Oh nah!!! you don't understand. The console wars were roothless. Each week we go to the magazine stand and watch the covers of the GamePro or Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine giving the new games and which games get the 5 star review for pushing your console an inch better. The best rivarly that you can compare to is with maybe the Android vs IPhone of the mid 2010's.
You got covers like this:
And commercials like that:
You got school discussions how Mortal Kombat was better on the SEGA Genesis because they didn't censor the blood from the game while Nintendo was a pussy for turning it into sweat. I know it was the ultimate geekiness conversation while your friend was talking about who to date, and you were excited about a 'console'.
Fun times, nevertheless. There is even a documentary that came out last year about the famous console wars of the 90s.
Update: There is also a book as well.
Never got into that but I can already tell it mattered a lot as how it became a pop-culture/meme reference on manga like Kengan Ashura in the most absurd ways. I may have to follow on a bit more of that later as it just comes off as a simple rivalry of geeks from an outsider (never been invested in consoles, friends just talk about it and I'm just nodding like yeah.)