Not too much has changed except I’ve started taking on bucket loads of consoles and some SNES units, not all are here. Oh dear lord, I just remembered there’s Xbox and PS2s somewhere in a box! Chaos ahead!

It’s been nearly a year since the last proper collection overview, so I thought I’d take the camera around and show you what’s changed. My original idea was to photograph and document the consoles before releasing some of them back into the wild. I don’t really need fifty Dreamcasts or fifty Mega Drive 2s, although you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s exactly what I’m trying to achieve.

There has been a little downsizing. I’ve managed to move along some of the Saturns, and now there are only… hang on, let me count them. Three? Four? Oh, there are another two over there. Five Saturns. That’s what I call downsizing!

One of the biggest changes is the number of Sony PlayStations scattered around. Yes, I know they’re not Sega consoles, but neither are the Super Nintendos! Retro hardware is simply too interesting to restrict myself to one company. Every system has something different to offer.

I’ve got several PlayStation revisions to investigate, including one I remember modifying way back around 2001 or 2002. They might all look fairly similar from the outside, but there’s quite a bit of variation in the internals. There should be enough repair work there to keep me occupied for a while.

The Sega shelves haven’t changed quite as dramatically. We’ve still got Mega Drives, 32X units, the Multi-Mega, the Sega Digio and various bits of development hardware. The Saturn Sophia is working now, which is particularly nice to see!

Boxed items are becoming something of a problem. They take up enormous amounts of space, and the cardboard isn’t especially happy with the humidity in this house. I’m thinking about getting a dehumidifier to help preserve everything, although that comes with its own concerns about static electricity.

The Dreamcast section still has plenty of controllers and accessories tucked away. Things like the arcade sticks and mouse are awkward to leave lying about, so keeping their boxes does have some advantages. The poor Menacer and Sega Activator are still hanging around as well. Such wonderful examples of technology that sounded considerably more exciting on paper!

Then we’ve got the Mega-CD development hardware, the Aiwa units, a growing collection of spare parts and the rest of the equipment that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere sensible. I’ve really got to get another set of shelves for the development hardware before it takes over the floor entirely.

Even the Raspberry Pi running my web server makes an appearance. It’s switched off while I’m busy uploading videos, so there’s another little piece of the McRetro operation hiding amongst the consoles.

I’ve also got a couple of PlayStations in mind for the PSIO project, provided I can work out which ones are in suitable condition. The Game Gears still need attention, and I’ve acquired another Master System without having a proper place to display the 8-bit machines.

There is an awful lot to do here. Hopefully by the next collection overview I’ll have fewer duplicates and a more sensible arrangement.

Then again, I’ve said things like that before. Oh dear!