He would have been 5 when it came out then, Thundernova.
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Counting PC and edutainment? I dunno, my oldest memories are Busytown, maybe Odell Down Under and the Amazon Trail.
My real first video game was Sonic 3. I'd play Sonic and my dad would be Tails. We actually got Sonic and Knuckles and beat S3K as knuckles before I ever got past Carnival Night as Sonic. When mom and dad finally called the helpline to figure out how to get past the barrel, I remember it was a whole new experience. It was so weird playing Launch Base differently (and surprise, killer arms). I remember Death Egg took forever to master.
I hated the special stages, I would usually beat the game and then go back over and over and over again just to win one stage at a time. That yellow and blue stage for the seventh emerald drove me crazy, and I had trouble figuring out the seventh super emerald. Now they're possibly my favorite special stage format in the franchise.
We always though Knuckles was awesome even though he was the bad guy (but wasn't). We also thought he was a girl because he was pink. Then we decided he and Knuckles were guys and Tails was the girl. I would playact the story that I interpreted from Sonic 3 while bouncing on the couch listening to the sound test from Sonic 2.
I remember Doomsday was quite a shock when I finally unlocked it. It played totally different and I had no idea there was anything more since I usually beat the game as Tails and Knuckles. After a while, I got to where I could beat S3K and get all the emeralds in one sitting. I would do this to have level select open so that I could play with Lava Reef (my favorite level) whenever I wanted. Every time the save slots were lost because Sonic 3 was played by itself, I would groan and then proceed to spend the afternoon unlocking level select all over again.
And I've always liked the number 3. I've added it to my nickname to make my screenname. I think I have a good idea why. Its just a nice round number after all...