Master System was my first console, you never forget your first love! 
It was kind of an accident too, it was a few weeks before Christmas (must have been 1989) and I hadn’t decided what I wanted, I saw it in an Argos catalogue, thought it looked good so I asked for it, I got the set with hang on & safari hunt built in.
Me too, and the snail maze game! My brother was the main catalyst for us getting a Master System. A close friend had one, so we needed one too, because it was better than the NES! I remember drooling over Afterburner and Space Harrier at the friend’s house, and being super excited about getting it.
I still somewhat agree that it’s better. From a technical standpoint, the superiority of the SMS is clear, but if you shift the argument to the quality of the games and the controllers, then the battle becomes a lot less clear.
I think overall I still prefer the SMS better, but the NES has some really amazing games, and the controller is far superior.
You did have an Amiga new, though. That’s something I really wanted to have at the time, especially since I had a Vic and C64 before it.
I was lucky to get both the NES and SMS the same year. I was trying to decide which one to get later in the year for my birthday. When my sister asked for a Nintendo for her birthday earlier in the year, that made it easy. I asked for a Sega. The household had both but I knew my sister would get bored of video games (she barely touched our existing stuff) and the NES would basically be mine anyway.
I’m really glad to have grown up with computers and consoles, and to not have missed out on the SMS. It was amazing for its time even though it didn’t get much mainstream attention in NA.
Yeah I’m glad I didn’t miss out on that either. A couple friends had NES systems, so I got lots of time with both. I see large collections with thousands of games, and the guy has no Master System. Makes me appreciate the system even more… some people are completely oblivious to the SMS.
We eventually got a NES but not until SMB2 was released, for some reason we had many more SMS games than NES games, I think it was down to local availability.
I also remember buying one of those awful official SMS “arcade” joystick controllers!
Lots of kids at school had master systems at the time so there was plenty of opportunity to borrow games, I can’t remember many people owning an NES now I come to think of it.
2600
Colecovision
Arcade
PC Tandy 1000 SL
NES
SNES
Arcade
Gameboy
PC 386
Genesis + SCD
TG16
Gamegear
PC 486 DX 2
PC Pentium 166
Virtual Boy
N64
PS1
Saturn
NGP
GBC
Dreamcast
PC AMD K6 3
PC P3 500 MHZ
Tons of Arcade MVS CPS2 etc
XBOX
Gamecube
PS2
Tons of PCs
GBA
DS
360
PS3
Wii
PC
X1
PCE Duo
PS4
Wii U
Switch
Supergrafx
Neo CD
I’ve been in to PC gaming since our family picked up a Tandy 1000SL right around the time that Ultima V came out. I’ve always loved arcade games and worked with Mamedev to preserve several games and prototypes. In my high school years I joined a ROM releasing group. I’ve always been addicted to gaming and try to play as much as I can.
Haha I picked up one of those recently… they are terrible, but it was cheap and I couldn’t resist. It still had the peel-able plastic on the shiny part!
It was pretty dirty, but after peeling the plastic and cleaning it up, it almost looks new.
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That’s the one! 
I had forgotten that it was actually back to front! with the stick on the right
Hmmm… going by the OP, I want to try to keep this to NEW purchases which means a few things I got used at that time should not be included? I will mark those in the list since they were used but purchased when they were popular/new.
Odyssey 300
Atari Video Computer System (2600)
Atari 800XL
Atari 7800
Used - Nintendo Entertainment System
SEGA Genesis
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Game Gear
Atari Jaguar
Neo Geo AES Gold System
REAL 3DO Multiplayer (Panasonic)
Sega 32X
Sega Saturn
Sony PlayStation
Used - Nintendo 64 (an employee of mine wanted to get rid of it.)
Sega Dreamcast
Sony PlayStation 2
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Nintendo Gamecube
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft Xbox 360
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Wii
Sony PlayStation 3
Used - Sony PlayStation Portable (Purchased from a GAF user)
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo Wii U
Sony PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
Analogue Super Nt
When it comes to PCs, I am not sure I even remember all the PCs I’ve owned processorwise relating to when I owned them but I think it’s something like this…
- IBM PC 8088
- Compaq 486 DX2/50 w/8MB RAM
- Gateway Pentium 120 w/16MB RAM
- Intel Celeron 300 w/16MB RAM (First one I built)
- AMD Athlon XP (?? I’m drawing a blank here… I am pretty sure this was next after the Celeron?)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 (?? Jesus… I really have no idea. This shit went so fast…)
- Thanks to NewEgg still having my order… -> AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice Single-Core 2.2 GHz Socket 939 ADA3500BPBOX Processor 2GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800GT (Purchased in 2005)
- Dell XPS Intel Core i7 860 w/16GB RAM and GTX970 - (This PC is still gaming viable today. It’s my bedroom PC. 8GB when new and an AMD Radeon 5850 video card I think. It had a 750Ti in it as well.)
- Alienware Alpha Core i5 4590T w/8GB RAM (Still great for couch multiplayer)
- Alienware Aurora Intel Core i7 6700 w/16GB RAM GTX1070 (Main living room PC right now)
I don’t even want to think about all the videocards I’ve been through. My first was a Rendition V1000 Intergraph Intense 3D 100. Also bought a Monster 3D Voodoo 3DFX card to go with it later. There were countless others since. Best and longest lived among them probably was an 8800GT although that 6800GT lasted a long time too. The 1070 in the current PC is holding up really well.
I had a customised pc back in the early 90’s too it was a cyrix 386 those things were expensive in those days and ugly and felt underpowered compared to the Commodore Amiga and Atari Sts
Also built a pc when the intel PIII’s were out and do we include mobile phones/itablets because I 've game on those too
Ah the infamous 300A. I’d bet dollars to diamonds you had that thing OCed to 450Mhz. Probably the best overclocking processor in history. 150%… Now systems struggle for ten percent increases.
Heh… ya got me!!
- VG3000 (Atari 5200 clone - Broken?)
- Top Game (NES clone - gave away to a charity home)
- Mega Drive (JP - Sold?)
- Sega CDX (US - Gave away to my late uncle when I got my PS1 - got it back last year, dead laser)
- PlayStation (US - Launch Day - still have it, dead laser)
- Neo Geo CD (BR - still have it, exchanged laser, works fine)
- PlayStation 2 (US - gave it to my little cousin, he broke it the next day)
- PlayStation 3 (US - YLOD)
- PlayStation 3 Slim (US - Still have it)
- PlayStation 4 (US - Sold it)
- PlayStation 4 Slim (BR - still have it)
I’m gonna add some used stuff in here, but just stuff we bought used when that generation was still current because we couldn’t afford a new one… I’m also a bit dicey on the timing of same consoles and handhelds (like I’m not 100% sure we got GBC before GC, and we seldom got stuff at launch back then).
Sega Master System 2
Sega Mega Drive (used)
Game Boy
Nintendo 64
Game Boy Color
Gamecube
Gameboy Advance
Wii
DS Lite
Xbox 360
3DS
Wii U
3DSXL
PS4
Xbox One
New3DS and XL
PS4 Pro
Switch
X1S
X1X
I will go with the story.
My first contact with the video game was one of those first generation console with some Pong variants, two potentiometer pads and a gun. I was two or three, and that had blown my mind that this toy let me control the TV, sorcery !
It was so damn exciting but unfortunately that was a relative ancient toy of my big brother, no one in the house was a video game enthusiastic to play with me and the gun didn’t work no more.
Second contact, Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. Ok that has defined what I will love for the rest of my life.
I was five, the cabinet was in the restaurant of the camping of our vacations in Tyrol, Austria, Zillertal valley, Kaltenbach village.
The game was always surrended by kids watching the one who played. The son of the camping owner was the one who played it well. I was too young to even touch it but my brain had perfectly imprinted it.
At home we had some electronic games essentially Galaga style. At eight I’ve got mine, the famous orange Game & Watch DK. Pure joy, years of fun, I still get it.
The same year one of my neighbors show me the Atari 2600. THAT was what I wanted, I got it for the next Christmas with Vanguard, my first scrolling shmup. I spent a lot of time on it, it sharpened my imagination perfectly, these boss stage… I played it on a black and white TV, so for me those games are black and white.
Just before entering the middle school at ten, my uncle told my father that he bought a computer for her daughter but she was not interested. And so I got an Amastrad CPC 6128.
I discovered that a lot of my new class friends had the same computer, and then began the era of the floppy disks in the schoolbag and the massive amout of hacked games. Arcade ports, airplane simulations, adventure games and those micro computer original games <3
I remember the sunday mornings in my room, running a game just on waking. One time I was so inpired with my cloudy spirit that I wasn’t touched in Gryzor (Contra) and finished it. Ok that was weird, I suddenly remembered that my copy have died and a friend copyed the game to me again. After checking the version, I discovered that it had the invincibility by default, lol
I played the NES in a toy store, I was very jalous of the smooth gameplay, but my computer sounded more mature to me.
One night on the bleacher of a show, I hearded some other kids talking about The Legend of Zelda. I had never talked and exchanged like that of a game with my friends, I knew that night I was missing something.
At twelve I bought an Amiga 500 after had played Test Drive on the Atari ST of a friend.
Shadow of The Beast running in the store was so crazy. It seems that I was concient that this machine was the completion of a genre, sort of.
Two years later SFC appaered in the magazines, that was my chance to finally test the Nintendo universe and leave for a while the occidental games.
F-Zero and SF2 defined my adolescence.
I had a Megadrive friend and a NEC friend (all import), we were king.
Later I had the « PSX », took and played Resident Evil in vacation in the same Austrian village than I discovered DK in my childhood.
And the N64, so amazing combination of modern and classic. The final Nintendo greatness for me.
After these era the rest was not so much enjoyable.
Édit : I forgot the two Shenmue, the swan song. Even if I have appreciate very much other modern games like Demon’s Souls, Life is Strange or BotW. But definitely not the same era…
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I’m leaving out doubles. Also, almost all of the consoles I had as a kid have been replaced either because they disappeared or because (in the case of my Saturn and Dreamcast) the drive stopped working and ODEs didn’t exist yet.
I got an NES in 88 for Christmas. A relative of mine recently shared with me a video of it. I didn’t care. I was more excited about the giant staypuft marshmallow man I got.
I got a Genesis some time between launch and when Sonic came out. I remember my mom getting rid of Altered Beast because she thought it was satanic. That’s probably why I’m interested in metal and the occult now.
I got an SNES for Christmas launch year.
Somewhere around that time, I also got a Game Gear.
I got a Saturn for Christmas in 1995 and spent the next year playing Panzer Dragoon.
Then I got an N64 for Christmas the next year.
A bit later, I got my first computer – a Pentium 90 MHz. I had a normal upgrade life cycle from there. Although, in 2002 or so I switched to Linux so barely used it for games.
In 1999, I babysat my cousin (aka played Mario Kart with him all summer) and used the money to buy a Dreamcast at launch. I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color around this time as well which I used for Sonic, Puzzle Bobble, and Metal Slug.
I got a GBA around launch but my brother sold it off almost immediately. Then I got a Gamecube at Launch.
I tried to get a launch Wii but that was impossible. I finally was able to pick one up around a year later. I think I got a DS instead to make due.
I bought a PS3 around 2010 or so. My motivation for going to the dark side was Valkyria Chronicles. Then a bit later, I bought a PSP. Around this time, I discovered a shop that sold retro games and started building up my collection.
Since then I bought in roughly the right order the following
3DS
PS1
Vita
Sega CD
32X
Master System
Game Boy
Wii U
PS4
(Not a console but super important) XRGB-3
X68000
FM Towns
Virtual Boy
PS2
Twin Famicom
PC Engine + Suitcase
PC9821
FM Towns Marty
PS4 Pro
A Windows 98 computer
Japanese Mark III
Japanese Master System
Xbox 1S (I mostly use it for movies though)
PC9801
I’m probably forgetting something
My first console was the Atari 2600 in 1981, with Combat as the pack-in game and a copy of the newly released Pitfall!, which was the hot game at the time. My parents bought it for me for getting good grades in school.
Atari 2600
Colecovision
Atari 400 (hand me down from a relative, after he upgraded to an Atari 800XL)
Commodore 64c (first system I bought with my own money, back in high school)
Atari 1040ST (first system I bought as an adult)
Atari Lynx (bought the Lynx II at launch)
Atari 1040STE
Atari Jaguar w/Jaguar CD (bought both the Jag and Jag CD at launch)
Sega CDX
IBM 486 DX2/66 PC - Finally caved in and joined the Wintel juggernaught. I was seriously considering an Atari Falcon 
) I’ve gone though about four or five new PCs over the years and various upgrades.
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast (bought at launch 9/9/99!!!)
NeoGeo Pocket Color (launch)
Nuon (Toshiba SD-2300)
Nuon (Samsung N-501)
Gameboy Advance (launch)
Xbox (launch)
GBA SP
Xbox (Halo Edition)
Gamecube w/Gameboy Player
Xbox 360 (launch)
Nintendo DS (launch)
DS Lite
Xbox 360 Elite
DSi XL
PSP 2000
Xbox One (launch)
PlayStation Vita
Xbox One X (launch Scorpio edition)
I currently own:
Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, XEGS, 65XE, 1040ST, 1040STE, Lynx II (x2), Atari Jaguar (x2) and Jag CD
VM-Labs Nuon (Samsung N-501)
Sega CDX, Saturn and Dreamcast
Sony PS One, PSP 2000 and PS Vita
Nintendo GBA, GBA SP, GC w/GB Player, DS Lite, 3DS and New 3DS
Microsoft XB (x2), X360, XB1, XB1X
Gaming PC - Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook (i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz-quad core, 16-MB RAM) w/Razer Core V2 graphics card mini-tower (GeForce GTX 1070 8GB), Razer Deathadder Elite mouse, Razer BlackWidow mechanical keyboard, Razer Orbweaver mechanical gaming keypad (all working together in seizure inducing Chroma harmony).
I love how unconventional your history is here. So much Atari, when Nintendo was reigning supreme.
Funny about that upgrade to 800XL from Atari 400, as they are mostly the same thing.
The 400 had that cool futuristic Space 1999 look, but that mylar keyboard was crap, Basic was on a cart and it came standard with 16k, expandable to 48k. The 800XL had 64k, XL basic built in and a nice keyboard. All the newer Atari 8-bit games and software required either 48k or 64k.
After the video game crash in North America, the console scene kinda died for a few years. For computers though, the video game scene on Atari, Apple, PC and Commodore kept rolling on. If you were a video game hobbyist back then, it was only natural to get into computers. I know the NES launched in 1985 in North America, but it didn’t hit its stride until around 1987. By that time, I already had my eye on the new 16-bit computers and next gen.
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- In the 80’s my dad owned a laptop (it was like a hard and heavy plastic suitcase) where I could play my first games. I remember me playing Leasure Suit Larry, not knowing it was about a guy trying to get laid
- Later my dad bought an Atari ST with a monochrome screen, which meant I couldn’t play most of the good games (but there were some)
- At friends I played Atari 2600, Amiga and NES
- My first own system was a Sega Mega Drive
- I bought a SNES + Superscope in high school from another kid
- My dad got a Pentium 100 every few years a faster desktop PC
- I bought a PlayStation 2 new and when it broke a PS2 Slim
- From here it’s a little blurry, since I bought quite a lot during this generation
- I think I first got the first GameBoy Advance model (but sold it for some reason)
- A little bit later I bought a new GameCube
- Bought the GBA SP
- A few months later I got myself a new Xbox
- For some reason I bought a new Panasonic Q + Gameboy Player
- At that time I also bought a secondhand Sega Dreamcast
- I’m not sure when, but somewhere down the line I also bought a new NeoGeo Pocket Color
- Got a new Gameboy Micro
- Imported an American PSP
- Got the first Nintendo DS
- Then over the next few years I bought the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite…
- I assembled my own gaming PC at some point, connected it to my TV for Steam Big Screen mode
- Bought a Nintendo 3DS XL and a year later I got myself a Wii U.
- A few years ago I bought a PS4 and since last year also a New Nintendo 2DS and a Nintendo Switch.
For work I’ve owned a couple of Macbooks and Windows laptops. But usually I don’t use those for games. Things that could’ve been were a Turboduo and NeoGeo MVS or AES… I’ve had my mouse pointer hover over the Buy It Now button quite a lot the last 15 years or so. Also I might’ve owned a Vita if Amazon.de didn’t cancel the order for some reason (it was really cheap, never found it cheaper).