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How To Narrow Down The Number Of Systems You Collect For?


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How good is the 2600 support on Wii ?

Very good in my experience. I have around 200 games I like for the 2600 loaded on my Wii and the only ones that Wii2600 hasn't been able to play have been Star Castle Arcade, Sentinel, and Shooting Arcade. The last two are only unplayable because Wii2600 sadly doesn't have any light gun support, as I found out earlier this evening. For paddle controller games you have the option of using the Wii remote's tilt sensor to turn the remote like a paddle controller, or you can use the remote pointer or the analog stick on a nunchuck or Classic Controller. Alternately, if you're handy with a soldering iron you can sacrifice a nunchuck to convert a real Atari paddle controller for Wii use as seen here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/188162-wii2600-classic-paddle-controller/

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Very good in my experience. I have around 200 games I like for the 2600 loaded on my Wii and the only ones that Wii2600 hasn't been able to play have been Star Castle Arcade...

So it doesn't work with DCP+ homebrew. That's a pity... :sad:

 

Not sure what you're using, but Stella supports DCP+ and there's a build of it available for the Wii:

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/StellaWii

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So it doesn't work with DCP+ homebrew. That's a pity... :sad:

 

Not sure what you're using, but Stella supports DCP+ and there's a build of it available for the Wii:

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/StellaWii

I'm using Wii2600, which is also a port of Stella for the Wii but a more thoroughly developed one that supports a wider variety of controllers: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii2600

 

I don't know much about programming so I couldn't say whether it was a DCP+ issue or not that caused Star Castle Arcade to fail to load, since every other homebrew I've played on it has worked just fine and I may have just screwed something up when I tried converting the Star Castle Arcade file I had to .bin format. Are there any other homebrews that use DCP+ and have their ROMs publicly available that I could try out to see if that was the issue?

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I'm using Wii2600, which is also a port of Stella for the Wii but a more thoroughly developed one that supports a wider variety of controllers: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii2600

 

I don't know much about programming so I couldn't say whether it was a DCP+ issue or not that caused Star Castle Arcade to fail to load, since every other homebrew I've played on it has worked just fine and I may have just screwed something up when I tried converting the Star Castle Arcade file I had to .bin format. Are there any other homebrews that use DCP+ and have their ROMs publicly available that I could try out to see if that was the issue?

I can't answer the Stella bit. It is possible the mobile builds of Stella are based on older builds or otherwise don't have the full support that the PC version do. Do you know it Stelladaptor/2600daptor works with Wii for paddle use?

 

There were two publicly posted ROMs for Star Castle Arcade. One was .cu for Harmony, and the other was .bin for Stella. The .bin version won't boot properly on Harmony and presumably the .cu version won't run on Stella. There may have been more going on under the hood than just a change in file extension if you used the wrong version.

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So this seems like something I should get into trying out since I have 3 Wii's. I like the thought of giving up the bulk of storage and I probably would only keep the few games I was to have in physical form. Thanks for the suggestion Jin, This is definitely something that will help save space and hopefully my wallet. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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I've used a two pronged attack: only collect unlicensed/clone systems. Clone systems are both interesting to hunt down/discover and usually cheap. Also, only collect for systems you can dump/back up your games on.

 

It's not just a convenience thing to back up your games: it's preservation.

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  • 3 months later...

It's been about four months now since I finished selling all my Atari, NES, and Genesis stuff and narrowed down my collecting to just the Wii and Nintendo's handhelds. What I've learned from the experience is that I don't mind only playing the systems that I used to collect for via emulation on the Wii. I don't tend to play them as often now, but I don't think that's any fault of the emulation (since the Wii's emulation for Atari 2600 / 7800, NES, and Genesis is really flawless), it's more that I've come to realize that those systems were never really all that important to me to begin with.

 

At this point the only complaint I could make about my decision to narrow down the systems that I collect for is that I wish I could narrow them down even more. I'm actually a little envious of my partner, since she's always been very happy just collecting games for the original PlayStation and touchscreen only controlled games for the original DS. I'd like to get to a point where I could be happy collecting for just one home console and one handheld too, but I'm not sure exactly how to get there.

 

I'm totally happy with my decision to go with the Wii for my home console, since I love pretty much everything about the system and the assortment of games available for it, but I still feel like I'm collecting for too many handhelds. The Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS are the systems I've been focusing on, and I've sure been feeling a pretty strong itch to add a regular sized New 3DS to that lineup as well after having sold my old New 3DS XL last year (due to it being too heavy for my carpal tunnel to tolerate for any reasonable length of time).

 

I'd love to be able to keep my focus on just one handheld like my wife does, but I'm always bouncing between systems and I'm not sure that there's any one handheld that I enjoy playing more than all the others. I like the simple gameplay and 8-bit charm of original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, I really dig the GBA for it's wide assortment of portable first-person shooters and 32-bit graphical capabilities, and the DS just has an awesomely diverse library of quality games in just about every genre imaginable. It's pretty much a portable PlayStation 2 in terms of it's game selection, and being the first popular gaming device to use a touchscreen (since the DS came out a good while before smart phones and tablets were widely used for gaming) led to a lot of really innovative and quirky games getting published for the DS. And then there's the New 3DS, who's stereoscopic 3D visuals never cease to completely amaze and enthrall me every time I look at them. The 3DS might not have nearly the diversity of the original DS in terms of game selection, but wow is it ever cool playing the games that it does have in 3D.

 

So that's pretty much where I'm at right now. In short, I'm totally happy and content collecting for just the Wii as my home console, but I keep bouncing between many different handhelds and would really like to narrow my collecting down to just one. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that, or if I even should.

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So that's pretty much where I'm at right now. In short, I'm totally happy and content collecting for just the Wii as my home console, but I keep bouncing between many different handhelds and would really like to narrow my collecting down to just one. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that, or if I even should.

Couldn't you just do the same as you did with the Wii by adding emulators for all Nintendo handhelds onto the New 3DS? That would make them all in one and since you could add emulators for home consoles it could have the extra benefit of, in a way, gaining handhelds that never existed. In other words, just turn a New 3DS into the handheld version of what you did with the Wii.

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Just some info.

Star Castle is not DPC+.

The Star Castle Blog leads to the source code which you can compile if you use batari Basic, or know how to compile.

 

The DPC+.asm code changed where older versions would crash the newer Harmony Encore (but play fine on Harmony),

The latest firmware on Harmony Encore runs both the old and new DPC+ code.

I don't think there is newer Harmony firmware for PAL users.

Keatah named a lot of DPC+ games. The demos, easy and hard, of DK Arcade 2600 in my signature is DPC+ batari Basic.

 

What is the topic?

Oh, I need advice, because my collecting is getting more of a mess than a nice organized nostalgia hobby.

1976 to 1984 home video game consoles, plus Sega Genesis and PS2 and more ( See my signature also.)

Multi-carts are great, but I still buy the real cart, box, manual, poster, etc. for games I enjoyed, and I buy homebrew to support this site and the author.

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The nostalgia for me at least is the old hardware. There's something simple about walking up to a SNES or Genesis and just turning it on knowing games will work without a fuss. No front ends, emulator cores, graphics filters, or controller settings to tweak. Physical copies of games, I could care less about honestly. There's only a few games I hold in high enough regard that I wouldn't want to sell. Kind of like the first edition of a book you really like.

 

I don't think I've ever owned a system where I was just buying games for it for the sole purpose of collecting. So most of the systems I own have a flashcart, optical drive emulator, or are softmodded. I wish those options were around a decade ago. I see it kind of like owning a classic car or motorcycle, but upgrading from points to electronic ignition. Or doing away with the carbs for an EFI setup. You still have your classic car, you've just made it easier to deal with.

 

If I had any sense, I could just load up the Wii's hard drive and do away with maybe half of the consoles.

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Much of my classic gaming and computing still continues to revolve around material I had as a kid:

 

Apple II

80486

Ti-59

TRS-80 Pocket Computer 1, 2, and 4

..and modern PCs packed with emulators

 

And while I thought to add in the other typical 8-bit systems I had, that would mean a sprawling and uncontrollable mess. This way, with my current choices, I get a huge bang for the buck. And Things stay neatly in place. I only have to have 3 or 4 "stations" and a couple of boxes. The emulator rig fits nice into our modern decor. Or any for that matter.

 

While I may add a few bits and pieces here and there from time to time - the whole collection has stayed manageable for several years now.

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I'm moving for the first time in about 4 years. I packed most of my games stuff out to my storage early. I might have to grab a Harmony, and pare down the 2600 carts. Lol. They take up a surprising amount of space. I'd of course keep out the rares, and homebrews, and more sentimental stuff. It's a challenge. I also lately started messing with emulation that I hadn't so much before: Sega CD,and PC Engine CD. The emulators will read discs from my computer drive, so it removes the "need" for hardware on that end. Kinda neat. Both systems I would like to add once the new house is settled and all that, but for now, it is a pretty darned good set up. I seem to have to do a little something along these lines whenever a move is involved. last time I cut down a LOT. Not going to go quite that extreme this time. I also have a Wii, and a buddy with the gear to mod it.... taking a hard look at that route for funsies. In all honesty, I started gaming on Atari, and I hold on to a lot of it out of pure nostalgia. Good system, sure. Some great games, beyond a doubt. Probably one of the most over rated systems of all time though. Lol.

 

Like the OP, I could pretty easily find a system or two to focus on, but... nah... not right now. I am pretty deep with the PSX/PS2/PS3 combo, and NES/FC, but any thinning of the herd is gonna be post move. I mean, I plan to add about 3 or 4 systems to the physical side of things post move. Lol. Most of which don't have the capacity for flash carts though. That's a thing I still plan on...Everdrives.

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Rather than collecting for systems, I decided to collect systems (Consoles and Computers) which is possibly far worse, as you need all the bits to go with them like joypads and joysticks, SCART cables and Multicarts, composite output mods, power supplies and step down transformers. I am not sure of the exact number, but think I am somwehere around 200 systems and 100 televisions now, and still have a lot of holes I am looking to fill but have recenetly slowed down a lot and spent money on getting the broken and non-working systems repaired. There are a few systems I want that I would buy without hesitation if they showed up as they are quite rare, and a few I am holding out for to get a better condition or price. I also recently got ripped off by a repairer who did not return some systems I sent him to mod and repair so am currently looking to replace those systems too. If worse came to worse I would want to at least keep the systems I grew up with - specifically the Atari 2600, Commodore +4, Commodore 64, Dreamcast and probably the Master System and SNES too as I also owned those growing up. Oh, and the BBC Micro (currently needing a service\repair) as I used them at School. The only system I never owned that I would also keep is the Sharp X68000.

 

Although saying that there is a few systems which are so unpopular (mostly Japanese systems) that no multicart device exists for them or is ever likely to, where I have then started collecting games for those systems, where only 10-30 games were ever released for the systems anyway and fairly affordable so not too difficult. The Casio Loopy is one such system. I also have most Virtual Boy games except the homebrews and the few overly expensive original games.

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  • 3 months later...

This is one topic that I (unfortunately) seem to keep returning to. It's been about 4 months since my last post and my gaming center has undergone a lot of changes since then, some for the better and others... well, I'm not so sure about. The first big change is that after years of feeling guilty over having systems and games in my collection that the misses couldn't play due to her physical disabilities I decided to sell off my all the stuff that she couldn't enjoy too. That included most of my Wii and DS games, as well as my DS Lite system and a ton of Wii accessories. All totaled it ended up being around $600 worth of stuff, which on my meager gaming budget of $50 to $100 a month was a pretty massive amount of money. I've felt really good about the decision and haven't regretted it at all, limiting my game collecting to just systems and games that I can share with my other half, and I had a really good plan for what I was going to do with all that money.

 

I was going to take the $600 from all those sales and put it back into our gaming center, buying EverDrives for the NES and Genesis, finally getting a GameCube with a Game Boy Player again after the old one died on us a few years back, picking up the misses a nice GameCube arcade stick and a 6 button Genesis Arcade Power Stick as well, then finding myself a pristine condition original Game Boy to upgrade the backlight kit and new buttons that I've had sitting in my Game Boy drawer for half past forever. It was a really good plan and I knew I was going to be pleased with the results, since I've been confident about wanting to narrow down my collecting to just the GameCube and Game Boy systems ever since I started feeling guilty over having a big Wii and DS collection that my wife couldn't play too.

 

But then, as is unfortunately often the case, I gave in to a bad habit that I've had for a long long time. That habit being suddenly becoming totally infatuated with a system I've never played before, playing it via emulation for a month or so, thinking it was about the coolest thing ever, then running out and blowing a ton of money to start a collection for it. It's happened to me in the past with a number of different systems, from the NES to the Wii, DS, and a handful of others; but in this case the system in question was the Atari 7800. I won't get into all the details of the story, but suffice it to say that after buying a brand new condition composite modded Atari 7800 from Video61, an Edladdin Super Twin 78 arcade stick and CX-78 Europad for it, and about 20 games to get a collection started the entire $600 that I had saved up was completely gone. I got so wrapped up in the excitement of discovering a new system that I completely lost sight of the plan I had for what to do with all that money, and now that the sudden infatuation I developed for the Atari 7800 has worn off I'm back in the same boat that I've found myself in more times than I care to remember: Having just blown a ton of money to build a collection for a new system that I thought I was going to love, but strongly regretting the decision and thinking about reselling the entire collection.

 

As far as the misses' feelings on this whole situation goes, she's been surprisingly copacetic about it all. She has had some fun playing the Atari 7800, since it does have good ports of some of her favorite arcade games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Asteroids, but has said that as long as she has her PlayStation and DSi XL she doesn't really care one way or the other whether I keep the 7800 or sell it and put the money into what I was originally planning on. She did suggest that it would be really nice to have EverDrives for our Genesis and NES, as well as a way for her to play Game Boy / Color / Advance games again (I.E. a GameCube's Game Boy Player coupled with a GameCube arcade stick) but didn't seem to want to express an opinion one way or the other about whether she would prefer those things to an Atari 7800, so I guess she's intent on leaving the decision in my hands.

 

At this point I am strongly leaning towards selling the Atari 7800 collection as one big lot for $450, since that would give whoever bought it a good deal and give me the funds to finish my console collection and household gaming center the way I was planning on before I became suddenly enamored with the Atari 7800. I don't want to make any hasty decisions on the matter though, since once it's gone it's gone, but I do feel like it would finally put an end to the continual cycle of buying and reselling systems and game collections over and over again that I've been in for years. At that point I'd have an Atari 2600, NES, and Genesis all equipped with quality flash carts and I could focus my collecting on just the GameCube and Game Boy systems, which I know from past experience are my all time favorite systems and are also ones that the misses could enjoy as well. So, I'm going to sit on it for a while and ponder the matter until New Years; then when next year rolls around I can decide the fate of my newly and likely foolishly acquired Atari 7800 collection.

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Revisiting this topic as I've been finding myself in the same boat (or at least a similar one--the need to downsize). I came to some realizations about my collection recently when I was going through some of my 2600 duplicates and parts to put together a set for a Christmas gift. One was that I hadn't even looked at some of that stuff in years, much less actually used it. Another was that I have a lot of stuff I really don't even care about--it's "have it to say I have it" stuff, like my JVC X'Eye or the bulk of my NES collection. And another was that I'm at a very different place in my life than I was in my earlier years of collecting, a place where video games, frankly, aren't that important.

So I asked myself some questions. Do I really need, or even want four different flavors of complete Atari 8-bit setups? Do I really need five different Apple II rigs? An NES Toploader when I have a perfectly good toaster? Three different Sega Geneses? How often would I realistically use even one of them?

Would I really miss my 800XL, 600XL, and 400 as long as I had my 800? Would I even miss my 800 as long as I have my XEGS? (Yes. Yes, I would. :P :-D) Would I miss 80% of my NES games, many of which I can't even name and haven't played in years? Genesis? SNES? My complete TI99/4a setup with P-Box and monitor and four or five dozen carts, which have been in my closet for at least two or three years? Etc, etc.

The questions became increasingly easy to answer--either "no" or "yes"--and told me simultaneously what I really want to continue collecting for and what can be let go of.

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Haha. In October 2015, I wrote I was in the process of culling my collection. Fast forward 14 months, and I can't think of a single item (*) that I have gotten rid of. Instead, I have obtained small amounts of more. I'm not spending a lot or die hard collecting, but the fact that my collection slowly grows at a time when I intended to downsize, perhaps is a sign I'm unable to let go.

 

Hopefully the rest of you who have intentions to sell, are better qualified to get the sales done and also get some of the value back in money that you can use for other matters.

 

(*) Ok, a few items that already were sitting in my "for sale" bin, but nothing that already found its place in a shelf, drawer or closet.

Edited by carlsson
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Looking back at the 7 pages of this thread and over a year worth of thoughtful advice and personal stories from everyone who responded, it occured to me tonight that the answer to the question in the title and everything that has followed can be neatly summed up in one sentence:

 

"It takes more than good intentions."

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I'm not much of a culler, but I definitely know the sting of Console Infatuation... I have a Fairchild Channel F simply because one turned up in my local game shop and sparked my curiosity. Actually, I have the Fairchild, 7800, Neo Geo Portable, N64, and have considered a Lynx & TurboDuo for largely the same reasons. The Master System is the real oddball in my set- I didn't really even look into what was available for it. I wanted something new, it was there, I could afford it. My one truly impulse console. I've since been trying to learn about its library more so it doesn't just sit around not getting used.

 

It really can be very hard to ignore that allure of newness- for the most part, I do my best to hold to my Rule of Three: Can I find a minimum of 3 (affordable) system exclusives that interest me? I won't buy anything that doesn't have at least 3... and usually, I do my best not to rush out and grab one as soon as I find 3. I try to wait for a personal 'killer app'. For example, I had a good list of PSP games going, about a dozen, but I didn't buy one- then I saw a Patapon trailer. I bought it that day. I find if I can wait for that kind of must-have game, I enjoy the system more as a whole.

 

Anyway, for your specific situation: Does the 7800 work with a Harmony cart? If so, I'd keep it and sell the 2600. Similar space footprint, but increases your playable library.

 

Looking back at the 7 pages of this thread and over a year worth of thoughtful advice and personal stories from everyone who responded, it occured to me tonight that the answer to the question in the title and everything that has followed can be neatly summed up in one sentence:

"It takes more than good intentions."

 

That it does. :)

Edited by HoshiChiri
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This is one topic that I (unfortunately) seem to keep returning to. It's been about 4 months since my last post and my gaming center has undergone a lot of changes since then, some for the better and others... well, I'm not so sure about. The first big change is that after years of feeling guilty over having systems and games in my collection that the misses couldn't play due to her physical disabilities I decided to sell off my all the stuff that she couldn't enjoy too. That included most of my Wii and DS games, as well as my DS Lite system and a ton of Wii accessories. All totaled it ended up being around $600 worth of stuff, which on my meager gaming budget of $50 to $100 a month was a pretty massive amount of money. I've felt really good about the decision and haven't regretted it at all, limiting my game collecting to just systems and games that I can share with my other half, and I had a really good plan for what I was going to do with all that money.

 

I was going to take the $600 from all those sales and put it back into our gaming center, buying EverDrives for the NES and Genesis, finally getting a GameCube with a Game Boy Player again after the old one died on us a few years back, picking up the misses a nice GameCube arcade stick and a 6 button Genesis Arcade Power Stick as well, then finding myself a pristine condition original Game Boy to upgrade the backlight kit and new buttons that I've had sitting in my Game Boy drawer for half past forever. It was a really good plan and I knew I was going to be pleased with the results, since I've been confident about wanting to narrow down my collecting to just the GameCube and Game Boy systems ever since I started feeling guilty over having a big Wii and DS collection that my wife couldn't play too.

 

But then, as is unfortunately often the case, I gave in to a bad habit that I've had for a long long time. That habit being suddenly becoming totally infatuated with a system I've never played before, playing it via emulation for a month or so, thinking it was about the coolest thing ever, then running out and blowing a ton of money to start a collection for it. It's happened to me in the past with a number of different systems, from the NES to the Wii, DS, and a handful of others; but in this case the system in question was the Atari 7800. I won't get into all the details of the story, but suffice it to say that after buying a brand new condition composite modded Atari 7800 from Video61, an Edladdin Super Twin 78 arcade stick and CX-78 Europad for it, and about 20 games to get a collection started the entire $600 that I had saved up was completely gone. I got so wrapped up in the excitement of discovering a new system that I completely lost sight of the plan I had for what to do with all that money, and now that the sudden infatuation I developed for the Atari 7800 has worn off I'm back in the same boat that I've found myself in more times than I care to remember: Having just blown a ton of money to build a collection for a new system that I thought I was going to love, but strongly regretting the decision and thinking about reselling the entire collection.

 

As far as the misses' feelings on this whole situation goes, she's been surprisingly copacetic about it all. She has had some fun playing the Atari 7800, since it does have good ports of some of her favorite arcade games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Asteroids, but has said that as long as she has her PlayStation and DSi XL she doesn't really care one way or the other whether I keep the 7800 or sell it and put the money into what I was originally planning on. She did suggest that it would be really nice to have EverDrives for our Genesis and NES, as well as a way for her to play Game Boy / Color / Advance games again (I.E. a GameCube's Game Boy Player coupled with a GameCube arcade stick) but didn't seem to want to express an opinion one way or the other about whether she would prefer those things to an Atari 7800, so I guess she's intent on leaving the decision in my hands.

 

At this point I am strongly leaning towards selling the Atari 7800 collection as one big lot for $450, since that would give whoever bought it a good deal and give me the funds to finish my console collection and household gaming center the way I was planning on before I became suddenly enamored with the Atari 7800. I don't want to make any hasty decisions on the matter though, since once it's gone it's gone, but I do feel like it would finally put an end to the continual cycle of buying and reselling systems and game collections over and over again that I've been in for years. At that point I'd have an Atari 2600, NES, and Genesis all equipped with quality flash carts and I could focus my collecting on just the GameCube and Game Boy systems, which I know from past experience are my all time favorite systems and are also ones that the misses could enjoy as well. So, I'm going to sit on it for a while and ponder the matter until New Years; then when next year rolls around I can decide the fate of my newly and likely foolishly acquired Atari 7800 collection.

Jin, I'm telling you this as a friend and for your own good, and please don't take this the wrong way, but you've got to live within your means... |:)

 

I had a similar experience to yours with the Turbografx. I've got all the Turbochip games I wanted as of spring of this year, around 30 total HuCards (mix of Turbo and PC Engine) a couple repros of "unicorn" status games like Bonk 3 and Magical Chase, two homebrews, and an import adapter that lets me play PC Engine games on my un-modded Turbografx. Now, when I first picked up the Turbografx, the Everdrive was among my first purchases, a decision I've never regretted. Fun fact, once I finished collecting my smallish subset of "must haves", I shelved the cases and put all my Hucards in a binder full of baseball card sleeves for quick access. I marvelled at my really nice collection of great Turbochip/Hucard games, then placed them on the shelf. I think the epiphany of my becoming a "collectard" was purchasing a CIC copy of SuperCD Cute-Em-Up Star Parodier despite not owning any CDROM or Duo equipment with which to play it on. I only had the nostalgia of playing this excellent game on Wii Virtual Console... Truth be told, I haven't touched my Turbografx stuff in several months, yet they are there accessible and waiting for me at a moment's notice. I could sell off the entire collection, and given what these games go for on eBay, would quickly recoup most of my investment if not turn a profit. But then I would instantly miss them again... :roll:

 

Just saying, the material things of the Earth are empty fulfillment. It is true what they say about the grass is always greener on the other side. The more you have, the more you want. The less you have, the more you appreciate the things you held on to. A lot of us originally started retro gaming because it was a cheaper hobby than modern gaming, however the limited supply combined with the popularity of bye-gone nostalgia driven eras has made retro gaming in some cases just as expensive compared to modern gaming. The most desirable games are also the most expensive, plus most retro gamers want the best games of each console or generation, which ultimately results in quantity over quality. We amass too much stuff, then the question of what to do with it all?

 

Just saying, be happy with what you have, and if gaming consumes too much of your life and finances, you can always take a break from it. Read a book. If the weather is nice, go out and take a walk / hike / ride a bicycle / whatever suits your level of fitness. Just don't enter a cycle of mass buying -> burnout -> selloff. You will eat what little funds you have left. Decide what your favorite systems are, sell off anything you know you aren't going to play, and emulate the rest. Everdrives are also a wonderful tool for test-driving games or simply eliminating shelf clutter.

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Anyway, for your specific situation: Does the 7800 work with a Harmony cart? If so, I'd keep it and sell the 2600. Similar space footprint, but increases your playable library.

I would not be so quick to ditch the 2600 as a fallback. Some 2600 games are known to have various compatibility issues with 7800 consoles and visa-versa. Keeping only the 7800 for full access to the vast library of 2600 games is a crap shoot.

 

7800 as it stands is a pretty weak library. Many of the arcade ports had superior versions released on the NES / Famicom, though there are some exceptions like Food Fight and Robotron (which that Eladdin two player stick is perfect for IMO).

 

I only got the 7800 to play homebrew games. There's a dozen or more "killer apps" available now in the AA shop, and more on the way. But homebrew aside, the 2600 has far more variety and depth in the original release games, even if the graphics and audio are a bit crude.

 

So I my personal recommendation, if you only have room for one Atari console, keep the 2600. My two cents.

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Jin, I'm telling you this as a friend and for your own good, and please don't take this the wrong way, but you've got to live within your means... |:)

 

I had a similar experience to yours with the Turbografx. I've got all the Turbochip games I wanted as of spring of this year, around 30 total HuCards (mix of Turbo and PC Engine) a couple repros of "unicorn" status games like Bonk 3 and Magical Chase, two homebrews, and an import adapter that lets me play PC Engine games on my un-modded Turbografx. Now, when I first picked up the Turbografx, the Everdrive was among my first purchases, a decision I've never regretted. Fun fact, once I finished collecting my smallish subset of "must haves", I shelved the cases and put all my Hucards in a binder full of baseball card sleeves for quick access. I marvelled at my really nice collection of great Turbochip/Hucard games, then placed them on the shelf. I think the epiphany of my becoming a "collectard" was purchasing a CIC copy of SuperCD Cute-Em-Up Star Parodier despite not owning any CDROM or Duo equipment with which to play it on. I only had the nostalgia of playing this excellent game on Wii Virtual Console... Truth be told, I haven't touched my Turbografx stuff in several months, yet they are there accessible and waiting for me at a moment's notice. I could sell off the entire collection, and given what these games go for on eBay, would quickly recoup most of my investment if not turn a profit. But then I would instantly miss them again... :roll:

 

Just saying, the material things of the Earth are empty fulfillment. It is true what they say about the grass is always greener on the other side. The more you have, the more you want. The less you have, the more you appreciate the things you held on to. A lot of us originally started retro gaming because it was a cheaper hobby than modern gaming, however the limited supply combined with the popularity of bye-gone nostalgia driven eras has made retro gaming in some cases just as expensive compared to modern gaming. The most desirable games are also the most expensive, plus most retro gamers want the best games of each console or generation, which ultimately results in quantity over quality. We amass too much stuff, then the question of what to do with it all?

 

Just saying, be happy with what you have, and if gaming consumes too much of your life and finances, you can always take a break from it. Read a book. If the weather is nice, go out and take a walk / hike / ride a bicycle / whatever suits your level of fitness. Just don't enter a cycle of mass buying -> burnout -> selloff. You will eat what little funds you have left. Decide what your favorite systems are, sell off anything you know you aren't going to play, and emulate the rest. Everdrives are also a wonderful tool for test-driving games or simply eliminating shelf clutter.

A lot of good advice there on all counts. Fortunately I have managed to keep my collecting within my financial means, since I don't have any credit cards and always make sure the bills and household necessities are taken care of before I spend any money on gaming. Still, as I said before my gaming budget is only $50 to $100 a month and I am really looking forward to the day when I've got my gaming center all set up with just my favorite systems and EverDrives so I can put those monthly gaming funds towards inexpensive games and not have any big expensive hardware purchases like additional systems or EverDrives to take care of first.

 

There was a time when my gaming center was all complete (minus the flash carts) and I sure was a lot happier with my hobby than I am now. I just bought a handful of cheap Game Boy or Atari 2600 games and a GameCube game or two every month and had plenty of money leftover for other hobbies and interests, whereas for the couple years or so my entire hobby budget has been tied up in gaming because there are just too darn many expensive things I've wanted to buy.

 

I've been stuck in that cycle of mass buying -> burnout -> selloff that you were talking about for a couple years now, going through the motions of trying new system after new system then selling it all off when I decide that I don't like the new systems as much as I thought I would. The only systems that I've never sold or sold any of my games for have been my Game Boy / Color and Game Boy Advance collections, simply because they're the only systems and games that I knew for certain that I'd miss if I sold them. Well, that and my old GameCube, but I did foolishly sell off my GameCube games when the system broke down on me and I didn't want to spend $60 to replace it. In retrospect I really should have held onto the games and just ponied up the cash for a new GameCube.

 

It hasn't been a total loss though, because I think that continual cycle of mass buying -> burnout -> selloff has taught me that I won't miss 90% of the gaming stuff I've owned over the years, and it gave me a firm impression of what I would actually miss if I sold it. A good example is the 150+ game collection that I used to have for the Atari 2600 before I sold all my Atari stuff last year. I ended up missing being able to play Atari 2600 on real hardware a lot, but I didn't miss having a big $1,000+ game collection for the system. I enjoyed playing Atari, but it wasn't really important to me having all the physical media for it. So this fall I got a Light Sixer and a Harmony Encore cartridge and I've been totally happy with my Atari 2600 setup since then. I can play all the games with minimal financial investment and focus my collecting efforts on the couple systems that I enjoy having big collections of physical media for, like the Game Boy lineup.

 

I feel the same way about the NES and Genesis. They're both systems that I used to have big libraries of games for but ended up selling all my games off because I liked playing them but didn't want want to have a lot of money tied up in physical game collections for them. I still have the systems though, just sitting in my gaming center awaiting EverDrives, and I'm totally confident that I'll be perfectly happy going the flash cart route with those systems like I did for the Atari 2600.

 

The only systems I can think of that I like playing and wouldn't be content either using a flash cart or emulation to play are the Game Boy / Color / Advance and the GameCube, all of which were systems I grew up with and spent the most time playing during my childhood and teenage years, so I think at this point I have learned what the couple systems I should collect for are. It took a long time to figure out, but I'm pretty certain I've got it sorted now.

 

 

 

Which really only leaves the question of what to do with that Atari 7800 that I just dropped half a year's worth of my gaming budget on...

 

I would not be so quick to ditch the 2600 as a fallback. Some 2600 games are known to have various compatibility issues with 7800 consoles and visa-versa. Keeping only the 7800 for full access to the vast library of 2600 games is a crap shoot.

 

7800 as it stands is a pretty weak library. Many of the arcade ports had superior versions released on the NES / Famicom, though there are some exceptions like Food Fight and Robotron (which that Eladdin two player stick is perfect for IMO).

 

I only got the 7800 to play homebrew games. There's a dozen or more "killer apps" available now in the AA shop, and more on the way. But homebrew aside, the 2600 has far more variety and depth in the original release games, even if the graphics and audio are a bit crude.

 

So I my personal recommendation, if you only have room for one Atari console, keep the 2600. My two cents.

If I was to sell either my Light Sixer Atari 2600 or Atari 7800 it would definitely be the 7800 that got sold. For me the big reason is that while the 7800 does play most 2600 games the colors in 2600 games don't look nearly as good on the 7800 as they do on the Light Sixer. On the Light Sixer the colors are all bright and vibrant, just the way I remember them looking as a kid, whereas they're much duller and muted looking on the 7800.

 

Then there's the matter of money. My Atari 2600 is worth probably $70 or so, whereas I've got $600 tied up in the 7800 and there's only a handful of games on it that I really like and can't play on other systems. Robotron 2084 and the 7800 version of Centipede are pretty much it for original releases and the others are homebrews. So I guess what it comes down to is asking myself "Is it worth $600 (which again is more than half a year's worth of gaming money for me) to be able to play Robotron with twin stick controls, the 7800 version of Centipede with a trackball, and a few homebrews?"

 

I'm feeling strongly inclined to say "No", since I can emulate the rest of the games on the system perfectly fine on the Wii and I would really like to have the money in my pocket to get EverDrives for my NES and Genesis, get my old GameCube setup back, then be able to focus all my gaming money on small game purchases from here on out and be able to start putting discretionary funds towards other hobbies again for the first time in years. I know that I could wait 7 or 8 months and have the EverDrives and other stuff without having to sell the 7800, but frankly I'm just tired of never having any money for anything other than saving up for big hardware purchases and I want it to be over.

 

So, I think it's safe to expect that my big $$$ Atari 7800 collection will be showing up in the Marketplace next week. It's a neat system for sure, but I don't think there are enough good games on it to warrant the expense and I'm just tired of having to save every penny every month for future hardware purchases. I don't want to go through another half a year of that, so I know I'd be best off selling the 7800 and doing what I should have done from the beginning with the money I spent on it. C'est la vie.

Edited by Jin
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With emulation I've been able to remain on-course for expanding and completing my Apple II collection. In fact, no Apple II collection is complete without AppleWin, CiderPress, ADTpro, FTP Asimov, Copy II+, System Disks, and other utilities. Looking at the real physical collection, it is obvious that those things can and do provide seriously enhanced versatility.

 

In the PC emulation department I just downloaded new versions of WinUAE, Altirra, Stella (tia beta), AppleWin, and MAME. The last few months have seen some nice upgrades. Not just bug fixes, but the ADDITION of new features and new virtual hardware. This, to me, is very much like getting a firmware upgrade or a new expansion card or moving from an 800 to an 800XL. Like going from an Amiga 1000 to a 500, or 600, or similar. The only thing left is to simulate the drive to Toys'R'Us or the local computer store and pick up the emulators there and bring them home the old school way. Screw the interent and "digital delivery"..!!!

 

I also don't necessarily look at emulators as stand alone programs but as integral personality modules to my existing PC. The names of the emulators are merely names of plug-in modules that transform the system into something else. Not wholly unlike a system-changer for ColecoVision or Intellivision. Emulators are the virtual version of that. And like the avionics bay in a jet, or the central workings of HAL-9000, swapping out the modules is a fun thing to do from time to time.

 

Over the years I've accumulated a lot of experience with doing that. And that provides plenty of busywork - much the same as the buy/sell/buy/sell cycle some folks get stuck in.

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