Since we are on a roll with favorite console and first console you purchased yourself, I have to ask. What is your fondest gaming memory. Either a game you love(d), getting a present, whatever it was that is your fondest memory.
Mine was Christmas Eve 1987. We were going to my Grandparents for the entire night till late. My mom's side is Italian and boy, do they love to eat their meat & cheese and drink! So naturally, it was going to be a long night and I was a young man that couldn't really partake or even understand why all the adults were acting goofy. So early that morning while my parents were cooking, they let me open a present. I unwrapped none other than Castlevania II Simon's Quest for the NES. This was actually my first Castlevania experience (but I quickly picked up the original through the Sears catalog after bugging the piss out of my parents) and I completely fell in love. Wandering the Transylvanian countryside as a cursed Simon, imagine my surprise when the time turned to night and enemies doubled in "strength" or really, took twice as many hits with the whip to kill. This game was RPG-lite with whip upgrades, etc. For me, it was magical like Legend of Zelda, only more aesthetically pleasing and with cooler enemies (to me anyway). I always found vampires, werewolves and the like fascinating and growing up, I had those big 12" Universal Monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and Wolfman dolls/figures. I played that bad boy till my fingers blistered and I was drug from the house to go to my grandparents. I sat there the entire time for what seemed like an eternity, just itching to go home and play again. I didn't care about anything else. No other present(s) would matter. This was the greatest. Game. Ever.