Longest living console?


craigix

Mega GP Mania
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The death of a console thread got me thinking, who has the oldest regularly used console?


We still have my original SMS from 1986 (my first console) and it's in regular use.


Had to replace the controllers 3 times (has to be the original ones as clone ones don't work with all games).


Systems I had which died more than once:


Amiga (both of them) - can't be many original Amiga left running? They all seem to suffer a similar death.


Spectrum (both of them).
 
I still have a working Tandy Color Computer 1 Circa (1980).. Not to mention my Atari 5200(1982 or 1983) is still in working order, Commodore 64 works fine if you don't count the Floppy Drive(need to figure out how to re-calibrate it). My original front-load Nintendo I got in 1987 is still in great shape, most likely because I never blew on my cartridges which causes contact corrosion... in-fact all my consoles are in working order since the day I bought it..
 
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Ihave a plustron 2600 from 1976 basically a pong and target clone still works perfectly and of course my old commodore 64 pity consoles today arent built as sturdy
 
I still have a bunch of BBC Micros (A and B - 1981) that still work, though they're only in semi-regular use (used only for a week or two each year), and some of them run NFS instead of DFS so I have no idea how to test them.
 
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I still have my original Atari 2600 that my dad brought before I was born, so I have a working console older than me, although I use my 7800 now so I don't wear out the old girl.
 
Miss all my old(ish) consoles:


Telstar(pong, shooting), Gametime gamewatches, Tandy handhelds, Mattel Handhelds, Atari 2600, Commodore 64(my brother's but I played Demon Attack on it), NES, SNES, Gameboy handhelds, Sega Master System(Astro Warrior, Montezuma's Revenge, Quartet), PS1, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, GP32, few more old handhelds I can't for the life of me even remember except for Turtles, Pacman, Zaxxon. -_-


My Sega Master System survived the longest before I regrettably sold it to a local defunct game shop. Amazing machine Sega had there.
 
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Still have my amiga 500 from 1990.It's in a wardrobe.I have 2 dreamcasts which i still play because there is still games being made for it.The first dreamcast i got on the day of release in 1999.It doesent work properly anymore hence the second one.I have an old ps1 that only partially works now and an n64 and 2 sega saturns.I had an amiga 1200 030 but i recently donated it to a guy on the natami team. Im thinking of getting an old commodore pet or a vic 20 at some point just to experience what it was like to have a computer back in the 1970's.


Commodore a company on the edge a book has rekindled my interest in all things commodore.
 
I still have my original Atari 2600 that my dad brought before I was born, so I have a working console older than me, although I use my 7800 now so I don't wear out the old girl.

they don't wear out so easily... been using my ca.1981 Sears VCS (Atari 2600 rebadge) for 30 years and no problems yet.
 
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My wife still has a perfectly working Intellivision, which is still used regularly. Both controller still function perfectly too (well, as perfectly as they should do, even though I think they are awful). This was bought in around 1982.
 
As a collector, I got most of the classic gaming consoles (like SMS, VCS2600, NES, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc.), all of them are still working fine :)


Also, all of my Amigas (A500, A500+, A600, A1200, A2000, A1000, A4000 and CDTV) are still working fine, though the A4000 has a broken battery right now (so no clock) as well as some RAMs with issues (need to get new ones). The A4000 plays classic mod files while I'm repairing Pandoras off my network :)


All my GP2X have died though, as well as most of my GP32.


My SNES needs a while to warm up (shows graphics errors within the first few minutes), but I'll service that soon as well.


The old stuff really survives quite for a long time :)
 
Just realised my second oldest working machine is my VirtualBoy, but it isn't in regular use.


My SMS is used almost every single day as my granddad is addicted to Shanghai (mah jong) and plays it every day.


I say my SMS... I guess it has been his for about 10 years now.


I still play some SMS games when I'm there too, just because they are there in their boxes, I enjoy doing a speed run on Psycho Fox (3-4mins or so!).


Still love Astro Warrior, such a pure arcade game.


Ed: Do you ever use the A500? It seems that using them full time they always die in 3-4 years.
 
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I've still got the Intellivision my dad bought the year I was born. Maybe doesn't count, but I've also resurrected my "original" NES a couple of times with spare parts from broken NES consoles bought at garage sales.
 
i think the real question here is, does anyone have a broken original Game Boy?
 
ha great thread!

i think the real question here is, does anyone have a broken original Game Boy?

i did have but i have no idea where it is. it was faltering after my sister sent it on its second or third trip down the stairs at home, thank goodness for carpets! it potentially stopped working or at least become unreliable some time after i was bought a gameboy colour. since i wasn't so precious about consoles back then i may have just chucked it out. shame really to think now of its potential, even if it was a bit grotty.


my oldest console is my sega mega drive. i never had the chance to use it much, since my parents we're never so convinced on buying games but it works very well and i still have the box, even if in a slightly tattered state. its likely to stay in good condition now as it is far more handy to play on the pandora really. i worry it may just die a death of obsolescence really since i don't know how long TVs will continue to have RF connectors.
 
While I own an SNES and NES (top-loader) and I play games from these systems pretty frequently, I haven't had them for very long (just a couple years) and I don't usually dig them out (emulators are much easier). So for me, the oldest "console" "I" (that is, we) still have is our old Compaq Presario CDS 972 (running Windows 98, though it originally ran Windows 3.1), which I still occasionally use to play The Even More Incredible Machine (usually to make my own puzzles, but occasionally to advance my progression through the levels; I still haven't beaten them all) and which is also my preferred machine for playing Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge. I also sometimes pop in Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (since I still haven't beaten this game).


Compared to things like the NES and Atari 2600, our old PC isn't very old, but consider that it's only maybe 1 or 2 years younger than I am and I've been playing games on it since I was 2. ;)
 
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