Started with Atari 400. Mylar 'keyboard' that was really tough to type on. Didn't have a tape or disc drive. Aside from the very few carts my brother and I were able to beg for, we discovered Byte and similar magazines that would have BASIC games printed inside. We could transcribe the code, and boom! New game, albeit a lot of effort and no way for us to save it. Once the power switch was flipped, bye bye.
Moved onto 800XL, STe, Amiga 500, IBM XT, 286, etc in the family. Beginning with a 386, built my own from used bargains mostly for years.