Downing's Basement

Being a gaming fan pretty much all my life, I suppose this kind of disposal of retro tech and software digs at me a bit. And I mean, I get if you need to trash something because it’s been well used or broken, but the gear found here was neither.

So I suppose that’s what gets me from the standpoint of being a “Retro Console Modder” because for years now many of us have been getting criticized for using original “Retro” tech in our projects. The argument being that once these old units went out of production, their supply became “finite”.

And while I don’t disagree with this statement at all, it overlooks an important aspect that dump finds like these prove. That being, that no matter what, aside from the pieces that end up in museums or die-hard collector’s displays, retro gaming tech is going to end up at the dump at some point.

With that said, yes you can still say what we do is taking one more original piece of hardware out of existence from its original form, but chances are, most of the time the consoles we uses were headed for the junk heap to begin with.

We actively search for the broken/as-is listings for our projects. We don’t want the “pristine”, the “fully functional” or “in-box” lots that really should be put on the collectors shelves. And because of this, through our mods, these systems actually get to live on and can be enjoyed on a whole new level.

I suppose though that since retro tech has been on a big uptick in the past few years the comments like “why would you do this to an original” have been being made by many whom have no idea what is actually involved in console modding but still think because their voice can be heard, their two-cents should buy the pot.

But this all got me wondering how much of this “finite” tech is lost to landfills/E-Waste & Recycling every year. Probably more than I wish to know but less than what we’ll probably be blamed for.