I have three game consoles plugged into my living room TV, and it's a mess of cables and HDMI input switches. Ibrahim Al-Nasser has over 400 consoles plugged into a single TV, and he seems to be doing just fine. In fact, his obsession has broken a world record.
Al-Nasser lives in Saudi Arabia and has a huge collection of retro arcade machines and collectibles, as well as new hardware like the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. And it's all plugged into a single, relatively small screen, so he can switch between any system at will. And it really works. Guinness World Records recently visited to make a video about its installation and reward him with the rare feat of operating 444 consoles simultaneously through the same TV.
When he breaks down how the summing setup works, you can see how much planning and organization goes into it. A stack of switches and converters helps him direct the TV to the system he wants at the push of a button, while a giant Excel spreadsheet helps him keep track of what's connected where.
These include 30 RCA switchers and more than 12 HDMI switchers that run everything from a 1972 Magnavox Odyssey to last year's PlayStation 5 Slim. The rest of the collection includes plug-and-play hardware like Namco joysticks and even off-brand systems like the Super A'Can, which were quickly discontinued. But Al-Nasser says his favorite console to date is the Sega Genesis.
I think what struck me most about his setup was how clean and organized it was. Aside from the stacks of controllers that looked more like modern art than mini clutter, the cables were almost entirely hidden. “I used every tool available on the market to organize the cables,” he told Guinness. Al-Nasser said the idea was born out of his retro gaming habits, and that the setup now functions as an unofficial museum. Hopefully the Switch 2 will come out soon and break the record to 445.