2nd generation gamers

Gaming's been around for a long time, now.  The NES debuted in America in 1985, the year of my birth.  I am now 26.  We've grown up, many of us have kids of our own and they're starting to play games, too.  I heard a story about how my friends love to play Fruit Ninja, while their kid just loves watching the fruit fall and gets upset when someone cuts one.  Video games have passed generations, and upon this thought, I also came to realize that I'm actually a 2nd generation gamer, myself!

My mother, now involved in local community theater.

I have to credit my mom for much of my gaming development, even though she's effectively moved on from it.  She subscribed to Nintendo Power right from the first issues.  I of course was too young to understand much of what was going on, but I knew that she knew all the secrets to the games.  Nintendo Power was actually my biggest motivator in learning to read, because I wanted to know what she knew.  She was rightfully very upset when I threw away most of our early issues because I didn't need them anymore.  Man, that stuff would be worth a fortune now.  She never really pushed me into gaming; I came into that on my own.  Still, just being in her presence with all the gaming she was doing definitely helped me develop.  Nowadays, she really doesn't do my kind of gaming.  She's more into simpler puzzle games, such as Bejeweled.  She still loves playing Solitaire on her computer, technically a video game.

Not actually my father, but close enough.

My father was definitely one of the early gamers.  He favored the games on our Atari 2600 more than the NES.  He was a big fan of those old arcade games, especially Asteroids & Centipede.  It was through him that I came to appreciate that older generation of games.  I still fondly remember playing Freeway (not so much with him, but sometimes), an actual video game about the old joke of a chicken crossing the road.  When I was really young, my mom gave my dad NES Open, the precursor to Mario Golf.  I ended up playing it more than him, and I suppose that somewhat started my competitive gaming.  I quickly outclassed him and was proud of the achievement.  He stayed into gaming longer than my mother did, turning more to the PC and basically rehashes of old games he loved.  I do still love Recoil, a 3rd-person tank shooter that's got tons of action in few, but large stages.
Honorable mention for teaching me Chess around the age of 10, and a fine teacher he was.  My first gaming tournament was in children's Chess.  I was distraught after losing one of my games (I had won many previously) and was ready to leave in tears.  I thought that I had lost the whole thing.  He told me to stay, because I might still win the thing.  I didn't understand back then, but it clearly wasn't single-elimination.  I suppose it was either double-elimination or Swiss, because I did win that competition and more

Although the NES really brought video gaming to a new level and went gangbusters with kids, it's important to realize that the first video gamers were adults, adults who had kids or soon would.  The games were in bars and in those new-fangled "computers" as text-based adventures at the very least.  Those guys were the true 1st-gen video gamers.