Game Room Of A 14 Year Old

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

I'm probably the only 14 year old who collects the more vintage stuff (mainly NES and SNES right now) so I decided to post up a few pictures of my collection/entertainment room. As of now, I don't have anything that's rare or older than the 1980s. Some of my favorites though are my boxed copy of Adventure Island for the NES, Joe and Mac 2, Super Bonk and some others. Sorry about this pics being rather blurry though. :beaten:

[megasdkirby]

The pictures are kind of hard to see, but it was great to see certain items, like the Tiger Handhelds! :)

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

The pictures are kind of hard to see, but it was great to see certain items, like the Tiger Handhelds! :)

Sorry about that. I've had the Tiger Handhelds since childhood- we owned an old warehouse and my dad found them hanging around there for me. They still work!

[megasdkirby]

Sorry about that. I've had the Tiger Handhelds since childhood- we owned an old warehouse and my dad found them hanging around there for me. They still work!

I have a few as well, somewhere packed away in boxes. I do know they have their manuals and blister pack, though the blister pack is yellowed with age. Some games I do recall having are: Mega Man 2, Space Harrier 2, Mortal Kombat, Lion King, Super Street Fighter 2 Barcode Battler, Power Rangets, Garfield, Star Trek Talking, etc

Great, GREAT times I had with those. I really loved those hand helds back then. I wish I could go back and relive my childhood exactly like I did many years ago!

[Pichu]

That's excellent, don't sweat man, I'm thirteen, and I collect Atari items!

[Haoie]

You kids are allllright.

[swlovinist]

Thanks for sharing your collection with us, you have some good games!

[UnpluggedClone]

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[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I am 21 years older than you :) Each of us probably knows an old man with a collection of vinyl records in their basement. They are collecting for a hobby that's is on its last legs and no young people are taking it up (MP3s are easier). I sometimes think I'm destined to be one of those people, but with a colleciton of old video games instead of records. So, it's comforting to to see there are younger folks still entering the retro gaming hobby.

When I become elderly, would you be able to come over and change my diaper? :beaten:

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

I have to say that is so cool that a 14 year old is in to old games like that. Very Cool. God damn i had sex before you were even alive!!

It isn't that great- I don't even have that many games that are even borderline rare (best I have is probably rarity of 5 or 6 on DP rarity guide thingy). IMO these games are so much better because companies were able to get away with making their products nearly impossible to finish (Battletoads and TMNT for example with their infamous levels) so you were able to get a sense of accomplishment for winning. Today, you just wail on the attack button and bam you've beaten it.

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

When I become elderly, would you be able to come over and change my diaper? :beaten:

What the.....? LOL!

[Pantechnicon]

That's a nice collection so far, and it's reassuring to see younger people taking an interest in the retro stuff. Keep at it, and post some clearer pics when you can.

p.s. - Thank you for also using correct grammar and spelling in your posts. Too many people your own age would write something along the lines of "hey peeps check out alla old skewl stuff i got its worth alot of $$ lol".

[DefaultGen]

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[UnpluggedClone]

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[SegaAges]

Well dude, just keep at it. No rush to get high numbers.

Just collect what you want to collect, and play what you want to play. Your collection is in a very nice spot right now where you can move it in any direction you want. Even if you find that you only enjoy 2 games on the NES (that would be odd, but possible), then you can still easily and cheaply shift away from that for something else.

Whether you have 10 games or 10,000 games, the numbers never matter as long as you personally enjoy what you have.

I do agree with everybody else that it is very cool that there are younger people not only collecting, but taking the time to sign up for DP and post up pictures. Even though you need better pictures, you still took the time to take the pictures and post them up which is very, very cool.

[Rickstilwell1]

I am 21 years older than you :) Each of us probably knows an old man with a collection of vinyl records in their basement. They are collecting for a hobby that's is on its last legs and no young people are taking it up (MP3s are easier). I sometimes think I'm destined to be one of those people, but with a colleciton of old video games instead of records. So, it's comforting to to see there are younger folks still entering the retro gaming hobby.

When I become elderly, would you be able to come over and change my diaper? :beaten:

At 22 years old my collection of heavy metal and classic rock records must be pretty unique? I've got one of those electronic automatic turntables from the 80s. Load the vinyl, push buttons, and the arm moves itself. You can even choose the track numbers to play with buttons 1-7.

I have some duplicates of certain records though. Makes me wonder if I should just sell the dupes and use the money to expand.

When I was a kid I seemed to get a lot more free Super Nintendo games than I did for the Genesis. I don't know if it's because my grandma liked Nintendo better than Sega in their ads or what. I'm sure the only reason I got more NES games than either was because they were cheaper and often floating around at yard sales. My stepdad gave me the Atari 2600 when I was about 13 and I found the games to be fun and addictive. I've appreciated it ever since.

[Arkhan]

Hey! You were me 7 years ago :D.

shit when I was 12 years old, I was playing C64 and CoCo3 crap!

:)

Just wait til youre like 3ish years older and get a job. You will be buying crap twice your age left and right! It rules.

[Baloo]

Great to see more younger people getting into buying and playing old video games! Keep it up, and don't get discouraged. Just keep hitting up your local flea markets, thrift stores, and video game stores to see what comes in.

[Slate]

I can see some NES, SNES and Wii games. I think I see an Adventure Island game with its box too, Nice. I was collecting when I was 14 too, I didn't have any real goals while collecting though so I just bought anything and accumulated things. I had fun while I collected games.

[Platinum]

I'm 18 now, been collecting since I was 13. Started with a Genesis back in 2005, now look at my sig. In 5 years I've collected almost 1000 games. It's up to the younger generations now to carry on the torch of the vintage systems. If a single generation does not, we may lose a lot of them.

[dreamcaster]

When did this hobby get so young?

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[peachstapler]

I've had the Tiger Handhelds since childhood.
14 is childhood. Well, hopefully you're still enjoying a care-free lifestyle at that age. :)

[Matt-El]

Im not usually one to advocate use of flash willy nilly in photos, but in this case i'd say use it.

[csgx1]

It pretty cool to hear about a younger generation that's into retro games. I always assumed that most teenagers could care less about retro gaming. A few 15 year olds that I've asked about retro systems don't even know what an NES or SNES is.

Keep it up with the retro collecting.

[Slate]

When did this hobby get so young?

Hey, I was into collecting almost a whole seven years ago when I was twelve years old. I mean really.

Austin

[peachstapler]

A few 15 year olds that I've asked about retro systems don't even know what an NES or SNES is.
Can't blame them, I think. If you would have tried to talk with me in 1988 you'd probably have choked me for not knowing what the Odyssey or Fairchild Channel F was.

[DefaultGen]

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[jb143]

Speaking about age thou, i never do understand how people in there early 20's can get into the atari 2600 late 70's early 80's gaming.

For the same reasons that people get into older music and movies. It's not always about what you knew growing up but sometimes about what got us there.

[j_factor]

I remember it was around 1989 and my friend hooked up his old atari and we started playing baseball and almost puked after looking at the screen.

Well that's because Baseball sucked ass.

[dodgeme]

I'm 17 and have quite a bit of the older stuff around. I mainly got into as people were so willing to dump it off at yard sales and I would see it and be like ooh this is cool. Fast forward a few years and I know exactly what I am after and enjoy some of my retro games more then my new games.

[Trebuken]

There do seem to be age lines. People are surprised your collecting old games, you're too young; but not really. Guess what though? You can also be too old. When you reach a certain age you can become uncomfortable revealing to people you collect games, or even play them in some audiences. I try to fight these notions, but I sometimes fail -- espeacially when around the ladies (you wanna come to my place and see my video game collection?((never use that line))).

Don't give up on your collection, but don't feel pressured to collect either.

It can be tough to get into pre-NES gaming. It's also a milestone in your gaming career as well...

[Aussie2B]

I wish I knew what I know now about collecting back when I was that young. When I was 14, I don't know if I even had 20 games to my name. And they were all SNES, Game Boy, and a couple games for the newly released N64. Not that I'm complaining about what I had, but I wish I had been looking for older stuff at thrifts and garage sales back then. I'm sure I would've been overjoyed to get an NES. I was always against my mom bringing me to the types of places in which used games are typically found, though, because I was concerned about what other kids thought of me and shopping at those places made me feel like I was poor.

[Dr. Dib]

14 was when I really got into retro game collecting as well. I'd say it all started when I got a TV in my room that summer and hooked up my SNES. Of course then I'd be missing out on three years earlier when my older brother's good friend introduced me to emulation. I'd also be missing either that year or a year later when I made it my mission to purchase every Sonic GameGear game.

I do wish sometimes that I had a larger collection, as I think I'm nearly at 500 games, but I already have trouble with space. My younger brother and I share a room and I pretty much took over the entire closet with my retro games.

[BetaWolf47]

Big respect for people that play games from before their time. Very nice!

[Tupin]

Another collector from around that age here, I've been collecting for a couple of years and have a pretty good collection.

[dodgeme]

I actually initially was introduced to the NES when I was probably 3 years old back in 1995, my grandpa had one lieing around and he showed me how to play Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt lol, from there I just grew to live the primitive yet fun retro games. Now like I said earlier, I have started to amass quite a decent collection, definatly nothing compared to some of your guyses collections though.

[JanLazer]

I'm 27 and my first gaming experience was the Commodore Vic 20 and Atari 2600...Both of which I still have(thanks to my father). Didn't really start seriously collecting stuff until a few years ago. Great start, OP!

[Eyedunno]

I am 21 years older than you :) Each of us probably knows an old man with a collection of vinyl records in their basement. They are collecting for a hobby that's is on its last legs and no young people are taking it up (MP3s are easier). I sometimes think I'm destined to be one of those people, but with a colleciton of old video games instead of records.
Thing is, I'm 30 and still like the Beatles, who broke up eight or nine years before I was born. Sure, CDs and MP3s are more convenient, but for huge fans, owning vinyl still makes some sense, I suppose. Likewise with games, though in that case, emulation, the equivalent of CDs and mp3s there, is not perfect yet, so collecting consoles actually makes decent sense.

Plus at the risk of angering some people, I really do think this is the time when games became good (heck, they actually backslid a bit with the first generation of 3D consoles!), so the games themselves will continue to have a niche, even if the consoles themselves aren't the way everyone plays them.


Well dude, just keep at it. No rush to get high numbers.

Just collect what you want to collect, and play what you want to play. Your collection is in a very nice spot right now where you can move it in any direction you want. Even if you find that you only enjoy 2 games on the NES (that would be odd, but possible), then you can still easily and cheaply shift away from that for something else.

Whether you have 10 games or 10,000 games, the numbers never matter as long as you personally enjoy what you have.

I totally agree with this. I'm actually shocked when I see collections of hundreds of NES games, since I can't help thinking "wow, at least 75% of those games have to really SUCK." Maybe it's like being a fan of B-movies though :) , or maybe they just want as much of everything that exists as possible. Personally, aside from three or four exceptions (out of 40ish games for SNES/Super Famicom and 20 or so each for Game Boy Advance and DS), all of my games are things I actually think are good. I also don't care so much about boxes, and manuals are nice, but not absolutely necessary. All different sorts of collectors out there...

Oh, and as for Tiger handhelds, hah. I had an X-Men one and a Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone one. They sucked game-wise, but yeah, they were good time-wasters at the time. :P

[gamedude45]

It's hard sometimes being a 16 year old who collects video game's especially older/obscure games and systems it's hard explaining to other people who are around the same age as you why you have so many games.

here's an example of a conversation I had with my neighbor (he's a year younger than me) when he was in my bedroom/gameroom for the first time.

neighbor (NB):wow you have alot of games!

Me:yeah

NB: why do you have so many?

Me: I collect them.

NB: oh ok. (looks around) What's that?

Me: that's a virtual boy.

NB: I've never heard of it.

Me: i'm not suprised it was a big failure.

NB: why's that?

Me: well it only displays in black & red and it was marketed as a portable.

NB: wow that's bad. you probably don't use it much do you?

Me: actually I use it quite often.

silence

NB: anyway you have alot of games!

Me:.....yeah

[jdc]

My 8 year old son doesn't really realize that some of the consoles that he fires up predate other ones. As far as his innocence is concerned, the NES was made in the same year as the 360 was, lol. He just chooses the game that he feels like playing and pops it into the appropriate machine that runs it. No old, no new. No bias. Just games. They've been around the house since he was born.

[Voliko]

On the age topic, I am 16 right now, and I have to give a lot of respect to my parents for one decision they made. Instead of getting me an N64 when I was 4 years old right when the 64 came out, they got me a SNES. I don't know why they did it (probably because it was cheaper, = P ) but that really set me apart from the other kids who were into gaming when I was younger. No kid I knew had any idea what a SNES was. Gaming never felt as good as it did on the SNES when I finally did get a 64.

The past few years I have really gotten back into the retro consoles, especially the SNES. Now I re-visit classic gaming and learn to appreciate it once more, and hopefully many good years are to come.

[Arkhan]

I started strong with the NES. and then the Genesis-->SNES-->etc.etc.

I got an atari 2600 way after the fact. Probably after PLAYSTATION was out (1995ish)

I didnt care. I played the shit out of it. Berzerk and Defender were awesome, and still are.


I collect vinyls, and still use cassette tapes. I grew up in the wrong decade!

All of us youngfolk did.

[Dire 51]

My 8 year old son doesn't really realize that some of the consoles that he fires up predate other ones. As far as his innocence is concerned, the NES was made in the same year as the 360 was, lol. He just chooses the game that he feels like playing and pops it into the appropriate machine that runs it. No old, no new. No bias. Just games. They've been around the house since he was born.
Sounds just like my kids (all girls, ages 7, 6 and 3). They have NES, SNES, SMS, Genesis, PS1 and PS2 to choose from (along with a couple of emulators) and have no bias toward any particular system whatsoever. To them, it's all just games.

Although they do still seem to have a gender-bias thing going on: they prefer games where you can play as girls (Valis, Kendo Rage, Golden Axe, Nightshade, El Viento, Run Saber, Streets of Rage and the like). It is kind of funny to watch them bargain with each other about who's playing the girl in a two player game where there's only one female character to choose from. That's not to say that's all they play, as they do play games that feature only male heroes from time to time (Contra and Sunset Riders come to mind here), but overall they prefer playing as girls.

They do prefer cute games too, but that's another story entirely (although I am happy to say I got them hooked on Pop'n Twinbee :D ).

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[jwlowry]

I'm a little surprised to see how young some of these collectors are. I'm 30 now and have a collection that dates back to my first Atari 2600 I got sometime around the crash of 1983, though it probably didn't become a "collection" until I got into my mid-teens.

For the younger among us, enjoy it all while you have the free time. When you are married with children you get precious few moments to devote to gaming, even if you marry someone as supportive as I did. It does seem unfair though that when you reach the point where you can financially support the hobby you no longer have time to truly enjoy it.

[drwily008]

I started collecting at age 13, unfortunately that was 19 years ago. Around 1991 I bought some Atari 400 games to go with the system we hadn't bought a game for in 10 years. That year was the start of this addiction.

I remember my parents thinking I was CRAZY for wanting so many systems. In 1992 I bought a Super Nintendo, 1993 Genesis, 1993 Turbo Duo.....etc

Glad to see you guys getting into it. I own a video game store and like when I see young people buying the old school stuff!

[ssjlance]

I'm 17 now, but I had more at 14 than I have now, I think. Sold off a lot of it because I needed money. I don't recommend it unless you just absolutely have to.

But I don't regret trading my Jaguar for a bass guitar. Because... meh.

[HYB]

I started collecting games at the age of 11/12 I think, when I got GC at launch. I was a gamer since I was a kid though. Most of my stuff is in great condition, even the stuff that I got in 98 and onwards, I have all the manuals and boxes. I always loved older systems myself, but never had the money/opportunity to buy any until I got internet access in 2004. So I think it's great to start at a young age, especially if it's older systems! The collection may grow slow in the beginning, but just go at your own pace. I've gotten 150 games out of my 215 or something in the last two years. I'm also starting to get into vinyls now, since I remembered my mom has this really sweet vinyl player. I just need to haul it back to my apartment.

The only cons I can think are that you start needing more and more space since your collection grows, and that there are not very many people who get why you want to invest "so much money" in games. Let alone those who won't tell you you could invest your money in something "better". Which is why I'm still single at 20 years old, guys suck.

[wingzrow]

Always good to see some of the younger generation playing and collecting the old stuff.

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[Emperor Megas]

The only cons I can think are that you start needing more and more space since your collection growsWhile this is definitely true, I think organization is the bigger issue for most collectors. Usually when I see pics from people with a sizable collection (of anything, really -- not just games) it seems like a big chaotic mess. Other collectors are usually praising their collections, but I'm often thinking 'wow, maybe you should organize that stuff a little better'. I think there's a fine line between an avid collector, and a 'hoarder'.


and that there are not very many people who get why you want to invest "so much money" in games.I'm probably one of those people. I do buy a lot of games, but I don't spend much at all on my hobby, and I almost never bite on new releases (unless it's something I'll play multiplayer). If I only played/purchased a handful of games and had tons of free time, I'd pay more, but for someone who plays a lot of different games and has limited hobby time, it's not very economical to pay a lot for games.


Thank God i have an amazing wife that gave me my own room.Same here. In my case I get the whole upstairs, which is just two small areas of attic space in our tiny house, but it's plenty of room for gaming (unless we move into a bigger place anyway).

I have a game collection, but I don't consider myself a collector so much as a gamer who's accumulated a lot of stuff over time. I don't allow my hobby to spill over into community areas, or lay around in mounds like a thrift store. I suppose it doesn't matter how tidy/organized your collection is though, so long as you can enjoy it, but I personally can't if it's all piled up in stacks, bins, and towering heaps overtaking my area.

But I'll shut up; I don't want to derail this thread with my rantings.

[HYB]

While this is definitely true, I think organization is the bigger issue for most collectors. Usually when I see pics from people with a sizable collection (of anything, really -- not just games) it seems like a big chaotic mess. Other collectors are usually praising their collections, but I'm often thinking 'wow, maybe you should organize that stuff a little better'. I think there's a fine line between an avid collector, and a 'hoarder'.

I'm anal about presentation, so I tend to arrange things in an easily accessible yet nice looking way. I only have 215 games though, so it's not a ton of stuff, and I realize that organizing big collections is a lot tougher than one would think. It definitely helps to have your own apartment, my collection outgrew my room, haha.


I'm probably one of those people. I do buy a lot of games, but I don't spend much at all on my hobby, and I almost never bite on new releases (unless it's something I'll play multiplayer). If I only played/purchased a handful of games and had tons of free time, I'd pay more, but for someone who plays a lot of different games and has limited hobby time, it's not very economical to pay a lot for games.

Being a female, I need to divide my money between makeup, tattoos and games (art supplies too, more or less). So whenever I do spend 5-10 eur on a game, or ocassionally more than that, it irritates me that people are telling me I should spend it on something better (like what, booze?). If I bought expensive stuff all the time I could understand it to a certain point. But it's almost a fact that people are going to complain about spending your money better, be it 5 eur or 100 eur.

But let's not derail the thread anymore!

[squirrelnut]

whats up with

NES COLLECTION then a heart after it?

[jwlowry]

Thank God i have an amazing wife that gave me my own room.

I second that! My wife let me have the 18'x16' den in our basement, though the mother-in-law informs me regularly that we should convert it to a play room for my daughter (she already has a spare bedroom for a play room in addition to her own bedroom so I'll be keeping the den to myself). Another child may change the dynamic though...

[XxHennersXx]

never fear dude, i was retro collecting NES games when I was 8! I'm 21 now and still at it ^_^. I get newer stuff too though. Keep at it man!