First Nintendo?

CiDeRmAn

Just wondering what was everyone's first Nintendo?

Mine was the Gameboy, back in 1991.
I was a student nurse at the time and was getting back into gaming after a break of two years.
I'd owned a ZX Spectrum and after selling it in 87 had two fallow years before getting a C64 cheap somewhere.
But the lure of Tetris soon set me straight, and I bought a Gameboy.
Such a cracking machine!
I still have that model in my collection, though it's successor, the Gameboy Pocket, is my favourite of the line.
Best games, well Tetris obviously, but Gradius/Nemesis, Super Mario Land and Lemmings of all things are closest to my heart.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

A Gameboy was my first Nintendo. I got it as a Christmas present from my sister! Favourite game was by far and away Tetris. I regret ever selling it!

CiDeRmAn

BDJW wrote: »

A Gameboy was my first Nintendo. I got it as a Christmas present from my sister! Favourite game was by far and away Tetris. I regret ever selling it!

Well, buy one again!
That game is timeless!
The original Gameboy, less so, the Gameboy Pocket screen is amazing, as is the battery life.

Bob24

Another Gameboy here, when I was in primary school. Couldn’t recall the exact year but must be 1991 or 92.

Tom Mann Centuria

Gameboy for me also, then gameboy advance, didn't get a Nintendo home console (initially) until the Gamecube.

RobbingBandit

NES, I is old so I is. Favourite game is a tie-in between Ducktales and Faxanadu.

CastorTroy

NES Action set which came with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros on one cart. Assuming Game & Watch Snoopy Tennis doesn't count

RobertFoster

My first Nintendo was the SNES Super Mario All-Stars bundle (without SM World) one Christmas. It was my first Nintendo and my first proper gaming experience. I had briefly played SNES/MD/PC stuff at friends' houses, but the only gaming things I had owned were those little flight/shooter monochrome handhelds (bought for me from a glass case in Roches Stores).

I didn't own many games for the SNES. It felt like I played All-Stars to death, but in reality I think I only ever finished Lost Levels. My dad was on sick leave for a few weeks and ended up playing while I was in school. He took on the role of Luigi when I got home

I played rented games mainly, with some birthday and Christmas games too. My friend had an older brother who'd lend me some games also. I earned a dead arm for overwriting his Sim City save (he told me to use save slot one, I swear!)

CiDeRmAn

CastorTroy wrote: »

NES Action set which came with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros on one cart. Assuming Game & Watch Snoopy Tennis doesn't count

No, I think G&W still count!

Were most peoples Ninty consoles Christmas presents, bought with hard earned summer money or bought later, as an adult?

RobbingBandit

My was christmas pressie between me and my brothers

Mr E

SNES with Super Mario World. Gaming bliss.

My one overriding memory of that time was staying up until 4:30am one night (a school night) trying to finish the special levels in SMW. I did it too.

I think I was late to the Gameboy but got one of those eventually too.

ionapaul

Have only owned three Nintendo hardware devices, despite being a gamer for over 30 years (we got a Commodore 64 sometime in the mid-80s) - started with the Gamecube, which I really liked even though I sold it on after about a year as I had played my games to death and was primarily a PC gamer at that point so had lots more to distract me. Was also sharing a rented apartment in Dublin and the others weren't gamers so need the sitting room to be free in order to bust out the Gamecube!

seamus

Gameboy here. A classmate in fourth class had one with a broken power switch, and offered to sell it to me for a tenner. So my parents bought it and that was my 10th birthday present

Turns out the main power switch on the outside of the Gameboy is just a cover for a real switch inside and you could easily turn it on or off by sticking your little finger in and flicking the switch. Eventually I fixed it with some superglue. Bargain for a tenner, even in 1992.

Oddly enough, we never really bought consoles in our house for some reason. I remember going to Xtravision and renting out Megadrives and SNESes for 2/3 days where we'd end up doing all nighters to get our money's worth.

I think my parents saw consoles as a massive pointless outlay of money for something that just plays games. My brother had computers in the house (starting with a ZX spectrum) since before I started school; he did ask for them, but I think my parents saw them as a more worthwhile spend.

The first full console in our house was an N64 that my eldest brother bought himself when he left college.

I lived with said brother for 8 years so that N64 might as well have belonged to both of us. I bought a Wii, which was the first console I'd ever personally bought and oddly for me I bought it only about six months after release. I usually buy into tech a bit later.

My daughter is currently loving the sh1t out of Mario Kart Wii and SMG2, and while I'd love to buy a Switch, I feel like there's a whole back catalogue of stuff that I never played on the Wii that my daughter would probably love too.

gizmo

Gameboy here too. I still get pangs when I see the original box. Also distinctly remember one of these bad boys in some shop in Dublin and having to be dragged off it by the folks on a few shopping trips.

I had spent the previous years enamored by various cousins' NES (NESes?) onto which I attached myself during our frequent visits. I loved my C64 at the time but when it came to the likes of Zelda, Metroid, Duck Tales, Mario Bros 3 and even California Games I think my parents knew what was coming next. That and a new found appreciation for street lights when travelling at night in the car. :pac:

Star Lord

Before we had any, I got to play friends/cousins NES and Gameboy (Especially Batman on the GB!)

The first one in our house was the SNES, followed by the N64. First purchase for myself was when I bought myself a GameBoy Colour, with Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening DX.
Later purchases were the GameCube, DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, New 3DS and Switch, so covered most of them.

bkrangle

A snes was my first for me, with all stars and f-zero, received as an xmas present when I was ~12. I got marioworld shortly afterwards and went on to amass a large collection of games over the years.

I think the snes remains my favourite console to this day, there were a lot of great games in some of my formative years. I sold on my megadrive, n64, gamecube and ds collections but never had the heart to part with my snes carts!

Gonzo

The Super Nintendo was the first console I ever owned back in 1991. Before then my Amiga 600 was my first machine to play games on. My Super Nintendo was bought in Spain and it came with Super Mario World and Street Fighter 2. It was a life changing experience, my Amiga soon collected dust and I regularly bought snes games. My favourite games on the system were Super Mario World, Street Fighter 2, the Super Star Wars trilogy of games, Starfox, Mario Kart, Aladdin, Mortal Kombat 2 and F-Zero.

I didn't get into or play Zelda till I bought an N64 with the Ocarina of Time. Now that I have a snes mini I must try out Zelda: A Link To The Past....

McLoughlin

March 2nd 1991 NES with Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles pack in title. Though i had the game on ZX Spectrum I wanted it on NES.

CastorTroy

Got mine from Santa. The Game & Watch was my dad's. My aunt had loads of them so would play when we visited.
First time I played the NES was at a friend's house. He had the ROB set as well as Gyromite and Popeye.

First handheld outside my Zelda and tetris watches (wristheld?) was the original GBA

blockfighter

Switch for me. I know I know, I'm late to the party. First console I ever had in my house was the PS1. Never went near Nintendo consoles. Prior to that all my friends had MegaDrives and the only machine we had for gaming before the PS1 was an Atari 1040ST. Not a console as such. Very old school.

I'm converted though. Switch is easily my favourite console ever. My Xbox One hasnt been touched in months.

CiDeRmAn

I don't know how other people feel but even the Switch hasn't quite captured the excitement/atmosphere/tension around those early new consoles.
From the GB to MD, Snes and PS/N64 it was something pretty special to get a new console and the games they could play that you couldn't play anywhere else.
But somehow, for me post Dreamcast, it all got a tad "pedestrian" and the improvement more incremental from generation to generation.
Maybe it's due to my coming to those consoles as an adult, with over a decade of console/computer ownership under my belt.

Inviere

Snes with Super Mario World for Christmas. The greatest console of all time, with one of the greatest games of all time...how lucky I was

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I don't know how other people feel but even the Switch hasn't quite captured the excitement/atmosphere/tension around those early new consoles...Maybe it's due to my coming to those consoles as an adult, with over a decade of console/computer ownership under my belt.

I often wonder the same, and that, we're more 'closed off' to the magic of modern games & consoles than younger folk are. Breath of the Wild is a modern day masterpiece, no doubt about it. When I think Zelda though, I still see this...



...I don't think any game will have the impact on me, that games once did when I was younger, no matter how masterful they are. And that's a sad thing.

Star Lord

That's the law of diminishing returns, really. The newer systems are leagues ahead of their predecessors in terms of raw power, but we're at a level where it takes so much more to make a slight difference now. Back in the day a little bit more power meant a huge difference in what could be done.

super_furry

A Gameboy with Tetris, Zelda and Mortal Kombat, which I somehow managed to convince myself was a playable game. It was not. We're talking 4 or 5 FPS here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ackTtYJPBEY

Nollog

My first was a NES, my brother had a Gameboy.

Sparko

NES for me. I was quite young, I recall having Mario 3 but not sure if we had any other games.

I remember being scared of the sun that chases you in the desert world, and also leaving the NES powered on over a number of nights while my Dad and I tried to finish the game because there was no save function.

manual_man

Super nes. Graduating from a C64

Ace Attorney

gameboy with super mario land and mario and the 6 golden coins. loved those games, havent touched them in a long time. Played super mario land to death including the new game plus mode. Had also fond memories of pokemon blue that i brought a GBA to play the remake last year. must get around to playing that.

CiDeRmAn

I'm surprised there aren't more people who started with the Wii tbh, given the sheer volume of systems it sold, or the GBA, for the same reasons.

Mr Bloat

It was the SNES for me too, a shared present with my brothers. We used to have it connected to a 12" portable TV on a TV stand with wheels, so it could be rolled into the bedroom of he whose turn it was to play. There was also a clock on the TV stand where we would time to the second how long that play session was for that person. We were each given a 20 minute time slot before our homework midweek and an hour time slot at the weekends and there would be war if one of us went over the allotted time. Multiplayer games caused less fights!
We used to pray for the nights my mum and dad went to the pub, when we would sneak out the console with one of us keeping watch in case they came back early!
Happy days, great thread.

Rhyme

My cousins had just got a SNES so I bought their NES off them with my childhood savings. Mario & Duck Hunt, Trog, Rad Gravity, Low-G Man and a few others came with it. Was given a Gameboy for Christmas not long after with Battleship, awesome.