Do you still have those old systems? I pulled mine out of storage a couple years back, and they're still fun as hell. Got to play (get my ass kicked by) my old game saves from in some cases 30 years ago, and it's great fun.
The only old system that doesn't work is my NES, and I found one of those hardware emulators that takes the old cartridges. Not perfect, but works well enough for the games I have.
I worry more about my disc-based systems than my cartridge-based ones, since the disc ones have moving parts.
I think my PS2's DVD drive is almost shot. The original PS2s of course has (unofficial) support for playing games from the hard drive. I think someone has developed something for the dreamcast that lets you play games from a USB stick.
I do agree emulators are great, but there's still something about playing games on the real hardware. I wish more people tried to do hardware-level emulation using FPGAs (especially for the older generations of consoles that were much simpler), but I acknowledge that's probably extremely difficult if not impossible once you get to the PS2 era.
I've pretty much resorted to hacking my old stuff for things that have a drive. Although I think PS2 and Dreamcast you both mention are the only disc based things I can't play on hardware. Those libraries overlap a lot with everything else I have though.
I've been tempted to try to get one of those Analogue pockets if they are ever available. FPGA and the form factor of a ton of different handhelds is sweet. I'm a little wary of game collecting though, trying to get old Nintendo cartridges can be a bit crazy sometimes.
OK those Analogue pockets are pretty damned cool. That's the sort of thing I had hoped would be developed back when the third-party consoles started coming out 10-15 years ago.
People in the emulation scene used to complain that the emulation chips weren't nearly as accurate as the best emulators, and seeing people like kevtris start working on FPGA designs I had hoped it would be more common nowadays.
I went through this when I sold my collection of systems. Turns out CD's like Sega CD and Sega Saturn only have a 10+ year life span. Most cartridge games have a life span of a few decades but I was surprised how many Atari and Nintendo carts stopped working after sitting on a shelf for years. Most of them in good plastic cases too.
Your best bet is to build a small PC for your TV, invest in some proper controllers whether you want arcade or console, and get the games you want on an emulator. Emulators can also cleanup some of the problems with running old games on new TV's. N64 games are sometimes awful and blocky looking on new TV's. Sprites from old 16 bit games can look bad too but the emulators can clean it up a bit and make it look better.
I second the controller thing no matter how you're playing. I found a new respect for old console games when I quit trying to play them with an Xbox controller. Get something similar to what the game was meant to be played with.
the video chip on mine is shot. I keep having this idea that one day I'll buy a "does not work" NES and try to fix it.. Nice thing about old electronics is they're easy to repair.
Even if you don't, emulation is an option. Not just on your PC - with setups like the Raspberry Pi you can install an old console emulator inside the shell of the original console (or an alternative) and feed it into your TV same as the old days.
If you have the Frontloader NES, the typical failure point is the 72 pin connector that connects the cartridge to the board. It's actually a pretty easy fix with the appropriate screwdrivers, the easily available part, and some time. Then get yourself an Everdrive N8 (pro if you so desire to play massive homebrew titles) and load the games you have to that and never change carts again.
I don't think it's the ZIF connector. As I recall the typical failure mode associated with those is the flashing screen when you turn the system on, which mind doesn't do. What mine does is the game plays, you can hear the audio and things display on the screen; but the display itself is scrambled.
I had multiple things associated with the ZIF connector, the blinking screen bit is more in line with the lockout chip failing to communicate between cart and board over the connector. scrambled graphics depends on connection of the other pins involved in the series of pins.
Did you ever use something like a Game Genie with your NES? These due to their nature of the design, were pretty stiff and caused damage to the ZIF connector and basically made it so that you had to use it to start your games Even if you didn't want to use it.
Best advice, if it's been sitting in storage for a long period of time, it's a good idea to open it up and clean it up from the inside anyway, at least you can get a good look at the connector pins that way,(check for dirt or corosion) as well as check the condition of the caps of the board. (another failure point of these older systems) And while you are in there, do the lock out chip pin snip to stop blinking screen.
No game genie. It never worked quite right after I cleaned the connector, which is why I suspect I fried something. I kinda think I didn't let it dry out before I turned it on and shorted something out.
It stopped working probably about 20 years ago, so I doubt the cause of failure was capacitors or dust. And I think I took it apart about 10 years ago trying to locate evidence of damage (eg. burn marks on pins, blown capacitors) and didn't seen anything immediately obvious.
Do you still have those old systems? I pulled mine out of storage a couple years back, and they're still fun as hell. Got to play (get my ass kicked by) my old game saves from in some cases 30 years ago, and it's great fun.
The only old system that doesn't work is my NES, and I found one of those hardware emulators that takes the old cartridges. Not perfect, but works well enough for the games I have.
I worry more about my disc-based systems than my cartridge-based ones, since the disc ones have moving parts.
I think my PS2's DVD drive is almost shot. The original PS2s of course has (unofficial) support for playing games from the hard drive. I think someone has developed something for the dreamcast that lets you play games from a USB stick.
I do agree emulators are great, but there's still something about playing games on the real hardware. I wish more people tried to do hardware-level emulation using FPGAs (especially for the older generations of consoles that were much simpler), but I acknowledge that's probably extremely difficult if not impossible once you get to the PS2 era.
I've pretty much resorted to hacking my old stuff for things that have a drive. Although I think PS2 and Dreamcast you both mention are the only disc based things I can't play on hardware. Those libraries overlap a lot with everything else I have though.
I've been tempted to try to get one of those Analogue pockets if they are ever available. FPGA and the form factor of a ton of different handhelds is sweet. I'm a little wary of game collecting though, trying to get old Nintendo cartridges can be a bit crazy sometimes.
OK those Analogue pockets are pretty damned cool. That's the sort of thing I had hoped would be developed back when the third-party consoles started coming out 10-15 years ago.
People in the emulation scene used to complain that the emulation chips weren't nearly as accurate as the best emulators, and seeing people like kevtris start working on FPGA designs I had hoped it would be more common nowadays.
I went through this when I sold my collection of systems. Turns out CD's like Sega CD and Sega Saturn only have a 10+ year life span. Most cartridge games have a life span of a few decades but I was surprised how many Atari and Nintendo carts stopped working after sitting on a shelf for years. Most of them in good plastic cases too.
Your best bet is to build a small PC for your TV, invest in some proper controllers whether you want arcade or console, and get the games you want on an emulator. Emulators can also cleanup some of the problems with running old games on new TV's. N64 games are sometimes awful and blocky looking on new TV's. Sprites from old 16 bit games can look bad too but the emulators can clean it up a bit and make it look better.
I second the controller thing no matter how you're playing. I found a new respect for old console games when I quit trying to play them with an Xbox controller. Get something similar to what the game was meant to be played with.
I have two NES both work but only one set of wires for one of them. One was mine as a kid and one was my grandma's.
the video chip on mine is shot. I keep having this idea that one day I'll buy a "does not work" NES and try to fix it.. Nice thing about old electronics is they're easy to repair.
Even if you don't, emulation is an option. Not just on your PC - with setups like the Raspberry Pi you can install an old console emulator inside the shell of the original console (or an alternative) and feed it into your TV same as the old days.
If you have the Frontloader NES, the typical failure point is the 72 pin connector that connects the cartridge to the board. It's actually a pretty easy fix with the appropriate screwdrivers, the easily available part, and some time. Then get yourself an Everdrive N8 (pro if you so desire to play massive homebrew titles) and load the games you have to that and never change carts again.
I don't think it's the ZIF connector. As I recall the typical failure mode associated with those is the flashing screen when you turn the system on, which mind doesn't do. What mine does is the game plays, you can hear the audio and things display on the screen; but the display itself is scrambled.
I had multiple things associated with the ZIF connector, the blinking screen bit is more in line with the lockout chip failing to communicate between cart and board over the connector. scrambled graphics depends on connection of the other pins involved in the series of pins. Did you ever use something like a Game Genie with your NES? These due to their nature of the design, were pretty stiff and caused damage to the ZIF connector and basically made it so that you had to use it to start your games Even if you didn't want to use it. Best advice, if it's been sitting in storage for a long period of time, it's a good idea to open it up and clean it up from the inside anyway, at least you can get a good look at the connector pins that way,(check for dirt or corosion) as well as check the condition of the caps of the board. (another failure point of these older systems) And while you are in there, do the lock out chip pin snip to stop blinking screen.
No game genie. It never worked quite right after I cleaned the connector, which is why I suspect I fried something. I kinda think I didn't let it dry out before I turned it on and shorted something out.
It stopped working probably about 20 years ago, so I doubt the cause of failure was capacitors or dust. And I think I took it apart about 10 years ago trying to locate evidence of damage (eg. burn marks on pins, blown capacitors) and didn't seen anything immediately obvious.