Growing up I collected a lot of things; sports cards, action figures, Magic cards, keychains, CDs, and so on. Although I played a lot of video games, and owned quite a few once I started earning my own money, I never viewed them as a collectible. I was the kid who would bundle up all of their old stuff and sell or trade it in so I could buy the latest system. I remember selling my Virtual Boy to some eager neighbors and taking that, along with the well-timed birthday cash, to Toys ‘R’ Us and coming home with a Playstation along with two long box titles: Resident Evil and NBA In the Zone. PS1 and N64 were moved for a Dreamcast which was sold to help buy an Xbox which turned into a 360, and so on.
Everything comes full circle, however, which is why I’ve spent probably a mortgage payment or so over the past four or five years collecting retro video games. I have no regrets about my younger self’s play-and-trade habits though, as it allowed me to experience a lot more games than I would have otherwise. It also doesn’t bug me that much because my tastes back then didn’t exactly translate to what is desirable 30 years later. I didn’t have bad tastes per say, just extremely average tastes. I spent most of my time on sports games and anything Mario. If something “strange” truly broke through to mass appeal like, say, Final Fantasy VII, I would give it a go. Generally, however, if a game wasn’t a sports title or ended up with a Greatest Hits release, I probably wouldn’t own it. I am fairly certain that the aforementioned long box Resident Evil game is the most valuable game I owned as a kid, and that’s purely due to it being a long box. No Chrono Triggers, Earthbounds, or Silent Hills for me.
What started me off collecting now, then? Funny enough, it was an honest attempt at avoiding going down the collection rabbit hole which led me here. A brief synopsis:
I was given a free duffle bag full of consoles and games by a neighbor who didn’t want to carry them along to another house as they were packing to move. I eventually sold or gave to friends almost all of it, keeping only a SNES console and Super Mario World. I used some of the money from those sales to purchase an N64 and a pile of games. Once I had those and started playing some old favorites, I felt the need for more. Rather than actually go down the rabbit hole of collecting for SNES and N64, I decided to try to turn to emulation to scratch the itch. I purchased one of those cheap-ish handhelds that are being released every month or so these days. It was fine, it felt like a Switch Lite and, sure enough, let me play anything released before 2000. The problem here was that it worked a little too well. I found myself really enjoying playing these old games. Beating Metal Gear Solid for the first time was a joy, as was playing through Earthbound and a few others.
The thing about it, however, was that I found myself turning to that small pile of N64 games more than this magical handheld which could play anything. The handheld spurred my interest in those games, but I clearly preferred playing them on TV on the original hardware. It was then off to the races on filling my retro gaming shelves. Given my history of collecting anything, the collection aspect of having physical carts in my hand clearly played a role as well.
So here I sit, typing this across the room from my video game setup. A setup which now includes the SNES and N64 but also a PS2 fat and a pile of PS1/PS2 games. PS1 completes the trifecta of my childhood systems; let those sweet nostalgia endorphins flow.
I’ve collected some things I had as a kid (hello, Mario!) but the most fun part about this for me has been grabbing games I missed out on, or only rented for a weekend and forgot about. Super Metroid, Final Fantasy III/VI, Beetle Adventure Racing, Banjo-Tooie, God of War, Brave Fencer Musashi, the list goes on and on. I’ve been able to find some new-to-me favorites over the past few years. I guarantee my list of favorite SNES and PS1 games looks much different now than it did just a few years ago.
My main problem now is finding enough time to keep up with the games I’ve found. I can go a few months without picking up anything, but then I boredly stumble onto Whatnot or a post in the local Facebook retro group and the collecting flame is lit again. I make it a point to only buy games I absolutely intend to play, but I probably have a couple of year’s worth of games to catch up on at this point. Maybe I won’t buy anything else for the next two years? Ha!
As new games I’m interested in become fewer and further between, I appreciate the backlog I’m building through retro games, I know I won’t be bored for a long, long time.
You are walking a slippery slope, haha. What kind of tv do you use to play these old games? I’ve got a bunch of old games but I got rid of my CRT because it wasn’t good. I never used it. I’ve thought of buying a Colecovision with a few games from my past, but I would have no way to play it.
I use a modern TV. Large, 4K capable, the whole bit. The same one I use for my PS5.
I have done some investigating into the options for better picture, but mostly I’ve just accepted that old 2D games will look great and old 3D games won’t. I’m okay with it.
Specifically, I have composite for SNES, N64, and PS2 going into a dumb switch then to the TV (via a composite to AV converter). I also have component cables that I use when I am playing PS2 games on the PS2 (PS1 games don’t support them), that goes into a component-to-HDMI converter into the TV.
Everything works, put it on game mode and the input lag is negligible to me, I’ve been able to beat Mega Man X and X2, so that proves the lag is good enough for me!