I went to Wikipedia to check what the first consoles were like and it turns out consoles have been around almost as long as I have been, with the Magnavox Odysse being the first, according to [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_(first_generation)]wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_(first_generation)[/url].

The only one from the list of first-fourth generation consoles that click with my memory is the Atari 2600 though, I remember having seen it when I was young. But I remember seeing computer in homes much more than consoles. I guess consoles was more an American/Japanese thing in the seventies and eighties. I don't really remember any of them, but for the Atari 2600, around in the Netherlands

Choplifter! Haha what a great game! I loved the later sim copter, it felt like a sequel. I have to amend my post, my first actual gaming experience was with a TI... Kongo Bongo, the tank game I think Tank!, and Atlantis. Man, that was too long ago but some great memories. That was in between playing with my GI Joes, which came before and ran along with my Lego fascination. What really got me hooked on video games after the Atari was actually consoles, Mario, Mega Man, Legend of Zelda, and many many more.

When I finally got a PC and discovered PC gaming, there was no competition. Console gaming still holds a place in my heart and collection, but PC gaming was and remains king. These PC to console ports, and even more insulting the console to PC ports, are really a joke. It just isn't the same and never will be. I have Mechwarrior 2 and Warcraft 2 for the playstation, but it just doesn't compare to the PC experience. You still just can't emulate that same feeling you get from a PC game like Tie Fighter, or more recently the Battlefront series, and especially something like Operation Flashpoint or ARMA.

I think both platforms have their charms and unique attributes and I love them both, but I don't even like the attempted integration of the two in recent decades. PC games just aren't being made like they used to be because they seem to be making them more like a console game, which I think is because of cross-platform releases. They just aren't taking advantage of the vast potential of the PC like they used to. Take Tie Fighter or Mechwarrior for example, PC at that time were years beyond what the consoles were capable of as they are and should be. The consoles recent gens are nothing short of amazing, but you still just don't have the same resources that you have on PC. Not to mention more access and larger modding communities and such. I largely blame Xbox for this, which is why I refused to ever buy an Xbox or play one. I partly kick myself because I never got to play the Mechwarrior games they released, but them only releasing a historically PC game for a console only is part of the reason I despise the Xbox so much. They destroyed my beloved franchise in order to promote their half-ass console. The same with Halo, Microstuff swooped in and screwed dedicated PC gamers.

I still remain faithful to mainly Nintendo as secondary to my PC collection, and then playstation beyond that. Playstation is at the back of my list because of their greedy screwing their customers, not giving backward compatible to force you to buy games you already own on their network and jam up the tiny HD space they give you on the system. I don't want to even hear the argument about hardware... the original release of PS3 had backward compatibility with all prior gens until they thought up their network, then it was mysteriously too difficult to emulate the PS2. Yet, one could theoretically obtain a chip or other mod and have their system completely backward compatible without altering the hardware.

It reminds me of the ridiculous DRM they have been screwing PC gamers with, which is why I missed out on a lot of series I know I would've loved. The recent Total War series, Crysis, and the new Battlefront for example.

Edit - I forgot about this system that used your VCR and TV shortly after we had the TI. You hooked it up to your VCR and the games were a video that was played. You had a light-gun and were supposed to be able to interact with the video. I think we got it at a yard sale and it either never worked, or we just got a broken system. We had this jet fighter video where you would be flying through a canyon and reminded me of Top Gun, and this haunted house game where you were with a group of kids walking through a haunted house. I don't even know if I knew what that system was called back then, but it was obviously in the mid to late 80s.

I was PC only until my parents divorced when I was 9. My mom was anti video game and my dad wasn't so he got me a console.

Yeah, I only got my first console when I was 18 or so (An old used Playstation). I grew up on old shareware DOS games, and of course, we never had any of the full games.That trend continued on to windows too, playing a lot of demos and very few full games. Ofcourse...I have gotten a lot of those games as full later (thanks GOG!).
The most notable thing about being a PC gamer as a kid...was probably that you got used to everything running like arse. Sure the framerate was only 10 per second, but you could run this cool new game, you who cared? I have grown out of that tolerance now though.