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[justiceiro]

So guys, I 'm staying for the holidays with my relatives and I saw my local fly market has some SNES working, but really yellow. They have PS2 too. I can get those for "peanuts"

I never had one as a kid, only rented form time to time. I was considering getting one, but I'm like: will I even play it? I can get the games, but I dunno if there is value on playing on the original console if I already have pc, wiiu, ds and even Xbox series s, but barely play SNES games these days, even if I still love them all. I only have a 4k TCL tv.

I will have to care for it and it controls. My main draw is the fear that the console becomes too rare and too expensive down the line. What do you guys think?

 

[West Texas CEO]

Get a MiSTer

 

[GametimeUK]

I'm not a big fan of firing up retro consoles. To be honest I just prefer emulation.

 

[diffusionx]

Nah, not really. Especially if all you have is a modern TV. There are much better solutions.

 

[Nostalgic Nightmare]

Having grown up with them, for me the whole point is being able to use og hardware with original games and controllers. Emulation has its place and I appreciate it for preservation, but I just end up jumping around vs playing a game through because there’s so many choices. It’s the same with music, I prefer physical there as well as it forces me to listen to whole albums or at the very least one side before moving on to something else. I just prefer a tangible experience.

 

[OverHeat]

Get a MiSTer

First post nailed it

 

[Krathoon]

The problem with the old consoles is that they are starting to break. It is time to get new hardware.

I got a Mister and I buy Analogue consoles. I also use emulation.

 

[angrod14]

I think it depends. If you're really going to play them, sure, go ahead. If it's just for collecting and they're going to sit collecting dust, not worth it to me.

Pay a small fee (Switch Online sub) and you can access all the retro games you want, and play them in current hardware. No need to deal with older systems.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I love and use my retro consoles pretty regularly. Emulation is fine but I prefer the feel of the real thing with a real controller. If you don't think you'd play them though, no I wouldn't buy them. There's not a lot of "upkeep" going on with them. Keep them in a good, clean place and they will work for a very long time. Almost all of my original stuff still works even if 30 years old or more.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

It's only worth it if you are going to play on a CRT. If you are playing on a new TV there is honestly zero point. You can just emulate and hook up real controllers.

I also don't think paying silly prices for used games is worth it either. Just burn CDs or get a flash cart or get a Wii and emulate while still using a CRT.

 

[rofif]

Up to the point.
It really stinks once you realize a miyoo mini is 60$, standalone, comes with 5000000 games installed and plays all console up to the ps1.
And there are ton of these devices.

I would say, get some good device like that for games up to ps1. But for ps1,n64 and above real hardware is still good.

 

[baphomet]

Retro consoles have no maintaining compared to current consoles.

 

[CamHostage]

Emulation has its place and I appreciate it for preservation, but I just end up jumping around vs playing a game through because there’s so many choices. It’s the same with music, I prefer physical there as well...

Yep, check your own habits and, if you're anything like most other people, it'll be like this...

With a real retro console, you'll get a couple great games you'll play it a few times then put it away but at some point somebody will say, "Ooh, you have one of these still?" or you'll have a craving for something in the library, and you'll dig it out and enjoy it every now and again.

...With a PC emulator setup, first thing you do is collect every game ever made, and then you'll play one or two great games and also try a ton of stuff that sucks, and then every couple of weeks afterwards you'll see some forum post or have a memory of a game and think, "I should play that one," but something will distract you and you won't.

The current retro emulation console/handhelds ideally offer a nice middleground between the two that actually begs you to turn a box on (and there are also perks to these of graphic and gameplay enhancements,) but still the burden of infinity might get in the way.

(On the flipside, having a bunch of yellowing plastic boxes and custom controllers and wires all over the house ain't always joy.)

 

[Cock of War]

I don't know, you tell me:

 

[MarkMe2525]

If you have a crt, then yes. Like others have mentioned though, there are better options for a modern display.

 

[ShirAhava]

Wait for MARS FPGA it should be coming out this year

 

[Punished Miku]

Nope. Breaks down. Have to get up to even reset. Short cords.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Depends on how old really.

I still have a 360/PS3, Wii U and 2Ds. Other than that not really.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

Got a Saturn, Dreamcast, ps1, ps2 amongst others in storage. Much prefer emulation these days tbh.

 

[jshackles]

Emulation is such a vastly superior experience these days, that it's hard to recommend someone play on actual hardware. Resolution upscaling, achievements, modern (wireless) controllers, fast-forward/rewind features, save states - these are the reasons my retro consoles have all more or less fallen into disrepair.

 

[Ozzie666]

If your loose with your cash or stupid or silly like me. The Analogue products are amazing and nicely replace original hardware. This saves wear and tear. Pricey, especially the Super NT doe SNES. The Pocket with a dock without cartridges is great. Being able to use HDMI or get the DAC to go to a CRT is pretty nice aswell. Most your old controllers and adapaters etc will work too. I wish I could get a NES one, but way to pricey.

Never regretted being fleeced at the costs for Super NT, Mega SG and Duo and Pocket. I can't wait for the Analogue 3D. Depending on original software library, you might need to look into other methods with these systems.

The SNES Mini offers a lot of expansion too beyond the games it comes with, may hit that nostalgia hit too.
Don't let the yellow SNES fool you, they are built like tanks. Nintendo hardware is almost like a Mcdonalds cheeseburger, surviving for decades.

But honestly PC with preferably the correct controllers can work wonders, but that is what lead me down the Analogue route.

 

[Killer8]

As an owner of a modded PS1, PS2, Dreamcast and Wii, i'd say "it depends". Some consoles are pretty easy to mod. I'd move away from physical media as much as you can, as that is the number one failure point (lasers stop working and discs can degrade over the years).

I'd highly recommend getting a CRT TV with RGB cables. Otherwise if using a 4K TV i'd just go down the emulation route.

Wii you can mod quite easily just by following the Wii hack guide website. All you need is an SD card, an external USB hard drive and time. The added benefit is that with the Nintendont app, you also get a modded Gamecube out of it too.

For PS1 you can get an ODE like xStation that will let you run the games off SD card. PS1Digital will let you output via HDMI. There are sites which can install these for you to take away any hassle. Peripherals for PS1 are so cheap on eBay nowadays.

PS2 is arguably easier. You can pickup a slim PS2 and literally just use a PC program to burn games onto a DVD-R and they'll play. Or you can go down the PS2 fat route to run games off a hard drive, which is fairly straightforward - buy a Freemcboot memory card off eBay, a Chinese hard drive adapter and a cheap hard drive.

Dreamcast is as easy as buying a Chinese GDEMU clone, which lets you run all the games off SD card. It just requires you to unscrew the console, remove out the disc drive and then slot in the GDEMU board, no soldering required.

For older consoles, original hardware plus a flashcart like an Everdrive is all you really need.

As a rule of thumb, if anything needs soldering I usually don't bother. I'd only stay away from original Xbox because it's a major pain in the ass to mod and is extremely unreliable due to leaking capacitors. Most of the major releases are playable in 4K on the Series X now anyway.

 

[SenkiDala]

So guys, I 'm staying for the holidays with my relatives and I saw my local fly market has some SNES working, but really yellow. They have PS2 too. I can get those for "peanuts"

I never had one as a kid, only rented form time to time. I was considering getting one, but I'm like: will I even play it? I can get the games, but I dunno if there is value on playing on the original console if I already have pc, wiiu, ds and even Xbox series s, but barely play SNES games these days, even if I still love them all. I only have a 4k TCL tv.

I will have to care for it and it controls. My main draw is the fear that the console becomes too rare and too expensive down the line. What do you guys think?

Well it depends...

If you really want to have the original experience yes the original console is the way to go but you need to think about getting a CRT TV since it looks like shit on a LCD/LED/OLED, except if you buy a really expensive adapter that costs around 150/200.

If all you want is playin those games then emulation is king. We don't remember how rarely you could save in most of those games, and having to replay hours in a game when you lose is a bit annoying (this is why I always laugh when someone say that Souls games are hard, if you lose you just to work walk max 5 minutes to where you lost). I love save states and all the options that emulation brings you. 99% of PS2 and 100% of SNES games are fully playable on any hardware able to emulate it (a PC, a MAC, a hacked Wii, a raspberry pi, a Steam Deck...), if you still wanna recreate a bit the mood of that era, get a SNES usb or bluetooth controller, same with a PS2 usb/BT controller and you're good to go.

Oh and old video games can cost a lot, I dunno in USA but here it is not rare to have SNES, PS2 games going for 100/200/300/500€ or more...

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Yes, I still appreciate the real deal in this day and age and I think it's worth doing. But it's expensive when you factor in essentials like a scaler, good cables, etc.

Though for consoles that have one, I'm just using an Analogue system these days for the better video and audio output vs real hardware (particularly with stuff like the SNES that has varying video output issues regardless of which version of the hardware you have.)

 

[ReBurn]

I have a Retron 5 for the 8-bit and 16-bit physical stuff when I'm in the mood to play my old physical stuff. It's more convenient than swapping consoles. Even though it's not the best upscaler it's better than composite. I also have a couple of Anbernic handhelds that I use.

 

[WitchHunter]

So guys, I 'm staying for the holidays with my relatives and I saw my local fly market has some SNES working, but really yellow. They have PS2 too. I can get those for "peanuts"

I never had one as a kid, only rented form time to time. I was considering getting one, but I'm like: will I even play it? I can get the games, but I dunno if there is value on playing on the original console if I already have pc, wiiu, ds and even Xbox series s, but barely play SNES games these days, even if I still love them all. I only have a 4k TCL tv.

I will have to care for it and it controls. My main draw is the fear that the console becomes too rare and too expensive down the line. What do you guys think?

What do you think. If I don't wipe my arse for 12 consecutive months, will it get nasty? Please reply, very important question, can't decide.

 

[El Muerto]

I have everything from the NES to PS3 hooked up to a sony trinitron in my spare room. I have modchips in my disc based systems, and everdrives for the cartridge based. With that said, i never sat down and played any of them in the past year or so. If you're new to it then you may have some fun over the weekend with it. But after playing everything i wanted over the years, and my current backlog on steam/xbox/PS, i just dont bother playing old systems. Debating if i just want to pack it all up and store it to free up space. If i do play an old game i just load it up on one of my emulator handhelds like the RG35xx or Powkiddy X55 when i'm out waiting at the in-laws or dr office. Or I would load roms on my htpc with shaders if i'm bored. And with all these people who can't get real jobs so they buy and sell retro games, driving up the costs, collecting isnt as fun or affordable as it was.

 

[Drew1440]

Depends on how often you are going to play these consoles, for a lot of people they tend to play a handful of games and then go back to current-gen gaming. For those types of players, using an emulator would be preferable. The older consoles are more difficult to connect to modern TVs that lack Scart or component inputs, and spending $80+ on adapters/scalers isn't feasible so emulation on a modern console removes a lot of that headache. And then you have the QoL issues with the older hardware, the lack of wireless controllers, limited capacity memory cards and having to change optical media/cartridges (Everdrives and ODE's help with this but they ain't cheap).

That said, emulation for the PS2/Xbox onwards still isn't fully fleshed out, and many games will encounter issues which is why I prefer to use actual hardware for those games. Older consoles (Dreamcast and before) can easily be consolidated onto an Android TV box or a Steam deck.

 

[Sorcerer]

The idea of having one box do as much as possible is more intriguing to me. All the wires, the controllers, the space for the physical games, it can get overwhelming and messy. I would just get the one retro console that is closest to your heart and emulate the rest.

 

[DGrayson]

I don't think so but everyone will have their own opinion.

That said, emulation for the PS2/Xbox onwards still isn't fully fleshed out, and many games will encounter issues which is why I prefer to use actual hardware for those games. Older consoles (Dreamcast and before) can easily be consolidated onto an Android TV box or a Steam deck.

I thought PS2 emulation was pretty much perfect with powerful enough hardware?

 

[Beechos]

Def not worth it unless you're an enthusiast or collector.

More wires involved, space will also be needed for the system/ games, can get expensive real quick.

Better off with emulation or one of those mini consoles.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I think it depends. If you're really going to play them, sure, go ahead. If it's just for collecting and they're going to sit collecting dust, not worth it to me.

Pay a small fee (Switch Online sub) and you can access all the retro games you want, and play them in current hardware. No need to deal with older systems.

Switch online fucking blows. They have a crappy selection of games and seemingly refuse to work out any deals with publishers to get games on the service.

I would recommend getting older consoles but like mentioned they are breaking down and games can be expensive. Snes you can easily emulate. Jailbreak a device or get a retro hand held emulator cause this work great now.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Is sex better with your hand or a real human being?

Is playing old games better on their intended hardware or some emulation machine?

That said though amassing some of the top quality games on older systems isn't gonna be cheap.

 

[Hudo]

Depends. If you love the hardware, then sure.

For me, personally, it's not really worth it. I am only in it for the games. And I can play these games on emulators just as well. Or on dedicated hardware like a Retron 5 or something like that.

That being said, I do have a Sharp 68000 XVI-HD, because this is, in my opinion, the coolest computer ever built. And yes, it's quite a hassle when something breaks (which does happen).

 

[StereoVsn]

It’s worth it if you don’t mind some soldering. Usually capacitors and batteries go so you have to replace them. It’s not too hard really, but it can be a bit annoying.

As far as game prices go can always do either Everdrive (or knock offs) or Disk replacement so you can run games off SD for CD based consoles. Can also mod most of them so you can run burned disks, but that’s a bit harder.

 

[Beechos]

Also alot of these older systems/games backup batteries to save games and settings and shit are prob dead. Another headache to deal with.

 

[Ulysses 31]

I'd go for FPGA clone consoles rather than the real thing at this point if you're serious about retro gaming. Analogue ones are good enough for NES/SNES/Gameboy(Advance) and have HDMI output. With a retrotink you can get CRT/PVM scanlines/masks if you don't like the raw pixel look.

I sold my OG US SNES and got a Super NT.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I don't think so but everyone will have their own opinion.



I thought PS2 emulation was pretty much perfect with powerful enough hardware?

It has incomplete compatibility and patches/hacks are needed for some things to appear correctly. Also, there are definite audio artifacts on PCSX2 no matter the setting.

P.S. PS2 hardware is also in a wierd place where its color pallete is very limited, its default resolution is blurry, and assets are of differing quality unless viewed on a CRT or PVM.

 

[RAIDEN1]

So what's the best solution if you want to revisit PS2/Game-cube games you missed out on.....especially if you don't have a state-of-the-art PC? Or is it a case of buying a modded Wii, and slim PS2?

 

[Ulysses 31]

So what's the best solution if you want to revisit PS2/Game-cube games you missed out on.....especially if you don't have a state-of-the-art PC? Or is it a case of buying a modded Wii, and slim PS2?

HDMI modded PS2 and a GameCube (DOL-001) with the GCHD MK-II HDMI adapter

 

[jshackles]

I thought PS2 emulation was pretty much perfect with powerful enough hardware?

Not perfect, but perfectly playable, in my opinion. Someone else mentioned needing "hacks", but the only "hacks" I've ever used with PS2 emulation have been optional widescreen hacks. The PCSX2 emulator supports Retro Achievements now too, which is aces. There may be a few audio distortions here or there, but nothing major that I've personally encountered, certainly nothing too distracting.

 

[Stuart360]

Some retro enthusiasts prefer real hardware for that authentic feel.
For me i have a pretty large retro collection and its all emulation. I dont really care about real hardware, and being able to play these old games at much higher resolutions is a godsend.

 

[Krathoon]

Emulation for PS1 is pretty much perfect now. PS2 still has some issues. For some reason, they can't just get that one perfect.

It is really convienent to get a library setup on a laptop these days.

 

[Krathoon]

Also alot of these older systems/games backup batteries to save games and settings and shit are prob dead. Another headache to deal with.

Yeah. That is the problem with SNES games. You might as well emulate or use Everdrives.

People tend to forget about the bad batteries.

 

[justiceiro]

What do you think. If I don't wipe my arse for 12 consecutive months, will it get nasty? Please reply, very important question, can't decide.

Where is this coming from? I think my ignore list just got a little bit longer.


Anyway, seems like SNES emulation can take care, but PS2 might be worth. Thanks.

 

[lem0n]

There's no right or wrong answer here. It's all down to you and what you value/enjoy. It's like asking someone if maintaining a classic car is worth it. There are many reasons that people would want to, and equal amounts of reasons others wouldn't. If you don't have much nostalgia for these systems however and you're just curious about the games an emulator is a much easier and cheaper option

 

[Comfortgel]

I feel if you already have, or can get a decent CRT reasonably, everything from the PS1 era down is better on original hardware.

 

[StereoVsn]

So what's the best solution if you want to revisit PS2/Game-cube games you missed out on.....especially if you don't have a state-of-the-art PC? Or is it a case of buying a modded Wii, and slim PS2?

For PS2 get OG phat so you can connect SATA SAD through an adapter and easily run games off that.

For GameCube, not sure, but probably hacked Wii.

 

[cireza]

Only worth it if you are planning on getting a CRT. A small CRT is easy to put in a corner of a room and you will get a superb experience. Well, not with a PS2 lol because of how shit the picture was on that console and it outputs 480i. You don't want to go back to interlaced believe me.

Any cartridge console will give at least good results as they output 240p. SNES doesn't have a great picture quality unless you can find a very specific model, but it will still be okay. Other consoles perform better natively, especially SEGA consoles and Neo Geo CD/CDZ. If you are in France SCART RGB is the way to go. You will never get a better picture for these old games. Otherwise S-Video. Companies make brand new cables, such as retrogamingcables.co.uk

Cartridge consoles are the most reliable thing around, they just work. Same for the cartridges. And if they don't, it is often very easy to fix or have fixed. These are simple systems, with a big PCB, simple components, they don't heat, they don't have moving parts. Often they simply need a good refresh of the solder and changing capacitors. This can also do wonders on a CRT, refreshing solder and changing capacitors (but it has to be done by a professional or someone with good experience). Cartridges are the same, and contacts might need cleaning. This is very easy to do.

Put an Everdrive in the console and you are good to go, you will avoid stupid prices on the second hand market. Many disc consoles also have ODEs now, so it removes the weakest part of the machine. For example the Fenrir on Saturn. Works flawlessly.

To summarize :
- only do it if you are planning to take a CRT + Scart RGB/S-Video, otherwise it is pointless and any emulator will provide the same result on LCD
- only pick old consoles that output 240p (so everything up to PS1/Saturn/N64)

 

[cireza]

I thought PS2 emulation was pretty much perfect with powerful enough hardware?

Nope, and I wonder if it will ever be. PS2 has such a shitty architecture... Last time I tried emulators, I had the choice between having no input lag but no VSync (which looked awful) or having VSync but input lag as well (which was not playable enough).