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Anyone else here right into emulation/roms/CFW and retro handhelds? What've you got + what are you playing?
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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
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Gaming
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I like to modify and repair retro consoles and handhelds, so I have a pretty large collection in various states of repair: GameBoys DMG/Pocket/Color, DS Lites, NESs, SNESs, GameCubes, N64s, a Dreamcast (what I currently have hooked up to my big workshop crt), PS1s, PS2s, a PS3 that I think is beyond repair, a few perfect condition Xbox 360s...I think that's it.
In emulation, aside from on my PCs, I have a couple of modded PSPs and a Vita, though I really only use the Vita since I got that.
I loved fixing up Gameboys, back in (a total guess here) 2017/18 or so. My favourite was to do up a Gameboy Pocket.
But then the prices of buying a few from Japan jusy skyrocketed. I understand the hobby grew in popularity, but boy oh boy did the prices go up!
Yeah, there's a few things that have happened. 1) With Covid, Japan Post stopped shipping to the US (and I presume elsewhere, too). So now, instead of paying $5 shipping, I'm paying between $15-25. 2) The hobby became popular as a business by people with a lot of cash and flashy stores. The prices of consoles, both modded and unmodded went up ridiculously. 3) Collectors have gotten kind of crazy with prices as well.
Pre-pandemic, I could typically buy a broken screen GBC from Japan for $15 plus $5 shipping, pay $80 in parts to give it a new shell, backlit screen, and usb-c rechargeable battery, and sell it for $120, financing the next project. Now, the parts are the same but you aren't finding a broken GBC for under $50, yet you're still probably looking at $120-130 for sale price, making it hard to break even. At that point, you might as well be building Gunpla. Sucks but I still do it (also Gunpla).