Who influenced my love my games? Let's take a look:

~1989: My idea of games come from Ernie's ABCs on our Apple II GS and some "interesting" cartridges on our Texas Instruments console. Alpiner is still the greatest mountain climbing game I've ever played.
~1990: My cousins, Eric and Ryan, talk about the NES at Thanksgiving. My interest, and my loyalty to Nintendo, begins. I ask for an NES for Christmas, but instead I receive a Game Boy.
~1991: My neighbors, the Dohertys, got an NES and many an afternoon was spent playing Super Mario and Duck Hunt. My other neighbors, the Benchoffs, introduce me to the magic of Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog. My cousin Kevin substantially increases my Game Boy collection. The first SNES ads start to enchant me. "When it comes to value, don't forget, the Super Nintendo super set!"
~1992: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat cause arcade machines to spring up all over town. I buy my own SNES with money from first communion. Mario World, Kart, and All Stars become my life, and to a lesser extent, so does Inspector Gadget. Oregon Trail is prehaps the first educational game that was ever entertaining.
~1993: Donkey Kong Country revolutionizes SNES graphics. Sonic 3 does the same thing for the Genesis, sort of. David Preshuck and Wes Hadden introduce me to Streets of Rage, Primal Rage, Kirby's Adventure, Legend of Zelda, and Sega Channel (whoo!) When I get hit by a car, I do nothing but be drugged and play mediocre SNES games in the hospital.
~1994: I don't know what I did this year. Probably played some soccer or something. I do know that I became friends with Justin Sandberg last year and now we share new games all the time. He practically creates my love of Megaman.
~1995: PSX is coming, and I'm not sure if it's better than a Sega Saturn. Sega CD sucks a lot of ass this year. Virtual Game Boy hurts a lot of people's eyes. I get a PSX for Christmas instead of Legos. It was a good trade.
~1996: Wild Arms and FFVII turn my typical hour gaming sessions into 5-10 hour marathons. A limit is put on my screen time at home. Mario 64 demos in Toys R Us are by far the coolest thing ever.
~1997: Some people get Goldeneye, and any other gaming is put aside for fierce competition. We play Ocarina of Time when we can't scrounge up 4 people and my friend is tired of destroying me in Liscence to Kill. I buy Jet Moto, some Final Fantasy stuff, and Crash Bandicoot is still sweet.
~1998: My parents foolishly give me Starcraft as a birthday present. I also soon get a new computer so I can actually play it (we had a Mac).
~1999: I think this is when I want to buy an N64 and my mom makes me sell all my SNES stuff. When I find out that I can only get $1 for the console, I keep it and curse my stupidity at not just hiding the games. Goodbye Donkey Kong Country 3 and Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB! More Final Fantasy goodness this year.
~2000: Dreamcast? WTF? I didn't even know the Saturn was dead. My PSX is still running strong even though I leave Final Fantasy VIII on for days at a time. Metal Gear Solid becomes my favorite game story, and Legacy of Kain is a close second. I am forced to return a copy of Goldeneye because "all you do is shoot people".
~2001: I pray to God to bring me a PS2 for Christmas. I'm not sure how that worked out, but my Mom bought one from an ad in the paper. SSX becomes my favorite racing game of all time. I rent Tekken and unlock everything in about 3 hours. NHL 2001 becomes the most played game by people in my house who are not me. During the year, Perfect Dark is our replacement for Goldeneye. Ah, the wonders of the Laptop Gun.
~2002: Ah, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, Crazy Taxi, SSX Tricky, and Tony Hawk. Sweet sweet sequels. My sister, thanks to extreme sports being sometimes extremely easy, plays games more than ever before. Halo starts bringing together people who never played games together before.
~2003: I'm starting college. More gaming time! Disgaea is wonderful but embarasses me in front of my roomate. I pick up a lot of PS1 RPGs that I wanted. I also get some PS2 RPGs that were too expensive before. For the first time in my gaming life, I start building up a backlog.
~2004: I play Samurai Warriors until I fall off a ledge and shatter both my heels. Two months of horrible pain later, and I have a Gamecube and a bunch of new PS2 games to try. Prince of Persia is the best puzzler since Oddworld. I foster my obsession with unlocking things by getting Ratchet and Clank and a DBZ fighting game. I play Wind Waker for the first time, and am seriously impressed with everything but the sailing. I borrow an Xbox during the launch of Halo 2, and get to play it on Xbox live. It is sweet, but not as sweet as the original.
~2005: Xbox live kills the Halo party. So does World of Warcraft. I spend more money on games this year than I have on anything else in my life (action figures, legoes, even magic cards), totaling just shy of $1000. Donkey Konga becomes the greatest thing since Halo.