Why Do you Collect Classic Video Games?

[ProjectCamaro]

In the thread started by recorderdude he states why he starting buying and building a classic video game collection and I thought it would be interesting to hear how the rest of us got into it.

For myself I was born in the early to mid 80's and when I was about four years old my parents bought us (my brothers and myself) an NES. In those days we had very little money so this was a huge deal and something I absolutely cherished. I remember playing Super Mario Bros and Castlevania II Simon's Quest for hours on end. When the SNES came out my parents did not have the money to buy one but my oldest brother had saved up from cutting grass, shoveling snow, and do odd jobs around town that he bought a Sega Genesis. Once again we'd play that for hours and the two games I played the most were Sonic and Kid Chameleon. In fact my brothers and I would start playing Kid Chameleon (No save feature) on a Friday night around 7:00pm and wouldn't stop until we beat it around 1:00pm the next afternoon. We even purchased a poster sized piece of paper and charted out all the levels as well as the secret levels and passages that you could use to skip levels.

From there my parents started doing better financially and we before I moved out in 2001 that had purchased a Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast as a family present for all of us on those Christmas mornings.

When I was 15 I saved up enough money to buy myself an N64 and I played that console more than all others combined. I loved it incredibly and of course my favorite game was GoldenEye followed closely by Zelda Ocarina of Time. I remember playing my brothers and friends three against one with their health built up and mine push way down and I would still dominate them.

I then went off to college and got out of gaming and as such missed out on the PS2/Xbox area. After the PS2 had been out for several years I did buy one but I installed it in my car and rarely played it. Around this time I sold my N64 as it had not been turned on for several years.

Several years later I built a couple websites and after they became popular a media company offered to buy them and I accepted their offer. I used part of the money to get back into gaming and I bought myself an LCD TV (back when they were brand new), I bought an Xbox 360 Elite as they just came out like a week earlier, a Wii, and a PS3. I would play quite a big but my playing came in cycles, meaning I would play nonstop for a month and then wouldn't turn them on again for six months, then play nonstop for another month and so on. This continued until about two months ago I was looking on eBay and came across a good deal on a used N64 with a couple games. I decided to buy it and that's when everything went down hill. I forgot how much fun it was so I went out and bought more games, extra controllers, and everything else that goes with it.
After remembering how much fun those classic games were I bought an NES and later a top loader NES modified with the AV jacks, and a Sega Genesis with the Sega CD add-on. I initially bought all the games I loved playing growing up and I know I'm extremely bias I still think Castlevania II Simon's Quest is the best game of the 8 bit world. After playing those consoles I picked up a slim SNES and bought all the games I played at friend's houses and then I decided to get all the goodies so to speak. I purchased an original Xbox, a Gamecube, a PS2, PS1, and a Virtual Boy. I then created a media room where I set everything up. I have a 42" LCD TV where all the high definition consoles are hooked up to and a 32" LCD TV where the standard definition consoles are hooked up to. The only variation to this is the Wii is hooked up to the 52" LCD TV in the family room.
Now I feel addicted to buying all the great games I either had or wanted and in the past month I've picked up a little over three hundred games. Since I want them to last I don't want any open cartridges out I bought a couple hundred of the universal game cases and put them all in there. I'm now printing off covers from The Cover Project so they look good.

Finally a reason I am collecting games and consoles is my grandparents. When I was young and we'd all go to their house the adults would stay upstairs and talk and us kids would go to the basement where they had an Atari 2600 hooked up to a 13" TV. The 2600 was long out of date at that time and my grandmother would go to yard/garage sales and when she saw games for a couple cents each she'd pick them up. Those are some of the best memories of my life and I hope to be able to create those types of memories for my nieces and nephews by allowing them to play anything they want.

Wow I typed a lot there. With all that said I don't collect to sell for a profit, I do not collect sealed games or consoles, everything I buy I buy to be played. If I buy a game lot and there are some really rare games or sealed games I sell them and use the money to buy several games in their place.

Now tell us your story.

[Yago]

I understand I have the games I used to play as a kid but I think there is more to it than that. I think collecting is to have the games now I could not afford to play when they came out. I mean how many people have all of the games that come out for the current consoles? Not many because who the heck could afford to do that at $50+ a game? The same for when I was a kid. I think now because of the value I can go out there and get the games I really wanted but did not get a chance to because of financial reasons. Usually being parents. Not just the ones I wanted but the ones I never knew about and want to try. I wish I could be more transparent but it has been a long day at work and my brain is only functioning at 50% lol.

[needler420]

My collecting is based on the fact that when I was a kid like many people I traded games in to fund other games. Now I don't need to do that so when I finish a game I keep it regardless of when I think I will play it again. Like 90% of the time the games aren't worth trading in or selling because the price completely depreciates as most video games do. I don't really go out of my way to buy games just based on rarity, collectibilty and monetary value.

[Rickstilwell1]

I do it simply because I really like playing them and enjoy looking at the artwork. I used to collect any and everything but financial problems made me realize I don't need to go that far with it. Now I only collect what I really am a fan of. What looks more impressive? 1700 loose beat up cartridges or 50 CIB games with all versions of its release plus guide books and posters?

[treismac]

1) Nostalgia. I am a rather nostalgic person. Playing games from my past allows me to revisit that magical childhood bubble, and playing "new" games from that era taps into that same magical bubble by virtue of association. When I put a NES game into my toaster it doesn't matter if I never heard of its existence until I was over thirty- I am back in that same 8-bit world of my younger years.

2) I enjoy collecting things (Video games and books) that make me happy by both being able to use them (bye, bye baseball cards) and just being able to gaze upon them (f*ck off, Kindle). It brings me a soothing satisfaction.

[The Adventurer]

Playing and Trophy Hunting.

[Atarileaf]

I was born in the early to mid 80's.

The average pregnancy is 9 months - how freaking long was your mother pregnant with you?? @_@

[o.pwuaioc]

Because I want to preserve my childhood awesomeness.

I was born in the mid-80s, and as far back as I can remember we had a 2600. I was playing my neighbor's NES before I was 5. I had an SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear as a young kid, played the hell out of those even when I got an N64 and GBC in 96/97, then played got a PS1, PS2, and Xbox during high school. (All of these were accumulated in various ways and at various times and by various people. I was not of the lucky kids whose parents bought them every console the Christmas after it launched. I didn't even play a PS1 until late 2000.)

For a while it was just the N64 and Xbox hooked up, but when the the 360 was released, I realized that I was done with modern gaming. Yeah, the 360 graphics looked cool, but I kept finding myself drawn towards classics. I dusted off what consoles I had left (GBC, SNES, PS1, N64, and Xbox, though my brother had the PS2 and I got it from him) and embarked on regrowing my collection, first by getting all that I used to have, and then by getting what I had wanted, and finally topping it off with getting what I know now is awesome.

[treismac]

I dusted off what consoles I had left ... and embarked on regrowing my collection, first by getting all that I used to have, and then by getting what I had wanted, and finally topping it off with getting what I know now is awesome.

:) This, I imagine, is the path most of us take.

[Emperor Megas]

Like many, I just always was a gamer, and I just continued supporting my older consoles through the generations.

[spman]

The answer is simple, I personally have a lot more fun playing the classics than I do playin modern games. Yeah, I have all the modern consoles, but I truly believe that the best games on the PS3 and the 360 can't hold a candle to the best games on the NES, SNES, and Genesis. And that's not just the nostalgia glasses talking either, I truly do feel that way.

[Solo_Skywalker]

1) Nostalgia. I am a rather nostalgic person. Playing games from my past allows me to revisit that magical childhood bubble, and playing "new" games from that era taps into that same magical bubble by virtue of association. When I put a NES game into my toaster it doesn't matter if I never heard of its existence until I was over thirty- I am back in that same 8-bit world of my younger years.

2) I enjoy collecting things (Video games and books) that make me happy by both being able to use them (bye, bye baseball cards) and just being able to gaze upon them (f*ck off, Kindle). It brings me a soothing satisfaction.

Wow, it's scary how much I can relate to that, baseball cards included although they are still around here somewhere. There are many times when I just don't feel like playing a game and just go over the the game room and browse the collection. I always find something that I forgot I had or didn't even know I had. It's neat how everyone collects in different ways and for such different reasons.

[Atarileaf]

Here's the thing with Nostalgia - it wears off if there's not a second underlying reason to collect and play retro games. That reason is that they are still a lot of fun to play and for people like myself, I find them to be a lot MORE fun than what is mainstream today.

This is why a lot of people will buy some of these things, like the NES they remember having as a kid, play it for a bit and then they'll sell it and move on to other things.

I think its safe to say that almost everyone who frequents a place like DP, Atariage, NA, etc are the ones that got past the initial nostalgia phase and genuinely enjoy playing these games.

I've collected a lot things over the years - cards, stamps, hot wheels, star wars toys, but I find video games have a much greater appeal to me as they're something I can still play and enjoy today as a 43 year old. You can't do that with other collectibles (well I suppose you COULD play with Star Wars or Hot Wheels but those are generally displayed collectibles too)
This is the reason I don't and probably never will understand sealed game collectors (again, unless they have a loose copy that they actually play) but to have a collection of video games on a shelf that never get played seems, well, stupid

I know a couple of people that collect board games for example. Both LOVE to get friends together and play some of these old 60's, 70's and 80's board games out and actually play them. For these collectors, to NOT play them would be sacrilegious.

I think collecting video games is one of the best hobbies out there as they're fun to collect and play and they do look great on shelves too - as long as they don't stay on the shelf forever.

[Nesmaster]

For me it evolved from collecting Hotwheels with Dad. We went to our first ever flea market at the time, and a vendor had hotwheels for sale, among boxes of classic games. $5 and $10 games separated by boxes. I remembered at the time how much I enjoyed renting NES games as a little guy, and hooked up my NES every once in a while to play the few games I did have and owned back in the day. I sifted through the titles and came across Megaman 2, for $10. Rented that one many times, and here was my chance to own this gem!

I bought and enjoyed this title, and from there I decided it would be cool to own all the NES Megaman games. Not long after I found MM3 at a different flea market, so I had 2, 3 and 6 (from years ago). some time after this, while looking for classic hotwheels via garage sales, Stumbled upon a NES with 8 games for $10, and a Genesis with 5 or 6 games for $5. Amongst the NES games was not only ANOTHER copy of MM3, but also Megaman 5! I had never even played this game prior to that day, so I couldn't wait to fire it up.

From here the snowball effect started doing its thing, looking not only for Megaman but ALL the games I remembered renting across NES and SNES. It soon evolved from purely play, to collecting and playing. At my peak I had over 400 unique NES games, probably 300 or so cherry picked from the entire library and 100+ random cheap junk buys. In 2007 at about 1000 games in my collection, I did a major purge and regretted it in the last couple of years. I've since then slowly focused on collecting again and bought some cool things, recently looking at homebrews and hacks. Lately I haven't done ANY current gaming, I've been back on my NES, SNES and N64.

The only sucky thing now is many of the cool, sleeper titles back then that were single digits are now close to $100 or more. I'm glad I decided to keep Gun Nac among others in that 2007 purge but 2 Panic Restaurants and Flintstones 2 left my collection for cheap.

[AceAerosmith]

The average pregnancy is 9 months - how freaking long was your mother pregnant with you?? @_@

Cut him a break. Maybe he's an elephant.

[o.pwuaioc]

Cut him a break. Maybe he's an elephant.

If he said he was born early to mid 80s, that doesn't mean his mom was pregnant with him for that long...that means the labor lasted for years!

[thom_m]

The main reason I collect because I love playing video games! I've been playing since the mid 80's; at any given point since then, I've owned a console and played it. I can still have a genuinely good time playing; along with making music, it's what I like doing the most.

Other than the obvious nostalgia factor, I think I prefer retro games because they're still what I'm used to. My parents couldn't afford getting me the current gen console (as I can't today! :)), so I would discover the systems later than the other kids. For example, I only got my own Mega Drive (although I had already played at rental stores or at my friends) at the beggining of the ps1 era. I guess that`s why, although I'd love having a ps3 or a 360, what I really enjoy playing are the 8bit/16bit consoles. To this day I have trouble locating myself in 3D environments!

Also, everytime I got a new console, my mom gave the last one to my cousins (why, mom? WHY?!) and, although I was happy to get a new system, I always missed the ones that were gone. So, as soon as I was able to, I started to get them back (and to find out that none of my cousins kept the games I gave them, those bastards!). I also got to play systems that I couldn't back than, as the ps1.

One other reason is that, later in life (and, in part, thanks to these forums), I found out that the simple fact of owning the systems was something I enjoyed deeply. I like the way they look on my TV rack; I like having and taking care of the cartridges, cleaning them, saving a formerly unplayable game (you can't imagine how happy I was when I got my Double Dragon III NES cart back to life!).

I (for now?) don't care about CIB copies and the like; as long as I own the a loose, playable copy of a good game, I'm happy. I'm also aware of the fact that I'll never have a large collection; these are hard times, and I have a daughter to raise and many other priorities. But as long as I can have good games around, and be able to buy a new game or console here and there, I'll always have something fun adn rewarding to do on a tedious/difficult day.

[scaleworm]

I collect games because they are fun, and because many of them are long gone in the "wilds" of the world through either being "ancient", trashed, or by being collected and out of circulation by others like myself.

I have always been a librarian, as in one that loves collections of media, who then arranges them into one's own library of fun: Book, Comics, Music, Games.

Multimedia fun.

I do it because I can, and I do it because I truly enjoy playing, cleaning, arranging, sharing, talking, and reading about/posting about them as well as collecting them.

Good times!

p.s. I started in the mid-Seventies.

[Ed Oscuro]

I like to buy games 'cuz I like to have fun. I feel there is some responsibility to it, so I try to keep things in good working order and not damage them, but I don't really take it to extremes. I won't open my FDS packs though...

[brainerdrainer]

Because I can't stop

[Xander]

Like many, I just always was a gamer, and I just continued supporting my older consoles through the generations.

Pretty much this.

[JAWSPAWNSHOP]

Because i couldnt have any games as a kid, we were so poor in the projects i was lucky just to eat a meal a day.
I was always intrested in videogames, i worked in an arcade vacuuming pool tables and cleaning arcade machines 4 days a week. some of my friends (back in 88) use to let me borrow some of thier video game mags.

I turned 16 and moved out , 3rd shift job in a factory and finished highschool in the morning.
Took up music and autobody, got a CDL... went to college for a year then left to open a computer store. gave up autobody and computers to be a plumber (you would be surprised how much a plumber can make)
First system i got was a collecovision, then a nes.. then i found my true love.. the Turbografx 16 and duo.
since then ive gotten PCFX, supergrafx, shuttlegrafx, vectrex , atari superfamicom. i went apeshit. had to have everything i found for a bargain.
I was so hell bent on getting all the stuff i couldnt have as a child that i ended up with two room full of games.
I have a handful of things in this life that make me feel better and videogames is one of those.
Then warcraft came along... my buddy got me into that (suckered is more like it) he played so damn much that he never paid attention to his kid or wife.. needless to say he lives back with his mom and his house and cars are gone.
I play once or twice a week for an hour but damn, i knew a entire family that played that damn game all night and day all week. just sitting in one room with laptops and nobody speaking to eachother .. its sad.
Recently, i took a job at a friends shop , its a trading post. He has this dark huge warehouse in back of the building (its a pretty big place) and i went back to search for a box of sata hard drives one day and found
boxes of mixed atari platform games. at first i wanted to take those home but now im more into vintage automobiles and guitars.

[staxx]

I collect because I basically grew up through the whole generation of video games and want to play the games I couldn't afford when I was a kid. It is a bit of nostalgia and a just to own mentality. Though when you start to have a family etc, collecting tends to slow down. It is also harder to find good deals these days vs 5-7 years ago. Lots more people are into retro gaming and that comes with the money making aspect (resellers, ebay, more people at flea market selling for inflated prices etc). I still collect but at a snail pace these days, plus when your collection starts to grow you tend to find less things to buy.

[Tanooki]

I don't want to write a paper on this, so I'll try and keep it short. :)

Back in 1995 I found this used game shop that used to be run by a fair and honest person(greedy asshole now and just plain mean) back west. I wanted to try and get a few NES games I missed out on as a kid as you only had so much money and Nintendo Power was a mean tease. As the N64's life rolled along it got smacked by the Sony lie campaign plus being pricy to developers so games dried up to like 1 every 4months for me in 1997 through 2000. I started going there much more weekly getting NES, some SNES and GB stuff, and a few N64 titles too along with TG16 games. I started branching out and getting stuff to play as I found I just enjoyed 2D stuff more as early 3D played like garbage outside of a few exceptions. I kept my pace up pretty well adding in ebay a month after it went live through 2003. At that rate I had my workplace shut, unemployment run out, and paycheck to paycheck for over 2 years (doing 2 jobs) and as a sad fact lost 80%+ of my stuff. I'll never have it again, but as I enjoyed the discovery of treasures as much as playing I still do it now on a refined level. Thanks to the greed now in games that once ruined cards and comics(and will on games too in time) I'll just snap up games I used to own on Nintendo systems I loved I had, a few I got later I did like too, and if I can find a random cheapy that ends up cool I'll do that too. That's why, because I like the old, like the hunt, and the discovery of it.

[BydoEmpire]

I consider myself more of a player than collector, but I still pick up 8 and 16 bit stuff when I get the chance. That said...

A big part of it is that I simply enjoy older games for many reasons, but it is also a bit of a trip down memory lane to put myself back in the mindset of my youth. When I see a 2600 cart I don't own, I might think about a magazine ad for it ages ago. It's a trip back to when I had no real worries or responsibilities.

[Polygon]

I loved playing games since I got a first taste for it on my cousin's 2600. Later all my friends had NESs. My parents didn't want to buy a video game system because they thought we'd abuse it and never go outside. Eventually they bought us a Sega Genesis for Christmas of 1992. A lot of my friends had SNESs, so I played that a lot as well. Those three are easily my three favorite consoles. The short of it is that a lot of it is nostalgia. Now I find myself collection games and systems I never played as a kid just because they look like they'd be fun.

[M.Buster2184]

Like a lot of people I collect for nostalgic reasons. I also love the history and reading about stories about certain games. THere's also the fact that I can afford it. I love cars and I definitely can't afford to collect those. I also play music, and while I do have a couple guitars and what not, I can't afford to collect the cool old classic instruments.

[Gladiator316]

New systems don't give me the joy that the older systems do...the graphics can get better and better but i will always love those little pixels.

[needler420]

Here's the thing with Nostalgia - it wears off if there's not a second underlying reason to collect and play retro games. That reason is that they are still a lot of fun to play and for people like myself, I find them to be a lot MORE fun than what is mainstream today.

This is why a lot of people will buy some of these things, like the NES they remember having as a kid, play it for a bit and then they'll sell it and move on to other things.

I think its safe to say that almost everyone who frequents a place like DP, Atariage, NA, etc are the ones that got past the initial nostalgia phase and genuinely enjoy playing these games.
I've collected a lot things over the years - cards, stamps, hot wheels, star wars toys, but I find video games have a much greater appeal to me as they're something I can still play and enjoy today as a 43 year old. You can't do that with other collectibles (well I suppose you COULD play with Star Wars or Hot Wheels but those are generally displayed collectibles too)
This is the reason I don't and probably never will understand sealed game collectors (again, unless they have a loose copy that they actually play) but to have a collection of video games on a shelf that never get played seems, well, stupid

I know a couple of people that collect board games for example. Both LOVE to get friends together and play some of these old 60's, 70's and 80's board games out and actually play them. For these collectors, to NOT play them would be sacrilegious.

I think collecting video games is one of the best hobbies out there as they're fun to collect and play and they do look great on shelves too - as long as they don't stay on the shelf forever.

I agree with the nostaglia part. Those sites you named are the opposite of what you said though. They are known for having a heavy influence by hardcore collectors. On NA some of those people play video games 1-2 hours a month and drop 1-2 thousand dollars every so often for VGA grades.


Those communities probably have a worst user base when it comes to collecting. A lot of people in these communites not only collected just for nostaglia purposes but they accumulate so many games in their collection that's it's virtually impossible to be able to play them all in a life time. If you're telling yourself you'll get to the collection when you retire or that you'll pass it down to kids then all you have is a pile of something to stare at just like baseball cards.


It's like trying to watch every single movie in a life time. Technically you might be able to now but in 50 years or so when the amounts of movies keep going up then you'll get to a point when a human lifespan will be shorter then the amount of movies in existence.

[retromario]

I collect because I enjoy the era, and the simplicity. I find there was a ton of creativity put into the old games.