"Gaming is prohibitively expensive these days, you can't play video games for an affordable cost anymore!"
Ladies and gentlemen, the humble $200 Alienware Alpha.
Are you going to be able to play the latest AAA games on it? Can it run the latest graphics techniques like DLSS and ray tracing? No.
Will you have fun with the myriad of indie games and massive PC gaming back catalog, as well as emulation of a dozen retro consoles? Hell yeah!
This little guy was my first ever gaming PC. Jumped straight into modded Skyrim with it, lol. I still own one from over a decade ago and, although it has about the power of a PS4, that certainly doesn't prevent you from having fun with it.
There is a whole world of gaming just waiting for you to uncover it. Outside of the latest and "greatest" games getting shoved in your throat. And no, it's honestly not that expensive to get into at all. In some ways, gaming has never been cheaper. You just have to temper your expectations a little bit and you'll find so much joy.
One thing I’ve been thinking about for years is an emulation machine for the living room but I never found one cheap enough to just throw money at.
@pettanko mine's a revision 1, the i5 model. it can do pretty much everything under the sun, including a little bit of wii u and ps3 emulation. i've seen a lot of people buying i3 versions and then buying more ddr3L RAM and an i7 cpu for it, both of which are extremely cheap. in fact i have been thinking about getting an i7 for mine since they're seriously only like $20-$30. i just don't use it as much as i used to since i got a bunch of new parts for my main PC and finally could build a second one to replace this little guy. but it's nice knowing i have it so i can take it around to friends' houses and stuff.
the only major issue, besides stuff like the hardware not being officially supported by anything anymore, is the wifi. i have not been able to get it to work with any modern connections. so you gotta' buy a new adapter for it too.
i'd highly recommend getting one if you're looking for emulation. other really good options are the xbox one s (which is great for xbox stuff obv and can play most 4k bluray as well) and wii u (if you're looking at only nintendo games). those can both be found for under $200 regularly. the wii u can technically be completely operated without a gamepad at this point now, and people will usually sell them without the gamepads for way cheaper. i'd recommend having it though because a) it makes things way easier and b) it is easily the best way to do DS emulation without having a dedicated device like the ayn thor.
