Poll of the Day > How often do you actually play retro consoles anymore?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'll leave it up to you what you consider retro or whether to include clone consoles (or whatever the term is for something like a Retron 5).

I used to be pretty big into retro stuff but I've changed over the years. It can still be fun to play on the original hardware but it's just a pain to hook something up that you'll probably only use for one or two games then forget for a while. Plus I've worn out all the games I already own and it's not worth it to buy new ones. I couldn't justify owning a CRT anymore, and there are so many good options for ports and emulation, and even physical controller reproductions now.

Retro games? All the time. Retro consoles? Like.. never.

Yes, crts are magic, I wish mine worked

GrabASnickers posted...

I'll leave it up to you what you consider retro

Ehh, that kind of makes the entire conversation sort of amorphous at best.

I mean, I'm playing Minecraft on my Xbox 360, is that retro now? Not too long ago, I played Baldur's Gate 2 on my PS4 - is that retro?
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MICHALECOLE posted...

Retro games? All the time. Retro consoles? Like.. never.

I don't play that many retro games either, nowadays there's maybe one or two a year that I'll seriously dig into, and I probably play dozens of games total. I guess part of that is there is a finite supply (at least until you expand your definition of retro), and over time I feel like I've slowly covered more of the essentials. Plus lots of newer shit I need to get around to.

It's funny cause like ten years ago I was a total purist for playing things on original hardware and thought older games were way more fun, I did a total 180

been playing a lot of DS and gamecube lately

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Ehh, that kind of makes the entire conversation sort of amorphous at best.

I mean, I'm playing Minecraft on my Xbox 360, is that retro now? Not too long ago, I played Baldur's Gate 2 on my PS4 - is that retro?

Id say two consoles behind is retro so 360 yes ps4 no

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I mean, I'm playing Minecraft on my Xbox 360, is that retro now? Not too long ago, I played Baldur's Gate 2 on my PS4 - is that retro?

I feel weird calling it "retro" but PS2 gen is definitely a significant cutoff to me since that's before HD and standard wireless controllers. But hell it's 20 years old, I'm sure NES was considered retro when the PS2 came out and it was only 15.

I do feel like you have to make a hard line somewhere and not just continually move the line, but that depends on what advancements come in the future. It feels like we'll hit a point where general game design sensibilities stop changing a whole lot and it's all just specs.

Pretty much never. I stopped playing them regularly in the early 2000's and it's been about 4 years since I last played one.

Though I still have the means and may play them again.

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Because games have been around for so long, I think what defines retro has probably been bumped closer over time... In the '90s the oldest mainstream stuff was from the early '80s. IMO, 20~ years is about right for retro these days. That would currently mean PS2 generation and older right now.

I sold off old systems as I got new ones growing up, because I just didn't care, so I have no old consoles left. Now I care... but too late... The oldest hardware in the house are the PS3 and 360. Which are in a box in a closet. I played KoF 2k2 today though, but it was a digital copy I bought on PC. Most of the older games I play are ones that are backwards compatible on the new consoles or available on Steam.

I still play my GBA SP a lot.

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I also play PS1 and PS2 games on a PS2. I like retro games, but my Switch and SNES Mini fill enough of the void.

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MICHALECOLE posted...

Retro games? All the time. Retro consoles? Like.. never.

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ReturnOfFa posted...

I still play my GBA SP a lot.

This, although I'm not sure I'd call it retro. Which I guess really goes back to PO's comment.

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Sometimes I think about selling that stuff, though not all that seriously. I mean, I don't really think I need it, but somehow would probably end up regretting it. And I don't have a hugely valuable collection, probably could fetch a few hundred, maybe low thousands.

I keep them in boxes and go through a phase where I play them a bunch every couple years or so

then they go back in their boxes

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Never.

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I played the Castlevania collections a few months ago which were fun. I'd probably play more but the games I'd be interested in aren't available on modern platforms and I'm way too lazy to set up my old consoles.

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I'll dust off the old consoles and play them once in a while, but for the most part my retro gaming is done with "mini" consoles, collections, or source ports (like GZDoom).

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All the time.

I have a setup where I have ~20 consoles rigged up to two TVs (an old CRT and a modern flat-screen). In my opinion, there is no substitute for the original hardware. Emulators and the like are a decent imitation, but the difference is always at least a little bit noticeable for me.

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I only have my regular nintendo and my a/v famicom hooked up all the time, but sometimes I'll bust out the other systems too

Never. I've played PC games exclusively since 2010.

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darkknight109 posted...

I have a setup where I have ~20 consoles rigged up to two TVs (an old CRT and a modern flat-screen).

Sounds horrible

Zeus posted...

This, although I'm not sure I'd call it retro. Which I guess really goes back to PO's comment.

Yeah, true enough. I would personally love to have a setup like darkknight, except maybe not 20 consoles. I would not consider the Gamecube retro, but N64 is where the line gets hazy imo. NES, SNES, PS1, Sega Genesis...definitely retro. Although I'm sure lots of people would argue the Dreamcast as retro.

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My N64 is still hooked up. I probably play it once a month or so.

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I haven't busted any out several years. I've had offers from people to buy my collection but I know what it's worth and I'm not taking some low-ball numbers.

I am looking to sell though, for a fair price. I always planned on saving it for my future kids, but the world has proven over the past 11 months that bringing a child into this world would be outright abusive. I love my future children too much to bring them into a world like this.

That said, my retro collection is killer. NES, SNES, N64, GCN, all kinds of Gameboys and shit. Rare carts like SMRPG, Harvest Moon (both SNES and 64), SFA2, classics that haven't been ported, F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, Mario Golf.

I had dumbass punks offering me $150 for the whole lot. I told them to GTFO.

Where are you selling that you're getting offers like that? Why don't you just list the price you want?

I always debate wether to sell them or not, since a barely play my older games but I paired down my collection significantly over the years. Now I am closer to 100 games as oppossed to 300 or so. I am digging the fact that my room does not look like a shity blockbuster.

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@darkknight109 Got any pics of the setup? Sounds impressive.

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MICHALECOLE posted...

Retro games? All the time. Retro consoles? Like.. never.

Yeah this. Easy access helps.

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90% of my gaming is retro.

I have a NES mini I play all the time. SNES mini I play once in a while. I have actual arcade machines in my house I play once in a while. I play the switch (only modern console I own) once in a great while when my kids need some help.

Tarrun posted...

Got any pics of the setup? Sounds impressive.

I have an old pic of it from ~7 years ago now. I may take a more up-to-date one later. This was what it looked like when I first got all the consoles in place:

https://i.imgur.com/uZHunXI.jpg

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Wait so are they hooked up or not? I know you said it's an old pic but that still isn't at all like I was picturing. Just having the consoles is one thing, managing a tangled mess of wires is another

My PS3 is now retro

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GrabASnickers posted...

Wait so are they hooked up or not? I know you said it's an old pic but that still isn't at all like I was picturing. Just having the consoles is one thing, managing a tangled mess of wires is another

In that pic they are not, as this was when I was still setting everything up. I drilled holes through the back of the shelf and ran the wires out to the TVs/power bars, keeping them mostly hidden behind other shelves that sit next to the red one.

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Man, I'd rather just unhook and hook stuff up as I need it rather than have a setup that demands so many wires. It's not like I'm going to be switching between six different consoles over a short period of time, but to each their own

If I still had my N64, I'd probably play it at least once a week. I loved that thing. My mom made me give it away years and years ago...
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If emulation counts, I still play old consoles at least on a yearly basis.

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The retro ports of NES and SNES games on my GBA are now DOUBLE-RETRO

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I still play them. I grew up with those games.

I avoided the ps3/Xbox one generation because it seemed like games were all focusing on online gaming and loot boxes, and that single player games weren't really that big. So I bought an snes classic and played all the games I always wanted to but never beat. But then I got a ps4 and it seems like there's a better balance of game types available

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GrabASnickers posted...

It feels like we'll hit a point where general game design sensibilities stop changing a whole lot and it's all just specs.

Indeed. As much as the 360 is as old now as the NES was when the PS2 came out (and the NES was unambiguously a retro system in 2000), gaming changed a whole lot more between 1985 and 2000 than it did between 2005 and 2020, such that I wouldn't call the 360 "retro." There's definitely an element of bias in there because '05-'20 has been a much smaller percentage of my life (~50%) than '85-'00 was at the time (~136%), but I can boot up a game from 2005 and not really notice that much of a difference from any modern game, aside from graphics. That's even more pronounced with how prevalent indie games have become, where there often isn't even a graphical difference because they lack the budget to take advantage of modern graphical capabilities. Controller upgrades have been relatively minor, rather than introducing any major new buttons to add to schemes, and the way those controllers were used hasn't particularly changed, either.

Chronologically, the PSWii60 generation could probably be considered retro, but so many of its games are largely indistinguishable from modern ones if you ignore the graphics that I don't think it's particularly reasonable to call them that. The transition to 3D was the last major paradigm shift in how games were designed, and after a generation of figuring out how that worked (many N64/PS1 games are super dated), not much has changed to really set modern games apart from those of that era.

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with family yes, but the batteries in some of the cartridges are gone so for example we can't make it through LttP since the save doesn't stick.

also on one of my SNESs for some reason the mother brain fight had really messed up graphics (and IIRC it wasn't just limited to graphics, parts of the mother brain were in the wrong place, and you would take extreme damage for hitting disembodied pieces of her.) when I switched systems, the other system didn't have that problem.

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Crysis is retro

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GrabASnickers posted...

Man, I'd rather just unhook and hook stuff up as I need it rather than have a setup that demands so many wires. It's not like I'm going to be switching between six different consoles over a short period of time, but to each their own

See, I'm the opposite. If I want to play something, I'd like to have it available right then and there, no digging around in closest for controllers or cables or something. Plus, it's not like I'd be using that space for anything else. This is my office/electronics room, not a room where I entertain company that isn't there for the express purpose of gaming.

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darkknight109 posted...

See, I'm the opposite. If I want to play something, I'd like to have it available right then and there, no digging around in closest for controllers or cables or something. Plus, it's not like I'd be using that space for anything else. This is my office/electronics room, not a room where I entertain company that isn't there for the express purpose of gaming.

I've got a setup that I feel is a reasonable compromise. All of my systems are in a cabinet under the TV, with most of them plugged into a power bar, but I only have one of the HDMI ones connected at a time, and the others are hooked up through a 3-way composite switch that they share with the DVD player. I don't have controllers hooked up, though, so those have to be dug out if I want to use a system. Other than that, though, it's a simple matter of swapping the HDMI cable around or selecting the input on the composite switch, which is pretty readily accessible.

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adjl posted...

I've got a setup that I feel is a reasonable compromise. All of my systems are in a cabinet under the TV, with most of them plugged into a power bar, but I only have one of the HDMI ones connected at a time, and the others are hooked up through a 3-way composite switch that they share with the DVD player. I don't have controllers hooked up, though, so those have to be dug out if I want to use a system. Other than that, though, it's a simple matter of swapping the HDMI cable around or selecting the input on the composite switch, which is pretty readily accessible.

That's pretty much exactly how mine is set up. I have two switch-boxes - one for HDMI, one for the composite cables. I don't consider that additional setup, because it just means I have to push a button on the box at the same time I'm turning one of the consoles on.

My controllers are in a couple of those hanging-shoe-storage thingies on the back of the door and in the closet.

EDIT: These thingies:
https://i.imgur.com/S8uUWtN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/f50yCR1.jpg


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I haven't played a legit retro console in several years when my friend who still had his NES and Snes moved. I love retro games, but I'm not gonna go through the hassle of modding an old console, or finding a CRT to play on.

Off-hand, I believe I would have to shuffle some plugs around in the power bar to plug a few of the lesser-used ones in (we'll pretend I've used anything other than my Switch and PC since I moved in here six months ago >.>), since there just wasn't room for all of the plugs (no thanks to the giant bricks that some systems want me to plug in), but that's also pretty minor. Like you, I don't want the hassle of hooking up a system to be deterrent from playing one of its games, since the decision is often pretty capricious and I'm just not going to bother if it takes actual work. I think I've managed that.

It is perhaps worth noting, though, that I did opt to leave some bulkier game-specific peripherals in my storage unit instead of keeping them in the apartment. GH guitar, DDR dance mat, DK bongos... stuff that can be used in 1-2 games, tops, which I didn't expect to want any time soon. That is more of a barrier, which is suboptimal, but that's such an obscure, infrequent need that I don't see it being a problem (plus the unit isn't exactly hard to get to).

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