the "borrowed" game phenomenon

[Iron Draggon]

I'm wondering how many others here have ever had the horrifying experience of going through your entire collection, looking for a game you KNOW you used to have, only to find that you DON'T have it anymore... because one of your friends "borrowed" it and never returned it... maybe with your permission or maybe without your permission... I have a friend who started assuming that because I had let him borrow a few of my games before, he could simply help himself to whatever he wanted from my collection whenever he wanted it... so that's why I had the very horrifying experience over a decade later when I discovered that a couple of my games he had "borrowed" never made it back into my collection... and they had ended up in the hands of his very small neices and nephews... so in other words, they were gone forever... no longer mint... MUST BE REPLACED... over a decade since I bought them brand new, way back in the glory days of the 16BIT generation... not rare, but still very hard to find in brand new factory sealed condition again... HORRORS!

fortunately, after a few years of frantic obsessive searching, I finally laid those horrible old demons to rest by finding replacement copies in the same condition that I remember my original copies being in... still in the shrinkwrap with an expensive price tag attached... but fortunately, only about half as expensive as the price marked on the tag, due to their reduction in value... but still not exactly CHEAP to replace... and it did take YEARS to replace BOTH of them... so the agony of my horrifying experience was excruciating...

MUST FIND REPLACEMENTS!

you chant it like a mantra in your head... constantly reciting it over and over again... MUST FIND REPLACEMENTS... it takes top priority over all your other collecting goals, although of course you still won't pass up any really great deals while you're desperately searching for what has become your new Holy Grail: replacement copies to restore the completeness of your collection and eliminate the massive black hole that will exist in it forever if you DON'T find replacement copies... it sucks you into it and it insists that you MUST find replacement copies, or you will NEVER escape it... the black hole formed in your collection will loom in it FOREVER, threatening to eliminate the rest of it FOREVER, if you DON'T find those replacement copies, and find them FAST!

well fortunately for me, my horrifying experience with the "borrowed" game phenomenon that forms massive black holes in unsuspecting collector's game collections ended with a happy ending, as I recently replaced the last of the two missing games from my friend's horrific assult on the completeness of my collection... AAAHHH... now that spells RELIEF! no more frantic searching for those two! now I can finally get back to EXPANDING my collection again! the massive black hole that my friend created in it has been eliminated forever, and the only black holes that remain are the ones that have been tormenting me for over a decade now, because I never got around to eliminating them way back in the glory days... BACK TO THE HUNT! MUST... FIND... GAMES!

[Cloud121]

I'm actually only missing one game in my collection due to my letting my friend borrow a game. He's had it for the last two years, but I reminded him of it recently, and he remembered borrowing the game and still has it. Now I just need to get it back.

Hey, at least he didn't lose it or anything.

[TheRedEye]

I'm on my fifth copy of Grim Fandango because of this.

[Mason P.]

funny that you wrote this. I am usually pretty good about loaning things to my friends. Now I just loaned my modded slim PS2 to a friend and cant remember who it was. I remember parts of the conversation, but can't remember the face. I have called all my close friends and they say they don't have it (some have keys to my place) and I trust them. Now I know I wouldn't have loaned it to somebody I couldn't track down easily, but it is bugging the crap out of me. I normally write down who has what, but forgot that time.

[8Ways2Tuesday]

That reminds me - a coworker has had my copy of the first Fullmetal Alchemist game for, like, a year and a half. I should really see if he's ever going to play it, since he and I are both planning on quitting fairly soon and I only see him at work.

For the most part, after lending a pile of games and guides to a different coworker and having him spill chocolate milk on most of them, nothing gets loaned out. Ever. The FMA game was an exception because the guy was really into FMA at the time.

[Cloud121]

Actually now that I think about it, I'm also missing something of importance.

Back in Spring 2004, I let a friend of mine borrow my modded PSX, a burnt copy of DDR 3rd Mix, and my dance pad, in exchange for PSO v2, Sonic Adventure 2, and an official blue Sega controller for my Dreamcast. He was so desperate to play DDR (He recently got injured, and was unable to make it to the arcade), that he said he would GIVE me the three items, if I just let him borrow it. He still has my PSX. I got my dance pad back, but no PSX. He keeps saying I need to come to his place to get it, but I feel as though he should give it to me himself for keeping it for so long.

[horseboy]

over a decade since I bought them brand new, way back in the glory days of the 16BIT generation... not rare, but still very hard to find in brand new factory sealed condition again... HORRORS!



What is the point of loaning out a sealed game in the first place? So he can look at it?

[bangtango]

I've got a Panasonic FZ10 3DO, a couple of controllers and half a dozen games which I lent out that I know I am never getting back. Since that is the only model of the 3DO I will tolerate, I need to replace it :(

As for stuff that I am waiting to have returned and expect to get back, that would be my copy of the Zelda Collector's Edition for the Game Cube. My sister's boyfriend is still playing through Majora's Mask on it. Otherwise, that is it for games people are currently borrowing from me.

I am due to borrow a Nintendo security bit from another forum member here, though, and need to PM him shortly.

[studvicious]

Iron Draggon if I may ask, what were those games? Just curious.

[Damaramu]

Sometime last year, probably November, my copy of Marvel vs Capcom 2 went missing. Not the whole copy, just the disc. I've been tearing through The Vault (my friends' nickname for our ginormous walk-in closet used as videogame storage), looking for the dang game.

I went as far as suspecting friends of "borrowing" the game:

"Hey, did I lend you my copy of MVC2?"
"No, why?"
<suspicious glare>"Just wonderin'..."</suspicious glare>

Fastforward to a couple of weeks ago: My wife ends up finding the disc, in of all places, the DVD case for a movie The General's Daughter. WTF?? I definitely do not recall putting the game there.....

Ah well, my precious is back and I'm good. (It was my very first DC purchase back when it was brand new!)

[ubersaurus]

Only once have I had that problem. My uncle once borrowed our copy of Operation Wolf for NES back in the day, and never returned it. He claimed he had bought it himself for his kids! Worst part is he threw it out when he got rid of his NES stuff!

[rbudrick]

I learned when I was very young to never let anyone borrow my games. Too many times other kids tried to screw me. I would need collateral if I were to even consider doing ti again.

-Rob

[Richter Belmount]

Some sob friend still has my gameboy color and tetris cart.

[Push Upstairs]

I learned when I was very young to never let anyone borrow my games. Too many times other kids tried to screw me. I would need collateral if I were to even consider doing ti again.

QFT.

I never lend my stuff out to anyone and if I do the collateral has to be worth more than the item I'm lending.

I'm terrible. :devilish:

[Gamereviewgod]

I've begun tracking everything that leaves the game room in someone elses hands.

Even when I would trust these same people with my life, things get misplaced, forgotten, or just tossed aside. It happens to the best of us. So, on the hard drive is a spreadsheet, and what's out.

[diskoboy]

I lost 2 games, and after the second, I vowed no one would ever borrow my games, again.

I lost Forgotten Worlds (Genesis) and Hogan's Alley (NES)

[Promophile]

I learned when I was very young to never let anyone borrow my games. Too many times other kids tried to screw me. I would need collateral if I were to even consider doing ti again.

-Rob

Agreed! When I was a young lad, one of my "friends" borrowed Mortal Kombat Genesis version from me. This was back when the game was expensive as balls, a few weeks after release. This guy had the nerve to say I never lent it to him when I asked for it back. I think his parents were in on it too, because When I wanted to go to his house and look for it his parents refused. That was the first time I learned that the majority of people are scum and shouldn't be trusted. Working retail over the summer also helps you reach that conclusion.

[horseboy]

If any of you guys are PDA or Smartphone guys I might have a pretty good solution for you. I used to use a program called "promises" for just this purpose. Basically, you enter the item being borrowed and the name of the borrower, and then there is a little box for them to sign it so that there will never be a debate about it. Then you just delete it when it is returned and all is well. It really works well, and it is (at least it was, I haven't checked in a while) a free program. I used it for games and DVD's, good stuff.

[coreycorey2000]

I've lost a few games this way. Nothing major. But my disks for Lunar Eternal Blue have went missing. I remember taking them out of the case and putting them in a generic case for someone. I didn't want the box to get ruined. But I'm not sure who. I have also lost a copy of Suikoden 3, Vanguard Bandits and Final Fantasy 8 or 9. And I think a friend of a friend has a copy of God of War 2 of mine right now.

[Iron Draggon]

well the worst of it is, I had tried unsuccessfully to prevent my friend from borrowing anymore of my games after the first time I let him borrow a couple of games from me, way back in the glory days... so I guess I really should've expected to get yet another horrific surprise because of him, and I should've inspected my entire collection for potentially missing games alot sooner than I did... he also caused me to have to replace Exile and Y's 3 for the Genesis, because when he borrowed those two, he had laid them down on his kitchen counter without noticing that the counter was soaking wet... so the case inserts for the games soaked up all the water like a sponge, and of course they were never the same again, even after they were all dried out... so I had to spend a small fortune buying those two games all over again, but at least I was able to do it quickly and easily, and I was able to recover most of my replacement costs by selling the extra newly ruined copies to someone else... but that was way back in the glory days, when I had plenty of money to burn, and you could walk into any store that sold games and find most any 16BIT game brand new and factory sealed... although it still took me a long time to find Exile again... in fact, I ended up having to buy a used copy, just to get a replacement insert for it... and I did the same thing to replace the insert for Y's 3 too... those games were both expensive as hell to buy brand new, way back in the day... and all I really needed was replacement inserts...

anyhow, the two "borrowed" games that I had so much trouble replacing with brand new copies recently were Tom & Jerry and Sylvester & Tweety for the Genesis... Tom & Jerry was a BITCH to find again because most of the sealed copies still in existence are all the cheap crappy Majesco re-releases, and of course that was never going to be acceptable to me... all it did was frustrate the hell out of me, as every time I found a new sealed copy, it was always the cheap crappy Majesco re-release, in the cardboard box with the black & white manual, not the original clamshell case release with the color manual...

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

but I did finally find a pristine new copy of the clamshell case version, thanks to DP... one down, one to go... and it was only very recently that a pristine new copy of Sylvester & Tweety finally showed up on ebay... but it did finally show up... and my total cost for replacing both games was about $60... but it was really even more than that, because I had gotten one of the crappy Majesco re-releases of Tom & Jerry to play while I kept on searching for a REAL replacement, and I had gotten an allegedly new but not sealed copy of Sylvester & Tweety to play while I kept on searching for a sealed copy too... I sold the placeholders here on DP after I finally got the REAL replacements...

so why am I so anal about only wanting factory sealed games, just so I can open them and play them? well, I guess it's because way back in the glory days, I bought all of my games brand new and factory sealed... so there are almost no used games in my collection at all... there's only about a dozen Genesis games that I had to buy used, just to be able to get a copy of them at all, and I still have yet to replace any of those... but they're all minty enough that I've never really worried about replacing those very much... at least not to the point of it becoming an obsessive compulsion that I MUST replace them with factory sealed originals, like it was with Tom & Jerry and Sylvester & Tweety... Frantic Antics and Cagey Capers indeed! I felt like I was living in some sort of nightmarish Tom & Jerry and Sylvester & Tweety crossover cartoon, trying to track down factory sealed copies of those two!

[Flack]

I have a couple of white boards around my house. If someone borrows something they write the item on the white board. If your name is still on the white board because you borrowed something and didn't return it, you don't get to borrow anything until that item's returned.

It's not really a problem for me as there are about half a dozen people I would loan something to. Too many years, too many lost items.

[ProgrammingAce]

I loaned a TEST PS2 (PS2 dev kit) to a friend. He dropped it on the pavement and smashed it.

Games i loan out all the time, dev kits... not so much anymore.

[Zork]

It has happened to me before too. The worst is when you lend someone the game but not the case, so you think you still have the game. Then when you go to play it the case is empty. That i show I lost my both my copies of mario tennis is mario cart for the nintendo 64.

I'm actually guilty of borrowing someones games and not returning them. I just forgot I had them. It worked out though. I recently remembered i had them and went to return them to their rightful owner. It turns out that the person I had borrowed them from "quit" playing video games, so he let me keep them. :)

[Damaramu]

On the whole loaning thing, umm...NEVER. I've said this in the past and I'll say it again: If you want to play something, you're more than welcome to come hang out and play. But take something home, nope!

[Videogamerdaryll]

I've always wanted to put some sort of sign over the doorway to my gameroom saying..Games are not for Loan/ ----Don't ask to borrow games...Games stay here...Something to that effect..

My nephew likes to "want" to borrow games..I loaned him a few duplicates awhile back and he lost them...
I asked my Sis,how the heck can you lose a game CD when you still have the case.what's he do chuck them in the garbage...:grrr:

My nephew say's..Hey uncle I don't have that game anymore,can you give me another >>Yea Right!!X_x

I'm not that pissed since they were duplicate games as I knew better to give him anything other.
But he's a slob and gets nothing else.
.........
Within my collection..

I'm actually only missing one game due to letting an (IN LAW-relative borrow three PS games...
My relative had them for like a year then one day they wanted to borrow more games,I was like Whoa,wheres my games they have..
.... so I asked where the three games they had of mine where.
They totally forgot about them and said that they gave them back to me way back when..
..I know what I have and the three empty spots in my Playstation rack remained the game empty....I never got shit back..
This actually boilled into a family agruement as each side was looking to defend...Looking at me like I was lying and being hard with my games.
For some reason since I own a lot of games people think I have to give them up for free are should be subject to loss..

Eventually after several arguements my relative admitted to have just two and can't find the third.

I eventually get the two PS games and things between me and the borrower weren't the same..I didn't really give a shit,I just didn't like being taken the liar by my in law family..
Some name calling by the borrower too,thinking I'd just let it go led to nastiness.

The trust I had and thought of respect that they would have for my stuff was lost...

The whole thing just went out of proportion due to laziness by the borrower and lying..

I never said,forget about the third game.. and I was never offered a replacement or anything...
...................


The third game was never found so I left the empty spot in my PS rack hoping to fill the spot someday..

It's been a few years now...

Then...

....my relatives come over here with some baby items.(say two weeks ago)
They brought a stack of PS games to give me,in turn I gave them a PS to take thier games back to play them..

In the pile was my missing game...X_x..But I didn't take it nor say anything..I didn't want to stir up and old arguement..

[bangtango]

Agreed! When I was a young lad, one of my "friends" borrowed Mortal Kombat Genesis version from me. This was back when the game was expensive as balls, a few weeks after release. This guy had the nerve to say I never lent it to him when I asked for it back. I think his parents were in on it too, because When I wanted to go to his house and look for it his parents refused. That was the first time I learned that the majority of people are scum and shouldn't be trusted. Working retail over the summer also helps you reach that conclusion.

Never a fun thing. I had to sneak into a friend's house through his back door, when nobody was home, just to get back my borrowed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3. This was two or three months after it originally came out. He had the friggin' game for 2-3 weeks and I wasn't the person who let him borrow it either, another family member did. The kid was showing no signs of giving it back to me so I had to "go in" and take it when there were no cars in the driveway. His family lived 1/4 of a mile up the street. I'm just glad the back door wasn't locked and there wasn't somebody home (a dad) in an easy chair or a bedroom. I got it back, though. My friend never did mention the game to me again, so he must have assumed my parents talked to his parents and got it back that way. Asshole.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Kitsune Sniper]

I'm on my fifth copy of Grim Fandango because of this.

If someone wants to borrow a PC game, then just give them a bunch of CDRs or something.

Piracy? Yeah, maybe. But they're not paying for the game either.

[Push Upstairs]

On the whole loaning thing, umm...NEVER. I've said this in the past and I'll say it again: If you want to play something, you're more than welcome to come hang out and play. But take something home, nope!


This is the absolute truth.

When I have a room to call my valut/game room/whatever that will be rule #2

Rule #1: "Touch not, lest ye be touched." - Brodie Bruce

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm on my fifth copy of Grim Fandango because of this.

Shouldn't you just tell them to pick it up off of GameTap?

; )

[OdSquad64]

i've had plenty of experience loaning, but i always make sure i get my stuff back. i've had games lent off for a couple years at a time but i remembered to get them back. the only game i've ever lost was 4x4 Evolution for Dreamcast. I lent the game to my cousin and i specifically remember getting it back from him, but then a few months later i couldnt find it. not sure where it went to but, i know he gave it back (i didnt like it anyway). I've also aquired a few game from borrowing. sometime during the early 90s my family borrowed about 5 nes games including Jaws, Back to the Future, Zelda II, Twin Cobra, and another game that might actually be fictional. Either way I still have all of these games.

Also, i write my intials on every game i own and my full name on every console i own specifically to prevent borrowed games from coming up missing

[Iron Draggon]

I would've pointed it out and called the SOB on it... screw just letting it go... that's what people like that count on... YOU just letting it go, so THEY can have it!

I certainly do not loan out ANYTHING that I value anymore... I got a couple of my Metallica CD's screwed up for me that way too, and I still have yet to replace them... like I could ever replace them... those CD's were from long before they made it really big... sure, they're still in print, but they're not the same two CD's that I bought way back in the day... their sentimental value is gone forever now... thank God I got my Garage Days CD back from the same guy without any scratches on it though... at least he didn't ruin the rarity...


I've always wanted to put some sort of sign over the doorway to my gameroom saying..Games are not for Loan/ ----Don't ask to borrow games...Games stay here...Something to that effect..

My nephew likes to "want" to borrow games..I loaned him a few duplicates awhile back and he lost them...
I asked my Sis,how the heck can you lose a game CD when you still have the case.what's he do chuck them in the garbage...:grrr:

My nephew say's..Hey uncle I don't have that game anymore,can you give me another >>Yea Right!!X_x

I'm not that pissed since they were duplicate games as I knew better to give him anything other.
But he's a slob and gets nothing else.
.........
Within my collection..

I'm actually only missing one game due to letting an (IN LAW-relative borrow three PS games...
My relative had them for like a year then one day they wanted to borrow more games,I was like Whoa,wheres my games they have..
.... so I asked where the three games they had of mine where.
They totally forgot about them and said that they gave them back to me way back when..
..I know what I have and the three empty spots in my Playstation rack remained the game empty....I never got shit back..
This actually boilled into a family agruement as each side was looking to defend...Looking at me like I was lying and being hard with my games.
For some reason since I own a lot of games people think I have to give them up for free are should be subject to loss..

Eventually after several arguements my relative admitted to have just two and can't find the third.

I eventually get the two PS games and things between me and the borrower weren't the same..I didn't really give a shit,I just didn't like being taken the liar by my in law family..
Some name calling by the borrower too,thinking I'd just let it go led to nastiness.

The trust I had and thought of respect that they would have for my stuff was lost...

The whole thing just went out of proportion due to laziness by the borrower and lying..

I never said,forget about the third game.. and I was never offered a replacement or anything...
...................


The third game was never found so I left the empty spot in my PS rack hoping to fill the spot someday..

It's been a few years now...

Then...

....my relatives come over here with some baby items.(say two weeks ago)
They brought a stack of PS games to give me,in turn I gave them a PS to take thier games back to play them..

In the pile was my missing game...X_x..But I didn't take it nor say anything..I didn't want to stir up and old arguement..

[mills]

When I was in 6th grade a fellow class mate kindly asked me to borrow FFVI for snes and promised to return it. Helet me borrow Final Fantasy mystic quest, which I beat in about 2 days and promptly returned. When I asked him to return FFVI, he became hostile towards me, and threatened to "beat my ass." He was a member in a gang and I'll admit I was scared.

I never got the game back.

[MASTERWEEDO]

I loaned out a PS2 game and my OLD memory card and don't remember to who. It belongs to friend in jail, now I did have the common sense to back it all up on my memory card, but now it looks like I am out the game and my new memory card....also one of other friends broke the PS2 I was borrowing off the guy. I told him and he's not pissed, but I still feel bad.

[mezrabad]

I have a neighbor with whom I exchange Xbox games but that's pretty much it. If I ever loan him a pile I write them down. He's very good about returning them though.

A family with which we are friends recently moved back into town. They happen to own a GameCube along with Animal Crossing. Of course, we also have AC along with the e-card reader and about 50 series one Animeal Crossing e-cards. So, they're over visiting one night and our friend tells us that one of their GameCube controllers broke. I ask how and she explains that one of the girls threw it and before the girl could pick it up, the girl's Daddy ran over it with the vacuum cleaner and the cord got all messed up.

Then I hear from the living room, that very same Daddy saying to the very same contoller tossing kids, "well, no we don't have an e-reader but I bet you could borrow theirs along with some cards!"

No way.

In a related vein, I've noticed that many of the kids that come over have NO CLUE how to take care of their games. One kid brought over a stack of GameCube dics in NOTHING--just three discs stacked up like a deck of coasters. Another kid was standing next to my Dreamcast and noticed a controller with a microphone on it (I'd been playing Seaman). He grabs the controller and starts to walk towards me with it to ask me about it, while it's still attached to the DC on the shelf! The controller probably would've pulled out from the socket before pulling the DC off the shelf, but the point is that this thought didn't occur to him, he was just fine with picking up someone else's random possession without asking first.

I've concluded I need cabinets. Big cabinets with locks. If there are 8 and 9 year old friends of my children coming in and doing stupid things to games now, they will probably grow into 14-20 year olds who do stupid things, like steal games when my son tells them they can't borrow them.

[Captain Wrong]

I don't have this issue with games, but I do with an out of print import Miles Davis CD that I'm 99% sure I know who I lent it to and he won't fess up. Grrr

[kainemaxwell]

I only lend games out to friends I know I'll see again in the short term to get them back. Lost many games to friends i never saw again for whatever reason, or had them stolen from me at school. My more valuable games I don't lend out at all now, except to maybe one of my friends who I do trust.

[XYXZYZ]

Back in 5th or 6th grade, I loaned Megaman 2 and some other game out to this Irish kid who turned out to be a real asshat. (Generally) I gave him plenty of time with them, and when I asked for them he told me he sold them, and he thought he'd bully me around a bit like a big fat badass. So I was pissed about that... around that time he and I got into it over something else, and the teacher got involved. I mentioned about the games, and she started scolding him about selling other people's property, it was neat. But he admitted that he didn't sell them, he was lying. Anyway, I believe some parents were called and the following day or two he returned my games.

That teacher was pretty cool, but I still wish I could go back in time and clobber him. :D

[alxbly]

A guy I work with has a demo disc of mine. It's worthless but it's still annoying that he's decided to keep it, despite several reminders. I remembered that I also loaned out my copy of Turok 2 for the N64 to a friend... about seven years ago! Never seen it since...

[MachineGex]

I stopped loaning games. I am about to stop loaning DVD movies. My friend just borrowed 4-5 movies. His wife returned a few of my son's kids movies saying that is everything they have borrowed from us. I need to figure out what he borrowed so I can ask for them back.

On a side note, someone mentioned their child's friends messing with his stuff. That is my biggest fear. My son is only 3 yrs old, but in a few years, my game room is getting remodeled. I can just see my son's friends helping themselves to my games....I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it.

[zektor]

I lent a friend of mine a box of about 60 NES games a many years ago....actually brought them over to his house for a videogame all nighter. I left them there for some odd reason, and just told him that I would pick them up next time. I ended up forgetting about it and then finally remembering that I had left them with him some years later. Of course he does not know where they are. Gone forever are those games....and I know there were some rarities in there.

This also happened with 1/3rd of my CD music collection. Brought those over to a party at a friend's house, left them there, forgot them for awhile, he moved and I never saw them again.

Needless to say, my games/media never gets borrowed these days. I don't even let anybody (including my wife!) even *handle* my games.

[thetoxicone]

I swear half my old nes games I had when I was a kid got borrowed from various people and never returned as my mom would let my friends in and hang out even if I wasn't home yet.

I loaned a guy I only knew only a little my Lethal Enforcers (complete game, gun, box) and Coach K for sega genesis. At least Coach K was an easy replacement when I started my genesis collection a couple years back, but I am still looking for a blue justifier since oddly enough when I bought a boxed lethal enforcers off of ebay in a group of game it came with the pink 2nd player gun (so I've only got a gun I can plug into the phone lines currently).

Most recently my only borrowed out losses were Killer Instinct Gold and Perfect Dark. The guy who borrowed KI Gold has said just buy one and tell him how much it costs but I haven't got around to it yet

[RoyalShin]

That is how I made most of my freinds when I was growing up. I would exchange games and have them for ages and we would play a long time. Sometimes it would take a long time for the person to return.

Personally I might have losted three or four games but I have gained memories and other games also.

[Fuyukaze]

I used to trust friends and loan out games. That is untill one friend decided he wanted to play a number of my games and pawn them all off. I've yet to replace some of the games I loaned him then and rarely if ever trust anyone these days. I only trust a few people these days with my games and even then it's only because we are trading games at the time.


-Iron Draggon-
Also, I can understand now why you so rarly invite people to see your collection now. Having a simular experience with "friends" I can hardly blame you for not wanting others over. I still look forward to the day I'm allowed over to scan and collect the info from your collection. Your import Saturn collection is enough to keep me looking forward twords a Houston meet.

[Iron Draggon]

-Iron Draggon-
Also, I can understand now why you so rarly invite people to see your collection now. Having a simular experience with "friends" I can hardly blame you for not wanting others over. I still look forward to the day I'm allowed over to scan and collect the info from your collection. Your import Saturn collection is enough to keep me looking forward twords a Houston meet.

it really has nothing to do with that... well maybe it does a little, now that I think about it... but the main reason for it is simply because I just don't have enough room for having people over to play all my games with me anymore...

my entire collection is still being stored in big cardboard boxes after many years of having to be stored in such a way, and I still dream of owning some sort of shelving system that will display them all nicely for pictures and stuff, not to mention keep them all at my fingertips so I can get to them all easily whenever I want to play them... but such a shelving system would cost me hundreds of dollars... and I keep preferring to spend hundreds of dollars on more new additions to my collection... and so it all remains in big boxes...

but even the box thing isn't the biggest thing preventing me from having people over... I just don't have enough room in my room for anything but games... there's barely enough room for me in my room, much less a friend...

so it's really just the fact that there's no feasible way for me to have anyone over for a gaming session, like I used to when I had my own place... back then I had people over to play games with me all the time... but not now... it's actually become a big pain in the ass just for me to play my own games now... setting up the system I wanna play, digging out the games I wanna play, putting it all away again after I'm done... it's getting to where I might as well say that I actually collect the dust that gathers on video games...

[smokehouse]

I clearly remember the frustration of lending games. I used to be part of the “whole town NES swap meet” back in the day. Over time I had fewer and fewer games. Some of my favorite titles added to that “never returned” list:

Ninja Gaiden
Double Dragon
Gauntlet
Super Mario 2

The final straw was in 1994 when I loaned my prized copy of Final Fantasy II to a kid. He moved shortly there after and I never saw it again! That was it; I’ve never put any game on loan since.



...so it's really just the fact that there's no feasible way for me to have anyone over for a gaming session, like I used to when I had my own place... back then I had people over to play games with me all the time... but not now... it's actually become a big pain in the ass just for me to play my own games now... setting up the system I wanna play, digging out the games I wanna play, putting it all away again after I'm done... it's getting to where I might as well say that I actually collect the dust that gathers on video games...


Oh buddy, I feel your pain. There are so many times when I do not play some retro goodness simply because I do not want to mess with getting the systems out…

Digging through the boxes for the cords is a real pain. I’ve come to dread it.

[Iron Draggon]

I clearly remember the frustration of lending games. I used to be part of the “whole town NES swap meet” back in the day. Over time I had fewer and fewer games. Some of my favorite titles added to that “never returned” list:

Ninja Gaiden
Double Dragon
Gauntlet
Super Mario 2

The final straw was in 1994 when I loaned my prized copy of Final Fantasy II to a kid. He moved shortly there after and I never saw it again! That was it; I’ve never put any game on loan since.





Oh buddy, I feel your pain. There are so many times when I do not play some retro goodness simply because I do not want to mess with getting the systems out…

Digging through the boxes for the cords is a real pain. I’ve come to dread it.

OMG... the box of cords and controllers... don't remind me! I dread it so much that I'm almost at the point of fearing it... the massive knot of cord snakes!

[Steven]

LOL, this thread is the perfect example of why I never loan out my games. In high school me and this dude swapped SILENT HILL for DINO CRISIS. We lost touch and never returned our original games. I liked DC OK... but damn I loved Silent Hill. Lesson learned.

Back in the day it was different though, with cartridges. I had a best friend who always lent me his games and I took care of 'em like they were my own. Most people, sadly, don't however.

[bangtango]

OMG... the box of cords and controllers... don't remind me! I dread it so much that I'm almost at the point of fearing it... the massive knot of cord snakes!

The only system I have that problem with is the first Playstation but that is because I own 9 complete units. Each of the 9 systems have one power cord, one controller plus one rf cable or av cord. The systems are stacked up nicely but the controllers and hookups are all bundled together in a single box. Those wires discourage me from playing a whole lot of Playstation but I suck it up whenever I feel like continuing my adventures with Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield.

[Iron Draggon]

well I have all the cables and all the extra cables including extension cables and RGB cables for Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, SNES, 3DO, Saturn, Playstation, Jaguar, Jaguar CD, and Dreamcast stored in one box with all the controllers and extra controllers for all of those systems... so it is a very frightening gigantic knot of cord snakes that threatens to bite me every time I open that box... but if I really wanna play a certain game or a certain system badly enough, of course I'll dive into that box and free the necessary cord snakes from the knot... which seems like it always takes hours to untangle, no matter how carefully I return them all to their confinement when I'm done... that's why when I wanna play Genesis games, I just play them on my Nomad!

[DigitalSpace]

There's three people I trust enough to make an exception for, but otherwise, I don't let people borrow games from me. I like to know where everything in my collection is at all times.

[Push Upstairs]

well I have all the cables and all the extra cables including extension cables and RGB cables for Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, SNES, 3DO, Saturn, Playstation, Jaguar, Jaguar CD, and Dreamcast stored in one box with all the controllers and extra controllers for all of those systems... so it is a very frightening gigantic knot of cord snakes that threatens to bite me every time I open that box...

I read this and imagine that scene in "Christmas Vacation" where Clark lifts that giant ball of x-mas lights out of the box and tells Rusty to untangle them.

[bangtango]

well I have all the cables and all the extra cables including extension cables and RGB cables for Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, SNES, 3DO, Saturn, Playstation, Jaguar, Jaguar CD, and Dreamcast stored in one box with all the controllers and extra controllers for all of those systems... so it is a very frightening gigantic knot of cord snakes that threatens to bite me every time I open that box... but if I really wanna play a certain game or a certain system badly enough, of course I'll dive into that box and free the necessary cord snakes from the knot... which seems like it always takes hours to untangle, no matter how carefully I return them all to their confinement when I'm done... that's why when I wanna play Genesis games, I just play them on my Nomad!

Just buy a big bag of elastics and use an elastic for each of these cords. You might avoid some of the huge knots that way. Honestly, when I think of knots, I think of the Jerry Spinelli book Maniac Magee.

[Zing]

I let my friend borrow Bases Loaded for NES. I went to get it back a few weeks later and it was gone. I was like WTF. Then I saw he had Super Mario Bros 2 with the manual in his collection. I told him I would take that until he returned my game. I secretly hoped he would never find my game.

He never did!

[Chuplayer]

I've been real lucky with borrowing in general.

I let my cousin borrow my Sonic 2 cart, but I got to keep his Sonic 3 cart until we could swap back.

I let a friend of mine borrow a few games a few years ago. The worst thing that happened was there were a few fingerprints on the data side of the discs. No scratches. I can't complain. Few people are as anal about handling discs as I am.

The only thing I ever lost was a toy car back in kindergarten.

[Gameriley]

I lent one of my friends Super Mario Kart (SNES), Al Unser Jr's Road to the Top (SNES) and Super Mario All Stars (SNES). I got back Super Mario Kart and Al Unser but never got back Super Mario All Stars, one of my favorite games ever.

This also reminds me to get back Metroid Prime 2 from my friend, who is out of town until Mid-August.

[FoxyGamer]

When I was in 6th grade a fellow class mate kindly asked me to borrow FFVI for snes and promised to return it. Helet me borrow Final Fantasy mystic quest, which I beat in about 2 days and promptly returned. When I asked him to return FFVI, he became hostile towards me, and threatened to "beat my ass." He was a member in a gang and I'll admit I was scared.

I never got the game back.

Worst. trade. ever.