My gaming history is vast so I'll break it up into those that were my purchased and used during their lifespans as well as those bought after the fact. This will be my personal gaming history starting with systems that I could say were mine.
Mainline History: I still own Game Gear, Genesis, PS2, PS4, PSV, Wii, Switch
NES - It came with Mario and Duckhunt. I also got Ninja Turtles 2 with it. So many hours on Ninja Turtles. Love that game to this day. Other than Ninja Turtles my favorites included Mario 3, Battletoads and Double Dragon. I got this in the summer of 1991 and I was 10 years old.
Game Gear - I got this in 1992 for having very good grades. I still have it to this day and am working on a project to get a Ninja Turtles alteration on the ROM of Streets of Rage 2. This will be a slow process but worth it in the end. This is my favorite handheld system of all time and I will never be getting rid of mine. Some of my favorite games include Jurassic Park, Sonic Triple Trouble and Streets of Rage 2.
Genesis - I still have mine and have loved many games on the system. Not sure if I'll ever get rid of it but it's one of only two classic systems I still own. While most my friends had SNES, I was always more of a Sega kid due to Sonic but there were many great games on the Genesis and frankly, the physical design of the second model was pretty cool. Some of my favorite games include Sonic 3 and Knuckles Lock-on, Jurassic Park and Comix Zone.
PS1 - Worked my rear off summer of '95 to pay for it with various neighborhood jobs. Saved up half o fthe system's cost and my grandparents paid for the other half as a Christmas gift. Great memory. While I don't have the system anymore, I still have about 50 games that I can play on my PS2 slim. Some of my favorite games include Resident Evil, Tomb Raider 2, Destruction Derby, Oddworld and Twisted Metal 2.
Virtual Boy - I got this when it was on it's way out. I think it was on the market for maybe 9 months before shops started putting them on clearance. I got mine with some birthday money for $35 brand new. I got 3-4 games at $10 each and the AC adapter at $10. While it did give you headaches after about 15 minutes it still had some fun games. Some of my favorites were Galactic Pinball, Red Alarm and Panic Bomber.
Dreamcast - This is the first system I bought with actual job money. My senior year in high school started the same day this launched. That didn't stop me from going to the midnight launch an hour away from my home. I was tired but it was worth it. One of Sega's best. Too bad it was their last. Some favorite games of mine were Shenmue (obviously), Sonic Adventure, and Resident Evil Code Veronica. God... I played the demo of that at the store so many times.
Game Boy Advance - Definitely Nintendo's best handheld. Having a portable Super Nintendo was great, especially when I never had the original. I later upgraded this version to the GBA SP. Some of my favorite games for it were Donkey Kong Country, Tomb Raider, and Super Dodge Ball.
PS2 - I got this the tax season after it launched. A great system to be sure. The exclusive library on it was just insane. I remember upgrading my base system with the HDD and the Network Adaptor. I even bought a USB keyboard for it. All of that was to ensure that my first online Resident Evil experience would be epic when RE Outbreak released. I believe to this day that RE Outbreak is still the game I put the most hours into. My favorite games for this system were RE Outbreak 1 & 2, ICO, Onimusha, and the Prince of Persia series.
Gamecube - I still hold this as the best Nintendo system ever created. It's the Nintendo that got me into 3D Zelda games and I actually had every Zelda on it at one point. When I expanded upon my base system to include the network adapter and the GBA Player it was quite a site to behold. Games like Resident Evil Remake, Zelda Twilight Princess, and Smash Bros blew my mind back when I first played them. Incredible system and it also had one of the best controllers ever made. Probably why Nintendo has had backwards compatibility with the controllers with every console they've made since.
PSP - I preordered this without issue. My buddy and I had dreamed up a portable Playstation years before this was announced and had hoped it would come true at one point. This was a great system and I regret selling mine when the PSV released. I used this for lots of video watching on buses. I liked the UMD format that movies would come on. I was using this as a multi-media device before cell phones took over. My favorite games for it were Twisted Metal Head-On, Ridge Racer, and GTA Liberty City Stories.
PS3 - I got the 20GB model at launch for $500. I later upgraded but the $500 mark has always been my top out for buying a game system. While the PS3 started really .... really.... slowly... it later made up for it big time. There were tons of great games on it after the first year and little did I know that a company I had written off as a kid game company would create my favorite series of all time; Uncharted. Uncharted 2 still remains as my favorite game of all time and I genuinely hope that we haven't seen the last of the series. Other than Uncharted some of my favorite games for it included Resident Evil 5, Tomb Raider (2013), and The Last of Us.
Wii - One of Nintendo's worst systems ever created. I hate... absolutely HATE motion controls. There has been a small handful of decent games with motion controls over the last 12 years and Zelda Skyward Sword was not one of them. The Wii and Skyward Sword ruined me on Nintendo for two generations. The only reason I even still have one is because Nintendo has yet to announce a New Super Mario game for the Switch. Best get on that boys.
PSV - Playstation had so far been great and with the promise of an Uncharted game as a launch title, I was all in on the PSV. Games like Assassin's Creed and Need for Speed were coming to the handheld and I could envision an incredible handheld run with the PSV given that it was the first to have dual analog sticks. I really don't know what happened but after the two year mark, Sony called it quits and the PSV died almost quicker than the Dreamcast.
PS4 - Earlier today I decided that PS4 is my favorite game system of all time. It has tons of great exclusives, ports of the best games from PS3 and then remasters or remakes of some of the best games throughout history such as Resident Evil Remake, Amplitude and the upcoming rerelease of Shenmue 1 and 2. I'll definitely be getting a PS5 but I'm in no hurry to move on. Hopefully PS5 will have PS4 backwards compatibility.
Switch - I decided to give Nintendo another try as they were finally off of their advertising that motion controls were mandatory. While it still has the motion controls, it's anything but mandatory in most games and I always play with a Pro Controller. This was great fun getting to the kids as I created a massive clue hunt for them to follow. We ended up going all over town to their favorite places until finally returning home where they found a 14" box painted to look like a question mark box from Mario. Inside was the system, Zelda, Mario Kart and some accessories. Great memory.
After Thought Purchases: I don't have any of these anymore.
Atari 2600 _ Pitfall and Dig Dug.
Game Boy Color - This had Metal Gear Solid.
SNES - Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country and Mario World were awesome.
N64 - Golden Eye... that is all.
Jaguar - Alien vs Predator was pretty cool.
Game.com - This actually had RE2 believe it or not.
Goldstar 3DO - This collected dust.
Sega CD - Loved Sonic CD, Jurassic Park, and Sewer Shark.
Sega 32X - Doom, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing were the best on here.
Sega Saturn - Daytona and Nights were great.
Xbox - Owned for one whole month before becoming disgusted with the Halo 2 community and selling it.