was brought up as a gamer because my dad was crazy into the C-64, so I have really vague memories of playing that as a toddler.
I had a Megadrive for Christmas '96 (age 5) and then Streets of Rage, Disney games/Sonic got me hooked.
First purchase was this, bought because I liked the cover
I got a Playstation the year after and the rest is history.
But I do remember Final fantasy 9 being the first 'real' game I went full-on gamer for i.e "queuing outside the door on the day of release."