How did you obtain your gaming consoles? 🎮

[Xara]

I know there've been plenty of threads about what gaming consoles you have, what colours they are etc, but I'm curious to know how you got your gaming consoles! Feel free to talk about the consoles you still have, the ones you no longer have, or both!

Grey Nintendo DS Lite - my first gaming console! My mom got it for me as a Christmas present in 2007-2008, along with a few games! Animal Crossing: Wild World, SimAnimals and a couple others I don't remember.

Pink Nintendo DSi - I actually don't remember how I got my DSi, but if I had to guess, it was probably a Christmas or birthday present from my mom!

Purple Nintendo 3DS - Got it as a present for my 11th birthday!

Mint/white Nintendo 2DS - I got it for myself as a Christmas present! I had 2 copies of New Leaf and only one 3DS, and I wanted to be able to play both at the same time without having to buy another 3DS, so a 2DS seemed like the better, more cost-effective option!

Turquoise Nintendo Switch Lite - Got it for myself for my 18th birthday!

The only consoles I still have are my 3DS and Switch Lite.

 

[Doo]

Pink Nintendo DSi?? I think? - I got for Christmas when I was 5. I still have it but it turns off whenever you knock it on something because I dropped it so many times. So much Resetti
Pink Nintendo 3DS XL - I got for Christmas 2014. Still have it and it still works!
Turquoise Nintendo Switch Lite - I bought myself when New Horizons came out. Not for any occasion, I just bought it with New Horizons
I haven’t counted the Wii and WiiU because they belong to my parents. We’ve had a Wii for as long as I can remember and I can’t remember why we got a WiiU, my dad just surprised us with it one day after school I think. I miss those days

 

[Neb]

There’s no way I can list all of my consoles in one post, so I’ll just share the more interesting ones.

Dark blue DS Lite - I got it for my 8th birthday along with a copy of New Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo 64 - My mom got it for me used from eBay back in 2011 for $35 with four games.

PlayStation 4 Pro - I found it at a used game store, transferred everything from my old PS4 over to it, and then sold the old PS4 to make up for some of the cost.

PlayStation 2 - I got it at a used game store and the owner was nice enough to let me get a free game alongside it. The game was Jak and Daxter.

PlayStation Vita - This was a Christmas gift I got just a few months before the system was discontinued in Japan. It was a Japanese import and I got Persona 4 Golden alongside it.

SNES Classic - During the height of when this system was being heavily scalped, a GameStop employee was nice enough to leave one on hold for me.

Switch OLED: My mom got me an imported white one for my 21st birthday. The screen blew my mind.

3DS: The first system I partially paid for. I saved up money selling stuff at a yard sale and used it to pay for half of it on launch month.

 

[stitchmaker]

Nintendo DS- Bought it on Boxing Day with a bonus Game.
Nintendo DSXL- Asked my dad to pick one up during an Anniversary sale at Walmart. Tried to give him the money when I picked it up but he refused to take it.
Nintendo 3DS and 3DSXL bought on sale. New 3DSXL-Gift from my children
Nintendo 64 and Gamecube bought for family to share. A lot of late night gaming with my husband
Nintendo Wii- Husband finally found one and purchased it for me. Nintendo WiiU purchased with some birthday money

Playstation-Surprise gift from my husband. Playstation One-Purchased on sale.
Playstation 2- Purchased after my son moved out with his.
Playstation 3- Brother stood outside Best Buy on Boxing Day. Went to pay for it and my mother said it was a gift.

Nintendo Switch- Went to purchase a game and found out they had a Nintendo Switch in stock. Bought it for myself.
2nd Nintendo Switch- Traded Bank Points for Amazon Gift cards.

 

[.: Meri :.]

My Nintendo DS, 3DS, and Switch were all either birthday or Christmas presents from my parents! ;v; I... don't remember the exact years (or even which ones were birthdays and which were for Christmas... or were any of them even for Christmas...) because my memory is terrible with dates ahahaha.

My Playstation Vita (which has unfortunately been made a bit redundant by later releases on other platforms... oops) was my big retail therapy/emotional crisis purchase during the early days of the pandemic. May or may not decide to keep it at this point, but it did its duty for me at the time when I really needed it, so I don't regret it. You did well little Vita o7

 

[SkyKnight03]

I actually never purchased any of them myself.

The switch was placed in our house by non immediate family so our younger cousins could come over and play it.

My 2DS was a goodbye gift from my older brother.

I have an Xbox 360 and PS4 which were both purchased by my older brother and left behind.

The closest to 'mine' is a Wii U I got when I was 12 years old for Christmas. It's still in good condition and I play it occasionally. I always liked the Wii U despite it's negative reputation.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I was given the NES by my cousins who originally owned it, was given the SNES and Gameboy for my birthday and Christmas and bought all of the other consoles I’ve ever owned except for my DSi which my mom gave me because she upgraded to a DSi XL and the PS3 given to me by a friend who wasn’t playing it very much and an XBox 360 by an old roommate.

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

A lot of my gaming consoles were gifts given to me by my Mom during Christmas. I can't remember if I got the gameboy pocket ice first or my Nintendo 64 first, but it is possible I got both at the same time since they both came out in the same year and my Mom never got me anything super expensive unless it was my birthday or Christmas. I didn't get any "big" consoles for quite some time, the next console I got was another handheld one which was the gameboy color (purple see through one), which I loved so much growing up and I still think that design is awesome.

The next console I got was when I decided to make a switch to Playstation, mostly because I also wanted a DVD player for my room and knew that the Playstation 2 would be able to play both games and DVDs. I got the first generation of the PS2, and realized that I do love games from both PS and Nintendo. I do regret not ever getting the gamecube since there are games on it I don't have access to but thats okay. I also got the PS2 I think during an off period so it wasn't my birthday or Christmas (I forgot when it came out though.) My mom surprised me with a wii for Christmas during the first year of its launch, I didn't ask for it but was super grateful that she got it for me because I absolutely loved the Wii. I also got the PS3 and then the PS4 for Christmas and also got the Wii U. (Oh i forgot I also got the Nintendo DSLite - Pink and then the Nintendo 3DS)

I bought myself the Nintendo Switch a year after it came out, and then I got myself the PS5 which took forever to get due to the shortages of the console.

 

[ShadowLelouch97]

Gray GBA SP - Christmas Gift
Nintendo DS Lite (Black) - Birthday gift
Wii 1 - Family gift
Wii 2 - Bought in 2019
Xbox 360 - Christmas Gift
Xbox One - Christmas Gift
Nintendo 3DS XL - Black Friday/early christmas gift
New Nintendo 3DS XL (Pikachu edition) - purchased as a birthday gift for myself.
Nintendo Switch + Nintendo Switch OLED - Purchased for myself
Xbox Series X - Bought during 2022.

 

[Romaki]

It's pretty much always the same story...

Gameboy Color - too young to remember
PlayStation 2 - hand-me-down from my sister
Nintendo DS Lite - Christmas present
Nintendo 3DS XL - birthday present
Nintendo Switch - Christmas present
Nintendo Switch OLED - Christmas present

I don't own any of them except for the OLED, I always had to sell the outdated ones because money was tight.
Though I recently bought an used Nintendo DS Lite for 10 bucks and thrifted some games here and there, classic.

 

[VillageDweller]

I can't actually remember the order of my first few consoles so I hope I got it right LOL

PlayStation 2 (Slim) - Got it as a Christmas present! I believe in 2004? This was my first home console, I remember I had a racing game come with it
Nintendo DS (blue, original chunky haha) - got this for my birthday in 2005, with the Nintendogs Labrador version.
Nintendo Wii - OK I honestly don't even remember when I got this. I think for Christmas 2006??? I think it must have been then.
Nintendo DSi (black) - got this around whenever it launched from my parents!
Nintendo 3DS (blue) - I got this at launch, I think I paid for half of it with money I'd saved and half from my parents.
Nintendo 3DS XL (silver) - got this sometime after launch, which again I paid for half myself and half from my parents. This is my main 3DS and very glad I bought it, the original was too small for my hands and often left my hands in pain/cramp.
Nintendo Wii U (black) - errmmmm I got this at launch for some reason OMG this and the 3DS have made me never want to get a console at launch again. I loved Nintendo Land but this was a shambles
PS3 - I got this as a birthday present when I was a teenager long after it had been released so it was pretty cheap, through eBay I think? I just wanted to get it to play all the Ratchet and Clank games LOL
Nintendo Switch - I paid for this again half myself, half my parents. Second-hand through eBay not long after it had released, I got a great deal as it was the retail price but game with MK8D, BoTW, and some other smaller games.
PS4 - I paid for this myself as I originally got it just for Monster Hunter World, but I didn't even end up playing that LOL. However it became one of my most used consoles!

I have all of these *somewhere* in my house but the only ones I still use are the 3DS XL, Switch and PS4.

 

[~Kilza~]

I don't really have any great stories for how I got my consoles/handhelds, since from what I can recall, most of them boil down to "my parents got it for me for Christmas or my birthday with [insert relevant game here]", with a few rare instances being "my parents bought me it to replace [insert failing system here]".

The only two sort of interesting ones are I got my second N64 used through one of my sister's friends, along with all their N64 games, to replace my original N64 that had ended up dying. I think it cost like $50 in total? The other one is my PS5, which is the only console I've gotten for myself, when I was able to get one through Costco's website after I noticed they were in stock and people were still struggling to get one.

 

[JellyBeans]

I bought myself my grey switch lite the day animal crossing came out, since I realised very quickly I wouldn’t be able to share our family switch and still play as much as I wanted to lol. My other consoles throughout the years (pink 3DS, pink DSi, and Nintendo wii) have all been either Christmas or birthday presents.

 

[Asarena]

For consoles I no longer have:
NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis: I don't remember. I was either too young when my family got these or they got them before I was born.
Nintendo 64 & Sega Dreamcast: I was still pretty young when we got these, but I'm pretty sure the Nintendo 64 was a Christmas gift for my brother and me from our parents. Not as sure about the Dreamcast, but I do think it might have been a Christmas gift as well.
Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance SP: These were my brother's consoles, but he let me use them sometimes. I assume they were birthday or Christmas gifts for him from our parents.
GameCube: This one was a Christmas gift from our parents. I remember finding it in a closet before it was given to us, although I think we both kind of expected that we were getting it anyway. Also, I didn't tell anyone that I'd seen it in the closet.
DS Lite: This was the first console that was solely mine. I think it was a birthday gift from my parents, but it might have been a Christmas gift.
Wii: This was another Christmas gift from our parents. This one wasn't a secret at all because my dad went to wait in line for it on release day.

For consoles I currently have:
Wii U & Nintendo 3DS: These were both gifts from my dad.
Switch & Xbox One: I bought these for myself.

 

[Chris]

A lot of our older consoles were bought 'for the house', e.g. PS1, PS2, Xbox.

GBC, GBA SP, DS Lite, Wii, 3DS XL, PS4 - Christmas gifts.
GBA, Gamecube, Switch Lite - birthday gifts.
DS - bought with the inheritance I received from my grandpa.

All other consoles I've owned (e.g. 3DS, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS5) I bought myself.

 

[Nika]

Most of my consoles were gifts bday/christmas gifts

 

[JemAC]

when i first started playing games i just played on the consoles that my older siblings had, main one been the nintendo 64 which i think they probably got as a christmas present and later the gamecube which was also a christmas present for one of my brothers.
when the original ds came out my sister and i got one each for christmas and later we got the wii and wii u as gifts (between us as we’ve always been very close so we liked to play games together anyway) - my brothers had all the playstations and xbox’s so i never felt the need to get them myself, sometimes played the ps2 growing up but mostly always stuck with nintendo.

think the only ones that haven’t been gifts or just family consoles were the nintendo 3ds and the nintendo switch that i bought myself.

 

[corlee1289]

I bought all my consoles as my parents didn't have the money to pay for any of them.

I ended up saving money from my part-time jobs and other small babysitting jobs to save them all up to pay for the consoles and games. Back then, the GBA games only cost 25$ which was affordable. I recall paying ~100$ for the GBA console.

But nowadays when games are so expensive, I'm not sure a teenager version of me would be able to afford a console or even the games for the Switch. Like, there's no way it's as affordable

 

[Flaming_Oceans]

I had a wii when I was younger which my parents got I assume. I also had a DS lite and 3ds which my parents also got me. My newest gaming console would be my Nintendo switch which I bought myself.

 

[Aerith]

My older consoles, like my PS1, PS2, N64, and SNES, were hand-me-downs from my brother. I think all of the others were Christmas or Birthday gifts, aside from my most recent acquisition. I bought my PS5 from my best friend, though it was a "friend price" so it was significantly cheaper lol.