Collecting for nostalgia is one thing. What type of collecting is this?

[Einhander]

Many of us collect games purely for the nostalgic value. Sometimes a game was never that great, but because it reminds of us something, we tend to collect it.

Now I had a PS1 as a kid, so I tend to get a lot of PS1 games. But I never had a Dreamcast or a Saturn as a kid. And to be honest, I never really played them or knew about the games. But now I'm collecting games for them and they give me a feeling that seems like nostalgia. Maybe Dejavu? Could it be that I'm trying to get games for the nostalgia I wish I had? Have you ever got a system that was from your era as a kid and you got it because you never experienced it then?

I mean I never cared for DC or Saturn when I was younger and just assumed they were failures. But I opened my mind and now I love the systems like anything. And when I get games for them, I feel happy and I'm feeling nostalgic and getting chills for games I never heard of when I was younger. I know it seems crazy, but when I get DC or Saturn games, I feel like I'm collecting new PS1 games all over again.

So even though I don't have ''nostalgia'' or memories for the Saturn or DC, why does it feel like I'm collecting games with nostalgic value? Because it was from the same era perhaps? I'm a little confused here, just trying to understand why I think the way I do. Could it be that even though I never played these games before, they still remind me (in similar ways) of a time when things were a certain way?

[tiamaxwell]

Your questions challenge me psychologically.

I collect games for systems I didn't have growing up because I would want to play them. I think the nostalgia of the games you did play as a kid just carries over to the others. could just be that we now equate old games=nostalgia.

[CMDLineKing]

I had an Atari growing up.  Then a Gameboy.  My biggest kick is collecting and playing NES games.  Didn't love Super Nintendo, but did love N64!  So I collected the entirety of NES and N64, skipping SNES (except for some choice titles). 

I get nostalgic playing PS2 games, even though that really wasn't that long ago..  I think anything that gives you the feeling of playing something from the past, that isn't "cutting edge" gives you this feeling.  I say that because playing Sonic for Genesis on my PS3 just doesn't feel right...  I need that Genesis controller... lol. 

[Thom Grayson]

"I remember reading about that when it was new... crap, it came out 12 years ago? I'd better play it before it gets any older!"

Or at least, that's what it feels like to me when it comes to older games - not quite nostalgia, something more like wistfulness.

[ZX the Hedgehog]

I grew up with a GBC and a PS2. I never even lived through the 80's, and lived through very little of the 90's, and yet I always loved the games. I guess it's just that they don't make them like they used to.

[FritzWhite]

What's neat about collecting from the NES/SNES time period for me is that, even though my family was ok financially, I didn't have the means to own more than a dozen games back then. To now be able to go and collect and play a hundred of the greatest games from that time period any time I wish is fulfilling one of my 10 year old self's ultimate fantasies.