I picked up a GameCube at a convention a few years ago for $100 and bought a few games I missed out on as a kid. The pricing on the games is worse than the console (unless the game is niche, then it’s dirt cheap). I like the physicality of collecting the disks and using the console itself. I’ve always preferred buying cartridge over digital when possible.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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I feel like a lot of the retro gaming hobby can end up being closer to a tech hobby, I have more fun cracking old systems and making them do new things than I do actually playing games on them. If you’re just looking to play retro games without the tech hobbyist externalities then a ready to go system with a pre-loaded rom library makes a lot of sense.
I usually try and pick up a console a few years after its done. Its usually cheap and the nostalgia wave hasn't hit yet. At that point its probably been hacked and the store shut down so I feel no qualms aquiring games however I see fit. Though there seems little reason to do so after the 360 and PS3 since most games play on pc too now.
DS and 3DS are hard to replicate well on a single screen device. So i get those, but there are newer handheld emulators with dual screens. Nintendo also keeps shutting down 3DS emulators so progress is slow. Vita emulation is still in its infancy.
PSP and GBA wouldn't be worth investing in. Both play great on handheld emulators. Home consoles I'd just emulate or newer ones usually have a pc port. There are some games stuck on consoles that don't emulate well, so if one of those is a fav maybe buy the console.
I do kinda want one of those 1Up Arcade standing arcade cabinet machines, but for $300? I could probably build my own and it would be full sized, not a little 2 foot tall thing you need to put on a table. It's just an emulator loaded with ROMs, shoved into an arcade machine shaped box. The most expensive thing I would need to buy to build my own would be the wood for the cabinet.
The 2/3ds is probably the most easily hackable system there is..
PS Vita takes that cake, no contest. Open the browser, put in a url, you have a fully hacked Vita.
That said, 2/3DS hacking is still ridiculously simple.
many of the people who were a kid back when those 'recent' consoles released are adults now, so it makes sense they want one now that they can afford it i guess.
Handhelds don't really need an explanation, in my opinion. Major players don't make those form factors anymore, but the use case is everlasting.
PS3 I can't explain.
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.
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.
There are companies that sell parts to repair and sometimes upgrade old devices. Sometimes local retro game stores will service your devices for you.
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.
I really need to replace my 3DS XL battery...
...and PS3 controllers actually. Another fire hazard I've ignored lol.
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.
Nice, thanks for the links.
Depends on the handheld, but most of the older handhelds have easily replaceable batteries.
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.
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?
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...
- They aren't making more of them, so supply only ever decreases
- People are finding reasons to get these consoles
- The "target audience" is increasingly finding more disposable income. While they couldn't spare the $100 years ago when they were cheaper, they can find the $300 now (for whatever reason)
(for whatever reason)
That's exactly what I want to know :)
I mean, for people who can't or don't want to afford original hardware, there's more than enough options out there, so I'm not questioning why someone sells these things for those prices. I'd just like to know why someone pays that much.
The reason has to do with money.
Over 5 years, someone can get a first job, a raise, finish paying off debt, etc
Nah, I don't mean why do they have more money and thus can afford stuff.
The question is why is the original console worth so much more to them than the alternatives?
Social media turning every hobby into a "hustle"
"Retro, Vintage" old stuff in general is trendy right now. And people saw this and bought up as much cheap stock as they could and raised the prices to insane levels because all the cheap stock is now own by them...
That's a very oversimplified explanation but it's affected more than just retro consoles.
In general playing games on original hardware is going to be a better experience than running it in an emulator.
Especially in the 3DS family of systems, where so much unique hardware stuff is part of the experience. In an emulator you’re going to miss out on the dual screen, 3D effect, and stylus touch screen.
That’s not even getting into emulator issues with things like slow down, sound issues, or inaccuracies in rendering.
In general playing games on original hardware is going to be a better experience than running it in an emulator.
Tbh, I think that depends. On the 3DS it does make more sense, you are right, especially if you want the 3D effect. That one is really not replicable.
On a New 2DS XL without the 3D effect, I don't know... Most games I played don't really use the touch screen a lot (though that obviously depends on the games) and a phone with a portrait-mode controller can replicate the dual-screen quite well.
But yeah, everyone has their own preferences.
I second this -- SNES and Gameboy/GBA games run perfectly on emulators in my experience. Those are the platforms that I play. I'd imagine that Genesis and N64 are similar.
These old consoles are 100% better on emulators with stuff like fast forward, save states, upscaling and in the case of the mobile ones, decent screens.
There might be a few different scenarios, but outside of very specific consoles / handhelds, they've remained somewhat affordable tbh.
- 3DS line of handhelds, historically emulation has been good but not perfect (eg disruptive shader caching), dual-screen not being ideal on single screen setups and missing 3D effect via emulation make emulation a last resort for a number of people, myself included.
- PSVita, emulation is starting to get into its stride but nowhere near fully playable and supply of good condition OLED models is slowly dwindling.
- PS3, backcompat models have historically been pricey, especially CECHA/Bxx since they have full hw PS2 compat. Despite the usually high price point, it's still the easiest and cheapest way to play physical PS2 games on a modern screen.
Most other "newly retro" consoles and handhelds really haven't appreciated as much afaict, although that might be market-dependent.
I refuse to buy a console that I can emulate because it would push up the price for someone who can't do what I can do with emulators.
I like the attitude!
I bought the new N64,the Anologue 64 because I still have all my old N64 games and they have just been sitting on a shelf or in a container. I was planning on modding my N64 to add an upscaler, HDMI support and USBC PD, but then I saw the A64 and said Merry Christmas to me.
I'm playing Perfect Dark again and am so happy. Did you know you could use 2 controllers to have two movement control sticks!? The game also supports 16:9 and has "high res" option. It looks and plays amazing still.
The high res option just tanked your fps from 24 to around 12 if I remember correctly. Does it still run at a decent clip on the A64?
The A3D (or A64) has an option to “overclock” the chipset so games that used to crawl on OG hardware run buttery smooth
This! It runs so buttery smooth for the most part it's crazy. It feels like 60 fps, but I have no current way to see stats. I think there is a dev console but I haven't messed with it yet.
I really can't wait for the modern wireless controllers to come in. They ship next month.
I also have mod kits coming for the og controllers with new joysticks and wireless connection.
It's just been really fun playing my old games again.
I picked up a used Wii U with 4 Wii-motes for 200 CAD.
This lets me play (every?) GameCube, Wii, and Wii U games, along with any NES, SNES, N64, and 3(DS) games that were released to the virtual console/Wii U shop - and no fussing around with emulators.
It's a huge catalogue of games to play natively with proper Wii-mote support, or 3rd party bluetooth controllers
I'll eventually get a picofly installed in my V2 Switch - but for the time being the Wii U is a great value gaming machine.
I have a Wii U too, but I got that thing for €60 back then.
If I would be getting into that right now, I'd just load up CEMU (or other emulators) onto my living room PC. That one also works with Wiimotes and other Bluetooth controllers. It also nicely plays PS1 and PS2 games (haven't tried anything newer yet). Setting up these emulators was super easy so far.
On the Wii U I don't have to fuss with emulators, but instead I have to hack the console and fuss with whatever's the current homebrew solution. (Btw, I should really update some time. I'm sure I am way outdated by now.)
Different strokes I suppose. I first tried emulation on the Rock 5B that I have running Android TV but it did not perform.
I don't have a living room PC and couldn't get one for CAD 200 + Wii remotes + mayflash dolphinbar.
For ease of use with a little kid who is starting to game, this has worked out.
For DS/2DS/3DS specifically, there is no emulation hardware that has resistive touchscreen, which I think is superior to capacitive for many games. For 3DS, the same thing applies to the 3D capabilities. Additionally, I'm under the impression that 3DS emulation isn't fully reliable for the full library, but I may be out of date.
TLDR; emulation may not be as feature complete or as quality as original hardware.
If you already have games it becomes an easier argument. Not always. I still have some 3DS games that I never got rid of when I got rid of the console, I would like another console but the prices...
That being said if my PS2 or 3 die, I'm replacing.
PS2 and ps3 games can be reliable emulated these days. No sense in giving Sony more money.
Are Sony still selling new PS2s and PS3s? I think we can only buy them secondhand now, which means Sony already got whatever money they were going to get a long time ago.
Also, while the top sellers work reliably, unless something big has changed in the last year or so, plenty of PS2 games still don't work right in emulators, and even have game-breaking bugs. I have a large collection of PS2 games, and many of them are awful or unplayable in emulation.
To the everyday person a Steam Deck and emulation are very niche so they buy what they know.
I guess my MiSTer setup could count as a crazy expensive new retro setup
I went for it because I just want to play the games, as hardware accurately if possible, in a small footprint with HDMI scaling & wireless controllers as an option.
I've got a few older consoles, but frankly since I got the MiSTer it's nice to not have to mess with getting the old hardware set up in order to just play a game, and I've not gotten around to doing HDMI mods on any of them yet.
Sorry, that was a bit of a misunderstanding. A MISTer makes sense to me. I was talking about newer original retro consoles. Something like a DS/3DS, PSP, Wii, Wii U, PS3. These things are now often more expensive in mediocre second-hand condition than they were new back when they were new, and that's what I don't really understand.
Can't you just run your existing retro consoles if you still have them, through an upscaler such as an OSSC, RetroTink or derivatives, or a FrameMeister, though?
Also, the XB360 and PS3 are new enough that they can just interface through HDMI like any other modern AV component. Similarly, XB360 emulation sucks right now, and PS3 emulation while better than XB360 emulation, isn't all there either vs. running original hardware.