I've played video games since I was a child, but the ones I played weren't usually the ones that others consider "classics".

My parents were early adopters of the home PC (an IBM, not a Mac) and never got us game consoles. I missed the Commodore 64 era. Most of what we had at home were Dad's Zork games, some edutainment titles like Magic School Bus and 3D Dinosaur Adventure, and other games of the sim or puzzle variety. I had a couple flight simulators. When I became a Sonic fan, the ones I had at home were only the ones that had PC ports, which made for some odd perspectives like the alternate soundtrack of Sonic 3.

I saved up to buy a Game Boy so I could play Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins...but that was about all I played on it. When Pokemon came out, that was when I got rid of the Game Boy; I sold it to a friend who'd gotten a Pokemon game for her birthday and needed the Game Boy to play it. I'd played some Street Fighter 2 with a friend in 2nd grade, but not enough to become good at it. Zelda and Mega Man might as well have not existed for me. Metroid? What was that?

So sometimes, when other people speak of "nostalgia", what they mean looks completely unfamiliar to me.