Only Fools and Consoles

[Guest]

My best buy was certainly the £160 for a SNES with Super Marioworld. Amaze

[Fusty Gusset]

$2000 for a launch 360 from the States, 8 games, faceplate, extra controller...

Respect.

[CandyBob]

PS1 was a really stupid "must have it at any cost" moment. I paid for a Japanese import at CEX (yeah I know, I was naive to their ways at the time)to the tune of £450. When they got their stock I trundled along to pick it up all happy dappy as you would be to find that the price had changed to about £800. I could either have a refund or pay the extra like so many other mugs waiting in line were prepared to do. I paid. I did love that console though.

Neo Geo is my biggest regret for not keeping. Had some really lovely AES carts that are amazingly worth more (much more in some cases) than I paid for them at the time.

[Wools]

I’ve been fairly fortunate with my purchases and although I’ve brought various consoles for a single game and been disappointed thereafter, that one game made up for it in my eyes.

The only expensive exception to the rule was the original GBA. I remember getting home with the handheld and the launch GBA Mario game (I believe it was the forgotten US version of Mario 2 where you pulled plants out, or something) and being completely underwhelmed. The screen was impossible to see without a light and the launch games were awful.

On a far less expensive note, I picked up a Jaguar 64 from Electronics Boutique when they had picked up a shipment of them and were selling the console and a copy of Doom for £10. The port was awful and the machine was not much better.

And the only near miss was my local indie was selling an import Gamecube the weekend after its release in Japan with Wave Race Blue Storm and a 51 Memory Card, all for £450. I was so excited, I was agonising whether to trade in my entire collection to fund it and wisely decided to wait. The UK Launch price at £125 (?) announced only a few months later was a far better prospect.

[Kevvy Metal]

Remove one clip from the disc lid, and do the swap trick. Easy and free, and isn't permanent or detectable by Sega.

Ah excellent! Thanks for telling me...

I'll just get into my Delorean and inform my 16 year old self.

[bingowings]

probably my Japanese PSP, along with Ridge Racer.

bought it not long after release, so what, nearly six years ago? a few games but i never played it for any great length of time. the thing has been sitting gathering fluff for the past three - and now that i think about it, i can't remember where it is.

well done Sony

[Rev]

I got the PSP really cheaply - £90 with a couple of games about 4 years ago? US imported, stuck pixel or two, but very cheap considering. And by reviewing games using it, I made a profit on it too.

I still regret it.

[masterhand]

Just one, Fantasia for the Megadrive. There was a reason it did not get a review before release.

Never regretted any console, if in doubt buy used and late.

[rubberducker]

is this thread inspired by the kinect thread?

scary to see that i have owned pretty much every console since the NES. Jaguar's, 3DO's and Mega CD's included.

[Liquid Myth]

Just one, Fantasia for the Megadrive. There was a reason it did not get a review before release.

Never regretted any console, if in doubt buy used and late.

Me and my brother would, with what little cash we got, regularly rent out titles for the Megadrive and SNES as kids, and play the hell out of them despite any questionable quality.

I got to what I imagine to be one of the last levels, and got stuck at the side of a vertical scrolling level in a non-glitch jump-through-able platform, which had a solid wall above it (and solid walls to the sides). No enemies would touch it, and there was no time out issues or anything.

The whole game finished there after hours of build-up, and I think I almost cried.

[Nick R]

My console-buying regrets have always been the opposite - not buying consoles too early at over-inflated prices, but leaving it too late to get them, when they were past their peak. It may have meant that I got them and their games cheap, and that I could be certain they had a decent library of games worth buying, but it also meant that I missed out on all the fun of getting caught up in big titles' hype (and in the case of the Xboxes, playing online).

Example purchase and Xmas present dates:

Master System: 1993 (though that was a very good choice, because at the age of 8 it was the console that several of my friends had, a couple of whom got them at around the same time as me).

Mega Drive: 1995.

N64: 2002.

PS2: 2005.

Xbox: 2008.

PC capable of playing Half-Life 2 smoothly: 2009 (I think it even took me till about 2006 to upgrade from Win98 to XP)!

360: 2010 (though that was mostly because I wanted a version that wasn't so notoriously unreliable, which meant waiting for the Slim).

And the only near miss was my local indie was selling an import Gamecube the weekend after its release in Japan with Wave Race Blue Storm and a 51 Memory Card, all for £450. I was so excited, I was agonising whether to trade in my entire collection to fund it and wisely decided to wait. The UK Launch price at £125 (?) announced only a few months later was a far better prospect.

£129!

[Kryptonian]

A while ago my folks pointed out that I had a fair bit of money in my account and that I should treat myself once in a while, maybe get a new console like an Xbox 360.

Folks or financial advisors?

[Naysonymous]

Owning a Sega Saturn at the age of 16.

The PAL version of that console was so limited due to region locking and no easy way of importing all the great Japanese only titles.

I did have a lot of fun out of it and a fair few great games were released over here, but missed out on so much.

You really had to be an import enthusiast to get the most out of the console. Not a 16 year old with little to no income.

I was in the same boat. I think I had just left school when I bought my Saturn. I didn't buy it on launch day, but I certainly had it within a month or two of it's release. I was a huge Sega fan and I traded in my Megadrive and a ton of games for a Saturn, Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter. I do feel that history has been somewhat unkind to the Saturn, it had plenty of great exclusive titles even if we are only talking about UK releases, I just wish I hadnt paid about £400 for one!

[Landshead]

I bought a PS3 at the uk launch for £425! No wonder they took so long to start selling in numbers.

[Qazimod]

Folks or financial advisors?

Haha, it's my fault for being such a pushover.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Heh, where to start?

£550 for an import PS1

£250 for an import Dreamcast

£425 for an import PSP

and the biggie

$2000 for a launch 360 from the States, 8 games, faceplate, extra controller...

Impressive, but I wonder how you managed to pay that much for an import PSP. I bought mine from Videogamesplus in Canada at launch, got it shipped next day with a courier and I still paid less than when it got into the shops here.

[Naysonymous]

Heh, where to start?

£550 for an import PS1

£250 for an import Dreamcast

£425 for an import PSP

and the biggie

$2000 for a launch 360 from the States, 8 games, faceplate, extra controller...

Blimey. You could have bought a ticket to New York and had a couple of days holiday and brought a 360 back for that price!

[Boozy The Clown]

Wasn't much of a gamer till the Ps1 featured on Gamesmaster and I had to have it. Then rode the crest of a console wave of delight through the N64 (bought when Goldeneye was released) and Dreamcast ( bought with Metropolis Street Racer). The wave crashed when I convinced myself I needed to get a PS2 the day Gran Turismo 3 came out. Don't get me wrong GT3 was amazing but there was nothing else. I had the money but there just weren't any games on the shelves. It made the first year of the Ps3 look abundant. I was walking past the shop one day and spied GTA3 was out so took a chance, half in optimism ( it was launched without much fanfare or hype) and half out of desperation for something to play. An amazing game but and I played the hell out of it but purely out of a lack of anything else worth buying.

It was official the PS2 was a DVD player 1st and gaming console 2nd. That's why it was gotten rid of a week after I bought an Xbox on launch, and I've never owned a Sony console since.

So yeah the PS2, the only time I've felt truly burnt by buying early.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

But ... but ... by the time GTA3 came out you also had SSX, SSX Tricky, the Tony Hawk's games, Jak & Daxter, Rez came about 2 months later ... I bought my PS3 also around the time when GT3 came out and I never really found myself short of stuff to play.

[Yewone]

Another vote for Steel Battalion here.. at the time I kept convincing myself I could just sell it, but never did. So now it's buried in the loft ready to be laughed at by future generations

... also spent a ludicrous amount of cash on a jap Dreamcast, and god knows how many import games for it. Although think I actually regret selling it all on more.

.... oh and the 360 HD-DVD drive

[sofasurfer]

PSP Go for me.

I bitched about what a complete waste of time and money this was for months and then in a moment of madness bought one second hand on another forum. It must have had about ten minutes of gaming time on it.

Apart from that I don't regret any other console purchases. I still love my Panasonic Q even though it did cost an arm and a leg.

[Not Thread Owner]

So yeah the PS2, the only time I've felt truly burnt by buying early.

I felt pretty burnt by my PS2 too. Died in under 20 hours use.

At least it was free, and I got a replacement.

[Barny]

There haven't been that many for me. Thank god. But the first (kinda) mistake was asking for a Spectrum 128K. You see, where I live all the kids had C64's. A few had Amstrads but NO-ONE had Spectrums. You couldn't even buy them in the shops. And Sinclair Spectrum was looked down upon and scorned. I got my computer under the very, very strict condition that I had to learn to program. I was allowed to game but it was under no circumstance just a gaming machine. I remember seeing an Atari 2600 in a shop with my dad and him declaring that games were shit and made you dumb and retarded and they were only for losers.

Anyway, I asked for a Spectrum 128K when it was time to upgrade from my Timex 1000. Why? Erm, I'm ashamed to admit it but mainly to be different, I think. Well, not only that. I had some weird love for Spectrum going on. But it meant that whenever I met other kids and we got talking about games and shit, me saying 'I got a Spectrum' them almost dying of laughter and taking the piss. And me getting mad and defending my beloved Spectrum. But now I wish I had just asked for a C64.

And more recently, the Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack. Limited Japanese pack with a coin and soundtrack CD. I had played the demo from Phantasy Star Online and loved it. So I was pumped for going all out. Ordered from NCS. Cost a bit plus postage. And it got caught by customs. And the game turned out to be shit. And for a long time afterwards, the Hong Kong retailers were selling it for absolute peanuts. Fucking Sonic.

[Triple A]

oh god where to start

launch JP PS1 for £550

launch JP Saturn for £450

launch JP N64 for £400

launch JP PSP for £375

Neo-Geo games for £200+ a pop

£500 graphics cards

but my only regret :-)

a £550 Cave PCB kit that had a home port less than two years later

thankfully, my launch JP DC was given to me by SEGA for free though :-P

[The Boatman]

I bought the UK Xbox at launch. No regrets there - I booked a fortnight off and played MGS2 (which had come out in the UK the week before) and then Halo, one of the best gaming binges I've ever had.

I imported a PSP at (the Japanese) launch when Play-Asia were selling them for ridiculous prices. I can't and don't really want to remember how much it cost, just that I had a load of Xmas overtime coming and I saw that picture with 3 people playing Ridge Racer on their PSPs and one person playing Mario on their (original) DS. It got bashed during shipping and Play-Asia sent me another one and by the time it arrived their price had dropped massively. Still, Lumines was amazing.

I ended up selling the PSP and then last year bought a Go. Purely for MGS Peace Walker and VC2. Can't really say I regret doing so as PW is one of the best games I've played this year. Even at the astonishing, surely-they-can't-be-serious price on the PSN store.

I imported a Panasonic Q. Probably wouldn't do that with the benefit of hindsight. But I did get to show it off at an Edge forum meet, so my peers were impressed.

I bought the collector's edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum. That really was an awful piece of tat. I have this thing for collector's editions of things though.

The one gaming purchase I wish I'd never made, that if I could I would go back in time and physically prevent my younger self from carrying out, that even at the time I knew was a desperate act of pissing-money-up-a-wall folly, a real WTF-was-I-THINKING?! mistake, was when my mobile phone died in November 2003 and I needed a new one. Went into the Orange shop and the N-Gage had just come out. I've never met anyone else who ever bought one.

[Mr. Pickle]

Impressive, but I wonder how you managed to pay that much for an import PSP. I bought mine from Videogamesplus in Canada at launch, got it shipped next day with a courier and I still paid less than when it got into the shops here.

I got it from Lik-Sang with Ridge Racers and Metal Gear (which was utterly incomprehensible to someone who didn't speak Japanese) at the Jap launch. My face beamed when the screen lit up. Like it was from the future or something. Then the crushing disappointment followed a few months later when I realised I was playing Super Mario World on it and nothing else. I even got bummed for import duty and the UPS woman who delivered it had the thickest, most luxurious 'tache I have ever seen on the fairer sex.

Blimey. You could have bought a ticket to New York and had a couple of days holiday and brought a 360 back for that price!

Yes. I got it from eBay when my UK pre-order fell through. I don't think the girl I got it from made too much money off it, after shipping and all. Strangely, it passed through customs without a charge. I'm guessing they were all like ' ' at the declared price of the goods and decided I'd paid enough.

[cavalcade]

Regret is a strange emotion. I don't think I've instantly regretted any purchase as my brain tends to flood itself with denial chemicals. It's the creeping sense of dread, that the chemicals keep at bay, sometimes for weeks, that gets me in the end. Then the denial turns to regret which then turns to guilt and self loathing. It's a pattern I've seen with many collectors editions of games that I've paid over the odds for, and for a few consoles. I think the PSP is probably the best example of this phenomenon, because I absolutely thought I loved it for months. Possibly even for years. Imported day 1 from Japan at an eye watering cost. Sat on the sofa in awe at the Ridge Racer opening cinematic. Couldn't believe how sleek, black and sexy it was. It was like I'd stepped forward 10 years into the future.

I thought I loved it.

And then one day I took it out of a draw. Saw the coating of dust on the foam case. Then the guilt hit me like a tsunami. I looked at the 30 or so games I'd bought for it, and the accessories I'd lavished it with and realised I'd never loved it. I spent a few hours self-loathing myself intensely, and then pretty much stuffed it back in the drawer to rot. I'm not even sure where it is now.

Still, I'll be buying a PSP2 at launch, because I bet it'll be awesome. Aaaah, sweet, sweet brain chemicals.....

[Pupponvesh 2]

I used to buy/waste-money-on a lot of Dreamcast games when things for it were starting to wind down. I remember paying £70 for a Japanese version of Rez (in hindsight, a worthy purchase), US PSO Ep2 with Hunters license for about £70 (again, not too shabby), but then things got a bit out of hand and I was paying £50 a time for stuff like Unreal Tournament, Outrigger, Daytona USA 2001 and Alien Front Online. They were decent enough games but were never worth any more than £30.

Hardware-wise, the original GBA. There's simply no contest. The most stupid, crappest piece of hardware ever. Why the hell did anyone buy that shit? It was impossible to see anything.

I'd actually rate my best launch purchases as the Wii, Cube and PSP. I had loads of fun with them.

[masterhand]

Hardware-wise, the original GBA. There's simply no contest. The most stupid, crappest piece of hardware ever. Why the hell did anyone buy that shit? It was impossible to see anything.

Well, like the People at Nintendo they only ever looked at it under flourecent tube lighting in the office during development and it was fine. However a lack of real world testing showed the screens flaws. I brought mine from a shop with flourecent tube lighting and it looked good.

Until I got it home and found I needed to be directly under a spotlight on my landing to see anything. Sunlight was also OK but not much of that in the UK during the winter.

[SPE]

Well, like the People at Nintendo they only ever looked at it under flourecent tube lighting in the office during development and it was fine. However a lack of real world testing showed the screens flaws. I brought mine from a shop with flourecent tube lighting and it looked good.

Until I got it home and found I needed to be directly under a spotlight on my landing to see anything. Sunlight was also OK but not much of that in the UK during the winter.

You can't blame Nintendo for the permanently overcast British weather. Still, everyone bought an Afterburner backlight, right?