I've turned into a freaking video game hoarder!

[Anthony1]

Man, I feel guilty.



I've become the worst kind of gamer imaginable. The video game hoarder. Yep, the guy that try's to get a copy of everything worth possibly playing. And by not paying for it.


Yes, I admit I'm a bastion of piracy. When I got into retro gaming, after about a year of doing it, I had spent like 4 freaking thousand dollars. That's easily 4 times as much as I've ever spent in a year on gaming. Well, it was taking me to the poor house in a hurry.

So I said F it. For the old systems, that use CD's, might as well just play the backups. I finally figured out that I'm not a collector at all. I'm just a gamer. I just want to play these damn games. And I want to play all of them. I'm such a greedy little bastard. I want to sample them all.


So for the Saturn, Sega CD, 3DO, Turbo CD, Neo Geo CD, PSX and Dreamcast, it's all gravy. I'm going to eventually get ahold of every game that is really worth playing for all of those systems.

It's the pure greed of it. The greed of me simply wanting to have every decent title at my finger tips if I get the inclination to play one of those systems.

It's just like Roms to me. Hell, you know damn well that alot of you have complete Rom sets. To NES, Genesis, SNES, etc, etc. You feel like it isn't any big deal, because they are little roms files, and it was the 8 bit and 16 bit era, and it isn't a big deal.

Well to me, having a collection of backups, is just the same as having a Rom set, and this particular individual wants to have a CD set for some of these systems.

It's really bad. It turned me into a game hoarder.

I heard somebody say, "At least I'm not a game hoarder yet, at least I have some dignity". But I have to admit that I've gone to the bottom of the barrel with that. I just love to have access to all these works of art. I can read a magazine, during the Sega CD and Turbo CD era, and they can talk about certain games, and I can just go the collection and pull the game out and pop it in and check it out.


I'm sorry, I'm freaking totally guilty.

[max 330 mega]

i have no back up titles, and no roms anywhere on my computer or otherwise.....
im a collector and cant stand to look at, or put a burn cd in my system.
its so much more fun to go find the game , and then bring it home and play it, then to download it, burn it, and throw it in your system to me.

[Bratwurst]

I forgive you, babycakes.

[JR]

IMO I wouldnt feel bad if I was you. Im a gamer at heart also and I bought a shitload of consoles in a few weeks, not to collect, but to enjoy playing. Now with backups I can understand why you would as I might do the same. First sega, nintendo, capcom, Namco, etc. got their money from its production runs. Now the sad part is collectors are charging insane amounts of money to sell a product with a license that they dont own thus its kinda like leasing a car. Its yours, but not totally. I say go for it! Drive these insane prices down! I want to play Panzer Dragon Saga to see if its any good, but dont feel like fighting for a copy on ebay going for $150+. Same With Radiant Silvergun. Ill be damned to pay to play that! I got one system that will kill me ing the expense dept. My Neo-Geo, but they up until a few months ago backed their console with releasing games for it. As for xbox, GC, PS2, Gameboy Ide say buy the games and support the vid game companys, but for the older systems why support the people trying to make a killing on a video game? And if you ever dl'd a rom to play your in the same boat as someone playing a backup.

[Iron Draggon]

Well I can believe the expense driving you to the poor house part for sure, because I paid full price brand new for almost every single game I own. And I have somewhere around 1500 games total for 12 systems and I'm still going. So estimating the average cost of a new game at $50, I've spent $75,000 on my habit so far. Yep, my brand new Dodge Viper is in my game room. Oh well, I couldn't afford the insurance on a Viper anyway, and I sure as hell couldn't afford to feed it a tank of gas every city block at today's prices, so I guess it's just as well that I blew all that money on videogames. But it is nice to be able to go through my archives and play almost any game I want to because I own it. And it's even nicer to have the original manuals for all of them and most of the boxes and artwork and all that stuff. I just wish that I hadn't thrown away so many of the boxes for so many of them, because they were taking up too much space. Now my collection is worth alot less because of it, and I've lost a considerable portion of my investment. But at the rate prices are increasing now, I'm probably still coming out way ahead.

However, all that aside, I agree that if you just want to play all the games, it's ridiculous to spend that much money making some other hoarder rich, who only bought all that stuff just so he could sit on it for 20 years and then sell it off to some poor shmuck like you who just wanted to play the damn game. There are much better things to spend your money on, if you're just an average Joe like most people are, and there are far more important things to spend it on too. I don't even know how I did it myself, because I'm just an average Joe too, but somehow I managed to stockpile all this stuff, and now I'm a big hoarder too. So I'm just wondering when the value of it all will surpass my desire to keep it all. I always thought of it as an investment, and the whole point of it was to leave a legacy behind for my heirs, but if what it's worth ever becomes more than how much I love it all, my heirs are just gonna have to fend for themselves. I busted my ass to get all this shit, so if I ever decide to sell it all someday, I'm getting that brand new Dodge Viper or whatever the hell I decide I wanna spend it on. But if I just wanted to play all the games, you better believe I'd be doing it the cheapest way possible!

[kai123]

Playing backups makes you a game hoarder? I thought a game hoarder was someone who would buy every single copy of a game and keeps them for themselves. :hmm: I will just call you a rom whore before buttasuperb does. LOL

[Ed Oscuro]

I find it amusing Anthony has so many backups but can afford so much A/V equipment; arguments about the economy aside (do you think folks selling old games do it just for fun? They'll most likely buy something with that money in turn).

As for myself, I have lots of MAME ROMs. In some instances this has caused me to want to go out and find ports of the game I'm playing (since one cocktail cabinet is all I can manage).

As for home console games...I've spent more than $4K in a year, easily. If I need to take a break from that, I will.

I don't see anything morally objectionable about downloading something for MAME or another emulator if you'll go and put some money into buying the most legit copy (or whatever you can find). There's lots of games in MAME that I know I'll never be able to own - port or cabinet - or even find to put some quarters into. Doesn't stop me. If some company came up and said they'd be happy to take some money for their game I'd send a few sheckles their way.

A lot of taking going on there, but a little bit given back as well.

As for "game hoarder," I'd say "MAME completist." I don't download just any old thing for MAME, but I usually try to get every ROMset out there (well, there may be an exception in Area 51 CHDs...) just so I can compare clones. I do essentially the same thing with my collection of real games, but there I'm stricter about not buying games I don't really care for.

CD based systems in general I wouldn't try to "acquire" through any but legitimate means because of the inherent barriers; finding reputable and reliable sites isn't easy at all, and when you do downloading takes far too long. Right now I've got something like 9 hours left on an Area 51 CHD - 500MB+. Way too much.

[whoisKeel]

i know how you feel, i used to do the same thing a few years back with psx games and divx movies. then one day i just threw out everything. seriously...it was over 300 cdrs of stuff, probably more like 350-400. i think i had about 30 cds of mp3s alone.

here's what i do:
calm down with the downloading
if you want to try something, get it and burn it, but DO NOT label it!
before you know it you have 5 or 10 unlabled cdrs. toss them in the trash, at this point you know what is good enough to buy and what isn't. it is still illegal, but you'll have a better conscious :)

[Anthony1]

Well, I can easily clear my conscience by the fact that I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in this hobby.

I've been gaming for like 26 years, and I figure that I have spent more than 50 grand total on this hobby.


New games for current systems should still be purchased at retail. But old games that are no longer in the retail channel, I don't really care about that. I will hoard all of those till the end of time.


Maybe it is a very wrong thing for me to do, but I sleep just as fine at night.

[whoisKeel]

Man, I feel guilty.



I've become the worst kind of gamer imaginable. The video game hoarder. Yep, the guy that try's to get a copy of everything worth possibly playing. And by not paying for it.

...

I'm sorry, I'm freaking totally guilty.

:kiss:

[postulio]

i have complete GOODxxxxx sets for just about every system. and you know what?


i still buy and collect games, why? cause sometimes they actually mean something, it feels good to own a complete system and go to the bookshelf and pic up a nearly new box of a game, open it up, pop it in and play for a couple hours. but some stuff just aint worth buying, and who can afford it all? the roms hold me off so i dont go broke.


really desperate to play 20 colecovision games? instead of spending 200 bucks all in once, play the roms, then buy the ones you truly truly loved.

[Anthony1]

Even though I play alot of Roms and backups, there are some systems where I actually have to buy the damn games, even if they are for old systems.


Cartridge based systems that output RGB. Roms on the computer just isn't as good as seeing the real game on a RGB monitor.

So I still buy games for all of these systems:

1. TurboGrafx-16
2. Genesis
3. SNES
4. Atari Jaguar
5. 32X
6. N64

All of these systems output RGB, and I prefer RGB over any other video signal, at least other than 480p and HDTV type stuff. I'm still on Ebay buying games for those systems occasionally. If it was really easy to play the roms of those systems in "true" RGB, then I just might do that.

[Ed Oscuro]

Roms on the computer just isn't as good as seeing the real game on a RGB monitor.
I still don't understand that.

Plus, playing on the computer is inferior from a control standpoint (well, often enough) - I would say that's a more important point.

[anagrama]

Congratulations, you're a massive pirate. Why boast about it on an internet message board?

[Sylentwulf]

I'll second anagrama's post.

Spending $50K on videogames is F&%*ing pathetic, you should have as much or more than joe has, and have NO RIGHT to bitch about how much you've spent.

How did I KNOW there would be a second post about "I still have my RGB systems because RGB looks so much better than that crap the rest of you play, RGB is the RGB of RGB and RGB is so much better than RGB's RGB."

Why not just get ORIGINAL games of the ones you want to play? You can't possibly want to play THAT many games. Yeah, I have a full mame set, but I have it split into categories and can guarantee you I'll never play mahjong.

[Flack]

But I have to admit that I've gone to the bottom of the barrel with that.

Thank god -- I was tired of being all alone down here in the bottom of the barrel. I hope you brought some RGB cables with you; I brought my SNES, Genesis, and N64 console copiers. Now we can play our ROMs in RBG. In the barrel. On our projectors.

[SegaAges]

I used to be a big pirate (at one point I was over 300 dc games, and those were just the burnt ones). the way i see it, as long as you buy the things you truly enjoy, who the hell cares if you pirate.

that is the beauty of pirating. you can dl and burn anything you want, and if something just blows your mind, go ahead and buy it.

in fact, i just bought a new cd album (chronic future - lines in my face). everybody around me knows my style, and knows that i only buy an album if i want it bad, and i got others listening to this album for the soul fact of me buying it.

it is, like you said, a cool feeling to play a very expensive game for next to nothing. panzer dragoon saga is an excellent game, and i still haven't put down the 150 to buy it.

DAMN! I know, I'm bad.

*hops in the barrel and asks flack and anthony1 to scoot over*

[esquire]

I won't give you any "sanctamonious holier than art thou" speech like some people might or have. To each their own in my opinion. But I will give my opinion as to how I look at the situation, personally.

I used to be the same way as you, downloading isos, roms, goodsets, etc. But eventually it came down to these factors:

1. I simply didn't have the time to download and burn everything, let alone the time to play them all.

2. As I got older, got a high paying job, and other responsibilities (especially those of you with wives and children), I realized that my time was worth more money to me. That being said, it was worth more to me to go out and buy these games (of course, not at $50 on release day) than to spend all my time downloading, burning, labeling, sorting, putting them into Caselogic binders (and of course buying the binders), etc.

3. As I got more involved with this site and actually playing older games, I realized that:

a. the cdrs were worthless, not only monetarily, but also in sentiment.
b. owning orginals seemed to be more satisfactory than collecting everything on a cdr, especially with franchise and console favorites.
c. for my favorite consoles, such as the TG16 , it had more appeal to me to own the originals as they were a direct link to my past.

So, now I realize I don't have to own every game for every console (I sold my 5200 which I never played). I will not collect every single game for any particular console, save maybe the TG16 if I can ever find a Magical Chase and a few other high priced games that I need to complete the set. I only collect genres that I like, such as Shmups, RPGs, Arcade conversions and franchise favorites such as Mega Man and Mario games.

Do I still download isos, sure. I will never pay $150 to $200 so I can "play" Radiant Silvergun on my Saturn. If I download a game that I really like and is reasonably priced, I will buy it. Why keep a bunch of cdrs of games you'll never play? To me, it's not necessarily about $$ only. My time is worth more to me.

[digitalpress]

Congratulations, you're a massive pirate. Why boast about it on an internet message board?

I'm scratching my head too. It seems very strange that you would want to admit something like this on the forum of a person who spend a lot of time pointing industry people to it. Take a look at how many "guests" we have on any given day. Lots of them are game company reps looking to see the buzz on their latest games.

I dont think you really want them to know you're probably stealing their properties. Then again, maybe it doesnt' matter to you.... ?

[Flack]

One thing that sucks about piracy is that when you download stuff, the games don't really mean anything to you. For example, without even looking, I'm sure I have Panzer Dragoon Saga, and I can also tell you I've never played it. I probably have thousands of games I've never played. And yet whenever I buy a game, I play the crap out of it. I've been playing Ghost Recon for the past 2 years fairly regularly -- I'm sure there's no ROM I've played more than that. Is it because it's the greatest game ever? (Maybe.) Or is it because I paid $20 for it. (More likely.)

I've always contended that my own personal piracy is stealing from rental companies more than from the software companies -- a free Netflix or Gamefly, if you will (although I subscribe to both of those as well now). I downloaded Star Wars: Battlefront when it came out -- I now own originals of it for both the PS2 AND the PC. Not everyone adheres to those rules though. Believe it or not, there used to actually be honor among thieves.

[Ed Oscuro]

But I have to admit that I've gone to the bottom of the barrel with that.

Thank god -- I was tired of being all alone down here in the bottom of the barrel. I hope you brought some RGB cables with you; I brought my SNES, Genesis, and N64 console copiers. Now we can play our ROMs in RBG. In the barrel. On our projectors.
The BIG barrel. Woot, bring a keg in here.

I also disagree with Flack on the point of the games not meaning anything once they've been downloaded (as that's not true - in my case; if it's true in anybody else's case, shame on them). I've had all the Rolling Thunder games in MAME for a while now but only first played it last night - wow! That original game is awesome! Of course I'm not going to rave about everything I've ever seen, but emulation has made me go out and buy lots of games I wouldn't even have known existed before.

[Sylentwulf]

I've had all the Rolling Thunder games in MAME for a while now but only first played it last night - wow! That original game is awesome! Of course I'm not going to rave about everything I've ever seen, but emulation has made me go out and buy lots of games I wouldn't even have known existed before.

MAME is a VERY different story though. Arcade games were never MEANT to be owned or played at home, would take up WAY too much space, aren't for sale ANYWHERE anymore, etc...etc.... It's just too much of a different category to include mame as piracy IMO. (yeah, I know, arcade ports, that's just too much of a grey area. If you have the arcade version, I don't see the problem)

[Flack]

[quote=Flack]I also disagree with Flack on the point of the games not meaning anything once they've been downloaded (as that's not true - in my case; if it's true in anybody else's case, shame on them).

Maybe I didn't esplain so good. Lemme try again.

I remember being a kid and having like 5 Atari 2600 games (not for long, mind you, but play along). I played Pac-Man for the 2600 for an entire SUMMER. These days, I sit down with my emulator, look at the ENTIRE Atari 2600 collection, and can't find anything I want to play. It's just too easy to hit ESC, pick another ROM, and start playing again.

The other night while cleaning my room I threw in Yar's Revenge on my 2600 and played for like half an hour. But when I sit in front of the laptop, I rarely play anything that long. Maybe it's a mindset thing, but the games I actually own, I tend to play longer and enjoy more.

What I see that bothers me in my son is the whole "let's play a different game" thing. He'll wander over to the laptop and want to play a game, so I'll pull up MAME and pick a game. 30 seconds later, he'll say, "daddy I want a different game." So I'll toss in another. 30 seconds later, same thing. Could be nostalgic glasses, but I can remember playing Bard's Tale for an entire summer as well, and now my kid (who is admittedly very, very young) doesn't want to play a game for longer than a minute.

And I thought *I* had that whole Nintento attention span thing going on!

[Flack]

Arcade games were never MEANT to be owned or played at home, would take up WAY too much space, aren't for sale ANYWHERE anymore, etc...etc....

http://members.cox.net/flack/rod/11_arcade.jpg

:P

[tritium]

When I quit smoking I started using the money for videogames... somehow Im actually more broke than before.

As for backups. I only keep backups of games I dont have the hardware for (Joust 2600, got the cartridge, but no atari)

OR I have a select few games that I simply can't afford. My titles are less than 10 backups b/c I continously replace the backups w/ legit copies. I'm addicted to Dreamcast imports.. :embarrassed:

[Ed Oscuro]

MAME is a VERY different story though. Arcade games were never MEANT to be owned or played at home, would take up WAY too much space, aren't for sale ANYWHERE anymore, etc...etc.... It's just too much of a different category to include mame as piracy IMO.
There's really no difference between that and console games. With both you're getting a game for free. While most arcade games can be played just fine on a keyboard, I'd say even more console games can be played just fine on a keyboard as well.

For arcade machines, yes they are damn heavy and take up lots of space, but I've got a little Stratovox cocktail :) It's just a matter of finding some space, that's all.

I still disagree with Flack, even more now. I'll play some stuff - arcade games I can't get ahold of, games I've got stashed away or don't own the console for yet - for hours upon end, easily. That's the flip side of the arcade machines dilemma - a PC lets you save space and time to set up your console. Sometimes I'll find myself playing some game or other when I'd really like to try something else, but can't be arsed to switch a few wires around on the back of the TV.

[Sylentwulf]

Ed and Flack - I have 7 or 8 jamma boards and a jamma cab as well :)
BUT, I sure as hell don't have 1,000-2,000 of them

Also, I'm not really against burning roms of older systems, but anything from the SNES to present is a bit too new to be emulating with a clear conscience.

I also understand completely what flack means, playing an emulated game, free or not, just ISN'T the same, you don't get that warm fuzzy nostalgiac feeling.

[Anthony1]

Some people have wondered why I would admit that I have all these backups?


Because I really don't think Sega is going to come after me, because I have a copy of Batman Returns for the Sega CD on a CD-R.


Now, maybe if I was selling backups of games or something, then I might actually be concerned with something like that, but I don't sell backups, I only trade them, and I only bother with games that are no longer in the normal retail channels.

In other words, I don't deal with backups for the GameCube, XBOX or PS2.

Just the old consoles.

[Raedon]

I used to have this problem. About two years ago I threw away probably 300 CD-R's full of Anime, Apps, PC games, etc. When you look at a CD-R that only hold 650meg with Photoshop 4, Windows 95 and a new anime series that just came out called Pokemon. It's time to clean house and just get what you need threw lagit means.

Except old CD based consoles.. I may own a Sega CD but I don't think I'll be keeping it running in 20 years or so.. I've already finished the best titles.

[SegaAges]

Arcade games were never MEANT to be owned or played at home, would take up WAY too much space, aren't for sale ANYWHERE anymore, etc...etc....

http://members.cox.net/flack/rod/11_arcade.jpg

:P

flack, is that a stripper pole in the middle of your home arcade?

[Ed Oscuro]

Also, I'm not really against burning roms of older systems, but anything from the SNES to present is a bit too new to be emulating with a clear conscience.
I wouldn't draw the line quite that far back. Anything that's not being sold NEW at stores - that is, the publishers aren't making a profit - is too new to be emulating. I apply that rule to all CD-ROM based games as well.

Here's a case in point. I did "acquire" Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow within days of the ROM leak, and went out and bought the real thing soon after. That copy sits on my shelf, sealed, and I'll eventually pick up another opened copy. That happens to the only exception I've made, however. I value the opinions of other people, but honestly not enough that I'll go out and buy something. What happens is that I'll just refuse to buy new stuff until I'm sure it'll be good, or am looking at something with high enough expectations it'll be good as to be virtually a certain purchase. That is -DOOM III, Halo 2, and NOT the Nintendo DS - that one might get by on account of my being really psyched on the concept.

So, in my case, Konami and GameStop (I guess it might've still been Babbage's at the time) both won because of emulation...seriously now! The only time I've emulated a new game it convinced me to buy it.

Of course, I'm not willing to emulate anything else - whether it's a Neo Geo, PS2, or PC release is immaterial. I'm not concerned about "legitimizing emulation," and if anything downloading something is something somebody else must pay money for - that's far from helpful, ceteris paribus, anyway :P

I'm not speaking for anybody else or defending their actions, though, because of course some folks will go and just emu the stuff, instead of making an effort to go track it down at Goodwill, eBay (thank god for that though! Well, okay, maybe more people need to try out stuff like Psychic Soldier Taromaru before they bid on it...), or a local game store. I feel that playing games and using them as a tool for research is fine. I've often found playing games in emulation and on a console is extending play, since it's often radically different given your options/small window on a PC screen versus a TV.

What it comes down to, though, is that if I don't like something enough, I don't need to pay full price for it. I'll likely just wait until it comes down in price, instead. My hope is that others who have the same buying habits as I do will prompt companies to create more budget titles in the future for genres I'm a fan of.

[Flack]

BUT, I sure as hell don't have 1,000-2,000 of them

Me either ... yet ... :evil:

[davidleeroth]

What I see that bothers me in my son is the whole "let's play a different game" thing. He'll wander over to the laptop and want to play a game, so I'll pull up MAME and pick a game. 30 seconds later, he'll say, "daddy I want a different game." So I'll toss in another. 30 seconds later, same thing. Could be nostalgic glasses, but I can remember playing Bard's Tale for an entire summer as well, and now my kid (who is admittedly very, very young) doesn't want to play a game for longer than a minute.

And I thought *I* had that whole Nintento attention span thing going on!

That's what I fear I'd do if I ever got into MAME. Thousands of games coming my way for free. If a game seems boring after a minute, why keep playing, surely the next one will be more interesting.
By actually buying and paying something for your game, you make the initial decision whether the game seems good or not. I mean, who would buy crap games? ;)
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that you're a bit more committed to playing it after shoving the cash for it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Life's too short to be playing games that don't capture your attention ;)

I hope to play every action game in MAME - outside of many silly hacks and the like - but I'm not going crazy trying to and I'd like to get an appreciation for what each game's about.

[NintendoMan]

Well, that really doesn't make you a video game hoarder. I thought the post was just you buying everysingle game you could, even if you have 30 copies of a game, you want more.

Anyways, I don't play roms or anything else. Even though my gaming habbit drives me in the broke house, I still just buy the games when I can and play them on their respective systems.

[izret101]

You are not a game hoarder. I have thousands of ROMs on my computer(i have played 30 at most). I still go out and pick up all the real copies of games that i can get.
I am a true game hoarder. I have only sold 5 games (they were water-damaged cart only genesis sports games), and i have only returned 1. Not only do i keep all my videogames but i keep anything related to them i get. I have GBC codes from E.L. Fudge cookies packages for gods sake, I even have Nintendo liscensed candy.(Dated 2001 and 2002)