Silverfleet

The most current gen systems (PS4 XB1, Switch) are all still real game consoles in my eyes. Each one has physical media you put in to play games. Yes, they go online, and yes, there are downloadable titles, and yes, the media itself even loads differently than before, but whatever, they still play games. I would also consider Steam Box-type devices as consoles. Every game console manufacturer strives to get the upper hand in functionality with the goal of getting people to buy their product. Game console manufacturers since the very beginning have tried to make game consoles versatile and each one had its own gimmicks. There were peripherals for the 2600 that allowed for cassette games to be played (Supercharger) and to play downloadable titles (Gameline). Genesis and PC Engine had CD peripherals that also acted as music players, and the CD-based 32-bit systems did the same. Does that make them stereo systems? A big selling point for me when buying the PS2 back in 2001 was that it was also a DVD player. Did that make it less of a game system?

I really need to do the shoe organizer thing. Right now, all my "daily driver" controllers are hooked up to the consoles, and the rest are in a giant bin.

I've always been a Capcom/SNK guy, and never got into the MK games as much as I did with SFII, KoF, etc. That said, I used to rent MK3 all the time for the Genesis back in the day. There was something about that game that made me want to actually play it. I still fire the Genesis version up every once in a while and remind myself how much I hate the command system in the MK games.

I had to drop off some donations at the local Savers over the weekend, and I decided to pop in to see what they had. Walked out with these for a grand total of $5: Both are complete, but it looks like Grabbed by the Ghoulies may have some disc rot issues that I didn't notice until I got home. I haven't had the chance to test it yet. But... Skydiving EXXXXXTTTTREEEEEEEEEEEMMMMEEEEE!!!!

My go-to channels: Metal Jesus Rocks: Knowledgeable dude (he's even on here!) and a vet of the industry (Used to work for Sierra). His "crew" is great as well, and they all bring their own vibe and knowledge to the table. He's the kind of guy I'd probably be friends with if he wasn't on the other side of the country. Seriously, he's into gaming, vinyl collecting, Metal, and playing music. I also do all that. Game Sack: Good, straight-up videos on various topics, and the production quality is fantastic. They get goofy with some stuff, but I like that sort of thing, so whatever. Game Chasers: When I want some comedy, along with some nostalgic feels, I hit these guys up. The early episodes were fun because it basically followed them hunting for stuff in the wild at the beginning of the "YouTube Gamer" era, and they found some unbelievable stuff. They can be juvenile, so if you can't handle that, you may want to look elsewhere. Retro Core: I've never spoken to Mark (he's also on here!), but I love his videos. The Battle of the Ports videos are AWESOME. It's also cool to see the stuff he finds in Japan, where he resides. Very cool stuff. The Gaming Historian: Pretty sure this guy belongs to the same academic fraternity for historians that I do (Pi Alpha Theta) and was an actual history teacher for a bit. I've got nothing but respect for that, and I can tell that he does his homework with his videos. If you want to know the history of gaming, he's your guy. LGR: So much awesomeness. His Thrifts videos are always entertaining, as are the Tech Tales ones, and basically anything else he does. Mainly geared toward vintage PC stuff with a lot of old tech thrown in. I bet his house is completely constructed of old tower PC's and woodgrain paneling, and I mean that in the best way possible. AVGN/Cinemassacre: I cannot leave these guys out. There are people who hate this channel, but I'm not one of them. He was among the first YouTubers I saw, when a buddy showed me some early episodes around 2005-06. There's less Nerd videos these days, but there's more content with his buddy Mike Matei, who does the bulk of the stuff these days, and he's good as well. The James and Mike Mondays shows are fun as well. Do they know every fact about every game ever? No, but that's ok with me. I don't agree with everything they say (especially about Zelda II and Castlevania II), but I dig the content. Classic Game Room: While Mark has mostly packed up and left YouTube, there's still TONS of back content on there to check out and he's been doing gaming videos since around 2000. Don't forget CGR Undertow, which is still archived on there with lots of its own content. Classic Gaming Quarterly: Another AtariAge member! Good stuff, and I like the videos on the respective launches of various classic consoles; those really bring me back.

I've never played the GB SFII port, but holy hell is the Samurai Showdown port AWESOME!!! I've had it since it was new, and it's shockingly great. Not only does it have all the characters, it even has some hidden ones as well! I am pretty sure Amakusa is in it, and the judge guy too. Very cool game.

This brings back some memories, especially that ad with the kids stealing the Final Fight cab! Thanks for posting these.

I haven't had a real PS1 hooked up in at least 17 years. Between the PS2 and PS3 being backwards compatible, There just hasn't been a need!

This right here. I have a HUGE backlog of RPG's from the PS1 era-up that need to go through. Hopefully those discs don't succumb to disc rot by then!

I always envision myself as an old man sitting in my mansion's "library", smoking a pipe and having a scotch, sitting in a high back winged chair, and selecting Castlevania off the shelf to play. At age 36, I'm firmly in the "collection maintenance" phase, and now I'm going back and enjoying some of the games I missed out on or bought and never played. I suspect that will be the case from here on out. Emulation definitely has a place in this for sure. Recently, I modded my PSP 2000 and started playing the SNES classic Secret of Mana on there. It's one of those games I've started and never completed. Hopefully this time around I will get through it.

I've been pretty busy this year so far, with not much time for gaming. So, 3 months in, I'm adding my first entry: Super Mario Odyssey (Switch): I've never been a fan of 3D Mario games. I have a few of them (Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, etc.) but never could get into them. But this one... oh man, this one is GREAT! It had a perfect mix of challenge, fun, playability, and nostalgia to keep you playing. I loved the nods to past games, especially the 8-bit "2D" parts inside the pipes. I finished the story mode, but am nowhere near being done with the game. There's so much more to do, and more Power Moons to collect. I think I have about 160 of them right now.

He wants the stuff back because he hit that sweet spot where he's nostalgic for it and it's not just "old stuff taking up space"; he wouldn't be reselling it. He is so far out of the game that he doesn't have a clue about the value of stuff today. Everything was 16-bit era and newer, but the really good stuff was the Gamecube, GBA, GBC, and Dreamcast stuff. LOTS of quality titles, and all in perfect, boxed condition. He actually kept his NES and some of the then-current stuff like the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. I still haven't heard back from him since the weekend, but I have no problem selling him doubles and pointing him to decent local shops for stuff. Hell, I'd even go with him!

Back in my heavy use iPod days, I used Media Monkey to manage the music on it. Worked far better than stupid iTunes. It did get bloated over the years on it's own though. The Zune used its own proprietary Zune software to load and manage your music collection. That's long gone, but I'm sure there's an open source/DIY solution for that with it's dedicated cult following. But yeah, I just use my Galaxy S8 with a 128gb Micro SD these days. It has Bluetooth, so it works great in the car and with cordless headphones, and you can use whatever music player you want. I'm currently switching between the Samsung Music app and another app called Pulsar that works very well (and it's free).

Good input everyone. Yeah, I'm not going to sell back the stuff I want to keep, but I'll certainly offer him some spares and point him in the right direction. I wish I still had some of his stuff that I sold off so I could sell it again at today's prices. I sold much of his stuff shortly after I got it from him, since I was moving and needed the space for my own collection.

When it comes to friends, I've done the "give them the first crack at it" method in the past. That's one thing. This is another. This is a guy I used to work with 8 years ago, and we lost touch over the years from changing jobs, life, etc. He wasn't a close friend or anything like that; just a guy I used to work with. I feel that if he's getting back into collecting, I'd help him source some stuff. But the stuff I bought that I still want... that's staying with me.

About 8 years ago, I bought a coworker's game collection from him. He had some top quality stuff, but was getting out of collecting, and I paid good money (at the time) for it. There were lots of boxed consoles, and nearly every game was CIB and in perfect condition. There were even receipts for a good portion of it from the date of original purchase! Since there was a lot of doubles and redundancy with my existing collection, I sold a decent chunk of it off, but I still have everything I wanted to keep. Over the weekend, the guy contacted me, asking if I would sell it back. Now, it's been nearly 8 years, and the market has completely changed. I could sell just ONE of the games that was in that lot now for the price I paid back then, and there were a lot of "heavy hitters" in that lot that I still have. And more importantly, I don't want to sell those games back, as they are integral parts of my collection. Am I being a jerk, or is it OK for me to keep this stuff without feeling bad? I did tell him I'd help him hunt some titles down, and that I have some spare consoles I could probably part with, but the games are staying with me.

Ahh... the Zune! My wife and I had them. She had the original 30GB model (in woodgrain!!!) but it got stolen. I later bought an 80GB 2nd gen Zune, which was great... for all of 6 months. Like many Microsoft devices do, it ate its own OS and stopped working when trying to update it. I put in a warranty claim with Microsoft but never heard back, so I replaced it with an iPod Classic 80GB, which still works after taking years and years of abuse. About a year later, sometime in 2008 I think, I got a box in the mail with a new Zune. I still have the thing, and it still works and hasn't eaten itself. By that time, I had the iPod and since car stereos were starting to come with iPod-specific inputs, I just stuck with that. I barely used that replacement Zune. I should probably sell the thing, but it makes for an interesting conversation piece. I still have the thing, and it still works.

I got my Xbox One for Fallout 4, the new Forza games, and a better version of GTA V. Another reason was the fact that it's an excellent streaming box. I also chose it over the PS4 at the time because I got a crazy deal on it; 500GB Gears of War version, Fallout 4, Mighty No. 9, and Dragon Age: Inquisition (I think) for $190 brand new. I got the Switch to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey just like everyone else. I still don't have a PS4, but I'm ok with that, because I'm still enjoying my PS3.

CD's are definitely on their way out, and almost to the point where they are "retro", which makes me feel SUPER old. I remember when my family brought home our first CD player: a Fisher stereo "rack" component system from long-gone Boston electronics retailer Lechmere. That was in 1988, and I think my dad said he paid almost $2000 for it! They still use the thing daily, but the CD player quit a few months ago, so I replaced it with a similar-vintage Sony one. I actually just got a CD changer for my game room stereo system myself: a Denon unit that plays MP3 CD's. It was fun going through old MP3 mix CD's after years of forgetting what was on them. I also find it funny (and sorta cool!) that vinyl is back in regular big box stores. I saw a mall vinyl display at Target recently which shocked me. I've been collecting vinyl on and off since the 90's when I discovered the Led Zeppelin records in my parents' record collection.

I have all of the consoles that I obtained as a kid, with one exception (sorta, read below). I turned 18 in 2000. Colecovision: I was born in January of '82, and my older sister got it for Xmas that year. She lost interest, so I snagged it at a young age. NES: First console I could say was 100% mine. Xmas of '87. It was the Deluxe set with R.O.B., which I still also have (mostly). Now, there's a caveat: When my original NES stopped working as most of them did, my dad would buy a new one and do what he called "The Switcheroo Game" and return the broken one in the new box. I think he did this about 3 times before they switched over to the top loaders. So if you lived in the Boston area and got a broken NES right out of the box, sorry. Whatever the last one I had, I still have it. Game Boy: Got that for Xmas in 1990 IIRC. Came with Tetris. Just repaired it recently! Genesis: Birthday present in 1993, I think. It was right after Sonic 2 came out, and it was a Core System "High Definition Graphics" Model 1. SNES: Got it late, around 1995, the day after Xmas. Parents bought it from BJ's Wholesale Club for Xmas in some special "Sports Pack" that was supposed to have Stanley Cup Hockey and NCAA Basketball, but someone stole the games out of the box. That got returned, and I went with my dad to KB Toys and bought a Control Deck and 3 games: Super Castlevania IV, Samurai Showdown, and Super Mario World. I may have also bought Zelda: A Link to the Past at a different store that day. I think I made out better in the deal! Saturn: A friend was selling his in late 1995 after buying a Playstation. Came with a bunch of games, including Guardian Heroes! Like him, I eventually got bored with it, though. N64: Once Zelda: Ocarina of Time was announced, I had to have it. Got it Xmas of 1998 with OoT. Playstation: By 1999, I was all about JRPG's after getting introduced to games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III/VI on the SNES. After being disappointed with the lack of RPG's on the N64, I bought a Playstation sometime in 1999. I think I bought Final Fantasy VII the same day. Computers, however, are another story. I have exactly zero of my old computers. Apple IIe: My uncle used to work for Apple, and was also a college professor. I think he wrote some printer protocol that was used in a lot of computers which made him $$$$$$, and he was a big proponent of getting kids into computing and getting computers into classrooms. He bought us a IIe when I was probably 4, and I loved it. My sister and I used it all the time. My mom gave it away after we got a Pentium PC. I was not happy. Gateway 2000 Pentium MMX 166mhz: When we stepped up to a "real" PC from the IIe, we went BIG. Another family member, also a teacher, was huge into computers as well, and recommended building a Gateway 2000 machine. So we did, to the tune of something like $4,000. It was freaking AWESOME at the time. I wish I still had it, because it would make a great retro DOS gaming machine. It got tossed when we upgraded to another Gateway 2000, this time a Windows ME machine that was awful. I didn't start retro collecting until around 2001-2002, but I had basically had an insta-collection because I rarely got rid of my old stuff.

I had to go to Walmart over the weekend, so I decided to hit up a smaller store where I've scored deals before. It did not disappoint. These were in the clearance bin for $10/ea. I'm especially pumped about Blur, which I've been trying to find for years now; that game is scarce around here and I've never seen it new. That game has also gone up exponentially in price, especially sealed. Snagged a copy to keep and one to sell off once prices go through the roof. Knowing me, I'll probably just keep it on the shelf with all the other "sealed investment" games I have. They also had a SNES Classic sitting on the shelf. This marks the 1st time I've seen one in the wild. I thought about buying it, since I wanted one initially, but I have like 5 other devices that play SNES titles (RetroPie, PSP, PC, modded Wii, actual SNES, etc.) so I passed. Also, I was hoping it could be hacked to hold the entire library of SNES games, but I was reading that it only has 256MB of onboard memory, so that's not going to happen. Maybe if I stumble upon one in a thrift on the super cheap, I'll buy one.

I have greatly slowed my collecting roll so far in 2018. That said, I have a couple recent pickups for the Switch: I've heard good things about Cave Story over the years, but never played it. It was on sale for $25 at Target last week, so I snagged it. Super Mario Odyssey was a birthday gift to myself a couple weeks back. It was the other reason (other than Breath of the Wild) for me purchasing a Switch. I haven't had time to play either one because adulting.

Yup, that's the place!

I haven't made a "pilgrimage" to Funspot in... man... about 10 years. I live in MA, and am about 3 hours away, so it's possible for me to make a day trip out of it. I think I'm planning a vacation this summer up to NH, and am hoping to spend some time there, so this thread is relevant to my interests as well. As far as other stuff to do in the area... it's near Lake Winnipesaukee, which gets buzzing during the summer months. There are other amusement places, like mini golf and go-kart type of places, but most of that stuff would be covered by what Funspot has to offer. I plan on hitting up Mt. Washington as well, but that's not really in the area. Every time I go up there, we have stopped at a different place to eat. There's an old tin-style diner not too far from there that's ok, a few family restaurants nearby, and a bunch of places that cater to bikers because Bike Week happens there every year (I'm assuming none of you are interested in pulling a Pee Wee Herman in any of those places, LOL). There's an old Bavarian-looking house that's an ice cream place where you make your own sundaes that's more of a tourist trap than anything else, but we tend to hit that up every time we go for nostalgia's sake (I used to go there as a kid when visiting the area).

I also missed out on the "red LED" era by a few years, but I do remember playing with all the cool games my older cousins had. One of them had a bunch of the Coleco arcade games, including Donkey Kong and Galaxian. I had a bunch of the Tiger LCD games, like Double Dragon, X-Men, Castlevania II, and others. I also had a Ninja Gaiden watch, which RULED.