Games

Inevitably, it was the straightforward world of consoles that began to lift games-playing out of the basements and into a position of pride beneath the televisions. Sony’s PlayStation brought a level of sophistication to a hobby that was genuinely impressive enough to make people proud to be a gamer again, and when its successor the PS2 arrived with a built in DVD player that was both cheaper than many stand-alone players and looked more like an adult gadget than a plastic toy, attitudes had already begun to swing.