Best system to start a retro collection?

I got a cousin who is interested in getting back into the retro scene. He used to be a heavy N64 player, but he is thinking of trying something else. I was thinking of telling him to get into GameCube. Many of the franchises hit their strides with excellent games (SSBM, MKDD, TP, WW, Mario Party 4 and Mario Sunshine all come to mind) and is fairly easy to start a collection Not to mention you can buy new controllers from first party which is rare in this day and age.

But I was also leaning towards telling him about Dreamcast. It has great games games, easily accessible. and a relatively low price. He asked about Saturn but I told him that would be ridiculous at this point. What do you guys think? If you were starting to get into retro where would you start?

Where would I start? My favorite system(s) and, or something that I already have.

Forgetting about price, I would tell him to read up on the libraries and watch gameplay videos on youtube on his own first. The types of games he knows that he would enjoy should be the primary factor considered for a first purchase.

The retro scene is nasty. I wouldn't bother.

At this point it's kind of hard to say. Prices are starting to feel unfriendly across the board almost. A lot of the core Nintendo stuff outside of the NES and handhelds feel like they've crawled up a fair bit. The Saturn's just been getting worse. Dreamcast is 50/50, parts of it are fair but specific gems are starting to see price spikes in my experience. PS1 is sort of in that same situation where a certain chunk of games spiked but thankfully it seems many solid titles didn't so far. PS2 may be pretty approachable but I haven't checked extensively in the field lately. Genesis/Mega Drive has remained decent for a while up to this point and I've seen some collectors and enthusiasts point to it as a decent starting zone.

As Renegade_Fury mentioned though it'd be better to know what sort of stuff he wants to target. For instance JRPGs and such I would probably place priority on SNES, PS1 and PS2 (or handhelds.) Shmups and arcade stuff would go to Saturn and Dreamcast, Nintendo stuff... goes without saying. It really depends what they want out of a retro library and if they have the funding some prioritizing would probably help.

Do you know what sort of series or genres he's into? If he was an N64 person was he into the core Nintendo franchises, the N64 FPS boom, or maybe stuff from Rare? Just some wild guessing on my part.

1. snes
2. ps2
3. ps1

you mean restart...PS1 is the correct answer,I miss playing Pepsiman,Kaettekita Cyborg Kuro-Chan,and Bishi Bashi Special,and finding out what is inside the memory card I kept for years.yes,it's the one and only surviving PS1 memory card in my gaming collection.

@bunchanumbers: Dreamcast hands down, the prices are still at the point where most things are extremely reasonable to get, however that will change shortly no doubt.

How so?

Also to add that there are so many great games to be played on PS1 such as Ape Escape, Gex games, Spyro, Crash, and great JRPG sames. Start off with PS1.

@davillain-: I feel bad that I have no respect to Crash at all,that's why I stick with the uncommon titles the PS1 has to offer,now that's gonna be worthy

@nyadc: He's probably referring to the nigh across the board rise in prices on retro goods I mentioned in my post. Dreamcast is starting to feel it as well at this point with titles like Skies of Arcadia having a sharp rise in the past year or so. "Change shortly no doubt" could very well be true given the growing cult status.

I would say SNES, but that´s only because I like many Nintendo games ( but I still haven´t purchased one, went for a N64 instead, it just was too good of a deal to let it pass ). PS1 I have ( well I have a bunch of games but still don´t know where my wife stored the console ) PS2 I also have ( I still play it ) and recently purchased a Game Cube ( I have 4 games for it so far ).

@bunchanumbers:

I would start with the Atari VCS. Prices are still relatively low with that system and it has a ton of classics.

Yar's Revenge, Space invaders, Gravitar, Defender, Asteroids, Combat, and so many more.

Or my personal favorite, the Colecovision. It was a powerhouse for its time, delivering some of the best arcade ports you could buy in 1982-83. I still enjoy playing games like Ladybug, Venture, Pepper II, Centipede, Space Fury, Time Pilot, Mr. DO!, Carnival, etc..

I realize you were speaking of the N64 era, and thereabouts, so these truly retro systems might seem silly, but that's where *I* would start. Nintendo collecting has gone nuts over the last 10+ years and the prices have inflated to way more than they should seem to be.

What it really comes down to is that you should just collect your favorite games.

I agree with dreamcast. Most games are sanely priced. Gamecube prices are crazy right now.

I would start with SNES and Genesis.

this

It just ends up costing a lot of money.

I'd go with a Dreamcast. It's a fun system with a good number of funky unique titles. Most still look great today, and he can use a VGA adapter to get really nice image on a modern TV. Plus it has the "cred" of being the last console made by Sega, which adds to some of the collector flare even if it's not super hard to find one

If I were getting back into retro, I'd probably try for an SNES, mostly because of the variety of games. They are a bit more playable and cartridges are a bit more reliable than those of older systems, and for me, SNES has tons of amazing games like Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. If your friend was an N64 buff (I'd call that my favorite console with the budding FPS scene you mentioned), he might appreciate some older Nintendo gaming. I still have my SNES in my gaming room, fully functional :)

@bunchanumbers: i'd say start with your favorite console i started with the original xbox and still collect for it, then started collecting for the n64 so go with the one you like the most

I thought I'd give a heads up. In the end he went with a PS2. It had a lot of games he could get on the cheap and the system is low on cost to enter. In the end I can't argue with this decision. I was hoping he would have went Dreamcast or GCN but it is a solid choice.

@bunchanumbers: Hey it's a hell of a library, can't really say it's a bad call. A good jack of all trades I'd think.

SNES is always a good bet, but the DC also has some great games on it too...

Probably a good idea because in a few years people will start dipping back into ps2 heavily and prices will jump.

Correct. And I already have one now and start playing.

@bunchanumbers I have two pieces of advice for your friend. If you friend insists on collecting just a single system and does not have a biased against it, the original Xbox has a lot of really good games and the prices are still fairly reasonable. Most of the other systems out there you will find the prices for the good games have gotten out of control, the best games on Dreamcast all run over $50 to $100 these days. Same is true for the SNES, DCast, PS1 and N64, with the PS2 & GC prices quickly catching up as those games become harder to find. On the other hand you can probably find an Xbox with a copy of KotoR and Jade Empire for under $100 these days. If you're going to collect, the OG Xbox is in its prime, and everything will start going up in price in the next few years.

The second piece of advice is the advice I gave the last guy who asked this question, and probably the advice you'll pass on to your friend. Don't focus on one system, buy whatever you can find, even if you don't have the system yet. Chances are good that you will find that system in the end if you look hard enough and know your gaming systems. In the past month alone I've seen an Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 400XL(which i bought) a PS1, two PS2's, a GBA and over a hundred games for various systems at my local good will. If you spend some time studying what systems are out there, and you scour the thrift stores and garage sales you will find a ton of great games and systems. Also if you go to garage sales, sometimes it helps to ask, I've had people go inside and grab some games because they didn't think anyone would buy them, and I'd walk away with a treasure trove of goodies.

TL;DR. OG Xbox collecting is in its prime, and keep your eyes open for gaming deals at local thrift shops & garage sales.

I would say it depends on what systems you owned in the past.

I never owned a genesis so I started with that and built up a library watching and waiting for deals on ebay.

The previous post reminds me of what drove me to start collecting systems(which led to more games). My childhood I always remembered wanting my parents to buy me a Turbo Duo, Atari Jaguar and a Sega Saturn. When I finally got a nice job I went out and got those systems for myself because I vowed as a child I would never feel that kind of disappointment again. Currently I have a Turbo CD, but still looking for a reasonably priced Turbo Duo(and Jaguar CD, and Neo Geo AES Gold lol)

Yeah. In the end its a great system with a massive collection of games you can get on a budget. It might be one of the best budget retro machines to start with. The funny thing is that it didn't even cross my mind when he brought it up. I facepalmed and said of course.

Genesis with an Everdrive. A Genesis can be found for pretty cheap and while the everdrive can be a bit costly you will have the whole Genesis library of games on one cart.

My other recommendation would be a PS2 slim. Great library of games and its backwards compatible with PS1 games.


Edit: Looks like he did end up getting a PS2. Great choice. Consoles and games are still pretty cheap for the most part.

Man if ps2 is considered retro then go for that can probably get one cheap, and it plays Persona 3 FES.

Sega Genesis is a damned cool console if you can get one, same goes for the SNES

Collecting for the SNES can be really expensive. The average price for a decent SNES game these days is around $30. It only gets more expensive from there. I personally just saved up some money and got myself a SD2SNES flash cart. Its expensive, but cheaper than collecting copies of the games in the long run. Basically 4-5 great SNES games cost about as much as a SD2SNES cart.

@emgesp: Never quite looked into them, I got lucky and have a bunch of old consoles my dad had as a kid so I've been set on 4th Gen up.

Gets even more expensive if you want the game with its original box & inserts/manual. I'm sure one of my next purchases will be Contra III: Alien Wars, I'll end up spending $50-75 for the CIB, maybe more.

Great game though. The Mode 7 in that game was really well done, and the top down levels were really something to see. Even its splitscreen was well done.

@bunchanumbers: Yeah, back then there were only 4 games my dad would play with me, F1 Pole Position on SNES, and the first 3 Contra games. Kind of saddens me to think we probably paid enough to rent Contra 3 several times that we could have probably bought it.

Sega Genesis and a virtual boy for starters.