I didn't play video games as a child; heck, I was twelve the first time I saw a Trash-80 in a store window and Dad (despite working at a Fortune 50 tech company at the time) didn't see much point in getting home electronics. And I had to walk six miles to school through the snow, wind in my face both ways...
In my 'tweens/teens, though, arcade games like Spy Hunter, Defender (I sucked at that one), Battlezone, Zaxxon, Bosconian, Qbert, and the like kept me quarter-poor. Later on we got a C=64c (Dad won it as a door prize at a company Christmas dinner) and that led to Impossible Mission, Space Taxi, Gunship, and Red Storm Rising binges.
-- Steve