What happened to your first PlayStation?

GameCentral readers reveal whether they sell their old consoles to purchase a new one or if they’re secret collectors and hoarders…

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was inspired by reader Up4Banter, and by readers Montgomery Burns and digdis121 offering to give their old 3DSes away to Inbox readers. It’s a difficult question for any game fan, but we wanted to know what you do with old consoles and whether you actually still use them if you keep them? And if you get rid of them do you just sell them on or give them to a family member or charity?



Although many people were forced to sell them simply to afford a new console they also admitted regret at having to do so, with many trying to re-buy their collection later down the line. Others were avid collectors and regularly returned to play retro titles in their original form.


Plug and play

I always used to sell my current console to help fund the latest console that was about to be released, such as selling my SNES to buy a PlayStation, selling my N64 to buy a Dreamcast, which was sold a few years later to buy the original Xbox, etc., etc.

But recently I’ve become a bit of a retro console collector and have purchased a few consoles from my youth and I now have two Sega Master Systems, a Mega Drive, three Super Nintendos, a Sega Saturn, a N64, a GameCube, an original Game Boy, two Game Boy Advances, and a DS (as well as my current generation 3DS and Wii U).

I think I just prefer the simplicity of inserting a game, pressing the power button and being able to start the game straight away.

adams6legend

No arguing

While I do keep hold of my consoles I wouldn’t class myself as a proper collector as I’m still missing the NES and Dreamcast, and I’m missing a lot of games for the older systems. I do like to keep them about though, in the same way that I might want to watch a film from the 80s or 90s I might want to do likewise with a game. Some games such as Ikaruga, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence are relatively rare so I like to keep hold of those for collector reasons.

Fortunately my girlfriend is also a fan of retro games, so there’s no arguments over the TV.

Ty Snowdon

Physical memories

Sell my old consoles!! Absolutely not. I still use the PlayStation 2, the Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and DS when taking a break from more modern ones, plus I still play PS One games also. I know I’d deeply regret selling them and money is only a temporary thing, whilst the games and consoles are tangible devices which have entertained me and will do so as long as they still work.



I try to look after my various items like consoles, DVDs, books, games, etc. as best I can, as to me they are an investment in something in which I researched and made a decision based on factors which will keep me entertained for now and the future, so I’ll replay a game, reread a book, re-listen to a music album or re-watch a DVD.

Luckily I have never been in a situation where I’d have to sell items so I can survive the real world and hopefully will not need to in the future. As long as space and keeping them in a manageable way in the house and not become a horder is under control – then I should be OK for the times to come. I just have too many good memories with my hobbies to want to give them up for a few lousy quid.

To relive the memories is a key factor in my life and by coming back to the past do I get that wonderful warm fuzzy feeling of good times gone by.

Alucard

PS: I still have my Amiga 500+ and it works too.

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The Accumulator

At the last count we owned sixteen consoles if you include handhelds. Four are currently in use, two PlayStation 3s and two Xbox 360s. Of the remainder, apart from the rather nice pearly white second-hand GameCube I bought to replace the original, which I’d given to my daughter, all are in their original cartons and carefully packed away. I’m not going to bore you with a list but my oldest console is a Sega Mega Drive.


The only console I’ve ever traded in was the Wii against the purchase of my PlayStation 3. I’d waited in vain for a game I liked the sound of. Typically, a few months later Xenoblade Chronicles came out which was lauded to the skies which meant eventually I bought a second-hand Wii to play it on. Unfortunately I didn’t care much for the game, although I still have it along with another two hundred or so because, as with my consoles, I rarely trade my games because I know I’ll regret it later.

Despite the above, I wouldn’t call myself a collector. I’m more of an accumulator I think.

Gill C.

Long history

Hot Topic got me in flashback mode, here’s a brief sepia-hued history. My Famicom exploded in a puff of yellow smoke. Sega Mega Drive controls both got damaged and couldn’t afford replacements, had to scrap it. PS One went to my mate Vergil for free. First PlayStation 2 got sold at a pawn shop to fix my car. Second PlayStation 2 got given to the youngster downstairs, together with about 40 games.

Xbox 360 got sold to a mate. First PlayStation 3 got given to my nephew when I got my 500GB slim. Nintendo DS fell into the couch and my wife won’t let me cut it out, to be honest I just want the Fire Emblem cartridge inside. Sold my Wii to a work colleague for tuppence.

Deceitfularcher (PSN ID / NNID)

All the consoles

I currently have in my possession:


A Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive II, Sega Saturn, and a Sega Dreamcast; each with quite a few games as well. Also I have a SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, and a Wii U; plus games for each. An original Xbox with hundreds of games, an Xbox 360, and an Xbox One both with many games. I also own a PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4; again with numerous games.

On the handheld front I have a 3DS XL, a PS Vita, and a Game Boy Advance. I only need a NES for my Nintendo collection, and an original PS one which I didpOwn but unfortunately sold many moons ago.

I use some of the consoles a lot, some not so much; but each one when not being used is kept safely awaiting my next bout of retro gaming needs! I have also introduced my 11-year-old son to most of the consoles; some he can play, some he just says the graphics are rubbish and gives up! I will keep all my consoles forever and add the remaining ones I want when I find them at the right price.

Jayduva

Emotional attachment

This is an interesting because I do admit I am a bit of a hoarder, and I keep all of my consoles and as many of my games as I can justify. But since that’s now building up to be quite the collection I have to admit that I hardly ever get around to playing any of them. Maybe I’m just being lazy, but it’s such a hassle to set them up just for a few hours play that I never usually get round to it.

I’m actually much more likely to download a version of a game I want to play on a current console and play it that way. Which of course defeats the point of owning the original. But I don’t know… I’ve got a lot of memories tied up with those old machines. I don’t think I can bring myself to get rid of them.

Tirebo

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

I’m sorry, your game is on another console…

Interesting Hot Topic for me. My first video game console, as such, was the Spectrum and nearly all my friends ended up with Commodore 64s apart from one who had an Amstrad. I was the constant ribbing of jokes of the beep beep sound effects or the terrible colour clash and I eventually reached the point where I just had to get rid and buy a C64. To generate the money I had to sell the Spectrum first and just couldn’t get rid of it, so was stuck with it; but in hindsight I was glad.

I drifted out of gaming so missed out on the Nintendo/Sega battle until I was watching the remastered Star Wars in 1997 I think it was, and saw a snowspeeder taking down an AT-AT in an N64 advert and instantly knew there and then I needed to be able to do that. As naive as I was with consoles, having missed 10 years or so of them, I foolishly assumed that in the main the same games would be available for the PS One as well.

So I bought the N64 and then picked up the wonderful ISS and the horrid, cheating Mario Kart 64 only to realise the only game left I wanted to play was GoldenEye 007 and most of the games I wanted to play were on the PS One. So I got rid of the N64 after playing GoldenEye to death and kept the PS One.

Couple of years later Perfect Dark was due out and I decided I wanted it, so I ended up re-buying an N64 GoldenEye pack and bought ISS direct from Konami full price, as you couldn’t get it any more, and Perfect Dark when it came out; and still have them to this day. I do have a go every now and then now that I’ve bought a cable to use it on my HDTV.

I bought a PlayStation 2 about a year after it came out and gave my PS One to my three and five year old nephews as their first gaming console. But only because the PlayStation 2 was backwards compatible! Following that I’ve bought a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and keep every single game I buy for it even though I’m unlikely to play almost any of them again once completed.

I still have the Spectrum and it still works, love having a go on Sabre Wulf occasionally so I have five game consoles, every game I’ve ever bought for them (only about 10 or 12 total for each console as I lack enough time to play them) and now a PC that I’ve just started buying a few games for.

When I do eventually go next gen, likely when either Red Dead Redemption 2, No Man’s Sky, or a slim version of the consoles come out I’ll just be buying a PlayStation 4. Until then I’ve got loads of games to keep me busy and never feel a need to have the latest. Who needs next gen with the constant stream of remakes, HD updates and poor, short lived exclusives? I’m quite happy with the retro gaming I’ve got.

Paul

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