Why do you collect retro games and consoles

dmcdante

I have really only started my retro collection lately but i just wanted to play all the games i missed out on as a kid and games i never even heard about ontill i came on to boards.But also to play all the old games i use to play as a kid trying to recapture my youth i guess:rolleyes:.But of all the games i have got i never really played them for much longer then 30min.Do ye guys play to finish games or are ye like me just play make sure it works and put it away to play only every few months.

CiDeRmAn

Well, I started out playing with my friends Grundig Pong clone back in 76 or so, and it's been downhill since then!
After owning and selling my current console for the next one, since 89 or so, I found myself with a jap Dreamcast, and the PS2 was on the cusp of release.
Lacking fundage I found a seller in Clontarf, so I headed over there with a cash deal in mind.
Arriving it turned out the fella was short, short by a lot!
So, instead of turning tail and bugging out, I made a new deal, his N64 and Saturn plus I think it was £50 and a bunch of games.
The guy went for it and so my fate was sealed.
I never sold on a console again and got into collecting all the machines I remembered over the years and wanted but never had, such as the Vectrex, and also getting all the games I remember loving the first time around, hence why I now have an enormous collection of PS1, PS2, Xbox and N64 games, not to mention lots of everything else to, I have a reasonable collection of MD, Snes, Nes, Saturn, DC and the rest.
I don't go for boxed, preferring to just play and enjoy the games as is.
And I love them all!
Of course, my missus thinks I'm cracked, and not in a nice way!
My most recent big arrival was the construction of my Ikea cab and all the lovely vertically orientated games there-in.

Optimus Prime

For me ive always played games, had c64, nes, snes etc years ago, stopped gaming for a while during my drinking years but came back to it when i was around 21 or so when i won an original xbox off the sky website! at the time i was living in an appartment with a now ex girlfriend and spent most of the time playing split screen halo and outlaw golf with my mates.. good times.

From there i bought all the latest consoles and recently came onto this forum because i have a website setup with a couple of friends and i decided to build my own arcade cabinet. Looking for info i came across the lads here and instantly wanted all the old games and consoles i had years ago. so in the last 6 months ive bought a NES, SNES, 2xMegadrives, 2xGamegears, N64, Gamecube, Astrowars and 4 TomyTronics along with a LOT of games, im afraid to add up how much ive spent to be honest.

So i can firmly blame my recent walk down memory lane on both an early midlife crisis and the lads on this forum. Currently playing through super Mario world on the SNES with the other half, a level or a life!

:pac:

o1s1n

Never sold out (!) and sold a console to buy a new one. I've been buying consoles and games since the 16-bit era. After 20 years things have started to build up! :pac:

Now it's most definitely a case of buyings things I couldn't afford when I was a kid. When you can remember a console cost hundreds of pounds, and now you can have it for a fraction of that, it's hard not to resist the inner child screaming 'Buy it now!'

The whole arcade thing is a totally different kettle of fish though. Consoles fit into the realm of 'buying things you couldn't afford as a kid'...but arcade gear is way beyond that, in the magical fairlytale land of 'buying things you dreamed of owning as a kid but never in a million years thought you would'.

CiDeRmAn

You big old dreamer you!

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You big old dreamer you!

I'd love to go back in time, bring 10 year old o1s1n to a big games shop of that era, and proclaim -

'One day, all this will be yours'.

Retr0gamer

For me it's not reliving the old memories and games I played as a chold, although there is a bit of that. I've played the crap out of them and there's only a few I'd actually playregularly now. For me it's finally getting to play those old games I really wanted or was curious about but could never afford at the time. Also one of the best feelings as a retrogame lover is discovering some really obscure gem and finding out it's fantastic.

alpahaeagle

For me it started @ 8 months ago. I started thinking of all the consoles I had when I was younger, (a long time ago). :(Fond memoires of me and the now wife, sitting up in bed playing:rolleyes: (wait for it) the megadrive.
I have had a console or computer dating back to the late eighties. First the Spectrum, then the C64 then came the MD ( I remember buying it for £Ir149 with sonic )followed by the SNES, after that I moved onto the Atari ST and Amiga 1200 then came the DX486 pc with the Turbo button ( that always caused the games to crash.). I then took a break on machines as money was hard to come by, (my god i have gone back in time).:eek:
Maybe some Psychologies will turn around and say " That you are trying to recapture your youth." but for me it's about the fond memories I had of playing the games, as well as been able to have all the consoles and games that I could not of offered when I was younger. As I too, was one of those people that had to sell or trade his current console’s so I could afford the console I wanted.

CiDeRmAn

For some of you, buying the games you remember as a child would involve nothing older than the PS1!
And I though Sera was a Retr0game lover?

dmcdante

So is there a limit to your collection or is it just buy all you can while you can i think i am just going as far as the master system and the nes because these were the consoles and games i grow up with and never really heard of any other other consoles

Optimus Prime

I recently bought a boxed pong game for 15 quid off adverts, and astro wars too was probably the first game i owned, not technically a console though.

o1s1n

Limits? LIMITS?! They do not exist in this hobby

I think I've reached my limit for the moment. Was organizing all my stuff for a move that might be happening at the end of the month, and my games and 'surplus' controllers alone fill 9 Tesco crates.

The consoles themselves and my in use controllers will probably fill another 5-6 crates.

And that's just the stuff I have in my apartment, there's more in my parents house. Including an arcade machine.

I had a bit of a moment of clarity when it was all in front of me, one stack of crates as high as myself. - 'Maybe I have a problem'.

I think more is going to have to be sold!

gflood

o1s1n wrote: »

Limits? LIMITS?! They do not exist in this hobby

I think I've reached my limit for the moment. Was organizing all my stuff for a move that might be happening at the end of the month, and my games and 'surplus' controllers alone fill 9 Tesco crates.

The consoles themselves and my in use controllers will probably fill another 5-6 crates.

And that's just the stuff I have in my apartment, there's more in my parents house. Including an arcade machine.

I had a bit of a moment of clarity when it was all in front of me, one stack of crates as high as myself. - 'Maybe I have a problem'.

I think more is going to have to be sold!

I bow to your godness. Please post some photos of what appears to be a great collection. I used to sell to trade up ad sincerely regret it. I owned everything from Spectrum ZX+ to current gen.

Elbow

Simple..... I love retro gadgets & big boys toys

From old consoles & MAME to the scalextric set that takes over my living room every now and then

o1s1n

Godness? Feck no, I'm just someone with more money than sense...and a pretty forgiving girlfriend

I was uploading all my photos to my profile over on Retrocollect but I reached a problem where it won't let me rename/delete folders so I gave up. Still, managed to get a lot of photos up before that happened.

http://www.retrocollect.com/Community/o1s1n/My-Photos/

/edit - by 'more money than sense' I didn't mean I'm some rich videogame baron - I just mean I have very little sense

dmcdante

o1s1n wrote: »

Godness? Feck no, I'm just someone with more money than sense...and a pretty forgiving girlfriend

God bless the forgiving girlfriend mine has bought me loads but i really know that its just away of keepin me upstairs in the game room so she can watch her girly shows:rolleyes:

pdbhp

Well I've been playing games since the early eighties and got for my birthday in either 89 or 90 a big huge brick of a Gameboy. This was the first console that I owned outright as the others I had were shared between my brothers and I.
We started out with Pong then went all crazy woth an Atari 2600 then the greatest day ever when I got my Gameboy, two months later exactly the good man Santa delivered a C64 and it's been a burden ever since.
Fastforward to 2010 and I joined some site called boards.ie and it's exasperated the situation more by showing me games / consoles I would never have even bothered with.
Currently own...
PS1
PS2 (1 x Phat, 2 X slim)
PSP 2001
Xbox Crystal
Xbox 360....not even retro.
Gameboy (brick)
Gameboy pocket.
Gameboy colour
GBA SP
Gba Micro (x2, blue, green)
NDS Lite (x2 black, white)
Wonderswan Color (thanks Cider)

In storage (parents house)
C64 (tape deck fooked)
Atari 2600 woody (no joysticks)
PS2 (Phat) (no leads)

Had:

2x Sega GameGears with TV tuners and bag of games (mother gave both away):mad:
Wii.. sold recently:(

CiDeRmAn

o1s1n wrote: »

Limits? LIMITS?! They do not exist in this hobby

I think I've reached my limit for the moment. Was organizing all my stuff for a move that might be happening at the end of the month, and my games and 'surplus' controllers alone fill 9 Tesco crates.

The consoles themselves and my in use controllers will probably fill another 5-6 crates.

And that's just the stuff I have in my apartment, there's more in my parents house. Including an arcade machine.

I had a bit of a moment of clarity when it was all in front of me, one stack of crates as high as myself. - 'Maybe I have a problem'.

I think more is going to have to be sold!

Limits Do Not Exist In This Dojo!

jetblack1981

The reason I love old game is because of classics that
never go old and how good it is to revisit.
Plus a good collection looks savage.
Thats what I've been doing in me new gaff.
Retro room and a nintendo room.
Cheap bargain houses rule.

Jack burton

o1s1n wrote: »

Limits? LIMITS?! They do not exist in this hobby

I think I've reached my limit for the moment. Was organizing all my stuff for a move that might be happening at the end of the month, and my games and 'surplus' controllers alone fill 9 Tesco crates.

The consoles themselves and my in use controllers will probably fill another 5-6 crates.

And that's just the stuff I have in my apartment, there's more in my parents house. Including an arcade machine.

I had a bit of a moment of clarity when it was all in front of me, one stack of crates as high as myself. - 'Maybe I have a problem'.

I think more is going to have to be sold!

Listen I think your right, I mean that copy of the Wily Wars takes up so much room on you its terrible, let me take it off your hands


Anyway, reason I collect is becasue chicks really dig a man who had a complete copy of Castlevania The New Generation!

o1s1n

Jack burton wrote: »

Listen I think your right, I mean that copy of the Wily Wars takes up so much room on you its terrible, let me take it off your hands

When I'm dug up in 1000 years by archaeologists they will find whatever remains of me clutching onto that game.

Maybe they'll even form some weird misguided views that Megaman was our deity.

Worship at the church of Wily.

Dr Bob

I'm the same as a lot of collectors , I hit my mid twenties , and having a bit of cash , and ebay , started buying back the stuff I had as a kid ,then the stuff I couldnt afford back then , and then stuff I'd never heard of!
That was 10 years ago ,I've had to wind things back a lot (ironically I have the space to collect now , but a mortgage , recession and wife and toddler mean I dont have much funds to buy anymore).I just actively collect sega 8 bit stuff now (although I'll happily take any other retro goodies that come my way and are cheap!).

o1s1n

luas_dublin wrote: »

I just actively collect sega 8 bit stuff now (although I'll happily take any other retro goodies that come my way and are cheap!).

You're fairly unique there, I haven't come across many people who collect 8 bit Sega stuff.

Retr0gamer

Pfft! Wily Wars, the NES games are better :P

Dr Bob

o1s1n wrote: »

You're fairly unique there, I haven't come across many people who collect 8 bit Sega stuff.

Thats part of the reason why :)i'm less likely to get in a bidding war with one of you lot.
When I started actively gaming , the 2600 had just passed its heydey (it was still available mind you), and 8 bit gaming was where it was at.Most kids I knew had a c64 or Atari computer (strangely it was years before I met anyone who had a spectrum).There was the odd rich kid with an ST , but they were like hens teeth.
The Sega SMS was probably the nadir of home gaming then.
(thanks to Nintendo's useless marketing and pricing in Europe the NES was pretty much a non runner)
Later the meg came along , then the Snes and so on , but the Mastersystem , with its cartridges and two button controllers impressed me at the time.
From a collecting point of view its great .Two versions of the console, they share accessories(PSU, RF* lead) with its bigger , more easily available relative the megadrive.There is a decent but not massive library of games, most of which use that uniform 80's graph paper cover art, so it looks great on a shelf.
Oh and the games were pretty decent too


______________________________
before osisn and retr0 have kittens there is a proper rgb cable available for the sms1

jumbone

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Pfft! Wily Wars, the NES games are better :P

Don't you mean 'pretend emulated NES games played on a Wii'?'

pdbhp

o1s1n wrote: »

Don't you mean 'pretend emulated NES games played on a Wii'?'

:DAwesome:D

o1s1n

luas_dublin wrote: »

Thats part of the reason why :)i'm less likely to get in a bidding war with one of you lot.
When I started actively gaming , the 2600 had just passed its heydey (it was still available mind you), and 8 bit gaming was where it was at.Most kids I knew had a c64 or Atari computer (strangely it was years before I met anyone who had a spectrum).There was the odd rich kid with an ST , but they were like hens teeth.
The Sega SMS was probably the nadir of home gaming then.
(thanks to Nintendo's useless marketing and pricing in Europe the NES was pretty much a non runner)
Later the meg came along , then the Snes and so on , but the Mastersystem , with its cartridges and two button controllers impressed me at the time.
From a collecting point of view its great .Two versions of the console, they share accessories(PSU, RF* lead) with its bigger , more easily available relative the megadrive.There is a decent but not massive library of games, most of which use that uniform 80's graph paper cover art, so it looks great on a shelf.
Oh and the games were pretty decent too


______________________________
before osisn and retr0 have kittens there is a proper rgb cable available for the sms1

I only ever came across one person who owned a SMS back when they were available in shops..everyone else had a NES. He felt like a bit of an outcast!

To my shame I have very little experience with games on that console. Had a Power Base Converter for my Megadrive but only ever got two games for it.

Bought a Master System converter 2 a few years ago but again, I think the only game I ended up buying was Spiderman.

I've been threatening to buy some SMS 3D glasses for a few years..almost took the plunge a couple of months ago when there was a pretty decent deal on ebay. Ever used them as a matter of interest?

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Don't you mean 'pretend emulated NES games played on a Wii'?'

Hey at least the music still sounds better than the megadrive version :P

Master System is a decent system, knew about 3 people that had one while everyone else had a megadrive or snes (and I had a C64 ). There's some great games on it and some of them like Phantasy Star look like 16-bit games. There's just not as many good games on it as the other 8-bit systems. One good thing is that most of the games were made for PAL territories so there's only a few that suffer from PAL slowdown and Sega was very good about doing good PAL conversions.

It's a pity you need a Game Gear and Master System to get the full Sega 8-bit catalogue.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Hey at least the music still sounds better than the megadrive version :P

Don't worry, I'm not insane, I dont dispute that at all. Megaman 2's NES soundtrack is one of my favourite ever.

What I love about Wily Wars is just the oddness of it all. It's a 16 bit remastered compilation of the first three NES Megaman games...some of the systems biggest sellers. it's like the Megaman Super Mario All Stars...but - released on the Megadrive. exclusively. I'd love to know how that happened.

Seeing a Sega boot logo followed by Megaman just seems wrong. It almost feels like a Chinese hack.

CiDeRmAn

I remember seeing the Master System in The Virgin Megastore back in the day and it seemed to be doing good business, plenty of games on the shelves.
Sega seem to have always done well in europe anyhow.
I never owned one in the first instance, but was fascinated by the carts and cards feature of the first gen Pal Master System.
I eventually got a Master System II and had to keep my eye peeled until I found a Master System, still don't own any cards for it yet, only carts!

Lets hope Retr0 gets sorted with an 8bit Nintendo sometime soon, at least we know what he should get for his next birthday!

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I remember seeing the Master System in The Virgin Megastore back in the day and it seemed to be doing good business, plenty of games on the shelves.

Would that not have been something to do with Virgin being responsible for the sale and distribution of the console in europe?

James Howlett

The future is a dark and scary place, particularly for Ireland. Rising taxes, rising fuel prices, rising mortgage interest rates… the cost of everything is going up while wages go down at a far quicker pace. Discontent is slowly settling in for the long haul.

I expect things to get worse. I expect crime to worsen, riots in the streets etc... Even today good people are robbed/ stabbed/ given random beating and the justice system is too soft to deal with this. Criminals are left off too easily and no matter what conviction is bestowed upon them, they are not long in re-offending again.

I fear the future. Soon we will all be living behind heavy bolt doors and windows with bars on them. We will all be shut out from the world, afraid to go outside, all just content to be left alone in our own little homes so long as the nasty outside world says beyond the heavy hall door. Ireland is no country for old men now, soon it’ll be no country for anyone.

It is indeed a dark and horrible future.

So yeah I’m currently preparing for that dark day to come by stock-piling entertainment products in the form of videogames. Like I said soon it’ll be too dangerous to go outside to your nearest HMV or Gamestop to get new games so eventually I’ll be able to safely live inside my barred up fortress with a rake of old games to entertain me until we pay off our debts and the country returns to a healthy state… hummm on that thought I’m going to need more games…

o1s1n

It's also nice to know that if someone breaks into your house there's no way they'll steal any of this stuff. It's all just old junk

James Howlett

o1s1n wrote: »

It's also nice to know that if someone breaks into your house there's no way they'll steal any of this stuff. It's all just old junk

I always wondered that about robbers;
If they broke into a house, ready to grab as much high value items as they can quickly get away with, would they look at a large retro/ vinyl/ antique collection and go "ah fudge this, I'm only one man" and walk out in disgust.:)

Dr Bob

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Would that not have been something to do with Virgin being responsible for the sale and distribution of the console in europe?

Exactly!
Virgin promoted it pretty well , and usually there'd be something like castle of illusion or Alex kidd on demo as well.
I've been after a set of 3d glasses for a bit , never got to try them back when mates had an SMS.I knew one guy who had an NES back then.Actually it was an early famiclone rather than an official one , famicom design , 128 games built in (including Tengen Tetris! which is why I was so surprised to see how badly the bps [the official one] compares to it), it was a Texet one.Mate still has it actually , but sadly he's as into collecting as me so hes keeping it!.My brother got an NES for christmas when they were at end of life and available for about 50 quid! We'd a few games for it but 2 stood out , rad gravity (which is a terrible platformer but I loved back then) and Maniac mansion , which I picked up for about 3 quid in Electronic Boutique ( I think it may have been virgin games then , its the Dawson st game now).
Those games are still somewhere in my parents house , hopefully!!

Shapey Fiend

I don't really care for clutter so I don't collect. I'd much rather emulate. A Hori arcade stick plugged into a laptop, plugged into a CRT TV serves all my retro gaming needs.

I'd like to get a candy arcade cabinet but it's a luxury I can't really afford.

The Master System apparently did quite well in Europe but on anecdotal evidence I only ever met one kid who owned one, and only one video rental store in town carried the games. I knew about 20 kids who had the NES.

o1s1n

James Howlett wrote: »

I always wondered that about robbers;
If they broke into a house, ready to grab as much high value items as they can quickly get away with, would they look at a large retro/ vinyl/ antique collection and go "ah fudge this, I'm only one man" and walk out in disgust.:)

If people at car boot sales let games and consoles go for nothing as they don't think they're worth anything, I think it's safe to say that robbers will think the same too!

Unless of course the particular thief is a games collector and has broken in to steal all your nice bits..in which case I'll be straight onto this forum pointing fingers!

Atavan-Halen

o1s1n wrote: »

Limits? LIMITS?! They do not exist in this hobby

I think I've reached my limit for the moment. Was organizing all my stuff for a move that might be happening at the end of the month, and my games and 'surplus' controllers alone fill 9 Tesco crates.

I'm also moving at the end of the month and have been packing stuff. Packed away the majority of my games and now there's this gigantic box that's literally half the size of me that's full to the brim with games and a few accesories. Along with a big 'ol box of consoles. This not including console boxes or more consoles in another wardrobe. I seriously have an addiction. The new place will have more space so that can only mean moar games!!!

For me it's like a sense of something missed. Growing up on the PS1 I feel I missed out on the radness of the early 90's. There's a certain charm to older games, something you can't find in modern games. It's a bit hard to explain but I just like playing old stuff! It's also lot's of fun hunting down certain games and having a nice collection.

Retr0gamer

Man you really missed out on the faux 'Rad' of the 90's it was awesome, so many crappy buzz words were made up. It was like the final deaththroes of the 80's. And then Nevermind came out to finish it off and showed us what awesome really meant.

Atavan-Halen

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Man you really missed out on the faux 'Rad' of the 90's it was awesome, so many crappy buzz words were made up. It was like the final deaththroes of the 80's. And then Nevermind came out to finish it off and showed us what awesome really meant.

I know That's why I surround myself with my musty old consoles and musty old people on boards.

Hmm. That sounded a tad inappropriate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkdUkzoeOZU

CiDeRmAn

Sorry but every generation thinks they have the rights to "buzz words" and being that times equivalent of "cool".
Same with music, we look at a decade and conveniently either dis it by talking of the lousy records or say how great it was by focusing on the good stuff, 80's, 90's and 00's all the same in that regard.
Rad being short for Radical and an import from sunny California, kids watching too much "Saved By The Bell" perhaps??
Having been a teen in the 80's and getting into my stride in the 90's I can see that culture had changed, at least superficially but overall it all was much the same, fashions change, people don't.
I do like the high top trainers though, not sure about the acid/stone wash jeans though, nor the mullet...
I was more the high top trainers, loud shirts, baggy jeans and a flat top haircut! No photos though, I think we all know what personal embarrassment that can cause!

Myrddin

They're bodacious man.

yrwhu8jxtni06a

it can be a nuisance,having all this stuff its like having surrogate children,drip feeding each comp/console.

o1s1n

Theo Raspy Sailboat wrote: »

it can be a nuisance,having all this stuff its like having surrogate children,drip feeding each comp/console.

But in the end, like having surrogate children, it's worth the hassle from the love you get back

Cauterize

o1s1n wrote: »

Godness? Feck no, I'm just someone with more money than sense...and a pretty forgiving girlfriend

I was uploading all my photos to my profile over on Retrocollect but I reached a problem where it won't let me rename/delete folders so I gave up. Still, managed to get a lot of photos up before that happened.

http://www.retrocollect.com/Community/o1s1n/My-Photos/

/edit - by 'more money than sense' I didn't mean I'm some rich videogame baron - I just mean I have very little sense

Just as a heads up, this problem should be fixed now if you want to edit/delete your folder names Feel free to get in touch if the problem persists!

gflood

o1s1n wrote: »

Godness? Feck no, I'm just someone with more money than sense...and a pretty forgiving girlfriend

I was uploading all my photos to my profile over on Retrocollect but I reached a problem where it won't let me rename/delete folders so I gave up. Still, managed to get a lot of photos up before that happened.

http://www.retrocollect.com/Community/o1s1n/My-Photos/

/edit - by 'more money than sense' I didn't mean I'm some rich videogame baron - I just mean I have very little sense

The pictures are fantastic, thanks for uploading.