Consoles you just can't get excited about

[+GoldenWheels]

 

I can't get into these two at all. Or any handheldized versions of consoles (like the kind Ben Heck does). Just doesn't feel right to me to play that way.

 

I can actually quite understand what you are saying--as I often get the same feeling playing nes games on my FC Mobile 2. At the same time, there are times I sit there and think about what 10 year old me would have thought 25 or so years ago to have a portable NES in my hands. I'd have been blown away, and so even though it's not the best experience for, well, ANY NES game, I still play most of my NES games on my FC Mobile.

 

I mean, literally, sometimes I turn it off and look at it and go "this thing is amazing". Maybe it's the 10 year old talking. I've got portable loaded with emulators, etc, the whole deal. It still tickles me to hold a NES in my hands and play it.

[Keatah]

I tend not to get excited over handheld LCD games.

 

 

The main issue is we as a society will continue to be moving away from physical goods into digital goods, so it's either embrace the reality or ignore it and simply live exclusively with vintage tech. If you embrace the reality, you can become one of the voices that makes the situation better and helps to minimize some of the potential gotchas. Obviously, there are significant advantage/disadvantages to both physical and digital goods. I'm fully on board with digital stuff (still supporting physical stuff when it makes sense) because for me, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

 

Of course, to bring this back on topic (to the idea of not liking modern consoles), I'm only really passionate about the subject when I hear otherwise like-minded people outright reject certain technology because it doesn't fit into their comfort zone or their potentially outmoded ideas of thinking. With each passing generation, the idea of owning physical goods will be less and less important. I know my kids think in terms of instant access digital and only deal with discs or cartridges when they absolutely have to. I can't say I blame them. Just because we didn't have any other choice growing up doesn't mean it's a better way necessarily.

 

Embracing the reality means something only when you're buying. And that means supporting the industry's modality straight away. I dislike consoles that require internet access. It's not because of digital delivery and media-less operation, but instead the restrictions and "temporary-ness". A flick of nameless server switch by an equally nameless beancounter and your gaming library becomes unplayable. Or at the very least, not able to be backed up and preserved for the future.

 

And that is the beauty of emulation. While being media-less in that there are no cartridges, you can put the stuff on an SSD or HDD or SD and this ensures you can have backups. This is both "digital" and "eternal" - a combination you do not get with modern consoles.

 

"Just because we didn't have any other choice growing up doesn't mean it's a better way necessarily." But it is! Things don't necessarily get better for the purchaser/user just because time passes and something different comes along. It becomes pervasive because it is convenient for the peddler.

 

Sometimes the first way of doing something is best. Subsequent attempts are often full of cost-cutting measures. Subsequent attempts are sometimes no more than industry vibrations trying to find something better and often failing. Someone pushing a pet-project through. Look what happened with the space program. We're going back to the original way of doing ballistic capsules instead of winged lifting bodies.

 

 

 

The early systems like the Fairchild and O2 just do not do it at all for me. Every generation from the 2600 on has stuff I like. I'm really looking forward to an Inty Flashback to get the a better entry point into the Inty. Pretty much all of the the Inty emulation has been hampered by controllers/interface/UI. Saying that, I find the Vectrex to be interesting, but would never collect it. Same for the TG-16. A Jag would be a fun conversation starter, but I seriously don't know if buying one JUST for AVP is worth it today. Same for a 7800. I'm waiting to surprise my wife with an XEGS or a straight up 800 or 800XL, but I think she'd divorce me if I did. Mmmmm.... "Rescue on Fractalus...." droool....

 

I think the modern dislike for the current gen (PS4/XB1) has a lot to do with the online component. I dislike games that have a huge online portion that rely on hosted servers. Once the publisher axes the server, all you have is a coaster. Fact: No one will be able to play "Destiny" in 5 years. (If they wanted to, that is.) In the last gen, a game like Borderlands can be played in an offline mode, but at a huge loss to the experience. The SSX relaunch by EA a year or two ago is in the same place. Single player is good, but a big chunk of it relies on multi-player/net connection. Yes, you can still play Halo & Halo 2, but that online multiplayer that made many fans of the series is lost.

 

Not so much as the controllers, but definitely the crap user interfaces and rom management. None of the inty emulators have been updated or modernized. Nor has the functionality and maintenance of control conventions been refined in years. Let alone ROM management and selection.

 

Classic games are timeless through emulation. I'm pretty much assured of being able to play the original Missile Command, both home and arcade versions, years and years into the future. And right now we're +25 years along in proving it is so! And emulation can can benefit from DLC, but a kind of DLC without DRM. DLC you can keep and preserve forever. I can enjoy the box artwork, the stories, the videos and interviews, the tips & tricks, hacks & mods, all things surrounding Missile Command. It's here to stay forever.

 

This is not so with anything on a modern console. 10 years? 15 years? Then kaput awwgone! The suit in the boardroom takes away your stuff. He will stop you from reliving your childhood and good times with friends and family and videogames. All because of his greed.

 

Whereas my emulation collection will allow me to relive the wintry mornings when school got closed due to storms. The nights of programming and experimenting with re-writing Lunar Lander and all the imaginary space journeys and science experiments. All the good times based around home video gaming. It's all here forever and ever and ever.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Keatah

[Keatah]

 

I can actually quite understand what you are saying--as I often get the same feeling playing nes games on my FC Mobile 2. At the same time, there are times I sit there and think about what 10 year old me would have thought 25 or so years ago to have a portable NES in my hands. I'd have been blown away, and so even though it's not the best experience for, well, ANY NES game, I still play most of my NES games on my FC Mobile.

 

I mean, literally, sometimes I turn it off and look at it and go "this thing is amazing". Maybe it's the 10 year old talking. I've got portable loaded with emulators, etc, the whole deal. It still tickles me to hold a NES in my hands and play it.

 

 

I have many BBS writings and postings from 1978 - 1984, both by myself and my users, discussing a small briefcase-like contraption that could play all our videogames. All in one unit.

 

We wrote about it with reverence and awe and talked about high-density specialized ROM chips from the future that could be re-written and worked as fast as RAM and would never forget their information when power was turned off.

 

We wrote about processors that could re-wire themselves and change how their internal circuits worked based on some instructions you gave it before it became fully powered up.

 

We discussed chips that would turn themselves on and off when they weren't being used.

 

We talked about incredibly complex programs that would make the CPU read other CPU instructions and pretend it was something else.

 

And we extended the discussion to discrete gates and transistors.

 

I remember writing about a box that could hold billions and billions of bits data and could access it in real time. It was based on glass and crystals and exotic metals shaped with lasers and ion beams.

 

We dreamed of chips that do graphics and sound so fast they could do realtime video and synthesize any sound whatsoever.

 

And we envisioned batteries that could be made into any shape and size and held oodles of power to run it all.

 

And we fantasized about display modules that were paper thin and far superior to the distortion-laden CRT of the day.

 

Our supersuitcase console could accept any controller and run any program ever written, even two or three programs at a single time it was so fast. In fact it was so fast it got ahead of itself and started executing instructions from the future.

 

You can equate the above speculations to modern technologies like, SSD, HDD, CPU microcode, CPU clock throttling, circuit node simulation, modern CPU and GPU, Lithium Ion Polymer batteries, LCD, USB, VM environments, and speculative execution.

[ledzep]

...

Embracing the reality means something only when you're buying. And that means supporting the industry's modality straight away. I dislike consoles that require internet access. It's not because of digital delivery and media-less operation, but instead the restrictions and "temporary-ness". A flick of nameless server switch by an equally nameless beancounter and your gaming library becomes unplayable. Or at the very least, not able to be backed up and preserved for the future.

 

And that is the beauty of emulation. While being media-less in that there are no cartridges, you can put the stuff on an SSD or HDD or SD and this ensures you can have backups. This is both "digital" and "eternal" - a combination you do not get with modern consoles.

It's been said before but bears repeating: If you think a copy on a hard drive is a "backup" and is "eternal" you're fooling yourself. It helps, but you're one corrupted block away from losing the whole thing. A backup is (currently) a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. But having copies on hard drives does help.

 

...

Classic games are timeless through emulation. I'm pretty much assured of being able to play the original Missile Command, both home and arcade versions, years and years into the future. And right now we're +25 years along in proving it is so! And emulation can can benefit from DLC, but a kind of DLC without DRM. DLC you can keep and preserve forever. I can enjoy the box artwork, the stories, the videos and interviews, the tips & tricks, hacks & mods, all things surrounding Missile Command. It's here to stay forever.

I'm big fan of packaging, the box art and manuals and such. Much better back in the early console days than now. I mean, packaging is slicker now but there was more attention to detail back in the day. Maybe because they knew the games themselves were crippled running on those weak chips. The box art for Atari 2600 games was epic compared to the actual simplistic colored blocks you moved around, haahaha.

 

This is not so with anything on a modern console. 10 years? 15 years? Then kaput awwgone! The suit in the boardroom takes away your stuff. He will stop you from reliving your childhood and good times with friends and family and videogames. All because of his greed.

 

You know, I hadn't actually thought about that aspect (because the last console I even owned was a PS1) but you're right. What is the nostalgic gamer supposed to do with an "old" (current) system 20 years from now? No way he'll be able to play others online. If it's a PC game it probably won't even load unless he can cobble together what will then be considered horribly outdated components.

 

I think that game programmers today should allow for the option to physically hook together multiple XBoxes or PlayStations (or whatever comes next) so that, years from now when the online servers have disappeared, he can at least play a few other like-minded nostalgic gamers instead of trashing the whole system because the games are useless without the Internet.

 

Whereas my emulation collection will allow me to relive the wintry mornings when school got closed due to storms. The nights of programming and experimenting with re-writing Lunar Lander and all the imaginary space journeys and science experiments. All the good times based around home video gaming. It's all here forever and ever and ever.

Very true.

[+adamchevy]

I have been away for awhile. I tried the Wii u, HD Wii just doesn't do it for me. I think I'm going to give the Vectrex a try. I still play the 2600 once a week when I have a minute. As for the current gen I think they are going to struggle for a while to define what to do with all the horsepower.

[CatPix]

It's been said before but bears repeating: If you think a copy on a hard drive is a "backup" and is "eternal" you're fooling yourself. It helps, but you're one corrupted block away from losing the whole thing. A backup is (currently) a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. But having copies on hard drives does help.

And you're fooling yourself thinking that one copy on laser-based support is a backup.

They can be damaged, either by external causes, misshandling, improper storage, and, for most home burned supports, reflective layer degradation.

A safe backup is "simple". Multiple copies. On multiple supports. On anything, even Zip discs, cassette tapes, etc...

 

Hard drives are the best you can come up with. We have almost 50 years of experience with magnetic metal spinning discs, and for your standard, home IDE/SCSI/SATA 3" 1/2 HDD, over 25 years of experience.

 

Those things hardly fail. And, if we're talking about retro games, even a "small" 40 Gigs HDD found in the electronic recycling bin can carry hundred of games. And you can get lots of them for nothing!

 

I have other 20 HDD I found for free in the electronic bin of my town recycling center. Only one of them was not working (and one is an odd mix with Molex power plug and SATA data, but heh.)

Sure they are 40, 80, or 120 go HDD, and I found even two 450 Mo and 250Mo drives, but that's still lots of games. Bad sector? If they are backups, you don't fire them everyday. And with so much storage room, you can make two, three, four copies on the same drive and on another drive as well.

 

Still thinking it's not safe enough? Store one of those drive back-up at your parent's home, or at a family home, or something. And if you want to be more safe, get online storage.

 

The odds that you lose data from the online storage, your own hard drives AND your externally stored drives are very shallow... and for games that you can found with a 15 seconds search on Google (for most), it's much pain for not so much results.

But at th end, you're right. No storage way is eternal - nothing is. But heh, that's life.

Edited October 28, 2014 by CatPix

[ledzep]

And you're fooling yourself thinking that one copy on laser-based support is a backup.

They can be damaged, either by external causes, misshandling, improper storage, and, for most home burned supports, reflective layer degradation.

A safe backup is "simple". Multiple copies. On multiple supports. On anything, even Zip discs, cassette tapes, etc...

 

Hard drives are the best you can come up with. We have almost 50 years of experience with magnetic metal spinning discs, and for your standard, home IDE/SCSI/SATA 3" 1/2 HDD, over 25 years of experience.

 

Those things hardly fail. And, if we're talking about retro games, even a "small" 40 Gigs HDD found in the electronic recycling bin can carry hundred of games. And you can get lots of them for nothing!

 

I have other 20 HDD I found for free in the electronic bin of my town recycling center. Only one of them was not working (and one is an odd mix with Molex power plug and SATA data, but heh.)

Sure they are 40, 80, or 120 go HDD, and I found even two 450 Mo and 250Mo drives, but that's still lots of games. Bad sector? If they are backups, you don't fire them everyday. And with so much storage room, you can make two, three, four copies on the same drive and on another drive as well.

 

Still thinking it's not safe enough? Store one of those drive back-up at your parent's home, or at a family home, or something. And if you want to be more safe, get online storage.

 

The odds that you lose data from the online storage, your own hard drives AND your externally stored drives are very shallow... and for games that you can found with a 15 seconds search on Google (for most), it's much pain for not so much results.

But at th end, you're right. No storage way is eternal - nothing is. But heh, that's life.

 

Who said anything about "one copy"?

 

Look around at what large companies use for backups, it's tape or something else that's physical and static (doesn't need to be powered up). Yes, everything degrades and everything can be burned to ash or liquid. From what I've seen over the years no IT department uses stacks of hard drives for backups. They use RAID arrays to keep their accessible data relatively safe and they use rotating tapes to back all that up and they use offline tape storage for the older stuff that nobody currently needs to use (but may have to, though that threat hardly ever materializes). Those guys are cheap (meaning they don't pay extra for bling or having the coolest shit on the block) and they are paranoid (meaning they don't go for cutting-edge tech that isn't proven or reliable) and they don't believe for a second that hard drives = backups. Since nothing lasts forever they do consistent backups and they do multiple backups and that adds up quick, they'd be retards if they were filling warehouse up with hard drives full of copied data. Tapes and RAID, that's how they protect themselves against losing a week's worth of work that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and their reputation as a reliable service. Make the backups, check them, if they look good then store them. Done, repeat. Later, if they don't need them they get erased or shredded and they didn't spend loads of cash for extra hard drives.

 

Now, no individual with a couple computers in his house is going to be able to afford or have room for a tape robot so it's either some magnetic tapes in a box or blu-rays on a shelf. Fry's always has RW blu-ray packs on sale, 30 for $15 or whatever, and I've only gone through one of them to back up my modest data. But having a bunch of easily-corruptible flash drives or hard drives as "backups" is nuts. They're more expensive than optical discs, anyway, except in your trash recycling case. Good for you but most people don't do that or have that option.

 

Online storage helps but as far as security goes it's shit and out of your control. It's an extra level, not the only level.

[5argust]

Microsoft devices.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Man, just got done reading the whole thread.

 

Systems I have little interest:

 

Pre-crash systems other than 2600/7800. Primarily because of the screwy controller designs. Coleco, Intelli, and 5200 all had wierd numeric pads on their controllers. I am getting the Coleco flashback however. I love the idea of owning Vectrex, but I'm wondering if they are reliable or how soon the novelty of playing on a monochrome vector screen wears off.

 

Vintage 80s computers.

 

Famicom Disk System. Extremely unreliable. Also due to the prevalence of Disk copying Kiosks, a lot of games got mislabeled. Famicom, esp the AV model, is awesome FTR.

 

CD add-ons for cartridge systems are a kludge, and expensive. That said, TG-16 and Genesis base models are cool. I wish Turbo had more and better card games. Sega 32X is kludgy as well and pretty much wasted tech.

 

CDi, 3DO, Neo-Geo, and Jag. CDi and 3DO need no explaination. Neo Geo is stupid expensive and not much to offer unless you're a fighting fan. Jag was too little, too late.

 

Virtual Boy. The migrane-inducing Red Screens and the requirement for total isolation. No spectating allowed.

 

Monochrome Game Boy. I do collect for this system, but have no desire to play the games on the blurry lime green screen of the original. I much prefer playing them on Super Game Boy/SNES or a crisp GBA.

 

Sega Saturn or Dreamcast. Boo on me.

Xbox anything. Original, 360, or One.

PS4.

Android/iOS, if you can call them game platforms.

[Andromeda Stardust]

^^Wanted to add PC games with DRM or excessive video hardware requirements to the list.

 

To address the last couple pages of banter regarding DRM and online-only gaming, this is the future I'm afraid. The problem I have with it is not the lack of physical media itself, but control over one's own media/games collection, whether physical or digital. Mark my words, 9th gen will be download/online only. Removal of disc slots will be viewed as a cosy-cutting measure so it is likely there will be little or no backwards compatability with physical media even if you get to transfer your digital downloads from last gen. Even if games are allowed to be played offline, the inevitable day will come when servers get shut down. B/C will end beyond one generation deep. Assuming the console still functions without dialing home, you will be stuck playing the games originally downloaded to the device. 2nd hand units will be worthless because it's impossible to legally aquire new games. Chances are the new owner will not be interested in whatever the previous owner installed on it. Consoles get recycled or go into landfills, and games are forever lost to time. Children growing up in 2020 will not be able to revisit the games of their childhood as adults. This fact saddens me.

[Austin]

Jaguar CD. Super lame add-on. Have one just for collection purposes and for some homebrew, but other than that it's a terrible, finicky piece of hardware and was a terrible idea at the time of release.

 

CD-I. Lots of potential here squandered with horrible software. There are a few games I enjoy, but there's not nearly enough that's worthwhile to warrant leaving it hooked up for more than a night or two, if that.

 

CD32. Probably a bit in the same league as the CD-I for me, but to be honest I haven't even played one yet. Want to eventually pick one up for the collection, but I have a feeling I will barely play it. The quick Amiga ports (with one button controls and all) is probably the biggest turnoff for me and the biggest factor why I think I'd barely spend time with it even if I owned one.

 

Game.Com. Maybe two or three games I enjoy playing on the thing, if that (the built-in Solitaire and bundled Lights Out cart being two of them). Great idea for a system with great licenses, but the hardware is pretty bad and the execution was terrible overall.

 

Bandai/Apple Pippin. Maybe too obscure to even be worth naming, but it only has a few actual games that are worth trying. I like having one in the collection for the oddity that it is (and the one good pinball game helps), but it's not much more than that. I might view it differently if I owned one of the absurdly rare models that can be hacked to play actual Mac games and software. Mac Wolfenstein 3D on my TV? That would be pretty sweet, indeed.

 

I also have a tough time sticking with pre-NES/SMS consoles as well (Vectrex aside, that thing is awesome). My console gaming tastes cater more to the styles of games created in the mid 1980s and on and if I bring out a 2600, a Colecovision or an Intellivision, they don't stay hooked up very long. Don't get me wrong, I like them and enjoy them, but I more naturally veer towards stuff that came out a good bit later than those.

 

I'm a bit bi-polar with the 3DO. One day I think it's awesome, then the next day I think it was one of the most poorly executed concepts in gaming history. In reality it's the library that is doing that to me--a good majority of it is crap, or just hasn't held up well. However, the great games are just that, and it's when I play them I think, "Man, this system is awesome!" When I am playing the rest of the library though I feel dirty afterwards, almost as if I just spent time playing a CD-I or something.

 

Virtual Boy gets a pass for me because the handful of games I really like on it, I find to be really damn good (probably because five of those are Nintendo-developed games, which hold up great today). The 3D effect is also the best I've seen on a home console as well, so it also gets a plus for the immersion factor I haven't been able to really feel anywhere else.

 

The Super Grafx in concept should be super lame because of its handful of releases that actually require the hardware, but it gets a pass because Ghouls 'n Ghosts is awesome and it plays the entire PC Engine HuCard library. Glad to have it in my collection.

[toptenmaterial]

XB1 and PS4, and not because I'm a Ninty fan (which I am). I owned an Xbox and a 360, and a PSP and Vita. But the current leap in consoles just doesn't seem like much of a leap at all. After 8 years? I'd hoped we see more. The incremental improvements just don't seem to warrant buying a whole new system. There are probably new features that I'm unaware of; I don't play online, and multiplayer to me involves being on the same couch as someone else and trading lots of insults and laughter. I do have the Wii U, and frankly I enjoy it for being a "handheld", which is the format that I enjoy the most.

Edited October 30, 2014 by toptenmaterial

[+wongojack]

Children growing up in 2020 will not be able to revisit the games of their childhood as adults. This fact saddens me.

 

With all the crazy things that have gone into preserving the systems of the last 40-50 years, do you really think that a generation with more resources and ability to communicate globally won't figure out how to play a game of Assassin's Creed 13 in 2040 or beyond?

 

The hacking, burning, and reverse engineering that has gone into emulation up to this point is way harder than figuring out how to convince a game it is connected to the internet.

 

There will always be someone trying to recapture the past. That will keep these systems running for years into the future. Besides, I'm sure they will figure out a way to sell you what you remember from your childhood if you are too lazy to figure out the emulated options.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

With all the crazy things that have gone into preserving the systems of the last 40-50 years, do you really think that a generation with more resources and ability to communicate globally won't figure out how to play a game of Assassin's Creed 13 in 2040 or beyond.

Agree with you 100%. If anything, we're trending to more archiving and access, not less (which again is one benefit of the digital versus physical approach). The other fact we need to consider is that there are fewer platform-specific releases, so it's more likely we'll have at least one version of the same game to access if the unthinkable were to happen to a specific version of a game. In short, there are few reasons to not be optimistic about accessing today's games in the future. With that said, we'll never be at 100%, but as long as we're in the high 90s, that's probably more than enough. I can't think of any media/history that is ever 100%. Something is always lost.

[ZippyRedPlumber]

CD-I - Because of mediocre to horrible software, yet I like the Nintendo licensed games because of the use in Youtube Poop videos. XD

[roland p]

I WAS excited about the CD-I when it was first presented together with 'Escape from cyber city' in 1991/1992 probably. It blew my mind and it showed the potential of the system. I was ready for lots of cyber-punk arcade games. Too bad it didn't work out the way I expected.

[+Gemintronic]

I WAS excited about the CD-I when it was first presented together with 'Escape from cyber city' in 1991/1992 probably. It blew my mind and it showed the potential of the system. I was ready for lots of cyber-punk arcade games. Too bad it didn't work out the way I expected.

 

Yep. Local computer stores started carrying CD-i compatible movies. I thought it was gonna be huge.

[Omega-TI]

The Magnavox O2 is my greatest disappointment. I was excited about it at first, obtained one, picked up a few cartridges and then discovered that the games were just too simple and sparse for me to have any CONTINUING fun with it. Now it just sits gathering dust.

\

[Bill Loguidice]

The CD-i actually had its "wow" moments, particularly when paired with the MPEG cartridge. Being able to run "The 7th Guest" as well as a high end 486 computer or running the best version of "Dragon's Lair" were impressive demonstrations of the platform's capabilities. Naturally, it had issues with certain game types and some of the configurations were weird, but it was still an interesting effort overall.

[Bill Loguidice]

The Magnavox O2 is my greatest disappointment. I was excited about it at first, obtained one, picked up a few cartridges and then discovered that the games were just too simple and sparse for me to have any CONTINUING fun with it. Now it just sits gathering dust.

 

In the modern era I've always admired the Odyssey2's (usually) flicker-free graphics and reasonable use of its speech synthesizer (meaning a decent number of games used it). There are also several games that I'd consider genuine stand outs on the system, including K.C. Munchkin!, Smithereens!, and the board game hybrids.

[+wood_jl]

 

As I continually expand my retro-gaming empire, I'm finding that there are fewer-and-fewer consoles that I can turn my nose up at. Yet, I used to turn my nose up at them. I now know that it's all good stuff, and one needs to DIVE IN!!!!

[dashv]

Man, just got done reading the whole thread.

 

Systems I have little interest:Pre-crash systems other than 2600/7800. Primarily because of the screwy controller designs. Coleco, Intelli, and 5200 all had wierd numeric pads on their controllers. I am getting the Coleco flashback however. I love the idea of owning Vectrex, but I'm wondering if they are reliable or how soon the novelty of playing on a monochrome vector screen wears off.Vintage 80s computers.Famicom Disk System. Extremely unreliable. Also due to the prevalence of Disk copying Kiosks, a lot of games got mislabeled. Famicom, esp the AV model, is awesome FTR.CD add-ons for cartridge systems are a kludge, and expensive. That said, TG-16 and Genesis base models are cool. I wish Turbo had more and better card games. Sega 32X is kludgy as well and pretty much wasted tech.CDi, 3DO, Neo-Geo, and Jag. CDi and 3DO need no explaination. Neo Geo is stupid expensive and not much to offer unless you're a fighting fan. Jag was too little, too late.Virtual Boy. The migrane-inducing Red Screens and the requirement for total isolation. No spectating allowed.Monochrome Game Boy. I do collect for this system, but have no desire to play the games on the blurry lime green screen of the original. I much prefer playing them on Super Game Boy/SNES or a crisp GBA.Sega Saturn or Dreamcast. Boo on me.Xbox anything. Original, 360, or One.PS4.Android/iOS, if you can call them game platforms.

Given your love of retro gaming you really might want to give the original Xbox some consideration. A softmodded Xbox can emulate an impressive number of systems.

 

Every Atari variant (now including Jaguar!), Coleco vision, game boy - game boy advanced, snes, genesis, master system, sega CD (you can put the actual discs right into your drive), Playstation 1, Mame!

 

Most of these can even be run in glorious 720p.

 

There is even a 3DO emulator for it. But unfortunately that doesn't run full speed.

 

Not bad at all for 10 year old tech. Especially when you can still grab them for under $50 (assuming you plan to soft mod it yourself).

Edited November 10, 2014 by dashv

[Andromeda Stardust]

^^ I have no plans to get an Xbox. FTR, I loath emulation, unless I'm testing out a ROM, homebrew or otherwise, to see if it's worth buying. IMO, there's no reason to softmod an Xbox or any other console to run emulators, when there are open platforms such as Ouya or Raspberry Pi which run on more powerful ARM technology, have better support, and basically let you download whatever, no rooting or soft-modding needed. I downloaded all the EMUs on my Ouya but rarely use them. My Ouya is primarily used as a Pinball Arcade machine...

[AtariLeaf]

5200/Intellivision - I have an 800XL so I'm covered on the 5200 for the most part and don't have to refurb screwy controllers that aren't at all comfortable anyway. Same with Intellivison. Had one, got tired of hand cramps. Good library but just no real interest outside of some exclusives like Worm Whomper but again, hate the controller. I probably wouldn't own a CV either if I didn't have a modded genny controller to use with it.

 

Dreamcast/PS1 - again, had both, enjoyed some games on both but nothing I'd particularly want to go back to

 

Vic-20 - Have the C64, just don't see the point

 

Jaguar - too pricey and nothing other than tempest really interests me.

 

Most of the early, obscure systems don't really do anything for me. Fairchild, RCA Studio II, Emerson Arcadia - if I found one in a yard sale for a good price I'd probably play it a bit to see what it's like and resell it.

 

Gameboy/Game Gear - How anyone played the original gameboy without their eyes bleeding, I don't understand. I have a GBA SP, Super Gameboy and Gamecube player to cover me for those games. Never saw anything on the game gear to make me want to get one and seems like every one needs a complete capacitor overhaul.

 

Virtual Boy - you need to ask why?

 

xbox 360 - red ring of death - maybe down the road if I found one cheap but they seem like a real coin toss on reliability, it would have to be a REAL good price - like free.

 

Current systems - we'll see down the road but for now, nothing interests me to entice me to spend the money on them.

 

As for the whole "no system is bad or not worth owning" argument, yes the history off all game systems is interesting and maybe if I had an infinite amount of money and room then I might be more inclined to buy and try everything but I have neither infinite money, space or time so those interesting tidbits of gaming history will have to be "enjoyed" via emulation if possible.

Edited November 10, 2014 by AtariLeaf

[Austin]

IMO, there's no reason to softmod an Xbox or any other console to run emulators, when there are open platforms such as Ouya or Raspberry Pi which run on more powerful ARM technology, have better support, and basically let you download whatever, no rooting or soft-modding needed.

 

Actually, the XBOX can handle emulation a decent bit better than the Ouya. Just speaking as an Ouya (and a modded XBOX) owner..

 

My Ouya is primarily used as a Pinball Arcade machine...

The Pinball Arcade is horrendous on the Ouya.