What computer/console did you trash while it was still current?

[+davidcalgary29]

Returning the favour to @OLD CS1! Next question: what computer/console did you give away/trash while the system was still current? I've only done this three times: my first Lynx (a real tragedy; I gave it to a boyfriend who quickly became an ex. I should have demanded that back); and the Xbox and Xbox 360, both of which died within three years of purchase. I swore off Microsoft consoles after that experience.

[+OLD CS1]

I am honoured.  The short answer: other than my bread-bin C64, I kept everything well past its prime.  While I honestly cannot remember what happened to it, I know it left the forefront around the same time I got my 64C.  It is possible it up and died or was stripped for parts, but I like to think it found its way into the hands of someone who gave it a good home.

 

 

The longer tl;dr answer:  as for game systems, I never bought anything current past the Sears Tele-Games my family had.  My friends all had Nintendos and I would play them.  One of my Cub Scout pack-mates had a ColecoVision which I liked a lot, but it was my den brother Tyke playing Bruce Lee and Aztec Challenge on his C64 which sold me on what my next system would be.  I spent one summer's lawn mowing proceeds on that used bread-bin C64 and an Enhancer 2000 disk drive, the latter retired from a BBS my dad's friend ran.

 

I never had any interest in gaming consoles after the Tele-Games -- at least no interest in buying.  Later days I rented Sega Genesis and Super NES systems plenty of times from Blockbuster.  True story: the rental would automatically renew, but if you kept it too long they threatened to call the cops.  I probably rented those systems enough to buy them out-right.

 

I was given an X-Box during its heyday. (Another true story: my aunt's sister or cousin, I never remember which, is married to one of the guys from The Crystal Method, and the console was some kind of package for him which he gave to her, but she never played it so it wound up in my hands.)  My buddies and I would play eight-on-eight Halo with two consoles in my apartment, a network cable run upstairs to his apartment, and two consoles up there.  That was pretty damn fun.

 

The X-Box was the last "current" console I ever owned.  I got bored with it pretty quickly and put it away.  A couple of years ago when I gave it to my cousin who was looking for an X-Box (that is his "retro.")  I still have an open challenge to him at Crimson Skies.  Gonna wipe him out.

[Zap!]

The Jaguar. I didn't want to, but it was the Summer of 1994 and I was jobless, and I started to get into PC's. I got an IBM XT for free and fell in love. While awesome, I needed far more power. I traded my Jaguar (that I had gotten for Christmas 1993) for a 386 and VGA monitor to legendary NYC BBSer Saor, aka Xodus. It was a pretty good deal at the time and I had zero regrets.

[Shawn]

Only console I ever sold off while it was in it's retail life was the Wii U. I'm still sour about it towards Nintendo as I feel I was totally ripped off. I expected a worthy successor and enough software to support it after the amazing Wii before it. What I ended up with a year and half after launch was a console with less than 20 games worth playing.

[spacecadet]

Interesting question... and I believe I can honestly say *none* of them! At worst I've put consoles away in a closet, literally. I did that with my NES *and* my original Game Boy (my mom knew these were the hot new things at the time and I was into gaming, so she bought them for me, but I was never a big Nintendo fan).

 

Otherwise, everything I got when the system was current, I kept even hooked up for the duration, and most I still have today. Pretty much every major system has some good games, and it's harder to put a system away or sell it than it is to just leave it connected once you've already done so.

 

There may be some consoles or computers I *would have* sold off if I'd had them, but generally I think I only got what I was interested in actually playing at the time. The only exceptions were those two Nintendo systems that came from my mom, and she just didn't know my specific tastes.

[Keatah]

No consoles. No classic nostalgic sentimental PC rigs. But we cycled through many many workhorse PCs. Oftentimes ones that were 1-2 years old, tops.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Keatah

[wierd_w]

I always wear my tech until threadbare and eol on the upgrade chain...

[jhd]

 

I sold my first Atari 2600 in early-1983 to (partially) finance the purchase of a Coco. 

 

I gave away the Coco in about 1990, after it had been supplanted by a PC.  

 

My parents gave away my '486 PC in about 2000 after I moved away for grad school/employment. I no longer had any need of the hardware, but I would liked to have wiped the hard disk before they did that!  

 

[zzip]

Jaguar-  but slightly after it was current.  Picked it up with the CD when Atari started to clear them out 94ish?   But I was getting into PC at the time, and didn't really have the time and space for both, so I sold it after less than a year.

[Zap!]

24 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

I sold my first Atari 2600 in early-1983 to (partially) finance the purchase of a Coco. 

 

I gave away the Coco in about 1990, after it had been supplanted by a PC.  

 

My parents gave away my '486 PC in about 2000 after I moved away for grad school/employment. I no longer had any need of the hardware, but I would liked to have wiped the hard disk before they did that!  

 

What's a Coco? I tried Google, but all that came up was a movie and hot chocolate.

[fimbulvetr]

54 minutes ago, Zap! said:

What's a Coco? I tried Google, but all that came up was a movie and hot chocolate.

Look under the Tandy Computers subforum right above! 

[Zap!]

10 minutes ago, fimbulvetr said:

Look under the Tandy Computers subforum right above! 

Thanks, didn't know about that nickname. The Tandy is one of the few classic computers that I have zero experience with. One day maybe...

[Hwlngmad]

I ditched the OG Gameboy for an Atari Lynx.  Sorry, while I have grown to appreciate the OG Gameboy games now that I have a Retroflag GPi, back in the day I thought the screen was dog sh*t and was very happy letting go of the Gameboy in favor of the Lynx.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Hwlngmad
Grammar editing

[carlsson]

I can't think of any, mainly because I've barely stayed at state of the trade throughout all the years. For a short while I owned a PS2 but it was way past its commercial lifetime. Other than that, almost all systems I've acquired were already obsoleted or things I keep using (like newer PC's, smartphones etc).

[mr_me]

I always hit the lower end of the value sweet spot with my computers.  When the pentium p5 was becoming popular in the mid 1990s, I upgraded my 386sx to a low end 486.  I was able to sell my 386sx motherboard, it still had value.  A few years later I upgraded again to an amd k6-2 and again was able to sell my 486 motherboard.  I used that amd k6-2 computer for a long time, when I eventualy replaced it (no longer upgradeable), it didn't have much value and I still have it.  It could be trash but I suppose it can be used as a windows 98/xp retro system for somebody.

 

I could see "current" systems being given away as gifts but I can't see working one being trashed.  I can't even see trashing a previous generation system that's working.

Edited May 27, 2020 by mr_me

[DragonGrafx-16]

I threw my original PS2 away... it was trash... literally... some of the worst video game hardware ever... great games though. The player 1 controller port was all messed up... would not read games. We were well into the PS3 area when I trashed it. PS2s were so cheap at the time it wasn't even worth fixing. Now I just use a fat PS3.

[atari181]

As a kid, I always trashed my buddy's C64. No idea why, other than it wasn't an Atari!

 

 

[bluejay]

I hang onto my stuff as much as possible, and I just can't bring myself to throw stuff away or sell it for cheap or give it away. I blew up my VIC-20 but that's decades after Commodore ceased to exist. My current laptop isn't out of date but in bad shape and has broken parts, but I can't really call it trashed bc im typing on it right now to enter this sentence. According to my parents they bought a fat PS2 when they got married back in 2000(my dad used to work for EA BITD, so he got a few games from work for free) and played on it a few times, and stored it away in a closet, but it was found a decade and a half later by me and is still being played fairly often. At the end of the day, no, i don't think I've trashed something when it was current.

[wierd_w]

5 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I threw my original PS2 away... it was trash... literally... some of the worst video game hardware ever... great games though. The player 1 controller port was all messed up... would not read games. We were well into the PS3 area when I trashed it. PS2s were so cheap at the time it wasn't even worth fixing. Now I just use a fat PS3.

I have 2 PS2s. (fat)

 

One with a power lead problem related to a power failure of the internal hard disk (caused by the drive failing in a spectacular and unexpected manner), which has killed that power rail; and one I got off ebay as a replacement.

 

Both have been softmodded with FreeHDBoot/FreeMCBoot.  The amount of RAM in the system is rather ... disappointing... but on the other hand, what was actually possible on that system with that low of a RAM compliment is pretty impressive.  If there was a way to add additional memory to the system, it would still be a fun thing to play with Linux on-- As-is, the thing thrashes like crazy with anything heavier than fluxbox, and beefier than Dillo for a web browser.  As I said, Disappointing.

 

I would have picked up a used PS3 by now, if Sony had not been such douche-canoes concerning the linux support.

[bluejay]

I never knew the PS2 as unreliable, but then again I've only owned the one fat PS2 I have right now. I mean, It's sat a decade an a half neglected and collecting dust in a close somewhere, and when I took it out and it powered right on, and the only thing that went bad was the RGB video cable. After that I played it an average of 30 minutes a week, for 5 more years. Still good as new, in pristine 100% working condition.

[wierd_w]

the laser pod in the disk assembly slowly gives out.  Especially if burned discs are used inside it using something like action replay.

 

Using the network adapter to put an IDE disk drive inside is far more enjoyable an experience; load times are much better than from disc, and you can leave your discs in their boxes on the shelf.  Saves the laser pod life remaining too.

[Halycon275]

n64 which had 100 games among them an old favorite. regretted it ever since. sote ftw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsM3o0Vk0Js

 

chills to this day

 

btw, i have started a petition to get a SOTE remaster

Edited May 28, 2020 by Halycon275

[Steven Pendleton]

None willingly. Somewhere around 2009 I brought my PSP and PS3 home with me on leave once and made the mistake of storing them together in my luggage. PSP got smashed by the PS3. Went and bought a new PSP immediately. The PSP lived for a decently long time (~10 years), now that I think about it.

[polyex]

Ashamed to say I tossed an Apple IIe with 2 Disk II drives into the TRASH. I also donated a NeXTStation Color Turbo and monitor in the to Goodwill. This was in the 1990's. I was trying to set an example for my hoarding girlfriend at the time. 

[Keatah]

Ha..Indeed! Well you know what happened here. I accumulated tons and tons of shit. Stuff I wasn't really attached to in the slightest. Then when the old ball-n-chain bitched about hoarding, I "reluctantly" and with "great difficulty" got rid of it a little at a time.

 

And now after all the pomp and circumstance of throwing away tons of stuff  (twonahaff garages worth) I'm left with what I really want to keep, what I intended to keep all along..