Young retro-gamers! Why do you play and collect?

[lendelin]

I'm sometimes amazed how many of the board members are younger gamers who discovered NES games and pre-Nes games. Even if you grew up with the SNES, what sparked your interest going back to the NES and pre-NES times?

How did you discover older games, and what got you started to play and/or collect them? What's the appeal of these old games despite (or because of) belonging to the N64/PS1 gamer-generation?

[Famidrive-16]

For me it's pretty much what I grew up with. I played a lot of games when I was really young in the early 90s, so most of my interests are for games released in that time.

[tholly]

I guess I'm pretty young here, compaired to some people. I am 20 years old and grew up with the NES. I never really had many games for it and didn't really see video games as something to collect until last year sometime.

[gamergary]

I grew up using my parent's 2600 then just switched to nes and the newer systems of the time but I only ever got rid of the nes because I had some troubles with the toaster version.

[HellStar]

I am 15 and love to collect games. I grew up with my SNES and my Genesis, just playing games...Its what i enjoy, thats why I do it. I just realized it would be a fun project to collect all the SNES games I could...and it turned into a hobby.(And a Obsession)

[dreamcaster]

I was born in 1985 and will be turning 19 this year.

As a matter of fact, whilst I own a few pre-16 bit consoles - my main gaming/collecting interest is the 90's.

My focus extends from the Mega Drive and SNES, right up to Dreamcast. Basically 1990-1999, as this is where I grew up gaming, and where I consider the best in games has to offer - are from this era.

[Moose]

What constitutes as young? Do you mean anyone born after the Atari 2600?

[Lady Jaye]

The 2600 was released in 1977. That's not that young anymore (it's still young, but certainly no longer so close to the teenage years). I think it'd be more like anyone born after the 1983-84 crash. That'd mean 20 years old and less.

[EndlessChris]

Well, I'm 16 and I've been collecting since I was young, though a lot more seriously in recent years. I collect from NES onwards, just because I feel like I missed out. I didn't get an NES until 1991, and I missed out on the whole SNES-PS1 era. Now that I'm older I look back at all that I missed and I want to experience the games I never had a chance too.

Plus you can get a lot of em' dirt cheap nowadays

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Ive been playing NES, SNES and genesis since i can remember. Then my senior year my friend said he wanted to collect all the US released NES games, so i started collecting Sega Genesis then i just started collecting everyyhing i could get a hold of.

[Sotenga]

I was playing my NES since I was two years old... really, I was videotaped playing Low G-Man. Cute lil' tyke. He sucked at it.

But I needed something to do in my life, so I just picked up video games. I didn't grow into them, I was just always playing them... it was almost like destiny, you know? As if it was some higher being's will for me to be a gamer. Or maybe I was just attracted by all the purty colors on the screen, I dunno.

[djbeatmongrel]

i collect and play retro games *i hate that term* because its fun and i like to see how thing progressed over time till now.

i do that with everything i get into, it helps you get a finer appreciation for what ever the topic is.

[MarioAllStar2600]

I love the gameplay, me and some friends get competitive, unstead of just beating a game and putting it on a shelf forever. 2600 at least. Collecting just intrests me, and is just a lot of fun. The people in this hobby are great to. SOme of my best friends I never have met.

[BHvrd]

All this talk of age is making me feel old.

[Querjek]

I'm 14... I started to collect one summer when all of my good friends had moved away ( ). I didn't know what would come of me getting all of that Genesis stuff then... but here I am, ~400 more games than a few years ago. And I did have an NES and SNES whehn I was young... and a Lynx.

[DotCom]

Well I am 13 and I love old-games. I love atari 2600, especailly Circus Atari. NES is also fun because of mario and whatnot. Point is, it's fun. The only problem is collecting and buying stuff. I mean it is slightly embarrassing to walk inot a store and want to buy an atari 2600 system. Another problem is explaining to other kids WHY I have so many games and WHY I am not a loser. All of the other kids have next generation consoles, and all they think Atari was the first system ever made. Every time I correct them, they just yell at me and say "Shut up dumbass, I know more about games than you".Sigh....

[Mr. Smashy]

Why do I play and collect? Simple.

To meet women.

[charitycasegreg]

Im 16 and played nes since 1989. I always loved the older systems and grew up with them. The only newer system I have is the ps1. I got a 2600 because I just wanted one plus it was about 5 bucks with 9 games. All the stuff I get for my systems is free or cheap from friends and such. I just love the older games, bring me more fun then the newer ones.

[Balloon Fight]

I'm 15 and started playing the NES in 1990. I always played it at a cousins house, but never got an NES. I got a gameboy first, then an SNES and Genny. Years later I busted out my SNES and started playing. Then I longed for an NES, and my passion grew.
Now at 15 i have about 400 games and an arcade machine.

[GamecubeFreek]

I am 17 and I started playing games when I was around 3, though not very well. I started out with NES, but I did not get too serious about gaming until I was around 7 with the Genesis and GameBoy.

Around 6 years ago, I got really into video games, and everything related to them. I'm not sure of my exact reasoning, but I bought a NES 5 years ago (my original was stolen ). Later that year, I got A Super NIntendo, then I just started buying a bunch of systems. I guess that is how I got into gaming seriously.

I got into collecting around a year ago because I realized that there were a lot of games that I liked that most people had never heard of, so I started looking into them, and this eventually led to collecting.