If I had a ps1 I wanted to use then I would look at FreePSXBoot and UniROM - https://github.com/brad-lin/FreePSXBoot
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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Get an Everdrive or blank CD and flash ROMs to them to play on your original systems.
Everdrives and hacking systems are your friends
Emulators are your friend. Hoarders, graders, and scalpers can go suck a railroad spike.
That's what I'm talking about!
You can make many backup copies of your rom collection. Not so with old discs that are not reading, or carts suffering from bitrot or physical damage.
With retro gaming; emulation IS the way forward. Physical media is more of a display piece for nostalgia maniacs, or an investment for speculators.
I know that emulation is good for preservation and accessibility and I am all for it. My preference for physical media comes from wanting to support the mom and pop local stores and, while convenient, I don't like to have everything stored on a hard drive. All of the consoles I own work perfectly fine and I think it would be a waste for them to rot away in a landfill. Or worse yet, to gather dust on a shelf, unused as some collectors item to be shown off like a taxidermied elk.
On every retrogaming forum I’ve ever been on, this has been a topic and it’s been a topic for at least 15 years. A few practical bits of advice:
- The cheapest games will always be last generations games
- Anything not deemed “retro” yet is cheap
- Nintendo is always super expensive unless it’s Wii or handheld
- Anything Xbox is cheap
- PC is cheap, unless it’s big box, but even then sellers will sell big box for cheap because they often don’t know what they have
- There’s nothing wrong with buying from GOG, burning to disc, and making your own labels and box art—which is easy to do because it’s DRM-free
- Except for PS1, Sony is cheap. But even then PS1 is cheaper than N64 or Saturn.
- Nothing wrong with an Everdrive, especially since that’s the best way to play aftermarket games
Got to disagree with you on #6 unless you explicitly mention that it's a DIY replica.
If one is buying a PC box, you expect the original from when it was released, not a DIY GOG package (which you can do yourself).
I'm not suggesting that you sell your DIY GOG package to someone else. I'm suggesting you do that for yourself.
For burning to a disc from GOG, is there a way to do that with the old consoles? I have all of the PlayStations, because I have never liked playing on my PC. I wasn't allowed to play many of the games that came out on PS1 or PS2 growing up, and now that I have some sort of disposable income, I want to check out the stuff I missed out on. The issue is that those are the games that scalpers love. If there was a way to bypass them on the games like Silent Hill or Diablo I would love that.
What's the difference between playing on PC vs PS if it's the same game? Locking yourself out of either emulation or playing the PC version is going to make it harder/more expensive on you to replay old games.
The difference is personal preference and values
If you have a PS2, mod it to play backups. There's a new method called MMCE that is very promising and looks very easy to setup.
https://stoneagegamer.com/memcard-pro-2-for-playstation-and-playstation-2.html
Mod your consoles, find backups online. For PSX check out PSIO...
A lot of people have mentioned this, so I've been looking into it. How easy would it be to do these mods myself?
Supply and demand, since they're all collectors items now.
And I hate to say this but also the success of vintage/retro PC and video game channels on YouTube.
On the flipside this has led to a whole slew of new businesses that cater to people who just play the ROM's and even new mini PC's just to play vintage/retro games on.
Yep, it's the collectors' market. I say that as someone inspired by those very YT channels to get into the hobby myself. But I'm just looking to get games I remember and enjoy, not looking to get whole complete collections or anything. If a game I have my eye on becomes some "holy grail" $500 thing, I can live without it. What helps me, though, is living in a bigger town for a rural area that does have one or two brick-and-mortar retro game stores, where I may be able to find games I'm looking for at below eBay prices. That's another hint; hit up the physical shops you may have near you, be they specialized game shops or even thrift stores. Diamonds in the rough do exist sometimes.
EDIT: I mention rural areas specifically because they usually won't have as much demand driving up prices as the big urban areas will, even if supply is lower.
The issue with our retro stores is that they look up prices on eBay to set their prices and the first result when looking up Symphony of the Night is $150, so their price is $125 to be "cheaper" than the market price.
GoG while they are still selling the license you can download it and save it for the future. All games have no DRM.
Who's making old games so expensive?
GoG while they are still selling the license you can download it and save it for the future. All games have no DRM.
It makes it sound like you're blaming GOG, lol
Scarcity. Those games are no longer in print so there is no new units to bring the price down.
Videogame publishers not caring about their backcatalogs. If they'd care about preservation and actual long term gain, they'd make old games available.
It took EA so long to make Sims 1 and 2 available. It felt like they actively hate money. And there are plenty of other games that people would love to buy and that are just not made available.
If owning the physical retro game is the only way to play the game (legally) that will help drive up prices.
This is of course but one of the reasons.
Scarcity and some artificial scarcity called grading. Take for example Pokémon vintage trading card game packs. Base set has a bunch of print differences but even buying a normal unlimited version pack is $300-400. The value of a Charizard, if you pull it out of that pack, is ~$200-400 raw. However, if you grade it and it comes back a 10, it’s suddenly “worth” $1000+.
This is not quite as prevalent in video games but it is happening. The price of popular Pokémon games that are complete in box are sky high because someone somewhere wants to buy it and submit it for the chance it’s “worth” 10x the price.
Pricecharting.com is your friend. Patience is a virtue.
Good luck with that.
thanks
Not expensive when you live in the Indian ocean