I posted on gaming thread but I dunno it might be slow and anyway people on this thread have lots of knowledge so heres the post I made - your input will be welcomed:

Hubby and I are thinking about getting a gaming gadget.
We are working on vague memories of mario bro's and crash bandicoot, car racing etc from Wayyyyy back lol. What we'd like is something with those or similar game availability but also with games that make you think/plan/scheme etc. Perhaps. We do not want something we're paying any kind of monthly or yearly sub to but would prefer to buy the games without ongoing costs. So essentially we'd like to purchase an Xbox, Nintendo, or PlayStation gadget which plugs into the tv and can be played with wireless handheld controllers (?). Hubby has been a computer tech so he's reasonably up there with tech but just never been particularly interested in games. Now, just for fun, we thought maybe we could go there. Have looked on Pricespy and these things seem to vary from about $550 to $850 ish which is fine. We're not going to go silly and spend thousands on a gaming computer or whatever we just want to play a little bit.

What can you guys reccomend ?

nice_lady - 2021-08-13 08:55:00

As a PC gamer, that is always my recommended route, but I understand people do not want to pay exorbitant PC hardware prices, which they are right now.

If you are a casual gamer and just wanting to dip your toes, my recommendation would be the XBox Series X and an Xbox Game Pass Subscription. Now I get you don't want a subscription, but the cost of it and the amount of games you have access to vs the amount it would cost you to purchase one single game outright makes it well worth it in my opinion. If I was a console gamer, this is what I would do.

If you want Mario though, the Nintendo Switch is your only option (which is the only current console I own, and absolutely love).

Edited by cube_guy at 9:55 am, Fri 13 Aug

cube_guy - 2021-08-13 09:53:00

Thanks for your input.

Neither of us is any kind of gamer at all right now.
We are not interested in paying a sub.

nice_lady - 2021-08-13 09:58:00

Yes indeed, so I would call you a casual gamer?

$12.95 per month that you can cancel anytime for access to over 100 games, vs paying ~$100 per game outright that you may not like?

If this isn't an option, then the best advice advice I can offer is to google search the list of games that are exclusive to each of the 3 consoles, and which ever console has the most exclusive games that you are interested in playing, buy that one.

For me, this is the Nintendo Switch with Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Splatoon and Pikmin. The rest of everything I want to play I can play on my PC, hence why I don't have a Xbox or PS5.

cube_guy - 2021-08-13 10:06:00

Crash Bandicoot is on PS1, but PS1 games will play on PS2. Now PS2 has wired controllers, maybe PS3 is wireless, I don't know. PS3 should be real cheap now. PS3 can play the gran turismo series. I got Grand Turismo 4 on PS2 recently and it was real cheap. about $10.

You can run a PS2 emulator on a PC, but you need quite a high end PC to emulate fast enough. N64 emulator to play mario 64 will run on a slower PC.

But you should be able to get some older gaming consoles real cheap. If they get too old though they go back up in value.

tygertung - 2021-08-13 12:26:00

hmm.......

nice_lady - 2021-08-13 14:01:00

The first 3 Crash Bandicoot games have been remade in HD glory for the newer consoles and look stunning now, as has Crash Team Racing. There is no need to go back to a 20 year old console to play these games.

cube_guy - 2021-08-13 14:56:00

But the 20 year old consoles are much cheaper.

tygertung - 2021-08-13 16:18:00

Sure they are, but not everybody is hung up on price like you. In fact if you had read it, Nice Lady said in the first post that he was happy to pay $550-$850 for a console. This sounds to me that he wants to be playing current games, not old ones.

cube_guy - 2021-08-13 17:15:00

We aren't really sure what might be best but yeah a few hundred bucks isn't really an issue.

nice_lady - 2021-08-13 18:48:00

This is a good read....

https://www.techradar.com/nz/news/ps5-vs-xbox-series-x-which
-next-gen-console-should-you-buy

muppet_slayer - 2021-08-13 20:00:00

Bookmarked. Ta

nice_lady - 2021-08-13 20:32:00

nice_lady wrote:

Hubby and I are thinking about getting a gaming gadget.
We are working on vague memories of mario bro's and crash bandicoot. What we'd like is something with those or similar.

Then you'd need an OLD gadget.
Or an emulator.
The games are not like that now.

lythande1 - 2021-08-14 08:32:00

lythande1 wrote:

Then you'd need an OLD gadget.
Or an emulator.
The games are not like that now.

It's we are aware of that. As I said we'd kind of like some simple games like those but also with games that make you think/plan/scheme etc

nice_lady - 2021-08-14 10:19:00

Sadly a dearth of them these days, best puzzle type I ever played was Jewels of the Oracle.
Not a baby move shapes around or endless screens of the same thing, a real think one.
First figure out what you were meant to do...then how, then actually solve it.

And no it was nothing like Myst.
They don't do them anymore....sadly.

lythande1 - 2021-08-14 12:11:00