Anyone work on old game consoles?

[Hoyt]

Howdy all,

 

About fifteen to twenty years ago I used to repair some game consoles for second hand shops in my area (Southern Virginia and Northern North Carolina).  Things like the original Xbox and Xbox 360, Playstation 2s and 3s, the occasional Gamecube and Wii, and even some Playstation Portables.  At the time my Son was young and I would modify the Xboxes and PS2s to run the games off of their internal hard drives (the PS2s were the fat models with the network adapters which is where the hard drive plugged in) so he didn't have to handle the discs.  Also the laser lenses didn't last long at all so it bypassed that problem as well.  Sometimes the shops would trade me parts and equipment for my services to keep the bookkeeping simpler which was pretty cool.

 

As a result I have cabinets full of those old consoles just taking up space.  I knew things were getting out of hand when I found gun parts I had forgotten about mixed in with them, so I'm starting to sort through them to get them ready to sell to a second hand shop up the road about an hour or so.  They are in various states of functionality so it will take me a bit to sort things out.

 

The PS2s are very intricate but also easy to get going again because I had bought a few spare laser lenses when they were super cheap.  The original Xboxes are a little more difficult because they used many different DVD drives and nobody really seems to have new lasers for them.  One thing I noticed last night while replacing the laser and CR2032 battery in a PS2 was that my eyes were a good bit younger back then.  It's hard to believe I used to crank those repairs out like clockwork.

 

Anyhow I thought I'd post this topic just to see if anyone here had gotten into that sort of thing.  It really can eat up a lot of space in a hurry.

[synaesthesia]

Yes, massively - I prefer home computers but there's certainly a fair few consoles however I might be going a little older - PS1 is the most modern, but NES, SNES, Master System & Megadrive. I've done a few fixes on PS4s and XB1's for friends but wouldn't do it professionally, I'm getting too old and parts are getting too small

My workshop is full of various consoles but Commodores, Amigas, Ataris, BBC/Acorn, Spectrums etc is where it's at for me

[Hoyt]

6 minutes ago, synaesthesia said:

Commodores, Amigas, Ataris, BBC/Acorn, Spectrums etc is where it's at for me

 

Yeah that's where I originally got into this sort of thing.  The Commodore Vic 20, Atari VCS, then 400, then 800 XL.  I moved to Raleigh and worked as an electronics tech for several years and was out of that sort of stuff until the 386/486 days, then got into PCs again but never touched a console again until a customer asked me to work on her Son's original Xbox back when they were new.

 

I do still have tons of PC parts laying around, but did a clean out a while ago.  I think I still have a 1GHz or so Athlon Windows NT 4.0 workstation, a few XP machines from the Pentium 4 and Athlon XP/64 days.  The very first Intel Core i7 965 is still a multimedia machine sitting behind a TV.  I've still got boxes of old video cards.  Even a pair of Voodoo 2s and a couple of Voodoo 3s and now that I think of it a Voodoo 5. Oh I just remembered I still have a GTX 295 in the original box (look that sucker up).  It had gotten such a pain to try to sell the stuff on eBay that I just packed it up and decided to worry about it another day.  I ran Nvidia SLI rigs back when they were the kings of 3D acceleration so I've still got some matched pairs laying around just gathering dust.

 

I'd hate to just throw it all out because it might be of interest to someone into vintage gaming but nobody around here really works with that stuff.  I guess maybe one day I'll bite the bullet and set up a bank account for PayPal taxes and list the stuff on eBay with the disclaimer that folks shouldn't expect super fast shipping.  Our UPS drop off point is a hardware store that just does that service as a side gig when they can get around to it.

[synaesthesia]

Probably best stick it on Facebook these days as you might find some localish collectors, or advertise on specific forums like Amibay. eBay is such a hole (at least here, I can't imagine it's much better in the States) that it's just no longer worth using.

It's hilarious how quickly it can grow out of control - I've spent the last week clearing out my workshop as the floor was rotten and needs replacing, and my god it's unreal! I've a huge box full of random PCB's, not relating to vintage hardware but just in case there's bits I might need - caps, resistors, sometimes some ICs. I've got a couple of original Bromcom wireless stations just in case the Z80 processors come in handy!

 

[PotNoodleTech]

I watercooled the Xbox 360s back in the day.  From concorde to peaceful.

[Oaktech]

I took my son to our local retro gaming arcade and accidentally fixed something while I was there and ever since the owner has been plying my son with free hours at the arcade so I can fix stuff. It's a beneficial arrangement, but there are only so many PS1 lasers and SNES recaps I can do so my son can beat everyone into oblivion at time crisis!

[Hoyt]

Yeah I forgot about leaky caps.  Fortunately I only saw those on the last couple of revisions of the original Xbox.  I still keep one plugged into the bedroom TV running Xbox Media Center because my Wife likes to watch PAL movies her friends from overseas send her.

 

Back in those days a friend that worked at Gamestop got wind that I was fixing those things and he sent everyone to my workplace to drop stuff off.  Got annoying to my boss after a while.

 

Oak have you found a good source for PS2 fat laser lenses?  It seems they have gone up a good bit since I last ordered some.

[Dos_Box]

I collect a lot of retro computers (consoles and home computers) and am building up quite a collection.
I usually get them from a local auction house, but even there now the prices are creeping upwards as the hobby gets more popular.
@Hoyt Machines like these are definitely getting more and more valuable, and I'd make you an offer for the Atari 400 if it was UK spec as they are like gold dust here now!

It's also surprising just how popular making top spec older PC's is becoming. Lot's of enthusiasts want to make the uber-pc they could never afford when they were younger.

I recall many years back I visited @ICTDirect_Dave and he had a large tub full of 'junk' cards. These were Voodoo 2/3's and he said I could help myself. I declined politely as they were effectively worthless back then. Voodoo 2 cards now go for £100+ on eBay here now.
I should have taken the lot!

[Hoyt]

I remember when I got my SECOND Voodoo 2 and paired them in SLI.  Running Quake 2 at 1024x768 was awesome.  I also had the newly released Nvidia TNT as my 2D card, just cause I could.

 

I can't believe what old Sound Blaster cards are going for on eBay.  I believe I've still got an original AWE 32 with the SIMM memory on it and a couple of AWE 64s.  Off the top of my head I think I've got several EARLY Nvidia PCI Express cards, a 6800 GT AGP, a GTX 580, GTX 260, GTX 295, GTX 680 (was an SLI pair but I gave one to a coworker), pair of GTX 980s, pair of GTX 1080s, and many others packed away in boxes.

 

I couldn't even begin to remember all the PCs I've got stacked in the basement.  Every now and then I'll pull one out and plug it up just to see what's on it.  I've got a few nekkid boards and CPU combos that had the leaky caps that I'll rebuild every now and then when I want to tinker.  I get what you are saying about building "ultimate" retro PCs.  I've done that a time or two just shuffling parts around to see what I could come up with.  An Athlon XP runs GL Quake right spiffy under Windows NT 4.

 

I've got way too many hobbies taking up space.  There's always been motorcycles, then firearms, then PCs, then unintentionally gaming consoles.  Repairing those consoles for second hand stores actually got me most of the TVs and consoles we use now.  Every now and then Gamestop would have a good promotion where I could trade in a few older consoles to get one of the current models, so I can't really complain.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Ha! Yeah I should've taken a few for myself too!

17 hours ago, Dos_Box said:

I collect a lot of retro computers (consoles and home computers) and am building up quite a collection.
I usually get them from a local auction house, but even there now the prices are creeping upwards as the hobby gets more popular.
@Hoyt Machines like these are definitely getting more and more valuable, and I'd make you an offer for the Atari 400 if it was UK spec as they are like gold dust here now!

It's also surprising just how popular making top spec older PC's is becoming. Lot's of enthusiasts want to make the uber-pc they could never afford when they were younger.

I recall many years back I visited @ICTDirect_Dave and he had a large tub full of 'junk' cards. These were Voodoo 2/3's and he said I could help myself. I declined politely as they were effectively worthless back then. Voodoo 2 cards now go for £100+ on eBay here now.
I should have taken the lot!

 

As for the retro stuff, I've a reasonable collection of old machines.

 

Got working C64, Amiga 500+, Acorn A3000, A3020 & A5000, a NES, SNES, 1st Gen Playstation and Xbox.

 

The ZX Spectrum died and is buried in the garden alongside the family pets.

[synaesthesia]

1 hour ago, ICTDirect_Dave said:

The ZX Spectrum died and is buried in the garden alongside the family pets.

Ah the poor rubber keys, perished beyond saving

 

[Hoyt]

1 hour ago, synaesthesia said:

Ah the poor rubber keys, perished beyond saving

 

Oof.  I hated that trend of coating stuff with rubber.  After a few years it got so sticky you couldn't do anything with it except for maybe try to scrub it off.  I've got a couple of controllers that were really nice until that coating got sticky.  At work we've still got a few of the old Hovercams with that coating on it and everything sticks to them.