I was born in the 80’s and grew up playing consoles that if you asked kids these days if they have ever heard of them they would look at you like you were from a different planet. I like to think I grew up in an era where the video game industry was making its biggest gains and it shaped the way the video game industry is today. I will stand by this statement and say that my generation is the BEST gaming generation of all time! BOOOOYA!   Kids these days will not know the struggle of what we all went through. First off we all enjoyed playing outside before we sat down and played games. Yet we logged fewer hours in  gaming and managed to become gods of the gaming world.  As I got older and got into online gaming, we didn’t have these lavish download speeds and high-speed internet. We had that lovely 56k modem set up where if someone picked up the phone your connection online was lost! Do you know how many times I raged while I was playing Counter-Strike on PC and my mom would pick up the phone? Kids these days complain about LAG, try playing on a 56k modem and then give me a fucking call. We never had the luxury of digital downloads we actually had to ride our bikes to the local video game store to merely look at video games because our parents wouldn’t cough up any cash for us to buy games. Good thing we all got jobs at the age of 12 otherwise I don’t think we would be gamers right now. I would like to give a shout out to Blockbuster Video for allowing us to rent video games at the time and you will forever be in our hearts. Thank You.     The first console I ever got my hands on was TurboGrafx-16 thanks to my life long buddy and neighbor at the time, where him and his older brother owned the console.  We logged tons of hours playing games like Final Lap,Ninja Spirit and Legendary Axe. Also if you noticed the cover art on the box that the console came with doesn’t it look like Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell? See below! From there the first ever console I owned was the Sega Master System which was purchased from a place called Consumers Distributing (If anyone knows who they are please comment below). We used to get these awesome catalogues where we just looked at toy and video game pictures hoping Santa would bring them to us….. which never happened because growing up in a European home my dad was fucking Santa and he hated video games. The only reason he bought the Sega Master System is because he thought it was a new VCR. Sorry dad when it comes to technology you are horrible.     Some of my favorite games on the Sega Master System were Sonic the Hedgehog and Altered Beast just to name a few. This console was more for my brother who to this day is still one of the worst video gamers I have ever met!     From Sega to my first Nintendo Console the NES which was purchased by my grandparents I believe it was in the early 90’s when I got this console. Some of the most iconic video games were on this system and are still played to this day via emulators, modded systems or original consoles.  Super Mario Bros 3, Contra, Blades of Steel and Double Dragon were played religiously on that console.     [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v02WFh_Kdl0[/embedyt]   My next console was the Sega Genesis that my brother and I both purchased by saving our money given on birthdays and other holidays. This console is where I did some of my solid gaming. My brother and I always battled each other in sports games like NFL Madden and NHL 95. I also played a ton of wrestling games because I was a WWF fanatic!. I bought almost every game that came out for this system. Some of my top games include Toe Jam and Earl, Streets of Rage, Fatal Fury, Earth Worm Jim, Comix Zone, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat II and the list can go on forever!     [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35jGnZ-e3jc[/embedyt]   One day along came Nintendo 64 and in 1996 I can remember opening up this fucking bad boy with my brother and sister on Christmas morning and yelling “WTF! Dad you bought us a video game console” After taking a smack or two from my mom for swearing I leaped frogged over my tiny sister and started plugging this console in to get this thing going. Super Mario 64 fucking blew my mind when I first played and then all these masterpiece games started getting released one after the other. Mario Kart 64, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, WWF No Mercy, Donkey Kong, Wave Race, 1080 Snowboarding, Mario Party and the fucking GREATEST FIRST PERSON SHOOTER OF ALL TIME…………. GOLDENEYE!!!!!!! Why do you think us old school gamers are so good at online shooters now a days.     Now how many of you remember sitting on your couch with 3 other friends playing split screen on a shitty ass 27″ tube T.V in your parent’s basement going fucking mental while battling your friends in this game? Some of my favorite gaming moments of all time were playing this game with my brother and my two neighbors. Not to mention some bloodshed to when the younger brothers would beat the older brothers since we were better than they were. I could sit here and right a million words about how much I loved that N64 console which I still own to this day and sometime bust out to play it.     Moving on from the N64 I purchased a Sega Dreamcast which to me was a fantastic console but was later crushed by Sony and it’s Playstation 2 Console. Which I did own after selling my Dreamcast. R.I.P Dreamcast.     Playstation 2 is where I only played sports games as I had my PC gaming for all my shooters and RPG style games. One game that stood out for me the most on Playstation was God of War which is still being made to this day and those games were fantastic. I kept my Playstation 2 until the release of the Xbox 360 console in 2005. I jumped the ship from Sony over to Microsoft after being introduced to my favorite franchise of all time Gears of War( thanks Mak G) I could not put this game down! I went on to play this for hours on end and actually played competitively in tournaments around Ontario Canada and we were actually pretty damn good. The 360 brought us greats like Gears of War, Halo and Forza titles and a lot of other great games. Xbox 360 brought amazing games, introduced us to surround sound gaming and not to mention HD quality titles throughout. I currently own the 360 as well as the Xbox one and can’t say enough good things about both consoles.   [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8[/embedyt]   My Era of gaming was fantastic for iconic titles that still live on to this day and if you had a tournament between old school gamers and this new breed of gamers us “old fucks” would take these “young gamers” to school!! My era bleeds video games, we make up most of the population that plays video games and we will continue to guide this industry back to the promise land!!! These young gamers will never know the struggle of having to grind out your first job at the age of 12 just to buy a video game or having your console ripped out of the wall for acting up by your parents or actually having your friends over for some good old couch gaming.   Now a days these gamer lads have it easier than we ever did with their super fast internet and non-existent lag!.  Stay strong old gamers 😉 We will always be the greatest!       Long live old Men and Women gamers!!!!!!!!   Cheers!