Sega Dreamcast is not an example of a console that I would describe as “built to last”. I had two and both of them died in the same way - the optical lens cracked from heat stress and stopped reading disks. There was never any warning it was about to happen, and no way to prevent it as far as I knew.
As unlucky as I was with the Dreamcast, I made up for it by only ever having to buy one Xbox 360. I still own my original console which was never refurbished and never red ringed on me.
The lasers can also weaken over time leading to issues reading discs. There is a small trim pot that can be adjusted to recalibrate it. You do want to be careful and only make very very small adjustments though.
Most problem those give tend to be turn it on and it says, “hey I’m not so sure you put a game in me, would love to play one for you, though!” Or “I think this might be a game or it might just be a weird blue pattern because the connection is there but only partially”.
At least the NES was like that. You had to know the ritual to put the cartridge in correctly and that ritual changed. I don’t ever remember having a ritual with my N64.
Sega Dreamcast is not an example of a console that I would describe as “built to last”. I had two and both of them died in the same way - the optical lens cracked from heat stress and stopped reading disks. There was never any warning it was about to happen, and no way to prevent it as far as I knew.
As unlucky as I was with the Dreamcast, I made up for it by only ever having to buy one Xbox 360. I still own my original console which was never refurbished and never red ringed on me.
This is why SD card mods are important for optical disc consoles. The OG hardware just isn’t going to last.
They should’ve picked Playstation. Those things are near indestructable.
I’m not sure where this idea comes from, the PlayStation had a bad reputation even when it was new.
The optical drive would often fail and need replacement. There was a whole meme about people using the console upside down to combat this.
I got this idea by actually owning one. I abused the fuck out of that thing, and it lasted half of my childhood.
was that the ps2? i had to refocus and polish the lens on that so many times
The lasers can also weaken over time leading to issues reading discs. There is a small trim pot that can be adjusted to recalibrate it. You do want to be careful and only make very very small adjustments though.
I have 4 of them, 3 with this issue
I still have my original NES and N64 from when they came out. Both still work with zero maintenance. I used the N64 last week.
Most problem those give tend to be turn it on and it says, “hey I’m not so sure you put a game in me, would love to play one for you, though!” Or “I think this might be a game or it might just be a weird blue pattern because the connection is there but only partially”.
At least the NES was like that. You had to know the ritual to put the cartridge in correctly and that ritual changed. I don’t ever remember having a ritual with my N64.