A child who owned one Console had to believe in it. The purchase was too large, the Christmas too recent, the parents too difficult to approach again. Every exclusive became proof of wisdom. Every missing genre became unnecessary. Console Monogamy was not fandom. It was household balance sheet defense performed by children.

Multiple Console Households were different.

These were usually Prep households IME, sometimes high-tier Nerds, almost always with Bonus Rooms. The Genesis remained connected after the PS1 arrived. The N64 appeared at Christmas without requiring the older hardware to disappear. A Saturn might sit beneath the television for “arcade games.” Later, a Dreamcast entered almost casually, as though new Platforms were seasonal decor.

This produced Platform Optionality.

The Prep did not need Mario 64 to defeat Crash Bandicoot or Final Fantasy VII to humiliate Zelda. He could simply walk across the carpet and press a different Power Button. Exclusives were not tribal weapons because they were locally available. Console Wars sound less important when all belligerents are connected to the same Receiver.

The physical setup mattered. Multiple Consoles required Inputs. Sometimes an A/V switchbox. Labeled cords. A father who understood that yellow went into yellow and did not become angry when the television displayed static. This was Domestic Systems Integration years before the child encountered an enterprise environment.

By contrast, the Single Console child learned Ideology. If he had N64, CDs were fragile and load times were intolerable. If he had PS1, cartridges were childish and Nintendo had no mature games. If he had Saturn, the machine was secretly more powerful and Japan understood it. He spent years constructing arguments around whatever was already under his television.

Clique differences followed naturally.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5881891&forum_id=2\u0026hid=#49993647)