What's the cheapest retro console nowadays? How expensive is this hobby and how much has it changed?
What's the cheapest retro console nowadays? How expensive is this hobby and how much has it changed?
What's the cheapest retro console nowadays? How expensive is this hobby and how much has it changed?
>Caring what shit cost
Ask me how I know you are poor
Watch out, everyone! Sherlock Holmes over here can see right through you.
Personal Computer
it's cheaper to buy PS2 than hardware that can emulate it. and even with good hardware input lag still will remain
The question was cheapest not most ideal experience. PCSX2 can run at least some games well enough on old core2duo and AMD phenom ii processors if you have an okay graphics card from the last 10 years.
With a good PC though you can have identical or less latency (lag) than the original system thanks to more stable or even higher framerates, specially if you use a CRT.
(OP)
>What's the cheapest retro console nowadays?
I don't know, it depends on if you're talking just about the console or about software, and even then it depends on what you want to collect exactly, all consoles have cheap and expensive software available for them on the market.
>How expensive is this hobby and how much has it changed?
It depends on how much you value collecting, actually owning physical copies of what you play, because if you don't then you can essentially not pay at all, just download ROMs on your PC and you'll be good to go overall.
>depends on if you're talking just about the console or about software
Mostly the console itself but also in a general sense the "platform." Before the clear winner was Wii by a long shot, $20 and softmod it. Now it costs more like $120 for a full wii bundle and there's cheaper consoles out there.
Xbox
PS2, you can get a good condition one with controller and cables for 15€
I'd say Wii is second and Xbox third
Wrong. PS2 is $70 easy
Clearly it depends on your region. I can get one for £30 no problem.
Very cheap here
Yeah with the glowing stand
Ya too bad the best games are all still a giant rip off because of some rich dickheads playing auctioneer to screw over the poor people for having a hobby
sony stuff and xbox trash
Gameboy, ds
You can find a used wii with a pair of controllers and all the hookups for like 50$, and then for another 50$set it up to play every basically every pre 5th gen game and every nintendo game worth a damn.
Wii more than that these days. The emulation on it is also not perfect. Except for gamecube, that works flawlessly. NES can still be had for $50 and so can Genesis.
I tried playing actual GC games on my modded Wii and it won't load, the screen turns black.
Yes, I know I can load the games from a usb, but I still have the physical games too.
Is there any way to get around this?
It should just werk, you must have fricked up something on the Wii. Wii mods from before the modding scene stabilized about 2012 can give your Wii aids.
Idk I bought it for like $50 with the intention of modding it and it already just happened to be modded.
It can install Wii wads fine and GameCube iso/gcm files so I didn't dick around with it too much besides that.
I thought I updated it to whatever current version of whatver it's running but I may have forgotten to do that because I also modded a Wii U and a SNES Classic and those are plugged in instead.
I'm a idiot.
Try reinstalling your MIOS, you can download a wad of it with nus downloader.
this might break your usb loader, if it's an old setup. But if it is an old setup, it's worth upgrading to nintendont anyway. Nintendont won't have this issue.
There might be some bad system files that you should update or patch. If it's an old Wii with old CFW you really want to figure out whats on it and update everything to some more modern solutions.
ModMii is a pretty idiot proof tool if you just follow the instructions, unless there's some kind of hard mod in your Wii that you don't know about it should be able to straighten things out for you.
Yeah...I'll have to figure it out then, just wondering if anyone else encountered the problem. Just like I said it's not what I've got plugged in now and I didn't mod it myself so I don't know exactly what's installed. It's a pain packing/unpacking stuff.
Thanks though guys.
The former owner probably install Dios Mios, which lets you play Gamecube backups but makes actual Gamecube disks not work normally, look up a tutorial to uninstall it so you can use Nintendont instead
>Dios Mios
Doesn't sound familiar, didn't see any indicator that was installed, but that's probably what I'll end up having to do is uninstall and grab Nintendont. Thanks.
i use nintendont as well
You should be able to find a stack of PS2 consoles for less than the price of a single Gamecube in most countries. Millions of them were sold and you could still get brand new ones when the PS4 launched.
Other than the games that are considered "collectable" they're pretty damn cheap too
Yes PS2 can play ps1, but wouldn't it technically be cheaper to get a ps1?
That depends entirely on your local market, the individual sellers, your luck and the current phase of the moon
PS1 and PS2 don't really have a minimum price on the current retro market and there's a decent amount of people out there that just want to get rid of theirs. The desirable models are very specific as well (550x for PS1 and special limited editions for PS2).
Common prices in my eastern european shithole seems to be around 45 euros for either of them for a working and tested unit. But there's unsold listings for 20 euros for each as well since the supply/demand isn't constant, below that price it's not worth shipping. Lots with multiple broken or untested consoles go unsold without a starting price.
I've seen PS1, PS2 and even original Xbox for 10 euros at flea markets though.
>implying bozgors could ever afford playstations
wii/360/ps3
Not retro.
by the time its "retro" its too late
The 2600. Unless you are going for high value retro titles like Halo.
Some dude had a clean looking heavy sixer 2600 today at the flea, with controllers and some basic games, for $60
And even that does not sound like a good deal, proof alone it is the correct answer to OP's question.
That would be the answer to OP's 2nd question.
The next question is how to reproduce the same effects on other platforms. Even obscure and unliked stuff is oddly pricey, such as Virtual Boy or Jaguar.
That is very odd. In my experience, I have found them to be the most durable without any failures. Unless someone purposely cut traces or used them as experiment boards for component soldering practice, are the only way I can imagine them not working. They've survived floods, can work even while being dirty, even function while not being seated properly; practically indestructible.
That's too retro
This is a good answer. 2600 and Genesis are the absolute dirt cheapest.
Really? Master Drives here are like 100€, meanwhile a PS2 is 15€.
many of those carts might not actually work anon
its very frustrating poaching single carts
ive ordered them on ebay and having to return a $7 item that costs more to ship it than its worth is very fricking annoying
If you want a real console definitely get a wii, dirt cheap, extremely easy to hack, tons of good homebrew, and supports native 240p and 480p. If you just want to play games, there's probably a cheap chink console that would do the job better
Wii + CRT ($150-$200)
Xbox Series S (Retroarch) + HD TV ($600-$1000)
you'll find the cheapest mainstream games on Xbox, but PS1 and PS2 have shit tons of lesser known titles that are very affordable. It's mostly the classic consoles like TG16/PCE and of course Sega stuff that has been bled dry. These are all great games and if they had a Nintendo logo on them, you bet the price would be at least twice as high. For PS2 I'd pick games like: Bombastic (sequel to devil dice), neo contra or shattered soldier (neo is easier, shattered is side scrolling but harder, neo is top down twin stick,) r-type final, sub rebellion, downhill domination, maximo. For Xbox I'd pick Fable Lost Chapters, Amped 2, burnout 3, Black, dungeons and dragons heroes, oddworld stranger's wrath, and Mechassault.
All those sets are anywhere from like $60-100 ish and if you were to drop that much in a month on games they would last you for the rest of the month and then some. Really the worst trap to fall in with buying games is buying them and not playing them. Play them, fall in love with them and figure out how they work. These are all good titles here that are very affordable, some more than others, but shit sub rebellion for $15? You'd be hard pressed to get half as much or half as good of a game for some of the prices they ask for on shit like mega man x3 or wario world.
In terms of the console itself, probably the PS1. I still see them at thrift stores for 5 bucks occasionally, because even scalpers don't bother to grab them.
I feel like original Xbox is incredibly cheap with no real expensive games that are used (none I have seen at least). Most expensive thing might be the console itself lmao
>PS1
$35 for a working system, no controllers or cables.
$8 for working OEM clear blue dual shock.
$7 for composite A/V cable and power cable.
$10 for OEM memory card.
$15 for Gameshark.
$14 for MM3 modchip.
$50 total for working basic system. $74 total for complete access to the entire library and saving. $89 total for all that with cheating. $107 for a complete set with two controllers and two memory cards.
>Genesis
$40 for a Model 2, $50 for a Model 1, no controllers or cables.
$14 for an OEM 3 button controller, $17 for an OEM 6 button.
$4 for composite A/V cable for Model 1, $6 for composite A/V cable for Model 2.
$20 for OEM 1602 power converter for Model 1, $16 for OEM 2103 power converter for Model 2.
$25 for chinese ED clone
$79 total for working basic system. $104 for complete access to 99.9% of library and cheating. $121 for a complete set with two controllers.
>Game Boy Advance
$50 for a Micro, $50 for AGB-001, $70 for an SP.
$25 for chinese GB ED clone.
$50 for EZ Flash Omega or $104 for GBA ED Mini.
$50 total for working basic system. $75 gets you all the GB games, or $100 for most GBA games. $125 gets you both, or $179 for every GBA game.
Cheapest options are PS1 and GBA for a basic setup, and PS1 for the luxury setup.
>$50 for AGB-001
I would also budget for the cost of a new screen.
GBA micro are well over $100 now, closer to $200.
>What's the cheapest retro console nowadays?
The PS2. You can run ISOs on either version of it for pretty cheap. The Xbox is also great softmodded but a little more expensive last I checked.
It's not a retro console, but the Wii is still a pretty good option if you want something cheap that can play Wii and GameCube natively and emulate NES, SNES, Genesis and TG16 pretty competently in 240p or 480i. You could probably get one in good shape and an SD card or hard drive together for under $100
>How expensive is this hobby and how much has it changed?
Everything is more expensive across the board compared to even five years ago for every console. I'd have to guess that home computer stuff is more expensive too but I honestly wouldn't know. The only retro stuff I've seen that hasn't gotten suddenly more expensive since then is stuff that has always been very expensive.
You can still get some cool stuff but it's all more expensive.
its only expensive if youre a moron whop buys games instead of pirating