Am I going through a mid-life crisis looking to buy yet another retro console?
Posted by xParesh@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 58 comments
Im not sure what is going on with me but I bought a CRT from some retro gaming which happened to be a VHS combo unit and came with an OG Ghostbuster VHS tape. I was amazed at how good it still looked on the CRT.
Then my neighbour just happened to be giving away her husbands old OG PS2 console and some how I came across a Wii console that has homebrew that was given away to me for free.
So i definitely lucked out there. Im close to a thrift store and they were trying to get rid of late 90s/early 2000s stuff so I found myself picking up stuff for next to nothing and suddenly I found myself with a retro entertainment corner.
I ended buying some movie posters and LED logo lamps off of ebay. Im learning Spanish so after my last trip to Spain I bought a ton of DVDs so my little retro corner will have some educational utility.
It just hit me that I have a Sony, Nintendo and MS console but not a Sega console. I was a Sega nut back in the day with the Genesis, Sega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast.
I feel like pressing the button on a Dreamcast console deal on ebay but then I questioned myself, am I just going through a mid life crisis and is this mostly thrift store set up just my version of when middle aged men just bought themselves a sports car because it made them still feel young?
Have you bought anything crazy and nostalgic from your past yourselves and did it make you happy?
edasto42@reddit
Nah. I don’t get into nostalgia. I personally am not a fan of looking backwards. Plus nostalgia is a liar, it shines a light on the positive things of the past, while forgetting or softening the bad stuff. I can’t think of owning an old Nintendo without being reminded of the countless hours spent playing mediocre games alone in my bedroom to try and do something about the boredom of being lonely.
GeetarEnthusiast85@reddit
There's nothing from you're younger days that hold positive memories?
edasto42@reddit
Everything is tied together. Can’t get the good without the bad. I generally choose to keep my focus on the present. I let the past inform my present but it’s not something I hold dear
GeetarEnthusiast85@reddit
So you can't appreciate the good things you had without dwelling on the negative aspects?
edasto42@reddit
Trauma is a bitch like that. I’m doing ok in my present life. I don’t need to look backwards. The best times in my life are right now.
GeetarEnthusiast85@reddit
I understand. Glad to hear you're doing what's best for you.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
For me, I loved the 16 and 32 bit era. I stopped having time for that when i adulted but it never lost its charm for me, especially pre-internet, smartphone and now AI.
You just stick a disk in the drive, the memory card takes care of save points, the loading screen is annoying but no need to log in, download patches, notifications, firmware updates or an hour of patch downloads and installs of all those micro transaction until one hour later you finally for to the games.
My entire setup up, including the CRT with thrift store games cost less than half the price of a PS5 - the only Sony console I have never owned and the only one that doesnt have any games on it that appeals to me as a must have.
edasto42@reddit
I am absolutely not a video game person, so I only understand about 3/4 of what you just said haha. I lost interest in video games when they started focusing on the home games and stopped focusing on the arcade experience. It made the whole thing feel more lonely and separated from interacting with others. Essentially killing off another third space. I’ll never forgive the industry for that haha
HuckleberryLogical63@reddit
Here's my midlife crisis lol
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I knew behind that pretty console showcase there must be a cable management hell but well done for having such a great set up with so many consoles!
HuckleberryLogical63@reddit
An absolute mess lol. One of these days I'll figure out how to make it less of a mess. Maybe when I get the few last planned consoles and do V2 of the setup.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
That was mine 2 days ago after the Wii and Xbox arrived and I found myself with 11 powered devices and a lot of RGB scart devices that needed to input that single RGB Scart input on the CRT.
I hid my messy cables behind a VHS tape wall lol!
K2sX@reddit
This is my husband's goal. Nice collection!
HuckleberryLogical63@reddit
Thank you. Can't wait to add Neo Geo later this year.
PsychologicalArm2138@reddit
Emulation has you covered for free, none of this is necessary to play games and is more about “vibes” imo. Saturn and PS1 has come a long way than just 5 years ago. Duckstation and Ymir
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Ive got the Wii with Homebrew. That device is a champion and practically free in my case. My setup have everything I wanted except an actual Sega console which now seems like a wild over sight considering I was a Sega nut in the 90s and had most of their consoles.
DC seems to be where Im heading. The Saturn is twice the price of the DC at the moment and as much as I loved mine having bought it with my first ever paycheck in 1996, the DC was a far more superior machine with better games in every way.
No_Guarantee_1957@reddit
How much is the dreamcast you're lookong at?
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Well my PS2 and Wii worked out to be effectively free. The Xbox was around $70. The DC with with 2 pads, 5 games, 3 of which I was looking for and a VMU would be $150. Thats is more than my other consoles put together.
The only thing I think I lack in my retro entertainment corner is a Sega console. I was mulling a Saturn too but that thing is insanely expensive now. I had all the Sega consoles growing up and the Wii runs homebrew so I have Snes and Genesis on that.
I got my DC with my 2nd paycheck so there is a connection there.
In the grand scheme of things, others commenting here are talking about going through divorces and the cost of that. $150 is half a days pay so its not even that.
It would be easy to just look at things that way but I guess I was looking for people so say, its cheap and fun and go for it, not so much, 'are you insane? What is wrong with you wanting to buy that old junk for so much?'
So its not so much the monetary cost, its more so at 46, am I still OK to want to jump back into these things or is it just a sign that Im going through a mid life crisis?
No_Guarantee_1957@reddit
I didn't expect you to quote the prices in USD, I can't really judge it not in GBP. I mean you've already got a retro corner, just get a gdemu from aliexpress then you don't have to go down the rabbithole of collecting games. The Sarurn is a bit redundant imo.
SleepyDoozer2@reddit
This is the ideal mid-life crisis
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Well if we're talking in monetary terms, no ex, no kids and the whole set up costing less than half the price of a PS5 console, I feel like I'm one of those who ended up with a much nicer and cheaper mid-life crisis than many others
MoarFlavor@reddit
Not at all. You’re good. I live and bask in nostalgia. A lot of us do… this is how we disconnect from a world constantly dumping information in our brains. It’s extremely important for me to have things that work simply without ads/updates/politics/gambling suggestions/etc. etc.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I have a 100" 4K mini LED in the main living room so Im not shy of modern tech but for half the cost of the PS5 console Ive got my entire offline retro setup. I spend more time there than I do in the main space.
No internet, no log in, no patches to download, you just stick a game or movie on and it just works.
As long as the memory card is in and working, its awesome!
MoarFlavor@reddit
Mine isn’t 100” — but I have a nice/new OLED and a UB820 that I put to work regularly! Having the best of both worlds makes me happy. I’ll go from 4K to a VHS-recorded broadcast of something with bad tracking on my Plex server without a second thought.
Internet Archive has copies of stuff like USA UP All Night or Commander USA (with original commercials, to boot!) — it’s a fun hobby as well if you’re super thrilled by retro junk!
hamburgler26@reddit
Well clearly you need a Dreamcast. Although I'll say as an owner, getting the legit games now has gotten silly expensive, so at least get a GD-EMU for convenience, or be prepared to burn games if you what to get that glorious GD-ROM noise going when you play.
Dreamcast is pretty awesome though. And even buying all of the wacky controllers and real games is considerably cheaper than most midlife crisis hobbies so you're still not being crazy. Plus they have only gone up in value unless you're buying sealed shit and opening it so not like you're flushing cash down the toilet.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I had the OG DC. It was wild to be able to buy pirated games off of ebay that would just work without any hacks. Obviously that was 25 years ago so I don't feel bad with that today. I think its even easier now with memory cards. I'd be more concerned about using physical GD-Roms that might wear out the laser so I'm be leaning on disk-less games to save the unit from a drive failure.
literanch@reddit
My wife and I decided to have our first baby for my mid life crisis — due in September and I can’t wait!
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Oh how wonderful! Bless you both! I hope you have a wonderful happy family!
AlienDelarge@reddit
Oh is that why I bought an NES and Genesis as an adult?
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Im more into my late 90s/early 2000s consoles. The Wii especially is a homebrew champion and its a cheap as chips and when connected to a CRT it puts many if those very expensive emulators to shame. I have the SNES and Genesis emulators running on that and they look as fantastic as I remember them on the OG consoles on CRT
AlienDelarge@reddit
I did already have a WII that I've had for years partially for some gamecube compatibility. I juat never had the other two growing up and wanted to play them.
Sadly I let my wife talk me into getting rid of my CRT that I'd have since college and I haven't replaced it.
myuserhasafirstname@reddit
I bought a Raspberry Pi and put Retropie on it, have all of the games, better controllers, and save states because F that noise if I'm going to punish myself reliving old memories. Much, much cheaper too.
Electrical-Dig8570@reddit
My brother. I get it. You’re safe here.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I like what you have but you should really get a CRT for the old consoles. I have perfect vision and Im sure Aliens looks better on the 4K mini LED but the OG VHS tape in the CRT also looks great to *human eyes*. Even side by side, I give them both a 10/10 even though on this photo the 4K version looks infinitely better.
Imagine how much better your games would look to your eyes on a CRT
59apache01@reddit
Look at it this way - it's cheaper than a sports car and more useful than a toupee.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
My CRT with built in VCR is running like a champion. I have a seperate Sony VCR and DVD player because i dont want to end up with a stuck tape in the combo unit.
There is this ancient dude who used to repair VCRs and CRTs in the 90s and he services all my devices and gave them a clean bill of health.
I'm just on the look out for a bigger CRT. 14" is fine but when you watch DVDs, most of which are in wide screen, the image is barely larger than my phone.
GamingIsMyCopilot@reddit
Brother I’m about to drop money on renovating my basement and getting my consoles all down there, crt and retro ones included (44 yrs old). Like someone said, it’s cheaper than a corvette and if you can afford it and it brings you happiness, go for it.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Awesome! I have the whole minimalist modern set up with a 4K 100 inch mini-LED in the living room but I get so much joy from my bedroom retro corner that it totally offline.
I spent half the cost of the PS5 for all my entire set up, consoles and games and I could not have been happier.
You will love yours once you have it up and running!
Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit
Just set up a new cabinet last night to hook up all the old consoles my son has taken from my mom's. Xbox One on top (that was actually his), NES, SNES, Wii on the bottom, and hard to see it but the dock for his switch is next to the Wii.
Old consoles are super fun.
But, i actually bought a Retroid Pocket G2 a few months ago for handheld gaming and just have it loaded with roms.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I have a Retroid pocket too, although as nice as it is there is something magical about OG consoles on a CRT. It really is like stepping back in time to the 90s/early 2000s and I found they look as good as I remember
GeetarEnthusiast85@reddit
Boy have I. I've bought the rereleased Turtles, lair, Party Wagon and Technodrome as well as vintage Playmates figures. I aso bought the rereleased Real Ghostbusters figures and Ecto-1 that came out a few years ago in conjunction with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I'm looking to buy a, RGB firehouse to go with them. Worth every penny.
OP, out of curiosity, did you get the Blockbuster light-up sign off of Ebay or Etsy?
Tetris_Pete@reddit
Collecting for NES makes me happy.
But seriously, buy a Saturn and get a Saroo.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
I bought a Saturn with my first paycheck!
Im still mulling over that or the Dreamcast. That machine was fine. I still think I had more fun with that than my PS2 after graduation until it got burgled and Sega died and I ended up buying an OG Xbox with halo.
gravygizzard@reddit
Satiator is also worth looking into. Same idea but plugs into the expansion port in the back near the coin battery, freeing up the memory slot. It's more expensive though
K2sX@reddit
We jumped from retro systems to pinball. We now have a Pokémon pinball in the dining room. :D
MetalEnthusiast83@reddit
I collect retro consoles. So my biased answer is nah you’re fine.
I have a bunch hooked up too. There’s a million ways to play those games now, but it’s cool to fire up old hardware sometimes. I love using my Neo Geo or or my Saturn and I never had those as a kid.
Ok_Program5748@reddit
Yeah, bought an original NES and watched as my kids tried to figure out why the game wasn’t coming on and the power light was blinking on and off.
I shared with them the deep magic of precisely positioning and blowing into a cartridge. For the life of me I still can’t figure out why it works.
dbzmah@reddit
Really shouldn't blow in to them. A q tip with a bit of rubbing alcohol 70%, or canned air.
jackatman@reddit
Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch! I was there when it was written
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Blowing Nintendo cartridges hard before a group playing session brings back memories.
I will admit, I do not miss cartridges. I was very thankful after the move to CD gaming became the norm even as a Sega CD owner! The fact that this disk contained a video game and not just a music disk blew my mind. The load times less so!
Tetris_Pete@reddit
napalmthechild@reddit
Y’all keep throwing the term mid-life crisis around yet I just see nostalgia consumerism. You’ll know you’re having a mid-life crisis because it’s this slow but ominous and intense emotional buildup to where you don’t understand what is going on and then all of a sudden you get hit with this out of body experience where you see at your entire life from a Birds Eye view. I know this because it just happened to me not too long ago.
But anyway yea I bought some new moog synths after that because I couldn’t afford them when I was 15 lol
PhysicsOk1170@reddit
Yes.
SMASHTHEGASH1979@reddit
Embrace yourself and what makes you happy within reasonable scope. Fuck labels like mlc. Enjoying your spare time and things of your past is better than hair plugs and a Corvette.
Crash217@reddit
Sounds like a fun, non harmful collection so far.
flerchin@reddit
Compared to a divorce or a sports car, you're getting off light.
xParesh@reddit (OP)
Eeks! How much was the damage? Did you have any kids at all with that marriage? If so then for me the would have softened the blow somewhat - I say that as someone who is single, childless, happy and has too much time and money on his hands than he is smart to know how to spend it.
bcentsale@reddit
I already dug up a PS2 several years ago and did a hard drive conversion on it. Now I'm working on finding a, specifically, 2011 Macbook Pro for an offline Windows XP gaming and writing rig.