Refugees from rec.games.video.classic

[godslabrat]

I stopped making daily visits to rgvc around 2005, and as of 2008 my trips were weekly at best. I was pretty much gone by 2010.

[Turbo-Torch]

Probably around '08 or '09 but still checked in every so often. Thrift stores dried up and I was more than satisfied with my collection so I pretty much dropped out of the scene. Few years ago I saw a youtube video of dk-vcs and Pac Man 8K and that sparked my interest again.

I also kept up with RGVAC up until a few years ago and it appears there is still a small amount of activity left...as in there used to be more posts made in one hour than in a month now.

[7800fan]

I think I finally left usenet completely in or around 2008 or 2009 because it was mostly spam fest and not much good stuff left.

[kevtris]

I left when the spam took over and my ISP stopped carrying the groups. But I have been keepin' the faith going in #rgvc on efnet since 96 or so. After the newsgroup kinda petered out, the IRC channel continued to flourish. It's still around to this day, 20 years later.

[MojoJoJo]

Been a while but I rejoined just to chime in. Yep, same name from the usenet groups just to say hello. I hope everybody is doing well!

 

Mojo

[DickNixonArisen]

wow Bira Bira. Forgot about that guy. Once I found an aztec-type face cut out of t-shirt material in a box of 7800/2600 games. Nothing super rare I think california games and f14 tomcat or whatever but it was a buck for the whole box. I figured it was a western aspect of Bira Bira & still have it somewhere

[NE146]

Me. I still read it and occasionally post.

 

Incidentally, on IRC I still hang on the #rgvc channel on EFNET. And, you can find a number of the old guys there as well.

 

Wow.. I have to say I no longer post nor read the usenet group. That said, I'm STILL hanging out on EFNET same as I was 8 years ago and beyond so everything said there still stands.

[Scotterpop]

RGVC was my first introduction to the world of classic gaming discussion. It was back in '97 or so that I got heavily into collecting and around '99 that I discovered the newsgroup. Back then I couldn't afford an actual PC so I used to dial in on an old WebTV box (remember those?!?). I used to love reading about the scores people would find out in the wild and it used to get me so excited for my day off when I could head out and hit up all the local thrift stores searching for my own personal Holy Grails. I used to get so jealous over some of those brag posts. That was the golden era of game collecting, for sure... before Buy It Now prices, YouTubers and speculators came along and jacked all the prices up to the stratosphere. And say what you will about the Spaceboss, the guy was certainly entertaining! If RGVC were a sitcom, he was its Kramer ; )

[godslabrat]

RGVC was my first introduction to the world of classic gaming discussion. It was back in '97 or so that I got heavily into collecting and around '99 that I discovered the newsgroup. Back then I couldn't afford an actual PC so I used to dial in on an old WebTV box (remember those?!?). I used to love reading about the scores people would find out in the wild and it used to get me so excited for my day off when I could head out and hit up all the local thrift stores searching for my own personal Holy Grails. I used to get so jealous over some of those brag posts. That was the golden era of game collecting, for sure... before Buy It Now prices, YouTubers and speculators came along and jacked all the prices up to the stratosphere. And say what you will about the Spaceboss, the guy was certainly entertaining! If RGVC were a sitcom, he was its Kramer ; )

If RGVC were a sitcom, Space Boss was the off-camera scandal that killed the humor of the show.

 

But overall, yeah, there was a great sense of community, and usenet offered a much better medium for discussion than YouTube. Forums like AA come close, but when you have text, text, and only text, you REALLY have to put your best foot forward, and no place did that better than RGVC. And, you're right, there was just more to talk about then. New discoveries to be made, new finds to be had, and the hunting grounds were FRESH. That's when the hobby was our little secret paradise.

 

We were searching for the Reef Store, never realizing that were were already in it. I just wish I could have combined yesterday's prices with today's salary.

[zzip]

I was on RGVC for a time after I got home internet. Probably between 95-97. Eventually I just drifted away from usenet altogether and used the Web for everything.

 

I don't recall what handle I used there.

 

Actually the only memory I really have of the group is an inside joke about a guy named "Sumguy" who always managed to beat you to the thrift shop. IE "We did have a ton of old cartridges for that system, but Sumguy came in an hour ago and bought them all"

[Scotterpop]

Quite true, that's a very insightful way to put it. I had no idea when I was starting out that this hobby would become the behemoth that it is today. I was able to build a fairly large collection of games and records for pennies on the dollar compared to today's prices. I could NEVER afford to get into collecting these things now. I pity anyone that's just now getting into it!

 

 

We were searching for the Reef Store, never realizing that were were already in it. I just wish I could have combined yesterday's prices with today's salary.