Consoles you REFUSE to collect

[Keatah]

2 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

Also I think there's a bonus nostalgia point for those of us who grew up with arcades...Because what was going on in arcades (up to a point),  with regards to gameplay and graphics,  always seemed out of reach for home systems...And each new console got us closer to bringing home the dream...

Yes an often overlooked point in discussions of this nature. We would always ALWAYS compare home systems to the arcades and often experience a bit of cognitive dissonance when advertising would tell us (kids) that home computers were like ultra mega powerful and versatile. Yet we'd experience otherwise in the local game room. It was fun to do the comparisons. If though in some small way depressing and anxiety creating. I wanted those graphics at home!

 

Since I grew up with early 80's arcades, pre-industry-reorganization, I would use those as benchmarks, no matter how imbalanced or outdated, going forward.. Once PC games reached arcade level I was essentially done with arcade going. Coincidentally that was also just before they started going out of business in the mid-90's.

 

3 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

It's less refusal and more drawing a line. Hopefully it makes sense that I only try and keep to consoles actually released in my country. However even that can get complicated. 

Lines have to be drawn with collecting. They may zig and zag do all kindsa crazy stuff. But they have to be there. Even if you have musk-sized funds, you still need a limit and shape to the collection. Otherwise it grows so large as to become meaningless. It has to psychologically fit you.

 

Again I come back to the MAME example, of all the tens of thousands of games available, my current setup is equipped with just under 200 cabs. I may add a couple more before year's end - but they will be games I like. Could be never-before played new-to-me stuff or something not yet emulated that suddenly pops up. Having been a child of the 70's and 80's, MAME (and other emulators) are still quite remarkable - because us first gamers came from a time when such a thing was barely conceivable. And when it was imaginable there were tons of seemingly insurmountable technical barriers firmly in place.

[Tanooki]

Eh I don't think refuse is too harsh.

 

And I was serious, xbox stuff, I've seen insane deals for years, decade plus where there were what some would consider utter masterpiece stuff or just insane steal of a price on the games, I left it.  I wanted nothing to do with the system so why buy some nice games I couldn't use and didn't want to hassle reselling or trading either.  I think that makes it pretty clear refuse was the right choice of word, at least I think so, blowing off something that much.

 

I knew my distaste of pre 1983 hardware wouldn't go over well here with the older crowd who grew up with it, but I tolerated it at best in the 80s with a couple friends I had then, and I've tried to get myself into it with earlier tv game flashback stuff (the hackable 2 was nice enough) but it was largely a one(or two) and done situation and just sat.

[+jgkspsx]

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 5

Super A’Can

Adventurevision

Mega Duck

Tiger 99X

TI 99/4a

PC FX

CDi

Cougar Boy

Supervision

RCA Studio II

Odyssey

Bally Astrocade

Colecovision

Telstar Arcade

Atari 8 bit

Playdia

Gizmondo
Commodore 64

Amiga

Apple II

Apple I

Macintosh

Tandy 1000

3DO

PC

probably some more if I think about it

[+jgkspsx]

What’s this “Vectrex is too expensive” stuff? Vectrexes are much cheaper than modern PlayStations and a lot more fun.

[Reaperman]

Tapwave Zodiac. It's going to sound a little weird, and there's a lot of backstory, but both the Zodiac and the MGM Grand hotel were indirectly responsible for me getting my first Neo Geo MVS. (Vid link of me talking about it)  I can't even imagine wanting a Zodiac now, though I suppose if I tripped over one in the street I'd take it home, but it'd probably take something along those lines.

[krslam]

As my collecting is done almost entirely via in-the-wild finds, I can't really claim to be refusing to collect for systems that I've simply never found. So no AdventureVision, N-gage, AES, or several others. Systems I've actually seen stuff for and passed on are mostly newer ones like PS3/4/5, PSP, Vita, Xbox 360 & Xbox 1, Switch. And I was never into PC or Mac gaming so I've passed over that stuff for years, except for some early PCjr stuff.

[Lord Mushroom]

I don´t buy to collect. I buy to play, and then keep it for nostalgic reasons. So I will not be collecting consoles for which there are few (or no) games I want to play. That means no consoles earlier than the NES, and no major flop later consoles. As I mainly want to play multiplayer games, I don´t see myself buying many portable consoles.

 

We had the Atari 2600 when I was a kid, but it was given away or sold when we got the NES. I am not going to buy another one just because we once had one. If it is not the actual one, it has no value to me.

 

Emulators are so damn convenient and good (I like upscaled graphics and slowdown removal) that I may pass on consoles with respectable sales figures as well. Consoles like the Turbografx. I may not buy more games or consoles until I can afford to pay someone to trawl the web for the games I want. 

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

I don´t buy to collect. I buy to play, and then keep it for nostalgic reasons.

This is such an important point. It promotes collecting in a way that becomes nostalgic later on. It is low in stress and tedium. It's not disruptive in terms of time management & funds. And it is not annoying or intrusive to others. It ensures you don't end up with piles of shit you'll end up selling at a loss later either. This last point is the bane of most all collectors.

 

It. Just. Works.

 

I do that with emulation and four physical platforms, and it's nothing but joy & good times!

[+jgkspsx]

On 5/21/2022 at 7:03 PM, Reaperman said:

Tapwave Zodiac. It's going to sound a little weird, and there's a lot of backstory, but both the Zodiac and the MGM Grand hotel were indirectly responsible for me getting my first Neo Geo MVS. (Vid link of me talking about it)  I can't even imagine wanting a Zodiac now, though I suppose if I tripped over one in the street I'd take it home, but it'd probably take something along those lines.

As a long-time Palm fanatic, I find it weird that I never got one. It also doesn’t have physical software as far as I know, so all you have to buy for a complete collection is the unit itself.

[Reaperman]

14 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

It also doesn’t have physical software as far as I know, so all you have to buy for a complete collection is the unit itself.

It sure does have physical software. Compusa even stocked the system and its software nation-wide for a bit. I specifically remember picking up a copy of duke nukem from the shelf, and joking with the wife that it really did come out before putting it back.  ...and after that I never saw a zodiac-anything in person ever again.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Reaperman

[BassGuitari]

I don't "refuse" to collect anything, but I generally stick to U.S. consoles and computers from the 20th century. It feels weird to put it that way, but it's true; the PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube generation is the defacto cutoff for me since that was the last console generation I paid any attention to. ? 

 

I don't try to collect ultra-rare, big-ticket, or otherwise fringe stuff like NeoGeo, APF 1000, Nuon, and the like. For the most part I never had much interest in them in the first place (or at least not enough interest to justify the price of admission in my mind), even less nostalgia, and I'd rather use my resources on other platforms I'm more passionate about. So I have no real impetus to pursue them. I also usually skip hardware variations of consoles that aren't Atari 2600 or Intellivision.

 

Which of course isn't to say I'd turn down a great deal on a CD-i, TurboGrafx, or Master System II if one fell into my lap! ?

[electricmastro]

On 5/20/2022 at 2:13 PM, GoldLeader said:

To bring it up to NES level for those that weren't there for the Golden Days of Atari when everything was fresh and exciting,  it would be hard to explain the NES's graphics to a modern gamer who calls Zelda "blocky"...But in it's day (And Now), there is a certain charm in seeing platforms and mazes, and ice and lava levels, and alien worlds, castles and haunted houses;  All represented as surreal, stylized pixel art mazes, backdrops, and pathways in vivid colors on your screen.  Photorealism does Not figure into it and that's the point!

To some extent, I think it would be reasonable why more people would find the NES pixel art from the 90s more appealing than pixel art from NES games from the mid-80s, because devs had gotten a better idea how to display pixel art by then, and comparisons between games like Bomberman show that.

 

[Keatah]

43 minutes ago, BassGuitari said:

I don't "refuse" to collect anything, but I generally stick to U.S. consoles and computers from the 20th century. It feels weird to put it that way, but it's true; the PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube generation is the defacto cutoff for me since that was the last console generation I paid any attention to. ? 

The cutoff for me seems to be when a company starts churning and burning through one title after the next after the next. The age of exploration and initial defining of the art happened in the 1970's to 1990's. And led to so many memorable titles and franchises. The huge canvas of the PC is a shining example. As are many of the original VCS games.

 

I don't know if I have a cutoff date or anything. But I keep looking from time to time for a wow moment on present-day consoles. I'm not seeing it. I was hoping FS2020 would've been one. But the whole sandbox feel of it was toned down, and it requires an internet connection (not the pirate version though). They made too much of a game out of it. And despite the expansive scenery I felt like I was sucking it through a straw.

 

Leaderboards and challenges don't quite cut it for me. There's always some asinine 13 year old that finds a way to cheat and get a score billions of points above non-cheating players. So I don't have time or the inclination to sort through it all.

 

Things I've been selectively getting into, more or less, are shmups. The game mechanics and levels are little more creative than Star Jacker. But I find the graphic design of the objects, the terrain, ships, bullets.. to be interesting at the moment.

[+jgkspsx]

8 hours ago, Keatah said:

The game mechanics and levels are little more creative than Star Jacker.

Heyyyyy, Star Jacker is one of the most creative shmups gameplay-wise around!!

[digdugnate]

I guess I don't have one that I *refuse* to collect for since very little gets my attention, lol.  I have a sizeable TI-99/4A collection and a moderate 2600 collection and I'm good with that; most everything else can be emulated to save space (and money).

 

That being said, the console I'd be most likely to collect FOR would be a 7800 if I ever got the bug to start buying stuff again.

[Pixelboy]

One system I will probably never collect for is the NES. Not just because prices are high (at the moment at least) but because NES cartridges are pretty bulky, and even a small collection can take up a lot of space in a game room. Also, cartridge ports on NES consoles have gotten pretty unreliable, so why collect carts for a system on which I may not even be able to get said carts to work properly?

 

[youki]

I won't collect NES as well.  Just because i never liked this console.

 

For the same reason , will never collect PS1 and PS2.

 

 

[+sixersfan105]

On 5/20/2022 at 1:36 PM, ls650 said:

On 5/19/2022 at 11:12 PM, Tanooki said:

I find the pre-Coleco/Famicom stuff a joke, too crude and needing more imagination that anyone should muster to get some solid justifiable level of pleasure out of the games.

This sentiment just makes me sad. 

Fear not, as that is a sentiment shared by - rough guess - 3% of AtariAge Forum members. Late 70s/early 80s is where it's at!

[Keatah]

Ohh you can get NES cartridge slots to work reliably. Question becomes do you want to spend the time and effort to be doing that?

[snorlaxnut]

Virtual Boy: bought it at a toy store, played it, brought it back to the store the next day to exchange it for some Game Boy games.

Pong consoles: I just need one working console, don't need to collect the thousands of other pong consoles made.

Coleco Adam: Needing the printer to power up the system? I will pass on this system.

Any Xbox system: NO! NO! NO! To me, Series X looks like you can grill burgers on top. Series S looks like a bad stereo speaker. Not enough games exclusive to any Xbox system that would make me think about getting one of them.

 

 

[electricmastro]

On 5/20/2022 at 11:09 PM, jgkspsx said:

CDi

Honestly, I get the feeling it's sort of a set-up for disappointment if people try to collect CD-i from a gaming collectors' viewpoint. Not just because of the quality of the games, but that they'll be greeted more by educational-esque games as opposed to action games since CD-i was presented more like a living room/school multimedia player to begin with, which just so happened to have games as an afterthought.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by electricmastro

[Keatah]

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

Shunned and never plan to?  Quite a few, but largely because I find the pre-Coleco/Famicom stuff a joke, too crude and needing more imagination that anyone should muster to get some solid justifiable level of pleasure out of the games.

Everyone has a different level that sparks their imagination. No effort should be required. Just float off on a cloud of bliss. Not long ago we had a Triple Action contest and it was far more fun than anything Counterstrike, Battlefield, or GTA X. The "pre-Coleco/Famicom stuff" set the industry off on a trajectory only a Saturn V could hope to match.

 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

I would probably exclude in that dating though Game & Watch and the Vectrex as that's interesting at least.

Game & Watch is gimicky garbage. None of it is "videogames". And the crap is a dime a dozen at the dollar store. Cheap shit versions of the genuine red-LED stuff Mattel made.

 

Vectrex is interesting. But a reliability and ergonomic pain in the ass. I had one bitd.

 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

From the modern 8bit quality stuff (NES, Coleco, SMS) era forward I've only utterly shunned the screwball third party company try-hard stuff like 3DO, Jaguar, and others that clearly had little to no chance.

Wholeheartedly agree on the 3DO and Jaguar. 3DO seemed a full-motion video festival. Something I had no interest in. And the Jaguar's overcomplicated hardware was go nowhere from the get-go.

 

I also owned a 3DO bitd. I promptly returned that ridiculosity when I realized just how much I spent on it. I got PC games instead and built all kinds of nostalgic memories & good times with them.

 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

I also would now shun the CDi as they're a mix of overly painful to get the good stuff, but hardware is just kind of pissy.

CDi was oddball. CD as a data storage medium for the consumer was being hyped to high heaven. And CDi was just a bandwagon thing. Everyone had to do something with CD tech. I never bothered with it. But being grass-green I always wondered what sophisticated stuff I was missing. Turns out I worried all for naught.

 

[Lord Mushroom]

8 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Game & Watch is gimicky garbage. None of it is "videogames". And the crap is a dime a dozen at the dollar store. Cheap shit versions of the genuine red-LED stuff Mattel made.

Prices must be very different in the US. Here in Norway you can sell them for about $75 a piece.

[Keatah]

2 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

Prices must be very different in the US. Here in Norway you can sell them for about $75 a piece.

That may be true here too. I don't follow that scene much because I think they're all garbage fodder. Little bits of e-Waste.

[Keatah]

Fake retro-wannabe pixel art crap made in modern "game engine" studio shit. I hate all games that look like that.

 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

But the only thing I've utterly avoided and refuse to ever touch, Microsoft consoles, screw them.  They bought their way in when doing good wasn't in the cards they wanted to play with, and they screwed us all ushering in paid multiplayer, paid online accounts in general, but worse opened the door to selling unfinished games, broken games, and microtransactions because of their hard drive/large storage others adopted in some form since.

Yes. I would imagine most gamers dislike microtransactions in incomplete and DRM-laden games that require internet connections. The whole philosophy of how that stuff is done today is totally counter-intuitive to how gaming should be (and actually was at one time).

 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Tanooki said:

MS idea of what was a good idea to really push for games were genres I was burned out on or largely had no love for, they were the anti-console as far as I was concerned so I stuck to Nintendo, Sony, and Sega.  I don't any more highly of the xbox line still, which is fine by me, given they seem to think less too putting all their IP on PC anyway now too.

I had really high hopes for Flight Simulator 2020. I felt a bad omen about it when I learned it was being developed for X-Box. And it immediately fell on my back burner - to be revisited if it was released on PC. It was. But the whole thing felt "boxy". "Designed on X-Box first" kinda thing. All the modern consoley elements leaked into it (or never left it) and watered it down.

 

Just thank god we've got X-Plane. And that all versions can be run without draconian DRM measures. The little bit of a CD check they DO put in is oh so easily circumvented. But it's a good sim so just buy it, thus helping ensure future releases.