I remember opening my Christmas presents in 1998. I was 21 years old, driving home from Arizona State University for winter break and wondering what games I’d be getting. Little did I know that my parents had bought me a PlayStation and Spyro the Dragon. “You’ve been talking about that purple dragon game,” my mom informed me. I don’t think I had outright said I wanted it to anyone, but I suppose my sighing in…
Shhh… don’t tell anyone but I still have my Gateway 2000 mouse pad at my workplace. I’m not sitting here at my desk trying to make some kind of retro gamer statement with it. I simply liked the mouse pad and it was the right dimensions to fit my mouse and well it must have been the right dimensions to withstand moving THREE times and every other mouse pad getting lost along the way. But…
There I was, controller gripped like my life depended on it, watching Marc Summers navigate some kid through an obstacle course that looked like someone had thrown paint at a jungle gym and called it television. Double Dare wasn't just a game show—it was basically childhood wish fulfillment wrapped in green slime and broadcast directly into our living rooms every afternoon at half past four.You know that feeling when you're eight years old and absolutely…
We all thought that making a list of the best fighting games of all time would be violent. Samuel was immediately spewing out frame data like some sort of holy scripture. Joe was passionately defending Sega’s 3D approach while also discrediting every single thing that Capcom has done since 1991. Marcus began calculating the frames of recovery from hits on his phone. Elena was demanding we recognise the superior design philosophy of SNK’s fighting games.…
My mate Dave called me yesterday asking about "blast processing," and I had to laugh. Not at him, mind you—but at the memory of teenage me parroting that marketing phrase like it was technical scripture. Course, back then I couldn't tell you what processing actually meant beyond "makes Sonic go fast," but bloody hell did it sound impressive when you were trying to convince your SNES-owning mates that your Mega Drive was the superior machine.The…
The best 80s and 90s consoles fundamentally shaped modern gaming. The NES sold 61.9 million units and invented home console standards. The PlayStation moved 102.5 million units and launched the disc-based era. The Game Boy achieved 118 million sales and proved handhelds could dominate. These systems competed fiercely, innovated relentlessly, and created the gaming industry we know today. This ranking evaluates the best 80s and 90s consoles by lifetime sales, cultural impact, technical innovation, and…