Has Emulation Cut into Your Collecting?

[jaybird]

For me personally, learning the wonderful capabilities of the Dreamcast has effectively murdered my collecting bug.

Combined with running out of storage space & money issues, I'm finding it extremely convenient to retire all my cartridge systems scattered around my house & just put a Dreamcast in the room.

Just today I retired a SNES with a Super 8 hooked up to it & a Genesis out of my bedroom & put a DC I just bought in. I'm looking at another SNES, Genesis & NES toploader in my office that I'm considering selling/storing.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather play original cartridges on their respective systems, but the convenience of having my entire library on one disc is too convenient to overlook anymore.

I'm now having evil thoughts of selling my systems & cartridges just to free up space & bring in a little $. This coming from someone who has never sold a game that wasn't a duplicate.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[CrazyImpmon]

No. I do have Dreamcast and it's nice to play damn near any games in existience but it's just not quite the same. I mainly use emulating to test play newer GBA games and to check out old, hard to find, or obsecure games. I rarely play into any games on emulator.

[NE146]

I wouldn't say it's 'cut into collecting'.. but for one example, since playing the NES/5200/Atari 8-bit on the Dreamcast is indeed pretty much 100% indistinguishable from the originals for the most part, it just allows me to store the NES & Atari 5200 and their carts away safely in my closet.. That's about it :)

[digitalpress]

Emulation has made me lazy with regards to playing the original consoles, especially since some of the emulators, like the Master System, NES, and ColecoVision play so well. So I don't drag those systems out as often as I used to.

But cut into my "collecting"? Not a bit. In fact, I might argue that it's helped increase my collecting habits, since there are now games that I've never heard of available for play. The ones I really like I add to my want list.

[jaybird]

Man, you guys are making me feel guilty.

I've always been on the side of cartridge over emulation if only because I hate playing games on my PC. Once I found out about the DC emulating older games, that's where my focus starting shifting to.

I guess I've gotten to the point where I own every cartridge game I ever wanted, and if I continued buying, it'd be for completion - and that's not what drives me.

Maybe I'm getting bored with the retrogaming hobby & need to take a break before I start selling things off that I'll later regret. :(

[Captain Wrong]

jaybird, I'm with you 100%.

First off, I'm lazy. If I want to go from console to console, it's a hell of a lot easier to close one window and open another then fuss with plugging, unplugging, dragging stuff out of the closet, untangling cables, coaxing 15+ year old electronics gear to work, cleaning and recleaning carts, etc.etc.etc. Plug I'm disorganized as all hell, so sometimes finding games or conrtollers is a challenge.

Second, I have a short attention span. See above.

Third, the amount of "stuff" (in the George Carlin sence) I have has reached critical mass. I just don't have any more room for systems, games, etc.

Fourth, I realize I'm just more interested in playing than collecting. Though I agree emultaion isn't quite like the real thing, it's good enough and in some cases close enough I can't even tell the difference doing a A/B compairson. Emulation lets me actually spend my time playing the games rather than running all over trying to find them.

Not to knock collectors, mind you. I'm still very much a record collector, so I understand those impulses very well. I just don't feel that way with regards to videogames.

Fifth, yeah, it is a money thing. Y'know, I love the Neo Geo. I've wanted one ever since they were new and it's the only system I've had a burning desire for that I've never owned. But, hard as I've tried, I just can't justify spending that kind of money. Yeah, if I had a NG I'd put it on a pedistal and worship it nightly, but I know there's no way I'd ever be able to afford the games I really want for the system (such as the Metal Slug Series) and what would be the point?

And sixth, and this kind of ties everything together, my favorite genre is shmups and not only would I have to get a JAMMA cabinet (which I have no room for) or SuperGun (which I can't really afford) to play most of the games I enjoy playing which never got ported to a console. I'd also have to spend a lot of time and a LOT of money tracking down arcade boards that were only released in limited quanties in Japan and everybody is after.

Emulation just makes more sence for me. Yeah, I miss the actual feel of the actual gear, the smell of the carts and whatnot and yeah, I get the "priacy" pangs of guilt (although I faithfully buy every retrocomp released) but for someone like me, it's the only way to go.

[zektor]

Well, I still do collect and buy games I own in rom format (which is basically everything) and I do have to say that emulation has got me actually into collecting even harder than I did prior to it. See, I can check out games that I either never knew existed, or did know about but never actually played...then decide whether I want to go find that game and buy it. I love emulation and have to admit that I play many of my games emulated instead of having the actual console hooked up, but only because of the convenience. But, when I REALLY want to get into a game, NOTHING beats playing the real deal...at least to me. There are other reasons however I play emulated games...lack of money. There is no way I will ever pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a game that I can play emulated (Neo-Geo, super rare NES games, prototypes..etc) and while many people may think that I'm bad for that...I really don't care. It's all about enjoying games to me.

[Raccoon Lad]

Emulation for me is like being able to go over to annoying kid's house who has every game ever made. I can try out lots of games and find the ones I want to get so I can later enjoy them on my own system with my favorite joystick if I choose.