Video Game Memories (and Price Inflation) thread.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Video games have been around for 30+ years and we all have started somewhere. From the Pong consoles to Atari. So in this thread I examine a couple looks back at some game consoles I played and how much they cost then and what they'd be adjusted for inflation. I'll do 3 to start and later do an update. When I post the console and inflation deal with each one...we stick to that subject on posts. We don't jump to future consoles etc.

You can discuss your memories and games you got for these 3 consoles and we can do it awhile ok. So again , don't start doing anything after it since it will ruin the thread and updates I'll do ok. (Hope that helps).

Anyhow the 1st 3 consoles...




1977 Price : $199.00
2017 Price (adjusted for inflation) : $799.95

The Atari 2600 is an old system I never really played much. I believe my sister and other family played it more than me. Now as a young kid my grandma would play Pac Man for hours with my uncle. Pac Man was her favorite game and they would play it for hours. They had patterns and more they'd run. They were both so good , they could get to the 7th key and beat the game pretty much. I never could do it (i could get to the 2nd or 3rd key) but memories of my grandma playing and loving Pac Man is something I'll never forget.

Price wise for the console , that is insane right. I mean its valued now at nearly $800 bucks. I guess we all start somewhere or an industry does. And Atari did start things.





1985 Price : $299.00
2017 Price (Adjusted inflation) : $676.93

This is where my era began as a video game fan. The classic NES set. I remember getting this one summer as a 9 or 10 year old as my dad came back from work. So me and my sister played this one a lot. Then I really took over playing this. Playing "Super Mario Brothers" was something I'll never ever forget then. I sit up for hours...and hours playing. Like...I HAVE TO SAVE THE PRINCESS DAMN IT !

One of my favorite games I played for hours on the NES was ....Tecmo Super Bowl. The sequel to Tecmo Bowl. The sequel had all the NFL teams and names. So I had Joe Montana and Jerry Rice kicking ass. I became so good , I'd take the worst teams ...like New England Patriots (folks yes , at one time New England sucked lol) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and take em to a Super Bowl. One draw back was Super Tecmo Bowl never could save season by season stats. Due to hardware it only had 1 season you could play each time.

But it was fun nevertheless and it remains one of my favorite consoles. I have over 50+ games for it. Inflation wise , its pretty astounding that the system cost $100 bucks more in 1985 than the Atari , but inflation wise ...is considered almost $130+ bucks cheaper than what Atari was.




1988 Price : $189.00
2017 Price (Inflation) : $371.30

As a young video game fan , I pretty much lived and breathed Nintendo for a number of years. Til 1990 or 1991. Its then I bought a marked down priced Sega Genesis game system. It was unique now having 2 game systems to go back and forth to play each time. I could go from playing Fester's Quest to walking into the other room and playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now I enjoyed me some Sonic folks. It was a fun , fun game. But truth be told ...I never felt it was as great as the Nintendo games. I would end up getting Maximum Carnage (red game n box) for the system and would end up playing that game way , way more than I'd ever play of Sonic. Being Spider-Man and Venom and taking part in that cool storyline from the comics was pretty awesome.

Price wise , it seems its held its own very well. The system is nearly 30 years old and has only increased $180+ bucks since then according to inflation. So its not went up that much. I didn't get much games for the Sega Genesis either.



Anyhow what are your memories of these 3 consoles. What games did ya play and were you satisfied with the price ya paid ?

[ChibaMariners]

Earliest memory of Genesis I was about two years old and my dad was holding me up in Toys R US to play Sonic, and a crowd gathered because I was legit playing it and beat a boss(From what he tells me).

I remember having a bunch of Sonic games(1,2,3,S&K,Spinball, 3-D blast), Quackshot, Moonwalker, Streets of Rage 2and some early EA sports basketball games(My dad played those).

NES was before me and my older cousin would bring that over whenever he came over my house so not too many memories of that other than Paperboy.

[Orujo-man]

Well I didn't have any of this consoles properly said, but the fact it's I played a lot, the NES and especially the Mega Drive (Genesis).

About the NES, my best friend had it, because his cousin from France se la regaló. We usually played Double Dragon, Super Mario and Duck Hunt. It was the first console I played, so I have an especial place it.

And about the Mega Drive my cousin had it so we spent a lot of afternoons played with it. Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Earthworm Jim, MKII...yeah my cousin was a HUGE Sonic fan.

[BaneBreaker]

I never owned an Atari, actually, I've never played an Atari. I still have my NES from when I was a kid. Had to buy a new light gun for it and replace the 72 pin connector but it still works. I had a Genesis too, ended up selling up a few years ago. Bought a new one for Christmas though.

[Carabas]

My first experiences were with coin-op machines, which I have not seen around here in I think about 15 years at least.

I owned an Atari 2600. I remember liking River Raid, Starmaster, Missile Command, Wizard Of Wor, The Empire Strikes Back, Popeye, Berzerk, Phoenix, Vanguard, Asteroids, Centipede, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Spider-Man, Pitfall...

My brother had a NES, and I remember a lot of Mario, Kung Fu, Castlevania, Ninja Turtles...

[Jackmando7]

My first experiences were with coin-op machines, which I have not seen around here in I think about 15 years at least.

Really? I see a bunch of pinball machines still, most cost at least 75 cents per game now (used to be 25 cents max). There is also an arcade near my house with a bunch of old school games. But, that place is pay by the hour rather than pay per play.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I never owned an Atari, actually, I've never played an Atari. I still have my NES from when I was a kid. Had to buy a new light gun for it and replace the 72 pin connector but it still works. I had a Genesis too, ended up selling up a few years ago. Bought a new one for Christmas though.

I haven't tried my classic NES zapper in a long , long time. Its in the garage with some other controllers n all. I bought a Yoblo for $15 bucks at a used game store that would play NES games and actually plays em without blowing in them and the machine lol. I still have my NES in the closet.

My first experiences were with coin-op machines, which I have not seen around here in I think about 15 years at least.

I owned an Atari 2600. I remember liking River Raid, Starmaster, Missile Command, Wizard Of Wor, The Empire Strikes Back, Popeye, Berzerk, Phoenix, Vanguard, Asteroids, Centipede, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Spider-Man, Pitfall...

My brother had a NES, and I remember a lot of Mario, Kung Fu, Castlevania, Ninja Turtles...

I hated the Ninja Turtles. I remember seeing AVGN show what happens at the end of that game. I hated the water level.

I also remember AVGN showing the Atari 5200 and how terrible it was. How the game system was so bad with a broken controller , its no shock it failed. I also was shocked to learn that a Sega Genesis controller fits into an Atari console.

[WillieMorgan]

The first console I ever owned was a Sega Mega Drive (as it was called here in the UK). I got it for Christmas 1990, along with Sonic The Hedgehog, Spider-Man, Mickey Mouse: Castle Of Illusion and Fantasia.

It was actually my mate that bought one first, several months earlier. I have fond memories of us all in his front bedroom, playing Mega Drive games and listening to all the current Heavy Metal albums. The in-package game initially was Altered Beast. It was hardly a classic but graphical effects like the parallax scrolling wowed us. When I got my Mega Drive months later the in-package game was Sonic The Hedgehog. Utter classic and I collected all of the Mega Drive era games (including Sonic CD). I was a platform game fan, especially of the Disney games. I loved Donald Duck: Quackshot, World Of Illusion and Aladdin (that last one was outstanding for the time). Tiny Toon Adventures was another favourite.

I gave up videogames around 5 years ago. In general, even though I've got lots of great memories with them, it's a hobby that I can't believe I spent so much money on down the years. I enjoy watching run-throughs of old games on YouTube.

EDIT - Or was it Christmas 1991? Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. Can't remember properly.

[cc008]

All of my friends on my block either had the Sega genesis or Super Nintendo when I was growing up... while I just had a GameBoy. But I really wanted a home console. I remember my dad game home with a GameBoy and a Street Fighter game. I played the hell out of that and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie game.

Back then, you could rent consoles from Blockbuster too... so my dad took me one day and we rented out a Sega Saturn for a week. I can't remember what games I had with it but I played that thing nonstop. That Christmas, finally got a Super Nintendo. Some things you just never forget.

[Montressor]

My first video game was Wizard of Wor, an arcade cabinet in one of the after school hang outs. Not long after friends and I ran into a Rygar machine--and things were never the same. We'd walk a few miles to the 7/11, pockets bulging with quarters, just to play Rygar. I can still smell the Slurpee machine.

Later got into the fighting games, RPG's, MMO's...currently I play many retro games (including the Fix It Felix game, it feels just like something I would've played as a kid). I'm into loot-hunting games like Diablo 3, old school Everquest, and I love the open world stuff like Skyrim, GTA, and State of Decay.

State of Decay is worth mentioning to any fan of the zombie genre who is also a gamer--it's basically a zombie apocalypse simulator with permadeath and tons of randomly-spawned survivors who, depending on stats, can be a help or hindrance to your camp/community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUIJ-mrRdyQ

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So now were moving into the 2nd Generation of games and systems. 2 of these I owned (yes I am an idiot for the one pictured here...I was a kid ya know) and the 3rd one I saw at a Kay-Bee and my dad talked me outta buying it.





1991 Original Price : $199.00
2017 (Inflation adjusted) price : $355.93

I didn't have much games for this system and it always irked me. But I got the pack in Super Mario World and its a great fun Mario game. 2 games I have very fond memories of playing millions of hours was Legend of Zelda and Wing Commander. Now for folks who never played Wing Commander , my memory of that was asking for Christmas for a Star Trek game for the SNES system and my parents having no clue what type of game to get me.

I wasn't happy when I opened my Christmas gifts and saw it. So for a couple weeks it set...and set.....and set. So finally I opened it and decided to play it. Which stunned me how much fun it really was . I'd play it almost every day and must have beaten it a zillion times. I soon would try and kill as many folks as possible or take out my own team comically. To see how many I could wipe out . But that was fun.

While I don't have many games for the system (I think I have 10 or 12 games fully) I do wish I had bought Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy II for it now looking back. Maybe If time travel happens I can convince my younger self to buy both those games. lol





1993 Original Price : $599-$699
2017 (Inflation Adjusted) price : $1,009.81-$1,178.40

This game system is one I nearly came close to buying. I was in a Kay-Bee toy store in the mall back in late 1993/1994 when I saw this game system. Usually I'd go work and help my dad , who'd give me a pay. I'd earn my money for games , comics etc. So anyhow I saw this one and my dad did a 2nd take when he saw the price . This price tag was the highest for a game system he'd had seen and I had worked and the money as I debated buying it.

My dad being very smart asked me , what games was I really wanting for this system. Was there anything I needed to play so bad. Like each system has a game I so wanna play. For Nintendo systems it was Mario. For Sega it was ...Sonic. But the 3DO as he made me think...didn't have anything worth to play. So I decided to pass on buying that and instead would wait awhile and pay for something I'd regret cheaper later...lol.

Anyhow the CEO of this short lived console company claims the actual price was $599.99 (which still was an insane price folks then) and not the $699.99. But this price for the hardware was too big a leap for lots of consumers to do. By late 1994 the price was cut to $399.99 to sell systems but that couldn't save the 3DO and it was kaput by 1996.




1994 Original Price : $159.99
2017 (Inflation adjusted) price : $262.98

Anyhow did I mention I wasn't really the most wisest game fan then and saw the 32x as being a great deal for me to play Doom on Sega Genesis. I had seen Doom on computer at a friends house and thought ...THIS LOOKS AWESOME. So now its coming out for the Sega. What I received and bought wasn't worth the price. Its likely the worst add-on piece of crap video game wise I ever bought.

Me and friends will tease each other a lot. Which will be the case for the next story in a week or two when I look at those consoles in that generation. But for now folks...here we are. Angry Video Game Nerd would destroy the 32x literally in a video and discuss how the add-on can be found for $10 bucks at flea markets or shops now.

[WillieMorgan]

I didn't actually own any of these systems. I'd invested in a Mega CD add on but wasn't particularly impressed and therefore didn't want to purchase a 32X as well. It flopped totally.

The price of the 3DO system was bloody exorbitant. There was a company placing ads in the backs of UK based videogame magazines at the time (1993/94) offering to set up a credit system with them in order to pay for the thing and get it delivered to your door. Incredibly I was thinking about taking them up on their offer! It was 'Road Rash' that I was most desperate to play, I'd loved both the Mega Drive versions. My parents talked me out of it, citing the ridiculous levels of interest and I dodged a gargantuan bullet. A couple of years later the same version of 'Road Rash' was released on the Sega Saturn and I finally got to experience first hand how mediocre it was. Sorry Trip, you can shove your 600 nicker where the sun doesn't shine!

I'm almost breaking out in a cold sweat now even thinking about being saddled with one of those things.

Never played any SNES games either. I wasn't a Nintendo bloke back then. That came later (and didn't it just!).

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This next generation of systems arrived and it was quite a change for me and a buddy of mine. We had decided to step into the mid/late 1990's a year or two after 2 of these systems launched. And one game hooked us both forever with one company to this day. One however is a comical fun story as well.




1996 Original Price : $199.99
2017 (Inflation) Price : $315.79

This game is one me I bought 99% for the next Mario game. I mean I had bought Super Nintendo and enjoyed what games I got from that system. So why not get a N64 ? I didn't get many games for this system if memory serves. 2 of them I remember best was Mario 64 and that game was pretty awesome. I would play it for hours and hope to discover a way to play as Luigi or more levels.

Another game me and friends would play was Goldeneye. Yep ...Goldeneye folks was a game that you and friends could play for hours and hunt each other down. The multiplayer was the best aspect of the game and its wild that it was added in at the last minute. Because that folks made the game such a fun one !

But by 1997 , I was kinda slowly moving away from games. My friend would play the Zelda games for the system and brag them to me and how I should get the Zelda game for the system. But I'd never do that . I had grown tired of the games and seemed ok moving away.....

Its kinda amazing that the system launched then at such a cheap price compared to these others on the list.




1995 Original Price : $399.99
2017 (Inflation) Price : $631.59


One day my friend called me over and told me he had gotten a pretty cool game system. I walked next door and sit down to watch him play a game. It surprised us it had CDs on games and we both were like....wow , games on CD's now. Since almost every game system we had played came on cartridges. Anyhow his mom walked in on one game and the characters in the game was swearing (memory can't remember the game folks...its been years) .

So that night he called me and said his mom wanted him to take the game system back and get something else. We made plans to meet at the mall when our parents would get there and look through games after he took it back. So we met there and discussed what game system he'd likely pick up as our eyes soon locked onto something that changed both our lives.




1995 Original Price : $299.99
2017 (Inflation) price : $473.69

So at this Sears he finds a game system and video game in 1997 that changed everything for us both. He pulled out this game called Final Fantasy VII and we both joked about the ads we'd see before WWF RAW for weeks. But I thought the game was a generic fighting game perhaps. So he picked it up and told me , come over as soon as ya get home from the mall.

I was like , ehh ...this won't be good But when its your best buddy and you 2 hang out every day , come over and see what the fuss is about. A few minutes after I got home , he calls me and is like...dude , you have to come over and play this game ok. Trust me ...your gonna be surprised about it. So he replayed the entire 1st part and I was stunned. Final Fantasy VII was really , really damn good. So I was in envy. He got a t-shirt with it and I knew then , I need a Playstation and this game for it.

So I told him , don't play anymore past a certain part ok. Let me get a Playstation and we will work as a team. So he agreed and I got the game system a couple days later and we started playing as a team. Working one whole winter to beat Final Fantasy VII. It was a fun time for us both. Then other games came along , we would play Metal Gear Solid , some wrestling games , football and 2 more Final Fantasy games.

But it all began because of that one game and us both deciding we wanted a Playstation.

[WillieMorgan]

I owned two of these three systems. I've never purchased a Sony games system in my life and never will.

I'm one of the 9-10 million people in the world, roughly, that purchased a Sega Saturn over the Sony PlayStation. It meant missing out on a lot of PS specific games and the system was severely struggling after a couple of years but I genuinely never regretted it. As much of a flop as it was in the long run the Saturn was home to a large number of superb games. Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Nights Into Dreams, Exhumed, Daytona USA, Panzer Dragoon, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, X-Men vs. Street Fighter and many more. For a badly supported system that was struggling in the market it certainly provided me and my mates with a lot of gaming pleasure.

After a couple of years the signs got too big to ignore though. The brilliant and enthusiastic UK Official Sega Saturn Magazine was eventually resorted to covering Japanese only releases to fill their pages as official releases here in Europe became ever more scarce due to third party developers abandoning the system to concentrate on both the PS and soon-to-be-released Nintendo 64. On a drunken Christmas Eve 1996 me and my mates all crashed at another lads house late on and I got my first go on a Nintendo game system with both the N64 and 'Super-Mario 64'. 'As soon as I get some spare money I'm getting one of these' was the verdict.

Originally the plan was to buy an N64 to tide me over for a couple of years until the Dreamcast was available but I'd reckoned without one thing. That was how awesome some N64 games were, especially ones developed by either Nintendo themselves or the UK developer Rare. The N64 is probably my favourite games system ever. Super-Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007, F-Zero X, Banjo-Kazooie (and Banjo Tooie), Donkey Kong 64 and, the greatest game ever developed, The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time all blew me away, turning me into a total Nintendo fanboy. This carried across to both the Gamecube (another stunning system) and Wii.

[buffalorock]

The Panasonic 3DO was actually pretty fun. My dad had a buddy that owned a pawn store (and knowing my dad, he got a great deal on it) so he surprised my two brothers and myself with the system and a handful of games. Over time, we found so many deals for the games that we ended up accumulating the majority of the library. Multiplayer games were especially fun. Return Fire, Trip'd, Shockwave, Captain Quasar, FIFA Soccer, Twisted: The Game Show were some favorites.

One of my top five games of all time I found on this system - Star Control 2 (I believe Stardock has the rights and is rebooting this series, looking forward to it)

I just recently dropped the system off at my parents house, it still works great.