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I too grew up on zelda and mario, however I dont have my origional nintendo anymore, but i do have a nintendo, and my favorite game was and still is the legend of Zelda.

The NES? Is that as far back as some of you can go surprised

I grew up on the Atari and Commodore 64 eek . Zork, Echo the dolphin, Pitfall, Asteroids, PONG, those games are engraved upon my very soul (okay, maybe not that far, more like temporarily tattooed ^_^).

the NES was of course, a large part of my life as well, having had the first 2 zelda games, the first 3 mario's as well as Dr.Mario, not to mention some of the other must have games for that system; Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1-3, and plenty others too numerous to count.

Then I moved onto the Genesis, and became a devout sonic fan, having Sonic 1-3, sonic pinball, and sonic and knuckles. I've cleared Sonic 3 + knuckles 100% with all characters and character combinations as well, so yeah, I'ma sonic freak. It also had one of my favorite cult classic games, Gunstar Heroes (which I have the new installment of on the GBA).

I still have my NES and Genesis, though the Commodore and Atari have long since conked out on me; may they rest in peace cry

As for the old school v next gen argument, I have to give it a 50/50. Sure, new games such as Phantasy Star Universe, FF12, SC3, and many others have plenty of options, better sound and graphics, and more advanced gameplay and AI, but the old school games were enjoyable. Back then, you didn't have much to work with, so they took what they had and tweaked it till they got it right. Mario 3, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic 3, and Megaman X have to be some of my favorite games of all time.

More recently, I prefer games that take a bit from both sides of the fence, using fresh graphics and sounds, but sticking to old school gameplay or using innovative ideas. Yggdra Union and Super Robot Taisen OG are two prime examples of this, offering as much gameplay as any console game can provide nowadays, and sticking it all in a GBA cart, while doling out fresh anime style graphics and gameplay that makes you think back to the SNES and early PS1.

Also, while not a huge PC gamer anymore (now that I've beaten Kotor and stopped playing FF11) I still have one PC vice that I stick to quite thoroughly; despite not being the most advanced game around. Go Melty Blood Re-Act Final Tuned ^_^ The most refreshing fighter I've played since Soul Calibur 2 3nodding

I started out on the NES, still have it and still use it to play my first game Super Mario Brothers.

My aunt had an atari, I loved digdug. The only problem was I barely got to see her, and so i only got to play atari a little...