How did you come across your first console?

[saintlouieb]

I'm not interested in what your first console was exactly, though feel free to share. My question is this: did you share a console with one or both of your parents, or did you ask your parents for your first one?

For me, my dad was (and still is) a gamer. He had an old wood grain 2600 with who knows how many games by the time I was 2 and started playing myself. It was him who started me on my path to being a lifelong gamer.

Coincidently I repaid the favor several years later when he had long stopped playing video games and I left for a tour of duty in Japan. He inherited my PS1 and a copy of Tomb Raider. He was instantly hooked and has played every single one up to and including Underworld on his very own Xbox 360.

So that's it. Did you get you inherit your first console from your gamer parent or beg and plead for it from a reluctant parent or something in between?

[kedawa]

My family had an old Pong clone when I was very young.
My first console was a Genesis that was all mine, but before that I already had an Amiga 500 that was used almost exclusively by me.

[dendawg]

I ended up inheriting the family Odyssey 4000, then a TI 99-4/A.

[Damaramu]

I was 6 years old and I believe it was Christmas of '82 when I got an Atari 5200 as a gift from my parents!

I never asked for one so it was a complete surprise when I opened it up. I guess they must have overheard me going on about my neighbor's 2600 (I LOVED Combat).

Kids came over to my place all the time to play the 5200!

[todesengel]

In early 1989 my cousin got an NES and I played Mario 2 on it. I asked for an NES that Christmas and got the Action Set with Super Mario/Duck Hunt.

[retroman]

mine was the intellivision...my dad was and still is a gamer...i can also remember getting my own intellivision 2 when it came out for my birthday with a game called Sewer Sam and one we all know Burger Time..

[Emperor Megas]

The poll options are pretty limited. My first console was an Atari 2600, around '79 or so. I was 4 or 5 I believe. My dad purchased it so it was sort of a family console, though I used it the most. My older sister played it a bunch at first, but she was put off with the fact that most of the games we got were "shooting games" and lost interest early on.

I imagine many gamers first consoles were family or community systems that they shared with siblings.

[QuickSciFi]

I bought it with birthday money: Nov 17th, 1994 - Sega Genesis Model 2 (Sonic 2).

MSRP = $119.99

[saintlouieb]

The poll options are pretty limited.

Yeah, sorry about that everyone. To be honest being an only child myself it just never occured to me to put inherited from sibling as an option.

[maxlords]

I saved up for my first console and bought it myself

[sheath]

My family owned at least two 2600 consoles at various points, but none of them ended up mine. I would have made sure to take care of them. My first console was a Master System that I saved up for and bought myself. It wasn't a shoe in though, I actually was leaning towards an NES when I went to the specialty shop that had them both set up to play.

[Aussie2B]

If you inherit a system from a relative, wouldn't it more likely be from a sibling than a parent? I think the number of people into games among my generation's parents is pretty small (I'm 28), and even it's even less likely for the parents of gamers older than myself. I mean, my mom and dad were already parents and well into adulthood when gaming first started to take off, and it seems very rare for someone to get into gaming if they weren't exposed to it prior to around 30. Granted, this point is null and void looking at today's kids since they have parents that grew up with video games.

But anyway, I wasn't lucky enough to inherit a system from anybody, and my first wasn't given to me either. While my brother got an NES as a birthday present and sold it off a few years later, I had to save the money I got for my birthday, Christmas, and such (my parents didn't do allowance) for awhile until at 11 I had the $100 or $125 or whatever it was to buy a SNES. That was the stand-alone model with no game and only one controller. I would've had to save much longer to get a game if not for the promotion Nintendo had going to get a free copy of Super Mario All-Stars with a SNES proof of purchase.

With my parents, consoles were usually too extravagant of a present since they didn't want to spend that much on me for a single birthday or holiday. Handhelds I could get away with since they were usually $100 tops. The only exception was the N64, and I'm sure it took my mom some convincing to spend the $200. Even then, we agreed that I would have to buy a game myself (since the N64 had no pack-in, of course). If I had kids, I think I'd be the same. Even if you're well off, I don't think kids should be getting all sorts of expensive gadgets. Kids that never learn that money doesn't grow on trees are the reason why we as collectors have deal with games and systems that were treated like crap because the kids never understood how expensive they were and that it was a real treat that they were given them.

[Kellhus]

Inherited. My parents owned a 2600, so I guess that was my first console. First one I played anyways.

[leatherrebel5150]

My dad had a NES when he was a teenager and I guess bought himself a SNES when it came out. My first memories of video games was on my dad's snes, so most of my collecting efforts go into snes.

[otaku]

first console I played was the super nes my cousin owned I believe I was seven and the year was 95?

[Lerxstnj]

Got an Atari 2600 from my parents for Christmas around 1980. Have fond memories of my dad, brother and I playing Combat and Air-Sea Battle for hours at a time. My bro and I bought a 5200 and Colecovision when they came out. Don't still have the 2600, gave it away to a cousin around the late 80s when we got out of video games. I got back into gaming when PS1 came out.

[Parodius Duh!]

my dad was 20 when i was born so he was young and big into the 2600, therefore, it was passed unto me.

[Baloo]

My first system was inherited, but it wasn't from one of my parents, rather from my Aunt. Her NES was my brother and I's first system. And then we had the Genesis at almost the same time, a birthday gift for my brother in either Christmas of '89 or '90, so those were the two consoles I grew up on, and my first two consoles.

[MIZPHIT]

First system I owned was an Atari XEGS. Christmas of '87. I wanted an NES, but the parents couldn't find one so they got me that instead. I was quite pissed. lol

Didn't get the NES until Xmas '89.

[Flack]

I guess I'd say inherited. My parents bought our family a Pong system in 1977 which I still own, and an Atari 2600 in 1978 or 1979, and I still have that too.

The first system I got that was truly mine was my Commodore 64, in 1985. It was my uncle's and it was broken. He gave it to my parents, they fixed it, and gave it to me. I still have it (it's hooked up upstairs right now).

The first console I bought with my own money was an NES in 1990. A fast food co-worker was selling it and about 10 games for $100 so he could buy a SNES.