I’ve had a controller in my hand for most of my life. The machines have changed more times than I can count on one hand, but the feeling of pressing start hasn’t. This is all of them, in order, as best I can remember.
Atari ST
It started with Winter Olympiad on the Atari ST. Floppy disks, long loads and a joystick that took a proper beating on the ski jump and the bobsleigh. I had no idea what I was doing. I loved it anyway.
Game Boy
My uncle brought an original Game Boy back from the US, very close to its release and before most people over here had seen one. Turtles, Mario, Mario Tennis and Bomberman, on that green screen, in the car, under the covers, anywhere. Then came the Game Genie, and I’ve never looked at a cheat code the same way since.
Mega Drive II
The Mega Drive II was where it got serious. Streets of Rage 2, Golden Axe, Sonic, Ecco the Dolphin, NBA Jam and FIFA 97. Another Game Genie wedged in the top, because why play fair when you don’t have to.
The Pentium PC
Then the family PC, a Pentium 1. POD for the racing, and Little Big Adventure, which was nothing like anything I’d played before. A weird, brilliant little world I still think about.
PlayStation
The PlayStation brought Tony Hawk’s, FIFA, the original top-down Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo. Memory cards, demo discs, and learning every line of every track.
Xbox and the 360
The original Xbox meant Halo, FIFA, Call of Duty and Need for Speed. The 360 kept all of that going and added online. Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 took up an embarrassing number of late nights with a headset on.
Switch
The Switch made gaming handheld again, decades after the Game Boy. NBA and Sniper Elite, mostly, in whatever spare minutes I can find.
Game Pass and Player 2
These days it’s Game Pass, streaming games straight from the cloud. No discs, no downloads, no waiting. And the biggest change of all: I’m learning Minecraft, because the kids are into it and I want to keep up. For the first time, someone else is teaching me the controls.