The golden age of gaming?

[Blue Protoman]

For me, it's between roughly 1990 and 2001. Dates are for North America. I'm going to simply state a few representative games for each year.
1990: Super Mario Bros. 3
1991: Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog
1992: Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mortal Kombat
1993: Star Fox, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
1994: Donkey Kong Country
1995: Couldn't come up with anything else, so Donkey Kong Country 2
1996: Super Mario 64
1997: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
1998: Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999: Age of Empires II, Dance Dance Revolution / Dancing Stage
2000: Zelda: Majora's Mask
2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee

You forgot Street Fighter II.

[xyzzy32]

I never played the Street Fighter series. that also goes for Metal Gear Solid, SoulCalibur, and to an extent StarCraft.
Goldeneye should be on the list alongside SOTN for '97.
The reason I leave out the 80's is because, while this period saw the renaissance of gaming in NA and saw new, creative ideas produced, these ideas were frequently not fleshed out and bare-bones, even if they had the necessity, core gameplay, intact.
For instance:
ALttP > LoZ
Super Mario Bros. 3 > Super Mario Bros.
The last year could also be '99.

[Medisinyl]

ALttP > LoZ

Zelda II > LoZ > ALttP > all other Zelda games...

[PatMan33]

Aww dude really? Playing Zelda is like an endurance test. It gets points for being Zelda and introducing some cool things but it's a freaking pain to play nowadays. Same goes for Zelda II. They're both great but dated... even a shot of pure nostalgia to the heart couldn't bring them up.

Fear my opinion for it is not yours!

[Medisinyl]

Clearly not, as I find Zelda II to be one of the best games ever made.  Though I do notice games outside the NES...I'd say Chrono Trigger, SOTN, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and God of War are also amongst some of the best games ever made.

[ericj]

Playing Zelda is like an endurance test. It gets points for being Zelda and introducing some cool things but it's a freaking pain to play nowadays.

Agreed. Back in the day, I could play it for hours on end. Not so much anymore. Maybe because I don't have hours and hours of free time anymore.

[Medisinyl]

   /\  I don't think Zelda even takes hours and hours to complete.  And I can agree to some extent that Zelda I is outdated (still good however), though Zelda II has always felt like a Medieval Mega Man game on steroids to me.

[ericj]

It doesn't take long to beat it now. When I was a kid, I didn't have the map and it took awhile my first time through. 

[Drakon]

I play lttp regularily.  But yeah, I have it so memorized that 2 hours = everything done

[Blue Protoman]

I never played the Street Fighter series.

1. PLAY IT
2. Read up on your video game history.  SFII was a mega-hit (stress) in 1991.  That one game revolutionised fighting games.  It was really good, unless you bought the home version, except for the SNES.  The SNES version is the best port of SFII.

[son_ov_hades]

No way the Genesis version is way better. The SNES controller sucks for 6 button fighting games.

[Blue Protoman]

1. Arcade Stick
2. It plays better.  Compare all of the different SFII versions and you tell me which one sucks the least.

[Agent X]

No way the Genesis version is way better. The SNES controller sucks for 6 button fighting games.

You're being facetious right? Once one got the knack of the two
top button L & R respectively... I always found the SFC/SNES controller
much easier with VS. FIGHTING games than any other controller that
has ever come out then up to right now in 2009.  If you're serious then
you're the first I've met who preferred the Mega Drive controller.

[Medisinyl]

/\  I don't think the 6 button Genesis controller with X,Y,Z is bad at all.

[Agent X]

Well that's two of you then.   

The (6) button Mega Drive controller was a lot better than the (3) button one, toggling with the Start button that's for sure, but I always found the layout of the SFC controller more conducive to my hands, and usually had the strongest/fierce punch or kick in VS. FIGHTING games (Dragon Punch, etc.) utilizing "L" and the strongest kicks utilizing "R" while keeping the intermediate and jab buttons on the actual controller.  But hey, everyone's different.