What systems are practical to collect for in 2021?

[Steven Pendleton]

15 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

That’s still $42… again, $25 is the target here ? 

On 10/5/2021 at 6:15 AM, jgkspsx said:

Psycho Dream for instance doesn’t seem available loose for under $45.

lol $25 or $45? Or both, I guess, since $25 is below $45...

 

Every system has games that are more expensive than others, of course. I'd recommend Japanese PS2, as it meets all 4 of those requirements (mint condition factory sealed Sakura Taisen 1 remake limited edition for 3000 yen, anyone? I found one last week! Didn't buy it, though) and I definitely find new games literally every time I look at Japanese PS2 games, like last week when I found Sakura Taisen V Episode 0, which I bought just because I didn't know it existed until then despite having done what I thought was a fairly decent amount of research, but there is that one thing known as the Japanese language.

 

There's a ridiculous amount of unbelievably cheap Japanese PS2 games, and even great shooters like Gradius V can be had for like 3000 yen CIB in excellent condition, but I am not sure about obtaining them from outside of Japan and most of these games are going to be in Japanese. There will be exceptions, like compilations of ancient arcade games that don't have any text beyond INSERT COIN and stuff, but I don't know if there are a lot of Japanese PS2 games with text in languages other than Japanese. There is Thunder Force VI, where the menus are in English but basically everything else is in Mongolian for whatever reason, but that's an outlier. System itself is region locked, of course, but seeing as it's the best selling game system ever, it's still really easy to find cheap used Japanese PS2s for basically nothing.

[Keatah]

19 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

Definitely agree with all of that.  I fell into the trap of the whole shelf candy crap, (tho i do love my gaming shelves and collection).  It's not like normal people are ever impressed, and they are probably like wtf weirdo.

That's right. I know a few folks that have some larger collections. Not necessarily mega-collections, but, 100 games per system. 8 or 9 systems. Something like that. And they never speak of other (normals) being impressed by their displays. And their displays are nicely put together too. It's just the gaming geeks that pay homage.

 

In complete contrast to that - in my den's cubbyhole I've got an SFF PC packed with everything under the goddamned fucking Sun. And the casual non-gamers are impressed at the variety and authenticity and elegance of the setup. Always saying it's so cool and want to get one themselves. And the hobbyists are like WTF? Booaarrreeenngg!!

 

19 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

i stopped picking up games that i think i should have just to have and only focus on racing games for every system.  it's so much easier to collect for just one genre if that's basically all you play i guess. i like shmups too, but that's a rich man's game.

I never ever thought of shmups as a rich man's game in any way, shape, or form. The genre seems mindless and at the bottom of the barrel. Bullet Hells 10x that. Unless of course you're referring to the cost/rarity of some of them.

 

Anyhow.. Shmups are in my top 5 favorite categories. I don't collect them specifically. I don't collect anything specifically - like on a checklist. It's more like whatever happens to blow my way. For example I just set-up DonPachi and DoDonPachi this fall. It's fun! Cool.. So.. What comes next? That sort of lazy attitude. No restrictions on collecting. No rules. Just like a kid in an 80's toy store.

[+GoldenWheels]

I mean...dif strokes for dif folks I guess, we all live in differing worlds. Virtually anyone coming in to my house that sees "the shelves" instantly asks if I have "X game" from their childhood. If I do (and I often do) I even offer to let them play it. This is normal guests to repairmen to my kids friends who think Minecraft is old. It can be quite a rabbit hole but I am happy to indulge because they like games too, just like me. Impressing people is and was never a thought....it is just a nice visual way to get a quick connection because you share an interest.

 

Alternately, no guest to my home has ever gone..."wow nice emulation PC over there. It's so authentic, AND elegant". But it sure sounds like something that could totally happen.

 

 

 

 

[Keatah]

It does indeed happen.

 

Furthermore I totally enjoy showmanship and being the master impresario from time to time. Since there aren't shelves of cartridges lining a wall, I rely on attract modes and presence of an X-Arcade stick to do the same.

 

The makeup of an "authentic and elegant" emulation setup is straightforward. It should be the latest generation SFF PC - no bigger than a frozen dinner - purchasable by anyone anywhere.

 

The rewarding part is saying you too can have a setup like this.

[TheCoolDave]

On 10/6/2021 at 9:12 AM, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

I only recently picked up a 360.  The graphics ABSOLUTELY hold up on a 4K screen cuz apparently the 360 has a decent graphics scaler and the PS3 does not.  The PS3 looks crappy on a 4K screen (i dont remember if it did as well on a 1080, but i would assume yes since it relies on the tv to upscale and not the PS3).   I regret i bought all cross platform racing games from that gen on PS3 ? I'm slowly replacing my PS3 racing games with 360 ones for that reason.  The best thing about the 360 is that i've grown a collection over the years before even buying a system of just games i find on the street out for free.  about two dozen complete games so far just from the streets!!! 

 

never look up!

Oh, no question, I have a Series X and I still play 360 for the tiles that are not in back compat.

 

The nice thing about the 360 games, when you device to move to the newest console, like the Series X, about 40-50% of the games will play on the Series X and a lot will look even better....

[Tanooki]

@roots.genoa That post you made, about your PCE collection, it's where I got to that point, but also with me trying to minimize shelf space clutter I (as shown in the TG/PC thread) got rid of mine.  I still need to offload the PCE hucard games still, procrastinating hoping I can do a nice trade, but they'll go.  Stuff I had wanted too on the card side even loose were unpalatable now compared to just 2-3 years ago because they loose were more than the complete copy was in such a short time, and the complete ones were ugly just ugly.  I had considered optical too, that Duo thing analogue keeps waffling on, but when I realized the optical was even more toxic and given what I used to own is just even more foul (Cotton, Godzilla, Rayxanber 2 and 3, Dracula X, list goes on) I packed it in...no regrets either.  TG/PCE at this rate I consider as hands off as trying to buy Nintendo games if not worse, bad like Sega optical pre-Dreamcast stuff (SCD/Saturn) which is a shame.

[+thanatos]

7 hours ago, Keatah said:

 

Furthermore I totally enjoy showmanship and being the master impresario from time to time. Since there aren't shelves of cartridges lining a wall, I rely on attract modes and presence of an X-Arcade stick to do the same.

 

 

In my basement I have an X-Arcade on a table in front of a 55" screen, connected to a PC with all the emulators. 

We have frequent BBQ parties and any new folks that show up are told by other attendees "You HAVE to go to the basement arcade!" 

Then I am always asked the questions "Do you have Game X or Y or Z?" 

And I say every time "I have them all."

 

 

[+thegoldenband]

On 10/7/2021 at 7:14 AM, Mikebloke said:

Best thing I ever did was start tracking how many games I finished, harder to justify buying for a system I had 30 games for but only finished 5.

I like to think about this too, both in terms of library % and ownership %. I've been tracking the games I've beaten since I was a kid. My best completion rate is for the Atari 5200, at 100% -- I only own one game, and I've beaten it! I think my next best is the Jaguar at 4 out of 7, or 57%.

 

Interesting to see the comments about selling off. I've been thinking about putting a few high-value games on Ebay, and really need to get on that.

 

As for collecting, I second the comment about the Vectrex being a nice choice (once you have a system). Odyssey² is also good if you focus only on the North American library, but start thinking about European games and it gets messy. Intellivision is more accessible now that 2 of the most expensive games have been re-issued in affordable copies. All of those systems have games that are a blast to play.

 

Post-crash, I'd probably go with the Game Boy. So many good games, and they're generally cheap loose. I pine for the days of "buy one, get one free" loose Game Boy carts at the game store where I used to live; picked up a bunch at a rate of $1.50/cart or less.

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

On 10/8/2021 at 6:55 PM, TheCoolDave said:

Oh, no question, I have a Series X and I still play 360 for the tiles that are not in back compat.

 

The nice thing about the 360 games, when you device to move to the newest console, like the Series X, about 40-50% of the games will play on the Series X and a lot will look even better....

Picked up an xbox one x (wish it was the series x) last thursday and this weekend sold my xbox one OG to gamestop and got 150 dollars in credit for it!! (i paid 140 on craigslist a month ago).  Is the backwards compatible rate for 360 really that high?  I installed the first forza horizon on it and it looks great!

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

On 10/8/2021 at 8:00 PM, Tanooki said:

@roots.genoa That post you made, about your PCE collection, it's where I got to that point, but also with me trying to minimize shelf space clutter I (as shown in the TG/PC thread) got rid of mine.  I still need to offload the PCE hucard games still, procrastinating hoping I can do a nice trade, but they'll go.  Stuff I had wanted too on the card side even loose were unpalatable now compared to just 2-3 years ago because they loose were more than the complete copy was in such a short time, and the complete ones were ugly just ugly.  I had considered optical too, that Duo thing analogue keeps waffling on, but when I realized the optical was even more toxic and given what I used to own is just even more foul (Cotton, Godzilla, Rayxanber 2 and 3, Dracula X, list goes on) I packed it in...no regrets either.  TG/PCE at this rate I consider as hands off as trying to buy Nintendo games if not worse, bad like Sega optical pre-Dreamcast stuff (SCD/Saturn) which is a shame.

i just saw this on craigslist.. is it worth it?

 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/vgm/d/brooklyn-duo-turbografx-pc-engine-nec/7391069303.html

[TheCoolDave]

2 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

Picked up an xbox one x (wish it was the series x) last thursday and this weekend sold my xbox one OG to gamestop and got 150 dollars in credit for it!! (i paid 140 on craigslist a month ago).  Is the backwards compatible rate for 360 really that high?  I installed the first forza horizon on it and it looks great!

I would say about 85% of all the AAA games (or most popular ones) are on there but, I would say 40-50% of the entire collection is on there. There is also OG Xbox games on there.

 

It's always that odd ball game that you drop in that does not work (it's the reason I keep my 360 still connected). 

 

The Xbox One X is a great console, I had one and sold it after I got the Series X.  4K gaming and a great value for the system.. 

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

1 hour ago, TheCoolDave said:

I would say about 85% of all the AAA games (or most popular ones) are on there but, I would say 40-50% of the entire collection is on there. There is also OG Xbox games on there.

 

It's always that odd ball game that you drop in that does not work (it's the reason I keep my 360 still connected). 

 

The Xbox One X is a great console, I had one and sold it after I got the Series X.  4K gaming and a great value for the system.. 

definitely enjoying it.  i was a ps4 person this past generation and i originally wanted to get a ps5, but then i found that 360 which got me into the forza games so i'm going xbox this gen and the one x will hold me over for a bit.  since i really only like racing games for the most part, i prefer to jump into a generation halfway through after a hardware revision, price drop, and a bunch of racing games already out and many had for cheap.  

 

i'm a little mad though that my cheap ass samsung 4k doesn't playing nice with the one x when it comes to HDR.  I need to keep the HDR turned off otherwise the screen goes black every two seconds.  apparently it's an issue with samsungs and vizio 4k tvs and the xbox. microsoft and the two tv companies kept placing the blame on each other the entire last generation and the issue was never resolved.   can still play in 4k, just not with hdr 10 turned on

[Tanooki]

8 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

i just saw this on craigslist.. is it worth it?

 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/vgm/d/brooklyn-duo-turbografx-pc-engine-nec/7391069303.html

YES especially modded like that, that's a hell of a good deal there.  You're dodging having lower quality video and the shitty caps that implode in NEC consoles too as that person would have re-done that at the same time if they're in the slightest bit competent.  The A/V cable is I think same as the Duo one which uses the similar pinout to one of those models Sega used in the 16bit era.

[TheCoolDave]

22 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

i just saw this on craigslist.. is it worth it?

 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/vgm/d/brooklyn-duo-turbografx-pc-engine-nec/7391069303.html

It looks good but, see if it has been re-capped. The Duo (I have TurboDUO) was made in the time of bad caps, and they should be checked. Hate to spend $300 on a console just to have a cap leak and wreck it...

 

Not 100% crazy about how they modded(the jacks on the back) it but, it will look fine from the front.

[TheCoolDave]

19 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

i'm a little mad though that my cheap ass samsung 4k doesn't playing nice with the one x when it comes to HDR.  I need to keep the HDR turned off otherwise the screen goes black every two seconds.  apparently it's an issue with samsungs and vizio 4k tvs and the xbox. microsoft and the two tv companies kept placing the blame on each other the entire last generation and the issue was never resolved.   can still play in 4k, just not with hdr 10 turned on

 

Call or Tweet Samsung on that one, connect your TV to the internet and make sure it's fully updated. That is where I would start with that. You would be shocked on how well they reply.  It's bad press if they do not respond. 

 

No question 4K and HDR 10 on the Xbox One X, looks amazing, I played Gears 5 on it and I was blown away(first game playing in HDR).. Now modern NON-HDR games, kind of missing something...LOL

 

It's much better on the Series X but the One X is still awesome...

Edited October 12, 2021 by TheCoolDave

[+jgkspsx]

How many Odyssey2 games really need the board game stuff to play?

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

1 hour ago, TheCoolDave said:

 

Call or Tweet Samsung on that one, connect your TV to the internet and make sure it's fully updated. That is where I would start with that. You would be shocked on how well they reply.  It's bad press if they do not respond. 

 

No question 4K and HDR 10 on the Xbox One X, looks amazing, I played Gears 5 on it and I was blown away(first game playing in HDR).. Now modern NON-HDR games, kind of missing something...LOL

 

It's much better on the Series X but the One X is still awesome...

Oh wow, thank you for this.  I hadn't even thought about updating my tv.  I forgot that even our toothbrushes these days need firmware updates.  I will try this today!

[derSammler]

For what it's worth, I'm currently collecting for the Amstrad PCW. It's a system not many people care about, so as long as you ignore some stupid by-it-now prices, you can get most stuff cheap.

 

But regarding this:

Quote

1. consoles and accessories easily available and reasonably easy to keep working

2. a majority of the best/iconic games for the system being available loose for $25 or less

3. a number of “hidden gems”/fun and unique but less high profile games that are actually findable and affordable

4. a reasonably high chance of finding something you don’t own in the wild

Sorry, but that is just unrealistic and kind of miserly - especially #2. Why do you even care about "best" or "iconic" games? Buy what you like to play, not what other people tell you. For many systems, I don't own (or care about) the "best" games, because they are not games I want to play.

[CapitanClassic]

4 hours ago, derSammler said:

But regarding this:

Sorry, but that is just unrealistic and kind of miserly - especially #2. Why do you even care about "best" or "iconic" games? Buy what you like to play, not what other people tell you. For many systems, I don't own (or care about) the "best" games, because they are not games I want to play.

#2 is important, it and #1 are the only ones I really agree with.  I do agree that you should play what you like to play, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have or at least have played the iconic games for a system.

If you plan on sharing your love of a system with other people, it is important to have a shared experience. Much of that shared experience will be playing the common/iconic games for that system that the majority of people have played. 
 

I personally lean more toward emulation or flashcarts. I would mostly prefer multiplayer games on any system to share an experience, but if you own a system and haven’t played the most iconic/common games you are missing something.

#2 is important if you want to collect real carts for a system. You shouldn’t buy anything you don’t plan on playing, but there is a reason those games were common/iconic and why you would want a system with cheap common games.

[derSammler]

6 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

I do agree that you should play what you like to play, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have or at least have played the iconic games for a system.

Played: yes. Agree on that. But you don't need to own a physical copy. There's simply not a single system that has not at least one or two rare or expensive games. Iconic games are always expensive, as everyone wants to own a copy. Iconic games are not always good, however.

[+jgkspsx]

Many iconic games are cheap (the original Mario NES and SNES games, Tetris and most puzzle games, Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, most Sonic games, etc) and many are not (Super Metroid, Earthbound, Sonic CD, Phantasy Star or Shining Force anything).

 

Come to think of it, why are puzzle games so consistently inexpensive? Did they sell a ton or do collectors shun them? In any case, it is a good genre to have as a favorite.

[Steven Pendleton]

9 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Many iconic games are cheap (the original Mario NES and SNES games, Tetris and most puzzle games, Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, most Sonic games, etc) and many are not (Super Metroid, Earthbound, Sonic CD, Phantasy Star or Shining Force anything).

Time to learn Japanese since almost all of those can be found for 2000~1000 yen aside from Sonic CD, which I think I paid 5000 yen for. Don't worry, it only took me about 10 years to be able to play games in Japanese, but only about 2 of those years were spent doing actual serious formal study at a university, so I could have done it much sooner if I'd realized my proficiency was high enough. I also met a Korean girl who went from no knowledge at all to N1 in 2 years. She studied for 8 hours every single day for 2 years to do it and of course kanji is used in Korean (although I forget what it's called in Korean) so she knew some of the meanings already, but it is apparently possible. It's actually, despite what people will tell you, not exceptionally hard as far as learning other languages go, it's just that it takes a lot of time. I had way more difficulty with German than I did with Japanese.

 

No need to learn Japanese for Super Metroid, though, as the Japanese and US ROMs seem to be 100% identical as far as I can tell.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

10 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Many iconic games are cheap (the original Mario NES

WataGames: hold my beer! ?

[+jgkspsx]

I want to play video games, not launder money ? 

[c0op3r]

Something to consider as we get farther along with consoles that rely on downloadable content "DLC" will these be collectable as the people that grow up with them get to their ~30's and wish to relive that experience?  

 

Couple of things related to this, using the switch as an example a lot of the games you buy the physical edition require download of part or all of the game, will these have a collectable value later in life?  I personally dont play the switch by my daughter and wife do.  My daughter would much rather just DL the game.  I know there are very very smart people out there that might figure a way around the lack of services in the future, but that will limit the market to the ones that really want to play the games and are will to invest the time in seeking a way to do so.

 

I think the Wii was one of the first to really show this short coming, most games are local, but there was a DLC store and it is now gone.

 

Interest and collectability of the cartridge and early CD based games is that you have the game and even if you dont have the original cart or CD people have figured out a way to still make this all work (Optical Drive Emulators [the saving grace of the Saturn] and Evercart type devices) - how is this going to be done on the PS5 and the new Xbox?

 

My point is that the interest in plug it in and play type games, media and systems might continue to grow as time goes on - as an example I never had anything later then a Gameboy Pocket, but I have recent got into the Game Boy Advanced, most of the games are pretty inexpensive (except Pokemon and I dont play that - too Old to figure it out) and the games generally lend themselves to the casual player.  So 15 to 20 years after a system has ended I now have an interest in it.

 

At the other end of the spectrum - I think systems like the Atari 2600 have really slowed in the desire for people to collect it, I think the people that used the system and are of that age bracket and wanted those games, have got them, yes there are a few exceptions (there always are) but tell me who really wants to play Combat. Some of the Activision games maybe but the rest is pretty bad and I dont think most 20-somethings care, they have no nostalgia for that machine that pre dates them by 20 years. 

 

Just my general thoughts and observations - interested to hear others thoughts.