Ok a some impressive histories.
Mine well it started with a Dicksmith Machine ( in 1977-78 ) it was very basic and as I was born in '73' the only game I remember from it was barrel jump. Very simple you had a motor bike and had to jump barrels, wow the game play
From there I went to the Atari 2600, space invaders, Pole Position, Missle Commander, Asteroid to name a new. It coincided with the arcade popularity were Joust, and later 1942 were big draw cards however I was never given the money to play them. I grew up in country Australia so we were along way behind the cities at that point. And my town was just a dust cloud in the middle of no-where so 1 TV channel and absolutely nowhere to get games until you went to the city which was 1000 km away.
A friend however did have a Vic 20 ( the poor and early cousin of the Commodore 64 ) its main game was Mouse Hunt and I just couldnt see any worth it changing. It wasnt until I moved to the city in 1985 that I then changed and moved up to the Commodore 64. Some good times, with Destruction Derby, Kung Fu Master, International Karate, Summer Games, and many many more. Its also about this time that I stop buying games and moved to the easier pirate copies. And so would start the rapid change to a long list of games without the endless loss of cash.
However again I had to friends who ironically were asian and both had IBM's. Playing the final fantasy games, and a monochrome screen again just did nothing for me. I then saw and fell in love with the Amiga. defender of the Crown was just mind blowing. So I looked into it, and got one in 1987, however a very short time later I also was drawn to AD and D. I had been watching it for years and wasnt allowed to play it. yet my brother bought me a D and D starter kit in 1987 and at the same time i bought a PC for the release of Pool of Radiance. All was around 1988. So I had the Amiga which was primarily being used for Earl weavers base ball, loved the speech in it and ability to create your players and name them. ( how they dont use the same methodology today is beyond me) the PC which was my introduction to coding and loving the C:\ prompts etc. Plus playing the new era of games. This was the start of real changes and although in Australia we were very limited in our games, friends went to Singapore and came back with huge volumes of copies with cover, manuals and the works.
Thus started the Bards tales game play and so many adventure games that were available. Yes the Hobbit was an early edition, Civ I, TV sports Basketball, Wing Commander ( now that was huge ) I remember when Wing Commander came out it was 44 meg and you had to look at getting a bigger hard drive. The stardard at that time a huge 20 meg drive. Coming into 1990 a friend bought a 1 Gig drive and it was like OMG why would you ever need that. Around this time I also saw internet for the first time it was an old phone 14.4 k system, however a friend use to get people from Sweden, USA, England and all over sending him games via snail mail. Yes the first Torrent system i suppose.
1991 Started my Uni with Computer Science, and my aim at doing computer games. However on asking the Professors and everyone at uni they looked at me blankly and simple said it is done in Australia and I would have to go to England or somewhere like that to work on Amiga as they were the game Kings. At around the same time Atari were trying to make a comeback with their PC Atari rendition but again flopped.
After a year at Uni and getting nowhere as so many just could not see the worth in gaming, I dropped out and of all things became a Cop with a love for games. The time went on I went from a Cop to the Army, and still loved the games. In stormed Red Alert, and so many tactical games, close Combat was another favourite.
Around the same time a I was leaving for the army ( 95-96 ) I did pick up a playstation 1. It was $800 and only had 2-3 games available. I played it for one day and returned it think hmmm yeah not that great. I spent my time in the Army and did again get a Playstation in 98-99 with the release of Shane Warnes cricket. Again being able to copy games made it more price relative and it became worth while. Of course another title that got hammered was Gran Turismo.
After this I always had a PC running and moved through the PS 1, PS2 and XBOX ( no I never played HALO, didnt really like it ). It wasnt untl 2004-2005 with the use of Torrents that I really saw the huge change in gaming and swapping of material though. With the improvement of Torrents so much more became available and so many more systems were sold. I went back to uni and completed what was now introduced ( a game design degree ) it only took Australia 14-15 years to actually catch up.
Now the biggest thing I look at. I never owned or played any of the Nintedo or hand held games. My first Nintendo was the Wii of course and that was only this year 2010. Why because I could add a wode and external HDD. So the list now is long and I look back at what it looked like however I own 9 Xbox 360 ( 5 are dead ) 2 are banned, 1 is live and 1 is JTAG a PS 3 ( jailbreak with 750 internal HDD and 1.5 TB external ) and a Wii Wode with 1.5 TB external HDD.
Plus this XMAS will be the first handheld as I buy a DS for my daughter. of couse it will be hacked.
as a side note I have never used the Game design degree as on visiting THQ and looking to start work, I realised they were so far removed from me. It was dissapointing in all the years the cliche, basement fat boy virgin that still lives with his mum was oh so true at their Australian work place. Me ex COP, Army Officer SF for 4 years having served overseas, being shot, stabbed and training at the gym everyday. Well lets just say i didnt fit in.
A love of games, and knowledge stemming back to before most of them were even in the ball sack, god they couldnt grasp what would be a good game little own want to think outside the box.
And so my gaming goes on and more systems will be added along the way im sure of that.