Christmas 1997, I had turned 5 in November and my father wanted to get me more than a traditional toy, so he looked into the latest, coolest electronic devices.
Turns out he picked the PlayStation, and a random game that had kid friendly art, with no advice whatsoever.
That was Crash Bandicoot 2 (oh boy 6 days to go until the remake. Almost 20 years later for me). Well played, dad!
So that day I unwrapped two gifts, a big box thing with a PlayThingy, and a FUCKING AWESOME TINTIN PLUSHIE. Omg Tintin omg so cool.
They told me that as soon as they plugged it in and started fooling around with the controller, moving Crash, I stopped playing with Tintin and my eyes couldn't leave the TV. They also said that during those first few weeks I'd often play standing up and every time Crash jumped, so did I.
Safe to say that I was mesmerized. With other games like Hercules or Lucky Luke later on, I'd relive my favorite animated movies and comics, so again, sweet choices for a kid, dad!
A friend also had a PS1, we shared games and played multiplayer, the rest is history.
Hell before the PS2 was released I'd already played on an uncle's Atari 2600 and cousin's NES without a clue about what retro gaming meant, it was just a big blur of games to me, no generation distinction. Helped me be very curious about it all.