Those of us who collect classic consoles and computers (I’m looking at you, AI reporter Benj Edwards) know the struggle of keeping all that hardware not only working but also instantly accessible at the touch of a power button. Too often, large hardware collections languish in boxes on shelves or untethered from a display for long periods of time.
Ibrahim Al-Nasser from Saudi Arabia had enough of the problem with his huge game collection and decided to connect 444 different gaming devices to one TV. In doing so, he set a Guinness World Record.
“After a while, I noticed that I had a big pile of consoles that I couldn't play on,” Al-Nasser said in a video filmed by Guinness. “The TV connections are limited and when I want to play, I either disconnect the existing consoles or I keep everything and add more switchers and of course more converters. By adding more switchers, the idea came to me to connect all the consoles that I have to the TV and then contact Guinness World Records, because this project is unique.”
Guinness says that Al-Nasser uses “over 12” HDMI switchers (so… 13?) to keep his collection connected, as well as “over 30” RCA switchers for pre-HD consoles (though some older consoles, like an N64 used in the video, apparently use converters for an HD connection). While the HD consoles appear to automatically switch to the correct input when turned on, Al-Nasser uses a giant spreadsheet to keep track of which button he needs to press on which RCA switcher to connect the correct cables.
Wait, there are 444 consoles?
Al-Nasser's collection appears to be quite extensive, featuring both common modern consoles and relative rarities like the Asia-exclusive Super A'Can. To get to a record-breaking 444, however, Al-Nasser had to throw in a slew of non-traditional “game consoles,” including cheap plug-and-play units, mini-console reissues, gaming computers, Android-based HDMI sticks, “consolidated arcades,” and more.
That's all good enough to count for Guinness, which has faced controversy for charging potential record holders for a shot at glory. In the gaming world, it famously deleted Billy Mitchell's scoring records and then reinstated them amid threats of litigation.
Even though the amount of hardware feels a bit excessive, Al-Nasser definitely deserves credit for keeping so many pieces of gaming hardware clean and well-organized without the messy cable clutter you might expect. “I use all the tools available on the market… to organize the cables,” he said. “It's like a museum, that's why it took me too much time [to organize].”
