What era of gaming did you grow up in?

[Ack]

I was born in 1993, started gaming about 1996 when my mom bought a Russian Famiclone. I know it seems very weird, but if you consider the fact that Estonia regained indepence in 1991 from a 50-year USSR occupation, not so much. Economy was pretty much in shambles and my mom and dad didn't have high-paying jobs either. It's not like I was the only one, Famiclones were popular up to the late 90s. It wasn't until 2001 when I got a PS1 ( ) that I entered the world of 32-bit while missing the wonders of 16-bit (seriously, I didn't know jack about Mega Drive or SNES).

Great times.

Hey man, whatever gets you here, gets you here. We hold no bias about what you first learned to play on. Frankly, I always thought some of the Russian knock-off products were kinda cool in that Cold War kind of way. I hear North Korean arcades still run Russian knock-off machines.

And if nothing else, they did give us Tetris.

So if you want to start learning about the 16-bit era...now's always a great time!

[Dakinggamer87]

I started with the Atari 2600/NES era then went to SNES/Genesis were gaming went into overdrive..

[sakicfan84]

I first played around on Atari and Colecovision, but I really grew up in the 8-bit era. I was simply floored by games like Zelda and Mario 3. I remember my brother getting the copy of Dragon Warrior that came with Nintendo Power and it pretty much blowing us all away.

The jump to NES games from the Colecovision was just extraordinary to me at the time. Although the jump from a previous generation to a new generation is still pretty significant, it definitely doesn't seem as special to me as the advancement did back then. I have grown to enjoy my gaming time more though. As days become more filled with "life", every moment I get to spend playing games seems a little more precious.

[skate323k137]

i grew up in the 16 bit era, but the NES was alive and well. I'm still very fond of both my genesis and SNES.

[corn619]

I was born in 1993, started gaming about 1996 when my mom bought a Russian Famiclone. I know it seems very weird, but if you consider the fact that Estonia regained indepence in 1991 from a 50-year USSR occupation, not so much. Economy was pretty much in shambles and my mom and dad didn't have high-paying jobs either. It's not like I was the only one, Famiclones were popular up to the late 90s. It wasn't until 2001 when I got a PS1 ( ) that I entered the world of 32-bit while missing the wonders of 16-bit (seriously, I didn't know jack about Mega Drive or SNES).

Great times.

Hey man, whatever gets you here, gets you here. We hold no bias about what you first learned to play on. Frankly, I always thought some of the Russian knock-off products were kinda cool in that Cold War kind of way. I hear North Korean arcades still run Russian knock-off machines.

Are the Russian versions of the NES different than the rest of the clones I wonder? If they are I'm willing to bet they look cooler and are much more rare than any real NES. I'd love to have one to be honest, it would be cool if they had a cool Russian flair to them.

[schi0249]

NES/SMS era. My first system was a SMS I got for my 10th birthday I believe. I was the wierdo that didn't own an NES.

[skate323k137]

NES/SMS era. My first system was a SMS I got for my 10th birthday I believe. I was the wierdo that didn't own an NES.

I can't believe i forgot about the SMS. SMS was the beginning of my gaming, whenever i was on vacation. My aunt was a rep for tonka toys at the time, which i guess had some deal w/sega. she had two 2 sega master systems (which always stayed boxed) and copies of every game imaginable. I'd stay up all night playing cool spot, california games, casino games, gangster town, alex kidd, etc. When i was probably 7 or 8 years old, my parents wouldn't let her -give- me a set of my own (were talking a SMS and damn near, if not every game ever released). I don't think I'll ever let that go, it still kinda hurts to think about. A few years later, my other aunt stealthily stuffed a sega genesis in my luggage before i left for home. When i got home, unpacked, and found it, there was no way i was letting my parents take that away.

[Raziel]

Are the Russian versions of the NES different than the rest of the clones I wonder? If they are I'm willing to bet they look cooler and are much more rare than any real NES. I'd love to have one to be honest, it would be cool if they had a cool Russian flair to them.

I can't say for sure. I had this one and also this. It's funny though, I can't seem to remember where I got the black one.

[shallowgamer]

2600 era.

My Parents made a deal with us kids to get us that instead of feeding us quarters for the arcade. I still snuck down to the local arcade every chance I could get to play the "real" versions of Donkey Kong, PacMan, and Ms. PacMan though. I got to also play Intellivision and Colecovision at my Uncle's house occasionally.

<edit> Man after reading all of these posts, I feel really, really old for some reason!

You're not alone, I'm old too. My family took advantage of the crash, not that they knew it as "the crash". We had a 2600 that was a demo unit; I'm assuming my Mom picked it up cheap as some department store stopped supporting it. I would also pick up games at our local grocery store for 3 bucks, 4 bucks, etc.

I played the 2600 all the way to the revival in the late 80's, then played it more when Midnight Magic and Solaris came out.

But, like most of my friends, I quit the Atari cold turkey when I finally got my hands on a NES.

[Firestarter]

Received the NES as a gift from my parents to both my sister and I shortly after the system was released. My sister lost interest after a while and it ended up being mine. Then I received the SNES shortly after that came out and I still have and play them. The NES was sent out to get repaired once shortly before the SNES came out. I stopped playing them about 97 but kept everything in a drawer even the games. I started playing them off and on about 02. And lately I have been playing them every time I get a chance to. I now have a retro duo and will hopefully be able to get a N64 to play soon. But for now I have a lot of games to play. I remember earning the money helping people with yard work and whatever I could do to earn the money to buy the latest releases. Ahh the good old days when all I had to worry about was getting the money to buy that new game and beat it before the neighbor down the road.