sudden, near the release of Halo 2, I just kind of... wanted one. Like, for no reason. Just one day I just sort of woke up and was like "I want an Xbox." Maybe it was the furor created around the Halo 2 release. In fact, that's almost assuredly what it was. So I saved up some cash over the following month and picked up a system along with Halo: CE and Top Spin.
The first system I ever bought on launch day. I only own a few games for it, I don't usually find much interest. Really, the only reason I don't regret buying this is because I'm able to hack it to run homebrew apps and emulate old consoles.
The first DS I got was the white Lite system the summer after the Lite was released. Then my Lite was stolen two weeks before the DSi was released, so I bought a black DSi. I like the sleeker design, and I hope that one day some valuable DSiware games come out, but mostly I miss the GBA port. I actually used that. The screens on GBA SPs are shitty and I wish I could still play them on my DS.
The first home console I've ever bought on launch day (or in fact, within the first year of its release). I have no reservations in saying that hanging out all night with the people waiting in line with me was way more fun than the system itself has ever been. I did think it was funny though, how everyone laughed and thought I was crazy for having waited outside a Target for 18 hours to get a Wii, then I got to sit back and watch as people struggled to find a single one for the next 5 months. Hilarious.
I'm not totally sure on the details, but apparently my Great Grandfather sort of went through his life saving all his money and then kind of got to the end of it and realized he had all this money and nothing to do with it, so he started handing out $1000 checks to his family members. His great generosity is what allowed me to purchase a 360 in the Summer of 07, rather than whenever I would've gotten around to saving up enough for one, which I would assume would have been Summer 08. At that point in my life, my lack of a 360 was slowly killing me every day, so I'm not even sure if I would've been able to live to see Summer 08.
Bought this in March of 09 with a combination of savings and birthday money. I payed about $100-$150 extra to get a sealed MGS4 bundle with backwards compatibility. I don't regret it, I've used the BC a ton. I couldn't imagine having a PS3 without it.
