We remember our first game consoles

Autumn is approaching and with it a new generation of consoles, so we in the newsroom decided to remember what the very first machine specialized purely for games was for us. So if we don't count the fake Game Boy and the eternally dead tamagotchi forgotten in the school briefcases. Which of our editors was the first to succumb to the lure of consoles, and who, on the other hand, resisted as the longest representative of the PC players?

Adam Homola: PlayStation

source: press release

It was the first PlayStation for me. I don't remember the year exactly, but I remember the first games very well: Crash Bandicoot and Resident Evil. Both of them bought me practically without any prior research, which is good and what is not, and both hit me excellent.

Crash Bandicoot was great for my young self at the time, and in the form of a remake for my current self, when I hop on Switch with Crash. And Resident Evil was scary but great. And most importantly, it was a game that had feature films, which fascinated me immensely at the time.

With my first PlayStation, I had my console beginnings and its iconic boot sound dug into my memory. Sony's entry into the console scene was crucial and incredibly successful. And I've never played Gran Turismo or Final Fantasy VII in a special way. But such a Tekken, THPS, Silent Hill or Driver? One beautiful memory next to another.

Sarka Tmejova: Nintendo Wii

source: Nintendo

Like most other members of the editorial board (and probably players in general), I have long relied on my parents' gifts and thus on their own game preferences. At home, we only played on computers for a long time;

So when, at thirteen, I finally gathered the courage to talk about the game console for Christmas, I hoped to unpack PlayStation 3 and be able to play the coveted Uncharted, whose trailer I watched over and over on YouTube. But what didn't happen! The Nintendo Wii and its SPORTS MOVEMENT GAMES, with a balance pad, lurked under the tree, which did not hesitate to openly tell everyone that they were too heavy and should spend the next 284 hours practicing on it.

Not that I wasn't excited about the movement, and during the Christmas holidays I didn't play a hundred tennis cats in front of the TV alone, but the PlayStation was just a PlayStation and the Wii isn't a PlayStation! Or so, my inner argument at the time sounded like a slightly spoiled only one.

In retrospect, I attribute this choice mainly to my parents' fears that I would otherwise rot while playing and never get off the couch again if they bought me a console that I can usually sit with. I have to say that I painted them a nice career choice. Hi mum and dad!

Alžběta Trojanová: Sega Mega Drive

source: press release

It was 1993, it was Christmas and my brother and I got half of Segu along with the first game, which was Golden Ax. In retrospect, I'm not surprised that ours chose her. Barbarian Conan was their favorite family movie at the time (I still don't understand that they let me watch it at the age of six).

Sega stayed with us for about 12 years before she got lost when she moved. But so far I remember with love the Streets of Rage, Taz-Mania, Sonic, Ariel the Little Mermaid and many others.

My father took us to the bazaar, which was in Prague's U Rajské zahrady Street, every week. We sold old games there, bought new ones… I remember it very much. Even though I didn't get past the second level in half of the games (I was six, okay ?!). So far, when I see the high Žižkov hill, I think of the tiny shop, where we could each choose what we wanted.

Pavel Makal: PlayStation

source: Bandai Namco

My cantilever roots go back a long way. From a very early childhood, I remember my uncle's experience with Duck Hunt at the NES, and also the long hours I spent with friends on a Vietnamese plagiarism, where Contra charmed me.

But the very first console itself was the first PlayStation, or rather PS One. The round light gray smaller version looked sexy, the included controls already had analog levers, and the size was just right for the console to be easily thrown into a backpack and taken to visit grandma, for example.

Well, those games! As a decent person, I can say that I never provided a console with a pirate chip, so I didn't just bathe in the news. For me, however, the time of the first PlayStation is absolutely inextricably linked to the magazine era, and especially the demo discs included with the PlayStation Magazine were worth their weight in gold.

Somewhere I first saw the ingenious minimalist introduction of Metal Gear Solid, which even with very basic graphics managed to conjure up a bombastic impression, somewhere I first tried Crash Bandicoot or the forgotten hit Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf.

My best memories are crushing Tekken 3, unlocking bonus characters and finding out that Eddie Gordo is simply an invincible cheater with her capoeira. The second part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and its perfect soundtrack and maps are also immortal for me. Well, the sins in Resident Evil 3 were also a very strong experience, which I dealt with as a young boy without internet access by calling a special (paid) helpline of the Czech PlayStation Magazine.

On my first PlayStation, a number of loves were born that last to this day (the aforementioned Metal Gear, but also Silent Hill or Twisted Metal). Unfortunately, I no longer have the console itself. When I recently got a small version with a limited offer of pre-installed games, I tried to follow up on the magic of dusty memories, but it was a bit rubbing.

Aleš Smutný: Xbox 360

source: BioWare

As a proper can and a bit, I have been sticking to the PC as the only platform for a very, very long time. Not that I don't rent a PlayStation or a Game Boy sometimes, but you'd always find a gaming PC in my house.

That changed in 2007, when I finally swayed and bought an Xbox 360. The console is beautiful, white, avoids RROD, sometimes sounding like a Boeing starter and has a feature I haven't known in two PC decades - you insert a disc and you play.

After working with many classics released without key patches that would allow you to finish the game (I'm looking at you, Planescape: Torment!) It was a nice change. Underlined, of course, by the fact that the first three X360 badges I owned were Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey and Assassin's Creed.

I owned a total of three pieces of this console, including the Elite, and it's still my big heart. I consider her gamepad to be the ergonomically best I had in hand (compared to the competition at the time in the form of DualShock 3), and there were several exclusivity that I remember with love: the aforementioned Lost Odyssey, Ace Combat 6, Fable II, Halo ODST and Reach, Ninja Gaiden II and of course the original Gears of War trilogy.

The X360 thus awakened in me a phase when I knew that I would start purchasing consoles to the PC at the same time. And that's it - PS3, PSP, Vita, Nintendo DS, PS4, Xbox One, Switch… And it cost me a lot of effort not to throw myself back into retro waters and buy back older consoles with classics that I used to borrow. So that terrible impulse catches me sometimes and now, but lack of time is a good and strong answer.

And don't talk about "inserting a disc and playing": One batch of Gears of War discs refused to work when the console was standing vertically… It took me so much time and cleaning the disc before I found out!

Patrik Hajda: PlayStation 2

source: press release

The first console I bought with my own money was the PlayStation 4 Pro. Before him, I was addicted to Christmas gifts that earned me an Xbox 360, but before that I played a PlayStation 2. I played the first PS with a friend (Driver!) And only the second console from Sony was the first console on the shelves of the Hajd family. .

We didn't speak English at the time, and partly because my parents were building a house, I didn't (at least initially) have any supply of new games. I remember the occasional purchase of PlayStation 2 magazine (I still have them at home, one even packed) followed by playing demo versions over and over.

In this way, I tasted, for example, the absolutely fantastic Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for me at the time, but unfortunately the purchase of the full game never happened. The first full game for me was still the excellent Richard Burns Rally, which, paradoxically, I also played in the style of a demo. As I said above, we didn't speak English, I didn't understand what I wanted, so I didn't get through a demanding driving school.

When one day our well-known and experienced Frenchman visited us (no, we didn't speak French, everything went hand in hand at the time), he switched the game to his language, he left my driving school and I was finally able to fully discover the beauties of the simulation, which equals only DiRT Rally 2.0. Later, (thanks to the games) I improved in English, the financial situation in the family improved, and thus the supply of full games started.

I remember Driver: Parallel Lines, Tekken 5, I don't know which part of WWE, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the trio of Prince of Persia (The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones), Spider-Mana 2 and a few others . I didn't want to give up PlayStation 2 for many years after I bought the Xbox 360 (plus its Elite version), but in the end I needed the money to shoot the console with a tear in my eye. God, what a fool I was! What would I give for my PS2 today ... With the Xbox 360, I never made the same mistake and I never will.

Vašek Pecháček: PlayStation

source: EA Sports

The first PlayStation in our newsroom records a hat-trick, because for me it was also the first console. A console that literally changed my life, because until then I had no idea that any games actually exist. But as soon as the beautiful gray thing came out under the tree one Christmas, I was in love.

The first game I got was FIFA 2000. I begged my mom and dad not to have to go to church with them at midnight Mass, and instead I plugged in a console on the television. He started training. And he lost 40: 1. When my parents returned home, I told them the score a little depressed. Dad said, "It doesn't matter. You scored a goal! ”

And speaking of nostalgic memories, I'll point out another game I've already written about here at the Games: the first two Harry Potter adventures. The scarred wizard on PlayStation 1 looked so disgusting compared to other platforms that it's as unspeakable as the name of a certain sorcerer, but I wandered around Hogwarts for hours and hours. And since I didn't have a memory card, I met Dumbledore again the next evening in the entrance hall.

Sometimes I think we had too much time as children.