If you had to pare down your systems, which will you keep?

[GameGirl420]

If I had to level it down to just one system.....

 

 

It would definitely be my Vectrex.

 

 

The crown jewel of my whole collection!!!!

 

 

And also down to my NES that I purchased in 1998 at Funcoland for sentimental reasons.

[+Black_Tiger]

PC Engine CD setup (even if only a CoreGrafx + SSS3)

 

Sega Mark III Master System

 

Sega-CD setup (MD1 + MCD1 + PBC/flashcart)

 

Intellivision (Super Video Arcade and Genesis pad)

 

Sharp Twin Famicom (with NESRGB)

 

Sega Saturn ("Skeletal" model)

[Lord Thag]

Probably these:

 

Atari 2600: Because it's my first gaming love

Atari 7800: Mainly due to the ridiculously good homebrew library and it's rock solid reliability.

Atari 800 XL: My favorite console.

Neo-Geo: It's rare, awesome, and an arcade console in your living room

Genesis:The best of the 16 bit console offerings

I'd miss my handhelds, SNES, Odyssey 2, Colecovision and Intellivision... but I'd manage. Though I might take the Intellivision over the 7800, I'd really have to think. The rest are no-brainers for me.

[4Ks]

The only console I will not part ways with is the PS1. My formative years were spent screwing around in low-poly 3D games like Crash Bandicoot and Test Drive, trying to figure out how to make my uncoordinated child fingers move the thumbsticks without careening off the edge of the screen. Nothing can replace those memories. Plus, a surprising amount of those games still hold up. They have more depth than a typical 16-bit game, but without sacrificing the pick up and play factor.

[John Stamos Mullet]

I think the inherent problem here is that from the second generation of 8-bit cart-based consoles (colecovision, Atari 5200) backwards compatibility was a major selling point for many systems. Sega did it with theirs. Sony has done it multiple times. Etc. Nintendo seems to be the only major player who didnt offer multiple layers of backwards compatibility - and you could argue that it was one of the major factors that cost them the top spot on the home console market.

[phoenixdownita]

No inherent problem. When you play PS1 games you're aware of what you are playing/expecting, same for PS2 and PS3, same is true for all the rest of back compat systems.

BTW big N did it with GC->Wii then again Wii->WiiU (none of it mattered for them imho).

 

Sega only did SMS->MD, the Sat and DC were not back compat. Atari only did 7800->2600.

 

PS4 is software based and rather limited library (the PS3 is via online streaming) so it seems Sony has actually changed direction completely.

 

Microsoft has a spotty record, there is no back compat per se, just a subset of the games in "emulated" environments (OG->360 [around 50% of the library] 360->ONE [around 30% so far] and now some OG->ONE at ~3%) hence the games one may like could be hit or miss .... to be fair the HiDef treatment they get seems very nice.

 

So wrt backcompat sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, sometimes it was helping selling a system sometimes it wasn't .... it is not as clear cut. In fact it didn't allow the PS3 to beat the 360 to a pulp even coming from the best seller console of all times so its value is questionable on some fronts.

I think the PS2 would have been a success even without PS1 back compat, when I bought it it took me probably 3 years before even looking at a PS1 title again (but this is anecdotal and as such not basis for any statistics).

 

I mean feel free to use "the mullet card" and list one PS for all and another say 5 libraries if it helps coming down with a list.

[John Stamos Mullet]

*Atari did it on 5200 -> 2600 via an adapter.

 

however: going with your premise, where backwards compatibility never existed or is ignored for the sake of the question, in that case I wouldn't pare down. Mostly because my collection as it stands is not overly huge. I would keep:

 

1. Coleco Gemini

2. Atari 7800

3. Sega Master System

4. Sega Genesis, model 1 w/ 32x

5. Sony PS2

6. Sony PSP

7. Sony PS3 with Custom Firmware

[BydoEmpire]

I've already paired down significantly over the last 10 years.

 

Kept* & working:

2600, 7800, Intellivision, SMS, PS1, Gamecube, Wii

 

Have a spare console sitting around but no (or few) games:

Genesis, Game Gear

 

Kept the games, but have no working console:

Xbox

PS2

GBA

 

Sold:

Saturn, Dreamcast, Atari 5200, Odyssey 2, ColecoVision, Bally Astrocade, NES, SNES, Nintendo DS

 

*I have sold some of the more rare/valuable games for these systems, but for the most part I have a decent number and will still buy/collect for.

Edited July 24, 2018 by BydoEmpire

[Tanooki]

Native libraries at least for 8bit Gameboy is a tricky one. I don't recall where the line is cut but the few years the GBC was out there like 1/2 or more of the games were able to run on the original colorless system still so native is a toughie. Consoles though it fits, but handhelds get a little dicey as even the 3DS vs New3DS has a few games that only work (or are barely function off of) it too but that's too new for this thread.

[digdugnate]

my collection is pretty spare so i'm happy with the level

 

Atari 2600

TI 99 4/A / PEB

[GameGirl420]

I'll add my 5200 2-port,TI-994/A ,and my Sharp Twin to my list of systems I would pair down too.

 

So...

 

Vectrex

5200

NES

Sharp Twin Famicom

TI-994/A

 

 

[BydoEmpire]

If I got to pick the native libraries of 5 and only 5 systems (desert island type of scenario) forever more, I'd go with:

 

1) Atari 2600

2) NES

3) Sega Genesis

4) PS1

5) Xbox

[BassGuitari]

How many am I allowed to keep?

[phoenixdownita]

How many am I allowed to keep?

I don't know anymore, you be the judge, 5 to 7 seems fair.

 

<note>

I found your avatar picture mildly disturbing, I can't stop staring at that bulging eye .... it reminds me of a movie but can't quite remember its title. The Fiorina 161 location points to one of the Alien(s) movies.

</note>

[BassGuitari]

I don't know anymore, you be the judge, 5 to 7 seems fair.

 

<note>

I found your avatar picture mildly disturbing, I can't stop staring at that bulging eye .... it reminds me of a movie but can't quite remember its title. The Fiorina 161 location points to one of the Alien(s) movies.

</note>

 

Alien 3.

 

5-7, eh? Okay, I'll shoot for 7. First, my five absolutely non-negotiable must-haves:

 

Odyssey 2

Intellivision

Atari VCS

NES

PlayStation

 

And then for flavor:

 

Atari 5200

Nintendo 64

 

There's some sentimental attachment to some of these, but overall I feel these are among the ones I'd get the most mileage out of. But at some point I'd really miss my Dreamcast, TRS-80, Super NES, Astrocade, Atari 800, TI-99/4a, Saturn, Game Boy, Arcadia 2001, etc. etc. etc.