Warning: Contains Graphic Imagery

[Jehusephat]

This classic gaming collection was destroyed by flooding in Australia. These pictures were difficult for me to look at; I may have even shed a tear or two. He's lucky that things weren't worse for him, but he's obviously broken up about it or he wouldn't have bothered to document the aftermath.

http://kotaku.com/5735493/vintage-gaming-collection-washed-away-in-aussie-floods/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i

[Steve W]

Damn. That's unbelievably tragic. I wonder how much can be salvaged? Maybe dismantle some of those Turbo/PC Engine controllers and rinse in rubbing alcohol to get the gunk out of them and let them dry for a good while. Those Sanyo X68000 computers are toast, but some of the less complicated hardware like controllers and such might be recoverable.

[hellraiser]

Thats pretty sad....

[jammajup]

Ouch!

[badinsults]

Pretty much every part of Australia has been affected by floods during the past two months. It is pretty nuts. A city just south of where I live (Queanbeyan) was completely cut off for a couple of days in December, but it was pretty insignificant compared to the Queensland floods. It's going to take years to clean up, and that's even if the rain stop (the La Nina is expected to last until April, so it probably won't be the last of the rain). I'm not looking forward to the inevitable rise in food prices this is going to bring.

[portnoyd]

PROTIP: Keep your collections out of the basement if you have the ability to do so.

[megasdkirby]

Some of those items may still "have life". However, they must be cleaned as much as possible. But I feel that some of it may still be "ok".

Still, after something like that... that sucks. :(

Imagine to see a copy of Air Raid on the floor...with box...damaged. Many would have a coronary.

[ooXxXoo]

Warm water, dish soap, wash rinse & repeat, always repeat...Let the boards dry for days @_@ ......

[fishsandwich]

shit... all those cool systems! And those Games & Watches! This is really terrible.

And let's not forget that people have DIED in this flooding. Horrible.

[Zama]

The link isn't loading up the page for some reason :puppydogeyes:

Edit: It's finally working now but it's really painful to look at, besides the corpses piling up nearby T_T

[fergojisan]

\
And let's not forget that people have DIED in this flooding. Horrible.

This. Who gives a shit about some fucking video games if you're still alive? Jesus Christ.

[Koa Zo]

Wow, just goes to show how temporary our interests and existences are.

Back in 2003 our neighborhood in Philadelphia was flooded, basements had 2-3 feet of water in them, though I kept my stored collection off the floor the lower boxes were submerged. Amazingly everything still functions perfectly, now granted we weren't inundated with mud.
Water literally poured out of my SNES console and carts. I just unpackaged everything, dumped the water out, wiped the outsides with dry towels, then laid everything out on towels. For what it was worth I laid manuals out so that the pages were "fanned" open a little so pages didn't stick together. Midway through the day, I rotated everything and shook out any water that puddled up inside a cart or console.

After waiting a couple days to be sure everything was as dry as possible, I was surprised and pleased to find that everything still worked.

Clearly this guy in Australia has a bit more severe situation to deal with. Thankfully he and his family are apparently safe.

[Blur2040]

blankblankblankblankblankblank

[Parodius Duh!]

Hopefully, his collection was insured. For that amount of rare stuff.....

Goodbye PC Engine shuttle.... :(


Im hoping this collector, his family and friends are all safe, thats what really matters. Im sure a tragedy like this will make you re-think...is collecting worth it? I know Id be having a second guess....

[Polygon]

Yeah, if I had a collection like that it would be insured. That being said, I think most of that can be saved. As long as there was no electrical current running though them there's a fair chance they can be saved.

[kedawa]

Note to self: always find a home on high ground.

[Steve W]

Also, keep your collection on the second floor of the house.

[Parodius Duh!]

honestly, the way these floods hit our Aussie brothers, i really dont think a 2nd floor would matter.....

[Toasty]

Just, tragic.

Would have been sadder if the guy died, too. But least he lived. No collection is safe from nature and it's disasters.

[badinsults]

PROTIP: Keep your collections out of the basement if you have the ability to do so.

There were a lot of houses that were up to the second floor in water.

Plus, in the scheme of things, I highly doubt that insurance is going to cover the loss of video games. The amount of claims would be so high there is no way that insurance can pay everything back without bankrupting themselves.

[Richter Belmount]

This classic gaming collection was destroyed by flooding in Australia. These pictures were difficult for me to look at; I may have even shed a tear or two. He's lucky that things weren't worse for him, but he's obviously broken up about it or he wouldn't have bothered to document the aftermath.

http://kotaku.com/5735493/vintage-gaming-collection-washed-away-in-aussie-floods/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XAyfV98Gis

[Sabz5150]

This. Who gives a shit about some fucking video games if you're still alive? Jesus Christ.

People died in Nashville, but that didn't stop people mourning over the lost musical artifacts, did it?

Just because you talk about the damage to not-living things does not mean you're completely ignore the human loss. C'mon, your bar for humanity isn't set that low...

[fergojisan]

People died in Nashville, but that didn't stop people mourning over the lost musical artifacts, did it?

Just because you talk about the damage to not-living things does not mean you're completely ignore the human loss. C'mon, your bar for humanity isn't set that low...

Point taken, but I think those were historical musical artifacts, weren't they?

But you're right, maybe I spoke a little hastily.

[Oobgarm]

Point taken, but I think those were historical musical artifacts, weren't they?

But you're right, maybe I spoke a little hastily.

No, you didn't. It sucks to see all those games ruined, but they're replaceable. Lives are not. And neither are historical artifacts.

If this were a trove of undumped protos and unique items, then it would be a travesty. Not saying that this doesn't suck, but I think you follow.

[Sabz5150]

Point taken, but I think those were historical musical artifacts, weren't they?

But you're right, maybe I spoke a little hastily.

They are still objects and still hold value to some. Just like those games. There's nothing wrong with mourning the material losses as well as the human ones. Like I said, nobody's discounting human life here.

As for historical artifacts... we've lost far worse more times than history can record.

[AntonLebedev]

This is a collector's worst nightmare. When thinking of it, maybe it's a wise idea to sell some stuff to other collectors and thus spread the risc...

[Emperor Megas]

Some of you should really get over yourselves if you feel that it's somehow off limits or tasteless to mourn the loss of property. The fact that people have lost their lives doesn't change the fact that this person lost their collection. This is a website about video games, for video game enthusiasts, and this is a story about a tragic loss of an avid gamers collection which he no doubt prized. It's even in the 'Classic Gaming' section of the site. The fact that human life was lost isn't the topic of discussion is neither insensitive or callus, given the context of the discussion.

I think that some of your are being a bit pretentious.

[kedawa]

People die all the time, and until I'm one of them, I'm going to feel bad whenever someone loses a treasured videogame collection.

[tentencanidae]

PROTIP: Keep your collections out of the basement if you have the ability to do so.

...Off of the basement floor at the very least.

I live in an apartment, so I keep my retro games emulated on my old XBOX there, but all of my collection from Famicom up until current gen stuff is in my parents basement a couple towns away. We have a sump, so flooding would never really be THAT bad.. but natural disasters DO happen. Luckily, the 2 times water came in, in all the years I've been collecting, my gaming stuff has never been damaged.

Also, I keep it fairly dry, so none of my inserts or artwork wrinkles or anything. It's never been a problem for me. The garage however is an instant NO.

I feel horrible for this guy.

[tentencanidae]

Some of you should really get over yourselves if you feel that it's somehow off limits or tasteless to mourn the loss of property. The fact that people have lost their lives doesn't change the fact that this person lost their collection. This is a website about video games, for video game enthusiasts, and this is a story about a tragic loss of an avid gamers collection which he no doubt prized. It's even in the 'Classic Gaming' section of the site. The fact that human life was lost isn't the topic of discussion is neither insensitive or callus, given the context of the discussion.

I think that some of your are being a bit pretentious.

I'm gonna have to agree. If you're on this site for the reasons it was designed for, you should clearly be able to identify with this guy. Even if you could care less about games... What if you were a record collector, and your vinyl all got warped from your central AC failing? Sure... no life lost, or human injury.. but at the end of the day, somebody's hard work and proof of their passion has been washed away. It IS very sad. If my stuff got destroyed, I'd be really upset. It's just stuff... but it's mine. Some of it represents memories. I have more video games than photos. This "stuff" matters to some people.