I have three gaming consoles plugged into my TV in the living room and it’s a mess of wires and HDMI input hopping. Ibrahim Al-Nasser has over 400 consoles plugged into a single TV and seems to be doing just fine. In fact, his obsession just broke a world record.
Al-Nasser lives in Saudi Arabia and has an enormous collection of retro gaming machines and collectibles, as well as newer hardware like the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. And all of it is plugged into a single, comparatively small display so that he can swap between any system at any time. And it actually works. Guinness World Records recently visited to make a video about his setup and award him the rare achievement of having 444 consoles working through the same TV at the same time.
As the collector breaks down how the setup works, you can see how much planning and organization went into it all. A stack of switches and converters helps him route whichever system he wants to play to the TV with the flick of a button, while a massive Excel spreadsheet helps him keep track of what’s connected where.
This includes 30 RCA switchers and over 12 HDMI switchers running everything from a 1972 Magnavox Odyssey to last year’s PlayStation 5 Slim edition. The rest of the collection includes plug-and-play hardware like Namco joysticks and even off-brand systems that were quickly discontinued like the Super A’Can. To this day, though, Al-Nasser says his favorite console ever remains the Sega Genesis.
I think the thing I’m most impressed with about his setup is just how neat and tidy it is. Aside from the stacks of controllers that look more like modern art than mini-piles of mess, almost all of the cords are hidden. “I used all the tools available in the market in order to organize the cables,” he told Guinness. Al-Nasser said that while the idea was born from his retro gaming habits, the setup now functions as an unofficial museum. Hopefully, the Switch 2 comes out soon so he can make the record 445.