Conflicted about my recent retro revival

[DiscostewSM]

What am I doing? Roughly a week ago, my retro consoles were sitting in a box in my closet for at least a decade (maybe even two). Now, they are all in my living room, 2 out of 3 are working and are connected to my TV, with the last one I'll be fixing next week when the needed part comes in. Doesn't sound bad, right? Well, the thing is, my entire plan for even fixing my systems was to test the games to make sure they still work, to which I'd sell them so I can get something from them. I've got about a half-dozen of them that fit the rare category (like Sword Master, The Krion Conquest, Chrono Trigger, etc, carts only) which can be turned over for some decent cash.

Now, I'm not sure about doing that, but instead, I'm starting to spend money on them. Not a whole lot yet, but still. Bought a composite cable for the NES with simulated stereo (basically taking the single mono port, and duplicating into L/R so it's not one-sided), a replacement SNES power jack port, a new SNES power adapter, and a new composite cable to use for either SNES/N64. Even got a cheap composite-to-HDMI upscaler so I didn't have to use my NES's RF switch. I was planning on getting a Retrotink-2X-Mini, assuming it ever goes back into stock, and then a cable from SNES/N64 multi-out to S-video w/ audio. I even thought about getting an A/V switch with additional cables so I wouldn't have to keep pulling cables.

Putting all this effort into this, as well as money, when the thing is..... am I really going to be playing my selection of retro games often enough? It's nice to have the authenticity, but, for the past couple of decades while these systems were stored away, my method to play the games I had (and ones I did not) was through the easily accessible method of "emulation", whether that is through my launch Switch system, my Series X's Dev Mode, or even my Wii U. Also including my laptop of course. At least with those, I'm not cluttering up my space with the older consoles, wired controllers needing extensions, and getting sub-optimal visual output from analog through an upscaler on my 4K TV. Heck, emulation really helps the N64 games in terms of resolution. Plus, emulation brings benefits like save states, cheat codes, etc.

So I got to thinking about selling the games again. But then, what will I do with my retro consoles if I have no more games left? I could sell them too. But, considering how much I could get for the games, I started to think about using that towards flash carts. The three I was thinking was the N8 Pro (NES), the FXPak Pro (SNES), and Summercart64 (N64). That way, I could play the games I did have, plus most everything else, continuing to give my hardware some use. These also have some benefits like save states (not on N64). But again, I'm running into the same dilemma about spending money towards something I technically already have access to without paying anything. It's just not authentic.

I'm just so torn right now.

 

[hippy dave]

Do what makes you happy. That's all the justification needed.
You've got it set up now, you can give it some time and see how much you're actually playing them, and reassess what you want to do.

 

[Skv0ra]

If you tend to replay games enough, I'd say solid quality flashcarts from the proceeds of the original cart sales. Getting Everdrive for my GBA/Micro will never have me picking up the original carts when I have like 6 entire system libraries on 1 32gb microsd in the thing (that allows me to have multiple saves and to organize the stuff via folders if I ever bother doing so).