If I had to choose one side, I would definitely pick PC gaming. Nevertheless, I really enjoy both. Started with an Atari 2600 Jr. as a child which killed our TV, then a Mega Drive afterwards (at times playing on the SNES at a friend's house), followed by watching my older brother play PC games in the mid 90s (Prince of Persia, Dune 2, Red Alert, Doom, Settlers, Civilization), then playing a lot of N64 at a friend's house while occasionally playing PC on the family computer for years (was only allowed four hours a week...), lots of Gamecube at the same friend's until I finally got my own PC. Started playing current games for a few years, then new ones started sucking (around 2010) with their general quality, them being incomplete, worse DRM etc), so I looked back to older ones, on both the PC as well as console. Ever since then, I've been playing older stuff almost exclusively.

/edit: As a general note. What should be interesting is that the gaming media, Nintendo as well as people in general have done a great job at rewriting gaming's history. Back in the days of SNES vs Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega won the console war in Europe, the US as well as smaller countries (Brazil is an interesting example). Still, with them leaving the hardware business, Nintendo fans being a lot more vocal post 00s (media, as well as people in general), it always gives off the impression that Nintendo won it back in the day/they had higher quality games. Series like Phantasy Star, Shining, Panzer Dragoon, Virtual-On, Sakura Taisen (well, ok, Japanese only) etc never get the recognition they deserve.

I've always done a lot of both. Started off as a console gamer with the NES and have swapped back and forth between consoles and PC pretty much all my life.

They both have their advantages, but other than the cost I think I prefer consoles. I don't seem to be able to get in to RTS games much any more and they were the main thing I played on PC, most of my favourite games have been console games.

I'd second the recommendation to get a 3DS (or 2DS) as it gives you access to a whole catalogue of different console games and should be reasonably affordable these days.

Thanks for the tip, I just played Mario Bros for the first time. There's allot to be said for the simplicity of a good 2d platformer.

Nintendo makes older games available on their newer platforms through the virtual console (You can get a Wii U) and then get a lot of games from the NES and SNES era that way - along with a bunch of great Wii U games, too.

The 3DS also is a great option, as mentioned earlier. The 3DS plays DS games also, but has a great collection of exclusives games that also feature the same play style as 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit eras, but with modern game design understandings.The Castlevania series on the DS (Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia) are in the style of Symphony of the Night and very good to excellent IMO. The RPG and JRPG offerings are amazing and still being made. A New 3DS will let you play the Monster Hunter games and Kid Icarus, too.

Of course, for $60 you could just wait a couple of months and get an NES Classic and for a little bit more the SNES Classic and get a bunch of great retro games for a small amount. The NES Classic is $2 a game and the SNES is a little bit more and includes the never released StarFox 2.

As for me, I grew up a console gamer and added the PC much later. I also kept my old systems, so I am fortunate to have played many of the classics. I have had to replace the 72 pin connector on my NES though.

Still pissed about the Mini NES bullshit.

The one person I know who manged to actually get one doesn't even want it.

I have 9 pieces in my living room and don't know what to do with them

One bit of revisionist history I like is this idea I've seen parroted that the Nintendo Seal of Quality was a significant factor in the post-Crash recovery, that it saved us from so many horrible, awful games. It might have made retailers happy and kept the really lousy stuff back in Japan, but as a player I can say that the NES still had about as much shit on it as the Atari 2600 did - thank you, Acclaim and LJN, among many others - and it wasn't uncommon to wait months between quality releases, especially if distribution issues meant you would never even see in stores the hidden gems that everyone knows about now.

I've always gone back and forth between console and PC gaming. Started with one of the Telstar Pong-clone machines, then had a Colecovision (with the adapter that let you play 2600 games on it), then the NES and onward, but we also had a PC clone and I got into stuff like Infocom and Sierra's games early. At this point, I think I'm mostly done with consoles, though, because the styles of games have converged so much over the last couple of decades that you're basically getting the same stuff to play regardless of what you're using, but at least on PCs you have more flexibility.

Ouch, I have never heard that one before. What's also funny regarding the crash: Too many people (even including some outlets) don't even know that the crash was a North American thing. Here in Europe, it never happened.

But it is coming back out this summer for $60 and the SNES Classic is selling at MSRP in stores and slightly over MSRP online.

I am bummed I missed the NES Classic the first time around and the limited quantities they made, but more are on the way. I was able to get an SNES Classic though direct from a retailer and they are still out there as I just got mine about a month ago.

That's what they said last year. :P

I've shared both the PC and console for my life, but it was mostly console and practically Nintendo only until around 2013, when I got sick of the 3DS.

I've missed plenty of classics from all the houses. But I've also missed buying plenty of duds, stinkers, and buying consoles that would do nothing but collect dust.

Console gaming is too expensive these days in my opinion, due to a lack of sales, and the initial cost of investment into what is basically a low end PC. Or a tablet without any actual tablet features.

I've missed things like Quake, Halo, and [Insert PS2 title here], but I have manged to capture some of that on my Vita, playing classics like Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Mana, Metal Gear Solid 3...

As for anything made before the Wii? I can't be bothered to track down a system and games, so why worry about some vague foreboding legality? Chances are, the company that made the game is dead or is no longer recognizable as it were.

But when you can, you should look into trying to legally obtain what you can, like buying games on GOG. I would say the Virtual Console, but I have no idea what Nintendo is doing aside from releasing arcade games on the Switch, which is great if that's your sort of thing, but who wants to play VS Mario Bros?

I'm the opposite.

Outside of some old King's Quest floppies, a copy of VtMB that didn't run very nicely, and Castle Adventure on DOS, I skipped PC gaming almost entirely until 2010. Prior to that, I had most consoles i.e. NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64, etc. Most games I enjoy and remember fondly come from the same platforms and eras, although, that might just be because I didn't do any PC gaming prior to then.

In the past, going both consoles and PC was probably the best option to get the best of both worlds since certain genre types generally seemed better on one platform vs the other. Nowadays, most consoles are just underpowered PCs along with all the problems that go with them, so it's almost moot to get a console unless it has some exclusives you really want (which is pretty much the only reason I have a PS4 and Switch). I could easily see somebody going full PC post 360 even if they tend to enjoy more console-centric games.

As a kid and a youngster, I always preferred (gaming) computers over consoles because I just liked that the system could do something else besides mere gaming, even making games of my own. Consoles just felt too... restricted.

Also in the console cartridge days, at least NES/SNES/Megadrive games were far more expensive than computer games.

The first time I started showing interest to gaming consoles was Playstation. It had grown beyond the cartridge limitation, and some of its exclusives started interest even me. So at some point I went ahead and bought a Playstation, along with some JRPGs and racing games (Gran Turismo) that I had heard so good things about.

When my Playstation finally broke down, I replaced it with a PS2 as it could run my old Playstation games too, plus PS2.

But that was the end of console gaming for me. Starting from PS3 and XBox360, it started feeling consoles get pretty much the same games as PC, so if one has a gaming PC anyway, why buy a new console? Playstation and PS2 era was better, both consoles and PC had more exclusives so it made more sense to have both, and also I liked how hassle-free and simple Playstation and PS2 were. Newer consoles like PS3 and PS4 seem quite a bit more complicated, a bit like restricted PCs which you can use only for gaming.

I don't see myself buying a new console anymore, PC gaming is where its at for me. PC is the most versatile gaming platform, being able to play the most ancient PC and non-PC games, along with the latest and greatest (PC) games. Try playing e.g. Amiga, Mattel Intellivision, Coleco and GameCube games on your PS4 or XBoxOne... And since I prefer DRM-free gaming... good luck with that on consoles (yes physical copy protection is also a form of DRM).

Is there a new console generation coming anyway, or is it just Switch?

they meant their brief stint as a baby goat in addition to when they were a child