I am going to start back into collecting retro consoles as a hobby, I have a friend that has a pretty small collection of about 8 systems:colecovision, atari 2600, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Ninteno, SNES, Playstation 1, Sega Saturn.

I am getting a good deal on a Neo Geo AES, Turbo Grafx16 and a Virtual Boy. Had to get some used cables for the VB but that's sorted out and should be here in a few days.

Any tips?

Cheers

My guesses would be eBay, and stores that sell retro games, whether they be retro gaming places, pawn shops, or something. Garage sales would also be a good place to hit up.

My local flea market specializes in retro gaming products.

Try yours.

Go old school, really old school.

Go for the first ever home video game system the Maganavox Odessey but I doubt you would be able to even play it on a modern HDTV. It had plastic sheets that used to cling to the TV screen. These things would have pictures on them and block out the rest of the screen and that's part of how you played the game. I had one of these growing up and it was so much fun. It started a life long love of video games.

Here's a few links about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey

http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm

Everyone see gaming evolution differently but I tend to classify gaming consoles by the leap in gameplay they provided when they were released. For me, it goes something like this:

• Odessey
  
• Atari 2600 - Amazing coin op video games in your home
  
• Intellivision - Wow great graphics, many different games to play and endless hours with friends playing this console
  
• Sega Genesis - WOW Sonic the Hedgehog. Then Road Rash, NHL Hockey with fighting, AeroBiz, The Immortal....so many great games!!
  
• N64 - I think it came with SuperMario 64 and you could, for the first time in console gaming, go literally anywhere you wanted. I had never seen anything like it before.
  
• xBox 360 - Amazing graphics

Honorable Mentions
PS2 - Grand Theft Auto San Andres - enuf said
Wii - For changing the type of gaming but I don't like it as a pure console gaming platform. Fun for parties though.

Anyways probably more than you wanted to know but those are my pics.

Local gaming stores, the small ones not franchises like Gamestop, are your best friends. They are old enough to own their own business, which also means they are old enough to have a passion for old systems.

Seriously, you could start your collection just by going to the one right down the street from me.

Well for now I was thinking of getting a RetroN 3 with these other systems.

If you haven't seen it the RetroN is designed to play NES, SNES and Sega Genesis games (also has S vid).

http://www.lukiegames.com/assets/images/photos/retron3_red.jpg

This way I can start a small games collection then next year expand into some older systems.

Jethrol I agree with you on many of those systems and have watched a lot of videos online on all of them.

Systems I plan on getting at some point:

Odyssey
Colecovision
Atari 2600
Atari 7800
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
NES
SNES
Jaguar
Sega CD
Nintendo 64
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast

We've got a fairly good collection, NES to present with only a few gaps.

Tips:
Network;
That little old lady down the block might have a gold mine in her basemant.
Ebay, check often
Craigslist, etc...check often, but be smart.
Newsprint, check often, but be smart.

They're out there, you just have to find them.

Edit: typo

Theres a shop here in Glasgow that sells all that kind of stuff, conveniently the place is named "Stuff"

Garage sales are always awesome.

Thrift stores as well. Especially the smaller "mom and pop" ones.

Ya one thing i've noticed with online sales, generally, is if people have things for sale online they are capable enough to search out and find out what things are work where as at garage sales, pawn shops etc. they might not take the time.