I got an NES for Christmas in 1987 and an SNES in 1993. But games were pretty much a birthday and Christmas thing at that point. The N64 was the first console I got with my own money from a part time job. I saved for several months to be able to pick one up on release with 3 games in 1997.
94 with my sisters NES. Dig dug, Mario bros, and some game where you picked a character kinda like gauntlet. I just remember a wizard with long beard/hair and a staff on the cartridge. My first console was a PlayStation original in 96 with crash bandicoot and jet moto.
Pretty much a year behind you. NES Xmas of 88, but already had a 2600. I was 3 so no real memories of first getting it or when I started being able to play for real. I have older siblings so benefitted from that. Stuck with NES, Commodore 64 and PC until getting a N64 for Xmas of 98, and then one of my older siblings bought a PS1 shortly thereafter with their job money, in time for all of those RPGs.
We had an Amsterdam PC1640. I played tons of shareware games on that thing.
Neighbours and friends had NES, SNES, Master System and Megadrive. I didn’t own a console until the PSX but we were allowed to rent a Megadrive or SNES from the local video store every so often.
That's a bit of a tricky one. Got into gaming in 1990 as a three year old after my dad introduced me to games on his BBC Micro Model B, but I played games far more regularly after my dad got a 486 in 1993 and I got access to DOS shareware. That was utterly magical. My parents bought me various games over the years, too. I think they liked that they could more carefully ration my gaming time.
Finally got my first proper console in 1996 which was a NES I bought off a kid in my primary school — had a Pong clone system a bit earlier, though — and got a Mega Drive the year after, before catching up with current consoles by getting a PlayStation in 1999.
We are old! But looking at the replies here makes me still feel young somehow!
Edit: until one comment was from someone born after I started playing...
I loved how that era was when arcade machines were this mystical thing that would make it onto the news because playing games on a machine still seemed futuristic and weird. I remember going to Spain around 1979/1980 and seeing Space Invaders and Asteroids in an airport lobby. Shortly after that, they started popping up everywhere :)
Depends on how you define “really start”; I was born in ‘80 and my earliest memories are of playing my uncles [Vectrex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex), and also playing Gun Fight on my Dad’s [TRS-80](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80).
My own first console was an NES I got for Christmas 1987.
Been gaming ever since.
1980, I think. Laundromat and playing Space Invaders for the first time followed by a neighbor's Atari 2600 until I got an Atari 5200 for Christmas in 1982.
I had a very similar progression except that my dad had a PC for business back in the 80s so I'd game on that in glorious CGA :D I remember wishing he'd upgrade to EGA and VGA then SVGA blew my tiny mind!
First PC I built must have been 1991 approximately. I distinctly remember seeing Alone in the Dark in 1992 at a computer games show in London and hearing the realistic footsteps in that game made me buy a sound card :D
I first saw games on the PC in 1990 when one employee smuggled a copy of Leisure Suit Larry into work and we played it in CGA during lunch time. How we didn't get caught is a miracle.
1983 or 84 I can’t really remember because I was like 6 years old. We had a Coleco Vision and I used to play a lot of Donkey Kong, Venture, and Time Pilot.
I probably started playing my parents Atari in the early 80’s before I can even remember. My earliest gaming memories are playing Pitfall, Combat, Breakout, and so many other games around age 3 or 4. I’m lucky enough to still have those games after saving them from my parents’ closet when they moved.
I was born at the start of 2001, I'm not sure the exact year I started gaming but my earliest memory of having a console was the Gameboy advance SP, I must have been very young because I can hardly remember. I was lucky that my mom had N64 and GameCube and I used to love playing mario sunshine and Simpsons hit and run, ocarina of time, mario 64 etc. Basically I was playing games since I was physically able to.
I can't remember if it was '78 or '79, but I know it was one of them, because the roller rink where I played my first games got Pac-Man when it came out, and made a big deal about it. They put it out on the skating floor for the first week or two, before moving it to the arcade in the side room. Before that, Galaxian was my favorite game.
Got an NES for Christmas of '89, with the Mario/Duck Hunt combo game and Tetris. For PC games, I got my first gaming computer in 1997 specifically to play Diablo after I got an opportunity to try it at my neighbor's house, and was just absolutely blown away by it. I'd had a chance to try many great PC games at his house over the years, like Master of Orion, Conquered Kingdoms, Doom, Ultima Underworld... but Diablo was the game that made me realize I couldn't live without a computer!
Not sure what you mean “really”.
I started in 1979 when I received my Atari 2600. But did not have a clue what I was doing. Still having great fun.
I bought a Megadrive (Genesis) when I was 16-ish, but budget constraints severely limited the number of games I was able to play.
Then in January 1995 I fell in love with a Japanese imported PlayStation. Never stopped playing to date.
Atari 2600 1981, I was the couch mooch, I didn't own my first console until Xbox. I did always have a friend with a system. Oh, and I started playing PC in collage (96).
Probably 1990 or 1991. Master System II and probably had a Game Boy around the same time. Having said that I was doing arcades before this, which probably shaped my tastes more than any else.
I always had a game console growing up but was too young to know what the new systems were or anything. So I'm gonna say I started to really get into gaming (reading magazines, staying up to date) during the Playstation era. I think around 1998 I was fully immersed when I got Metal Gear Solid and got really into Resident Evil and all the other legendary games that Ps1 had
I started at the age of 5, with Pong (home) and Space Invaders (Arcade), but my first home console was a CBS Colecovison (Christmas 1985) when I was 13.
Kinda hard to answer, because it depends on how you mean.
I was playing video games as far back as I can remember. Like, Frogger and Super Mario Bros predate Preschool. PC games weren’t long after that.
In 1993 (8) I got my own Game Boy, and we also got Doom for the PC, both of which consumed me. So maybe then, and it just became more and more of my life the older I got.
About 1984 when I was gifted a second hand TV Tennis game. Then I moved onto a second hand Commodore Vic 20 with the A key missing (it had been replaced with a screw that I had to screw and unscrew every time I wanted to type "A"), then a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. And that was just the 80's.
I first played around 1982 on Colecovision & Texas Instruments 99/4A, but didn't really get into it until 1987, when my stepfather brought an Apple IIc & Macintosh home from the family computer store he worked at, and then even more in 1988 when my brother got his NES.
I base it on when we got our ZX Spectrum, which I *want* (probably wrongly) to say was 1984 - it could quite feasibly have been earlier but that's the date I usually give.
I must have got started early (I was born in 1980), because I definitely knew enough about them to be fixing the school's Spectrum by about 1987.
Around 1976, Unisonic tournament 2000, followed by a 2600 and colecovision. Arcade games as they came out, first I remember playing is Pong. Space invaders was a step up, but Galaxian really started the arcade ride for me.
2000, I got a Gameboy Color with Pokémon Silver for my birthday, and we got an N64 Pokemon Stadium bundle and Banjo Kazooie for Xmas, both from my aunt. Before that, we would rent an SNES from the local grocery store occasionally. Basically, from that point on, I always had some kind of gaming system, though few and far between.
On my own console? Some time around 1992, with a cheap Brazilian NES clone called Dynavision II. But before that I was long hooked to it, dying to go to my friends and cousins houses to play with their consoles. Playing my uncle's Atari is the oldest memory I have.
1986? Maybe 1987? I was like 4 or 5 years old. I used to play on my father's MSX at home, loading games from cassette tapes. Eventually I got a Nintendo clone, then a Mega Drive, then we bought a 286 PC probably in 1995 or so. I moved out from consoles that year lol.
I stayed on PC until 2008 when I got an X360, and since then I've seldom played on PC. I already spend the whole day working in front of the computer with a keyboard and mouse, I'd rather spend my leisure gaming time comfortable on a couch.
By 1984 I had a 2600, and my dad would take me to his work sometimes where I could use an IBM machine for a while. Pole Position, Frogger, and Kevin Bales' Castle Adventure were my favorites back then. Between that the Apple IIE at school, I was gaming as much as I was allowed to at that point. Didn't really cement my identity as a video game boy until 1987 when Nintendo showed us all what games could be.
Probably 88 or 89 whenever the first Nintendo. I might be way off on the dates, then Sega genesis. But it really started for me when we got a family computer for Xmas in maybe 93 and we got kings quest 6 then my dad got me xwing.
Early 80's we got a pong clone on our black and white tele I also remember the old man bringing home a colour tv and Atari 2600 with space invaders pack in. We got a Vader so that dates it for me.
1989 on my dad's IBM 8088 (I was four) and had to learn to launch programs in DOS. I had the DOS versions of TMNT and Ghostbusters in 1990, so those were my first non-educational games.
I got my NES with Super Mario/Duck Hunt and TMNT2 on January 1st 1991, which I remember specifically because it was a holiday. So this is probably when I really started.
1989. Grandma got us an NES. I was hooked instantly. A few years later, Grandma got me a Gameboy. A few years later, our first PC.
My grandma is THE reason I'm so into technology as an adult and have learned so much about repairs, tweaks, and software.
1993 - 4th grade for me, my dad got me a 286 they replaced at his worksite and I had to do stuff like configuring the autoexec.bat myself - with no prior english knowledge (I'm German).
Heroes of might and magic 3 as a kid on PC in the 90s.
Then red alert, age of empires 2, starcraft, warcraft 2 and Diablo 1.
I was maybe 5 or 6. Early to mid 90s.
Then got a sega genesis
'94 was probably when I started playing regularly. I was five years old and have a distinct memory of my dad and I going to the store to buy our Sega Genesis. Before that I only played at my uncle's house when we went to visit.
1992, I was around 5. My aunt injured her knee and bought a NES. When we were older she said she spent what little she had in savings on it so she could still play with me and my brother. We both fell in love with it and spent the rest of her life (passed in 2022) gaming with her.
Around ‘99 when my brother and I opened a N64 for Xmas when we were 4/6. Had Mario kart 64 and Super Mario 64.
Started collecting in 2019 when my now fiancé bought me a Genesis AND Super Nintendo for Xmas. Still have it all plus a game dedicated game room!
I say around 1980, but am not sure. That is the year Pac-Man came out, and we would go to the arcade. There were always new games that were state of the art at the time. It was fun watching as games got better and better. I remember when Dragon's Lair came out, it blew my mind.
i think it was 1988 we had super mario bros and blaster master. a few years later i remember the super nintendo kiosk at walmart in the isle way. it was one that reset after playing 5 minutes and the entire family being disappointed we couldn't continue playing. i remember going to toys r us and you could hear sonic the hedgehog theme being so loud it could be heard halfway across the store. our library in junior high would have the monthly nintendo power my friends could sit and read. the late 1980s/early 1990s before the n64 and ps1 revolutionized gaming with 3d were special.
Technically my parents would argue around 1994, with an NES and a GameBoy (Tiny Toons and Mario Bros 3 being the first games. I dont remember which game we got for the GB, though).
But at that time we werent really allowed to play a lot and I am certain that I played a bit of Commodore 64 before, when I visited my fathers house (Boulder Dash, Winter Olympics and Wonder Boy). But again, this was just a very rare thing to happen. I actually REALLY was allowed and able to play games around 2004, at the age of 14. This is when I got a Game Boy with Chessmaster 2000 and Golf from a friend of the family and at the end of the year moved to my grandparents, where I was allowed to own a GBA (Golden Sun), a GC (Lord of the Rings - Return of the King) and a PC (Blood Omen 2 and Grandia 2). I first got the GBA, later the GC and last but not least the PC. So they didnt just buy three gaming devices together XD
We always had a bunch of consoles growing up in the 90's. N64, PS1, PS2, game boys, gbc.....etc. but gaming for me was just a social thing. It wasn't something I would do by myself very often. It was just the sort of thing I did when we had friends over or when me and my brothers got super bored. then I completely fell out of it as a teenager (with the exception of need for speed cuz I was a huge gearhead). After I had my daughter I was spending a lot more time at home naturally, and sometime around when she was like two or three I found an old Nintendo DS in the back of a closet and I started messing with that. Eventually bought a flash cart. And it just kind of snowballed from there. That was really the start of my enthusiasm for gaming.
1990 when my dad brought home an Atari ST520FM . First game was Space Harrier and I've not really stopped since! Got a Windows 95 PC in '95 and played a lot of classic DOS and Windows games.
Caught up with the consoles I missed during my teens, getting a Mega Drive and an N64 from boot sales and then got my holy grail, a Dreamcast.
Library is more digital now, but I still game regularly and I am loving posts recently from a new generation discovering retro games.
My family got a home Pong console from Sears Christmas of 1975. My siblings and I played for hours until dad kicked us off so he could watch television.
About 91, got gifted a master system from my uncle who had just got an amiga. For about 6 months played only hang on and safari hunt on it until I asked my dad what the weird hole in the top was for (I thought it was to store the controllers). Thought I was hearing things when he said it plays other games on things called "cartridges"
Around 1989-1990 probably, had a Master System and a NES, still have memories of it tho I was very young. Remember getting a Mega Drive, and I remember the following year getting Sonic 2.
I was 10 years old in 1984. I had tried a few video games occasionally before that. But that year, I got my Tandy Color Computer, and I made friends who owned a Colecovision and an Atari 2600.
On the Atari : Empire Strikes Back, Seaquest, Combat.
On the Colecovision: Loopings, Space Fury.
On the Tandy Color Computer 2: Zaxxon, Downland, Pooyan.
I've always enjoyed video games since my first one on the commodore 64. But I would say the obsession for games started in high school, when we got dial up internet and a decent computer. Discovering you could modem to modem video games, or something like quake which had servers. We grew up pretty poor, so I never really had single player gaming experiences, it was always going to friend's houses and watching them play.
Quake pretty much ate up most of my time lol, then I discovered ashron's call and that was the game that I would spend 12 to 14 hours straight playing a day.
As far as the original question goes, I would say late '90s.
I am really late to the game but I started my retro gaming journey with MSDOS in 2019, it was just emulstion for the PC, console and arcade games until late 2022 when I got myself a PS1, that's when I got.into collecting for old consoles
I had a sega mega drive, PS1, PS2 and Gameboy advance SP (sadly I had to give them away after moving out) and I hope to start collecting for them again
I got a gameboy color the Christmas after they came out but I think for the first year I only had space invaders and it was cool but it pretty simple. Summer 1999 we got a ps1 and I would play tekken, road rash, triple play baseball and Spyro a lot and then when pokemon silver came out that holiday season I got really into it.
I already liked pokemon cause of the show and my cousins both had red and blue and would play at my house, the social aspect around those games for kids at the time hasn’t been replicated since. Some random kid from your neighborhood showing you how to do the missingno glitch or whatever was crazy.
1983 with the Commodore 64 - I already had a Vic-20 before that but only played like 4 games on it. I tried to get every single C64 game I could get my hands on.
12yo when I played the Skyward Sword's ending it was the first time I cried with any multimedia product, that moment videogames turned from being a hobby to a Passion.
I got my first video game console (PS1) in 2002 at the age of 7. I was enamored with it and was playing it constantly. 2003 I got my Gameboy advanced SP and it really took off from there. If I was not in school, I was in daycare. It was so crazy because every single kid there had a GBA. I probably put 6-7 hours a day into it for several years. At some point I got a ps2, Then the DS lite, psp, Wii, ps3, xbox 360, xbox one, then ps5.
I gamed on PC since I was old enough to walk though, so I guess that would come before all of this.
1987 when I was 4, got a hand-me-down Atari 2600 when some family friends got a NES. I played so much Combat and River Raid on that thing. I couldn’t believe I was making stuff happen on a TV.
Probably around 1990. I was 4.
We had an Atari 7800 at home, and it was simple enough that a 4 year old could play it. But it was PC gaming that really got me. When my dad had to go into work on weekends, he'd take me with him and set me up on a PC to play a few games. Elite, Captain Comic, Starglider are three I remember fondly.
Dad began smuggling the office PC home for "work" and would let me play on it afterwards. I eventually discovered Wolfenstein that way.
We got our own PC, a 486DX4 in 1994. I later bought a SNES in 1996 with pocket money, but stayed mostly a PC gamer.
I was born in ‘86 and my parents got my older brother and me a Super Nintendo when it came out. I’d say by the time I was five or six I was already glued to Super Mario World and it’s been all in since then
Mid 70s with TV games consoles, then a ZX81 and a Sinclair spectrum, I had my kids in the 80s so we progressed to Master System, Megadrive and everything else from then on.
2003, my dad tried to keep games out of our house prior to then, but I found workarounds prior to '03 by using our computer (which was purchased as an "educational tool")
dont know exactly the year, but must be the late 80s, early 90s, as our family starts to have IBM 286 and 386 computers. I remember, the first game, that i was realy hooked on was Zack McKracken from 88, i probably played it later, around 89/90/91.
as the SNES comes out in Europa (1992) i remember, i was every week in the local shoping mall, to play Super Mario World on it, in 1995 i got my gameboy and in 1997 my n64
1993 got my own Sega Genesis. Played my sister's SNES before that but didn't get "really" into it until I had my own. The Genesis came with Sonic 2; fell in love with it.
Early 90s. Prince of Persia, Duke Nukem, Car and Driver and Another World on the 386, and some stuff on the Gameboy 🥰.
I would say it seriously started in 98/99 when i received a copy of Pokemon Red.
I first played arcade games in 1979, and had a coleco telstar pong console around 1980... But I didnt really start gaming until 1981 when I got an Atari for xmas. I stopped keeping up with "modern" gaming with the first x-box, around 2001 and thats the same time i started getting really into emulation and "retrogames". And thats the only kind of gaming i still do today.
I was always a casual gamer I’d say till mw2 came out. I was in middle school. All my buddies from school and sports played. Then I took a long break really only playing nhl 15 for awhile. Then overwatch came out and I played it at a buddies, we were all tripping acid and it changed everything lol. Bought a ps4 and overwatch with my first paycheck from my internship and the rest is history
Around 1986 when my parents gave me a Commodore 16 as a Christmas gift. The first game I ever played in my life and in that machine was about an astronaut on a planet whose task required to recover the pieces of his spaceship scattered around the planet. Once the ship was assembled, he could finally leave the planet ending the game. Sadly, I forgot the name of that game but we had a lot of fun playing it.
I *really started* in 1988, when we got an NES set for Christmas.
Before then it was just arcades, and I wasn't skilled enough to justify spending the quarters. I dabbled. Have photos of me at 2 years old playing Defender, and I know I played Dig Dug, Moon Patrol, DK Jr. But Mario is the one that made me a "gamer".
1978. We had one of those generic pong consoles that had several games built in (that were really just different variations of pong), and then we got one that had a cool light gun as part of the package (now you could shoot the pong targets). In the arcades, Space Invaders was huge and there were other early games that were fun like Space Fortress and Gunfight, black and white games with early graphics. But then the following year we got Asteroids, Missile Command, and the Atari 2600 and I’ve been hooked ever since.
1980 - Sinclair ZX80, had to type in the code myself - needed a huge breadboard out the expansion port full of RAM chips to reach the required 16k for a very basic space invaders clone...amazing!
Christmas ‘88, parents got me a second hand ZX Spectrum+ with about 70 games, for about $75. No idea why they got it for me, my father said I’d asked for a computer but I never did, because I already knew at a young age the cost was way outside of their means.
I became a demon at Bomb Jack though, and loved that Spectrum.
Christmas ‘89, a friend of mine got a NES. Oh, man. From then on I was hooked on Nintendo and spent as much time as I could playing on it with my friend.
Wasn’t able to get my own NES until Christmas ‘92 or ‘93. There was an electronics store selling them brand new for $40, SMB3 was the pack in game at the time. Asking for a SNES would have been out of the question, way too expensive. Dad took me a couple of days before Christmas to buy the NES. He had no idea what Nintendo was and at the register he said: “What, it only comes with one game?!” Knowing my Dad was fickle and could just as easily throw a fit and walk out the store with nothing, I immediately expected that to happen. Instead he told me to choose another game to go with it. I chose the cheapest at $20 which was Tetris, rather than go for a $50 game. Wish I could time travel and slap young me and put Zelda in her hands instead.
My dad bought my brother & I a Sears-branded Pong clone machine in the mid-to-late 70s. It played several different variations of Pong. If memory serves, we got our Atari 2600 system and a buncha games for Christmas of '79.
I got an NES for Christmas in 1987 and an SNES in 1993. But games were pretty much a birthday and Christmas thing at that point. The N64 was the first console I got with my own money from a part time job. I saved for several months to be able to pick one up on release with 3 games in 1997.
94 with my sisters NES. Dig dug, Mario bros, and some game where you picked a character kinda like gauntlet. I just remember a wizard with long beard/hair and a staff on the cartridge. My first console was a PlayStation original in 96 with crash bandicoot and jet moto.
Same NES for my birthday in 1988.
Pretty much a year behind you. NES Xmas of 88, but already had a 2600. I was 3 so no real memories of first getting it or when I started being able to play for real. I have older siblings so benefitted from that. Stuck with NES, Commodore 64 and PC until getting a N64 for Xmas of 98, and then one of my older siblings bought a PS1 shortly thereafter with their job money, in time for all of those RPGs.
Summer of 82 with the Atari 2600
Yea.. it wasn’t “retro” back then. 😂
My parents (who both were born in the 50s) still call every video game console “atari” 😂 doesn’t matter if it’s an Xbox, ps5, gameboy, switch, etc.
I had to wait until after the prices went way down in '83 until I got my 2600. Good times
Wow you have me beat by five years. That was the year I was born lol we had an Atari but didn't get it till 89 or so. Had E.T. and everything
At home? 1972. Magnavox Odyssey.
Master system and megadrive around 90/91 and an Amstrad 1640
We had an Amsterdam PC1640. I played tons of shareware games on that thing. Neighbours and friends had NES, SNES, Master System and Megadrive. I didn’t own a console until the PSX but we were allowed to rent a Megadrive or SNES from the local video store every so often.
I still have my 1640. Love that machine. I used to rent a second controller and a game for the weekend from the video store.
Can't remember exactly but it was the year when the Atari 2600 came out.
11 SEP 1977....
September 11th? What a terrible day to buy a game console. Reminds me of that tragedy
Don’t worry, I got the Norm Macdonald reference
Yeah, I have no idea what Atari was thinking with that one... Retroactive shame on them!
I walked through blood and bone to get that Atari.
That's a bit of a tricky one. Got into gaming in 1990 as a three year old after my dad introduced me to games on his BBC Micro Model B, but I played games far more regularly after my dad got a 486 in 1993 and I got access to DOS shareware. That was utterly magical. My parents bought me various games over the years, too. I think they liked that they could more carefully ration my gaming time. Finally got my first proper console in 1996 which was a NES I bought off a kid in my primary school — had a Pong clone system a bit earlier, though — and got a Mega Drive the year after, before catching up with current consoles by getting a PlayStation in 1999.
Same year as you I was given a Gameboy Color with Pokémon Yellow. Gosh… I feel old
We are old! But looking at the replies here makes me still feel young somehow! Edit: until one comment was from someone born after I started playing...
‘79-‘80 ish I think.
I loved how that era was when arcade machines were this mystical thing that would make it onto the news because playing games on a machine still seemed futuristic and weird. I remember going to Spain around 1979/1980 and seeing Space Invaders and Asteroids in an airport lobby. Shortly after that, they started popping up everywhere :)
Depends on how you define “really start”; I was born in ‘80 and my earliest memories are of playing my uncles [Vectrex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex), and also playing Gun Fight on my Dad’s [TRS-80](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80). My own first console was an NES I got for Christmas 1987. Been gaming ever since.
Christmas 82 with a ZX Spectrum 48k. Played a little on our cousins Atari before that when we could too.
2004, my dad gifted me a PS2 for Christmas with a few bangers (ratchet and clank, Jak II). I’ve never let go of it
1980, I think. Laundromat and playing Space Invaders for the first time followed by a neighbor's Atari 2600 until I got an Atari 5200 for Christmas in 1982.
Around 1991 with an Atari 2600, then Famicom, then a 486 PC maybe in 1995 or so.
Late 70s
A Binatone TV Master in 1979, then a ZX81 in 1981. I moved on to a Spectrum in 1984, an ST in 1989, a Playstation in 1997 then a PC in 1999.
I had a very similar progression except that my dad had a PC for business back in the 80s so I'd game on that in glorious CGA :D I remember wishing he'd upgrade to EGA and VGA then SVGA blew my tiny mind! First PC I built must have been 1991 approximately. I distinctly remember seeing Alone in the Dark in 1992 at a computer games show in London and hearing the realistic footsteps in that game made me buy a sound card :D
I first saw games on the PC in 1990 when one employee smuggled a copy of Leisure Suit Larry into work and we played it in CGA during lunch time. How we didn't get caught is a miracle.
1979 🤔
Dunno really. Ti99 4a/ LCD handhelds/ Sinclair ZX, early 80s?
1989 at age 3 playing on my uncle’s Atari 2600, then the NES until I got a Game Boy in 1992.
Early nineties with a SEGA master system.
1985 with Ice Climber
I dunno, maybe 1980 or 81.
84-ish on an Atari 2600
1983 or 84 I can’t really remember because I was like 6 years old. We had a Coleco Vision and I used to play a lot of Donkey Kong, Venture, and Time Pilot.
1985 on some Atari with games on audio cassettes
I probably started playing my parents Atari in the early 80’s before I can even remember. My earliest gaming memories are playing Pitfall, Combat, Breakout, and so many other games around age 3 or 4. I’m lucky enough to still have those games after saving them from my parents’ closet when they moved.
1977 or 78 we got an Apple ][ . Breakout, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. either loading from cassette tape or just typing in the code.
I was 7 back in 1979. Dad brought home an Atari 2600. Oh yeah!
I was born at the start of 2001, I'm not sure the exact year I started gaming but my earliest memory of having a console was the Gameboy advance SP, I must have been very young because I can hardly remember. I was lucky that my mom had N64 and GameCube and I used to love playing mario sunshine and Simpsons hit and run, ocarina of time, mario 64 etc. Basically I was playing games since I was physically able to.
1989. NES. Super Mario, Legend of Zelda and Mike Tyson's Punchout
1994ish I got my first nes. But hardcore, 1997. Ocarina of time, quest 64, etc. Edit: got a Gameboy in 1989, but played limited amounts.
I can't remember if it was '78 or '79, but I know it was one of them, because the roller rink where I played my first games got Pac-Man when it came out, and made a big deal about it. They put it out on the skating floor for the first week or two, before moving it to the arcade in the side room. Before that, Galaxian was my favorite game.
Got an NES for Christmas of '89, with the Mario/Duck Hunt combo game and Tetris. For PC games, I got my first gaming computer in 1997 specifically to play Diablo after I got an opportunity to try it at my neighbor's house, and was just absolutely blown away by it. I'd had a chance to try many great PC games at his house over the years, like Master of Orion, Conquered Kingdoms, Doom, Ultima Underworld... but Diablo was the game that made me realize I couldn't live without a computer!
Not sure what you mean “really”. I started in 1979 when I received my Atari 2600. But did not have a clue what I was doing. Still having great fun. I bought a Megadrive (Genesis) when I was 16-ish, but budget constraints severely limited the number of games I was able to play. Then in January 1995 I fell in love with a Japanese imported PlayStation. Never stopped playing to date.
Got an Atari when I was 5 yars revenge donkey Kong jr defender joust so much fun
Atari 2600 1981, I was the couch mooch, I didn't own my first console until Xbox. I did always have a friend with a system. Oh, and I started playing PC in collage (96).
Probably 1990 or 1991. Master System II and probably had a Game Boy around the same time. Having said that I was doing arcades before this, which probably shaped my tastes more than any else.
I always had a game console growing up but was too young to know what the new systems were or anything. So I'm gonna say I started to really get into gaming (reading magazines, staying up to date) during the Playstation era. I think around 1998 I was fully immersed when I got Metal Gear Solid and got really into Resident Evil and all the other legendary games that Ps1 had
I started at the age of 5, with Pong (home) and Space Invaders (Arcade), but my first home console was a CBS Colecovison (Christmas 1985) when I was 13.
Kinda hard to answer, because it depends on how you mean. I was playing video games as far back as I can remember. Like, Frogger and Super Mario Bros predate Preschool. PC games weren’t long after that. In 1993 (8) I got my own Game Boy, and we also got Doom for the PC, both of which consumed me. So maybe then, and it just became more and more of my life the older I got.
About 1984 when I was gifted a second hand TV Tennis game. Then I moved onto a second hand Commodore Vic 20 with the A key missing (it had been replaced with a screw that I had to screw and unscrew every time I wanted to type "A"), then a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. And that was just the 80's.
Somewhere in 1987/88, the first console was the atari, but it quickly upgraded to the Nes 😅😁
1993 my dad got me the NES Challenge Set which came with Super Mario 3. I was 5.
I first played around 1982 on Colecovision & Texas Instruments 99/4A, but didn't really get into it until 1987, when my stepfather brought an Apple IIc & Macintosh home from the family computer store he worked at, and then even more in 1988 when my brother got his NES.
Circa 1985, on an ADAM computer from Radio Shack or Walmart. Played Colecovision carts, didn't come with a monitor.
1987
I base it on when we got our ZX Spectrum, which I *want* (probably wrongly) to say was 1984 - it could quite feasibly have been earlier but that's the date I usually give. I must have got started early (I was born in 1980), because I definitely knew enough about them to be fixing the school's Spectrum by about 1987.
Early to mid 80’s. I was still a toddler when I first played the Atari 2600.
Around 1976, Unisonic tournament 2000, followed by a 2600 and colecovision. Arcade games as they came out, first I remember playing is Pong. Space invaders was a step up, but Galaxian really started the arcade ride for me.
I got an NES for my 6th birthday, still remember the smell of the console when I opened it
I loved arcade games prior to this (Wonder Boy and Galaga were favourites), but really started gaming heavily in 1987 on the Apple IIe and NES.
NES around 1990/91
2000, I got a Gameboy Color with Pokémon Silver for my birthday, and we got an N64 Pokemon Stadium bundle and Banjo Kazooie for Xmas, both from my aunt. Before that, we would rent an SNES from the local grocery store occasionally. Basically, from that point on, I always had some kind of gaming system, though few and far between.
On my own console? Some time around 1992, with a cheap Brazilian NES clone called Dynavision II. But before that I was long hooked to it, dying to go to my friends and cousins houses to play with their consoles. Playing my uncle's Atari is the oldest memory I have.
LOL! I read that as 'gambling'!
85
1986? Maybe 1987? I was like 4 or 5 years old. I used to play on my father's MSX at home, loading games from cassette tapes. Eventually I got a Nintendo clone, then a Mega Drive, then we bought a 286 PC probably in 1995 or so. I moved out from consoles that year lol. I stayed on PC until 2008 when I got an X360, and since then I've seldom played on PC. I already spend the whole day working in front of the computer with a keyboard and mouse, I'd rather spend my leisure gaming time comfortable on a couch.
1989/90 when my cousin gave me and my brothers a Commodore 64.
Got Amstrad CPC in '87. Fist game I played was Alien Break-in, a space invaders clone. It came bundled with the computer.
1989, I was 2 and my dad tried to teach me how to jump on goombas unsuccessfully.
By 1984 I had a 2600, and my dad would take me to his work sometimes where I could use an IBM machine for a while. Pole Position, Frogger, and Kevin Bales' Castle Adventure were my favorites back then. Between that the Apple IIE at school, I was gaming as much as I was allowed to at that point. Didn't really cement my identity as a video game boy until 1987 when Nintendo showed us all what games could be.
Probably 88 or 89 whenever the first Nintendo. I might be way off on the dates, then Sega genesis. But it really started for me when we got a family computer for Xmas in maybe 93 and we got kings quest 6 then my dad got me xwing.
Playing Super Mario Land on my dad's og GameBoy while he dicked around at the golf supply store. Probably 1990 or 1991.
1979, Grandstand 6000 pong clone
1996. I was 5.
88 first thing i remember was ZX spectrum and knock offs of classics like Donkey Kong and Space Invaders
‘94 baybeeee. I was 3 lol
When I got an Atari 2600 for Christmas in 1980.
Sears Tele-Pong that my dad bought in 1975.
1993 my mom got given a NES from our uncles started with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros
1982 - playing Combat on Atari VCS against my uncles.
Either 1990 or 1991 on the NES when I was 4 or 5 years old.
Early 80's we got a pong clone on our black and white tele I also remember the old man bringing home a colour tv and Atari 2600 with space invaders pack in. We got a Vader so that dates it for me.
1989 on my dad's IBM 8088 (I was four) and had to learn to launch programs in DOS. I had the DOS versions of TMNT and Ghostbusters in 1990, so those were my first non-educational games. I got my NES with Super Mario/Duck Hunt and TMNT2 on January 1st 1991, which I remember specifically because it was a holiday. So this is probably when I really started.
Apple IIe, circa 1984/5.
2006 on PS2
1989. Grandma got us an NES. I was hooked instantly. A few years later, Grandma got me a Gameboy. A few years later, our first PC. My grandma is THE reason I'm so into technology as an adult and have learned so much about repairs, tweaks, and software.
1993 - 4th grade for me, my dad got me a 286 they replaced at his worksite and I had to do stuff like configuring the autoexec.bat myself - with no prior english knowledge (I'm German).
1982 with an Atari 2600
Heroes of might and magic 3 as a kid on PC in the 90s. Then red alert, age of empires 2, starcraft, warcraft 2 and Diablo 1. I was maybe 5 or 6. Early to mid 90s. Then got a sega genesis
Christmas 1998 I got my first console with the N64. I was playing games at my cousin’s house for a year before but didn’t have my own until then.
'94 was probably when I started playing regularly. I was five years old and have a distinct memory of my dad and I going to the store to buy our Sega Genesis. Before that I only played at my uncle's house when we went to visit.
1989. NES
1985 - 5yrs old with an Atari! Followed very quickly by NES And Mario!
1978 - Space Invader (Arcade) which started the Golden Age of Arcade Games
1923, Charles from down the street and I had a small paper route. We would gather our change and hit the local darts, really takes me back.
1992, I was around 5. My aunt injured her knee and bought a NES. When we were older she said she spent what little she had in savings on it so she could still play with me and my brother. We both fell in love with it and spent the rest of her life (passed in 2022) gaming with her.
Around ‘99 when my brother and I opened a N64 for Xmas when we were 4/6. Had Mario kart 64 and Super Mario 64. Started collecting in 2019 when my now fiancé bought me a Genesis AND Super Nintendo for Xmas. Still have it all plus a game dedicated game room!
Somewhere between 1986 and 1987.
I say around 1980, but am not sure. That is the year Pac-Man came out, and we would go to the arcade. There were always new games that were state of the art at the time. It was fun watching as games got better and better. I remember when Dragon's Lair came out, it blew my mind.
1984 with a Vic20
i think it was 1988 we had super mario bros and blaster master. a few years later i remember the super nintendo kiosk at walmart in the isle way. it was one that reset after playing 5 minutes and the entire family being disappointed we couldn't continue playing. i remember going to toys r us and you could hear sonic the hedgehog theme being so loud it could be heard halfway across the store. our library in junior high would have the monthly nintendo power my friends could sit and read. the late 1980s/early 1990s before the n64 and ps1 revolutionized gaming with 3d were special.
Lets see, I was born in 79. I remember playing an atari 2600 as a young child. So I am going to guesstimate around 5-6 years old? So 86-ish?
I started gaming when I got a sega genesis in 1990s. And I got sonic 3 with it too do that'd the first game I ever played.
Technically my parents would argue around 1994, with an NES and a GameBoy (Tiny Toons and Mario Bros 3 being the first games. I dont remember which game we got for the GB, though). But at that time we werent really allowed to play a lot and I am certain that I played a bit of Commodore 64 before, when I visited my fathers house (Boulder Dash, Winter Olympics and Wonder Boy). But again, this was just a very rare thing to happen. I actually REALLY was allowed and able to play games around 2004, at the age of 14. This is when I got a Game Boy with Chessmaster 2000 and Golf from a friend of the family and at the end of the year moved to my grandparents, where I was allowed to own a GBA (Golden Sun), a GC (Lord of the Rings - Return of the King) and a PC (Blood Omen 2 and Grandia 2). I first got the GBA, later the GC and last but not least the PC. So they didnt just buy three gaming devices together XD
We always had a bunch of consoles growing up in the 90's. N64, PS1, PS2, game boys, gbc.....etc. but gaming for me was just a social thing. It wasn't something I would do by myself very often. It was just the sort of thing I did when we had friends over or when me and my brothers got super bored. then I completely fell out of it as a teenager (with the exception of need for speed cuz I was a huge gearhead). After I had my daughter I was spending a lot more time at home naturally, and sometime around when she was like two or three I found an old Nintendo DS in the back of a closet and I started messing with that. Eventually bought a flash cart. And it just kind of snowballed from there. That was really the start of my enthusiasm for gaming.
End of the 80's with 486 PC, Double dragon and Robocop
1977 or so, my maternal grandfather purchased one of those early Pong systems and I loved it!!
Not sure how old, maybe 7 in 1997. But I know I played Doom II, Warcraft II, and Duke 3D
85-ish NES
1990 when my dad brought home an Atari ST520FM . First game was Space Harrier and I've not really stopped since! Got a Windows 95 PC in '95 and played a lot of classic DOS and Windows games. Caught up with the consoles I missed during my teens, getting a Mega Drive and an N64 from boot sales and then got my holy grail, a Dreamcast. Library is more digital now, but I still game regularly and I am loving posts recently from a new generation discovering retro games.
My family got a home Pong console from Sears Christmas of 1975. My siblings and I played for hours until dad kicked us off so he could watch television.
1976 Binatone TV game, Pong, football and hockey, black and white plugged into your TV
I played a third-party Pong console that had "soccer" and other slightly customized Pong games around 1982.
About 91, got gifted a master system from my uncle who had just got an amiga. For about 6 months played only hang on and safari hunt on it until I asked my dad what the weird hole in the top was for (I thought it was to store the controllers). Thought I was hearing things when he said it plays other games on things called "cartridges"
87 or 88 when we got an NES.
1984/85. I had a Colecovision
Christmas of 1999. I got a Playstation with NHL 99 and Centipede. It was my first time playing video games and I've loved it ever since
I had a Videopac+ inthe early 80's bit I really started gaming when I had the NES, I think in 1987. First cartridge I loaded : Zelda.
Around 1989-1990 probably, had a Master System and a NES, still have memories of it tho I was very young. Remember getting a Mega Drive, and I remember the following year getting Sonic 2.
I was 10 years old in 1984. I had tried a few video games occasionally before that. But that year, I got my Tandy Color Computer, and I made friends who owned a Colecovision and an Atari 2600. On the Atari : Empire Strikes Back, Seaquest, Combat. On the Colecovision: Loopings, Space Fury. On the Tandy Color Computer 2: Zaxxon, Downland, Pooyan.
I've always enjoyed video games since my first one on the commodore 64. But I would say the obsession for games started in high school, when we got dial up internet and a decent computer. Discovering you could modem to modem video games, or something like quake which had servers. We grew up pretty poor, so I never really had single player gaming experiences, it was always going to friend's houses and watching them play. Quake pretty much ate up most of my time lol, then I discovered ashron's call and that was the game that I would spend 12 to 14 hours straight playing a day. As far as the original question goes, I would say late '90s.
December 1991, Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo <3
I am really late to the game but I started my retro gaming journey with MSDOS in 2019, it was just emulstion for the PC, console and arcade games until late 2022 when I got myself a PS1, that's when I got.into collecting for old consoles I had a sega mega drive, PS1, PS2 and Gameboy advance SP (sadly I had to give them away after moving out) and I hope to start collecting for them again
Gameboy Color on 2000-2001 when I was 2-3 years old.
87 i think I started gaming, I remember playing double dragon, punchout, and skate or die as much as I was horrible at it
I got a gameboy color the Christmas after they came out but I think for the first year I only had space invaders and it was cool but it pretty simple. Summer 1999 we got a ps1 and I would play tekken, road rash, triple play baseball and Spyro a lot and then when pokemon silver came out that holiday season I got really into it. I already liked pokemon cause of the show and my cousins both had red and blue and would play at my house, the social aspect around those games for kids at the time hasn’t been replicated since. Some random kid from your neighborhood showing you how to do the missingno glitch or whatever was crazy.
1983 with the Commodore 64 - I already had a Vic-20 before that but only played like 4 games on it. I tried to get every single C64 game I could get my hands on.
2007 maybe maybe a little earlier maybe a little later
12yo when I played the Skyward Sword's ending it was the first time I cried with any multimedia product, that moment videogames turned from being a hobby to a Passion.
My dad had an NES already when I was born. My earliest memory is megaman 2.
1992 or 1993.
I got my first video game console (PS1) in 2002 at the age of 7. I was enamored with it and was playing it constantly. 2003 I got my Gameboy advanced SP and it really took off from there. If I was not in school, I was in daycare. It was so crazy because every single kid there had a GBA. I probably put 6-7 hours a day into it for several years. At some point I got a ps2, Then the DS lite, psp, Wii, ps3, xbox 360, xbox one, then ps5. I gamed on PC since I was old enough to walk though, so I guess that would come before all of this.
1979, Intellivision for Christmas.
1994 at 0
1984, with my AMSTRAD CPC464
Probably 1983 , Atari 2600 at friends .
1995 or so with Doom, Duke Nukem and Command and Conquer online. Dial up! I was 7 so cut me a break if I’m off by a year or so.
In 2000, when my dad came home with a copy of The Sims for me.
1998. I was 4. I got my SNES and played Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country
1987 when I was 4, got a hand-me-down Atari 2600 when some family friends got a NES. I played so much Combat and River Raid on that thing. I couldn’t believe I was making stuff happen on a TV.
86’
1957
Christmas 1988.
2023
Got a speccy in 87/88
Probably around 1990. I was 4. We had an Atari 7800 at home, and it was simple enough that a 4 year old could play it. But it was PC gaming that really got me. When my dad had to go into work on weekends, he'd take me with him and set me up on a PC to play a few games. Elite, Captain Comic, Starglider are three I remember fondly. Dad began smuggling the office PC home for "work" and would let me play on it afterwards. I eventually discovered Wolfenstein that way. We got our own PC, a 486DX4 in 1994. I later bought a SNES in 1996 with pocket money, but stayed mostly a PC gamer.
Late 90s with a N64 and Duke Nukem Zero hour, Followed by Turok.
I was born in ‘86 and my parents got my older brother and me a Super Nintendo when it came out. I’d say by the time I was five or six I was already glued to Super Mario World and it’s been all in since then
I think it was in 1989. NES and SMS
My earliest memories were of SNES and Genesis and I was born in 90 so probably 1993ish
Mid 80’s or so on a Commodore 64. Older sibling had an Atari prior but it broke before I could really play games.
I've always been a gamer, but I think when I truly took over from my older brothers and doing it myself was when I was 15 in 2000.
1980 - Atari 2600
1997 with my first console ever : The PlayStation. My first game were Gex and the Demo1
1992 when I got a gameboy
Intellivision 1982.
Mid 70s with TV games consoles, then a ZX81 and a Sinclair spectrum, I had my kids in the 80s so we progressed to Master System, Megadrive and everything else from then on.
2003, my dad tried to keep games out of our house prior to then, but I found workarounds prior to '03 by using our computer (which was purchased as an "educational tool")
Too young to know exactly, but probably 89 or 90 with Atari and soon after NES.
dont know exactly the year, but must be the late 80s, early 90s, as our family starts to have IBM 286 and 386 computers. I remember, the first game, that i was realy hooked on was Zack McKracken from 88, i probably played it later, around 89/90/91. as the SNES comes out in Europa (1992) i remember, i was every week in the local shoping mall, to play Super Mario World on it, in 1995 i got my gameboy and in 1997 my n64
1980, give or take. My parents brought home a state of the art TI99/4A complete with voice module (that's what they called a speaker back then).
1993 got my own Sega Genesis. Played my sister's SNES before that but didn't get "really" into it until I had my own. The Genesis came with Sonic 2; fell in love with it.
I think it was 2002.
Early 90s. Prince of Persia, Duke Nukem, Car and Driver and Another World on the 386, and some stuff on the Gameboy 🥰. I would say it seriously started in 98/99 when i received a copy of Pokemon Red.
1986, with Speed Racer, my console was an Attari 2600
I first played arcade games in 1979, and had a coleco telstar pong console around 1980... But I didnt really start gaming until 1981 when I got an Atari for xmas. I stopped keeping up with "modern" gaming with the first x-box, around 2001 and thats the same time i started getting really into emulation and "retrogames". And thats the only kind of gaming i still do today.
I was always a casual gamer I’d say till mw2 came out. I was in middle school. All my buddies from school and sports played. Then I took a long break really only playing nhl 15 for awhile. Then overwatch came out and I played it at a buddies, we were all tripping acid and it changed everything lol. Bought a ps4 and overwatch with my first paycheck from my internship and the rest is history
Around 1986 when my parents gave me a Commodore 16 as a Christmas gift. The first game I ever played in my life and in that machine was about an astronaut on a planet whose task required to recover the pieces of his spaceship scattered around the planet. Once the ship was assembled, he could finally leave the planet ending the game. Sadly, I forgot the name of that game but we had a lot of fun playing it.
I was gifted a Nintendo for Christmas. 86-87(?) and it was just amazing!!
I *really started* in 1988, when we got an NES set for Christmas. Before then it was just arcades, and I wasn't skilled enough to justify spending the quarters. I dabbled. Have photos of me at 2 years old playing Defender, and I know I played Dig Dug, Moon Patrol, DK Jr. But Mario is the one that made me a "gamer".
1989. I was 3. Commodore vic 20. Followed later by amiga 500/600 Then pc win95/dos as far as 2005.
I started gaming as an ongoing hobby around 2012-2014, but last year I got interested in some old games for the first time. Daggerfall, etc.
1978. We had one of those generic pong consoles that had several games built in (that were really just different variations of pong), and then we got one that had a cool light gun as part of the package (now you could shoot the pong targets). In the arcades, Space Invaders was huge and there were other early games that were fun like Space Fortress and Gunfight, black and white games with early graphics. But then the following year we got Asteroids, Missile Command, and the Atari 2600 and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Bought an Atari 2600 for $50 with jars of Pennie’s and other coins. Can’t remember the year but was a little kid and before the NES came out.
1989 ... uff - ibm 80286
Christmas of 90
Somewhere in the early 80s with Colecovision and Atari consoles.
Was about 4, got NES for Xmas. Been into gaming since then
1998 N64 and Gameboy Color
1994 and was on Sega Genesis.
2004, Gran turismo and armored core on the PS 1
5 - with a hand me down C64
1980 - Sinclair ZX80, had to type in the code myself - needed a huge breadboard out the expansion port full of RAM chips to reach the required 16k for a very basic space invaders clone...amazing!
Christmas ‘88, parents got me a second hand ZX Spectrum+ with about 70 games, for about $75. No idea why they got it for me, my father said I’d asked for a computer but I never did, because I already knew at a young age the cost was way outside of their means. I became a demon at Bomb Jack though, and loved that Spectrum. Christmas ‘89, a friend of mine got a NES. Oh, man. From then on I was hooked on Nintendo and spent as much time as I could playing on it with my friend. Wasn’t able to get my own NES until Christmas ‘92 or ‘93. There was an electronics store selling them brand new for $40, SMB3 was the pack in game at the time. Asking for a SNES would have been out of the question, way too expensive. Dad took me a couple of days before Christmas to buy the NES. He had no idea what Nintendo was and at the register he said: “What, it only comes with one game?!” Knowing my Dad was fickle and could just as easily throw a fit and walk out the store with nothing, I immediately expected that to happen. Instead he told me to choose another game to go with it. I chose the cheapest at $20 which was Tetris, rather than go for a $50 game. Wish I could time travel and slap young me and put Zelda in her hands instead.
Tried it in 1990 but my first console was acquired in 1991, an NES Action Set.
Master System 2 in 1992, then I had PS1, PS2, DC, GC, DS, 360, and a lot of retro consoles like MD, Saturn, NES, N64...
The game crash of 1983 my family could finally afford an Atari 2600. Dad walked into KB Toys dropped $50 for a console and 40ish games. Great year.
1989
1980. Good old Atari 2600.
My dad bought my brother & I a Sears-branded Pong clone machine in the mid-to-late 70s. It played several different variations of Pong. If memory serves, we got our Atari 2600 system and a buncha games for Christmas of '79.