Are you looking into hunting down some older consoles or have one in your closet that you want to keep in good working order? Are you wondering what you can do to extend the life of new consoles that you have bought? If you answered Yes to any of these questions, then this feature is for you.

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Video Game Collecting:

The pitfalls of modern consoles

Collecting video games has become a passion for many people and is quickly becoming the “stamps” or “coins” replacement as we head fully into the 21st century. Although a lot of emulation is out there now to bring back that nostalgic experience from years gone by, purists will tell you that there is nothing better than playing an actual cartridge or disc from the machine that it was originally created for.

Until the last few years, this really wasn’t an issue. Game consoles for the most part are pretty robust: chances are pretty good that the old Atari 2600 that has been sitting in a closet for the last 20 years still works today. The biggest problem tends to be with power supplies but they are fairly easily replaced. Even if problems occur at a component level, repairing an older game console is pretty straightforward.

For being over twenty years old, many of the the older cartridge-based consoles are surprisingly robust compared to newer systems

Starting with the Panasonic 3DO’s and later the Dreamcast, and with every full size console released since then, heat dissipation has been a requirement. All of the new systems have fans and heat sinks that are designed to keep the systems running their best and prevent the damage that can occur with overheating. This is not something you had to worry about with your original Pong machine.

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Fans in our PC’s have a tendency to fail every few years, and the ones inside your console are really no different. The reason that you probably haven’t had to replace them sooner is because we don’t tend to leave our consoles on as much or as continuously as we do PC’s, resulting in the appearance of an extended life.

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The other big issue is that starting with the Turbo Grafx CD add-on (followed quickly by the Sega CD add-on) consoles started using CD-ROM or DVD-ROM technology to deploy the games. CD’s offer a lower manufacturing cost over cartridges and stored infinitely more information. From the publishers perspective, this technology was (and is) a complete win-win. For collector’s, it presents some new challenges.

Without getting into the difficulties of keeping CD’s and DVD’s completely scratch free, we now have a complicated moving device inside of the game console that is prone to breaking. Anyone in the manufacturing industry will tell you: the more moving parts, the more likely something will break. This is not good news if you are hoping to show the grand kids this “Xbox” thing you played on when you were a Wii lad (ok, I couldn’t resist that one).

The shift to disc-based storage mediums opened up a lot of doors for games. It also made it more common for consoles to wear down.

The bottom line is that the earlier generation consoles are easier to collect for from the stand point that their durability in both media and systems is unquestioned… the question now is, what can you do if you are a collector in the latest generation?

If cash is not an issue, then you need to start picking up spare consoles “just in case” your main one breaks. One to show and one to go is the expression I always use, and it is becoming more and more important. Sometimes, this can be more difficult than you think. Right now, trying to get a used Xbox is almost as difficult as obtaining a Wii this holiday season. I thought for sure with the backwards compatibility on the 360 that Xbox fans upgrading to the latest console would be dumping their older systems as fast as possible, but people are hanging on to them.

The Xbox also creates a bigger need for multiple system purchases because not all of its parts are interchangeable: you can’t just move a hard drive out of a broken machine and put it in another one unless you’ve modded it.

If you have a partner that doesn’t understand your need to collect and preserve game systems, and would certainly not understand you buying multiple duplicate systems, it’s time to put your thinking cap on and obtain different versions of the same console. You know how it works, there is the Crystal Xbox, the black “Sports” Dreamcast, the PS One and so on. You really aren’t buying two of the same console if the color and/or shape are different, right?

With the latest crop of consoles to come out, heat will also be an issue in extending the longevity of one's system

If you can’t afford the multiple system route, consider stocking up on spare parts that commonly break or will need replacement. On the Dreamcast, it will be fans and GD-ROM drives. On the Playstation 2 it will be the fan, the memory card cable and possibly a precision screwdriver to make voltage adjustments to the laser lens.

If you own a 360 now, you should consider adding some additional cooling to it. I know a lot of people will tell you that a 360 in an open space will be fine, and they are correct. However, adding additional cooling will do nothing more than extend the life of the unit. It may work fine without it, but it will work better and longer with it.

On all of the systems, dust is your enemy so you may want to consider keeping some cans of compressed air handy to keep your systems clean. Even in a non-smoking, pet-free home you can experience an incredible amount of dust over time. Keeping this out will keep your console running the way you want it to for years.

Collecting game consoles and the games that go with them can be a very rewarding experience. Finding out they no longer work can be really disappointing, so by following some of these tips you can keep your machines running for a long time. If you’re really hardcore, then you have to start collecting television sets too. The reason? There is nothing more interesting than watching a young person look in awe when you are trying to boot up Pong on a 1953 television set and they claim it isn’t working, and you look at them calmly and say “Oh, just wait….the set needs to warm up”.

Syd Bolton

(December 21, 2006)

Syd Bolton has been collecting game consoles for over 20 years and has dozens of systems and over 5,000 games. He is the newest addition to the Armchair Empire. Have any interesting stories about your consoles that died before their time? Make sure you share with us here.


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