Anyone here ever seen a games console just plain die on them, with no possible reviving?
So far, all I’ve lost is a Megadrive 2. And it worked for a full ten years, so I can’t complain.
Funny you should make this topic, as I’ve just brought my Dreamcast out of retirement (after about two years) and it seems to be having serious problems. Currently I’m hoping that it’s just a damaged RF lead and / or a damaged game disc that I’m testing it with (I only have Sonic Adventure to hand, and for some reason that I have no memory of it looks quite scratched), but of course I’ll keep you posted if anything interesting happens, e.g. the console exploding.
Oh, and I once had a TV completely die (fizzing sound effect and all) when I was playing a Saturn on it, if that’s worth anything.
Only console of mine that that’s happened to was my genesis. One day, pressed the power button, nothin happened. 'Twas a sad day.
Not a console, but my monitor. That was some fun shit: “pffft zzzzz…”
My Xbox, twice.
All my consoles still work, although my DC might need a new laser.
[quote=“Arcie”]Anyone here ever seen a games console just plain die on them, with no possible reviving?
So far, all I’ve lost is a Megadrive 2. And it worked for a full ten years, so I can’t complain.[/quote]
I had a similar thing with my MD 2 after 9-10 years, first the sound wouldnt work the the whole thing broke down. I got a new once of Telegames and havent had problem since.
My gamecube kept freezing when I first got it especially on Star Wars Rouge Squadren, I sent it back to nintendo and got a new one.
Oh and my Saturns “hard drive” dosent work, I dont think it works to well with the new lithium batteries.
I’ve had a 32X die, though if there was that repair guide around I’m sure I could have fixed it. I also had a Genesis that died.
I’ve also lost a Sega CD (model 2), the drive just seemed to wear out.
My Xbox certainly seems to be dying, the load times are getting longer, skipping or freezing occurs regularly (even in new games), and it often takes many attempts to get a game to load up in the first place. I’m not sure what to do, since it’s no longer under warrenty.
All of my game consoles still run like a dream, surprisingly enough. I’ve never had a console just outright die on me. Of course, my father is also an electronics technician, so even if any of them did die on me, it’s not like it would be very hard to have it fixed.
lance, did the tv just stop working pretty much instantaneously or fade over time? if it just went off in a flash you may find the main fuse (inside the tv) has blown, they cost about ?5 to replace, cheaper than a new tv, lol.
ive lost 2 saturns for unkown reasons, they have both just stopped working. most other computers i have lost are mainly things like amstrad CPC 464’s, printztronics, and Amigas.
I’ve had an original PlayStation blow-up when I hit the power button. “Now your playing with power.” redefined.
Unfortunately it was an old TV (from the 1980s as far as I can remember), and although it got taken to an old friend of the family who could repair TVs and things, it turned out that an important component inside it had just burned out and melted, and because we had no hope of replacing the component because the TV was so old, we couldn’t really do anything about it. Alas. 
As for my Dreamcast, which I’d actually forgotten I posted about here, I got it working in the end: the RF lead seemed to have got slightly damaged in storage, so I replaced it with a spanking new scart lead, and the game I was testing it with (Sonic Adventure) stopped randomly freezing after a few plays, so I’m guessing it just had dust on the lens / in some other important mechanism that eventually got cleared out with use. Never had problems with any older systems, though…
damn, that sucks, glad you got your dc working though…i think id die without mine
I must declaim - and I can speak from experience - that for all people say about the invulnerability of the X-Box today, the Saturn could tout a decent measure of redoubtable resilience to challenge its seventh-generation successor.
Are you sitting comfortably? For I have a tale to tell.
In the grim and woeful year of 1997, I scampered down the stairs one day after leaping out of bed to seize upon my new copy of Shining the Holy Ark. With relish I reverentially lowered the CD onto its tray, gently clicked shut the lid, and depressed the Power button, brimming with anticipation.
Something odd happened.
Instead of booting up the latest offering from Sonic! Software Planning, I was confronted with the System Menu, and none of the options to commence playing the game seemed to want to work. My Saturn was also making a rather disconcertingly persistent stuttering noise…
…then I noticed the heady, addling smell of petrol fumes. And the empty tube of vaseline which was lying next to my stricken machine. The tube was shrivelled with humiliation, violation and guilt, a stream of the effluvium from its foul contents still congealed around its neck. And then I realised with a convulsion of horror - my Saturn, stated bluntly, had been raped!
I know it sounds bizarre - to this day, I can’t comprehend why it happened either - but my younger brother (then around eight years old) had taken it upon himself to empty a container of vaseline into my Saturn’s CD Reader. After being ravaged and defiled so, you might expect the only fate of my poor, abused Saturn was to be ripped apart by a coolie at a recycling heap somewhere in the Gobi Desert. Yet I persevered, spending a good time repeatedly switching it on and off, hoping against hope that somehow the psychic emanations of my intense desperation would render the deivice workable again. Dissapointment ensued, and for several days the full extent of my gaming was to watch the spaceship barrel-roll on the System Menu’s screensaver.
Yet God took pity on me, and granted respite. Just as we were preparing to discharge my vandalised Saturn to the knacker’s yard, I became enraptured and effusive with joy to see that my Saturn was actually working again! The heat generated from the console’s clogged-up motor’s attempts to spin my discs must have started evaporating the vaseline constricting it, for suddenly I could experience Shining the Holy Ark after all. There was, needless to say, much rejoicing.
The console’s condition was far from perfect - it would still randomly jolt to a halt and induce howls of frustration as hours of gameplay were lost - but with each session my Saturn’s convalescene advanced, until after a few months of careful nursing and doting care (and assertive application of brutal lashings with a salt-encrusted whip) it was operating as perfectly as when I’d relentlessly badgered my parents to buy me one as a Christmas present in that whiny way that only children can.
The veteran Saturn eventually passed away, peacefully and quietly, in the presence of its master in the Autumn of 2004, after a decade of unstinting, commendable, sterling service. Requiescat in pace, you most faithful of servants.
Its eBay successor still ardently endeavours to maintain its honourable legacy to the present day and beyond.
Haha, thats a funny story. Glad that you still have a Saturn though. I would have to agree, my Xbox broke twice before I canned it, but my Saturn works as well as ever to this day.
thinking about it, i have realised that over the years i have dropped my original game boy up to 7 times (i have ‘stupid fingers’), and that still works, though i put it down to the invincible plastic armour that they seem to be made of. i’d like to see a gba put up with that kind of punnishment.