Does your retro collection have a fixed end goal, a point at which you could say you have collected every gaming item you ever wanted? Or does your want list change or grow over time?
When I first got back into retro gaming, it was about getting the games I loved as a kid. Along the way I camed to appreciate having a shelf full of awesome looking games and this site made me realize how much I liked the look of well displayed games. Having the cover art in the case reminded me of being in a Babbages, Electronics Boutique, or Blockbuster video back in the 90s, looking at shelf after shelf stacked with games I wanted.
I fell in love with the hunt. After finding copies of my favorite old games, I began searching for the games I never got to play that I'd missed out on, those gems I'd never discovered. I loved searching craigslist, thrift stores, and garage sales and coming back with a haul to show off here to fellow tcpers. This led me to expand into other systems besides my first love of snes and secondly nes. I reacquired an atari jaguar, ps2, and picked up all the best original xbox games. Handhelds got some love too.
After awhile, as the collection grew, I realized that I barely played any of this stuff. I didn't take pleasure in blowing a whole evening on a gaming marathon like I did when I was a kid. I had all these games which, though my collection was significantly smaller than other tcp bros, it still took up a lot of room for something I didn't really use.
I became paranoid about my collection. What if thieves broke in and stole everything? It happened once in my car when I had the ds collection in a backpack in the back seat. One morning, poof!! Gone. I should look into a security alarm system. What about an earthquake or fire? I need insurance for these games.
https://youtu.be/CWRTqMGvdpcI realized that I didn't take pleasure in the games like I thought I would. I began to consider the possibility of selling them but I always felt a twinge of sadness over this so I thought 'wait... see if you still feel like this in a month'. I sat down and played some of these games I had enjoyed as a kid and the ones that I never got to experience which I'd heard so many gpod things about. In 10 minutes, I was bored.
I came to terms with the fact that I was not a serious collector or gamer, though I still wanted the option to play if the desire reignited so I picked up an sd2snes cart and a modded xbox and called it a day.
I still like to check in at my favorite retro gaming sites, tcp and Nintendo age. I'm amazed at how dedicated some of the true collectors are, continuing to build their massive gaming rooms with shelf after shelf of games for multiple systems, beautiful displayed, a true monument to video games from the golden era of the 80s 90s and on.
Tldr: tc nostalgic over his old collection but realized he took more pleasure in the hunt than actually gaming.
What are your collecting/gaming goals? With retro games, do you have a point where you'll eventually be done and the collection will be complete, or is it a moving goal post? Do you take as much pleasure in collecting and gaming as you once did, or does your collecting appetite wax and wane? Would you be really sad if it all disappeared in a fire? Would you rebuild or move on and reinvest time into other things?
Having a modded xbox with 4000 games made me realize that I was never going to play everything. Life is short. Even if I only devoted one day to each game, I would be using time I can't get back that I could put into other things. I don't know. I don't mean to ramble. Just had this on my chest and wanted to see what you guys think if you ever feel like this.
