Everyone started somewhere with gaming.

Which system did you (or your parents) choose as your first gaming system.

- a home console / handheld / computer of the previous generation (advantages: cheaper hardware, cheaper games, huge selection of titles; disadvantages: mainly older games, only few new game releases, aged graphics/sound)

- a home console / handheld / computer of the newest generation without backwards compatibility (advantages: the newest games, better graphics/audio; disadvantages: more expensive hardware, more expensive games, smaller selection of titles, missing out on some classics)

- a home console / handheld / computer of the newest generation with backwards compatibility (advantages: the newest games + the classics, huge selection of titles, better graphics/audio for the newer games, cheaper older games; disadvantages: more expensive hardware, more expensive newer games)

My first contact with video game consoles was a Famiclone at a time were N64 had already launched.

I updated the poll with the option "even older gen"

I bought my first home computer in Q3 1987 and had to choose between an 8-bit computer (Commodore 64/128, Atari 400/800, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari 400/800) and an 16-bit computer (Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS PC, Apple Mac).

The Amiga 500 was already available in Q3 1987, which was much more affordable than the Amiga 1000 in 1985 - 1986. The Atari ST was also affordable.

Nevertheless I settled for a cheaper Commodore 128 (full compatible to C64 games), since many of my friends and class mates had huge libraries of C64 games I could lend/copy.

I never regretted that decision. If I had gone straight to 16-bit games, I probably would never have played many of the great 8-bit titles.

My first system was an NES, I borrowed it from my cousin. I don't know what year this was and I don't remember how long I borrowed it for. I do know that I was very young. If I'd have to guess, this was probably either 1994 or 1995 when I was about 3 years old.
I had a few games I borrowed, but I can only remember playing Mario and Ninja Turtles. There was a game called Snake rattle n roll which I'm sure I played too, but I have no recollection.

The first console I bought was the PS1 for Tombraider 2 as I thought it would run it better than my PC at the time. I initially tried to return it as the resolution looked appalling, being used to a monitor with 640x480 without interlacing. But I got used to interlacing and eventually enjoyed the ease of it just working.

The first console my parents bought for us was the MSX which was just out then. It was the Phillips version, my dad worked for Phillips and got it at a discount at the employee electronics store. The big factory / office he worked at had a whole electronics store with all Phillips products.

The first console I played on was the Atari 8 bit at friends, also just new at the time.


First PC I played on was an 8086 with 2x 10 Mb hdds, CGA with a black, green, bright green monitor, jumpers on the video cable to set which of the 4 colors mapped to the 3 'shades' the monitor could display, also bought through Phillips. We had a new PC every year as my dad's work provided them while my dad was working on software there. So I got to play on the all 286, added 80287, 386dx, 486dx, 486dx2.

First PC I bought was a Pentium 90, just out at the time.

The one that I bought out of my own money was a PSone. The small form factor system. This was in 2002 and the PS2 was already out but way out of my reach. But the systems I first had contact with was a Gameboy clone and later an Atari 2600 clone. Had a blast with all of them, and I had no idea back then, what other systems were out there.

Started on Atari in 1989 because Atari games were dirt cheap and according to my Dad "Did the same thing as the NES." We upgraded to a Sega Genesis in 1991.

Older generation than the current one at the time. Was playing Super Nintendo with my mom in 1997-1999 (I was roughly 4-6 years old.) We got an N64 around 1999-2000, and I had a Gameboy Color around then too. The PS2 was the first console we bought upon release, but by then my mother stopped playing video games because she would get motion sickness with any game that had a controllable camera.

GameCube for Christmas two years in. Even adjusted for inflation, Nintendo was nearly giving them away at that point. Especially as a gift for multiple kids to share. I got a GBA for myself that same week.