-on Mattel football hand helds
-on a Fairchild F
-on a Vic 20, including typing in the code for games from magazines
-and in arcades in two bursts, once as a junior high kid in the "classic" era of PacMan, Tron, Centipede, Berzerk, Robotron, Tempest and Defender, and a second burst around college during the 720 Degrees, Gauntlet, and Smash TV era...
ie. I missed 20 years, or so, of gaming.
I bought a PS1 very late (after the PS2 was already out) and, in addition to getting my retro fix with the compilations, really enjoyed games like Tony Hawk, Colin McRae and Deception.
When I eventually purchased a PS2 I steadily bought and played a few games like Maximo, Ico, Virtua Fighter 4, SSX, Baldur's Gate and would, from time to time, swoop up some cool games for PS1 for cheap as the stores closed them out (JoJo's, SFA3, FF Tactics etc).
I'd also get the game magazines with the demo discs, and to be honest, whether for PS1 or 2 most games looked and played better than my decidely ancient old-school gaming expectations. I also liked that a PS2 slim didn't really take up much space.
Sometime a few years ago, after stopping in a GameStop to buy a controller and, seeing so many previously expensive PS2 games for cheap, it occured to me that you could make a pretty good collection of the history of video games with a PS2. I didn't do anything about it other than purchase a couple games (Shadow of the Colossus, Bully) that I'd been curious about.
Then I found this website and Racketboy's list of hidden gems for the PS1 and PS2 and suddenly I had games like SkyGunner, Ring of Red, Growlanser and Samurai Shodown Anthology on a list. It wasn't long before I started to hunt down PS1 games like Heart of Darkness, Einhander and Strider 2, as well.
To make this long meandering story short, last year I finally bought a 27" Wega SD for $60 and hooked up some component cables to my PS2 and started collecting in earnest. I'm glad I did.
In my lowly, old-school opinion, this has to be some kind of golden-era for collecting games that can play on a PS2 and look great on a standard TV.
While the Sony library by itself isn't always perfect, and the stock of working SD TVs and PS2 slims will someday dwindle to nothing, I can't tell you how many times I've been surprised at just how crisp some of these old games are, how interesting the gameplay is and how much value for the dollar you get as a collector. Taito Legends 2 for $8? Tail Concerto for $6? Raiden Project for $10?
It's pretty sick, really.
Also, to bring this all home, as someone who pretty much MISSED the entire history of consoles, (Vic 20 to....PS1!) I can't tell you how fun it is to blindly purchase an older game after reading a couple reviews and then discover an era of gaming as if it were new.
The other day, for example, I put in Wild ARMs for the first time. Lol. I had no idea.
It's like instant nostalgia...but nostalgia for an era of gaming I never even participated in to begin with.
Which in a round about way, is my whole point.
So, in gratitude for lots of good info and advice, much thanks to Racketboy, the site authors and moderators and the folks on these forums!
