meanwhile in suckersville population: me, having spent wayyy too much money on games in my entire life time. though I must say even if it's still pretty expensive, I got a smash of a deal on path of radiance compared to what it goes for now
my birthday is coming up soon, and while my bf and i wanted a switch 2, last week i thought to myself, "man, the dreamcast is such a cool console, im gonna buy one right now," and here we are a week later playing things like rent a hero, mvc2, power stone, crazy taxi, and re3. its the coolest birthday present ive ever gotten myself honestly
I stopped playing modern games the moment the PS5 dropped with nothing to show for it. Just got a better pc to emulate retro games I missed out on during the PS2 era. Honestly the best decision I ever made was modding my PS VITA, Wii, and 3DS to better experience retro gaming.
With games and consoles getting more and more expensive*, and now tariffs making the issue worse, it sure is a great time to be into retro games! I really want the Switch 2 and plan on buying it, but I think I'm gonna take a break from modern gaming for a little bit and focus on my incredible backlog of retro games. Looking forward to it!
Anyone else considering doing the same?
*In actuality, we are still currently living in an era where video games are at the cheapest they have ever been, even with the aforementioned price hikes, considering $60 had the value of $125 back when I was a kid. But it still hurts to see prices go up.
Man, I feel you. Even though games are technically cheaper now when you adjust for inflation, it still sucks to see prices climbing—especially with new consoles coming and tariffs making everything worse.
Honestly, taking a break from modern gaming isn’t even really a choice at this point—it’s like the industry lost its damn mind with these prices. So yeah, guess I’m “taking a break” by force and diving into my retro backlog instead. At least those games still have soul—and don’t cost an arm and a leg.
With games and consoles getting more and more expensive*, and now tariffs making the issue worse, it sure is a great time to be into retro games! I really want the Switch 2 and plan on buying it, but I think I'm gonna take a break from modern gaming for a little bit and focus on my incredible backlog of retro games. Looking forward to it!
Anyone else considering doing the same?
*In actuality, we are still currently living in an era where video games are at the cheapest they have ever been, even with the aforementioned price hikes, considering $60 had the value of $125 back when I was a kid. But it still hurts to see prices go up.
I haven't kept up with games since the late 2000's, mostly because there are so many classic games I missed growing up, and I have way more fun catching up on those and digging up old gems, as well as revisiting childhood favorites than I do keeping current with what is popular.
I actually do agree that it is a great time! Usually I tend to look at the glass half full, and while the expense of old games is absolutely insane, the alternatives are out the wazoo! So many systems have Everdrive’s, new hardware accessories, new components being made, repair guides to follow to fix up old systems, a wealth of online content to get into, and so much more! Not even mentioning that the emulation world is more open than ever (in spite of what Nintendo has been trying to do.)
Do I even need to mention homebrew? New games for old consoles! Ports we never got THAT ARE AWESOME! New carts being made! New discs being printed! It’s all just so cool! These systems are in the hands of the people now, and I LOVE IT!
Old games are not “old games”. They’re just… games. And if a game’s fun to you, that’s all that matters. Play game. Have fun.
I haven't kept up with games since the late 2000's, mostly because there are so many classic games I missed growing up, and I have way more fun catching up on those and digging up old gems, as well as revisiting childhood favorites than I do keeping current with what is popular.
EXACTLY! This is a major element of gaming: catching up on what you missed. There is an element of “paying the late fee” but there are also literal THOUSANDS of great titles that you missed over the course of your life.
Please… please don’t get caught up on the one game you can’t afford. Instead, keep it in the back of your mind, and look through the variable ocean of other titles that you may have missed!
For example, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a $16 Wii game that I adore so much. It’s only $35 on GameCube, sans bongos, so it’s plenty affordable still. And nobody talks about how awesome it is for some reason! There are so many other games like that which you should play! In recent memory, games for $30 and under that I got which were awesome would include:
- Virtua Fighter 2, JP SEGA Saturn ($7)
- Choplifter, SEGA Master System ($8)
- Kirby 64, JP Nintendo 64 ($10)
- Daytona USA, SEGA Saturn ($30)
- Ridge Racer, PlayStation 1 ($30)
- Ridge Racer Type 4, PlayStation 1 ($30)
- BomberMan Hero, JP Nintendo 64 ($15)
- SEGA Bass Fishing, SEGA Dreamcast ($10)
- NBA 2K1 (no, really. This game is sick.), SEGA Dreamcast ($3)
- Chu Chu Rocket, SEGA Dreamcast ($25 NEW. This was new old stock!)
- Rocket Knight Adventures, SEGA Genesis ($30)
- SoulCalibur, SEGA Dreamcast ($30)
- Blinx The Time Sweeper, Microsoft XBox ($15)
- Halo 1 AND 2, Microsoft XBox ($16 for both games. No really.)
- Jet Set Radio Future/SEGA GT 2002, Microsoft XBox ($7)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Microsoft XBox ($25)
- Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, Microsoft XBox ($15)
- Galaxy Force II, SEGA Genesis ($10)
- LocoRoco, Sony PlayStationPortable ($12)
- Metroid: Samus Returns, Nintendo 3DS ($25)
And I could go on.
Again: don’t get hung up on the one $100+ game that you want. Instead, find the games that go for substantially less that are also SICK. Retro game prices have quadrupled what they used to be in my area, but I STILL find used games for cheap that I would consider to be total steals.
For example, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a $16 Wii game that I adore so much. It’s only $35 on GameCube, sans bongos, so it’s plenty affordable still. And nobody talks about how awesome it is for some reason! There are so many other games like that which you should play!
I love Donkey Kong Jungle Beat! I used to play that and Donkey Konga with my mom a lot as a kid. You just brought back a really good memory, thank you!
I love Donkey Kong Jungle Beat! I used to play that and Donkey Konga with my mom a lot as a kid. You just brought back a really good memory, thank you!
I've been into modding my systems/handhelds lately and there's so much to play now that it's almost overwhelming lol. There's so many ways to play entire libraries of games right now, it's kinda nuts. The ps4 still stays relevant with minecraft and whatnot, but its the newest system in the house and that doesn't bother me.
i've been in the mindset to mainly play games that are 15+ years old for at least the past 5years. all the good games are already available and the quality of major releases have been plummeting (with some exceptions).
it's a great time to be into retro (or just old) games now, between emulators and flash carts and ODEs and everything else on top of pre-existing nice things like CRTs and original carts of which not all are expensive, contrary to popular belief.
it's also kind of a bad time to be into old games because a lot of people in the hobby now never got to see these games when they were cutting edge. That plus the realities of brand new expensive games back then meant people back then barely had any games so they would play them to death... It was all a world rather far removed from what most people have today, walls and walls of games or terabytes of roms.
(also most people don't want soldering or screwdrivers so bad capacitors, dirty carts, lasers and such are all issues now for fans of old hardware)
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