Or at the time, the TG-CD or the Saturn? I owned a TG-16 and the CD add-on fairly early on - shortly after it came out. It did nothing to promote optical media as a good medium for gaming. It had games that I didn't like - Sherlock Holmes for example - that were really just a bunch of low budget boring cutscenes that did a poor job of building a game. It also had games I did like - like Street Fighter, Ys Book 1+2, and Monster Lair that were lessened by the loading times inherent in the format, but were only marginally improved by the additional storage capacity.
Now, looking back, I *know* that Sony did some things that were very crucial to bringing gaming forward as a medium. Specifically they broadened the audience and brought in many new casual gamers. They also changed the business model by introducing the first CD based system that was reasonable for gaming - lessening the manufacturing costs and risks involved in publishing a game.
They also changed gaming in ways that I didn't like. An example was their insistence that games published for their system had to take significant advantage of the 3D hardware to do things that couldn't be done on the SNES. A prime example of where this went wrong was with the Contra games on the system.
What's interesting to me now is that all of this is coming full circle. Nintendo has re-invented itself and now the positions are reversed. Nintendo is doing things that are bringing new casual gamers into the fold, and are purposely keeping their system capability and capacity down to try and keep development costs from inflating beyond what's sustainable as a business model. Hopefully in 10 years some of you will be able to look back at what's happening now, and see it as a good thing.
The funniest bit will be that in about 10 years, somebody else will be introducing something new that brings in new casual gamers, and changes the business model for the better. Those who began gaming with Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit, will be complaining about how gaming is being ruined.