What made you collect all games for a particular system?

[ifkz]

A few years ago I decided I wanted to own a complete library of all of the US released Sega Master System games. I put my collection together over several years, a lot of it was found locally, but I did have to go online for the last couple of games and accessories (and a couple of re-buys to make games complete). Believe it or not, I put it together without a single E-bay auction! For me, it was my first system, the one that sparked my love for videogames. I still remember Christmas of '87 when I got my original system with Hang-On/Safari Hunt. Anyhow, I got into the system again as I almost flunked out of college. Thankfully my new hobby of scouring thrift stores and pawn shops had a positive effect on my education and my grades improved; I finished my schooling in a few years with a good ending GPA.

While I was collecting for the SMS, I bought other systems that interested me and I tried to find the best games for them. No more complete system libraries for me...so I thought. Last week, I noticed I had 70% of the library for Sega's 32X add-on. This last week, I rounded up the 13 common titles I was missing, and I will soon know if the auction descriptions were accurate! Everything is in the mail right now. So, that should make two complete system libraries for me. The only other system that comes close is the Sega CD with 84 US games...and I can't stomach buying some of the awful titles for this add-on to complete it!

All this personal reminiscing got me thinking, how and why did the long-time collectors here go about assembling complete libraries for their favorite systems?

[Shadow Kisuragi]

When I grew up, all I had was Nintendo systems. My grandfather sold our Atari 2600 before I got to know it, so an NES was purchased for me when I was 4. Every weekend, we would go to the flea market and I was allowed to pick up 1 NES game under $10. This was how my collection started.

I was given an SNES, N64, Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, and Gameboy Color while growing up, but I never had a chance to play any of the other retro consoles. A Play-N-Trade opened up in the area in 2008, which re-kindled my interest. I didn't start collecting full-fledge until two things happened:
- I found a copy of Cheetahmen II, loose, for $3 at the store. I felt bad for getting it for so cheap that I promised the owner I'd come back to pick up a few more things. I later met the previous owner of the cartridge, and he was happy that it went to someone that would care for it. He had it since he was a kid.
- The owner sold my fiancee an FZ-1 3DO with 30 games for $200. He said he wanted it out of his store and was willing to sell it to us for cheap, since we were one of his best customers.

Ever since then, we've bought ridiculous items traded into the store there and the collection has grown from mainly NES (300 NES games) to over 2000 games for over 20 systems. I've grown to love Sega products, which are my main focus right now.

[swlovinist]

I pursued the systems that I grew up with as for inspiration to seek out and find entire game collections. After completing my 14th Game Collection(Neo Geo Pocket US CIB), it has been one heck of a ride. My Genesis Collection took approximately 13 years to complete, but it was well worth it.

[portnoyd]

Let's see.

NES: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, novelty factor of collecting, loved the NES
5200: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, first system I ever had
SMS: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, somehow ended up with most of the games, decided to finish it
Genesis: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, had just finished NES, dirt ass cheap to collect for
32X: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, somehow ended up with most of the games, decided to finish it
VB: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, novelty factor of the system
Game.com: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, dirt ass cheap to collect for
Pokemon Mini: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, Achi had the full set already
Dreamcast: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, Achi had the full set already
nGage: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, my mom dropped me on my head as a baby
Coleco Telstar Arcade: mild obsessive compulsive disorder, bought the full set + system for $40

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I think "mild obsessive compulsive disorder" categorizes most people with collections.

[portnoyd]

Oh I know. Just had the throw that out there. Let's not kid ourselves. We're not exactly right in the head.

[PapaStu]

DC: Because I realized that I wasn't going to be finishing the PS collection nearly as fast as one would hope, so I went with something easy and smaller... and then got all the variants because i'm not right in the head.

NGPC: Because I could without lots of trouble get the small library in CIB form of course. Once I did that, I went for systems... and started to work on System box variants because i'm not right in the head.

[Steven]

I was never a fan of the "collect ALL titles for System X" mentality. I only procure all the games I *WANT*... and I've done this for Saturn 1999-2005, and Super Nintendo 2006-2007 (largely, with a few buys in 2008-2009). Saturn I just loved. SNES was my childhood buddy, and what I contend to be the best system ever. Buying and playing all the games I wish I could have 15-20 years ago... it's like fulfilling my childhood dreams.

[BetaWolf47]

I won't kid myself here: nostalgia has a lot to do with it. A lot of times, I'll buy a system because I have fond memories of playing it at a friend's house or a fun store demo. The games often aren't as fun as I remember, so it takes time for me to warm up to a system. Then, I'm able to appreciate the games for their time period, and build new memories with them.

Other times, a certain system has a novelty feature, like systems that are a first of their kind. I like Gamecube and GBA because they can link up, and e-reader for the card collectibility, and Saturn/N64 because of the analog.

[EColeman24]

I was never a fan of the "collect ALL titles for System X" mentality. I only procure all the games I *WANT*... and I've done this for Saturn 1999-2005, and Super Nintendo 2006-2007 (largely, with a few buys in 2008-2009). Saturn I just loved. SNES was my childhood buddy, and what I contend to be the best system ever. Buying and playing all the games I wish I could have 15-20 years ago... it's like fulfilling my childhood dreams.

Same here I never wanted to own (or pay for) a bunch of games I had no interest in paying....but maybe that would change if I had a larger gaming budget...lol

[BetaWolf47]

I also disagree with the "collect all games" mentality. Although I have a lot of games, I still only buy the ones I want, unless the games are really cheap or fun to collect. I do want a full e-reader collection someday.

[EColeman24]

Oh I know. Just had the throw that out there. Let's not kid ourselves. We're not exactly right in the head.

LOL no us gamers are never truly right in the head but then again that is what makes us fun ^_^ :texaschain:

[garagesaleking!!]

Ive never done it but would love to someday when I have a house and am done with college. I come from a fmaily big on antiques and collecting and I just think it would be cool to own a complete collection for a system, It would look so cool on display and would be good to tell stories about.

[scooterb23]

Game.com - Cheap games, and I actually kind of liked most of them.

[Loremaster]

Y'know, I mostly like to collect interesting or unusual games/systems/hardware. Those oddball games that don't just fit into a standard genre term, or that odd bit of hardware that makes you do a doubletake. Some of SEGA's stuff is really interesting to me, because they tried so many things over here, and stuff like the Lock-On system for Sonic, or the 32X is just so inventive from an engineering standpoint. I kinda wish we had seen more of that sort [mainly the Lock-On system, not the 32X]

Nintendo had a TON of really neat and unusual stuff too, though it tends to be pricier due to the fact that everyone and their mother has childhood memories of it right now.

Games that push the hardware, or do stuff that it technically shouldn't be able to do are really interesting to me as well. I think that's the only reason I haven't sold my copy of M1A1 Abrams for the Genesis. It's neat to take out and show people what that little machine can do.

*Shrug* So I suppose I collect what is interesting to me. Though I stay away from factory sealed. I like to play games, so just looking at a box holds no appeal to me. However, I do own a factory sealed copy of Pole Position for the 2600, but I only hang on to that because it's from the year I was born, and I found it randomly at a thrift shop.

[runinruder]

I'm not much of a collector at this point. A few years ago, I decided to sell off most of the stuff I had, keeping only the "essentials."

The one system I still have lots and lots of games for is the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine. No fun stories behind that... I just really like the games. :)

[Famidrive-16]

N64, which I've been on hiatus for a while now, cause nobody else was doing it, really.