Video Game Console You Never Stopped Playing

[TemplarXB]

Which consoles have you kept hooked up from the day you got them and are still playing them today? For me it's the Genesis. Everything else has ended up disconnected, to be pulled out when the bug strikes me. My Genesis was relegated to a older CRT for almost the last decade when I moved to HD, but now through the Framemeister it's back sharing time with my PS4 on the main screen.

 

What systems have you kept center stage since day one?

 

[Eltigro]

My TurboGrafx-16. Got it new back in high school and it has been part of every video game setup I've had with the exception of when I lived with my best friend for about three months right after moving to Dallas. (So... from like December 27th 1999 to around March 2000) The issue there was lack of space. But ever since then, I've had it hooked up.

 

So... in my room at my parents' house, in my own apartment, through an apartment and house when I was married, my own apartment again after getting divorced, my room at my parents' house again after moving back to East Texas, in my own apartment again, and now in the game room at my girlfriend's house since I moved in with her. So, it's been almost continually hooked up since around '92 or so when I got it.

 

I was lucky it wasn't destroyed when lightning hit my apartment around 2001 or 2002... that strike took out my Gamecube, TV, and stereo system.

 

The time when I had just moved back to East Texas and was living with my parents again (about a year) is when most of my systems got stored. I only had my XBox 360 and my TG-16 hooked up then because of space restrictions.

 

My XBox360 might be a runner up, but I had it hooked up at my girlfriend's house for a while before I moved in, so while it was hooked up, it wasn't where I was living, so it kinda doesn't count.

 

And although I haven't lived anywhere without having my XBoxOne hooked up, I obviously haven't had it anywhere near as long as the TG-16, so I'm not counting it, either.

[BassGuitari]

Interesting topic, but I'd have to say none of them.

For starters, when I was kid we only had one TV, so when we got our Sega Genesis, the old Nintendo had to go away for a while. When my brother and I got our PlayStation, we at least now had a composite connection through the VCR, so we could leave the Genesis or NES hooked up through the antenna/RF as well (though for some reason I don't remember actually doing that a whole lot in practice...but all we played was PSX anyway).

Ever since then, the consoles I'd acquired always outnumbered the available TVs to connect them to (in exponential fashion, I can only imagine!). Playing a new system generally required that another be removed from its screen, even when I'd have two or three systems hooked up at the same time to the same TV.

And then I'd get weird stuff like the RCA Studio II or Odyssey 500 that require their proprietary switchboxes and therefore hog the antenna connector, where I could use a phono splitter to connect two normal vintage RF-based systems at once. (Technically, I *could* still run a splitter from those switchboxes, but it's a mess of adapters and dongles and not really worth it.)

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Just one for me, which is the Xbox 360 that I got shortly after launch in 2005 and have had hooked up since the day I got it; though it has been at least 2 years since I last played it and I have been pondering swapping it out for a PS3 for a long while now. I've always been concerned about the 360's reliability due to the potential for the red ring of death in early models like mine, and the disc drive tray doesn't like to open with any degree of consistency anymore so I haven't wanted to invest any money in games for it for a long time. It'll probably get traded in towards a PS3 before too long.

 

The Xbox 360 aside I've owned somewhere in the area of 40 consoles over the course of my life and every one of them (outside of the ones I currently own) eventually got sold for one reason or another. Sometimes it was because the console broke and was sold off for parts, other times it was because I was unemployed and needed money for the essentials, but most of the time it was simply because I lost interest in the system and wanted the money to put towards a different system.

 

I'd like to think that all the consoles I own now other than the Xbox 360 are ones that I'll hold onto for the rest of my life and never sell unless they break and I can't fix them, but I also know that I've always been pretty mercurial when it comes to my gaming interests and have a long history of getting bored with systems and selling them; so who knows what the future holds for any of my consoles. Honestly if it wasn't for my wife vetoing the idea on several occasions I probably would have sold off most if not all of the systems I own already.

[Rick Dangerous]

NES and N64. Always.

[godslabrat]

Probably my Gameboy. Of all the consoles I've ever owned, it's the only one that never went into storage when I moved or went off to college. The fact that it was so small made it indespensible. Even when I got my DS, the Gameboy became a companion piece.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

My Neo-Geo AES. I don't have it hooked up all the time. But I do have it next to my CRT unit ready for easy access to be available to play at anytime!. I had this one since college and always made sure that keep this one busy. I have more AES units in my collection. But this was the first one that I purchased and been with me for 15 years!

 

Anthony...

[Gabriel]

Genesis = I've kept a Genesis perpetually hooked up since I bought my first one in August of 1992.

 

Sega CD = The only times I haven't had a Sega CD hooked up is when one died and I was waiting for a repair or replacement. So the Sega CD has been in active service for me since early 1993.

 

PS3 = I'm on my third PS3, and I have a fourth one in reserve just in case. The only times I haven't had a PS3 in service has been while I was waiting on a replacement. I think I got a PS3 fairly close to launch, so let's say I've had a PS3 constantly hooked up since December of 2006.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I'd have to say NES and N64 as well. Everything else has been swapped out, or interest was lost at some time or another. Some consoles had to be replaced since they were given away/sold but NES and N64 have always been my constants.. I still own and use the originals I've had all these years and they've always been hooked up.

Edited February 7, 2017 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[Tanooki]

Anything I bought or was gifted new from 1985 through 2001 I've kept and have never put up. While I may not use them but now and again, they still do get used and I still will get something for them when I want it and it's affordable. I grew up with Nintendo, and I still have the NES, SNES, N64 and Gamecube here. Same can be said with never letting go of anything branded with the namesake Gameboy.

 

Anything else after some heavy losses a dozen years ago have just gone, or come and gone as I lost interest again. Just in the start of this year I released all my Sega stuff into the wild other than the Dreamcast I finally got back (since those losses I mentioned) and it will stay center stage, used, and had I not been forced to ditch it I'd have kept it as it's my favorite Sega system.

[D.Daniels]

megadrive via emu

Edited February 7, 2017 by D.Daniels

[keepdreamin]

Considering I've moved quite a few times, and there's been power outages as well, plus there's the whole job thing... I would think that's rather impossible for most people

[godslabrat]

Considering I've moved quite a few times, and there's been power outages as well, plus there's the whole job thing... I would think that's rather impossible for most people

That's where I'm at. My NES was my first system and one of my favorites... but by the same token, that's meant it was the first to get boxed up whenever I needed space.

 

There's also something extremely gratifying about opening something that's been kept safe for months or years.

[+GoldenWheels]

N64, PS2

[chuckwalla]

Genesis from the start.

[+save2600]

Besides a very brief pause in the late 80's when I temporarily "retired" my Atari 2600, have had at least one system plugged in and ready to play since.

 

Same with the TI-99/4A and various Amiga computers all these years.

[NE146]

None really. ALL have had their time "under the bed" or rather, in storage of some sort. But I still got them

[Silverfleet]

My NES, SNES, Genesis, PS2, PS3, Wii, and all three Xbox consoles can lay claim to this title. All of them have been hooked up since their purchase, with the exception of being down for maintenance, moving, etc.

 

Honorable mention: One of my 2600's (my Tele-Games 6 switcher) stays in my hardshell Atari briefcase at idle, ready to hook up at a moment's notice, and has been since it's purchase in 2006-07.

[roland p]

Non really permanently hooked up, but my gamecube is my most played system. I still have a pile of 'to play' games next to my tv. I bought it new, so it's probably 15 years old now?

[Joe C.]

Atari 800, NES, SNES, Genesis

[simbalion]

I was going to say none, but then I realized my four-port 5200 has been kept hooked up to my bedroom TV ever since I got it several years back. Now, it sometimes sits for a while, but the system and that wonderfully odd switchbox is always connected to my TV, just waiting for me to plug it into the power and fire it up. Now, does the Vectrex count? I always have my Vectrex out and ready to play as well.

[+Black_Tiger]

The only console that I know for sure is one I've kept since launch is my TurboDuo. It wound up outside of my setup rotation after it developed problems. I finally had it fully refurbed and upgraded and it now loads CD games faster than many SNES carts.

[thadsilverfox]

Playstation 2 Fat. Been with me on several deployments and did two tours in Korea and still going strong today. Now that I'm retired it has been passed down to my son and is currently plugged into his TMNT CRT television.

Edited February 8, 2017 by thadsilverfox

[HoshiChiri]

All the post-crash systems are hooked up, plugged in, and ready to go at all times. Pretty much always have been. Right now that's 14 consoles- I have quite the mess of cables in my setup!

 

As for why the pre-crash systems aren't hooked up- simple lack of space. Not only would it be nearly impossible for me to upgrade my power strips to accommodate another 4 systems (with 2 more power bricks), but the use of the RF hookup keeps me from plugging them all in at once. I've never seen a 5-in-1-out RF switcher, and even if I wanted to get enough RF to composite converters to make it work, that'd double the needed power outlets. That's not even accounting for shelf space.

 

My setup involves a 2-in-1-out RF switch, with the NES toploader attached to one side at all times. I have a rolling bin with my Nintendo carts in the bottom 2 drawers and pre-crash cables & controllers in the top. When I want to use one of the systems, I roll it over to the TV, put the system on top, hook everything up, and away I go. It works pretty well.

[TPR]

ColecoVision and NES. Well, and there has always been a Vectrex sitting on my desk as well, but it's not really "hooked up" so to speak!