My personal ‘computer’ history
Just wanted to chime in on my own history with computers and video games. I was born in '73 and look back at a nice history for that matter. My parents divorced at young age, so I grew up with an advantage for that matter, having different systems to play with, as both chose different brands. Although it was my dad who was really into this ‘new’ technology. My mom was usually late and did not care too much about computers, even though my brother and I did.
My first memory would be Pong on a simple console hooked up to the RF on the television. The system was called Superlectron (1976) and had a selection of Pong variants. It is hard to imagine nowadays, how much fun it was to play this.
Superlectron 1976
Soon after computers and consoles really started to take off. I remember playing with the Atari 2600 (1978) as well as the Philips Videopac G7000 (1978). Loved the simplicity of using cartridges and playing games. The Philips console actually allowed to make some alterations for a variety of games, as well as programming, using the ‘membrane keyboard’. The Atari console had slightly more advanced games and generally looked better too in my opinion. The joysticks were quite stiff compared to the ones that came with the Philips. Every second weekend visiting my dad was a treat, as we often went shopping for new games 
Atari 2600 / Philips G7000 (1978)
The first ‘home computers’ started to appear at around the same time. The first computer I remember was the Atari 8-bit, but mostly recall the 600/800XL (1983). Mostly played games on it using the cassette player to load them. I can still imagine the loud noise they made loading, which often took ages. Sometimes had to adjust the heads when loading failed. Quite annoying but so worth it, once the game had loaded and showed the intro screen.
At first we only had cassettes, floppy drives came later and other peripherals came later. I recall my dad messing with a dial-up modem, but I don’t recall ever having used that myself.
Atari 600/800XL (1983)
The very first game I played was a text adventure with graphics. The game was called Adventureland (1979) which truly intrigued me, even though in English.
Adventureland (1979)
Considering my dad being an Electro Engineer, he was always trying to use computers to do things. He often soldered circuit boards to hook up and looked into the machine language, coding things to for example hook up a musical keyboard to play songs, or to control his large electric train set in the attic. He taught me a lot as I started to soon show interest in coding and more. I probably started to learn my first Basic by the age of 6. Soon enough we started to visit computer clubs to see what others were able to do with their computers. I eventually started making my own josticks together with my dad. Those that came with the Atari were quite stiff and caused cramps after long time playing an intensive game. The joysticks I made were to make things easier. Some may remember the games that were to destroy your joystick, like Winter Olympics or Track & Field where you had to rapidly move your stick.
Other models came out over the next years, even more advanced than the previous ones. Other brands of course, like MSX, which my mom eventually bought for us. Also got to play on the Commodore 64 at friends, which made me jealous considering how popular that brand was. It had a huge amount of games too and load times were not as bad either. The 80s were a great time for me growing up with these wonderful new toys.
MSX v20 (1983) / Commodore 64 (1982)
Next to actual computers, we also started to see handheld LCD video games. I remember having played quite a few of them. Who didn’t have one during middle school halfway the 80s. These were fun little gadgets and considerably cheap to get. @Mad-Hatter beat me to it, showing some of those. Was about to post the exact same, as my grandmother had both ‘Green House’ and ‘Donkey Kong II’. I also remember some other brands than (Game & Watch) Nintendo, like Tandy, and many other cheap unknown brands.
Hand-held LCD games
I have truly fond memories of the 80s when it comes to computers. It introduced me to many many games I loved to play and it also introduced me to coding and learning how to make games. I remember reading computer magazines and some had code written, which you could then type into the computer. Sometimes thousands lines of code to type, hopefully not making any mistakes. I loved it and I learned to understand, allowing me to make changes and even write my own code/games. Mostly text adventures with pixel images at first, but I became more advanced after a couple of years.
MSX Magazine
I also got into video and editing, using the computer to create intros and images in between. My dad got himself a video 8 camera, which I loved using. It could even do still frame-by-frame things and had an advanced menu for effects and options. I remember making Space Lego videos and highlights from sport matches I played, which my dad recorded.
Sony Video 8 Pro (1983)
When we hit the 90s, even my grandmother got into computer games. She already had a couple of hand-held LCD games as mentioned above, but decided to get even cooler toys. First she got herself a Philips CD-i (1991) with some truly cool games. It made use of a CDROM drive, showing some stunning graphics. Two games I remember very well were Myst (1993) and The 7th Guest (1993) for example.
Philips CD-i + games (early 90s)
My grandmother truly loved gaming and my brother and I sure did not mind. Whenever we visited we played games till the early hours, as my grandparents did not mind us staying up late for a change. Not long after she even bought a Commodore 64 WITH floppy drive! Oh my, I considered myself lucky to have grandparents like that.
Of course Personal Computers had started to become a thing too. I personally missed out on those, as both my parents were late getting one. My experience was with friends who had one, like the Tandy TRS 80. I did love messing with PCs though and got into DOS at early age, as well as Power Basic and some other languages I don’t even recall anymore.
Tandy TRS 80 (1977)
I started to live on my own in '93 and got my own computers and consoles since, although it took a couple of years. PCs I usually got given by friends because they bought a new. Learned to build the parts together, trying to keep up. At times I rented a console at the local video rental, like Playstation, Sega Megadrive and alike, just to play some games with friends. At some point I bought a PSX and later a Playstation 2, as well as a NES clone, which came with pre-installed games and of course the Duck Hunt gun. Even bought The Legend of Zelda cartridge for it. I never got myself any of the new consoles, once I got into PC gaming.
Consoles I own
I messed with many other computers as well, mostly at my friends like, MSX 2, ATARI ST, Commodore Amiga, many brands of PC, too many to mention all.
So here we are, 2018 … and wow … how time flies by. I am glad I have been around to personally experience the full history of computers and games. It sure leaves me with fond memories. Because of this I am even planning to buy every single old computer or console I have ever played with. It somehow saddens me to not have any of those, even though I will likely never actually use them again. Anyways, no one can take those memories from me. It has been a wonderful time and I guess explains one of my great passions and hobbies, coding and creating computer things! We’ve sure come a long way, and I am sure I don’t mind getting old trying to keep up …
Edit: I stuck with computer history, but maybe I should have included some other things as well. Like for example Arcade games, Pinball machines and other Coin-op fun stuff … 
. Like literally my ps4 is my first ever non-portable console and I bought it just a couple years ago.
looks I’m in the median here in my early 30s. Just starting to get the weird pains in my knees. 
