You can save some real coin with retro gaming. Consoles are routinely under $100 (commonly around $75, with warranty), or less if you want to buy direct from a private seller. Most cartridges for popular systems are in the less-than-$10 range. If you’re wise, and willing to take steps to get the best prices, you can get a lot of bang for your buck.
Everyone likes to save money, and an entertainment experience with a lower total cost of ownership is a nice plus, but there’s another subtler benefit here as well. Cheaper costs mean lower risks. You can snag a handful of retro game cartridges for less than the cost of one new game on a contemporary system. I’ll assume that you’re googling the games before you buy them to avoid stinkers, but walking out with that handful of game carts leaves you with much lower total risk per game. It wasn’t great? Well, it was $3. That $5 one was great? Big win.
This total cost of ownership, and lower risk-per-game can mean a good fit for kids, too. Plus, no in-game upsells that the kiddos come to you wanting.
One last thought here on money: I’m having a blast playing games that are 40 years old, but many contemporary games are pushing toward an online, multiplayer focus. This requires pricey technical infrastructure to support (servers to handle all of the online components). Those servers only make sense when the game is making enough revenue to pay for them, the staff required to program and support all of that, AND make a profit. When those numbers change, servers don’t stick around. For games that are built around online multiplayer… that’s the end of the line. Will it be possible to play that stuff in 40 years? In 10 years?
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