Have you ever considered the unthinkable? (long rant)

[Anthony1]

Have you ever considered it?



You know......the unthinkable?



Have you ever considered quiting retrogaming and go back to playing only current gen or next gen games? You see, I used to only play the latest and greatest. You look up Early Adopter in the Dictionary, and it should have my picture right there. I was the kinda gamer that would buy the new systems, and sell off my old ones. I would jump 100 percent on the next gen bandwagon each time it came around, and I wouldn't look back.


I know it must sound like a foreign concept to most of you. Most of you guys bought your systems and games, and just kept them forever. You never thought about selling them, and abandoning them for the next level systems. But that is exactly what I used to do.


Then in the year of our lord 2003, I discovered the joy of retrogaming. It was total lust at first sight. I mean, I just totally went retro crazy, and I went on a crazy spending spree, spending thousands of dollars to buy my all my old systems and a collection of games for each of them. I totally immersed myself in retrogaming, and my XBOX and GameCube just collected dust like you wouldn't believe.


During my initial retro stage, all I did was play retro or think about retro or read about retro or post about retro. I went on a rampage trying to get all the old magazines that I used to have. Every day, I would take a couple retro issues to work with me, for glorious trips down memory lane.


Now the thing is, several times I wondered if I had just been caught up in a fad. Like when I jump on things like crazy, burn out on them, and then move onto something else. I have a habbit of doing that. So at one point, I actually thought about quitting the whole retro thing. I thought about selling everything and just keeping a modded XBOX with all the emulators, and that would be my only like to my retro fascinization (mispelled).


But each time I thought about it, I snapped out of it and regained my senses. Only to come back to the world of Retro and buy another system that I'd been wanting. Like the Turbo CD system.


Nowadays I go back and forth between modern and retro. I'll fire up the XBOX and play the latest game, or fire up the PS2. But I also play my Sega CD like crazy, and my SNES and my Turbo CD, etc, etc. It's kinda a back n' forth thing.



The thing is, I've been starting to really question the whole retro thing. The XBOX 360 will be coming soon, and the Playstation 3, and at first I thought that I would leave the new machines alone. That's what I thought when I first went retro. I remember even doing a post about how this would be the first time that I didn't get a machine on launch day in about 15 years!!!


But that was back in 2003 and 2004. In the year 2005, with all the info on the XBOX 360, and then seeing the e3 stuff, and the stuff in magazines and on the net, I'm extremely excited about the new systems. I got money down on a 360. I will have one at midnight on launch nite. Most likely the same thing when it comes to the PS3.


So I started hearing my little voice asking questions like "So, are you going to give all this Retro stuff up?". "Why do you have a Atari Lynx and 16 Lynx games?" "You know you won't hardly play it". "Why do you have a Sega Master System that you never play". "Why not sell everything?" "Just keep a modded XBOX with all the emulators, that's all you need" "Sell all your video game mags while they still have nice value"



All kinds of thoughts like that are going through my head. It's like I'm wondering to myself if I should really stay in the retro game. One side of me wonders just how much money will come back into my bank account if I sell everything. But then of course I have a very strong fear that I will regret it. Will it be the biggest mistake of my life?


I think my best course of action is to not panic, and to not doing any rash right now. I need to calm down and access things without selling everything off. Maybe I should just eliminate certain systems, and really cut back on my collections. Just keep the key machines and the key games, and sell off everything else.



Hmmm, I'm just not sure what I'm going to do. I have a strong feeling that when November comes, I'm going to get lost in a sea of XBOX 360 love. I'm going to get caught up in that "wow" factor feeling that I had during every leap to a new generation. And I'm going to go full bore into it. I'm not so sure that my retro gaming love will totally survive.


I can say one thing though. I will never, ever, I repeat, never, ever, sell my SNES and my top 10 SNES games and my RGB monitor. I think if I ever did quit retrogaming, I wouldn't sell off quite everything. I would probably just go with the less is more approach and just keep a few systems and a few games, and that's about it. Just enough to pull it out every once in awhile and wax nostalgic.



Of course, that is, if I actually did quit the whole "retro" thing, and I'm not sure that I'm going in the direction. I'm just saying that I'm thinking about it, and thinking about it seriously, and it's scaring me. I've put a helluva lotta time and effort into the whole retro thing these last several years, and I would hate to just abandon the whole thing, and just pretend it was some kind of "phase" that I was going through. If that was the case, then it was a very freaking expensive "phase"!

[Jibbajaba]

Hey dude, I didn't read any of that or anything. I just wanted to say that you don't really need to put "long rant" as a warning in your topic. It's sort of a given around here that when you create a thread, it's a long rant.

Just trying to help.

Chris

[chrisbid]

how many more 360 posts before MS gives you a free console?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Nope. It's not a phase for me. Retrogaming is not something that I discovered at some later date. It's something that I've never left. For I was there, you see, at the dawn of the first age of Pac-kind...

[Anthony1]

Hey dude, I didn't read any of that or anything. I just wanted to say that you don't really need to put "long rant" as a warning in your topic. It's sort of a given around here that when you create a thread, it's a long rant.

Just trying to help.

WABOBS

Chris


Thats funny, but I don't "ALWAYS" do super long posts. Sure, that's my normal style, but sometimes I have short, to the point, posts. I know that they are kinda rare, but I do have them, so it isn't always a super long rant.


By the way, you should read it. I'm kinda going through a retrogamers mid life crisis if you will.

[Anthony1]

how many more 360 posts before MS gives you a free console?



are you calling me a Billy Boy fanboy?



Not me, bro. I'm very unbiased towards all the systems, I buy them all.


am I excited as heck about the fact that in around 60 days or so I'll have my hands on a wireless white controller and Oblivion on my 113 inch screen? Heck YES.


oops, I mentioned my screen again. Damn. That violated my own rule. I promise not to mention it again, until I've actually played a real 360 on it.



I promise.

[Mianrtcv]

The only time I consider giving up the retro games is when I consider giving it all up. I do the whole "I could sell this stuff for plenty and use that money eslewhere".

That's about the time I say, "elsewhere, hmm.". I don't think it will ever happen. For monetary reasons or otherwise. I enjoy playing the games. Also there is a certain familiarity and comfort in knowing my games are there for me. I don't get to them nearly as much as I used to, but that's o.k.

[-hellvin-]

I will answer the question repeated in the first three sentences of the sea of text:

No.

[NE146]

Have you ever considered quiting retrogaming and go back to playing only current gen or next gen games?

Huh.. acquiring and playing "current gen games" is pretty much the primary way I've always been since the 5200 was upcoming 'next gen'. Maybe it's the 70's star wars kid in me but videogames in my eyes have always been about getting cool new videogames to play w/ new technology.

Only difference is to me, the 'new' doesn't replace the old. It just gets added to the existing library :)

I mean, when the Turbografx was new did you shun it to only play your by-then-old 5200 or Intellivision? Nah of course not. Did you not get a Saturn/psx/N64 because you wanted to 'retrogame' on the SMS? Man you gotta move on! But don't ditch what you got already. Granted.. I'll admit it's getting a little hard to get too excited about a lot of the next gen in this age of big corporate blockbuster.. but that's another subject.

Anyway. Bottom line is: Games is games. :) And that's all these are anyway.. friggin GAMES. To PLAY ;) So why limit yourself from playing something fun based upon something as incosequential as it's age? LOL I'll play Kaboom and jump the next moment to any ps2/xbox/gc game and back no problemo :D

[hydr0x]

Hey dude, I didn't read any of that or anything. I just wanted to say that you don't really need to put "long rant" as a warning in your topic. It's sort of a given around here that when you create a thread, it's a long rant.

Just trying to help.

WABOBS

Chris


LOL i love you LOL

[smokehouse]

You know, I’ve gone through a bit of this myself lately. I’m never going to buy another launch console but I have gotten into the whole “robbing Peter to pay Paul” thing. I have been completely tempted to sell off many of my dormant systems to feed my Neo Geo AES beast. That thing gobbles up my time and my wallet.

You need to ask yourself one thing.

Am I a collector or a gamer?

A collector is in it to…well, collect. A gamer wants to play their games. If you’re a collector them by all means, keep everything you have. If you a gamer then get rid of the unused stuff in your collection. Would I sell off stuff to fuel a next-gn purchase? No way. You’re only hurting yourself on that one. The stuff you sell now will be worth more the next time you try to buy it (it’s inevitable) and the next-gen stuff will depreciate horribly.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Considering the unthinkable is akin to pondering infinity. Sorry, not my slice of pie.

But seriously, take it from someone that made the wrong choice. Don't do it. You may not miss your older games now or even two years from now but, you will.

You got to look at it as a glass half-full scenario. There are lots of current gen games I want that I don't have. That just gives me something to look for later down the road.

[digitalpress]

Anthony, you're not the only early adopter here. Lots of us are early adopters. I'm pretty sure they'd use MY picture, not yours, in that dictionary definition, in fact! I've been buying systems on launch day since Intellivision came out.

Being an early adopter is apples and oranges to being a retrogamer, however. You can move onto the next great thing as many of us do and still go back and play your classics. I get on an Xbox kick, then I get on an Intellivision kick, then I get on a GameCube kick, then I get on a TurboGrafx kick and so on and so on...

A retrogamer simply acknowledges that every era if not every system has its own beauty, it's own perfect games, it's own nostalgia. A retrogamer embraces that and never lets go. It doesn't mean you have to stop being an early adopter - consider that in 20 years your Xbox 360 will be a relic, but it will still have games that you love to play.

[Trebuken]

Why not think of the Xbox 360 as the next great retro-console. Microdoft is only projecting a four year life-cycle for it. I'm betting most of us will be hear when it's retro. This way there is no conflict.

Anyways, if you play enough modern games (excluding sports titles) you can get burnes out on them. You usually have to memorize a dozen controller buttons, master increasingly complex gameplay and immerse yourself in ever more realistic enviornments. After a period of this it is often needful to immerse yourself in the simplicity of Castlevania, Martio, or other equally antiquated game. Sometimes it's even wis to depart from those tried and trues and randomly play a game you have never heard of.

The greatest weapon modern gamnes have over retro is multiplayer. It can suck the life out of you leaving you with little time (the desire may remain) to play SNES games.

You can always just play the retro collections that keep coming out....we're bound to see more interesting combinations in the next-gen as the PS1, and maybe Dreamcast will be compiled onto the new media...imagine these possibilities...

Trebuken

P.S. - How does the picture quality of your projector compare to a top of the line ($3,000) DLP set??
Making the transition to projector is a tough one...

[googlefest1]

well, if your retro gaming crisis ever leads you into dumping all your old stuff - dump it into my game room please :-P

[sabre2922]

Question. How do you consider the unthinkable if its well...unthinkable :D

[Slimedog]

My friend did this a few months ago. He wanted to simplify his life and get rid of a lot of stuff he would never play. Now every time I see him we go out shopping for some game he recently sold. So the question would be, are you impulsive? If so, you should probably just box up your old stuff and store it instead of selling it. You will probably be digging it out again in a year and a half when all the next gen consoles have settled into a mediocre platform and FPS quagmire. On the other hand, if you aren't a collector, aren't prone to fits of whimsy, or are a graphics whore, you are probably safe selling your old stuff.

[Flack]

Why all the drama? If you like playing old games, keep the systems. If not, dump them. If you're undecided, box them up and put them in the garage for a while. In fact, if I were you, that's almost certainly what I'd do; box up all your retro systems, put them in the garage, and only pull them out when you begin to miss them. If you make it six months or so without opening a box, sell it.

[Daria]

a graphics whore.

Now there's the dictionary definition that's begging to have Anthony1's picture illustrated next to it.

[YoshiM]

Anthony, I was pretty much the same way: sell the old to buy the new. It was really necessity at first when my family didn't have the cash. Then I started collecting but years later I sold some stuff off. Thing is after a while I'd sometimes miss whatever system I sold so I'd buy it again. Then sell it again. I've already talked about my buy/sell relationships with the Genesis and TG-16.

I'd say hang onto that retro stuff. True you can emulate the games but it's just not the same as playing the real deal. You can find scans of magazines and either read them on the computer or print them off but it's still not the same as holding the magazine-stock paper in your hands. Like Flack said, box 'em up and then pull 'em out when you get a case of the Megamanias or the Marios.

[davepesc]

How can you consider the unthinkable?

Hmmm.

No.


Uhhh



*head explodes*

[evil_genius]

Dude we could be long lost twins. Practically everything you said I have been through. But your collection is probably much larger than mine. I always used to sell my old stuff to buy the newest thing. And in 2003 I started collecting and spent alot of money trying to build my collection with all the old games I used to have. Some stuff was at my grandmas and got saved (Adventure of Link with my game save that is 15 years old). I would never sell my collection any time soon, who knows what the future holds though.

My advice to you would be, if you feel you have stuff that you don't ever use or enjoy, and you can use that money to buy something you will use and enjoy, then sell it your stuff someone that will enjoy it. Like that Atari Lynx that you never play. It depends on, if you need the money or not. You can always make more money but replacing your stuff is not so easy.

Also, I bet you will go XBOX 360 crazy but when you get bored of it and want to play some retro goodness you will be glad you kept it. Keep the good stuff.

If you are the type to buy something just because you don't have it, then keep the stuff. I have never done that, but then again I am pretty broke and sort of a bargain hunter.

[jajaja]

I dont understand why someone always comment something negative on anthony1's posts. I did it once, but regret it, sorry for that hehe :\
Sure, many are long, but if they annoy anyone why not just close the page and not read?

On topic: No, I will never go to just play current gen games. I play both and probly always will :)

[kainemaxwell]

never have. I do play my PS2 mostly but I always have a 2nd system set up alongside which is usually my Dreamcast, SNES, Sega CD or my NES so I switch back and forth between the modern and the retro.

[smokehouse]

P.S. - How does the picture quality of your projector compare to a top of the line ($3,000) DLP set??
Making the transition to projector is a tough one...

Trust me, $3000 won’t even get you into the world of “mid-end” projectors let alone high-end.

You want high-end, take a look at this one, the Runco Cinema SC-1 :
http://www.runco.com/sig_cinema_sc1.html

This DLP will set you back $250,000. That’s high end.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Have you ever considered quiting retrogaming and go back to playing only current gen or next gen games?


No. Hell no.

I have considered doing the opposite for some time now.

The games back in the day were actually better. People will try to say otherwise, but to me it is indisputable.

Which is not to say nothing really good ever comes out anymore, it's just down to a couple games a year.

The more time passes, the more I find myself playing versions of games I've already been playing for years on current systems.

The Japanese game industry has been devolving substantially since the mid '90's (and even I won't blame all of it on Sony)

For a while I thought it was an illusion brought on by the way that it is easier to locate the good games for older systems in hindsight, because there has been plenty of time to find the hidden gems, etc.

But no.

As my collections for neoclassic systems and DC appear to be approaching 100 or more, I look at the likely totals for current systems. Even taking into account stuff I pick up cheap and future releases, I still don't see breaking 30 (each that is).

It is actually somewhat comparable to the number of games that I like (though I only own a few) on some of the pre crash systems.

Things are really going down the shitter.

I personally think Nintendo has a chance of doing OK this time just because their console will likely cost half as much.

Some devs might be tempted to give Rev more of a chance if the nutsy price point of PS3 damages sales severely, not to mention the quality of software for it.

The DS is pretty much crushing the PSP right now guys.

The PS3 could bomb. Or not. No one really understands the mass market consumer IMO.

That wouldn't necessarily mean the quality of games would go up, but the main thing keeping me from being fully into this gen is that the old-school stuff (Cave shooters, etc) is showing up on you know what. I had actually planned to give in and use a JP PS2 for that purpose, but it died. So did my first US PS2. And the PS2 can't handle most of those games anyway (though again, some people who import PS2 games will lie about this sometimes, though some will admit that they are genuinely disappointed).

If there were a cleaner way of playing imports, and the imports for it weren't so expensive I might not have given up. But with relatively few games I wanted anyway, and Sony's hostility toward import gamers, I can only hope that some more of the stuff will show up on Nintendo systems someday. There is also no way I would buy an import 360 or mod one for such reasons, BTW, and I doubt that such games will ever show up on it much anyway. Vert scrolling shooters that show up on the first XBOX aren't exactly first shelf ones.

Current systems are OK sometimes, but don't try to pry my Sa turn, Genny, PCE, NES, DC away from me. You'd get hurt. Badly. ;)

[FurinkanianFrood]

Meh. Oops.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Gah. How do I delete these excess posts?

[Berserker]

To be honest, I've never thought about selling off my old games/systems, as I am in fact a packrat. However, I have neglected both new and old systems at times, almost in cycles, so I can see where you're coming from with this.

Eventually, people in our position have to realize that we're neither only retrogamers or current-gen gamers, but that we're both, which is to say that we're "just gamers". I think the conundrum you're facing is that you feel you have to ditch one to have the other, that it's an either/or scenario.

Really, it isn't.

If you keep going back to one and then the other, the most sensible solution is really to have BOTH, to realize that, like anyone who's very much into a certain thing, that you're bound to want to wander around the various areas that comprise this interest from time to time, be it in cycles or however, and to allow for that. If you don't, you'll just be kicking yourself later.

[Garry Silljo]

I dont understand why someone always comment something negative on anthony1's posts. I did it once, but regret it, sorry for that hehe :\
Sure, many are long, but if they annoy anyone why not just close the page and not read?

On topic: No, I will never go to just play current gen games. I play both and probly always will :)

I know why people do it. It's because we're tired of the fact that the only true reason the posts are so "long" is because there are 500 spaces between paragraphs. The content is all great, just ease up on that format please!

[Anthony1]

Let me just say that this is just something that I was kicking around in my head. It was the little voice in my head that was saying these things. It's like I'm sitting in my computer room, and the ground it covered with all these systems and carts and controllers and stuff, and I just looked at it and said......"What the F am I doing?"



But see, the thing is, I still love my retro shit. I really don't think I could ever quit retro, but I just wanted to confess about having these crazy thoughts. Sometimes a thought creeps into your head, and you say damn....I can't believe I actually thought about that rationally for a second. I can't believe that I actually considered that for a second.


And that is the way it was with this "Mid-Life Retro Crisis" of mine.


I definitely over-reacted last night when I did the original post. I thought about it today while at work, and decided that there is no way I'm ever getting rid of certain systems and games. But I do think I'm going to pare some stuff down. I'm going to sell off certain systems that I never play, and cut back on some shiznit. I'm going to trim down my number of carts just to about 30 or so classics at the max.


I guess the real purpose of this topic was to see if anybody else had similar thoughts creep into their head. Because I can't ever see myself getting rid of my SNES or my Saturn or my Sega CD or my 3DO, etc, etc.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I dont understand why someone always comment something negative on anthony1's posts. I did it once, but regret it, sorry for that hehe :\
Sure, many are long, but if they annoy anyone why not just close the page and not read?

On topic: No, I will never go to just play current gen games. I play both and probly always will :)

I know why people do it. It's because we're tired of the fact that the only true reason the posts are so "long" is because there are 500 spaces between paragraphs. The content is all great, just ease up on that format please!

Just keep the format so that it's easy to read. I'd take excessive spacing over 80 lines of text all muttled together only giving single spaces after punctuation. Some posts I've come across literally have made me exclaim - "JC my effin eyes!" That quote is highly sanitized and abbreviated FYI. :)

[YoshiM]

I think one of the things that makes me think about selling off classic stuff as I get older is how much cash I want to devote to gaming. Years back it was no problem with hardly any bills. Now with a van payment, house payment, an expensive natural gas "budget" payment (damn, where can I get a house sized plastic bubble like in "E.T." so I can keep the heat in?), etc. etc. I find myself debating if I should just keep collecting like I am or if I should just concentrate on one particular platform (I count all my classics as a singular "platform" BTW).

Life, ain't it grand :D

[mills]

Yes I did this, as video gaming enhanced, so did I. Yes I'll admit, I traded in my snes and n64 for a playstation, then traded that in for a ps2. Then traded that for a gamecube. That's when I realized what the fuck am I doing, the NES, SNES, and gameboy are far more fun than any of these new systems. That's when I started buying back the old school. :)