How long do you think old gaming systems will last?

smokehouse

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I've been purging a bunch of my old life as of late, and I've managed to sell the lion's share of what I had to get rid off. I've decided to hold on to a very few things as they carry large sentimental value for me...but I'm beginning to wonder if that's a dumb idea with VG systems. I'm mostly looking at this Looong term, like 20-30 years from now.

I have a single CRT left, a sufficient mid 2000's 20-something inch RCA. When that dies, I won't have much left to hook the remaining systems to. I've kept my NES and SNES and a handful of games for them both.

I'll say that I have teh romz, so I don't even play the two systems I have anymore, I'll just play those titles on the Retropie when the mood strikes. I'm not much for fixing electronics, so re-soldering/replacing board components isn't exactly something I'm going to want to do.

I wonder how long an original NES will last? How about the games? is there a life span for a NES/SNES ROM cart?

If they'll eventually fall apart to the point where they're not usable, I might consider selling them now when I can get $$ out of them.

Anyway, just spitting out randumb thoughts...
 
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Lastblade

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It will last quite long, even Atari 2600 (and even older systems like Fairchild) are still working. Keep it clean, keep it dry and they should be fine.

Also, these older systems are now fully emulated via FPGA, so you don't even need the old systems any more to play your cartridges as long as someone is willing to build the the interface like Analogue. Or better yet, just load up the roms to Mister, etc. and you get the full experience with today's technological convenience.

I think it is the later systems (from cdrom onward) that could be problematic since the current FPGA aren't quite powerful enough to emulate the hardware in full speed. But at least people are developing ODE solutions which would eliminate the most fragile part of those systems.
 
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famicommander

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My Atari 2600 has a 1977 manufacture date and it still works fine.
 

cat

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My oldest system is a first gen SMS and it still works fine light guns included.
Infact all my cartridge based systems work fine, cd systems on the other hand are not so good, my ps1 is very fussy and seems to read discs intermitantly and my NGCD gives me random i/o errors, both my 3DO's play fine.
I've not had an issue with the ps2 ps3 xbox and xbox 360, just the overheating problems that seem to plague the next gen consoles.
At the end of the day though i'm happy with emulating the systems and play whatever i want with coin-ops next on the pc, really is the best free front end i've messed about with.
 
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Burning Fight!!

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Everyone with CD based systems from the late 80's to 90's know how powerless we start to feel once the consoles start performing poorly. Old systems are a big pain in the butt unless you know how to fix them yourself, and there are less and less tech people giving enough of a shit to accept outside jobs.

Might be in 1, 10 or 20 years, but it's only a matter of time before cart systems start showing hard to fix issues and emulation start looking much more attractive.
 

GohanX

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Who can say? If I didn't have the skills to repair them my childhood systems would already be dead. I've had to repair my NES, SNES, and Gameboys from my childhood, but they all work great now. They'll probably outlast any desire I'll have to play them at this point. I haven't seen too many cartridges die on their own outside of something causing them to corrode, but it does happen. I'd be more worried about CD based systems and the CD media itself.
 

NeoSneth

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Laser based systems are the highest risk. PCE-CD's have a pretty high failure rate.
Saturn Lasers are getting weak.
NOS and parts will be difficult to find.

There was a time where I liked to upgrade and repair my systems, but I'm starting to get fatigued. Endless Pot adjustment and crumbling gears can be tedious work.

It will eventually get to a point where it's like wrenching on an old car. Sure, you can keep a 69 mustang on the road, but you will have to replace almost everything.
 

HornheaDD

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Nowadays, people are getting into refreshing systems. People will recap their Saturns, Playstations, Duos, etc. As far as lasers starting to get weak, that does indeed suck. But from what I understand those can be replaced, and there's always the ODE route. So I'd say older systems can last quite a while, providing proper care is maintained.

I'd love to get another TurboDuo, that's one game system I wish I never sold.
 

NeoSneth

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... As far as lasers starting to get weak, that does indeed suck. But from what I understand those can be replaced, and there's always the ODE route.
I'd love to get another TurboDuo, that's one game system I wish I never sold.

Lasers can be replaced, but you can't replace with any laser off the shelf. I've already had to buy a NOS Sony CD Walkman just to salvage the lasers because they are an exact match.
 

2D_mastur

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I will sell all my games when the systems themselves fail. I will be too old to play them anyways.

Also all the techies who have the knowledge to fix the shit will be dead or too old. Kinda how you cant find anybody to service old CRTs.
 
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wyo

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I will sell all my games when the systems themselves fail. I will be too old to play them anyways.

Also all the techies who have the knowledge to fix the shit will be dead or too old. Kinda how you cant find anybody to service old CRTs.

They're a few still out there. Sourcing parts is a bigger problem.
 

RAZO

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Get rid of it while it still works and get whatever money it's worth. It's just a matter of time before you goto turn it on and it stops working. Someone will eventually build some fpga console that runs on newer tv's. I hardly touch my original snes and mega drive since I purchased the analog joints. I only keep the old consoles around because I still have working crts and I'm not going to get much for a mega drive or sfc anyways.
 

GohanX

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Lasers can be replaced, but you can't replace with any laser off the shelf. I've already had to buy a NOS Sony CD Walkman just to salvage the lasers because they are an exact match.

Yeah, and on many systems China is still producing lasers for them thankfully, but the QA on the replacements are so bad that you often have to buy several before you find a working one. I think I had to buy 3 Chinamart lasers for my Duo before one worked, but that one has worked for years without a hiccup. A repair guy once told me they're cheap enough so he orders a bunch at a time, and if he can pick out two or three good ones from the bunch he considers it a win.
 

neo_mao

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My only CRT is acting a little wonky. When it dies I probably need to re-evaluate all my retro gaming stuff.

I know there are upscalers and tech but not sure I have the patience or interest to buy/figure that all out.
 

Lastblade

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Neo_moe, just look up Retrotink, they make some really simple device that allows you to upscale older systems to HDTVs that still look decent/playable without lag.
 

Massive Urethra Chode

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Seems some old consoles fail more than others. I especially hear about older SNES/SFC consoles failing a lot more than other systems...
 

neo_mao

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Neo_moe, just look up Retrotink, they make some really simple device that allows you to upscale older systems to HDTVs that still look decent/playable without lag.

Thanks bud, good to know. Keeping it simple is the key for me :)
 

RAZO

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Seems some old consoles fail more than others. I especially hear about older SNES/SFC consoles failing a lot more than other systems...

Never heard of this. I always thought the Snes/Sfc consoles were pretty die hard. Of all the older consoles I owned I can only recall having a major issue with the Pc Engine Duo. Once the caps were replaced it was running as good as new. The Original Sega CD is a very cool piece of shit but that's a add on. I had a JVC X'eye that had a faulty cd lid switch that stopped working but that was fixed easily. Only issue with most of the older cd consoles is eventually the laser mech is going to shit the bed but a ode replacement can still save the console if it's available. Cd's will eventually get bit rot anyways so don't be surprised if those start to go within the next 10-20 years. I have more faith in older Rom Carts outlasting CD's.

In all my years of messing with all this retro stuff a majority of the problems was on the Arcade side. The home console side has treated me pretty damn good for the most part.
 
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HornheaDD

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Does anyone remember playing their SNES, NES or Genny and "deciding to turn it off so it doesn't burn out?"

When I was a kid I remember wanting to be careful with how 'delicate' the console was lol. Now I know it could have been run over by a truck and survived
 

FAT$TACKS

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My only CRT is acting a little wonky. When it dies I probably need to re-evaluate all my retro gaming stuff.

I know there are upscalers and tech but not sure I have the patience or interest to buy/figure that all out.

If you ever make it my way I can hook you up with a CRT.
 

famicommander

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Does anyone remember playing their SNES, NES or Genny and "deciding to turn it off so it doesn't burn out?"

When I was a kid I remember wanting to be careful with how 'delicate' the console was lol. Now I know it could have been run over by a truck and survived

When I was 8 I was taking my Saturn down into the basement and I tripped over the dog. The Saturn hit at least 2 wooden stairs on the way down and then the concrete floor, still works 21 years later. Has some scuffs and the power connector came a bit loose, but the case didn't crack and it still functions perfectly.

Nintendo 64 systems are beasts, too. I can't imagine physically breaking one without doing so intentionally.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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Never heard of this. I always thought the Snes/Sfc consoles were pretty die hard. Of all the older consoles I owned I can only recall having a major issue with the Pc Engine Duo. Once the caps were replaced it was running as good as new. The Original Sega CD is a very cool piece of shit but that's a add on. I had a JVC X'eye that had a faulty cd lid switch that stopped working but that was fixed easily. Only issue with most of the older cd consoles is eventually the laser mech is going to shit the bed but a ode replacement can still save the console if it's available. Cd's will eventually get bit rot anyways so don't be surprised if those start to go within the next 10-20 years. I have more faith in older Rom Carts outlasting CD's.

In all my years of messing with all this retro stuff a majority of the problems was on the Arcade side. The home console side has treated me pretty damn good for the most part.

Back when NintendoAge was around, the most common system people would report with hardware issues was the SNES. Those things are notorious for dead or partially dead CPUs and dual PPU chips. It's mostly the early board revisions that have it the worst, but the SNES as a whole was designed with next to no power filtering inside the console, it doesn't take much for dirty power to get into a SNES and damage the CPU and PPUs which are custom chips, the only source for new ones are other SNES consoles. The SNES is the one system I actively avoid purchasing junk or broken ones.

https://www.projectvb.com/nss/logs.htm
 

NeoSneth

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Back when NintendoAge was around, the most common system people would report with hardware issues was the SNES.

NA put their dicks in weird places.... just saying.
 

RAZO

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Back when NintendoAge was around, the most common system people would report with hardware issues was the SNES. Those things are notorious for dead or partially dead CPUs and dual PPU chips. It's mostly the early board revisions that have it the worst, but the SNES as a whole was designed with next to no power filtering inside the console, it doesn't take much for dirty power to get into a SNES and damage the CPU and PPUs which are custom chips, the only source for new ones are other SNES consoles. The SNES is the one system I actively avoid purchasing junk or broken ones.

https://www.projectvb.com/nss/logs.htm

I'm not doubting there is a issue with the first gen snes/sfc consoles. I'm just finding out now. I'm just saying I've owned a shit load of sfc/snes's in the last 15 years and those consoles worked on the dime. Still own the one chip I bought from Todd years ago.
 
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