A bit late in the thread. But I figure I can add a different perspective since I grew up in China in the 90s.
(Found this image on the internet)
My first ever video game console was gifted by my grandpa when I started primary school in 1998. It was a NES clone (Xiaobawang learning machine 小霸王学习机) with a full size computer keyboard that is marketed as a machine to teach kids how to use computer. It was a smart marketing move because in China video games were (still are) considered evil and had bad influences for kids.
I found the receipt of this game console about 10 years ago. I think it was either 350 or 450 Chinese yuan which was about 45 or 55 USD in 1998. A small amount of money in the US, but that must have been about half of monthly salary for my grandpa.
Needless to say I didn’t use the machine in the way my grandpa had hoped 
In the next post I shared an ad for this game console.