Older consoles or handhelds that you regret sleeping on when they were modern

[2ko]

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

[bikingjahuty]

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

I think you're within a standard deviation of the average age on here, which if I had to make assumptions is probably early 40s. I'm in my late 30s and when I talk about the 90s, it's mostly from the perspective of an elementary school aged kid. I was in middle school in the late 90s.


But between my friends and I most of us had Sega consoles, and a few had Nintendo consoles. Funny enough, it was just my cousin that had a PS1 back in the day. Other than that I didn't really get to play the PS1 all that often. The first time I played the PS1 was on a road trip my parents took me on in 1996 where I played Destruction Derby at someone's house. The damage effects blew my mind back then. Now it's nothing special. I really didn't come to appreciate the PS1 until the console was nearly sunset, however I do remember specific games being shown off in gaming mags I had during the time that really made me wish I had one. Funny enough, one game that made me obsessively want a PS1 for a brief period was Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi. The idea of a Star Wars fighting game blew my mind back then. Of course, now we know that game is complete crap, but hey, 9 year old me would have probably loved it lol.


I still can't believe that between my brother and I, we had all four 6th gen consoles back when they were considered modern. And it wasn't like we were rich, we just had some excellent birthdays and XMASes around that time I guess lol. My brother mainly gamed on XBOX (he was a Halo 2 XBL addict), while I played Dreamcast and PS2 primarily. I bought a Gamecube around 2003 or so just to play Resident Evil Remake. I only had a handful of games for it back then, half of them being Resident Evil games, but remember also enjoying Smash Melee and a few others too.

[mrkonasoni]

Game Boy Micro, though, tbh, it was already like 5 years discontinued, I mostly regret it because it was still fairly cheap and always wanted one, maybe one day if I feel like saving money for it.

For the most part I don't think I regret something, I do miss when collecting Nintendo GameCube was cheaper because when I used to do it, the console was barely 10 years old, so while it wasn't new, it was still fairly common and some rare games weren't that sought.

I actually lived Nintendo 3DS I sometimes feel it died too soon but I can understand why it did, I want to mention PS Vita but I can't stop thinking that seeing dying slowly and even Sony forgetting it until stop mention it at all could have been a bit rough considering the machine wasn't exactly cheap at the time in my country, but reading old threads and seeing how the community kept the hype alive honestly seem like it could have worth it, is one of these things I do kinda regret missing out, just like 3DS, I kinda wish PS Vita lived a few more years, support I assume we all wishes it had more, ha.

[bikingjahuty]

Game Boy Micro, though, tbh, it was already like 5 years discontinued, I mostly regret it because it was still fairly cheap and always wanted one, maybe one day if I feel like saving money for it.

For the most part I don't think I regret something, I do miss when collecting Nintendo GameCube was cheaper because when I used to do it, the console was barely 10 years old, so while it wasn't new, it was still fairly common and some rare games weren't that sought.

I actually lived Nintendo 3DS I sometimes feel it died too soon but I can understand why it did, I want to mention PS Vita but I can't stop thinking that seeing dying slowly and even Sony forgetting it until stop mention it at all could have been a bit rough considering the machine wasn't exactly cheap at the time in my country, but reading old threads and seeing how the community kept the hype alive honestly seem like it could have worth it, is one of these things I do kinda regret missing out, just like 3DS, I kinda wish PS Vita lived a few more years, support I assume we all wishes it had more, ha.

I know some people love the Micro, but for me it's probably my least favorite GBA model simply because it's too small. I found one with the alt faceplates and everything for a steal about 10 years ago, but when I actually went to go play it, it made some games fairly difficult to play, like playing them on an old cell phone. I ended up selling it. My favorite GBA model is the original, albeit with the caveat that it's modded with an LCD screen to fix its backlight issues.


Fortunately I don't have any regrets when it comes to collecting for a console at a specific time when the games were cheaper and easier to find. When I got into collecting, 6th gen consoles were rapidly becoming cheap and undesirable, 5th gen were all pretty much bargained price, and 3rd and 4th gen were still a few years away from their rapid rise. I pretty much found every PS2, XBOX, Gamecube, and Dreamcast game I'd ever wanted between 2010 and 2016 or so, all for pretty cheap. I've been out of the loop when it comes to game prices for a while,  but when I see games that were going for like $20 back when I was heavily collecting for Gamecube go for like $200 now, I seriously can't believe it.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I don't think I ever slept on a console per say, maybe it's a benefit of having 3 brothers and a gamer dad but I always had access to gamecube, ps2 and original xbox. PS1. NES. I owned all 3 at one point as a kid. NES was part of my life.  I suppose if I am going to say a console I regret missing out on collecting for or playing would have to be something that just wasn't in my realm.

And i'd say that console is the Sega Dreamcast.   I mean even today. I've owned it for 15 years and maybe played it once. It's that off the radar for me. I don't know where to jump in with it.  And as I stated. I had the other 3 of its competitors and formed much deeper bonds with each of them.  So it's like the ugly duckling or the oprhan sister lol. 


But I will say I did sleep on the PS3.  But not because I didnt like it. I just was an xbox fanboy for decades and at that time gaming became more secular. And like picking factions.  PS3 is now my 2nd most collected console and I love it. But I still wouldnt say I slept on it.  It just replaced 360 for me. Both are equal in 1st party content and 3rd party content imo. 


So dreamcast id say. Still always dreamcast. 

[2ko]

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

I think you're within a standard deviation of the average age on here, which if I had to make assumptions is probably early 40s. I'm in my late 30s and when I talk about the 90s, it's mostly from the perspective of an elementary school aged kid. I was in middle school in the late 90s.


But between my friends and I most of us had Sega consoles, and a few had Nintendo consoles. Funny enough, it was just my cousin that had a PS1 back in the day. Other than that I didn't really get to play the PS1 all that often. The first time I played the PS1 was on a road trip my parents took me on in 1996 where I played Destruction Derby at someone's house. The damage effects blew my mind back then. Now it's nothing special. I really didn't come to appreciate the PS1 until the console was nearly sunset, however I do remember specific games being shown off in gaming mags I had during the time that really made me wish I had one. Funny enough, one game that made me obsessively want a PS1 for a brief period was Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi. The idea of a Star Wars fighting game blew my mind back then. Of course, now we know that game is complete crap, but hey, 9 year old me would have probably loved it lol.


I still can't believe that between my brother and I, we had all four 6th gen consoles back when they were considered modern. And it wasn't like we were rich, we just had some excellent birthdays and XMASes around that time I guess lol. My brother mainly gamed on XBOX (he was a Halo 2 XBL addict), while I played Dreamcast and PS2 primarily. I bought a Gamecube around 2003 or so just to play Resident Evil Remake. I only had a handful of games for it back then, half of them being Resident Evil games, but remember also enjoying Smash Melee and a few others too.

Yeah I'm 31, but usually in online spaces I'm an Unc talking to early 20 somethings who grew up on Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, whereas I was already a teenager in that era so we had vastly different experiences with those consoles. Unless they had particularly lax parents, they missed out on the Xbox live party era of gaming (though now Discord kinda recaptures some of that to be fair).

Here though the shoe is on the other foot so to speak. A lot people talking about experiences I never had, because I either wasn't even born yet or was too young to hold a controller lol. The NES for me was an "old" system my parents played. I was born into the 3D era, my first game I remember playing was Crash Bandicoot 3 on the Christmas I got my PS1. I didn't even know Sega made consoles until I was a late teenager and started collecting as a hobby, whereas people here seem to have a kind of nostalgia for them the same way I have it for PS1/N64.

[sworddude]

you don't necessarily need to have grown up at the time to have experienced said consoles back in the day when they where brand new.

I got to play consoles like the genesis as a kid just cause my older cousin still had one. fun times really some whacky games on said consoles always got to play on said console when I visited. same for N64 and the snes.

ps1 eventhough an older gen was plentyfull and quite some folks still used ps1 games on a ps2 even quite some years later, it lasted for quite some time longer than most older consoles as a result in which most friends still had a stash of ps1 games or pirated ones. don't think there was a kid around that didn't play ctr or some of the re games where I was at.

GBA: What's sad is I actually did have a GBA in the early 2000s. I actually got a GBA for Christmas the same year they came out, along with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (which wasn't that great tbh). The only games I remember really getting into on my GBA were Advance Wars and later on Pokemon Ruby. Especially over the last couple years, I've developed a newfound appreciation for the GBA, one that has blossomed over time into full blown love. So, so many excellent games were released on it, and I find its graphics and sound to be beyond charming and nostalgic. I just wish I'd spent more time with the GBA back in the 2000s when I owned my original one, but I guess it's better to appreciate something eventually rather than never.

GBA era was something else. speaking of pokemon it was arguably the gen with the best puzzles and mysteries. Them talks about them regi puzzles and using braille on them school grounds or how you could brag if you could breed feebass which was insanely hard to get in these games only appearing in 4 tiles in a huge area that was random per copy. also advance wars against other was an absolute blast. or dbz advanced adventure multiplayer that stuff was goated. also in terms of rpg's the fire emblem games, golden sun the medabots rpg's. very packed system

I'll say this I love the console allot but have seen it's flaws more and more as the years go by so sadly I have appreciated the console a bit less over the years in favor of comparable home console counterparts with more grander 2d games. than again that's just me being less interested in handheld gaming as the years go on. at the end of the day plenty of experiences that are only on gba that ain't really replaced on other consoles and some soundtracks will always hit that nostalgia bug for me thinking back of more simpler times.

[bikingjahuty]

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

I think you're within a standard deviation of the average age on here, which if I had to make assumptions is probably early 40s. I'm in my late 30s and when I talk about the 90s, it's mostly from the perspective of an elementary school aged kid. I was in middle school in the late 90s.


But between my friends and I most of us had Sega consoles, and a few had Nintendo consoles. Funny enough, it was just my cousin that had a PS1 back in the day. Other than that I didn't really get to play the PS1 all that often. The first time I played the PS1 was on a road trip my parents took me on in 1996 where I played Destruction Derby at someone's house. The damage effects blew my mind back then. Now it's nothing special. I really didn't come to appreciate the PS1 until the console was nearly sunset, however I do remember specific games being shown off in gaming mags I had during the time that really made me wish I had one. Funny enough, one game that made me obsessively want a PS1 for a brief period was Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi. The idea of a Star Wars fighting game blew my mind back then. Of course, now we know that game is complete crap, but hey, 9 year old me would have probably loved it lol.


I still can't believe that between my brother and I, we had all four 6th gen consoles back when they were considered modern. And it wasn't like we were rich, we just had some excellent birthdays and XMASes around that time I guess lol. My brother mainly gamed on XBOX (he was a Halo 2 XBL addict), while I played Dreamcast and PS2 primarily. I bought a Gamecube around 2003 or so just to play Resident Evil Remake. I only had a handful of games for it back then, half of them being Resident Evil games, but remember also enjoying Smash Melee and a few others too.

Yeah I'm 31, but usually in online spaces I'm an Unc talking to early 20 somethings who grew up on Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, whereas I was already a teenager in that era so we had vastly different experiences with those consoles. Unless they had particularly lax parents, they missed out on the Xbox live party era of gaming (though now Discord kinda recaptures some of that to be fair).

Here though the shoe is on the other foot so to speak. A lot people talking about experiences I never had, because I either wasn't even born yet or was too young to hold a controller lol. The NES for me was an "old" system my parents played. I was born into the 3D era, my first game I remember playing was Crash Bandicoot 3 on the Christmas I got my PS1. I didn't even know Sega made consoles until I was a late teenager and started collecting as a hobby, whereas people here seem to have a kind of nostalgia for them the same way I have it for PS1/N64.

Yeah, some of the bigger online platforms like Reddit are mostly a younger crowd (probably like 25 and younger). In my brief experience on Reddit, it was hard to discuss games on some of the more popular subreddits since no one on there could relate to what I was trying to discuss, or they just had a radically different experience with a specific franchise or game on account of them being young enough to be my son or daughter. Don't get me wrong, I like hearing different experiences, but it's hard when there's a specific type of group think with the younger crowd and if your opinion deviates from that you're either flamed or accused of not being true fan, or just being an "unc" lol. I mostly discuss retro games here and a local Facebook group I belong to where we've all met in person, so discussion rarely becomes contentious like it often does online.


On top of that, discussing games with a younger crowd can make me feel old as hell. I mean, I was in college when the 360 came out in 2005 and camped out with a college friend of mine where he got his 360 at launch. When I hear people saying they got a Wii or 360 when they were 5 for Christmas it just makes me feel dated as hell lol. It's even crazier when younger gamers or YouTuber talk about being in elementary school when the the Switch came out and I'm here like...I was 30 years old with a full time job when that happened...


Funny enough, the NES feels old to me too and I was born when it was near the height of its popularity in the 80s. There are some NES games I enjoy, but so many I just can't get into. 4th gen is about the oldest back I can go and really enjoy most of the games, assuming they're actually good games. I feel like at this point, most hardcore NES fans are ones who grew up with it and played it mostly when they were between 5 and 13. Other than occasionally playing it at friends or neighbors houses, I never really gamed on the NES much until I began collecting, which is when I fully realized the console is a bit to antiquated for my tastes.

[bikingjahuty]

you don't necessarily need to have grown up at the time to have experienced said consoles back in the day when they where brand new.

I got to play consoles like the genesis as a kid just cause my older cousin still had one. fun times really some whacky games on said consoles always got to play on said console when I visited. same for N64 and the snes.

ps1 eventhough an older gen was plentyfull and quite some folks still used ps1 games on a ps2 even quite some years later, it lasted for quite some time longer than most older consoles as a result in which most friends still had a stash of ps1 games or pirated ones. don't think there was a kid around that didn't play ctr or some of the re games where I was at.

GBA: What's sad is I actually did have a GBA in the early 2000s. I actually got a GBA for Christmas the same year they came out, along with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (which wasn't that great tbh). The only games I remember really getting into on my GBA were Advance Wars and later on Pokemon Ruby. Especially over the last couple years, I've developed a newfound appreciation for the GBA, one that has blossomed over time into full blown love. So, so many excellent games were released on it, and I find its graphics and sound to be beyond charming and nostalgic. I just wish I'd spent more time with the GBA back in the 2000s when I owned my original one, but I guess it's better to appreciate something eventually rather than never.

GBA era was something else. speaking of pokemon it was arguably the gen with the best puzzles and mysteries. Them talks about them regi puzzles and using braille on them school grounds or how you could brag if you could breed feebass which was insanely hard to get in these games only appearing in 4 tiles in a huge area that was random per copy. also advance wars against other was an absolute blast. or dbz advanced adventure multiplayer that stuff was goated. also in terms of rpg's the fire emblem games, golden sun the medabots rpg's. very packed system

I'll say this I love the console allot but have seen it's flaws more and more as the years go by so sadly I have appreciated the console a bit less over the years in favor of comparable home console counterparts with more grander 2d games. than again that's just me being less interested in handheld gaming as the years go on. at the end of the day plenty of experiences that are only on gba that ain't really replaced on other consoles and some soundtracks will always hit that nostalgia bug for me thinking back of more simpler times.

I guess there is just something special about experiencing and being fully engrossed within the excitement of a current gen console that cannot be replicated years after it's no longer being produced. It's almost like being in the right place at the right time, and having memories or experiences that only other people that were fully on board the hype train at the time can fully relate to. I completely fee that way with the N64 and pretty much every 6th gen console. I still love going back and revisiting games on the PS2 or Dreamcast, but even playing games for it now, it's just not the same as when I was younger and would get so excited to see some new game come out for either of those consoles, and be even more excited to actually play it. Even if you played a console back when it came out, I guess it's possible to feel like you still missed out of it due to limited exposure or lack of opportunities to actually play it.


With Pokemon Ruby, I didn't actually beat it back around the time it came out. I was in high school at the time and had all sorts of other things going on in my life during that time. I started it, got like four badges, and then sporadically played it for like the next year until I stopped playing it before even reaching the Pokemon league. Still, when counting my GBA experiences back in the day, it was one of them. Speaking of being in high school, there were far fewer of my peers that had a GBA or really had much interest in it. On the flip side, my little brother who is 5 years younger than me was way more into it, as were many of his friends. He certainly had way more exposure to the system back in the early and mid 2000s that I did. I even remember him obsessing about wanting a blue SP when those first came out. Had I been even just 3 or 4 years younger in 2002 or 2003, I feel like I'd likely not be wishing right now that I'd spent more time with the GBA, since the console would have been far more up my ally at the time.

[sworddude]

you don't necessarily need to have grown up at the time to have experienced said consoles back in the day when they where brand new.

I got to play consoles like the genesis as a kid just cause my older cousin still had one. fun times really some whacky games on said consoles always got to play on said console when I visited. same for N64 and the snes.

ps1 eventhough an older gen was plentyfull and quite some folks still used ps1 games on a ps2 even quite some years later, it lasted for quite some time longer than most older consoles as a result in which most friends still had a stash of ps1 games or pirated ones. don't think there was a kid around that didn't play ctr or some of the re games where I was at.

GBA: What's sad is I actually did have a GBA in the early 2000s. I actually got a GBA for Christmas the same year they came out, along with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (which wasn't that great tbh). The only games I remember really getting into on my GBA were Advance Wars and later on Pokemon Ruby. Especially over the last couple years, I've developed a newfound appreciation for the GBA, one that has blossomed over time into full blown love. So, so many excellent games were released on it, and I find its graphics and sound to be beyond charming and nostalgic. I just wish I'd spent more time with the GBA back in the 2000s when I owned my original one, but I guess it's better to appreciate something eventually rather than never.

GBA era was something else. speaking of pokemon it was arguably the gen with the best puzzles and mysteries. Them talks about them regi puzzles and using braille on them school grounds or how you could brag if you could breed feebass which was insanely hard to get in these games only appearing in 4 tiles in a huge area that was random per copy. also advance wars against other was an absolute blast. or dbz advanced adventure multiplayer that stuff was goated. also in terms of rpg's the fire emblem games, golden sun the medabots rpg's. very packed system

I'll say this I love the console allot but have seen it's flaws more and more as the years go by so sadly I have appreciated the console a bit less over the years in favor of comparable home console counterparts with more grander 2d games. than again that's just me being less interested in handheld gaming as the years go on. at the end of the day plenty of experiences that are only on gba that ain't really replaced on other consoles and some soundtracks will always hit that nostalgia bug for me thinking back of more simpler times.

I guess there is just something special about experiencing and being fully engrossed within the excitement of a current gen console that cannot be replicated years after it's no longer being produced. It's almost like being in the right place at the right time, and having memories or experiences that only other people that were fully on board the hype train at the time can fully relate to. I completely fee that way with the N64 and pretty much every 6th gen console. I still love going back and revisiting games on the PS2 or Dreamcast, but even playing games for it now, it's just not the same as when I was younger and would get so excited to see some new game come out for either of those consoles, and be even more excited to actually play it. Even if you played a console back when it came out, I guess it's possible to feel like you still missed out of it due to limited exposure or lack of opportunities to actually play it.


With Pokemon Ruby, I didn't actually beat it back around the time it came out. I was in high school at the time and had all sorts of other things going on in my life during that time. I started it, got like four badges, and then sporadically played it for like the next year until I stopped playing it before even reaching the Pokemon league. Still, when counting my GBA experiences back in the day, it was one of them. Speaking of being in high school, there were far fewer of my peers that had a GBA or really had much interest in it. On the flip side, my little brother who is 5 years younger than me was way more into it, as were many of his friends. He certainly had way more exposure to the system back in the early and mid 2000s that I did. I even remember him obsessing about wanting a blue SP when those first came out. Had I been even just 3 or 4 years younger in 2002 or 2003, I feel like I'd likely not be wishing right now that I'd spent more time with the GBA, since the console would have been far more up my ally at the time.

people where obsessed with special variations of the console for sure, if you had the pokemon or zelda gba sp you had the sweet looking console compared to the bland ones. had the groudon one some of my peers had the kyogre one or zelda one. The tribal one was the worst i bet the tribal one was often in discount it was so common.  who's idea was this, nobody likes the tribal