Splitting a collection between two homes

[sloan]

I have never seen this addressed on any of the gaming forums. My wife and I own two homes, and I am a big game collector. Problem is when we visit our country home, there are no games or systems there. I have thought of possibly splitting my collection between both places, but am not so sure how to go about it. Do I take entire system/game subsets to the other home (what if I want to play some of those in our main home?), or do I merely take duplicate consoles and games to the country home? One issue is that our country home has been broken into at one point and a 2600 Vader console was taken among other items. I have since upped the locks and security, but is it worth the risk?

Any thoughts or ideas?

[MidnightRider]

What you play the least, stays at the one you visit the least.

[wiggyx]

Keep physical collection in one house, put Xbox with every emu on the planet in the other. Done.

[Guyra]

I agree with wiggy, here.

Though if you're going to take physical copies of games, then take only duplicates to your country home. :)

[Gameguy]

Why not just take what you want to play with you and bring it back when you head home? Kids have figured this stuff out for decades.

[sloan]

I've done it before where I box up a classic console and a few games for one of our weekend visits. Its alright, but I really hate messing with packing it all up when it's time to go. Also, I have tossed the thought around of leaving an extra console and duplicate games at the 2nd home, but could I live with it if crooks broke in again? Maybe.

The Xbox idea sounds interesting, but I would have to get a modded console first. And then, again, what if thieves make off with it? Oh well, all things are replaceable, aren't they?

[Cornelius]

A Wii is pretty easily modded from what I hear, and has decent emulation as well. Easier to stash somewhere at the cabin also.

[treismac]

The Ouya is quite small and portable and more than emulator-friendly. It's what I bring along when I house sit.

[leatherrebel5150]

Get another couple of consoles and or clone system and get some flashcarts for the various systems you want there. That way you have all the games there to use and a flashcart is easily replaceable if stolen.

[8-Bit Archeology]

I would just take portables with me. I personally dont even want to split my collection between the 2 floors of my house. When I moved and my game collection was on one of the trucks, I was upset that the lock holding the container of the truck didnt have a flame throwing seciurity system with recorded surveilance. But such is life. Portables are easy do deal with and most retro consoles have 1 or a 3rd party one. For me if i want to takr retro on the go, my turbo express is my favorite. I want a nomad for the exact same reason. Also the nomad among a few others, can be hooked up to tvs for better viewing.

Good Luck either way.

[Leo_A]

Get another couple of consoles and or clone system and get some flashcarts for the various systems you want there. That way you have all the games there to use and a flashcart is easily replaceable if stolen.

Flash cartridges aren't cheap and often aren't easily available. I do like your idea but because you could easily bring the flash cartridges home with you with no fuss or hassle which minimizes the risk.

Or if that's objectionable, a clone system as you said such as the Retron 5. You could essentially have several consoles hooked up at once for a minimum of money that could always be easily replaced and could just bring a few cartridges with you to play while the rest of the collection is safely at home.

[Emperor Megas]

I thought this was going to be about divorce. :|

[Ed Oscuro]

#stuffrichpeoplesay

I would keep nice / expensive stuff in the house that is "safest." Natural disasters, crime (I would guess this isn't a major problem), that sort of thing.

[MetalFRO]

I've done it before where I box up a classic console and a few games for one of our weekend visits. Its alright, but I really hate messing with packing it all up when it's time to go. Also, I have tossed the thought around of leaving an extra console and duplicate games at the 2nd home, but could I live with it if crooks broke in again? Maybe.

The Xbox idea sounds interesting, but I would have to get a modded console first. And then, again, what if thieves make off with it? Oh well, all things are replaceable, aren't they?

Original Xbox consoles are easy to soft-mod these days, whether you use the NDURE/XboxHDmaker combo or go through the full Splinter Cell w/ hacked save game method. I'd never done one before a few months ago, and now I'm perfectly comfortable doing so. As mentioned, the Wii is also easy to mod, and will give you good emulation for anything 16-bit and below. N64 emu is still spotty, and of course it has GameCube backwards compatibility. I would recommend a GameCube or Classic Controller if you're going to do Genesis/SNES or GBA games that have more than 2 buttons, because the Wiimote just doesn't cut the mustard.

Oh, and can I just say, I wish I had this kind of problem? :p

[Neb6]

If there's a theft problem then I'd say definitely just the duplicates at the second place.

Hopefully you don't run into the same issue I did where some systems won't allow you to continue a game on a second console (I'm still trying to figure out how to do that on the 360).

[BlastProcessing402]

Just buy two of everything, one for each place.

[sloan]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Actually, nothing rich about me. Just a home we lived in up until mid 2000's when the jobs all dried up. Thankfully, I had funds in 401K to pay off the home from a layoff when all the jobs went to China, like so many do these days. My wife and I now live an hour north, closer to more job opportunities. We would love to move back and be closer to family, but when the jobs left, they seem to have left for good. Maybe one day...

[camarotuner]

2 ideas I didn't see if the one was mentioned.

1 - Just emulate the stuff, you can do so legally since you own physical copies of the games. Or modify a PSP/Wii/Whatever else works to play them on.

2 - Isn't the point of a country house to get into the country and AWAY from the pervasive technology that surrounds us everyday? ;)

[Gameguy]

2 - Isn't the point of a country house to get into the country and AWAY from the pervasive technology that surrounds us everyday? ;)
This actually crossed my mind earlier, if you're just going to spend your time indoors playing games then why bother to leave your own house in the first place?


There is another idea nobody mentioned yet, just leave games and systems that nobody would ever want to steal. Finally a reason to own a Gizmondo or digiBlast. Might not be a fun idea though.

Or just hide the games and systems when you leave, in boxes in the closet or something.

[Rickstilwell1]

I have a different approach to collecting, where I don't consider the game a part of my collection until I beat it. The rest of it is stuff I bought on impulse or found cheap and I am not so attached to it. So what I did when I had a second place was I kept all the unfinished games where I was going to be the most so I could work on them. I kept the finished games that I truly consider a part of my collection in my apartment where it was safer and there when I got home on my days off for casual gaming enjoyment where I didn't care how well I did anymore because I already beat the game before.

Now that I only have my apartment, the unfinished games go on a storage rack in the living room and the finished ones get organized neatly on a bookshelf in the bedroom closet.

[sloan]

Actually, whenever we go there, the yard work and other maintenance seem to occupy a bit of my time. Yes, we visit there to relax, but I have relatives over and finding something to beat the boredom is always nice. That is where video games come into the picture.