Yes, because then you are not limited to a selection of games including ones you don't like, and you can play without the need of a TV and controllers either, not to mention many console minis users complain about how the controller cables are too short.
You know, I just posted in the previous post that I use PSX and PS2 emulators to play THE PHYSICAL COPIES I OWN.
It's much easier to use than hack a PS classic to add roms, and I can't even use my physical disks on it for example.
Kazoo (to rip NES games) used to cost $20 less than 2 years ago.
And yes, if you get Retrode 2 with all plugins for €105.5 (I notice you pushed the price up for some reason) you can not only rip games from 7 different consoles (N64, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, Game Boy Advance, Sega Master System and SNES/SFC and Genesis/Mega Drive) but you can actually use Retrode 2 to play the cartridges in your PC if you have a free emulator. Then if you rip the game, you can just put it on whatever device you run your emulator and play it, it has the added bonus that your device can be portable, like a tablet or smart phone. I would say it's quite worth the price.
Also we can get plenty of consoles and games for cheaper than the minis, if we look around:
Here's one example (Selling a NDS + SNES + Sega Gamegear + Gameboy + PS4 with games and "more") all for A$180 (US $127.56).
Here is someone selling 21 GBA games for A$49 (US $41.81).
Here is someone selling an Atari with 99 games for A$40 (US $28.36) and it's negotiable, which means the seller is willing to sell it for a bit less than that.
And this was just from searching for 5 minutes on one Aussie site. I can only imagine the bargains that are happening in international places like Ebay for example (I remember years ago Ebay having several NES bulk sales with 50+ game cartridges).
So comparing the prices I can get for a lot of stuff with the minis prices, I still say it's overpriced.
Also this is weird, you say it's easier to add an extra step of hacking a mini/classic which I'm pretty sure it's illegal, than using a legal free emulator to run your physical or legal ripped roms?
So let's see... If a person legally rip their games, they set up the hardware, install the software and then just place the cartridge in the slot and press a couple of buttons (as long as they are informed of the memory type/model/chipset the game uses, which is not hard to know), then it's done. The rom is ready and you can use it on an emulator. Now, you say it's easier to just had the steps of hacking your mini console, then connect whatever you have to connect to the mini console and transfer the rom to this new device?
How is it easier? Not to mention you're already doing something illegal
.
Also, with the minis you're stuck with games you don't like and you're paying for those too.
I don't see any contradiction on what I said. I would love to have an Amiga or a DOS pc or any other old computer type and have games and software for those. I have a ZX Spectrum on the other side of the world, but I don't have a cassette player that works for it anymore. But I can't afford buying all of those, so I have to resort to roms.
I already said that there are plenty of old gaming systems that have a lot of Abandonware, you can get those for free and you don't need to own a physical copy of them. Spectrum, Amiga, DOS, etc. have a lot of games that the copyright doesn't have a real holder anymore, or that copyright owners declared it abandonware.
So yeah, for those you can just download the roms and play on an emulator for free.
EDIT: This doesn't really relate to this discussion, but it might be interesting for people interested in legal rom access. There is a company that "rents" roms. You can play Atari, Nintendo, and Coleco Games for free, but if you pay a subscription and have access to a wide variety of roms from several other platforms (Sega Genesis, SMS, Nintendo 64, GBA, GB Color, Gameboy, Sega Game Gear, TurboGrafx-16 Games). The thing is that once someone is "renting" a rom, no one else can use that rom. These roms were ripped by the company from real cartridges they own and they only have one rom of each. This is what makes the whole thing legal.
Console Classix