Atari 2600 in combination with my mom bringing home an 8086 and then a 286 for me to tinker and learn on at age 9. From there it lead into BBS's and door games, then ANSI art, and PC games.
Back then it was a sub-culture for sure, not gaming per say.. everyone did that. All the jocks, and parents played games despite what people say otherwise.. but the sub-culture of PC building, getting online before the internet and general nerding out is what lead to my ultimate passion with technology and gaming. These days, its en vogue to talk about this or something or know things. However computers these days are basically lego and my 7 year old built a gaming PC this year. Back in the day you had no internet and had to figure out jumpers, shell scripting etc.. just to boot. Only the strong survived.