In a recent spate of tidying, I had cause to go through a box of old console paraphernalia, which I’d left without a lid on. It reminded me how much we’ve moved on.
Controller cables, for one thing. From the last generation of cabled consoles, PlayStation 2 definitely wins: even though my blue pad has stopped working entirely, the cables have best maintained their integrity. I’d forgotten just how short GameCube cables are, and how long their Xbox equivalents. The Xbox cables have become really badly creased, and it’s for that reason that they are rubbish. But it’s the effort involved in cleaning the cables – and how well they collected dirt – that really makes me glad that controller cables have been done away with.
The other anachronism is memory cards. Apart from the expense of having to buy the things, I’m glad they’re a thing of the past because I think I’ve managed to throw away my GameCube memory cards. Which is a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit. But then, I am a very stupid thing.