At what age did you become a retro gamer?

[Nyukki]

Born in 86, got my NES around age 6, but the first time I actively seeked out games from a previous generation was when I was about 13, when PS1's where current and I was hooked on FF7. In English class a new student from America (I grew up in UK) sat next to me and randomly said to me: "Can't wait to play Chrono Trigger when I get home." I had previously read about CT in a magazine called Super Play that often did reviews of games not released in Europe, and I was like "Holy crap dude, you have Chrono Trigger?!?!" and he was like, "Yeah dude, oneminuteleft.com!", and I was like, "da fu....?“

So then I discovered emulation and finally got to play all these games I could only read about in magazines as a kid (FF3, CT etc.), and emulation was handy when I went to university as all I needed was my laptop and gamepad.

Started playing less and less until after getting married, I guess due to spending more time at home these days. Did acquire almost all consoles I was after, but have recently sold them all as we have a baby on the way and we live in a tiny apartment, but I emulate them all on my HTPC with official controllers.

Still got my original NES though that started it all.

[Retronomy]

To be honest I only became a retro gamer when it was decided the games I played as a kid became retro.

I started with nes, and experienced those systems that would come after as they came along. Although in my teens I expanded and went further back into Atari consoles/computers and the like. I guess I've pretty much always been a retro gamer, I was playing super mario bros on nes when I was 3 years old.

[J T]

Lots of games are considered retro video games now, but back in my day, we just called them video games.

Get off my lawn.

[jinx]

Like many other mentioned before, I never actually became a retro gamer but just never stopped playing my old systems.

I had my NES and Genesis as far back as I can remember, and never stopped playing them. The NES I can't actually remember getting, but I remember the day I got my Genesis. I remember the first time playing Sonic the Hedgehog, and I remember in that moment that I would forever love video games. I've been told I played Astroids on the Atari 2600 a lot when I was about my daughter's age. I honestly don't remember this though.

It wasn't until I moved in with my dad at the age of 14 that I realized that I had a collecting "problem". I still had all the original boxes for any system I had bought myself. Finding a place to put all those boxes was difficult. Before, I had a shelf built into the wall to put my games, but we ended up buying a DVD rack for my new room. It broke... I tried to fit my entire collection on it, and the side fell off. It was pretty cheap

At this point my console count was 12, handheld count was at 6, and I'm not even sure how many games I had. Katrina took all that away, and discouraged me from buying anymore systems for a long time. I mostly just played on emulators, and tried to find matching USB controllers.

Now I'm back in the game and collecting again.

[3DSStrider]

I used to play my dad's old SNES all the time, until he took it when my parents divorced, around about seven or eight. Also around that time, I got Sonic Mega Collection+ on the Xbox. I spent a lot of time with that game and Sonic Gems on the Gamecube.
When I was nine, I got a Wii, which introduced me to Virtual Console. I also spent a lot of time at my mom's boyfriend's house. He had an NES and SNES. This was also when I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia reading about old game systems because I'm that kind of weirdo. When I moved in in fifth grade we also got a Nintendo 64. This was also the year that I discovered stuff like Racketboy and AVGN, which made me even more interested and knowledgeable. When my mom and I moved out, I kept the NES, SNES, N64, and the PS3. At this point I was pretty much a full on retrogamer

[Ghegs]

Like many other mentioned before, I never actually became a retro gamer but just never stopped playing my old systems.

I subscribe to this as well. I play games I find interesting, it's irrelevant whether they're old or new. Just this week I bought a copy of Rolling Thunder for the Famicom as well as Transformers: Fall of Cybertron on Steam. That said, I often find older games more fun than newer ones, but I'd say that tells more about the current trends of game design than my personal gaming habits.

[wiggyx]

Well, being that I'm 34 and I've been playing almost as long, I think I technically started as a retro gamer. I've never moved on from the classics, and have no intention of doing so. EVER

[soul_hacker]

I was 12 when I found out about emulators, which got me hooked on old games that I didn't know existed. In turn, that had me go up in my attic, find my old game systems and hunt down a few of those games. I didn't really start collecting until I was in my early 20's though.

[Retrodude]

I've been a gamer since the NES days, but as far as when I started focusing more on retro games than current ones, it was when I was 23/24. In the same year, I discovered Mame, got an FC Twin to play SNES games and bought a Sega Genesis from Ebay and it kind of snowballed from there.

[garrett123]

5, I had a pacman handheld of some kind. was in the mid 2000s.