The PSOne and the N64 were the systems that really hooked me.
Nintendo had this great idea of putting four controllers on one system (craziness!) and I just remember 4-man Goldeneye, NFL Blitz, Gretzky Hockey and WWE games by THQ being all me and my friends did afterschool. Sure there were converters before that, but I was a kid and my parents weren't made of money. So it saved me $30 I was never going to spend and applied to more games. Nintendo took a hit to the accesories moneys but changed how several other companies did business (cough, except the PS2).
Which leads me to the PSOne; it had some amazing titles that made me finally appreciate solo games, Soul Reaver (that game needs a reboot), MGS, Tomb Raider. It had crazy graphics, lots more voiceovers and the music wasn't midi files! It gave you games that had serious ambience.
That was a great era for me, definitely not the Golden or Silver Age of Gaming, but solid nonetheless!