The Super mario Bros/Duckhunt/Powerpad Trifecta was my first love in the 3rd gen and I don't think gaming will ever top those days.

Edit: BTW this is an awesome poll. 

nintendo had a console before nes?
I didn't know that

also mine was pretty late, I started snes when gamecube was out, then I got a gamecube (without selling my snes)

Started with the 2nd one of my friends had a Atari 2600 and someone else had a Colecovision but the first console that I owned and played on was the C64. Also since I grew up in Germany I think that only very few people owned or had a console from the first generation and PC gaming was a lot more popular then console gaming when I lived their 1972 to early 1988.

I first owned a NES but started gaming in atari2600 in my cousin's house. Still, I consider starting in 3rd gen

I started gaming on PC in the early 90s. My console career began with the 5th gen on a PS1.

The first game I remember playing is Monkey Island. My first console game was Final Fantasy VII.

2nd Generation (Atari)...

Long live jungle hunt, pole position, and joust...

I voted third, but I actually started in the second with atari - played lots of it.

But my real videogame life started with the Master System and the Phantom System (a Nes rip-off sold here). Those were the days - Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd, Shinobi, Super Sprint, Mario 3 and Zelda...

But actually "the days" were the next gen: SUPER NES FTW!

Xbox (fifth) was my first true gen, previously I watched my neighbour play playstation (he never let me play) and I had a sega mega drive an entire generation late.

What gen was the megadrive?

Atari Panther: to be honest I have no idea where my dad got it ... it was tecnically never released but to this day its still one of the best systems i can remember. I had a lot of bootleg games for it. I had super mario Bros., Streetfighter 2, price of persia, battletoads vs double dragon(amazing game), F1 racer, kung fu, contra, bilards (amazing game) tetris and a lot of others i can remeber anymore. I got the best of all systems on this one. Good times :)

it would be nes gen for me (third)