Well, this shows my age, I guess.
My step-brother had bought a ps1 before I had ever really played with one. We were both away at different colleges, but back for some vacation, xmas I think. He brought it back with him, and I was interested in giving it a try, having grown up on arcades and intellivision.
He had RE1 and was playing it pretty heavily. As a horror movie fan, I was intrigued, so I gave it a try when he was done and going to bed. When he got up in the morning and was getting ready to drive back to school, there I was trying to squeeze every second of that game I could out before he took the ps back.
Suffice to say, I saved some money and had a ps before the end of January, much to my then-girlfriend's utter lack of delight.