The PS3. I still even remember the day and the date I did buy it. January 30th 2009. It was $399 back then. I wanted to go for the seventh gen already, and with my history on being with Sony consoles, I already made my mind with PS3 because it had the game series I enjoyed in the past: Ratchet & Clank, Metal Gear Solid. Granted, GTA IV was multiplatform this time, but I didn't care. I didn't feel compelled to go for the Xbox 360, especially with those failure rates.

Wii U It was the first console I bought all with my own money. I bought it because of Mario Kart 8. Even though it was a failure, I still love its small but strong library.

Wii U.
My family or I had owned all the Nintendo platforms from GBA through 3DS. I wanted the Wii U for Mario Kart and Smash. I got it a few weeks after Mario Kart 8 launched. Unfortunately, Wii U failed to impress in many ways. But I bought myself a Switch and PS4 Pro since then.

I think it was the GameCube for me as well, as either my mother or stepfather would buy anything else either for themselves or for me before that (and plenty after that, up until the PS4 at least) because they were interested in games. Could be that I bought a GBA before that.

I only got a GameCube after it price-dropped to €99 when The Wind Waker had released. Got it with Luigi's Mansion and Mario Sunshine, and got Wind Waker and Mario Kart shortly after. In the end I ended up with a decently sized library for it, a bigger one than I ended up with for WiiU and PS4, even when I shifted towards PC gaming at the time after being disappointed by three of those four flagship Nintendo titles.

The main reason for me getting it was, beside neither of my parents getting one (they were into Dreamcast, which was great) before that, was because even if I had reservations about The Wind Waker, a new Nintendo console gets a new Zelda game.

Like I said though, this could all be untrue, because I could have bought a GameBoy Advance before that. The problem is I don't really recall why, when or how I got that system. In my memory it had just spawned into my life, no questions asked. I do know that I wanted to play the SNES classics on it that I used to play at my aunt's house when I was a kid, and those are the bulk of my library. That felt like it was a millions years ago at that time, though obviously, now it has been twice as long since I played on my GBA than it was when back then I was nostalgic about playing stuff from the NES and SNES. Funny how that works. Anyway many years later I regretted not getting more of the GBA's library after playing through Metroid Fusion and Fire Emblem on 3DS.

SNES, when I was like 7 or 8.

It was my neighbor's system, and he sold it to me with like 10 games or so, for 60 bucks, cus his mom was forcing him to get rid of his video games. Not a very nice lady, but it worked out pretty nice for me.

For me it was the Wii. I bought it three years after launch and enjoyed it very much. Never got into the Wii sports/motion titles though but the other games were excellent either way.

Super Nintendo first system I bought but used, Playstation first system I bought new. We had a family Nintendo I had to share with my brother and sister growing up but by the time Super Nintendo came out we all had different things we wanted so we never agreed to get a group gift to have a family Super Nintendo and it was more money then my parents was willing to spend on a Birthday/Hannakah gift for just one of us.

After it already been out for awhile I knew someone willing to sell me his SNES and I could choose any 3 games he owned for $50 (I chose Final Fantasy 6,Final Fantasy 4 and Secret of Mana). I was only 12 at the time and $50 was basically every penny I owned but I made the deal.

I got into JRPG from dragon quest and Final Fantasy from the Nintendo but really fell in love with the SNES so it was just one year after getting the SNES that I paid full price for a new system for the first time and got a PlayStation because Final Fantasy was going to be on it instead of the NES 64. I was Bar mitzvah when I was 13 and had enough money saved from that to buy it brand new.

NES because, in 1988 Nintendo dominated the minds of every kid I knew. Atari was fun enough but Nintendo just seemed like something else entirely.

After I played that demo machine with ten NES games, it was all I wanted that Christmas.

*Edit* read the title wrong. First one I spent my own money on was the N64. I only cared about playing games on Nintendo consoles and that was the console on the market when I had my own money. 

GameCube was the first console I bought after being a PC-only gamer throughout the 90s (THE decade for two of my most favorite genres, point & click adventures and RTS).

I was curious to play "typical console" games and started with Wave Race Blue Storm, Burnout, Beach Spikers and Star Fox Adventures.

Mine would actually be the Wii U in May 2015; the reason being that for the past year I was seeing games like Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and the like on it and hearing good stuff about them that I wanted to give it a shot. Plus I was off gaming for like a good three years (was watching and hearing playthroughs and news but not playing games) at that point so I was hungry to get back in.

Plus, there was a great offer for the console; it cost £180 for a Windwaker HD version of the console, plus five games and a £20 voucher. The games were, Mario and Sonic at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games (Wii U), FIFA 13 (Wii U), Metroid: Other M and Wii Quiz Party, which were sold off as I was kinda tight on cash at the time (but not before playing a bit of two of the games). I knew of the shortcomings and problems the console had, and I was even aware of the fact that I heard there was a another console (which would become the Switch) looming, but I was happy with it nonetheless and it was a brilliant pick-me-up to get me back into this hobby.