Young retro-gamers! Why do you play and collect?

[lendelin]

I'm sometimes amazed how many of the board members are younger gamers who discovered NES games and pre-Nes games. Even if you grew up with the SNES, what sparked your interest going back to the NES and pre-NES times?

How did you discover older games, and what got you started to play and/or collect them? What's the appeal of these old games despite (or because of) belonging to the N64/PS1 gamer-generation?

[Famidrive-16]

For me it's pretty much what I grew up with. I played a lot of games when I was really young in the early 90s, so most of my interests are for games released in that time.

[tholly]

I guess I'm pretty young here, compaired to some people. I am 20 years old and grew up with the NES. I never really had many games for it and didn't really see video games as something to collect until last year sometime.

[gamergary]

I grew up using my parent's 2600 then just switched to nes and the newer systems of the time but I only ever got rid of the nes because I had some troubles with the toaster version.

[HellStar]

I am 15 and love to collect games. I grew up with my SNES and my Genesis, just playing games...Its what i enjoy, thats why I do it. I just realized it would be a fun project to collect all the SNES games I could...and it turned into a hobby.(And a Obsession) LOL

[dreamcaster]

I was born in 1985 and will be turning 19 this year.

As a matter of fact, whilst I own a few pre-16 bit consoles - my main gaming/collecting interest is the 90's.

My focus extends from the Mega Drive and SNES, right up to Dreamcast. Basically 1990-1999, as this is where I grew up gaming, and where I consider the best in games has to offer - are from this era.

[Moose]

What constitutes as young? Do you mean anyone born after the Atari 2600?

[Lady Jaye]

The 2600 was released in 1977. That's not that young anymore (it's still young, but certainly no longer so close to the teenage years). I think it'd be more like anyone born after the 1983-84 crash. That'd mean 20 years old and less.

[EndlessChris]

Well, I'm 16 and I've been collecting since I was young, though a lot more seriously in recent years. I collect from NES onwards, just because I feel like I missed out. I didn't get an NES until 1991, and I missed out on the whole SNES-PS1 era. Now that I'm older I look back at all that I missed and I want to experience the games I never had a chance too.

Plus you can get a lot of em' dirt cheap nowadays :)

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Ive been playing NES, SNES and genesis since i can remember. Then my senior year my friend said he wanted to collect all the US released NES games, so i started collecting Sega Genesis then i just started collecting everyyhing i could get a hold of.

[Sotenga]

I was playing my NES since I was two years old... really, I was videotaped playing Low G-Man. Cute lil' tyke. He sucked at it. LOL

But I needed something to do in my life, so I just picked up video games. I didn't grow into them, I was just always playing them... it was almost like destiny, you know? As if it was some higher being's will for me to be a gamer. Or maybe I was just attracted by all the purty colors on the screen, I dunno. :D

[djbeatmongrel]

i collect and play retro games *i hate that term* because its fun and i like to see how thing progressed over time till now.

i do that with everything i get into, it helps you get a finer appreciation for what ever the topic is.

[MarioAllStar2600]

I love the gameplay, me and some friends get competitive, unstead of just beating a game and putting it on a shelf forever. 2600 at least. Collecting just intrests me, and is just a lot of fun. The people in this hobby are great to. SOme of my best friends I never have met. :D

[BHvrd]

All this talk of age is making me feel old. :sob:

[Querjek]

I'm 14... I started to collect one summer when all of my good friends had moved away (:( ). I didn't know what would come of me getting all of that Genesis stuff then... but here I am, ~400 more games than a few years ago. And I did have an NES and SNES whehn I was young... and a Lynx.

[DotCom]

Well I am 13 and I love old-games. I love atari 2600, especailly Circus Atari. NES is also fun because of mario and whatnot. Point is, it's fun. The only problem is collecting and buying stuff. I mean it is slightly embarrassing to walk inot a store and want to buy an atari 2600 system. Another problem is explaining to other kids WHY I have so many games and WHY I am not a loser. All of the other kids have next generation consoles, and all they think Atari was the first system ever made. Every time I correct them, they just yell at me and say "Shut up dumbass, I know more about games than you".Sigh....

[Mr. Smashy]

Why do I play and collect? Simple.

To meet women. :pimp:

[charitycasegreg]

Im 16 and played nes since 1989. I always loved the older systems and grew up with them. The only newer system I have is the ps1. I got a 2600 because I just wanted one plus it was about 5 bucks with 9 games. All the stuff I get for my systems is free or cheap from friends and such. I just love the older games, bring me more fun then the newer ones.

[Balloon Fight]

I'm 15 and started playing the NES in 1990. I always played it at a cousins house, but never got an NES. I got a gameboy first, then an SNES and Genny. Years later I busted out my SNES and started playing. Then I longed for an NES, and my passion grew.
Now at 15 i have about 400 games and an arcade machine. :)

[GamecubeFreek]

I am 17 and I started playing games when I was around 3, though not very well. I started out with NES, but I did not get too serious about gaming until I was around 7 with the Genesis and GameBoy.

Around 6 years ago, I got really into video games, and everything related to them. I'm not sure of my exact reasoning, but I bought a NES 5 years ago (my original was stolen :( ). Later that year, I got A Super NIntendo, then I just started buying a bunch of systems. I guess that is how I got into gaming seriously.

I got into collecting around a year ago because I realized that there were a lot of games that I liked that most people had never heard of, so I started looking into them, and this eventually led to collecting.

[8-Bit Master]

I was born in the midst of the video game crash in 1984 (I'll turn 20 later this year). I've been playing games ever since I can remember on my parent's Atari 2600, and then I got an NES in about 1988 or '89. My parents have home videos of me going crazy when I opened it up on Christmas morning. :D

I collect just about anything I can get my hands on (both classic and modern) however I'm focused on collecting for NES right now. I've got over 600 NES games. My younger brother also collects games, but he doesn't really collect for any specific system.

[Mr Mort]

Holy crap, do I feel old!

Regardless, it's good to see people going back and playing games older than they are. As with movies, music, and art, just because something is old does not mean it's crappy or inferior. I'd rather play Arkanoid or Ninja Gaiden than a lot of the games that are released these days, and I feel that anyone who does not give some older games a chance is really missing out on a lot of fun.

[Gnarkill]

Im 15 years old and grew up on my snes and genises, I had a nes but I only remember the snes days, my golden years of gaming. So I just decided it would be fun to collect as many games as I could for my favorite console of all time. Then it turned into more like a mission... lol

[PyroPenguin]

I'm 17 and I've been playin games since I can first remember. I've always enjoyed video games of any generation, but never really got into collecting them until about a year or so ago. Pretty much as soon as I could drive around by myself I was at Gamestop a lot. Then I just started getting a few more games, so I decided, why not.

[badinsults]

I collect snes games for something to do with my time. Plus it is fun to impress my friends with my 70+ snes games.