Started with an Atari 2600 and have experienced every generation ever since. Guess that makes seven generations. Also I'm in my mid-twenties which seems to make me quite an exception here. :P

With all my history I'm not as seasoned as some folks here, but I played the original NES console and Sega Genesis more than a few times before I got my own by the age of 9. I lived through the NES/Sega Genesis generation, the Super NES generation (never actually owned any Sega systems, just played here and there), got a Nintendo 64 when it was new, got a Playstation late at the tail end of the 90's, got a PS2 at launch and got a Gamecube shortly after, got a PS3 when it was a year old and got a Wii when it was a couple years in. Never owned an Xbox until I got a hand-me-down from my brother, and got my first 360 in early 2012 but still haven't invested enough time in it to make it sound worth my time.

I never really did hand-held generations until the DS. My fiance plays a lot of that, as well as the PSP. Still need to get a 3DS and a Vita, and we'd like a PS4.

As for PC we started with a couple simple dos games in the early 90's on a very basis free computer from our grade school at the time. Got an IBM Aptiva in 97 and played the hell out of Final Fantasy 7 (PC), Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries, Age of Empires, Star Craft, and even Ultima Online. In 2000 got a Compaq Presario namely to play MMO's like Everquest, but only played it for a few months. Invested in an Alienware gaming rig in 2004 with some injury settlement money I got (wouldn't have got it otherwise), and this is when Alienware wasn't under Dell and had great customer service (unlike now). Used that for a few years and played a lot of Half-Life 2, Unreal Tournament 2k4, and World of Warcraft, all of which I got to play when they were new. Since then I've owned a few generations of HP desktops mostly tailored to high capacity storage and gaming, with about 2 to 3 years in between those generations. The last gaming rig I got was a custom gaming machine from HP at the end of 2012 and replaced the video card with one at least twice as good, with other stats to back it up.

One reason I've invested so much in GOG? So hopefully I can double the life of my desktop and hold off on getting a new console for a while, solely to focus on a lot of games that 1.) Don't require newer high-end stats, 2.) Don't require an online connection 24/7, and 3.) Games I missed out because I got into the PC gaming scene late and invested too much time in just empty MMO's making little to no progress.

I'm mostly proud of my console history though :)

I've gone through three generations, although my first console for home was a Gamecube; also owned a Wii, PS2, SNES (moslty to play Seisen no Keifu), Xbox 360, Dreamcast, and recently acquired a Wii U (probably gonna park it there as far as moving forward goes, might collect some more older consoles). For handhelds, I've had a GBA, GBA SP, Game Boy, DS Lite, DSi (not nearly as good as the Lite), and hopefully soon a 3DS (mostly to play Fire Emblem: Awakening, Project X Zone, and Bravely Default). Mostly been a PC/Nintendo person, but right now my computer isn't good for new games, hopefully that too will change even if the only new PC game I anticipate is Witcher 3.

Atari did sue Coleco over that but they reached a settlement that allowed Coleco to keep selling the adapter.

I've been gaming since the second generation, though I haven't actually participated in console gaming since the fifth generation, after which I focused on PC gaming.

I've owned so far;
2nd: Atari 2600/5200
3rd: Atari 7800, Sega SC-3000 variant of the SG-1000 (sold by John Sands in Aus, and what initially got me interested in PC gaming)
4th: Sega Megadrive, Atari Lynx
5th: Nintendo 64
6, 7, 8: All PC, baby!

I remember playing a colecovision, then an atari 2600, game and watch handhelds, nes, gameboy, snes, n64, ps, ps2, Xbox, Xbox 360. Currently I'm not interested in the new generations, I will stick to PC gaming.

Consoles owned:

*Commodore 64 (not a console and I was really young but I did play a few games on tapes xD ) I dont know what happen to the commodore
*ColecoVision still got it
*Atari 2600 still got it
*Nes still got it
*Sega genesis/Snes still got it
*Playstation sold to buy a dreamcast
*Dreamcast sold to buy a play2
*Playstation 2 still got it
*Xbox 360 / Playstation 3 ,still got it only the xbox360

I owned an Atari 2600 back in the late 70's, so I guess all of them.

But I only owned the Atari, Sega Genesis, PS3 and XBox360. I had access to my friends systems: Coleco, Nintendo, and PS2. No plans on owning any of the current Gen ones.

You people are the oldest people on the internet :P

I've lived through four whole generations. Although, the only home console I've had is an original PlayStation.

You're Drew Carey. I thought you lived in LA filming Price is Right not up in the sticks of Michigan.

First console was an ACTION MAX, its not on the list but please....Constantly sobering my inherent blind rage is a full time job.

I started with Playstation 1 & Nintendo 64

Had an Atari 2600, 7800, NES, and SNES. That was my last console (though I believe we got our NES after the SNES).

I remember playing my first electronic games on:

-a simple hand-crafted computer with a tape drive in middle school. I count this because the inane little game was pre-recorded on the cassette

-displays of new games at Kmart (Pitfall!)

-the first arcades (including Pong, Donkey Kong, Qbert...)

- my Merlin (used a few white lights) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_%28game%29

- a step-uncle's handheld "football game" - which was also just lights

- Simon (the color/sound matching toy.) Although my family didn't own one until one of our kids got one for Christmas, I had numerous opportunities to play with it most everywhere as a older kid/teen.

My step- grandparents had an Atari console that I could play when I visited, but I didn't own one an actual game console myself until the NES (unless you count Merlin.) Then we had the SNES, Sega GameGear, Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Playstation 1, N64. Nintendo Gamecube, Gameboy SP, Nintendo DS Lite, Playstation 2, (original) Wii, and the kids own a single PlayStation 3 that they share with us for Netflix. Other than that, we used computers for our gaming as well as practical stuff. We still have all our consoles but the NES that we passed on to a friend in the early 90's. We regretted letting it go almost immediately, so never got rid of the others. Haven't bought many consoles games in some years now, but at least we still have all the old ones!

I still remember a wonky "TV computer" thing that didn't really work that was briefly passed on to me as a teen. I couldn't make it do much of anything beyond "error" noises- though I did fine with the Apple IIes at school. I am thinking that it was one of those overly ambitious early "consoles."

By definitions in this article, I am familiar with 2nd-7th generation consoles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console#First_generation

I started about 20 years ago with the Sega Genesis. Sonic the Hedgehog, to be exact. My uncle had a Genesis, and he taught me how to play. He even had that Sega Channel thing for a while. Then he got me kind of in to PC gaming. Didn't play much beyond Shadow Warrior, Shivers, Commander Keen, and Warcraft 2... Until recently, heh.

While I've only ever owned an N64 (which I regret selling), a PS2 and an XBox360, I've played almost every system in the past 20 years.

EDIT: I also had a GBA and a DS. Totally spaced those. o_o