Does Windows 98 count? I really wasn't a console gamer until I got the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube. jeez, compared to everyone else here, I'm a freaking baby... If anyone doesn't use their dreamcast or Mega Drive, I'll take it.
Depends on what you classify as "gaming system". I had a couple of little LCD Game & Watch things first. Then I had a Microvision with a couple of cartridges. My first real console was a Coleco Gemini (an Atari 2600 clone) back in 1982, followed by a Colecovision with driving controller in '83. Then I lost both in a terrible mixup when moving, so I was given a real Atari 2600 with a bunch of games in 1984. After that I switched to computers and haven't owned a contemporary console since. (I used to collect classic consoles and games for a while, but I haven't owned a game console that was current in any way because I've never seen the point.)
My first system was the Nintendo 64. First game that I played with it was Diddy Kong Racing. Good times.
First system I played was the venerable genesis, the first handheld I owned was a gameboy color, and the first console I owned was a N64. I have since owned a PSone, All of nintendo's systems except for the original ds. The first console I purchased myself was my PS3 slim last October.
Friends had Atari 2600 systems that I played regularly. First system I owned was a Colecovision, and quickly got a Vectrex unit to go with it. I remember everyone thinking the games on those two systems being mind-blowing in comparison to the 2600!
I actually had this one. I remember cuz Pikachu's cheek glowed red, and there was a little Pichu on the side. The two games I remember having were Pokemon Yellow (I had no idea what I was doing), and Toy Story kart racing game.
That would be the Pokemon Silver edition, since the small one on the left is pichu the first form of pikachu that was introduced with gold and silver.
I kinda feel sorry for anyone too young to have experenced the NES generation first hand, probably the same way someone 20 years older then me feels about the first moon landing...
It's easy to laugh now, but at the time it seemed almost magical to play a game on your TV set. Back then (1975), most people hadn't even seen a real computer, much less owned one. I remember being kind of in awe of my friend who owned one of these machines (a feeling later provoked by another friend's then-brand-new Apple II). I don't want to be a typical old fogey and declaim that "young people today are spoiled!" But I will say that the late 70's were an exciting time to be a geeky kid, seeing all these previously impossible devices suddenly come into the marketplace.
