I’m focused on NES, SNES, N64, Master System, and Genesis at the moment. I’ve just about reached the end of the cheap NES games and bought an Everdrive N8 Pro earlier this year. Mainly for ROM translations and homebrew, but I will admit to playing some of the higher dollar games on it. I’d much rather play actual carts though.
For me personally, I’ve found that I’ll go upwards of $60+ for a RPG or meatier action adventure game, but haven’t so far spent more than that on any of the consoles.
I’ve also opted to buy ports over original games in some cases. Chrono Trigger for example, I won’t spend $250 on it so I bought the Japanese DS port since it was $30 shipped and supports English out of the box.
The price of the console, any modern quality of life upgrades (RBG out, in game reset, etc), the price of the best flash cart and an SD card loaded with ROMs.
That adds up quick, doesn’t it? I had my Sony Trinitron RGB modded and now have SNES, Sega Genesis/Master system, and a self modded N64 all connected to a SCART RGB switch and have already ordered the parts to get the treatment done on my NES. Looks incredible though!