For most of my childhood I was really into video games. It was the medium I cared about the most until becoming dissatisfied with them and discovering what music I actually enjoyed and loved. While I grew up with consoles that were behind the times, I think the time I really found retro games was when my older brother put on either ZSNES (don't care if it's outdated, it's the best SNES emu) or Nestopia on my laptop and loaded it with roms. Since then I got really into older consoles and started getting them. While I think emulators are great and love using them, nothing beats playing on hardware for me. Having the controller in hand and staring into the CRT is just the ideal way to play. Also, if you want 100% accuracy or the "original" experience you're just gonna have to play on hardware. When I was younger the most important thing to me was both the hardware and the physical game. Nowadays, with the market turning into a lame speculative investment market dominated by those who don't even really like playing older games (seriously have you heard people talk about these games? they fucking hate the game design deep down), I've dropped the official copy requirement. Flash carts used to be a pipe dream as a kid but now that I know what income is, and with the impending arrival of open source solutions, it's the best option for sure.
My CRT TV is a Samsung model (don't know the exact model, I really don't feel like moving it around to see the back right now). It's actually my childhood TV. When my family got their first HD TV back in like 2006-7, I got really upset for some reason and refused to use it. I would keep watching the like 10-12 channels still accessible without the cable box. I think it was like mainly PBS and 4Kids I would watch. I also kept it cause I think my parents claimed the PS2 couldn't be hooked up to the other TV. They probably couldn't be assed, but it was the right call even if I later in life spent a couple months plugging it into the HD. I've kept the thing around for basically my entire life, lugging it with me where I went with space.
I'm pretty sure the thing is dying. The buttons have become mushy and confused overtime. Sometimes they activate the wrong button, not sure how. The screen seems fine but turning it on takes longer now and the indicator light is inconsistent. I found a repair place recently so if it dies I won't be too bothered. It's not the greatest CRT, but I've had it with me for so long that I'd like to keep it. It's still pretty easy to find CRTs on various marketplaces though. Melee fans and dumbass collectors haven't ruined the market yet!
The first console I ever had was the glorious PS2. Well it wasn't mine, it was my brother's and I guess still technically is. It was the first console I started playing on, and eventually it was mainly used by me while my brother played CS 1.6 all day. It's been with me forever and I think I'm emotionally attached to it unfortunately. I can't begin to talk about this system (and the PS1 library by extension) here, just too much to get through but its my favorite console by far. Just deeply important to me. At the moment it's the only thing I even bother buying games for. Mostly cause they don't cost that much and there's so much good and cool stuff for it out there. Tons of games no one cares about. I still think if I had enough money I'd want to buy and try every game in the library. That kinda project is more about love for the system than the games really, cause this things got about as much dogshit as the Wii if we really get down to it.
Unfortunately my PS2 is finally feeling down. It's had some minor disc reading trouble for roughly 6-7 years but now it really struggles. Random games don't seem to read. I'm really happy it lasted seemingly 2 decades of decently consistent use, but I'll be pretty sad when it dies. I recently found a fat with a pretty much perfect disc drive. It was labeled untested but actually works perfectly fine. The only issue is the actual disc tray. It basically requires a quick time event as it closes on it's own 1 second after reaching the end of it's movement. I'll probably transplant the disc drive. I'm also looking for a Slim. I think it's really awesome how small that model is. My plan is to keep it in my backpack with 2 controllers and a couple games at all times and just whip it out at spots.
The first console I ever bought with my "own" money was a Genesis. I remember getting really into some retro youtubers and seeing Genesis games and thinking they were so fucking cool. I finally got to go to a retro game store near me and saw that the model 1 was only 40 bucks! I ended up getting it along with boxed copies of Sonic 2 and Mortal Kombat (I thought the blood cheat was the shit). In retrospect MK 1 and later 2 were not really worth it but I didn't spend that much on them so it's fine. I played the absolute shit out of Sonic 2, must have beat that game like 20 times. While I still haven't managed to acquire any other Sega consoles, this thing got me into Sega. I poured so much time into learning about the library and it's probably my second favorite console. As much as consoles pushed away from arcade style design, the Genesis/MD still has a decent amount of that DNA left imo. Compared to the SNES and how that changed a lot of trends in console game design, the Genesis feels like a last stand of sorts. While I'm still going to get a flash cart for it, I'll probably still pick up games every so often.
Another console that eventually made its way into my hands was the PS3. It was the last console we ever bought as a family, I believe due to my brother later moving out. I'm also pretty sure we bought it due to it's ability to play Blu-Rays as I've never seen a dedicated player in the house. I have some fond memories of sitting with my brother and dad playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. My dad only likes puzzle and racing games, so this was one of the rare times we actually played video games as a family. That fucking Mini-Cooper was the bain of us man. Eventually it just became something I used, the last thing I remember my brother getting for it was Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit. I kinda lost interest in the console over the years, using it for Youtube and Netflix. I popped in occasionally for MGS and KH ports (despite their problems) but otherwise I almost let it go to waste.
Much like a lot of other things I owned, hacking made it an appealing option. The disc drive was also becoming real spotty, so ditching most of my physicals was kind of the move. I remember trying it out for myself and just getting fucked over and over again. I ended up just giving it to ENDove who literally got it working first try? I'm not great at hacking like he is but christ I'm not a total fool. It's currently dormant since there's no suitable display for it. I have a little monitor with AV input neat it, but I need to buy the right power supply. Once I get it up and running it'll be nice to use FTP to play the AC games and Demon Souls like I've been meaning to for nearly a whole decade.
While my family (or really brother) are Sony Devotees, we sold our PS1 to make for the 2. I mostly play ps1 games on the 2 despite some incapatibilities, just easier to manage. ENDove however had a PS1 he wasn't using anymore and gave it to me. Right now it's out of comission, as it turns out the power cord needs to be polarized. As it turns out shitty wire replacements that claim they work for the PS1, are all non polarized since they work for multiple consoles. On top of that the shell is not screwed in? I think ENDove forgot, but he said it should be in the unit itself. I don't seemingly have a reason for having it other than making up for my PS2's screwy disc drive and the odd incompatibility. Why did I get it then? Well I've heard there's some work being made on open source ODEs (Optical Drive Emulator, allows for the disc drive to be bypassed with SD cards, flash cart equivalent). I'm willing to hedge my bets on this since it would be extremely cheap if it came to fruition, and would let me play every PS1 game comfortably. Unlike my beloved PS2, PS1 games have always trended more expensive so there's a lot more I can finally access.
I think the first "retro" console I got was the NES. I got it for one of my birthdays, sometime in middle school? Anyways it was pretty sick at the time. I had been playing an NES emulator for a couple years now and then to see one in person was something I thought impossible. My brother managed to get one with not only the box (featuring the Kmart price sticker on it lol) but also with 2 controllers and 2 perfect condition Zappers! It's a sideloader which makes it a pain to get working but at the time I kind of loved the process. I've given this the least love out of all the consoles I own. I bought like one game for it and I don't think I could get it to boot. The games it came with were mostly great though. Special shout outs to Batman and Tecmo Bowl. I'm hoping to give it some much needed new life with a flash cart. I like NES/Famicom games but I've just generally been interested in other consoles more. It doesn't help that a lot of the games I did care about or was interested in were kind of pricy to me when I was young.
The N64 was kind of a surprise for me to get. I never was super big on it's library despite playing the emu a decent bit. What really got me to bite was all the racing games. It might be the best console for racing games? The controller rules for that. I bought it off a friend in middle school and got a pretty decent amount of games out of it. I mostly ended up buying a lot of the cheaper less hyped games. I think it's a pretty neat console when you go past all the well known stuff. This is the first console I've bought a flashcart for. When I found out about the Summer Cart I just jumped on it instantly. I rarely found myself buying games for it and the affordable price meant I could actually get some use out of the thing. It's what started me selling most of my stuff, I ended up making enough from the games I sold to pay for the cart. There's still some work to be done on it however. I got an expansion pak, but the real hurdle is dealing with the fucking controllers. If you aren't aware, N64 analog sticks are really poorly made. They basically kill themselves overtime so even if you find a controller with non fucked deadzones, it'll still degrade faster than most other controllers. The fix for this that doesn't involve buying one of those redisigned third party controllers (they have some issues, really only made for the famous games on the system) is metal analog stick replacements. One problem, they're like 125 a pop. I also gotta fix the reset button but I'm not too worried about that.
While it's no longer with me, it would be odd to leave out the Gamecube. I used to get games for this pretty frequently, when they were affordable atleast. I bought this off a friend and got a couple games with it, and continued to get more inlcuding some of the big games like Melee and Sunshine to name a few. Nowadays I think the GC is kinda overrated, but it's got a pretty great lineup of games if you bother to actually explore the console beyond the hype. I ended up selling it because a White Wii took care of both the costs with hacking and space. The Wii is just a straight upgrade by even silly metrics like power consumption too so hard for me to care, even if the lunchbox is fun.
At the moment I own 2 Wiis. The first is a Black model, that I got long ago as a birthday gift. I didn't get a lot for it at the time but I did play some of the classics. NSMBW, Brawl, Pikmin 2 and my favorite of the bunch, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. I hacked it around 2023, right before moving into my first apartment. I thought it would be great to have all the classic multiplayer Wii games to break in the apartment. That first day playing Wii Sports and MyAquarium2 in a barren living room was a special memory. Due to the consolidating of consoles and games I mentioned, I decided I wanted a White Wii so I could get Gamecube support. While you can play GC games on a later revision Wii with the Classic Controller, I already have some GC controllers and a couple games I'm keeping. There's also the fact the pins for GC controller are still on the motherboard, so using a Wii with controller ports you can re-add them. I managed to find a perfect condition one for like 6 bucks at a thrift store. Insane shit. Need to set it up, in need of an SD card which as of writing (3/22) might be completely fucked. I'm still gonna keep the Black Wii actually. I thought it would be kinda fun to have it plugged up to a low power display and keep MyAquarium running as much as possible.
While the first console I ever played was the PS2, I think the Gameboy Color was the first exposure to video games. That or flash games or watching my brother play CS 1.6. Initially it was given to me as entertainment for our trips to Iran. I was told it would only work while on vacation, and I believed this for years. One time I turned it on while at home and was amazed it turned on, yelling at my family about it. I remember the look on their face lmao, like oh fuck they're gonna be on that thing all the time. I played so much Golf and Alleyway. Didn't get all that much for it since it was before I discovered stores that weren't Gamestop. Despite that I would basically spend half of my days on the computer looking at stores to find new games. I guess my crate digger/discovery instincts started here. I found out about World of Longplays here, and would watch so many longplays of GB games I was interested in. I'm probably going to get a flashcart for it as well. I was going to retire it and just play GB games on my PSP but I do really like the little guy.
Back in like 5th grade everyone I knew had a DS. No one knew what a Gameboy was let alone own one so had no ability to play portable games with people. I don't think I begged my parents for one but I think they picked up I wanted something contemporary. Birthday rolled around and I opened up a PSP and was mildly dissapointed at first. No one I knew had one so didn't really fix my precieved isolation from my peers. Then I saw it came with Little Big Planet, my favorite game on the PS3 at the time and I stopped being a little shit. The PSP got a ton of use from me at the time, getting a decent amount of games and downloading demos from the PSN store. It laid dormant for a good while, until high school where I had a renewed interest in the library. The real event for my PSP came a year or so after I met ENdove. He put me onto PSP hacking and it was my first taste of console hacking. I was absolutely enamoured with homebrew and emulators, I didn't even really bother with pirating PSP games for a good while! On one of my old laptops theres like a mini archive of some random site's PSP homebrew collection. Recently I upgraded the CFW to ARC, which seems like the current pick. I think I'm gonna do a big battery mod on it. UMDS are kind of a terrible medium, and as far as I'm aware loading off SD card is better or equal to UMD on all levels.
I eventually did manage to get a DS of some sort. Around the time the Switch was coming out, I managed to get a friend who always able to get the newest consoles to sell me his first gen 3DS. It had some caveats, like the L bumper being broken, original DS stylus that doesn't fit and a 1gb SD card. The one time I ever bought games for it (cause even at the time DS games were too fucking much), it was when my cousin couldn't use a Eshop gift card and gave it to me. I bought a couple M2 Sega/genesis ports lmao. As you expect, I've since hacked it and got much more use out of it. I really like the customization with CFW, I've got a Teto home screen currently. I might get a New 3DS due to some issues I've been having with the batteries.
Recently I've acquired a PS Vita. My main reason for getting this was to keep tabs on the burgeoning homebrew scene for me and ENDove. I kinda think this thing fucking sucks. I don't care for the touch controls and wish it had 2 bumpers. The library isn't as interesting to me and console has got some issues. It seems people were not very good at optimizing games for this thing. The ports sound great, until you boot up a PS2 collection and find out it runs at like 30fps variable when the original game was at 60? And then you play a port of a PS3 game and its completely fine. It's not really quite a PS3 lite in the way some might make you believe. Still, portable Project DIVA is a hell of a sell. Here's to the homebrew scene, excited to see how it develops