HoshiChiri

I'm not sure we're buying from the same used game market... everything gets sold. Some people don't keep their games no matter what they are. I've never had trouble finding cheap arcade-style titles secondhand- it's not like, say, Warlords is gonna cost more than a couple bucks. Conversely, some story-driven games are terribly expensive. Hell, JRPGs are notorious for high secondhand value, and they're one of the least replayable genres out there. (Acutally, with the right code, you can get Lunar: Sliver Star Story and technically have both!) Now this I agree with wholeheartedly- between AAA, midsize publishers, indies and homebrewers, there is not a genre/style/aesthetic someone isn't making a game for. It is most excellent.

*facepalms a bit* I was trying to be a bit silly with that one. I don't have any issues with emulation or digital gaming, I really don't. I've never been interested because I love having stuff to touch (I will seriously just sit around rearranging my games from time to time, just so I can touch them all). I've also never really gamed on my computer, even with non-emulated modern stuff. Even with a disc to put in the computer. So any sort of gaming that involves my laptop doesn't really appeal to me... I make no real association between the computer box and playing games. That doesn't mean I'm not open-minded about it, though. Of course emulation & digital oozes appeal for many people. Have a massive collection without using up valuable storage space! Buy games at 3 am when stores are closed, and get them instantly! Backups and cloud saves mean your whole collection is always available, even if your access device changes! Seriously, unless you're a oddball like me who genuinely gets joy just out of holding a cart/disc (or console especially!), there really is no contest. I was poking fun at myself that, for all those positives, the one thing said that really appealed to me was 'you can get a new thing to touch.' It is a ridiculous thing to be the most compelling- but there it is.

This excactly. I've worked retail many years, and when I'm teaching new hires to spot returns of stolen items, there's two key things I tell them to look for: 1) The sob story. No one just happened to buy two $50, unrelated items, then change their mind. It's always 'my recently deceased Aunt said told me before she died to return these to pay for my broken car because my ex wrecked it before she broke up with me and kicked my dog'. Or something like that. 2) The anger. Only thieves get really and truly angry. If they threaten to have you fired or arrested, you've got a crook for sure. Rosa is a textbook case. If she turned up where I work, we'd kick her out.

I don't intend to have children, so not a worry on my end. I mean for my collection to be donated to a classic gaming group, or sold off for charity (probably child's play.) Let my fellow gaming vultures decend upon the bloated form of my life's work and tear it asunder! 'Tis the cycle of collecting!

Everyone here has largely expressed my opinions on emulation- it feels like bootlegging, there's no satisfaction from pictures on a screen that don't correlate to a real-world object I can go touch, I want to be able to hunt around for new carts, not just download them, etc. In my case, I'm quickly learning I'm a console nut... as in, the physical units are what I enjoy most. I go to retro stores and gush over variant machines the way most women gush over shoes. (My fiancé reacts similarly... "You don't need another console." "But it's a Colecovision!") Which means that, of all the statements on emulation made thus far, three words has been more enticing to me than anything else said: I could have an excuse to buy an Ouya, you say??? Now that's worth looking into!

Plan is working as intended.

A thought I've had recently along these lines that goes against the Atari... while games were certainly creative and playable, they are often not intuitive. I buy a new cart-only game for my NES or Genesis or what-have-you, I typically know what it wants me to do right away. I've been adding to my Atari collection rapidly lately, and more often than not I put in a game, play for 30 seconds, then pop online to figure out what I have to be doing to make stuff happen. Granted, it's a very quick solution every time (make Eddie grab hearts until the key appears! The Worrior only moves if your controller's in the right port!)- but I still have to look it up. Most gamers brought up after Atari aren't used to needing any sort of additional information, so perhaps not being able to instantly glean the game's mechanics is a big contributor towards the assumption that the old games are broken or crappy. Heck, I legitimately thought my Wizard of Wor cart was broken until I found the controller thing.

Sometimes these overpriced sellers are funny- awhile ago when I was upgrading my Sega CD collection to CIB, I offered a guy $15 for Sherlock Holmes, but he wanted $30. I countered with $20 (which was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but his copy was especially minty so I thought it's be OK)... he wasn't having it. Not a big deal, he's allowed to charge what he wants. About 6 weeks later, I get a message saying he'll take the $20. I thank him for the offer, but decline on account of having bought a copy for $15 literally an hour after he turned me down.

I know how you feel- I'm wanting in on Coleco myself, but it's going to have to wait until next year due to the prices. My plan is to go poke Yurkie once I've got some money saved up... I mean, if I know I'm going to have to drop a decent chunk to get a good, working unit, I might as well splurge for one that's been properly restored!

It's a double-edged sword. On the one side, you get ridiculous situations where games are overly costly for no good reason... the price spike on Final Fantasy 7 after Advent Children released, for example- the game had a Greatest Hits release. There's no shortage of copies, but people hoarded it up. Demand spikes, and suddenly prices are triple-digit. It's annoying when these kind of 'key titles' that so many people grew up with become a premium to own/experience. Oh the other side, shelf collectors help preserve the hobby by making sure there are, in fact, items still out there to collect. We've all had that friend who didn't take care of their games, throwing them around until the day they get lost or quit working- and I bet we can all name at least 1 rare game said friend ruined. (Valkyrie Profile and the PS Lunar re-releases come to mind for me.) I've got a couple games in my collection that, quite literally, were picked up off the ground somewhere. How many times has someone buying up everything they can get, just to store away, come across an unknown prototype or unreleased game? Often in a box of junk that would have been thrown away otherwise, no less. I think part of the problem is that, our hobby is young. Like, really, REALLY young in the grand scheme of things. Only recently are we seeing museums start to acknowledge the effect gaming has had on our history and set up exhibits. Plus, we haven't exceeded the standard human lifespan. At the risk of sounding morbid, other longer-lived hobbies have the benefit of their members dying, and their collections coming back to market. Game collectors are, on the whole, still very much alive and adding to their set- it only makes sense then, that we aren't seeing a lot of turnover yet. Eventually, price, availability, and demand will sort itself out- we just probably won't be alive to see it. .... Well, now I've gone and depressed myself a bit.

I only happened upon this site a few months ago, but I am very glad that I did! I'm lacking anyone in the real world who shares my interest in Pre-NES gaming. My fiancé's family gave me their old intellivison when it was found in the attic a few years back. After getting my setup changed around to accommodate it, I took the opportunity to get an Atari to play the games I'd had sitting in the closet since freshman year- so over a decade- without ever being able to use them (they were visual aids for a school project.) Problem was, I had really no idea what games to own for the systems aside from these old dusty bin-dwellers, so they sat on a shelf not getting used. That is no longer an issue! I've spent more time with these systems in the last 2 months than I have in the last 2 years thanks to the suggestions people have made on this site. Plus, I don't have to ignore any part of my collection... old, new, or just plain obscure, someone here will chat with me about it. There's threads for the frickin' Fairchild Channel F here! Do you know what everyone not on this site said to me when I proudly told them I found a Fairchild? "What's a Channel F?" It's nice to be able to gush about old lines and blips, without having to explain what's so cool about old lines and blips. AtariAge Forever!

DO NOT SPEND $500. Unless it's got a massive pile of games with it, that's a ridiculous number. Honestly closer to the $50 mark is better, assuming it's not a rare variant like a heavy sixer, and comes with all the hookups/a controller/works. I'm sure someone here's got a link to a good deal (I don't at the moment.)

Grettings, fellow newbie! Best Electronics, to my understanding, is the closest thing to an 'offical' Atari retailer out there (having ended up with most of the old backstock from the Sunnyvale location.) However, since Atari is long since out of business, anyone with it is selling vintage/secondhand merchandise... so anywhere that carries used stuff is fair game to look. If you have a reliable local shop, start there- any chance to hook up and test the unit is to your benefit. You can also check the marketplace here, sometimes people let go of units to par down a collection, or just buy them to repair and release... like a preservation program. Don't worry too much about a game switch- you can get a more reliable signal with a coaxial converter (this thing). Let me know when you've got a system lined up... I've got a little pile of very common (think Combat) carts I was going to throw into the marketplace after the holidays, when I can more easily get to the post office. Nothing great, but a decent start for a brand new collection.

As long as there's a placeholder paper in the case, I'm usually ok- but I'm not a fan. Especially when there's no placeholder, like with a lot of Vita games. I get very tired of having to pour over google results and Ebay pages trying to figure out if a newer game is incomplete or just doesn't come with anything. It bugs me.

Sadly, I'm not currently able to afford a multicart (those things are pricey!) and PAX Prime eats up most of my con budget (plus it's the only one I can find people to go with these days). There is a Seattle Retro Expo I'm hoping to squeeze in next year... we'll see how thing pan out!

So, is 'Space Grid' even a real title? At a glance, it looks like a Zeller's cart in a very odd box, but I'm inclined to think that's not actually the case. Also-

Are you kidding? I LOVE vector games! It's such a unique visual, and there's a tendency for a wonderful, fast-paced experience that triggers a 'zen' frame of mind where you aren't really actively thinking about your actions, you're just intensively responding to the game. I want a Vectrex in the worst way... there's at least one that keeps turning up at local cons. I have multiple con photo albums with pictures of that unit in it, just show I have a way to show people what a Vectrex is! Honestly, the girls I know game the same way the guys I know do- based on what they played growing up. There's a definite lean towards platformers for most of my lady gamer friends, which makes sense for children of the 8 & 16 bit eras. The only style of game largely ignored is first person shooters, but the reasons vary... one is a causal player who doesn't enjoy getting pummeled by our guy gamer friends before she can figure out the controls. She leans toward one player games in general for that reason. One only encounters FPS within my group, no one else she knows cares for them so she's never bothered. I personally have a bizarrely difficult time with any first person camera, I just can't wrap my head around it well enough to move about fluidly, even if no one is shooting at me. (The time it took me to finish Portal would make many of you weep.) Finally, the youngest in our group... grew up playing Halo with her brothers and therefore thoroughly enjoys FPSes. So, yeah- I see a correlation between childhood favorites and adult preferences (kinda like how younger retro gamers can struggle with an Atari joystick because they cut their teeth with a D-pad.) I respectfully disagree- arcades evolved to appeal to children, not women. I've never met a woman who walked by Chuck E. Cheese and said "Wow! Pizza AND an animatronic band! I know where the next Girl's Night Out is gonna be!" Make the kids scream to go in and see the singing rat, and Mom will go so they shut up. 'Tis a time honored tradition.

I really need to get some good pics of my setup, but I keep hoping to fix my dangling wires first. I did find out a bit ago that Magic: the Gathering fatpack boxes convert easily into game boy cart-sized drawers... I did a tutorial for my deviantart *digs around* here:http://fav.me/d91dy9e And I'm hopping on the Ikea shelves bandwagon too! I'm a big fan of the Besta line... it's a bit pricier than the beloved Billy set, but it's worth it for the versatility- Besta has no fixed shelves and peg holes every inch. You get full control of excactly how much space each shelf has, which is quite the boon to maximizing your storage.

I am in the Puget Sound area of Washington state (just south of MetalJesusRock's stomping grounds)- but my travel options are limited, so my opportunities to hunt down classic gaming, and its respective audience, is very limited. I'm very lucky in that there is a good (if filthy) retro gaming store within walking distance of my work- but I've yet to find someone other than me browsing the preNES options.

I've sadly never played much of my Game Gear... the screen ghosting on my system makes it entirely too hard to follow anything with notable motion in it (like Sonic games, of course.) I've been wondering lately if this is something a cap replacement can fix... it'd be a good excuse to learn to solder and try my hand at game repair for the first time, since it would be relatively easy to replace if I screw it up.

I have an old plastic box a planner came in that all my loose gaming papers go into. It's not the best solution, but it works for my small collection- quite frankly, I've always considered a loose manual a good incentive to get a loose box and make a CIB set. As a result, my spare manuals don't stay spares for long.

I'm really not sure... none of the carts I own have zircon logos on them, and only my Bowling cart actually says 'channel f', the rest are VES. I've honestly wondered if the previous owner somehow wore something down on these carts, since it's only these two from the local shop (so they likely had the same owner.) I wish I knew someone else local who had one so I could try them in another unit, but the one I've got is the only one I've ever seen in person.

my Fairchild seems to be a fairly reliable unit (knock on wood). Orange colors give some bleed, I'm not sure if that's a sign the RF is going or just a quirk of my setup. Also, the two carts I got from the shop where I bought the system are very hard to get to connect- you almost have to hold them in place to make the system register that they're in. None of my Ebay carts have that issue- I really wonder what's different about those two (carts 5 and 10), I can't see anything that seems different.

It's a big mix of things, I think. First you have the Disney Effect- Nintendo has brain-wormed its way into our collective consciousness as THE source of timeless, family friendly quality gaming. Much as parents take kids blindly to every Disney musical because 'Disney=good for kids', They immediately get a DS/Wii variant when their spawn is old enough to clamor for games because it's the safe option. When those kids get older and decide to dig into the past, they immediately go for that same safe, familiar option. Second is the Marketing Effect- I mean, that was the whole idea behind the Nintendo Seal Of Quality, right? "Those old Atari games, you never knew if it was crap or not. But with Nintendo, we GUARANTEE all our games are good! Available now at your local retailer!" The idea clearly stuck... how many NES games are generally considered crap, even now? I can't think of more than I can count on one hand... and I KNOW there's more than that! Lastly is the Game Design Shift- preNES games are usually arcade style affairs. One or two screens, no ending, the point is to get a high score. NES marked a clear shift towards games with specific goals and endings when that goal was achieved (even if it just told you 'good job! Now play again!') There's been a mental shift towards an expectation of that kind of gameplay... 'I do a thing, I get a reward'. The idea of 'I do a thing to see how good I am, and that's it' is utterly unappealing to those who put no value into a score total. The end result is trying to take someone who's been trained since their earliest gaming days to believe that NES is good family fun & their competitors lack quality, give them a game that's a much lower graphical quality then they're used to, and expect them to instantly switch from 'playing for story' to 'playing for score'. Most people can't overcome their own mental blocks without actively wanting to and working through the 'this isn't gaming' reflex.

There used to be a puzzle game called Battle Balls in a Neo Geo cabinet at a local restaurant that never got a console release. I've always wanted to play it again- sort of a cross between columns and puzzle bobble.