This is the second part of a four-part series that will look at how I became the nutball, Sony fanboy, obsessive gamer I am. As you read this, if you have similar thoughts or your own stories please add them to the comments, click here to read part 1 of this series.
Back to consoles...the SNES and Genesis days were great. My brother and I played the hell out of so many games like Breath of Fire 2, Star Fox, Shining Force 1 & 2, Chrono Trigger, ShadowRun, Final Fantasy 3 (6), Streets of Rage 2, and many more. 
I was still a 'kid' and relied on presents or buying myself a game once a year...but that was about to change. Around 1993/1994 I had a job, disposable income and heard about the Sega 32X addon for the Genesis. This was the start of the next generation (so I thought) and I wanted it badly. Thankfully around that time I started a habit I still have to this day—research. I researched the hell out of the 32X and discovered it was crap. The technology was misleading, it was expensive, the games were barely an improvement, and there was little support for it.
That was around the time the immortal PlayStation term started to creep out into the industry. Sony, the makers of Walkman and Betamax, making a console? It will never work. I researched the hell out of it and found out that this was actually an incredibly powerful and well thought out console, that it could do 3D games like we have never seen before and that it would change the gaming world. I didn't buy it; it was too good to be true. The screens for Battle Arena Toshinden were too good to be true, and boy was it expensive. 
I couldn't afford it at the time and there was nothing on it yet to interest me (except the nerd factor), besides there were tons of SNES and Genesis RPGs coming out that were keeping me busy. One game changed all of that for me, and that game was Final Fantasy 7. I may not have mentioned it enough, but I am a Square fanboy. I devoured every Square game I could get and back then Japan would have a game one to two years ahead of us, which killed me. I then found out that Square would not support the Nintendo 64 due to their insistence on cartridges (I was strongly considering an N64 for RPG reasons) and would support the PlayStation. They would be globally relaunching their Final Fantasy brand on Sony’s new console; hence the decision on whether to purchase the PlayStation was made for me.
I bought my PlayStation (one) in September 1997 with a shiny copy of Final Fantasy 7. I played this game like the world was ending, and so many moments still resonate with me. To this day the thought of Aeris sinking below the water or the sound of Sephiroth's theme music sends chills down my spine. For the next three years I bought, played, and traded dozens of games for that system. But that wasn't the height of my obsession, for it was the PlayStation 2 that brought me to new heights of gaming geekdom.
Article comments
1 - WWII
"To be continued in Part 3 - The Gamer Evolves "
-Let me try to see the future! You then bought an X360 and now you're an Xbox fanboy that loves to play Halo? lol
2 - Michael Prince
Not quite! =-)
Love my 360, like Halo, but there are much more changes then that...what happens when a gamer grows up and still wants to play while building their life/career?
Part three will be up on the weekend.
3 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I then found out that Square would not support the Nintendo 64 due to their insistence on cartridges
Yea..Who would have thunk that such a brilliant video game company couldn't foresee the technical advantages of CD-Rom. I was really pissed at Nintendo at the time, though, I freakin loved Star Fox64. In essence, PS1 was supposed to be the CD-Rom drive for Nintendo. Can you imagine what the gaming world would be like if that deal got the green light?
4 - Jason Westhaver
Part Three, where Mike's relationship with Sony takes a Delivernce-esque turn. Squeel like a Sack-boy.