Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: You know what's a great feeling with this hobby of ours?

  1. #1
    ServBot (Level 11) Steven's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    3,209
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default You know what's a great feeling with this hobby of ours?

    There's just something exciting about starting the first step with a game you've never played before, and been curious about for 15, 20 years. Just something about that! Even better, when it happens on a Friday heading into a long weekend. I'm at the point where my flea market and Craigslist wheeling dealing days are over with. Whereas once upon a time a bright early Saturday morning meant driving down to the local flea market, now I can wake up and enjoy playing the latest game that catches my eye on the old library shelf. There's something awesome and satisfying about that.

    Best of all is not just playing a game, but playing it to beat it. Staying with a game to the very end. For example, I recently stuck with and beat Lagoon. Even though it's an average game at best, I had a hell lot of fun with it. Been wondering about how it plays for 20+ years now, and now I can cross it off the curiosity list. Now, I recently started up on Paladin's Quest. I'm a couple hours into it, and already enjoying it. I look forward to putting in another 3 to 5 hours or so this coming weekend. After beating PQ, I will put it back on the shelf, and look for the next game to play through. This is utterly satisfying IMO! There's nothing like it. It's so cool playing (through) all these games from your childhood, ones you never ever played before and/or couldn't afford!

    Anyone else love this feeling? Prospects of a brand new weekend (I especially love rainy weekends -- so conducive to staying in and getting your game on) + finally playing a game you been curious about for X years + beating said game + shelfing it and picking new game to start the cycle all over again = gaming paradise

    RVGFANATIC: SNES, Saturn, mad ramblings and more
    RELIVE | REMEMBER | REPLAY

    Brand new URL!

  2. #2
    Pac-Man (Level 10) treismac's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Savannah, GA
    Posts
    2,026
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    Great thread, Steven! There is indeed a great deal of magic infused in our hobby.

    Having a stockpile of unexplored pixelated fun waiting at my beck and call is part of the pleasure of collecting video games. There are more than a dozen or so games that I have on my "to play" list, which I will dive into when the spirit moves me (or when my schedule permits). Postponing playing a game heightens the experience for me, and I will do the same for movies I buy. The time has to be right. Looking through my collection at games like Kubuki Quantum Fighter, Kid Icarus, Gumshoe, Duck Tales (haven't beat the game in 20 somethin' years), Journey to Silius, Shatterhand, and Super Mario Bros. 2 (never actually beat this pseudo-Mario game) among other classics makes me all warm and fuzzy inside (and perhaps a bit terrified with Journey to Silius). They are physical tokens of future fun to be had.

    I also like collecting and playing games that I played once or a few times either at a friend's house or that I rented. Most of the original games from my childhood collection I am thoroughly acquainted with, but there is a mystery to the games I only faintly met. Hell, I still want to buy Abadox because of the one time I played the game at a Toys R Us on a family vacation. If a game was a friend's, it makes it even sweeter. I own the games from a childhood friend, and I wonder as I play them what he must have thought when he played the game at certain parts: Did a certain stage piss him off enough to throw his controller (he had and has a bad temper)? Did a certain strange looking character cause him to laugh out loud, and did he give it a nickname like he did for so many other characters in video games? What else was going on in his life as he played this game: Did he shuttle the game back and forth between his mom and dad's house when they got divorced, or did he just leave it at his dad's house? So, yeah. I understand and reflect on the nostalgia associated with our hobby, be it actual or conjectural.

    My collecting days aren't quite over, so I still have gems lost in my would be past to recover and knock the dust off of. Of course I enjoy buying games I never had the opportunity to own and coveted, but I equally, if not more, enjoy learning about games I never knew about and finding them. The research I undertake on a prospective game is all part of the courting process in my gaming/hobby. This is one of the reasons why I am so glad to be a retro gamer in this day in age with the internet always ready to yield so many sweet secrets from yesteryear.

    Today, I consider my blossoming Famicom collecting to be a whole new frontier in my NES collecting, which is the system I collect. These are not only games I missed in my childhood, these are games that an ocean separated me from, but are now mine for peanuts thanks to video game forums and ebay. Right now, I only have a Famicom adapter (alright, I have three) that I use to play Famicom games on my NES with, BUT in the near future I plan on buying some Famicoms (first the beautiful original, then the AV or a Twin Famicom). I have been postponing buying one for a few reasons (need to reorganize my collection before throwing it into the pile, I hardly have a surplus of money and my Famicom games play just fine on my NES with an adapter, once I buy a Famicom I will feel obligated to build a robust collection of Famicom games, etc.), but the biggest reason is I like to milk the anticipation of collecting as much as I can. When my Famicom comes one day, it will be the fruition of a dream, a small, strange dream, but a dream none the less of having my hands on the source of so much fun of some Japanese child who is now probably about my age.

    There are certain animistic beliefs that I like to entertain concerning video game- here is one of them: I like to imagine that all of the fun that children have had with a game or system remains with it over the years like memories of some sort. When I start playing a game that has been in hibernation for 20 or so years, I am reawakening the game and contributing new fun and memories to it. I hold to this "belief" lightheartedly at best, but I still think it adds a little something to the overall magic.

  3. #3
    Pretzel (Level 4) Orion Pimpdaddy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    night sky
    Posts
    822
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    2
    Thanked in
    2 Posts

    Default

    It's definitely the best hobby to have. You can actually do something with the stuff you accumulate (project it onto a screen and play it). Most other hobbies, like stamps, just involve displaying items. Yeah, we do like to display our games, but that's only a part of it.

    I collect a little bit of everything, from every console generation. There's been so much diversity in the games over the years, and I want to experience all of it.

  4. #4
    ServBot (Level 11) Steven's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    3,209
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by treismac View Post
    Great thread, Steven! There is indeed a great deal of magic infused in our hobby.

    Having a stockpile of unexplored pixelated fun waiting at my beck and call is part of the pleasure of collecting video games. There are more than a dozen or so games that I have on my "to play" list, which I will dive into when the spirit moves me (or when my schedule permits). Postponing playing a game heightens the experience for me, and I will do the same for movies I buy. The time has to be right. Looking through my collection at games like Kubuki Quantum Fighter, Kid Icarus, Gumshoe, Duck Tales (haven't beat the game in 20 somethin' years), Journey to Silius, Shatterhand, and Super Mario Bros. 2 (never actually beat this pseudo-Mario game) among other classics makes me all warm and fuzzy inside (and perhaps a bit terrified with Journey to Silius). They are physical tokens of future fun to be had.

    I also like collecting and playing games that I played once or a few times either at a friend's house or that I rented. Most of the original games from my childhood collection I am thoroughly acquainted with, but there is a mystery to the games I only faintly met. Hell, I still want to buy Abadox because of the one time I played the game at a Toys R Us on a family vacation. If a game was a friend's, it makes it even sweeter. I own the games from a childhood friend, and I wonder as I play them what he must have thought when he played the game at certain parts: Did a certain stage piss him off enough to throw his controller (he had and has a bad temper)? Did a certain strange looking character cause him to laugh out loud, and did he give it a nickname like he did for so many other characters in video games? What else was going on in his life as he played this game: Did he shuttle the game back and forth between his mom and dad's house when they got divorced, or did he just leave it at his dad's house? So, yeah. I understand and reflect on the nostalgia associated with our hobby, be it actual or conjectural.

    My collecting days aren't quite over, so I still have gems lost in my would be past to recover and knock the dust off of. Of course I enjoy buying games I never had the opportunity to own and coveted, but I equally, if not more, enjoy learning about games I never knew about and finding them. The research I undertake on a prospective game is all part of the courting process in my gaming/hobby. This is one of the reasons why I am so glad to be a retro gamer in this day in age with the internet always ready to yield so many sweet secrets from yesteryear.

    Today, I consider my blossoming Famicom collecting to be a whole new frontier in my NES collecting, which is the system I collect. These are not only games I missed in my childhood, these are games that an ocean separated me from, but are now mine for peanuts thanks to video game forums and ebay. Right now, I only have a Famicom adapter (alright, I have three) that I use to play Famicom games on my NES with, BUT in the near future I plan on buying some Famicoms (first the beautiful original, then the AV or a Twin Famicom). I have been postponing buying one for a few reasons (need to reorganize my collection before throwing it into the pile, I hardly have a surplus of money and my Famicom games play just fine on my NES with an adapter, once I buy a Famicom I will feel obligated to build a robust collection of Famicom games, etc.), but the biggest reason is I like to milk the anticipation of collecting as much as I can. When my Famicom comes one day, it will be the fruition of a dream, a small, strange dream, but a dream none the less of having my hands on the source of so much fun of some Japanese child who is now probably about my age.

    There are certain animistic beliefs that I like to entertain concerning video game- here is one of them: I like to imagine that all of the fun that children have had with a game or system remains with it over the years like memories of some sort. When I start playing a game that has been in hibernation for 20 or so years, I am reawakening the game and contributing new fun and memories to it. I hold to this "belief" lightheartedly at best, but I still think it adds a little something to the overall magic.

    Beautifully written and described! Totally hear ya... there is a definite magic to this hobby... especially when talking about the systems from our childhoods.
    I was driving my cousin home tonight, and on the freeway one of the topics that came up was Super Mario RPG. He's one of the few people who I'll game with whenever we get together. Seems most other friends and family members have "moved on" from gaming, but not dear old David (who I always saw as the "little bro I never had"). Anyway, we were talking about SMRPG, and I was telling him about how I'm now going through Paladin's Quest. Talking about it with him made me want to rush home ASAP and continue the quest. As we were talking about all these old games, I dunno man, there was just this buzz of electricity in the car. I know it's dorky as heck, but something about talking/thinking about these old games that just makes me crack a wide grin. They are magical and special

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Great post.

    RVGFANATIC: SNES, Saturn, mad ramblings and more
    RELIVE | REMEMBER | REPLAY

    Brand new URL!

  5. #5
    Pac-Man (Level 10) treismac's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Savannah, GA
    Posts
    2,026
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steven View Post
    Beautifully written and described! Totally hear ya... there is a definite magic to this hobby... especially when talking about the systems from our childhoods.
    I was driving my cousin home tonight, and on the freeway one of the topics that came up was Super Mario RPG. He's one of the few people who I'll game with whenever we get together. Seems most other friends and family members have "moved on" from gaming, but not dear old David (who I always saw as the "little bro I never had"). Anyway, we were talking about SMRPG, and I was telling him about how I'm now going through Paladin's Quest. Talking about it with him made me want to rush home ASAP and continue the quest. As we were talking about all these old games, I dunno man, there was just this buzz of electricity in the car. I know it's dorky as heck, but something about talking/thinking about these old games that just makes me crack a wide grin. They are magical and special

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Great post.
    My pleasure! Thanks for the wonderful prompt.

    Nostalgia flows so sweetly through video games, doesn't it? Thankfully, our nostalgia as retro gamers isn't restricted to flowing from the past to present, either, as we've discussed. In a way, I feel like I am rewriting my childhood when I buy and play "new" retro video games that I've been curious about for 20 something years, or when I discover ones that were completely unknown to my younger self. Any gaming experience, new or revisited, on an older system taps into that childhood magic that makes everything go all kinds of warm and fuzzy in the cockles of me heart.

    I envy you having your cousin to play and discuss retro video games with. All of my friends or relatives either moved on from gaming or see the video games from our past as quaint little novelties. When my schedule eases up considerably, I'm going to host another retro video game party (my "parties" are more of get-togethers than wild Dionysian blowouts) with the ulterior motive of restoking the love of old school games in a friend. Here's hoping!

    By the way, here is an invitation (I made several) from the last party:



    This year I want to make a video invitation for the event.
    Last edited by treismac; 04-07-2012 at 02:03 PM.

  6. #6
    Great Puma (Level 12)
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    4,932
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    3
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    5
    Thanked in
    5 Posts

    Default

    Life has made me a cynical, nit picky sort of person, so I more often than not get stuck on the faults a game has instead of just enjoying it for what it is. So, one of my favorite things to do is take games I love and have a habit of overlooking problems with and sharing then with the people I care about. Just recently, my partner, after two years of hearing me go on about how it's so great, decided to sit down with Psychonauts. I love this game to death, although it does have problems. I warned him going in that Yahtzee had it just about right, for excusing the obvious problems the game has, you get amazing visuals, a cunningly written story and lovable characters in return.

    I can't fully articulate how much I enjoyed watching him switch between loving the game in particularly creative sections to absolutely loathing the title during areas of sketchy platforming mechanics. After finishing it off, he remarked that it was a pain in the ass to play, but otherwise thought it was a great game. I've sense stacked his shelve with a selection of other games I've enjoyed.
    Last edited by JSoup; 04-07-2012 at 04:58 PM.

  7. #7
    Cherry (Level 1) Custom rank graphic
    Genesaturn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Buffalo, NY
    Posts
    370
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Gameboy Color View Post
    Life has made me a cynical, nit picky sort of person, so I more often than not get stuck on the faults a game has instead of just enjoying it for what it is. So, one of my favorite things to do is take games I love and have a habit of overlooking problems with and sharing then with the people I care about. Just recently, my partner, after two years of hearing me go on about how it's so great, decided to sit down with Psychonauts. I love this game to death, although it does have problems. I warned him going in that Yahtzee had it just about right, for excusing the obvious problems the game has, you get amazing visuals, a cunningly written story and lovable characters in return.

    I can't fully articulate how much I enjoyed watching him switch between loving the game in particularly creative sections to absolutely loathing the title during areas of sketchy platforming mechanics. After finishing it off, he remarked that it was a pain in the ass to play, but otherwise thought it was a great game. I've sense stacked his shelve with a selection of other games I've enjoyed.
    Great story, I know exactly what you mean. Games I've not touched over the years due to bad reviews or general dislike among the majority of gamers, I've decided to pick up and play. Technically since I'm trying to complete my Genny collection, it would only be a matter of time before I get to those games anyways..but either way - finding an old game now for a few bucks to see what all the hub bub was about is much more enjoyable than spending like 40 bucks back then to be disappointed because the words of the review were fresh in my mind.
    Currently attempting to complete my Genesis collection! Always looking for hard to find complete games! Send me a PM
    Please feel free to follow my collecting blog here! http://genesaturn.blogspot.com/

Similar Threads

  1. Not Feeling my PSP...
    By bartre in forum Modern Gaming
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 08-29-2010, 09:08 PM
  2. You know what's really satisfying about this hobby?
    By Steven in forum Classic Gaming
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 12-05-2008, 04:07 PM
  3. Great feeling as a gamer/why do people do this?
    By Steven in forum Classic Gaming
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 06-08-2005, 10:47 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •