I, like a few others I have seen reply, was not alive in 97. Anyway I thought I would talk about the first two game consoles I ever owned.
The first was actually a Nintendo Gameboy Color I had bought from my cousin. Sadly there wasn't any sub games at the time(or at least any I knew about) but I sunk
many, many hours into Pokemon.
The Second was a Sony Playstation 2. I don't remember owning any sub games on the PS2 either, but I do remember a game involving jet fighters. The most memorable game as well as my favorite PS2 game of all time was Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis.
Last I wanted to mention the first sub game I remember playing. Which was Silent Hunter 5. Before SH5 I hadn't really even known there was a genre of sub games and sims out there. Also without SH5 I never would have found the Subsim forums, so thanks SH5.
P.S. Congrats on 20 years Subsim