General Category > General Discussion
What is your collecting goal?
Einhander:
I see some people, even ones on here, that have thousands of games. That's a lot more than me, probably more than I'll ever have. I have a couple hundred, but I've only been collecting for about a year. I had some games from my past too, a friend returned some of SNES and N64 games that I had for years.
My original goal was to collect all the games I had as a kid and then just get PS4 games. But then it turned into more. I started to realize that there were other great games in the past that I never got a chance to play or own. And not only that, I ended up getting consoles I never had. And even though they aren't ''nostalgic'' since I never played them before, they still give me a nostalgic and historical feeling.
So many times though I'll tell myself that after I collect this game, I won't need another game for a long time. It doesn't really work though. I'll find out about another game. I'll read about it online or I'll hear about it. I've come to grips that I won't ever want to stop collecting. But luckily, I'm a picky collector and the key is just to control it based on how much money I have left to spend.
What kind of collector are you? I love 2d shooters. My favorite systems to collect for right now are PS1, Saturn, Saturn Imports, and Dreamcast. But I'll always look out for NES, SNES, and Genesis games. Do you collect for nostalgia or do you collect to try to have the most amount of impressive titles? Or do you collect for value and/or to sell.. I don't think I'll ever collect games that are just well sought after unless I really want to play them or they are worth something that I can get value for. I love the collection aspect of games, but at the same time I don't like to collect stuff that I don't like to play. But I will admit that there are a few games in my collection that I don't like to play much, but they do have some kind of sentimental value in one way or another & so I keep them.
KalessinDB:
My goal was initially nostalgia -- be able to play all the games that I or any of my friends had played as a kid. With just shy of 1k games now, I'm probably about 850 games past the nostalgia goal.
Now I collect because I enjoy the hobby. The journey is the goal. I enjoy having the shelves displayed nicely, I enjoy playing the weird games I never played as a kid, I enjoy owning the stuff I only read about in magazines (I'm looking at you, Neo Geo AES)... but the end goal is the journey in and of itself, plain and simple.
wiggy:
I collect and display a LOT more than I play anymore, so goals are a bigger thing for me than they ever were in the past.
I just completed my gameboy micro collection and am about 11-12 games away from a loose US N64 set. After I'm done with that I think I'm gonna head back into collecting consoles, specifically portables. I have a good chunk of the rarer Neo Geo Pocket Color consoles, so I'm thinking I might tackle a full set of those. There aren't really any super expensive special editions like the Nintendo hardware always has, so it's a VERY achievable goal. Plus it'll give me another excuse to build a display case ;)
TDIRunner:
I've never had a goal of collecting a full set of anything. For me I'm mostly interested in getting any of the games I enjoyed as a kid, but was never able to buy. In addition to that, I want any of the games that I never had a chance to play because I didn't own the system. I'm just under the 1,000 game mark now, and I doubt that I will ever stop collecting, but I've cut way back on my buying habits lately. Right now, I'm looking into getting flash carts and USB/SD card mods for all of my systems that have them available.
With that said, my number one priority is getting my basement finished so that I can build proper shelving for my games, proper cabinets for my gaming systems, and some type of drawer system for all of my controllers and accessories. My collection would be a thousand times more enjoyable if I was able to display it in a nice finished room rather than my dimly lit basement.
Quazimoto:
I collect retro games of ones that hold great nostalgic value to me or games I never got the chance to play. Personally, my collection is only about 250 or so in total across about five different systems, so it's not big, but they are all games I genuinely intend on playing one day.
I've got pretty much all the ones I REALLY REALLY want right now, save for a few uber expensive Genesis titles that I won't ever own unless I win the lottery. So, my only real goal at the moment is to actually play these games. Well, that and NOT have to sell them because I or my Brother need money someday. That's happened before with my GameBoy, DS, NES, SNES, Atari, and Master System collections.