Modern gamers have it so simple these days. HDMI has unified the way we connect our devices to televisions, removing the awkwardness of regional AV standards and streamlining the whole process, offering up pin-sharp visuals and digital audio for games consoles and other media devices.
Rewind to the dawn of the '90s, and the AV landscape was much different. Coaxial RF (radio frequency) connections were commonplace all over the world, and this was how the vast majority of people played consoles like the Atari 2600, NES and Master System.
Then came the likes of composite AV, RGB SCART and S-Video – superior connections which (in the case of SCART) were more popular in certain territories than others. Add into the mix the fact that a 60Hz / 50Hz frequency division exists in the world, and there were additional hurdles to overcome – especially if you lived in Europe and wanted to play the very latest import games from North America and Japan. If you didn't have the correct connection (and TV), then you were often out of luck.