r/videogames • u/Mintangah17 PlayStation • 11h ago

Discussion / Question what was the very first piece of hardware that started your gaming journey?

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4.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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338

u/DrNanard 10h ago

The NES. I'm old.

112

u/wafflehousebattle 9h ago

Pfft, Atari 2600.

22

u/b0atdude87 9h ago

Channel 3 or Channel 4 adapter for the win.

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u/wafflehousebattle 9h ago edited 9h ago

I remember having to explain to a pair of Harvard Brain Trust customers, at Walmart, that the PS1 wasn't showing on their TV not because of, as they stated, a short in the wire, but because they needed to to switch the TV to input, not channel 3. That generational crossover really made me second guess my faith in humanity.

7

u/TaterForming 5h ago

Yea I've found that my place in the annuls of Gen X just made it so that I'm tech support for my mother and my 21 year old b/c neither generation seems to know how shit works.

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u/Expert-Ad3874 8h ago

Same. Wood paneling on consoles needs to come back.

11

u/apsilonblue 7h ago

1978 Xmas for me to be exact. Replaced by the Commodore 64 in 1984 and to blame for a 30 year IT career.

5

u/DiceandDualsense 6h ago

Mine was the CPC464.... after my Atari 2600 of course

3

u/apsilonblue 6h ago

There's a brand I haven't thought of in forever. We had Microbees in the computer lab in highschool.

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u/Peacockprince 5h ago

Oo the Commodore 64 and followed by the Amiga

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u/apsilonblue 4h ago

Yeah I went to the Amiga 500 next and then to my first PC, a 386SX-20 with 4MB RAM and an 80MB HDD with SVGA graphics. Fairly high end at the time at least in terms of RAM and HDD.

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u/canman7373 4h ago

pfft Texas instrument. Tunnel's of Doom, it had a full tape recorder that plugged into the TI and recorded you game using modem like sounds then you could load up the place you last saved with the tape. I wonder if that was the first savable game.

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u/Kindly-Committee-908 9h ago

Wow, it's as old as me. There we're still Space Invaders and Pac-Man Cabs when I was little. Playing arcade games at home must've been mind blowing.

6

u/Jaydeekay80 8h ago

Not really....

Here was Pac-Man at home back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPpgt0s70U

And here's Donkey Kong for good measure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Py4AEKTi4A

6

u/wetwater 6h ago

I put countless hours in both of those games, as well as Q*Bert. My mother was a demon at Asteroids and Frogger. She would kick your ass, wipe the floor with you, then challenge you to another game. I learned to not accept her challenges.

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u/xenomachina 4h ago

Even at the time, the 2600 port of Pac-Man was known for being pretty bad.

I read a review in a magazine back then comparing it to the Atari 400/800 port, and the 2600 port was significantly worse. This was partly due to the 2600 being a less capable machine than the computers at that time, but partly it was due to the port being rushed out. The 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man is much better.

3

u/Jaydeekay80 4h ago

Yes, I remember Ms Pac-Man being way better. DK Jr was too.

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u/PachymuNyet 7h ago

Pfft, Tektronix 4010

And THEN Atari 2600. (Actually, Sears Telegames)

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u/dbasinge 9h ago

Same.

Amateurs!!!

5

u/OGGriftimus 2h ago

Same... now my newest gaming hardware is bifocals

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u/Eruntalonn 2h ago

I had an Atari, but NES was a thing already. But it’s crazy to think that both my Atari and NES weren’t actually an Atari and a Nintendo NES, both were a third party consoles that could run the games.

3

u/janderson75 8h ago

There’s dozens of us!

I put so many hours into COMBAT … probably why I ended up in a tank eventually

3

u/wafflehousebattle 8h ago

Yeah, that's because the rest of them have kicked off already, remember to pour one out for them.

3

u/janderson75 8h ago

For real. For the homies…Meanwhile I’m like yay wow forever in a few weeks!

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u/the_axemurmurer 6h ago

Pong machine lol

3

u/WulfZ3r0 3h ago

It was my parent's from before I was born, but same. Both parents were huge arcade gamers.

We got the NES in '87 and it was a family console. The whole thing were every kid has their own system didn't happen back then. Unless your family was extremely well off or something.

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u/Marshall104 10h ago

We're not old, we just have more experience points and are a higher level.

4

u/KDallas_Multipass 2h ago

Classically trained

3

u/Fennel-Revolutionary 9h ago

I like your thinking sir!

4

u/PrettyQuick 10h ago

You're in the endgame

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16

u/T0RPED0TIT 9h ago

One of my earliest memories is sitting in my mom's lap playing Duck Hunt on Christmas morning the year it came out.

5

u/Coital_Conundrum 9h ago

That was an awesome Christmas. Duck Hunt blew my little kid mind!

3

u/Filthy-Pirate-6342 8h ago

Damn that laughing dog!

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u/Ganjelf-The-Baked 9h ago

Sega Master System 2 for me, my sister had a NES and I was extremely jealous of Duck Hunt and the gun that came with it! Memories of a simpler time!

3

u/TheFergPunk 9h ago

Master System 2 for me as well. Had one with Alex Kidd built in.

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u/Automaticman01 9h ago

I remember when we got the NES for Christmas one year. My mom had taken it out and wrapped it up so I got the system, but my dad got the controllers and games.

We definitely didn't get it right when it came out. The version we had was packaged with the duck hunt zapper, the power pad, and all 3 games (including Mario) on a single cartridge.

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u/82ndGameHead 10h ago

First one I played. First one I could call my own was the SNES

5

u/YamiGekusu 10h ago

It was my dad's NES but it was my first back in the early 90s

4

u/Afraid_Stay_9529 10h ago

Yeah baby! NES at 7! SNES was out already but I didn't care!

4

u/DrNanard 8h ago

Me too. My first contact with video games was circa 1996, even de N64 was out lol

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u/Herr-Trigger86 9h ago

Me too.

My back hurts…I threw it out a month ago pushing a normal sized cart of groceries leisurely around the grocery store.

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u/PhatHamWallet 11h ago

My dad had an Atari, but for me it was the NES

6

u/cparksrun 11h ago

Similar for me. My cousins had an Atari but our house got an NES around the time I was born, so that's what I grew up with.

Since then, I've really leaned into the hobby and have always had all platforms at all times. Even if I'm a few years behind the latest iteration for each.

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u/the_bingho02 10h ago

My dad had a NES, but for me it was the Wii

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u/Significant-Roll-138 11h ago

Commodore 64 with an old tape deck for the games, you would play the tape to load up the game, it took maybe 10 mins and half the time would glitch out and not work,

But the good thing was you could copy your friends games onto blank cassettes for free games, and the fighter pilot style joystick 🕹️ was a kids dream.

6

u/asterothe1905 11h ago

C64 was my first love too. And Amstrad CPC464 concurrently. The latter having green and white screen threw me off for a while but it was a great computer too.

4

u/Significant-Roll-138 11h ago

I remember a friend having that or maybe an Amiga with the green screen and I thought woah he’s living in the future 😅😅
Ah the innocence of the 80’s…

4

u/asterothe1905 11h ago

Then came Amiga which was a huge step. 8 bit to 16 bit. That's my second love 😄

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u/Cocoatrice 11h ago

Commodore A500 for me.

5

u/Automaticman01 10h ago

We had a Commodore with a floppy disc drive and a modem that my dad would download games using. I remember asking him what "press play on tape" meant.

We also had an Atari 5200.

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u/RadioMessageFromHQ 10h ago

I started with a Super Nintendo. But I remember the jump from ps1 to ps2 being particularly impressive. And then again with the 360 I have a clear memory of thinking “this is it, graphics are never getting better than this.” while playing Gears of War.

I can’t imagine how crazy it must be going from the C64 to now.

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u/draggar 10h ago

Commodore Vic20 for me, but soon got a C=64.

4

u/GradeAPrimeFuckery 8h ago

Mine came with an Assembler cartridge that plugged into some port on the back. Being a godfather of r/kidsarefuckingstupid, I ignored it (and sleep) in favor of games.

Atari 2600 was the first thing our family had. CREATED BY WARREN ROBINETTE (Atari already fucking over game devs all the way back then.)

3

u/Newfaceofrev 10h ago

Similar but with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

3

u/0kokuryu0 10h ago

You could also record games from the radio, which I always thought was neat. I hated the sound, though.

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u/Relative_Aardvark495 10h ago

The Atari 2600.

9

u/FlyingFulcrum 9h ago

River Raid all the way

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u/ChiChiKnee 9h ago

I had the 2600. A friend of mine had a C64. I was so jealous of him.

3

u/Adventurous-Tank4980 9h ago

Same. I was a master of Yars Revenge!

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u/mangosport 7h ago

My first console was the PS1. Yes my knees and my back hurt

39

u/JakeHelldiver 7h ago

Laughs in NES

9

u/the_axemurmurer 7h ago

Laughs in pong machine

It was my dad's before I got a PS1

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u/-TheHumorousOne- 7h ago

Same, I now make an involuntary sound like a console booting up from standby mode whenever I get up from sitting.

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35

u/Temporary-Welder9415 10h ago

The Atari 2600 and the Commodore 64.

6

u/bburmast 10h ago

Ah, the Ancient Ones. I remember them fondly.

3

u/Warm-Comfortable501 10h ago

River Raid and Tanks was our jam way back when.

3

u/Remy315 9h ago

Atari and - are you ready for this? - a Coleco Vision!

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u/GlitteringAttitude60 8h ago

Commodore 64.

I actually copied games by typing the code that had been published in a magazine.

3

u/DarthWraith22 5h ago

And the gaming magazines publishing POKE cheat codes for various games in each issue… Ah, those were the days.

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u/jaybe503 2h ago

NES

https://giphy.com/gifs/BRRe07a9B1xkH8IkVV

10

u/Chronically__Crude 2h ago

Chocolate? Did you say chocolate? I remember when they invented chocolate. Sweet sweet chocolate.

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u/superspicycurry37 11h ago

If someone in this comments section says PS4 or Wii U I think I'm gonna spontaneously dissolve into dust and ashes.

Anyway it was a Game Boy Color and PS1 for me.

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u/neosid996 10h ago

Commodore 64

Still have vivid memories of the epilepsy inducing screen when the tape was loading.

5

u/realcleany 9h ago

Yes, I had one with tapes as well. It took ages, but you were able to copy games using a double tape deck 😛

5

u/DevOnTheStreets 9h ago

OG represent!

5

u/Responsible-Charge27 9h ago

Same had a CalecoVision at my grandmas though.

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u/New-Analyst1811 11h ago

One of the Atari consoles but quickly moved on to NES. Born in 86.

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u/MyCatIsAnActualNinja 10h ago

Same here, also '86. I found out recently it was the Atari 2600. Brown and black with a black joystick. I only remember playing Popeye on it.

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u/Aromatic-Tear7234 10h ago

I was born 76 and Atari. You youngins got the hand me downs.

3

u/Few_Highlight1114 6h ago

This is going to be true every time one of these threads gets made. People are/were poor and couldnt afford the latest stuff. My first console was an NES and that was it until the ps1.

In the battlefield sub, some guy made a thread talking about how he was playing BF1942 in 2009 because thats all he could afford being a broke kid.

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u/boxjocky 9h ago

Mine was a Coleco. Also 86

4

u/ThisIsPureTrash 11h ago

Same here. We had the wood grained Atari, whichever that was, but the NES is what really did it for me (born a year after you.)

3

u/Pescatarian_Triffid 10h ago

Happy cake day :D

3

u/Pleasant-Everywhere 10h ago

I was just behind you. NES, born in 88.

3

u/Sircheeksalot 10h ago

Master system to NES. Also 86

3

u/ittekimasu 10h ago

I remember parents getting an Atari and the NES releasing a week later, dad wasn't too happy about that

3

u/Harlockarcadia 10h ago

Born in ‘85 and same

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u/SolSavior 10h ago

PS1 for me, first game I ever played was Spyro 3

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u/Sierraone1seven 9h ago

Same, my bundle had crash bandicoot 2, gran turismo 2 and tekken 2. Goat bundle

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u/Infinite-Director-62 11h ago

When you’re old as fuck (37) and you had a Nintendo and a gameboy original and people older than you started with less and younger people are like “old gaming consoles are like PS1”😭

https://giphy.com/gifs/11vUtLUUATEwIE

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u/TheRilesEffect 10h ago

The ps1 is 32 years old. You were 5 when it came out. The original Nes came out 5 years before you were born, and the original Gameboy the year you were born.

Hate to tell you buddy, you were a part of the ps1 and ps2 generation

3

u/TaborValence 9h ago

yeah, the NES was my dad's but he never really played it, and it was kinda treated as a family electronic like the VCR and my parents only let us use it sometimes since it was on the family tv. The first console that was "for the kids" in my house was the ps1 (we skipped over the snes), and we got a separate garage sale tv for it in another room.

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u/Anthraxus 11h ago

37 isn't old...wtf

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u/Bl1ndMonk3y 10h ago

Yeah, fuck that guy, lol :-)

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u/Olympian-Warrior 10h ago

37 isn't old...

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u/SteveEcks 10h ago

This is adorable

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u/GroundbreakingAd8310 10h ago

This is a 12 year old

5

u/Left-Impress4056 10h ago

I read somewhere the average gamer age is like 36 or something.

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u/_A_R_A_Creations_ 11h ago

Sega Genesis

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u/ram3489 10h ago

Where my people at

3

u/Bendr_bones 10h ago

Sega Genesis was my first, and Sega Genesis III was my second console. Followed by Nintendo 64 and the brick Gameboy.

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u/VoidJuiceConcentrate 6h ago edited 3h ago

My first was a genesis/mega drive

Goddamn time doesn't stop moving.

Edit: my gaming golden age was the PS2 era. Though, current era games are also fantastic.

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u/Nogimick 5h ago

Super street fighter 2 and Sonic ...

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u/ThaPhantom07 11h ago

NES. I'm a fossil at this point.

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u/H_Katzenberg 11h ago

Frickin Atari 2600

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u/Any-Tomorrow-7344 11h ago edited 11h ago

Yep. Then a Sega Master System.

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u/AskPizza 11h ago

Atari 2600, complete with donkey kong, pac man, pong, and Joust.

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u/Bob_the_peasant 10h ago

The Atar-…urgh!

dies

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u/SubtotalTitan 8h ago

Colecovision!

6

u/WallacktheBear 5h ago

My neighbor had one. I absolutely loved the smurfs game. Mine was the 2600 from A-tar-I. If anybody remembers those ads it’s time for a colonoscopy.

3

u/Slammnardo 5h ago

Fuck those fences you had to jump over without busting your ass

4

u/54338042094230895435 7h ago

Oh good, I'm not the only old person in here. Thank you.

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u/Number6isNo1 7h ago

I still have the Colecovision that my grandparents gave me for Christmas when I was a kid. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

My 1st console was a 2600 with Yar's Revenge. I got lucky on my pick of 1st game, I still enjoy a quick game of Yar's revenge from time to time.

EDIT: It's probably hard for people now to realize how much better the graphics were on Colecovision than 2600 unless they are into retro gaming. Kids were like, "wow, looks at those graphics!"

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u/tallgrl94 6h ago

The SNES and the Sega Genesis!

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u/Supertails1992 5h ago

So many wonderful memories on my Sega Genesis. I had so many games for it.

https://giphy.com/gifs/1lmqpLW6BxtRK

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u/ShadowYT2001 11h ago

Nintendo DS, my parents got me and my brothers one for our first Christmas as a family after me and my older brother got adopted in 2006

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u/GulleFjun7 11h ago

Playstation 1

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u/BlueDemon999 10h ago

Can't remember when but I recall my very first console that I ever owned was a PS2.

Absolutely loved that lil machine.

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u/Anxious-Aardvark-332 10h ago

Me reading your comment

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u/burried-to-deep 5h ago

Atari 2600.
My first brand new console was a n64 my brother brought me.

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u/MarianLago 11h ago

Atari 2600

Omg, I feel very old...

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u/who_u_izz 10h ago

Remember going to RadioShack for this

Good times!

3

u/SayAnythingAgain 10h ago

I felt this picture right in the olds

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u/Neither_Internal_261 10h ago

If your first console was a Wii and this is how you feel then us NES and older folks must already me reduced to dust.

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u/your_moms_a_clone 7h ago

The computer: typing "dos" as it was booting

7

u/roberttheaxolotl 11h ago

An old dusty Pong set my parents had, and then later an NES.

7

u/kingrat1 10h ago

My first console was an NES - and it was $150. In 1987 dollars. My grandparents said it was my one present, but I was happy - until I remembered we didn't have a working TV in my house at the time.

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u/Fennel-Revolutionary 11h ago

My first console was a Nintendo NES so yeah I am old but hey still love gaming.

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u/Mental-Most-7168 11h ago

Atari 2600. Am I ready for the nursing home.

3

u/highlife562 11h ago

May your lower back feel better today.

6

u/ScreamingNinja 8h ago

Either Apple IIc or Atari 7800.
My buddy got the commodore.

3

u/Additional_Image2464 8h ago

I too had the 7800. I loved it. Didnt have many games but i loved it

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u/InSight89 6h ago

First console that I remember was the NES. But, my father also had a Commodore 64 which I played with.

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u/TheQuietDarkness70 11h ago

Pong.
Behold! I am The Ancient One!
Much I have seen. Much I have learned. Join me!

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u/Anthraxus 11h ago

Intellivision in 81

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u/Slouchman42 10h ago

Sega Genesis was my first console but I used to play the NES at this furniture/electronics store’s big TV for like 20 min whenever my family visited first.

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u/Environmental_Mud590 6h ago

My first console was also a Nintendo... 👴

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u/-WigglyLine- 11h ago

Mega Drive and Sonic the Hedgehog

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u/valerimazz 11h ago

PS2 was the first one I personally owned. My older brother had a PS1 that he would let me play games on sometimes.

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u/LorienLeef 11h ago

My uncle had an Atari, but the Sega Genesis was my first love 

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u/Original-Ice-5402 11h ago

Super Nintendo is when my brain said “this is it”

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u/joojoobee11 11h ago

N64 in the early 2000s

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u/FerryF1 11h ago

NES was my first. Then came SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5

3

u/Organic-Bluebird-737 11h ago

Kids today don’t even know what a Wii is

4

u/og-cnayur 11h ago

NES. Fun Fact: tricked my mom into buying one for my dad for a father's day gift from both of us, along with the game Test Drive II, claiming he might like it, as it was car related and kinda like the model train he had set up in the attic.

Secretly I knew full well he would lose interest in about a week, two tops, and then it would be mine.

Thus it was foretold, thus it came to pass.

5

u/hilsborg 11h ago

This bad boy, followed by a 486 PC

5

u/Direct-Cartoonist-75 11h ago

Gamecube and PS2 i played at my friends house as a kid.

4

u/Kytb95 11h ago

Sonic 2 on Sega Genesis

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u/requiem_phantom 11h ago

My first console was in fact a Wii, but that was bc my parents didn’t want my brothers and I to play a lot of games and it was easy for them to monitor our gaming that way.

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u/Bzduras 10h ago

Atari 2600 or Commodore 64, both was my brother's, but I can't recall wich was my first contact with games.

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u/Nonsenseinabag 10h ago

Texas Instruments TI-99/4a.

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u/FlamingoNo7044 10h ago

A PC at the library. I played Miniclip for an hour as often as possible lol

Edit: I can't believe I almost forgot Neopets!! ❤️❤️ loved that game

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u/I_do_not_have_it 9h ago

i feel like a new born here my first console was a GameCube lmao

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u/Padac 6h ago

My first 'consoles' were Tiger Electronics LCD hand held games...

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u/minimim-wage-enjoyer 11h ago

A gameboy advance.

Though I do have some early memories of being blown away by some older neighbor kid who had Turok and counter strike on his “pooter.”

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u/ItsShowtime_88 11h ago

Sega and SNES.

3

u/Confident-Disaster96 11h ago

It was december the 24th anno domini 1998. The little lad opened a gift laying under a green Tree, choped a night before and decorated with hazardous stuff and burning candles.

The container, in wich an Artifact of pure joy lies waiting, made of cardboard had a perticular smell wich haunts the little lad for a long time. But in a warm and cozy way.

Said Artfact came with two Plates of Plastic, soon to be forgotten, one said Spyro, the Dragon. The other had Air Combat written on it.

Our little Hero inserted one of the Plates into the Artifact and two sounds appeared. Soon infused by dread from the first sound, he learnd to love the second.

The Artifact should shape the life of our boy forever.

closes old dusty book

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u/chef_quirky12 11h ago

My first was an nes. My first console as an adult was a ps2

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u/almostoy 11h ago

Wii was my last console. Haven't purchased another since. First console was a Magnavox Odyssey II. I knew where I was going once I had my first PC. It took a while to fully commit to it.

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u/pirate_2917 11h ago

Ps5 actually. And I’m 30 lol

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u/Ghost403 11h ago

Sega megadrive 2

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u/Hadaikum 11h ago

The start of a big collection. I never sold a console and kept every single one of them!

https://giphy.com/gifs/ljKXG5Xu6bXiM

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u/CoreSoundCoastie 11h ago

I had an Atari, but it was my dad’s. My first personal gaming system was an NES.

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u/FuzzyBongos 11h ago

The original Gameboy

3

u/Bigsparks13 11h ago

Lol! My first console was a N64! 34 hit real fuckin quick for me.

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u/KingBurakkuurufu 11h ago

Oh boy 😅 older then Doom and the public internet here..
https://giphy.com/gifs/YDjKZfidNC7lfsa6Z7

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u/sfisabbt 10h ago

The very first time I met Mario, he was the villain

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u/foxonafrozenlake 10h ago

I'm in the middle. Born in '89. First console was super NES but I played gameboy and NES.

3

u/SadIdeal9019 9h ago

Ataro 2600.

Warm up my urn please.

3

u/Egosuma 9h ago

Atari 2600