At the time of this writing I am 27 years old. Throughout my life there have been 3 “toys” present at all times, Legos, action figures, and video games. Though specific likes and dislikes come with age, I can still find something to buy in all three of these categories that spark my interest. Being an adult (though I’m sure many would argue that fact) my current Lego collection is focused mainly on what I refer to as the “Lego Super Cars.” These consist of the Technic car/truck sets that usually have a count of over 1000 pieces and a cost of over 100 dollars. It’s a reasonably expensive hobby, but luckily Lego only releases one of these sets every year or two. Secondly, there are “action” figures. Why they are called action figures I’ll never figure out, but it makes it easier to sleep at nights to say I collect action figures instead of dolls. I currently collect all of the Playmates Toys: World of Springfield Interactive figures based on “The Simpsons.” Again, another expensive hobby, but recently the end of the line of figures was announced. Finally, we come to what I consider to be my true passion, and perhaps sickness, video games. It all started out one glorious night as a child, when our father took my sister and me to a Toys-R-Us, to buy our first game console. You guessed it, that magical and addictive piece of electronics was an Atari 2600.

Like most children, over time, the flash and flare, and promises of better graphics and sound, pushed whatever current system I owned to the side when some new technologically superior console was released. Up until the release of the Sony Playstation, I wasn’t much of a collector. I pretty much just had whichever one system I happen to have at that time, The idea of having more than one console definitely appealed to me, but didn’t seem very practical or realistic, much like what people must have thought about having more than one television set when they were first released. While most of my friends had jumped on the Nintendo band-wagon, for reasons beyond my comprehension, I was enticed with Sega. First, with the Genesis when I was old enough to have a job and money of my own to buy things, then followed up with the Genesis ad-ons Sega CD and Sega 32X. The release announcement of the Sega Saturn was a very happy day for me; I couldn’t wait to buy my new piece of gaming hardware. Upon release of the console I was quick to sell my Genesis set-up at a local video game resale shop for what I can remember to be a minimal return on investment at best. The Saturn was incredible. The graphics, the sound, and the amazing array of peripherals released, combined with the fact that I was the only person I knew to have one, made me extremely happy. Unfortunately the quality and quantity of games, was never to follow. My friends had the benefit of realizing that this lack luster line-up of games made the Sega Saturn a poor investment choice, and most of them held out and were introduced to the Sony Playstation as an option of what to spend their hard-earned gaming dollars on.

I stuck with Sega upon release of the Dreamcast, only this time, not selling my current and out-dated Saturn. Instead, I decided that I’d keep both and have them both hooked up at the same time. What a stroke of genius. With friends playing Playstation and upgrading to Playstation 2, I realized that most of them had one or two orphaned consoles sitting in closets, basements, and garages. They, like me, thought it would be cool to have multiple systems hooked up and running, and were quick to offer me their abandoned systems for little or no monetary compensation. Thus, the collection was born. I currently own over 25 different systems, all with games and peripherals. Now most “collectors” would shutter to hear this, but all of the “toys” I have are out of the original packaging. The Lego cars are built and on display, the Simpsons action figures are on display, and the video games are hooked-up and receive regular use. Not to say that I don’t respect the collecting aspect, I do save the packaging and instructions, but I don’t see the point of spending all kinds of money on what I, and friends of mine, think to be cool, just so that they can sit in a box on a shelf and look pretty.

Now I wouldn’t say that collecting or playing video games has changed my life, but I would say that they’ve made it a little better. The anticipation of that next greatest game ever and the excitement when it finally hits the stores, the waiting in line on the official release date of the newest next generation console, and the finding of an extremely rare vintage title mixed in with a box of commons at a garage sale, still make for extremely happy days.