PS2 vs XBOX, collectability in the future?

[Malakai]

In another thread we talked about an all in one system, which would probably consist of mainly emulated hardware.

Off and on, I buy and sale stuff locally, and have had many xbox systems, some that I've repaired, some modded, etc, and I must say that there are quite a few things that can go wrong with the xbox system. The main thing would be hard drive failure. Without some extensive knowledge and experience, once a hard drive goes out in an xbox, it's pretty much useless, because there is an encrypted key between the xbox console and the hard drive. Basically, the console is tied to the hard drive.

With a mod chip, this 'lock' can easily be unlocked, and there are some other questionable hacks around to get at the encryption key and such, which involve switching cables and voltage, which could result in you being fried, your xbox being fried, your hard drive being fried, and of course, your computer being fried.

The second biggest problem is the dvd drives seem to go out very frequently. It is usually the laser, but also the drive tray has a lot of issues. Third, the controllers don't always seem to last on them either. I use to buy xbox controllers all of the time, and 6 out of 10 don't work.

Since the xbox is so far almost impossible to emulate due to encryption, and the PS2 is getting easier to emulate, I'm wondering what the future will be, as far as game collecting for these systems. Let's say 15 years down the road, you have the same game on both formats. Dark Alliance 2 for example. Would the XBOX version be worth nothing, because finding a working console be next to impossible and there are no emulators to run it? Does the PS2 version sell for a lot higher, because there were so many more PS2s made, and it can be emulated with any computer out there at the time?

[Matt]

Well, there's no doubt both units have had their fair share of defects, but PS2 has a huge overall advantage over Xbox because there are no built in hard drives prone to failure- just memory cards that can be reformatted and cleaned up. Also, since emulation is more common and the PS2 game library is so astronomical, I would argue the games for it would be more worth collecting (even if they remain cheaper to buy).

This is a good topic to raise, seeing as how they are both now discontinued for good. I see PS2 with the full advantage for the reasons I just mentioned. That's not to say fun times can't be had on Xbox, but Microsoft's reputation with technical issues in their Xboxes only helps Sony. So, all in all, Xbox games may cost more later, but as you mentioned, they would be useless and not worth collecting if there is nothing out there to play them correctly without going to ebay for an original working unit.

PS2 wins this battle bar none.

[Malakai]

I agree with you. The first technology, albeit not video game related, would be RCA Selectavision. These units were popular enough to have appx 1,700 movie releases on it, yet they were a slow seller and didn't make it in the marketplace. Even at the beginning of the era, I believe people thought these used lasers, just like a laserdisc player. However, they used styluses and needles, like a record player. Record player needles weren't made to play hours upon hours of movies on, without needing a frequent needle change. That sort of spelled disaster from the getgo.

We had a few CED players, probably after they failed the marketplace and everyone was selling them cheap. For awhile, I collected several hundred of the movies, but they were extremely heavy and took up a lot of space. The movies never really gained any value, and it was working players that everyone wanted. So, I eventually sold the collection pretty cheap.

I actually liked the players back in the late 80s. They had a great quality, but the movies themselves were super expensive, and the VHS came out. VHS really was inferior, but the one thing that made people flock to vhs was the ability to record stuff. You didn't have to send your home video to get a lacquer master and then have a minimum of 600+ vinyl pressings made for thousands of dollars to see your home movie on CED.

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For video games, sometimes the opposite is true, as far as collector's value. The Atari Jaguar, which had a massive problem with the controllers going out (just like the atari 5200 controller) and the tg16, which wasn't popular to begin with in America. I remember having a jaguar and trying to sell it for months and couldn't even get $25 out of it at the local flea market. Then one day, people started paying a fortune for them on ebay. Then TG16 systems started costing a good bit of money. It's probably hard to believe, but before ebay, I ran across a neo geo aes home system and a neo geo cd system at a video game trading store, along with a bunch of games for only $60 apiece. Now days, you usually get a beat up, worn out Japanese AES console for like $300-$500, and some of the cartridges still go for hundreds of dollars. I wish I would have bought the AES system back then. It would probably be one of the most prized part of my collection. One day, I still hope to get a neo geo arcade. They use to go for about $400 in excellent condition. Now, it's like $1,500 for a beat up POS.

Anyway, back to the topic... The jaguar and tg16 is a lot different from the XBOX, because they didn't sell well at all from the getgo and were more rare. Microsoft was a big competitor, even if the XBOX itself didn't win the first round. Sony was a tough competitor.

Just like a hardware-based saturn card, it would be awesome if someone (or a group) started taking old broken xbox systems and created add-on cards for PCs, which would run all of the xbox games with some type of driver. Practically everything you need is already in your modern-day PCs.. Just make an encryption board that hooks in via USB or a PCI slot, then a software driver that emulates an xbox hard drive, and you'd be good to go. It's not really emulating much, because the XBOX was just a PC basically. Get that going and an emulated xbox live server, and that's all she wrote!

With all of that being said, they also said the neo geo would be impossible to emulate because of the encryption, and then one day, someone broke through it, and that was all she wrote. So, there is hope, even if it doesn't seem likely right now.