reducing collection size

[extra_anchovy]

I think that most collectors eventually get to a point (usually once junk starts to accumulate) where you ask yourself - do I really need all those games? the obvious answer is no but what if you get rid of it all then you might regret it when you want to play a certain game in the future?

the answer is having ways to load the ROMs for each system without the original software. this is nothing new ofcourse but there are different ways of doing this for each system. so if you do this share how you do it. This is how I do it:

Super NES - download ROM from internet, split/fix with SNESTool, copy to floppy disk, load floppy disk with copier device (UFO Super Drive Pro 6 in my case). if you have a better copier (e.g disk doctor SF7) you can load ROMs directly from PC using SNESTool via male/male parallel cable

Sega SC-3000 - obtain a WAV file of the tape ROM, plug a standard stereo cable with mono plug from PC output (eg headphone socket) to SC-3000 input (cassette IN), type LOAD on the Sega and play the sound file through your PC. note - Tape drive is not needed to do this!!

tape ROMs can be found on sc-3000.com and can be loaded directly from that site. however plug your PC sound out into your sound in with a stereo cable and you can record it so you have your own backup on your HDD. vortex blaster in WAV format can be found here - http://www.stickfreaks.com/sc3000h.php

Commodore 64 - obtain tape dump from internet, convert to WAV file using utility (have to check which one when I get home), connect PC sound output to a tape drive/player input (e.g Sega SR-1000), press record on drive and play sound file on the PC, repeat a few times so you have multiple games on one tape, load the same as any other C64 tape

CD Interactive - obtain image of a ROM (e.g BIN + CUE file) either by internet or backup, burn to a decent CD-R on slow speed with a certain program (alcohol 120% worked for me), load just like any other CD-i disc.

[ryborg]

do I really need all those games? the obvious answer is no...

You're on the wrong forum for thinking the obvious answer would be no....

I don't think anyone has ever been like "Damn, all of these SC-3000 games are getting in the way. Is there a ridiculous alternate method of playing these games?"

[Snappaccino]

At what point would a collecter think something he collects is junk?

[Steve W]

To be honest, I wouldn't know what a SG-3000 game would look like if it were fired out of a cannon at my head.

You could always get someone to manufacture a multicart for the system of your choice. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who have the skills to make multicarts for just about any machine out there. And there's always flash carts for most of the popular cartridge-based consoles out there, you could just pick up one of those and do away with hundreds of carts.

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

You're on the wrong forum for thinking the obvious answer would be no....

Well said. I was pretty surprised to read the above. Seems like a thread better suited for the emu crowd.

[Richter Belmount]

You could keep your collection and become a minimalist , basically keep your collection all organized in a closet

[Shadow Kisuragi]

You could always get someone to manufacture a multicart for the system of your choice. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who have the skills to make multicarts for just about any machine out there. And there's always flash carts for most of the popular cartridge-based consoles out there, you could just pick up one of those and do away with hundreds of carts.

^ I would go with this, if anything. It's much cleaner and easier to maintain.

I'm on the opposite side of the fence though - I would buy a bigger space to hold more junk instead

[extra_anchovy]

At what point would a collecter think something he collects is junk?

many times heres an example - you buy a commodore 64 lot and half the stuff is broken, its smells mouldy looks tattered and basically looks like junk. obviously though if you're collection is made up of mint examples then you wouldn't think it's junk. I don't know about you but the vast majority of my games do look like junk

You're on the wrong forum for thinking the obvious answer would be no....

I don't think anyone has ever been like "Damn, all of these SC-3000 games are getting in the way. Is there a ridiculous alternate method of playing these games?"

very very true. I just threw that in for a different reason - tapes are very very hard to find. I don't see what is so ridiculous about having games digitally backed up. what is ridiculous is spending thousands ands thousands on games. once you have so much shit and lost so much money you realise this. but I definitely do think "Damn, all of these SNES, CD-i and Commodore 64 games are getting in the way."

[extra_anchovy]

You could keep your collection and become a minimalist , basically keep your collection all organized in a closet

that is the route I'm thinking of going. I have to get rid of a lot of games before they'll fit in my closet. so a lot will have to be backed up digitally. I can't get rid of all of my games though as a collector I'm very attatched to a lot of them. the vast majority don't get played though so I think its pointless to have shelves and shelves of games you never play. spending heaps and heaps of money just for a display to show off does seem kinda pointless after a few years of collecting .... at least for me it does

[extra_anchovy]

Well said. I was pretty surprised to read the above. Seems like a thread better suited for the emu crowd.

why? this has absolutely nothing to do with emulation or emulators. if I wanted emulation then I wouldn't have a problem, I could sell all my systems, hardware and games and just use my PC. however because I've grownup with such systems to me playing classic console games on PC is sacralige.

[MachineGex]

Heres an interesting question about scaling back:

Lets say you have 1500 games accross 15-20 systems. If you wanted to get rid of 200 games, would you cut a few games out for each system or cut out all the games from your least favorite system(s)?

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

why? this has absolutely nothing to do with emulation or emulators. if I wanted emulation then I wouldn't have a problem, I could sell all my systems, hardware and games and just use my PC. however because I've grownup with such systems to me playing classic console games on PC is sacralige.

Because usually people who begin to scale back the way you are talking about doing eventually just move on to the emu scene anyway, or flip flop between both. Ive seen it happen way too many times. Not that its a very important question, but its one I always ask myself when I see threads like this, why bother with original hardware when you're not going to bother keeping the games in their original form for it. To each their own either way.

[Gameguy]

Eventually stuff just builds up and gets in the way, I wouldn't want to get rid of everything as there's stuff I'll never want to get rid of, but the stuff I'd never play and isn't all that interesting or valuable I'd try to sell so I'd have more room for better stuff. Not everyone has that much space to store games, I don't have a dedicated spot for my games at the moment. I've actually sold off some cool stuff just because I didn't have room for it, what comes to mind is a Mario/Zelda comforter that was just in the way(it was pretty cool though). There's a couple more things I'm thinking of selling because of space issues, but I kind of want to keep them so I'm holding off at the moment.

And a lot of stuff is junk, how many ex-rental Genesis sports games would you keep? You can barely give them away. Lot's of people buy whatever game related stuff they come across at a good price, I used to do that but a lot of it I couldn't use as I didn't have the systems for it and they were tough to sell to break even as they weren't in much demand. Now I'm more selective with what I get, I don't want to be stuck with unusable stuff anymore.

[Richter Belmount]

I also recommend maybe getting console clones to reduce space taken , stuff like retro duo or fc triple maybe? Or modded consoles with more than one system in it.

[Cornelius]

Heres an interesting question about scaling back:

Lets say you have 1500 games accross 15-20 systems. If you wanted to get rid of 200 games, would you cut a few games out for each system or cut out all the games from your least favorite system(s)?

I'd probably cull a couple of my entire collections for systems that wouldn't hurt too bad. Actually, I think I could axe my whole Genesis, PSX, and 2600 collections without too much pain. Xbox I wouldn't even notice, really. Obviously it would kill some people to lose those, but everyone has their preferences. I happen to be one of those that will pick up most anything if it is a good deal, so a lot of the games from those systems fall into that category for me.