this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Who buys crazy expensive "new retro" consoles and why? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by squaresinger@lemmy.world to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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This is not meant as an attack in any way, anyone can obvously buy whatever makes them happy.

I'm just really curious who buys consoles that aren't that old for such high prices.

I can see the appeal of holding childhood consoles in your hands again, and I can also see the appeal in collecting cool really old stuff. But I struggle to understand why someone would buy e.g. a New 2DS XL for €300 or more.

So just out of curiosity, if you are someone like that, what's the appeal that makes it worth spending so much money, instead of e.g. just going with a steam deck and an emulator instead?

Edit to avoid confusion: I am not talking about new reproduction systems (like the N64 Mini) or premium emulation/FPGA systems (like the Analogue Pocket or the MISTer), but about original game consoles that aren't supported any more but also aren't really old. Something like the DS/3DS, PSP, Wii U, Playstation 3. Some of them are now more expensive in mediocre second-hand condition than they were when they were new.

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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 24 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Expensive is relative to income. 300eur is not much money for some. Also, 300eur is cheaper than a steam deck...

Buying a complete product means you don't have to mess around with emulators not working quite right, and if it doesn't work, you can just return it. Those two alone are pretty good reasons to get the prebuilt machine.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 7 points 5 days ago (4 children)

When it comes to old handhelds, do you replace the batteries? At one point in time I had a PSP battery swell up like a balloon, scary.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Chinese knockoff replacement batteries are always sketchy as hell. Often lying outright about battery specs, and theres always the potential for them to go full samsung.

years ago, ifixit claimed to test their replacement batteries for quality and safety, i dont know if thats still true.. but if you're gonna get a replacement psp battery, I'd get it from there before anywhere else, even if its marginally more expensive.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Retro consoles aren't my thing, but i have replaced batteries for all kinds of devices, and it's usually fairly easy to do. Aliexpress et al. have all the batteries you could want, and a little fiddling with some screw drivers and you cam usually get the job done. Fairly safe with some basic common sense as well.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I really need to replace my 3DS XL battery...

...and PS3 controllers actually. Another fire hazard I've ignored lol.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+3DS+XL+Battery+Replacement/25068 - Looks easy, barely needs a guide.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/DualShock+3+Battery+Replacement/3255 - Definitely doable, although I will say that you should be careful with game controllers, they are often full of springs that will escape and be a complete pain to find and reinstall.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

Nice, thanks for the links.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Depends on the handheld, but most of the older handhelds have easily replaceable batteries.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

There are companies that sell parts to repair and sometimes upgrade old devices. Sometimes local retro game stores will service your devices for you.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Buying a complete product means you don’t have to mess around with emulators not working quite right, and if it doesn’t work, you can just return it.

Can you return second-hand consoles?

Expensive is relative to income. 300eur is not much money for some. Also, 300eur is cheaper than a steam deck…

True, but I mostly meant relative to other devices you could use instead. The cheapest option would probably to get a phone-attachment controller for maybe €50-100 and connect that to the phone you already have.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Okay, I see we have some confusion, when you said "new retro", I was thinking of the N64 raspi thing that came out last year. Those did have a manufacturer warranty.

In terms of second hand consoles, yes, no warranty, but, it's still not messing around with emulators, it should play the games largely as expected.

Phone attached controller might be cheaper, but surely you can see that its a significantly worse experience than a properly built console?

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Phone attached controller might be cheaper, but surely you can see that its a significantly worse experience than a properly built console?

I do have some of my old consoles still, specifically a Gameboy Color and a New 3DS XL. I also have a Razr Kishi v2 smartphone controller.

The Kishi+phone easily beats the original GBC in every metric except of nostalgia. When it comes to the 3DS, it's slightly more mixed, since I can't use the Kishi in portrait mode, so emulating both screens on top of each other is difficult.

I did try another controller in vertical mode (can't remember what it was called, a friend of mine let me try it) and there the experience was actually better on the emulator than on the real device, except of the missing 3D graphics. But other than that, performance was better on the emulator (especially Pokemon games struggle on OG hardware), the screen was much better.

Might be a bit more mixed for games that require precise touch input, but none of the games I played actually need that.

Especially now that online play has been discontinued on the 3DS, emulators aren't that far behind.

And the biggest advantage: saving a few hundred Euros for the controller compared to the original hardware.

But that's of course only my view, and that's why I was asking for other people's experiences, because I want to understandtand their reasoning.

In terms of second hand consoles, yes, no warranty, but, it’s still not messing around with emulators, it should play the games largely as expected.

Ease of use? Yeah, I guess that's fair, especially if you aren't hacked. Once you hack the console, it's just as much hassle as dialing in an emulator...