I know that in 3 years the oldest Christmas lights I have will be 100 years old.

I'll still put them on my tree, and no doubt continue to have my friends believe I will die in a light-related fire.

So, by my own logic, yes, I think some people will still care. I don't care to speculate what "value" if any an NES collection would have, other than nostalgia for great grandpa's toys.

In 60 years, almost all of the people who grew up with the NES in the 80's will be dead or not in a state to play the games.

In 100 years any remaining NES games will either be in a museum or belong to a very small handful of preservationists. Electricity and TVs won't exist in their current form and any of these physical games will be carefully preserved and likely not used in the traditional sense.

Not to get too morbid but most of the population here will die between 2040-2060. How many will still have their collections at that point? Let's say 50% to be kind.

What will your kids and grandkids do with you crap when you die? Assuming we still even use the current A/C power system, maybe 10% will keep your gaming stuff. Again, being very optimistic.

Fast forward another 60 years. What connection will their descendants have with your stuff? Virtually zero.

Hate to say it, but 99.9% of your collections are ending up in a landfill eventually. Just a few retro techno enthusiasts and some museums will have the physical consoles in 100 years.

Oops, quiet451 beat me to it...

If video games are to be considered anything like other collectibles, then they will always matter until the end of mankind. Art, coins, stamps, novels and books, jewelry/antiques, and many other "collectibles" have surpassed the 100 year mark and continue to remain on the radar of people around the world. NES is more likely than some of the other consoles but me thinks all video games will hold a neverending interest amongs our species. Once video games go digital only, which may or may not ever happen (there's good reasons why, too), that will make "physical games" a thing of the past and somewhat "antiquey". Sport cards and comics are pretty much closing in on 100 years and we all know that the oldest and most desired stuff is selling for all time highs.

Humanity in 100 years? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

Who really knows.

100 years before the NES was 1885 which introduced some items that would be relevant as "collectible" today, such things as (according to wikipedia) the first true Automobile (the Benz Motorwagon), Dr Pepper, Bicycle Playing Cards, Good Housekeeping Magazing,

You didnt have to grown up with nes to appreciate it, wanting to play challenging 8 bit classic games with great gameplay in their original form, or otherwise, will last beyond a 100 years from now. People will find a way to play the games in a physical form, in the future.

Vinyl is over a 100 years old and look how well it's doing.

I agree with nathan and captain, but just a little add is we will never use DC, as it is terrible over distance. Wireless is actually more likely, its even said nikola  Tesla figured it out a long time ago, just never wrote it down. 

With that being said, electricity is electricity no matter where it comes from (chemical reaction, static, mechanical generation etc.) So adapters to the current way we use it would be a 100% guarantee. 

Yeah, very niche and a shell of its heyday.

Will people play NES games in the future? Sure. Using the physical carts? Nope, there's no need, aside from a couple of people putting a cart in to show how it was done, just like the dude in that first video showing how an old phonograph works. Beyond that, ROMs.

I wasn't suggesting, at all, that you'd do distance transmission in DC.

But there are plenty of concepts for decentralizing portions of power production (where those sources generally seem to produce DC power), or something where you have a whole-house battery (again a DC source), where within the home DC would work just fine and you'd only have AC up to the battery for instance.



And maybe I didn't learn enough electro-magnetism related physics, but I have a hard time imagining large scale "broadcast" of power transmission that wouldn't have some shared bandwidth with "useful" airwaves and interfere with a lot of stuff we currently take for granted.



(but yeah, the concept of completely losing the ability to power something, when at the end of the day it's all just electricity, is pretty out there)

I think Pat is spot on with his opinion. In 100 years, every retro game system and games will be in the public domain and probably we be available in a complete set for a small price. I'm thinking like how early silent film collections can be bought on DVD today. Not many people will care to collect or use the actual hardware or games.

I have a mental picture of an NES collector 100 years from now being one of those stuffy gentleman in tweed jackets from the Antique Roadshow.

Nice video bud  ... A phone a storage to keep change and candies for the cuties ..lol
 

I don't think the aliens that are going to take over Earth will give a shit about Human History or the crap we collected, but who knows?

I'll be dead, you'll be dead, everyone you love and care about will be dead. No one will care about NES games, they'll be more concerned about buying a loaf of bread which will cost $100.

I won't be dead.

Assuming we all don't kill each other in some major world war or some disease wipes most of humanity out, I wonder what the population of the Earth will be like in 100 years. Even if a smaller percentage of people collect these old games in the future, you could still be looking at a sizable number of people collecting a limited number of games. If we make contact with aliens and they take interest in them, the bubble will enter a state of infinite expansion, eventually leading to a big freeze in collecting.

Agreed. I cant even get my wife to care about my stuff now. Cant imagine my future family doesnt throw it out

Also im not gonna lie i got giddy when i saw your avatar. Always exciting to spot a stern fan, but more specifically a eric the acktor fan

They'll outlaw carbs by 2050.
 

2050 eh, well shit I should be dead by then. I'll miss carb prohibition.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell how much a certain family inheritance can really tell you anything about your family history. The ones who bonded with it emotionally during their lifetime don't usually pass that sympathy on with their collection. There's more to judging someone's personality traits by what they own than just owning the stuff. What they do instead is give their children more guilt about maintaining possessions they don't really need or use, and if they end up poor or losing it in a fire or house theft then it was all in vain. Pictures, letters and works of art by your ancestors are generally more important in my opinion, which unfortunately in the next generation will be mostly lost or non-existent because everything we do is digital and storage devices fail often. That kind of stuff would in theory say more about your family than 100 sealed copies of Bubble Bobble Part 2. :\

I think it will all be about as relevant as any other entertainment technology from 100 years ago.

Again, disagree. There will always be a need to touch, hold, store and play with the orginal item for the exact same reasons people prefer physical today. 

Vinyl has isnt that niche anymore, it has become mainstream to certain extent. It is a good example of my point.

I think aliens would have developed similar hobbies, or have outgrown such desires of they're such technologically advanced to travel lightyears through space to annihilate an inferior species. That or they travelled to seek out Mario and Sonic to form a peace treaty. Cause everyone knows aliens think tv shows and video games are real life.