Submitted 17 hours ago by Grumpy404@lemmy.zip to retrogaming@lemmy.world
Im looking for a cheap console to get and collect for that dosent cost a arm/leg but also isint boring with the game section. I have a few consoles and handhelds from when i was a kid but i want something that i can stick with and not let collect dust?
What would you suggest or advise and why so?
Honestly PS2 or the next gen up, PS3 and 360.
Lots of variety and great games for rock bottom prices. PS2 is starting to get up there are discs fail and systems ware down. But due to being the best selling system of all time. It’s be a while until it’s crazy.
Another option is to look around and buy local. Who knows what you’ll find for cheap.
Original Switches are getting more affordable now but the 3DS is a solid console that still holds up today.
Also, the PS3 is awesome, games are dirt cheap right now.
My suggestion might seem sacrelige, but hear me out.
If you want something to actually use that is convenient, a mini PC that emulates them all is far better than genuine hardware. Kinda like how I will always say that driving a replica of an expensive car is better than driving a real one out on the road. Set up takes a lot longer, but in the long run it is far cheaper and much more convenient.
You could potentially invest in console themed controllers, so the inputs match the controller you are holding. Sure, the integrated graphics might not be good enough to PS3 on some older ones, but it’s hard to beat that at ~$150 USD for up to 6th gen. Lots of genuine hardware now is that price or more thanks to speculative buying and “collectors” ruining the hobby for people that actually want to play the games instead of just hoarding them.
Just built a batocera box from a PC I found on the trash. Only had to buy a wifi/Bluetooth card for $40 and now I can play every system up to PS3.
I totally agree with this. The only reason why I have hardware (some original and a multi-console-in-one) is because I stream as a hobby in Japan and the general public doesn’t have a positive view on emulation.
In this case, might I suggest getting a MiSTer? I know availability is an issue and price too but hunting for it is really really worth it.
Up until and including 486(sx), Saturn, N64…
I would suggest a handheld console that can be portable when you want or connect to the TV when at home.
Retroid Pocket 6 for an Android console. Steam Deck for a mini PC. I’ve got both and both have been amazing for emulation.
Emulation box/PC is always going to be tops for game accessibility and overall flexibility. If you’re just looking to experience the games, this is the way to go.
That said, there’s something different about actually using a retro console. For me, it feels more deliberate. Kinda like how some people still prefer putting on a record (or popping in a CD) even though streaming has the same content and is more convenient.
Neither approach is objectively better than the other - it comes down to what the user wants to experience.
Being a genuine hardware owner and enjoyer myself, I know it might seem bad to recommend an emulation setup over genuine hardware. But in my experience, I find I spend a lot more time playing on a mini PC with emulators I have connected to a genuine CRT it 1x internal resolution than I do playing on the real hardware I have. Its a big hassle. Sometimes I pull them out for guests or jids or whatever to get to experience how things used to be, but for me I want to play the games and the genuine hardware is just extra steps.
Of course, using genuine hardware is going to give a more immersive and nostalgic experience. But if someone is wanting to actually play the games and not just experience nostalgia for a week before the hardware starts collecting dust, emulation is clearly superior.
The thing about genuine hardware is that constantly getting up to reset it when a glitch happens, or when you want to change games or change consoles, etc, gets annoying pretty fast. Eventually you figure you don’t have enough time or energy for it and thats when it starts collecting dust. I say just skip that step altogether and go the emulation route. Then if you really want a genuine console, buy a cheap one first and see how long you last playing on real hardware. I give you a week before you go back to the emulator.
I have an N64 and an original Gameboy because they were the biggest things from my childhood so there’s a whole extra layer of nostalgia attached to the physical devices and their “feel”.
Everything else I have only passing memories of playing but I want to experience the games again so I emulate everything else.
RetroPi is a great emulator setup for a Raspberry Pi. It’s cheap to get into, small, and works with any existing Bluetooth controllers you may have.
My only reason for not suggesting one and instead suggesting a mini PC is the lack of general availability when I went to get a Pi 5. And the cost, when I looked an Pi5 cost about $80, and for its price I figured a mini PC like an Intel NUC or even easier to find an HP EliteDesk mini, would vastly outperform it for a little higher cost.
They can regularly be found online or in person for $120 or less. I got a secondhand EliteDesk mini with a 9500T for about $60 USD, including a 256GB NVME and 16GB RAM, which is plenty for retro gaming in general. You can also get just the regular SFF and add a SFF GPU for PS3/Xbox 360 emulation at a pretty low cost as well. I put one together with a base PC cost of $99 for an i5 7500, 16GB RAM, and 500GB HDD, and added an AMD RX 6300 2GB for just $75. It easily handles PS3/X360 emulation at native resolutions. Sure it cant run most modern PC games because its an RX6300 designed for business PCs and not gaming, but that doesnt mean it cant run older stuff really well.
The 3rd and 4th points are moot with an input switch box though.
It’s also possible to just buy android TV boxes that are pre-configured to do this.
I used to closely follow the retro handheld scene. So if OP wants to go down that route, they should check out the RetroGameCorps YouTube channel to get a feel for what kind of devices are available today. But he has occasionally covered those TV boxes too, and being android there’s often a lot of software and hardware overlap with those handhelds. It’s sketchy for sure, but for like $90 you can get a device when all those benefits you mentioned but already pre-configured to work as a console, with minimal mouse/keyboard input required. And tens of thousands of roms without needing to worry about where or how to get them, viruses (as long as you don’t cross with any other devices lol), or getting letters from your ISP for pirating.
I have seen people scammed from preloaded boxes. I recommend just DIYing it, it’s not too difficult to do.
All the emulation boxes with included games that I’ve seen have been terrible with inaccurate audio, bad controllers, frame drops
I think you’re better off getting a cheap mini PC and putting Batocera on it
I got 2 dirt cheap second hand Wii’s last month, with some accessories. I never owned one and now that i’m a dad i wanted to introduce my kid to video games and play with him. Installed homebrew on one and keeping the other one as a backup. We love it. I was surprised with how well the games hold up, Super Mario Galaxy is amazing. My kid loves Kirby’s Epic yarn, which I must admit is absolutely stunning visually and in gameplay.
Someone else mentioned getting a small form factor pc and then do emulation, that’s also a great low budget idea. The only thing with that i found is finding the right input devices. Especially wii emulation is hard because of the wii remote and nunchuck, which is why i went on the hunt for the hardware. But the emulation route is very viable otherways. I run bazzite linux and can recommend it.
Good luck!
I have been wondering about setting up wii controllers on my batocera box I built. I have no clue how to go about it, but I do know that there is an aiming setting for games like duck hunt. Not sure how easy it would be to set up overall, vs just using the actually wii I have directly.
You can install an ssd on a ps2 and load more than half of its library onto it. Last year I paid $70 for a used ps2 at a flea market so they’re definitely still out there
This is a great suggestion. PS2 had some great games, the graphics were good enough that, while they obviously look dated today, it’s not difficult to play, and it’s still recent enough that the hardware is affordable.
PS2 has remained surprisingly cheap over the years. I think the only reason it’s so cheap is because the OG PS3s are also a PS2 but with an HDMI port and wireless controllers. And those things keep creeping up in value. Too bad they’re so damn unreliable. PS2s on the other hand seem to be rock solid.
Fat model?
Fat model. There’s also an sd card enabled memory card for sale so you can freemcboot a slim and load the games on flash storage
Can’t help with pricing, but as far as variety and quality of games, the SNES dominates. We play ROMs at home, and despite having pretty much every game for every system, the SNES gets the most play hands down.
The SNES was my favourite console. Huge game library, still looks great on a oled or crt screen.
However, a modded handheld could play all those games and more such as a vita.
I play Gameboy advance all the time. And the Nintendo DS and DS lite can play GBA games for an even bigger library. Both you can find for around $40. Also flashcarts for DS is very cheap, I think around $15. GBA carts are around $30 I think.
You have options, since you still need different consoles if you are really into videogames, but PS3 is the single most valuable in my opinion:
Might be an unpopular opinion (but that’s what makes it cheap): An Xbox One.
It’s got a fairly sizeable library at 3,067 titles and a backwards compatible list with 632 games from Xbox 360 and 63 original Xbox titles. So you have plenty of choice depending on your gaming tastes.
It’s the last generation, so many stores will be clearing out the old inventory at a discount. Popular titles like Mass Effect Trilogy or Borderlands Handsome Collection will be a great value for the money. If those are your style.
I’d like to add two more things:
It was the generation of HD remasters, so a lot of older (high quality) titles are available on the platform, such as the Dead Rising games, the Mega Man collections, almost all the Resident Evil titles, Devil May Cry collection, Bioshock collection, Final Fantasty X/X-2.
And most importantly, since they are last gen, they are not stupidly hard to find yet.
Xbox One S or X is a really good choice if they want to buy physical games. Great backwards compatability and it plays blurays too.
PS3. Really easy to mod (not that simple on super slim models, make sure you dont get that), can run both PS2 and PS1 games natively, loading games externally / backing up your games is really easy. Can emulate weaker consoles like SNES/NES/Genesis just fine with Retroarch. It also has a lot of banger games for its era, and works as a 1080p Blu-Ray player.
Nintendo DS lite is cheap and good. You can get them from Japan off of eBay and get colors that are Japan exclusive. Sometimes you can buy them as ‘not working’ and it just needs a battery or just the buttons need to be cleaned. Just don’t buy one that needs a new top screen as they’re hard to replace and cost too much compared to just buying a different one. You can get flash carts for them for cheap and load every game onto an SD card.
I think we’re entering/in the nostalgia wave for the 7th generation consoles (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii) so prices for those might rise while prices for 6th gen (OG Xbox/PS2/Gamecube) might fall.
8th gen (Xbox One/PS4/Switch) is probably more accessible/plentifull both used and new still.
If you want something modern then I would recommend an Xbox One S (or a One X if you can find it cheap enough) because of the backwards compatability with pevious consoles and a lot of games are dirt cheap nowadays. Also as a bluray player or streaming stuff if you want that too.
My friends and I still have a huge stack of original xboxes we fixed up to sell back in the day in storage, since fixing RROD issues was pretty simple but people just threw them out making it an easy way to turn a quick buck.
What was involved to fix the rrod out of curiosity ? I had it happen 2 times. After the second time it was out of warrenty so i just bailed and got a ps3 instead, as it had free online at the time too.
Most of the time, it was just a thermal shutdown and needed to be reset in the BIOS.
I like the miyoo mini plus myself. But officially the 3ds is a fun console :)
Would the evercade count? Sure its mostly a retro emulation console/handheld but its cheap but the games are physical, licensed and come with manuals.
ooh, that’s a tough sell. I absolutely love my Evercade, but the library is hard to get. If you don’t snap up a popular new release, it’s likely to vanish forever. Major FOMO.
as long they aren’t marked as legacy, they ought to be reissued, especially those.
umbraroze@slrpnk.net 21 minutes ago
I would suggest getting a Wii, but not for playing the games. Softmod it (pretty trivial) and install CleanRip.
Then just start collecting Wii and GameCube games, rip them to USB/SD card, and play them on PC with Dolphin. Use just about any PC compatible controller for GameCube games, and you can pair the Wii controller over Bluetooth for Wii games.
Last I checked Wiis are pretty cheap, and the GC and Wii library has a lot of real gems.