I still have my Atari 2600. Top is missing and I need to jab a screwdriver into the lever slots but other than that works fine. Sack load of cartridges too.
I think the cartridge-based ones are built to last - my beloved Master System, Megadrive, and even the Game Gear are all still going strong, whenever I take them out on an adventure again for old times' sake. Some games were just sitting around loose, picking up dust and dirt over years and years, quick clean though and they're sorted. I've revived many a dead cart just by blowing magic into it.
Haven't tried my Speccy for yonks though, last time it was a no-goer. Be great to have it looked at one day, and maybe mended. Any of yous out there that have got an original model still working, how are your cassette tapes? How were they stored (if at all), have they been anywhere near a TV or other electromagnetic radiation for a significant length of time and still worked?
Really should check on my Amiga floppies too. That would kill me if they were all blank now, I'm almost too scared to try.
What would yous say was the general lifespan for:
A) '80s Spectrum game tape cassettes?
B) early-to-mid '90s floppy disks (dunno if they got much better/more robust as technology advanced), such as for the Amiga - both retail game disks, and blanks with stuff saved on them?
C) PS1 CDs?
I could always google it I suppose, but I'd really like to hear if anyone here has had ones that managed to defy the march of time.
I'm guessing my PS3 & PS4 Bluray thingies are good for a
looooong time yet.