# Your first games console/computer?



## LydeaCharlotteGirl (Aug 27, 2013)

I guess my first ever computer was an Amstrad CPC464 (apparently my dad drove to Comet, a defunct British electrical retailer, that was the first machine he saw, so he just bought it!). I and my mother at least, played many games on it. Still feel guilty about binning the now rare computer when I got it down from the attic, some years ago.

Unfortunately it was the cassette-only model, the tapes were the same as an audio tape and loaded programs very slowly. My later experiments with a disk drive model did not work out. For a while, we had a loaned BBC micro, from my father's work because they wanted him to learn computers. That only really led to mother playing one or two games on it, father was never really interested IIRC.

As for consoles I got an original monochrome Gameboy around the time it came out. It was
a success, though we were shocked at the price of games and I only had relatively few. Then I had a Sega Master System, the later model. Back then, my father had taken early retirement (mother was a stay-at-home mum but did freelance work when I was old enough, not her previous career), and he would also go to a local pub during his weekly shopping trip (he later became an alcoholic). In the school holidays, I would at least sometimes go with him.

The Master System was on dirt cheap clearance at Dixons, I persuaded him to buy it, my first colour console. Think it's built in Sonic the Hedgehog (the first) was the only game I ever played, it sat in the sitting room for a while in the early 1990s. In the 90s I heavily moved on to Amiga computers, but never really liked them. Also my mothers first PC (a work machine). A few games for it such as Robocod, but no sound card. In those days, that just meant silence. The music/FX in a game were unavailable! Thought about getting a Sega Saturn later on (I phoned up to ask if it had a modem for the internet, it didn't), that never transpired.


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## mt moyt (Jul 29, 2015)

My first gaming device was one of these:










moved on to my family hp desktop computer then a ps2. apart from laptops i havent got a console after the ps2.


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## JH1983 (Nov 14, 2013)

I had an NES back in the late 80's and an obscure console called an Action Max. Played the old Atari from back then, but never actually owned one. 

This is the Action Max. Weird VHS based console.


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## zonebox (Oct 22, 2012)

The very first console would have been the Atari 2600, and it is hard to recall the first game. I remember playing a lot of the classics, such as Pacman, and Bezerk, I remember as a child playing Space Invaders and finding it funny whenever I died it made a farting sound. I did not get to play it as much as I wanted to, because back then we only had one television that I recall. Plus we were often ushered out of the house most daylight hours, in addition to that I had three brothers and a mother that wanted to play it for when we could use it.

I do remember at the bus stop in the 80s, as well as on the bus some kids having hand held games. They were mostly just gimmicks and could only play one game. I remember pacman handhelds, football, and really generic ones. I did not own any back then though.

The first computer I used was an Apple ][e. I believe I was 9 at the time, it was a school computer and I really took to it. The first computer my family owned I am pretty sure was a Commodore VIC 20, unfortunately it did not get very much use mostly due to not having a tape drive or disk drive for it. Still I remember typing programs in it, and playing some text based games on it. I was the only one that really played around with it, as compared to even the Atari 2600 it was mediocre, considering we only had a couple of text based games for it - I mean it was more capable but for what we had it was less than spectacular.

From the Atari, we eventually moved over to a NES in the mid to later 80s and I remember playing that quite a bit. I would actually pretend to be sick so I could stay home and play it a few times. My youngest brother had an Atari 7800 for a little while, and I remember playing games on a sega master at a friend's house. Eventually we purchased a Super NES, and the Genesis. I also remember our Playstation in the 90s. Sometime in the very early 2000s I purchased a Playstation 2, and still own it - it still works and I still will play some games on it from time to time.

I do recall my first gameboy, I bought it used from a neighbor for I think $80 with a bunch of games. He received a second one for a gift, and sold me his. I think he received the gameboy color, and didn't have a use for the original one. Back then it was still a pretty amazing machine, and I got a lot of use out of it.

I think the Amstrad CPC 464 is a gorgeous looking machine, it would make for an excellent cyberdeck today. As far as Amiga computers, I came late to the scene - later 90s and I purchased one when it was already considered obsolete. I remember how big they were in the BBS scene, and wanting to try one. I have to say, I am impressed with them. My first Amiga was an a1200 which I still use today - it is also the computer I have owned the longest. I have had it set up on the Internet using wireless, and even have browsed this site on it. Mostly I just use amiga emulation now.

For a brief time, I owned a lot of Amiga computers, I would buy them from ebay for incredibly cheap, I also used to buy a bunch of older computers back then and had a small collection back in the 90s. They would be pretty expensive today, but unfortunately my mother in law gave them away years ago. For some reason, even in the later 90s older computers fascinated me, and considering how cheap they were back then I would collect them.

The oldest systems I currently own besides the PS2 and Amiga, which I purchased used is a NES 8 bit system, which was still working a few years ago and I probably have two dozen games for - I mostly just emulate when I feel like playing those games though. I have an Atari 2600 which I got from a thrift store really cheap, but it needs to be repaired, and I also have a Apple ][c which I also got really cheap from the same place but have no power cord for. I also have a ancient 68k mac and a powermac that I am not sure if they even work anymore.


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## Tetragammon (Jun 2, 2015)

The first game console that was really mine was a NES. But the first I played on was probably my dad's Atari 2600. I remember we used to take it on weekend trips to this beach house that we'd rent in California, and I'd be more excited about playing games than actually visiting the beach! Guess I should have known then that I'd turn into a total video game nerd... We also had an Apple PC around that same time, though, and my parents got me into "educational" games early. So it's possible I may have played on that first; I honestly don't remember. 

I was pretty lucky because my parents usually got me the latest and greatest game consoles as a "big" Xmas gift after they came out. I remember the SNES in particular because I was 6, almost 7 when it came out and spent countless hours on it, both by myself and with a few friends. Then I got a Gameboy so I could play on-the-go, and later a Gameboy Color when that came out. Then a Playstation, and then a Nintendo 64. After that my parents got me my own PC and I shifted more to PC gaming so I completely skipped the Nintendo GameCube, although I did get a PS2 and eventually a PS3 and PS4. We got a Wii shortly after that came out, and finally a Nintendo Switch because I wanted so badly to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I never got into Sega or Xbox consoles. 

It's funny; I was such a "console gamer" as a kid, but the older I got the more I shifted to PC games. Now I hardly touch my consoles anymore...


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## Memories of Silence (May 15, 2015)

My first console was an original Game Boy, but it was really borrowed from my sisters. I got an NES when I was seven, and I liked playing it while sitting in my inflatable orange armchair (even though I’ve never liked orange). My favourite games from the small collection I got with it were Maniac Mansion, The Addams Family, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. 

i don’t remember what the first computer I used was, but my dad’s cousin worked for a computer company, and he gave me a dark grey laptop when I was about six and another when I was eight. I used them for writing stories and playing Solitaire. I didn’t have my own computer after that until I got this when I was 16:


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## Nick Attwell (Jun 16, 2014)

Radofin IIRC


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

First computer was an Atari STe, in like '90 or '91. I was ecstatic at the time and loved that machine so much. Previously to that when I was younger growing up, we were not very well off, I only got play friends computers, like ZX Spectrums or Commodore 64 and consoles like the NES and Sega Master System, I do remember sitting waiting a long time to get a go a lot of the time, not so great at sharing some of those kids on reflection.










I then got my first console a Sega Megadrive as it was for most of the world except the places where it was called the Sega Genesis, not sure if it was just the USA that rebranded it or not. Had that for years and loved that console.











I eventually go the CD-ROM add-on the Mega-CD I think it was called, feel really guilty about that now, it cost a fortune and it was utterly crap, well the games were, the loading times on it were horrendous as well.












I eventually traded that in against a PS1 and was totally robbed at the time, still paid a lot of money for it because it had just lunched, it droped in price not that much time later 😏


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I think the first console I actually owned was a Sega Genesis (No. Wait. I had an Atari 2600 way back in the day). I had a Gameboy about the same time. And actually played the Gameboy a lot more I think. The first console I owned that almost got me really into gaming (I say almost because I was really into it at first but kind of quit playing it after a while) was the original Xbox.


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

An Atari 400 in 1984. Hand-me-down from my grandpa who'd upgraded to a newer Atari. Spent the next 8 years with it playing the likes of Pac-Man, Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Final Legacy... and typing in BASIC games from books.

Wasn't really mine of course, it was the family computer. I didn't have one of my own until I was an adult.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

First computer looked like this (It was a clone - Not an actual IBM) but had an amber display (I think). I had a 5.25" floppy and 2 3.5" floppies (I accidentally called them 2.5 inches and have edited it. It's been so long I forgot the size). I think I had some add-in cards but I don't remember what they were.










It's only purpose was to learn how to build a PC and to learn DOS. I got rid of it shortly after. I think the bulky nature of it was a key factor in my not keeping it. It was the early 90s and there wasn't yet much of a purpose for such a bulky unit in the house.

At the end of the 90s, I bought some random HP Pavilion from Best Buy just to get me online.


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## JH1983 (Nov 14, 2013)

Anybody else have this one back in the day?

I had a Tandy computer when I was little too. Played this game called Zork on it that you just typed and read what happened.


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

I have no idea tbh - I was never into computers. We got one for my son when he was very young and he's now 28 and has his own software engineering company, so I'm glad about that. I couldn't tell you what sort of computer it was though.

I do remember buying him every Gameboy and Platstation known to man though - and the games to go with them. Omg.

Edit: he also loved his Nintendo 64 (I had to look that up) - we even had to pack it in one of our suitcases one time so he could play it when we went on holidays.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

NES. It was my brother's birthday present from my uncle. And then the following xmas, a close family friend got us a Sega Genesis. Nearly everyday, mobs of his friends will come over first thing in the morning and hangout until 9-10pm to play them. I rarely get to play and just sit and watch. Weeks later, my mom gifted away the Sega to the kids of her family friend. We came home from school to find it missing. I remember my brother cried and was distraught for days. His friends of course suddenly stopped coming over. The NES was safe because my brother happened to have borrow it to a friend. When his friend returned it to him, he kept it locked from his drawers away from my mom. He safekept it like it was an infinity stone. A few years later, my dad got us a SNES for xmas which was a huge surprise. One day I came home from school to find my mom screaming at my brother holding the SNES console threatening to throw it over the balcony. We lived on a high rise condo at the time on the 30th floor. So it would've been bad if she did. Eventually my brother got the console back, and he just gave it to my cousin to safekeep. And we will go there a few times a week to play it. Eventually they got older and stopped playing games and started doing teen stuff. Not sure what ever happened to it. The NES, I think my brother still has it with him stored away somewhere. 

Our first computer was an apple computer. It was something like this, or a similar model. My sister used it more and she will often play Sim City and Civilization on it. While my brother will play Prince of Persia on it a lot. I seldom get to touch it since if my sister isn't using it, my brother would and they switch off.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

My first was a Coleco Vision. I still have it in a chest at mom's house.
And then after it was a Nintendo and later, a Super Nintendo. I owned almost every console up to ps2 at one point in my life except a NeoGeo, Atari Jaguar, 3DO and Sega Dreamcast. I either bought them at garage sales and played for a while, and resold or i traded for other stuff and then traded again. At some point emulators came out and I never bothered with consoles again.

I would have loved a computer back then, but they were far too expensive for my family.


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## shyguy07 (Mar 22, 2015)

My first video game console was an NES and the Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt were the first games I had on it. By this point the NES was getting pretty old and the SNES was already out for a while, but I never had one of those. My mom used to play it back then too. Later my aunt got me a Sony Playstation for Christmas and we finally retired the NES. My mom played Playstation games a lot then too. I wish she was still like that - it's sad, and hard to think about. The last games console I got was a Nintendo Wii, finally got one after I got my first job. It too, was pretty old by that point, but I really wanted one. I've debated getting a Switch, but I don't think I'd ever use it, and I've only really played on one once, right after my friend moved into his new house about 3 years ago. Come to think of it, that may be the last time I played a video game. Weird.


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## iAmCodeMonkey (May 23, 2010)

For me my first was my mum's 386 DOS PC, along with an NES that one of my aunts lent me to try out, complete with an old wooden TV and everything. I also remember playing on one of my other relatives Sega Genesis consoles, too, but I never owned one of those.

Later on we had a 486 PC running Windows, along with an original PlayStation. The rest was history, as they say.


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## Socialmisfits (May 14, 2021)

I had a sega megadrive as a young boy. I remember renting a lot of games for it as a kid like the lion king, Aladdin, streets of rage etc. I always played with my dad, loved it.


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

Commodore 64 and 1541 Floppy drive. The Floppy drive was bought a few months after the computer was bought. Dad used the Reagan tax rebate of $300 to buy it in the summer of '84. I did have a monopoly game, a star chart program, and a music game cartridge. Early in college purchased a Commodore dot-matrix color printer, mouse, and GEOS software was purchased to do papers until the computer started to act screwy. Power supply brink might have been shelling out. Then I got a PC clone with 386 processor and windows, and a Panasonic color dot-matrix printer. I never had a modem for the Commodore but the neighbors across the street had one. They use to dial into Bulletin Board Services. Never had a video game console. I never was into video games. I rather be outside riding bikes, fishing, etc. I might today play a pool, bowling or card games but that is the extent.


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## Tundle# (Feb 17, 2019)

Atari


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## pillbugger (Dec 9, 2021)

PlayStation 1. Never got the next consoles after that.


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## Bootlegitimate (Aug 30, 2021)

My first game console was a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which I got in 2005 at the age of 3.


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

Forgot about the first and only handheld console I've ever had, the original Atari Lynx.









The size of the screen 🤨😂


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## WiseBeauty (Jun 14, 2019)

My gaming cherry popped with this guy:








And my first computer was a Compaq laptop:


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## cybernaut (Jul 30, 2010)

I was born in the early 90s, and my first console was a PlayStation 2 (2001) followed by a couple of Gameboys (Color + Advance). I didn't get my first laptop until my late teens and mainly played MMORPGs (EG: Runescape) or laggy pirated games.


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## Rickets (May 5, 2014)

shyguy07 said:


> *My first video game console was an NES and the Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt were the first games I had on it. By this point the NES was getting pretty old and the SNES was already out for a while, but I never had one of those. My mom used to play it back then too*. Later my aunt got me a Sony Playstation for Christmas and we finally retired the NES. My mom played Playstation games a lot then too. I wish she was still like that - it's sad, and hard to think about. The last games console I got was a Nintendo Wii, finally got one after I got my first job. It too, was pretty old by that point, but I really wanted one. I've debated getting a Switch, but I don't think I'd ever use it, and I've only really played on one once, right after my friend moved into his new house about 3 years ago. Come to think of it, that may be the last time I played a video game. Weird.


Was exactly the same for me. I think my mum got me a NES around 1991-2, near the end of it's life cycle. No SNES but I stayed with NES til the N64 in 1997. Foolishly gave the NES away to a friend not long after.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I'm remembering when I went to the store to buy my Atari 2600. I was always behind the times due to the fact that my mother always saw anything like toys or entertainment as "extra" (unnecessary). So one of my friends was the first one to have a video game console. His was a 2600 and I had played the games he had for his. I obviously wanted one and went to work begging for it.

It took some time (probably years) for my mother to finally relent and agree to get me the 2600. When we went to the store, I remember seeing the display for the NES. Which I think had just been released in our area at the time. I remember thinking it looked really futuristic and complicated and figured no one was going to buy it because it was too expensive.

Not long after that, the friend whose 2600 had inspired me to get one of my own had an NES and I was obviously pretty much doomed to asking to play his whenever I could. So that one friend was always ahead of me in every way in getting the latest tech even though his family was actually poorer than ours. His parents actually sacrificed (substantially) to buy him stuff they couldn't really afford.


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## Socialmisfits (May 14, 2021)

I also remember a really fun game on the mega drive with a Mario like character that could extend it's head so you could reach higher up valuables. It had really colorful levels and villains, like a candy and cake world etc. 
I'm sure someone will know the title...

Those were the good old games that were not too long to finish so you could easily rent it for a couple of days and beat most of it. These days they're like expanded movies with hours of cutscenes, I'm not sure if I like that.


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## iAmCodeMonkey (May 23, 2010)

Folded Edge said:


> Forgot about the first and only handheld console I've ever had, the original Atari Lynx.
> View attachment 149367
> 
> 
> The size of the screen 🤨😂


Jealous.


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## iAmCodeMonkey (May 23, 2010)

Folded Edge said:


> View attachment 149334


These look so cool.


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## Orb (Nov 5, 2012)

Folded Edge said:


> First computer was an Atari STe, in like '90 or '91. I was ecstatic at the time and loved that machine so much. Previously to that when I was younger growing up, we were not very well off, I only got play friends computers, like ZX Spectrums or Commodore 64 and consoles like the NES and Sega Master System, I do remember sitting waiting a long time to get a go a lot of the time, not so great at sharing some of those kids on reflection.
> 
> View attachment 149334
> 
> ...


Exactly the same as me: Atari 520STe (upgraded to 4mb RAM) & Sega Megadrive. Atari Lynx II (still got it) first handheld.

I LOVED the ST. Although (shh) I secretly wanted an Amiga


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

Orb said:


> Exactly the same as me: Atari 520STe (upgraded to 4mb RAM) & Sega Megadrive. Atari Lynx II (still got it) first handheld.
> 
> I LOVED the ST. Although (shh) I secretly wanted an Amiga


Computing twins lol 

So in the mid to late '90s I decided to get my STe upgraded to 1Mb I think it was, to run Cubase to learn to make music / dance music. I put it into a local shop and paid for the upgrade, the guy's store was then shut due tothem not paying rent and he made off with my Atari and my cash. 😡🤬. It still smarts to this day when I think about it. I could have been making tunes for years.

All my friends had Ataris when I got mine. It wasn't until till years later playing another friends Amiga, that I finally had to admit it was equally as good. And they were used just as frequently to make dance music (Both still are actually but not so frequently)


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## Orb (Nov 5, 2012)

.


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

Orb said:


> .


Sorry Orb, I kept meaning to come and reply to your post 😳. I was greatly impress with the cracking stuff, I didn't have sound when I read it and meant to back and listen. Shame I missed them. Plus I'm a pretty flaky f***er as well. 🤡


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## Orb (Nov 5, 2012)

Folded Edge said:


> Sorry Orb, I kept meaning to come and reply to your post 😳. I was greatly impress with the cracking stuff, I didn't have sound when I read it and meant to back and listen. Shame I missed them. Plus I'm a pretty flaky f***er as well. 🤡


Haha. I got nervous that the info I shared was a bit too public, that could somehow reveal personal details online.

And actually, with good reason. One of my scene names with associated content online, the disc has my full name and old home address on it 😲


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## Folded Edge (Mar 4, 2014)

Orb said:


> Haha. I got nervous that the info I shared was a bit too public, that could somehow reveal personal details online.
> 
> And actually, with good reason. One of my scene names with associated content online, the disc has my full name and old home address on it 😲


Hehe no worries dude. 

Wished I'd come back and watched the clips in time. The mind boggles, Did I play one of those cracked games? Possibly because I bought tons of them back in the day.


Anyway long story short, I never did learn to produce on an Atari, well kind of not, went to college in '99 for a couple of years doing a sound engineering course, where we were mainly using PCs but for a couple of things, we used an Atari ST and cubase. Eventually dropped out with depression and anxiety and didn't go back.

I eventually built a PC from cannibalised parts from a bunch of old PCs friends at the time gave me, that I the learned to produce on around 2003.
A couple of years later build a brand new PC and got (and still have use) a entry level studio grade sound card. Spent to much time slicing up breaks and not enough time learning to make music. Should have stuck with it really but I'm flaky as I said.


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## Orb (Nov 5, 2012)

Folded Edge said:


> Hehe no worries dude.
> 
> Wished I come back and watched the clips in time. The mind boggles, Did I play one of those cracked games? Possibly because I bought tons of them back in the day.
> 
> ...


I found my original files, separate from the demo discs, on another site, and under the different aliases I used. I probably have more out there that I forgot about lol.

It's worth a look if you ever shared any music with anyone in the demo scene : Demozoo

You might well have played one of the cracked discs I was on lol. That would be insane. One or two of the groups were pretty big at the time. 

Pretty cool you learned to produce on the ST, and sorry you didn't get to complete  Do you create any music at all now?


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## Canadian Brotha (Jan 23, 2009)

I’m thinking the original Gameboy. My dad has always been a computers guy though, old IBM’s with floppy disks(the ones that looked kinda like Polaroid Pics)are the ones that come to mind, he has boxes here with all kinds of old floppy disks actually, not sure if he has any of the old computers still though


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## EmotionlessThug (Oct 4, 2011)

Game boy color.


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## User Not Found (Nov 29, 2018)

Original Gameboy.


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## SilentLyric (Aug 20, 2012)

gameboy color. enjoyed playing pokemon blue and silver especially.


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## W00DBINE (Sep 13, 2016)

Amiga 1200. The good old days.


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