Your Aging Gamer is back with another tale from a time long past. This time we’re talking about console durability and how at one time you could treat like your system like utter crap and it would still happily play your games for you. I never treated my consoles like crap however and they’ve stuck with me through almost everything. My first console was either the Nintendo or the Vectrex System, I honestly cannot remember which, but both still play to this day for me. Oddly enough it was the newer consoles that failed me, and it never was from misuse. To quote my dad, “You treat that stuff like it’s gold!”
Treating everything like that has paid off, all of my consoles have survived the years except for three. My Wii disc drive failed a few years ago and I need to replace it. My OG Xbox disc drive failed, but I had it replaced and had the Time Capacitor removed so that the battery acid doesn’t damage the interior. And finally my Xbox 360 came down with the red ring of death, but Microsoft was amazing, I sent them my 360 and had it back in a mere 7 days. That’s just as long as if you watched that creepy Ring video. It is weird that my thirty year old NES and twenty-five year old SNES, that were in an Arizona garage for about fifteen years, still fired up like it was the early 90’s when I rescued them from the garage. Consoles now a days have to be babied in order to survive or you’ll make yourself a four-hundred dollar brick!
I remember dropping my NES, slamming the controller against the television when I died and yet my NES still fires up perfectly after all these years. Heck, even the tv and controller are still working! Why is it now with all this amazing technology that consoles seem to be as fragile as ever? I get the fact that they are somewhat dumbed down computers, but my god just playing the thing should not cause the system to fail, I’m looking at you Xbox 360! I will say that Microsoft handled the Red Ring of Death quite well, my 360 got the Red Ring while I was playing Wolverine: Origins, which was a surprisingly fun game. I was bummed, but had other systems to play, as I do now and called Microsoft Support and they told me exactly what to do. I opted to use my own box, which was super smart, and Microsoft had me up and running in a mere 7 days.
My Wii and PC also broke for no apparent reason, and I still need to consult computer repair services on what needs to be repaired (e.g., the disc drive or motherboard). I’ll tuck some money away soon so that I can get rolling on some of the amazing hidden gem games I’ve discovered. For some reason, the disc drive failed while holding my copy of Kirby’s Epic Yarn in it, I’ve played some of my Wii games on my Wii U, but I’m a guy who has to play on the original console or PC if possible. I was actually surprised that a Nintendo system failed me seeing as I have all of their systems minus the Switch and none have broken or showed any signs of breaking. One day, I will get my Wii fixed and I will finally play through Skyward Sword, but today is not that day! So far my Xbox One and PS4 have only given me slight scares, but nothing fatal, just some weird issues. My PS4 kept spitting God of War out for no reason, and my Xbox One couldn’t read Rare Replay upon start up. I beat God of War and had no more issues with the PS4 and my Xbox One, every now and then, can’t register a disc or it takes too long, but if that goes I’ll just get a Xbox One S or a dedicated PC and delve into the world of 4K goodness!
Like what you read? Check out more of my Aging Gamer series on BagoGames.