This shit annoys me so much.

I want a time machine, not to like, assassinate world leaders or anything, but mostly so I can go back with a hundred bucks and get shit that is unaffordable now for no god damn reason.

I am so glad that I got a job right at the last moment Genesis games were affordable. I'm pretty sure I paid like...$5 for my loose copy of Rocket Knight Adventures. I think my 32X was $25 and came with a handful of games (I don't think any were 32X games)

silver lining of the dreamcast dying: they had consoles stacked in a big pile on the floor of the local gamestop for $5 a pop. walked away with half a dozen, most of which i later gave to friends who wanted to experience dreamcast games but missed that window

My first Saturn was a brand-new refurb for $50 from the Electronics Boutique clearance bin. It was full of games that, in retrospect, would have been really good deals if I'd had the money as a teenager - Saturn SoTN for $40, etc.

I get that retro games has turned into a luxury hobby, but it's too bad, because it's one of those things where I wish sharing cool original objects wasn't so expensive. I'm glad emulation is so easy now and ROMs/ISOs are everywhere now - not like when it used to take hours or days/weeks to track down particular rare PS1/Saturn ISOs