Where does retro gaming go from here?

[Cleatis]

pineapplehead2s post brought up a nice topic for conversation. Fifteen years from now, what will you wish you kept? What will you wish you had the foresight to buy?
Maybe those little PS1's? Makes me wonder what exactly makes the top loader NES's so valuable. Is it their reliability or is it that they’re so rare? Probably a combo of both. What about the PS2? Why bother hunting down a Playstation or a PS1 when PS2 plays all the games? Compatibility doesn’t seem to matter to Atari collectors. I guarantee there are more of us here with a 2600 than a 7200. That may be just because were collecting the systems we have the best memories of playing while we were younger. Therefore, you would assume the Playstation/PS1 should be quite popular with today’s youth when they grow up. Or will the majority of them only collect PS2s?
As I grew up, I moved from Intellivision to NES to Playstation to PS2. My most youthful years were spent playing on systems that weren’t compatible with any of the previous systems so will the Playstation/PS1 be looked over? Will the PS2 be the big collectors item? I wonder how today’s backward compatible systems will effect the retro collections of tomorrow.
Share your thoughts.

[s1lence]

I think the PS2 will be like the 2600, fairly common. Remember the top loader came out right around the same time as the SNES, so not a lot of people bought it. I could see the cube as being the new "collectable" machine as its the least popular of the current machines. (I like the gamecube btw) I Could see the little ps1's being more sought out as opposed to the bigger ones, just look at the recent postings of people buying the LCD monitors for them.

[NE146]

I'll just be doing the same damn thing I've done for the past 20+ years and that's buy games, play em, and then end up keeping them forever like the packrat I am. Easy 8-)

[Cleatis]

What about the various Gameboys. Theres a perfect example of compatibility lessening the odds of a system becoming a collectable. While the DS doesnt play the old Gameboy games...all the other Gameboys do. I'd say the GBA/SP is the only pre-DS anybody will care about. Most likely, the SP will be the most popular pre-DS collectable.

[pineapplehead2]

When I buy a game I never get rid of it, even if i have a double because I think i get the feeling that if i sell/trade it now something might happen to my other copy or i might accidently give away my best copy.
and etc , etc, etc.

[Kid Ice]

pineapplehead2s post brought up a nice topic for conversation. Fifteen years from now, what will you wish you kept? What will you wish you had the foresight to buy?


In my mind there have been three major factors affecting collecting over the past fifteen years:

1) People don't throw games in the trash anymore. They even tend to keep the boxes.

2) Ebay...or the web in general. Count these as two if you wish.

3) The collecting craze in general. Fifteen years ago people collected stuff like baseball cards, comic books, stamps, and beer bottles. Now people collect all kinds of stuff.

So with prices on games coming down, and people holding onto them, and people selling them on ebay, and backwards compatibility, I feel safe predicting that collecting and trading of latter-day systems and games won't be as vigorous as that of 2600 era, or even NES stuff.

One wildcard...systems have moving parts now that are subject to breaking down. So finding working CD-era systems could eventually become a challenge.

[whoisKeel]

pineapplehead2s post brought up a nice topic for conversation. Fifteen years from now, what will you wish you kept? What will you wish you had the foresight to buy?


In my mind there have been three major factors affecting collecting over the past fifteen years:

1) People don't throw games in the trash anymore. They even tend to keep the boxes.

2) Ebay...or the web in general. Count these as two if you wish.

3) The collecting craze in general. Fifteen years ago people collected stuff like baseball cards, comic books, stamps, and beer bottles. Now people collect all kinds of stuff.

So with prices on games coming down, and people holding onto them, and people selling them on ebay, and backwards compatibility, I feel safe predicting that collecting and trading of latter-day systems and games won't be as vigorous as that of 2600 era, or even NES stuff.

One wildcard...systems have moving parts now that are subject to breaking down. So finding working CD-era systems could eventually become a challenge.

exactly, once the world catches on that something is a collector's item, almost everything past that point will be next to worthless. in the early 90's it was well known that comic books were worth lots of cash, so everybody kept their comics in prestine shape, and none of them are worth squat. for the most part i believe this will be the case with videogames as well (with the exception of those few elusive games)