this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Who buys crazy expensive "new retro" consoles and why? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 8 points 1 day 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 1 day 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...