tips for a new collection

[aBattleBorn]

hi guys, hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

I am planning on starting a small collection of Nintendo game consoles I am planning to buy the GameBoy advance sp, 3ds, maybe the 2ds, Wii and later on the switch.

now I have questions about the retro consoles:

1)is Nintendo products are region locked? if I will buy the Japanese GameBoy advance(for example, but I want to know that about all of Nintendo devices) am I locked to playing only Japanese games?

 

2)what do you think is an acceptable price for each console? 

 

3)any thing that I need to know? I know that the Wii has a problematic capacitor the sometimes leak on to the board and can corrupt it, anything like that I should be aware of?

thanks in advance.

[Bombastinator]

Re#3

if you’re going Japanese they have a bunch of stuff that never made it to the US so you may double the size of your collection. Famicon is one complication. There are others. there is a big long history.  I don’t know it, only the existence of it. There are whole sites and YouTube channels devoted to this stuff.   They will have what is rare and expensive, what is rare and isnt, what is common, and where to buy stuff and for how much.   Nintendo collecting is a whole thing. 

[aBattleBorn]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Re#3

if you’re going Japanese they have a bunch of stuff that never made it to the US so you may double the size of your collection. Famicon is one complication. There are others. there is a big long history.  I don’t know it, only the existence of it. There are whole sites and YouTube channels devoted to this stuff.   They will have what is rare and expensive, what is rare and isnt, what is common, and where to buy stuff and for how much.   Nintendo collecting is a whole thing. 

thanks for your response.

but let's say I am going with a Japanese Gameboy advance will I be able to play English games? I do plan to game on my consoles so it is important for me.

also, do you have any specific channel to recommend? what I found so far is or overwhelming or underwhelming with knowledge.

[PlayStation 2]

1 hour ago, aBattleBorn said:

thanks for your response.

but let's say I am going with a Japanese Gameboy advance will I be able to play English games? I do plan to game on my consoles so it is important for me.

also, do you have any specific channel to recommend? what I found so far is or overwhelming or underwhelming with knowledge.

None of Nintendo's portable consoles up to the 3DS are region locked. So yes, you can play US and European Game Boy Advance games on a Japanese GBA.

If you ever want to get into Switch collecting, you're also in luck: it's region free.

[aBattleBorn]

25 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

None of Nintendo's portable consoles up to the 3DS are region locked. So yes, you can play US and European Game Boy Advance games on a Japanese GBA.

If you ever want to get into Switch collecting, you're also in luck: it's region free.

thank you very much

[Monkey Dust]

Gameboy and Gameboy Advance is not region locked, literally the only difference is the label on the back.

 

DS and DS Lite are not region locked, but the DSi and 3(2)DS is, though DSi will play all DS games with only DSi exclusive games being region locked.

 

The home consoles are region locked, such as the Wii, but mods can make them region free across NTSC regions such as North America and Japan. PAL (Europe & Australia/NZ) being a different resolution and frame rate, it is often better to have separate PAL and NTSC machines for all but the Wii. The Wii can be soft modded to play from any region, being the same 'under the hood' worldwide. 

 

Unless there is some in particular you want from Japan I'd start with your domestic market Nintendo stuff. Things can get complicated quickly when you start mixing regions, especially on the home systems. 

[aBattleBorn]

1 hour ago, Monkey Dust said:

Gameboy and Gameboy Advance is not region locked, literally the only difference is the label on the back.

 

DS and DS Lite are not region locked, but the DSi and 3(2)DS is, though DSi will play all DS games with only DSi exclusive games being region locked.

 

The home consoles are region locked, such as the Wii, but mods can make them region free across NTSC regions such as North America and Japan. PAL (Europe & Australia/NZ) being a different resolution and frame rate, it is often better to have separate PAL and NTSC machines for all but the Wii. The Wii can be soft modded to play from any region, being the same 'under the hood' worldwide. 

 

Unless there is some in particular you want from Japan I'd start with your domestic market Nintendo stuff. Things can get complicated quickly when you start mixing regions, especially on the home systems. 

thank you very much for your very informative response