As in, I'm old enough to have either bought/been gifted a number of these now "Retro" gaming systems back when they were still new and simply never gave them away. = )

During this current bout of Human Malware, I've decided to straight up be that collector with systems I either never bought 'cause I didn't have the cash for them at the time or could never have bought at all 'cause it's the WonderSwan Color and that never came out in the US. = P

The thing I'm doing differently with some - like the Gundam themed PSVita and the original XBox I just scooped from a friend - is I'm going to soft mod them. What's that mean? Basically, I'm going to open their OS up to allow the running of other programs like homebrew games, ROMs and other emulation.

The catch is... a Soft Mod is technically non-destructive. I don't have to risk destroying a classic system with my subpar soldering skills or mangle a newer yet somewhat rare system 'cause I snapped something opening it up for no good reason.

With the Vita, it was super easy and it's already done. I have a bunch of copies of old games I currently physically own on it for when things ease up a bit and cons/craft shows become less of a health risk to myself and others. The OG XBox will be more of a home based version of this. I May do this with my 3DS but... I think a newer styled flash cart is the way to go on that system. Modding it is theoretically simple but it's an Exceptionally long process.

You may be wondering why I'd do something like this. It's part "Because I Can" and part "Because I Can't". I own these consoles so I can physically mess with them as I see fit. I also can't play some of my favorite games without the translation patches I'd normally have on my computer and this allows me to do that in the easiest way possible. I also can't see spending money on many of these multi-console systems that promise the world yet come up short with no real means to update them.

That's pretty much it on that front at the moment. I'm about to spend some quality time doing a bit of basic new-old system cleanup on it before figuring out how exactly I'm going to make this bit of tech into a better piece of tech. = )

Remember: Stay Safe. Wear a Mask. Get vaccinated if you can. Get a booster if you're already good on that.

'Till next time! = )