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xboxWhat the Xbox One Actually Leaves Behind for CollectorsPick up a Day One 2013 controller and you're holding the receipt for one of the strangest console launches ever attempted. Chrome D-pad, DAY ONE 2013 stamped across the face, and in the box it shipped in, a one-time code for a commemorative achievement. Microsoft built a collector's item out of a console it would spend the next several years walking back — and that, oddly, is exactly what makes the Xbox One interesting to collect. A launch edition built around a vision Microsoft abandoned The
segaWhy the Sega Master System Still Rewards Patient CollectorsSwitch on an early Master System with no cartridge in the slot, hold Up and both buttons, and Snail Maze appears — a complete little game Sega tucked into the console's BIOS. That's the Master System in a single gesture: generous, slightly odd, and hiding more than it lets on. Most of the world never noticed, because most of the world was busy with the NES. Most of the world, that is, except Europe and Brazil. Which is exactly why the Master System remains one of the most satisfying 8-bit libra
playstationWhy PS3 Collectors Check the Model Number FirstFlip a fat PS3 over and read the sticker before you even glance at the disc tray. Those five characters — CECHA, CECHB, CECHC — decide what your library even is, because the PS3 is the rare console where the hardware revision matters more than most of the games it plays. Why collectors read stickers, not spec sheets The Japanese and North American launch units — the 60GB CECHA and 20GB CECHB from November 2006 — carry actual PlayStation 2 silicon on the board: the Emotion Engine CPU and Graph