"So I got on my parents' nerves": memories of the first game consoles

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Nintendo 64: The console was very popular in the late 1990s

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Private

For many, having your first game console is more than just electronics out of a plastic box.

The device is a piece of independence, the end of dependence on the benevolence of siblings or visiting friends.

A gateway to virtual worlds that you can explore on your own with the console.

Stories of interaction often develop around the first console when people gather in front of the television and experience adventures together.

These adventures may seem banal to outsiders, but those directly involved will remember them for a long time.

The same applies to the way to the device, especially with children.

Consoles have always been expensive for pocket money and, especially in the past, there were many parents who were skeptical when children had fun in front of the screen.

Sometimes you had to be inventive.

Four people told SPIEGEL how they got their first console - and how their games shaped them.

We have recorded your answers.

Philipp Kurz, 28 years old: "Please buy me an N64"

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Daniel Willinger

“For years I was almost always just a spectator.

My brother is ten years older than me, he had an Amiga.

I often sat next to it, only occasionally was I allowed to play myself.

It was an unimaginable independence for me when I had my first console.

For me it was more of a valuable item than a toy.

It was a Nintendo 64 (N64) and to get it I had to learn to swim.

I still remember the advertisement on television.

I was particularly impressed by ›Zelda: Ocarina of Time‹.

Since I grew up in the village, there weren't any major electronic stores where I could try the game.

Friends hardly had any consoles either.

So I got on my parents' nerves: Please buy me an N64.

They were skeptical and didn't want to give me the console just like that.

It should be a reward.

Fortunately, when I was eight years old, I was on a family vacation in 2000, going to Italy.

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My parents told me beforehand that they wanted to place a bet with me: If I can learn to swim in the three weeks of vacation and swim a certain distance in the sea, they'll buy me an N64.

That was the ultimate incentive.

So I spent much of the vacation practicing.

The sea was quite wavy.

But after a good two weeks I made it and won the bet.

My parents bought the console from a friend of my brother's who no longer wanted it.

›Super Mario 64‹ was there, in which I explored every corner of the 3D world for weeks.

I hardly play these days.

If so, then something on the iPhone.

But I use my gaming know-how in virtual workshops as a social media strategist.

I recently picked up the N64 from my parents.

If I turn it on now, memories will come up.

It all feels so homely.

And I also remember the pride that I made it through my own efforts.

That was my console. "

Svenja Anhut, 34 years

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“A good friend had a Super Nintendo at home.

When I visited them, I was allowed to play.

But my parents didn't want us to have a console at home ourselves.

The usual fear: once I have something like this, I can't get away from it.

Looking back, I think that's a shame because I would have loved to try out more games from that time.

Paradoxically, by the way, that my parents had no problem with it if I watched TV for hours.

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Then when I was around twelve years old something happened.

I grew up in a small settlement near Hamburg.

Once a year there was a shooting festival, my father was a shooter, I was part of the marching band.

We were fully involved as a family.

Part of a festival was shooting targets, so I took part.

I knew that I was good.

But when I won, I was surprised.

I was even more surprised when I was given several prizes to choose from.

My eyes immediately fell on the Game Boy Pocket.

I took that with me.

My father was certainly not happy when I turned around with a grin and held the device in my hand.

But what should he do?

I had legitimately won the handheld.

My first game was a version of Breakout.

Later I got a Looney Tunes game that I got from a friend through a swap.

But my father also found gaming in the end.

He borrowed a home computer from work and installed games on it.

He proudly showed what a graphic it can represent.

I think that's when he suspected that the medium had a future.

Shortly afterwards, he recommended that I should become a graphic designer because I love to draw.

Today I am a game designer and also work in media education.

My father died when I was 14.

It was only after his death that I found out that he used to program with punch cards himself and that he was actually enthusiastic about technology.

My grown-up self would like to talk to him about it, we have something in common. "

Lukas Hensche, 46 years

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»In order to get my Commodore 64 (C64), I had to make a promise to my parents: I would not only use the home computer for games, but also learn to program with it.

To a certain extent it was really meant that way back then.

But above all I wanted to finally have a C64, like most of my friends.

My first contact with video games was on an ancient console.

An Intellivision or something like that, a friend had that.

We played "pong" - or one of the various offshoots that all played the same way.

I thought that was great.

Otherwise, I often went to Karstadt.

There were LCD mini-games on display and I stood in front of the showcases for ages and imagined what it would be like to own them.

There were also play stations with the latest consoles.

I always had to wait a long time before I could get to the controller, because there were often older guys who used the stations.

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When I was 14, the moment came.

My father was a bookseller.

He came home from work and told me that the boss finally wanted to buy a real PC.

Until then, they had managed their customer data with a C64, which was now for sale.

So the promise came about: I was only allowed to buy the C64 if I would also use it for programming.

I had saved the money for myself, I was always very economical.

If I went on a school trip for 50 marks, I came back for 48 marks.

I played games like ›Ultima 4‹ or ›Elite‹ on the C64: I was able to sink into their worlds.

I was totally amazed that people could create something like this and even then I had a kind of programmer's view of these games.

By the way, I kept my promise, now I'm working as a software developer. "

Simone Gross, 37 years

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“The fact that I finally got a console was because of a guilty conscience.

After the fall of the Wall, my parents wanted us children to have the same opportunities as others.

We grew up in a small village north of Berlin.

With the end of the GDR came the western advertising and with it my irrepressible desire to have my own console.

Especially since the people around me could also gamble: My cousin was the first with a Game Boy.

Often I only visited him to be able to play.

A good friend had an NES, on which we played ›Super Mario‹ together, jumped through these strange worlds.

I was incredibly fascinated.

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One day a Bertelsmann catalog arrived at our company.

You could take out a subscription: order something from the catalog every three months for two years and there was a Sega Master System free of charge.

It was incredibly difficult to convince my parents of this.

Not only did we have little money, they also didn't want me to just sit inside in front of the telly.

In the end, however, the guilty conscience worked.

My mom took out the subscription and I had a brand new Sega console.

Until recently we only had two games for this: the pre-installed ›Alex Kidd‹ and ›Michael Jackson's Moonwalker‹.

The latter had the same background music playing all the time, which drove me crazy.

And with ›Alex Kidd‹ I never got over the fourth level.

Even so, the console was on all the time.

New titles were just too expensive and when I had a choice on a birthday or Christmas I would rather have branded pants or new shoes than a video game.

I have kept this attitude to this day.

I still like to gamble, but before I buy a game I think carefully about whether it's worth it, whether it won't be even cheaper in a year's time.

That's why I really enjoy the games.

When I'm stressed, which I often do in my job as a geriatric nurse, it can happen that I spend hours looking for a particular flower in "The Witcher 3".

Without help, without Googling, until I found her. "