Being into art at the time, was facinated with Silicon Graphics computers. If I could "wish" a xmas present, it would have been (something like) an SGI Indigo2 system.
It wasn't long before a 486-PC entered our home. It was certainly a learning experience trying to get Windows 3.1 to work but it was DooM that completely changed my views on video games. I never expected graphics to make such a huge leap when I considered Mortal Kombat 2 to be peak graphics! How game graphics changed for the rest of the 90s is insane!!!
When the Nintendo 64 came about (originally Ultra 64 and Project Reality) I honestly had a childish attitude that NOTHING would touch it for a long time because it was SGI under the hood! In defence of my childish attitude, I was still a child.
The harsh reality is... by the time the Nintendo 64 was on the shelves I knew it was already "old tech" after watching (and playing) a demo of Tomb Raider 2 in a computer shop. It was likely a Pentium 90 mhz computer with Windows 95, maybe 500GB Hard drive space and running on VooDoo graphics. Once you get over the awesome graphics you realise that these machines can be anywhere from £600-£1500.
My defensive side kicks in... but.. but.. SGI is still better, right? They cost so much more they are not about games, they are for Hollywood movies! A year or two after, seeing what 3D animation software can do... wouldn't be surprised if rendering speed was competitive on Windows 98 machines to SGI ones.
Move on to today. Our phones are more powerful than those really expensive SGI systems from 1992. It is crazy when you think about it.