My Evolving Videogaming Setup

I've done some digging through old photographs and come up with this gallery of various videogame setups I've had over the years. Enjoy!

1983


I was a junior in high school, and in my room I had my Odyssey 2 set up. Behind the games I had for the system was my collection of Electronic Games magazines. To the right I kept my handhelds and other gadgets, including a TEAMMATE Game Computer, a primitive but fun little toy, and below that I had an original Magnavox Odyssey, acquired from a friend of the family, that unfortunately didn't work.

1994

At the height of the 16-bit era, I had four systems hooked up in my living room. Below the TV was the Turbografx 16 and the NES, and to the right I had the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. I also had the Sega Master System converter for the Genesis and some Master System games.

On the other side of the room from all that, I kept my portable systems, including a GameBoy, an Atari Lynx, a TurboExpress (which rocked), and a Sega Game Gear. Not pictured and set up in my spare bedroom was my Commodore 64 and the vast library of games I had built for it.

2004


At this point, I wanted to have as many systems from my immense collection of games hooked up a the same time. Below the TV are my Playstation, SNES, Gamecube, and Nintendo 64. Wires leading forward from that setup went under a throw rug to my coffee table, where I had the Atari 2600, Odyssey 2, and NES all hooked up. It was quite a mess, but looked impressive.

Also in my living room were my portables - with my fledgling Game Boy Advance collection - and stand-alones, as well as two Vectrex units (what's the plural of Vectrex, anyway? Vectrexes? Vectrices?), and a Tempest arcade game, which I never could get fully functional. The sound and controls were fine, but the screen was distorted. I sold it off, as well as most of the games pictured here, during my eBay purge that started in 2005. So 2004 was my last hurrah for batshit crazy-ass videogame collecting.


And finally, in my bedroom in 2004, were my Commodore 64 and PC game libraries. As I reported last year, the Commodore 64 stuff was also - quite tragically - eBayed off too. It was like cutting out a piece of my own soul, but at the time the market was hot for C64, and it helped pay for my wedding.

2008

Today, accompanying our new 32-inch flatscreen TV, my wife and I have an XBox 360, a Wii, a Gamecube, and a PS2, along with their respective game libraries. Also on the shelf with those games is our collection of Nintendo DS, GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy games.

In our office, I have the Odyssey 2 set up, which I showcased in a blog entry last year, as well as the PC, the twin Vectrex units, and some stand-alones.

I wish I had taken more pictures over the years of my gaming setups as they evolved. But life moves fast, and with so many great systems and games coming and going over the decades, it's not always easy to hit pause and reflect on what you've got.