Credit goes to the Steam guide by Leeloo2525 which I followed.
This achievement is a little complicated, so I suggest reading through everything before you start.
The problem is that this is a painful grind.
Let’s start with the basics… This takes place when you play as a Gamer. There are a total of 28 consoles in the game. 18 are purchased via your computer and 10 must be won/purchased at the 3 game conventions that occur each year.
PURCHASABLE CONSOLES:
• Appeal oPad Oxygen
• GSOS R2H
• Honey PeeEsPee
• Honey PlayStudios
• Honey PlayStudios 2
• Honey PlayStudios 3
• Honey PlayStudios 4
• Honey PSVital
• Mantendo 3D-ESS
• Mantendo D-ESS
• Mantendo SUATCH
• Mantendo zii
• Mantendo ZiiU
• NicoSoft zBox
• NicoSoft zBox 360
• NicoSoft zBox One
• Sanson K1
• Sanson Space Tab
Consoles in bold were never discontinued so can be purchased last.
CONVENTION CONSOLES:
• Atar Hyper VG System
• Atar Panter CD
• Atar Tygrix
• Mantendo Game Toy
• Mantendo Game Toy Full Color
• Saga Dream
• Saga Game Year
• Saga Hyper Drive
• Saga Mega System
• Super Mantendo
None of the convention consoles were ever discontinued.
The catch you need to know about is that each house holds a limited number of consoles, as follows:
• Your Parents Home – 2
• The Student Residence – 4
• 2-room Loft – 6
• Luxury Apartment – 10
• Mansion – 18 (at least)
• Space Mansion – 28
You will need to progress through the homes fairly efficiently and avoid getting the “convention” consoles in the earlier stages, otherwise you could miss out on one of the purchasable consoles when they become discontinued.
You shouldn’t have any problems with this as the timeframes are reasonable. There is a warning in the top-left of the screen when something is becoming discontinued, but I recommend grabbing the consoles asap so you don’t have to stress about that. The Honey PlayStudios was the first to go, from memory.
Generally, just purchase them as they become available and you’ll be fine.
Once you reach the Mansion, you can probably start going to some convention consoles to reduce the grind later on. There are 8 consoles (marked in the list above) that were never discontinued, so I assume you can leave them until you reach the Space Mansion, meaning you could possibly get up 8 of the 10 convention consoles and still have enough space in the house.
Once you get to the end-game, the grind begins. There are three game conventions that occur each year. Their dates will alter slightly each year, but you’re looking for:
• Kanto VG Show - $600 – April 30
• VG - $1000 – August 29 (with an associated achievement the first time you attend)
• Gameworld - $450 – December 26
You attend conventions like any other event – find them in your phone calendar and buy a ticket. While other events appear 3 or more weeks out, conventions only appear around 2 weeks beforehand. You’ll see other events past the dates listed above and might think that something is awry, but keep checking and it will show up as you get closer to the date. Make a save just in case.
At the convention, there will be one or more booths, with characters inside you can talk to. One of them will offer a game console (the others offer a game for the console). Make sure you get right one. Talk to the person and they will tell you to get a score of 1000 in one of the games.
If the console on offer isn’t one you need, exit the game - do not save! At the main menu, continue and you should load in just as you’re heading to the convention. As with all things random, you may have to exit and continue a few times to get one of the consoles you need. If you already own the console, you won’t be able to talk to the person at the booth.
There are, I think, 2 games at each convention. The easier (for me) was Space Invaders but here is also a Moon Lander game – they look like old-school arcade cabinets. Space Invaders is pretty easy so you should have no problems getting the required score of 1000.
Once you reach the score target, use up your lives in the game then go back to the person you spoke with and claim your prize. It will still cost a little money – most are only $10 but I think 1 or 2 might have been a little more.
When you get back to your house, the new console will be delivered in a box, just like all most other items you’ve purchased in the game.
I’ll be honest… the save system in this game is odd. You should have an autosave when you leave for the convention, so simply exiting the game without saving then continuing should put you back when you are leaving for the convention. Making a save a day or so beforehand seems to reload you back at the start of the month...
If you accidentally save as you exit the game, the autosave returns you to the day after the convention so you will have missed your chance. In that case, you’d have to reload the earlier save.
All this should hopefully make sense and not sound too bad. The problem is:
• 3 game conventions per year,
• 10 “convention consoles” to be obtained,
not too bad so far…
• each game month takes around 12-15 minutes real time.
So, if you have none of the convention consoles when you reach the Space Mansion, you’ll need to progress through ~ 3.4 years to get the 10 conventions required for the 10 consoles, which is ~ 40 months. A quick set of maths suggests you’re looking at 480 minutes/8 hours at absolute best to pass the time just waiting for the next convention (realistically more).
It might be tempting to start on the convention consoles earlier, but remember that if you miss out on one of the discontinued consoles then you would potentially have to start a brand new game…