Intro thread

[2ko]

Heyo, names Niko. Have been coming to the realization that I actively hate Reddit and what it has done to fandoms/hobby communities, and trying to branch off from using it so much. I already have a few other sites I've been using since forever, but it never hurts to join more. Especially since most forums are pretty slow moving these days, so just having more people to talk with never hurts.

I've been collecting games (as in actively building a collection, not just getting games as a kid) since 2012 or thereabouts. I mostly collect Japanese GBC and GBA right now, but I'm a modern gamer too and play new games on Switch 2 and PS5 mostly.

Anyways nice to meet you all. Even if its a pretty small community at least I know you're all (likely) human and not some bot lol

Fellow Reddit hater here lol! I generally don't like using mainstream social media in general to discuss my hobbies. The bigger the platform, the more idiots, bots, tourists, and trolls use it too. While I wish there would be slightly more activity on small forums like this, the sense of community can't be beat and I'd rather see a few posts every few days than dozens or hundreds of low quality posts in some place like Facebook or Reddit.


I feel like many of the regulars here have significantly slowed down when it comes to collecting, but there is still a lot of great discussion around playing games, nw game announcements and releases, and general game discussion. Hopefully you'll enjoy it here. Welcome!

Thanks. Yeah I feel the problem with a lot of the collecting community on the mainstream platforms is everyone starts to compete to see who can be the biggest consumer, rather than a place for collectors to discuss games. At least once a week I'll see a post like "My collection after 2 years" and it's bigger than my collection ever was. And they never actually play any games, cause they spend all their time looking to buy games. They are just in a completely different place in the hobby compared to me, as I don't really care how big your collection is I just want to discuss games lol What are people playing, hidden gems, what you would buy if you had $100 right now. Those kind of topics.

Also, as you said, when they get that big you tend to have more tourists, bots and trolls which makes discussions even more difficult. Had a "discussion" with someone who was trying to tell me that "real gamers" don't play Nintendo... like what? lol

[bikingjahuty]

Heyo, names Niko. Have been coming to the realization that I actively hate Reddit and what it has done to fandoms/hobby communities, and trying to branch off from using it so much. I already have a few other sites I've been using since forever, but it never hurts to join more. Especially since most forums are pretty slow moving these days, so just having more people to talk with never hurts.

I've been collecting games (as in actively building a collection, not just getting games as a kid) since 2012 or thereabouts. I mostly collect Japanese GBC and GBA right now, but I'm a modern gamer too and play new games on Switch 2 and PS5 mostly.

Anyways nice to meet you all. Even if its a pretty small community at least I know you're all (likely) human and not some bot lol

Fellow Reddit hater here lol! I generally don't like using mainstream social media in general to discuss my hobbies. The bigger the platform, the more idiots, bots, tourists, and trolls use it too. While I wish there would be slightly more activity on small forums like this, the sense of community can't be beat and I'd rather see a few posts every few days than dozens or hundreds of low quality posts in some place like Facebook or Reddit.


I feel like many of the regulars here have significantly slowed down when it comes to collecting, but there is still a lot of great discussion around playing games, nw game announcements and releases, and general game discussion. Hopefully you'll enjoy it here. Welcome!

Thanks. Yeah I feel the problem with a lot of the collecting community on the mainstream platforms is everyone starts to compete to see who can be the biggest consumer, rather than a place for collectors to discuss games. At least once a week I'll see a post like "My collection after 2 years" and it's bigger than my collection ever was. And they never actually play any games, cause they spend all their time looking to buy games. They are just in a completely different place in the hobby compared to me, as I don't really care how big your collection is I just want to discuss games lol What are people playing, hidden gems, what you would buy if you had $100 right now. Those kind of topics.

Also, as you said, when they get that big you tend to have more tourists, bots and trolls which makes discussions even more difficult. Had a "discussion" with someone who was trying to tell me that "real gamers" don't play Nintendo... like what? lol

I think collecting and not playing is pretty silly, but I also recognize that people are in this hobby for different reasons. Back in the early to mid 2010s, I was absolutely way more of a collector than a gamer. Although, everything I bought I had the intention of someday playing, even if I was fooling myself at times in thinking I'd ever play a good chunk of the games I bought back then. They were just so cheap at the time, I kinda just went for it as long as I had even a mild interest in the game. I think a lot of collector first people are at a similar stage in collecting that I was back then, although being able to grab quality PS1 or Gamecube games for a few bucks each are a distant memory now. Essentially, when someone posts their PS1 JRPG pickup, you know they paid out the nose for it. I think this is where some of the clout chasing on social media comes from; people wanting to flex how much money they have by having bigger collections, more expensive pickups, you know?


But yeah, there are some dumbass opinions online for sure. One of the first gaming forums I used to regularly post on was Gamespot back in the mid 2000s, and "Real Gamers don't play Nintendo" sounds exactly like the kinda of nonsense I used to see all the time back then. Rest assured, no one who regularly posts on here is that freakin stupid lol.

[sworddude]

Heyo, names Niko. Have been coming to the realization that I actively hate Reddit and what it has done to fandoms/hobby communities, and trying to branch off from using it so much. I already have a few other sites I've been using since forever, but it never hurts to join more. Especially since most forums are pretty slow moving these days, so just having more people to talk with never hurts.

I've been collecting games (as in actively building a collection, not just getting games as a kid) since 2012 or thereabouts. I mostly collect Japanese GBC and GBA right now, but I'm a modern gamer too and play new games on Switch 2 and PS5 mostly.

Anyways nice to meet you all. Even if its a pretty small community at least I know you're all (likely) human and not some bot lol

That is interesting, japanese gba you really like the box art and the way the boxes look I'd assume. cause out of all them japanese consoles I'd argue even in japan it's pretty pricy boxed for quite some games even the rpg's it's not that far off if not higher priced than western versions for allot of stuff. it's quite pricy in comparison to most other of the popular retro consoles that cost a fraction in comparison. japan really loves them handhelds it seems.

[2ko]

That is interesting, japanese gba you really like the box art and the way the boxes look I'd assume. cause out of all them japanese consoles I'd argue even in japan it's pretty pricy boxed for quite some games even the rpg's it's not that far off if not higher priced than western versions for allot of stuff. it's quite pricy in comparison to most other of the popular retro consoles that cost a fraction in comparison. japan really loves them handhelds it seems.

Not really. CiB Emerald is like what? 600USD+? (I actually stopped tracking that one cause its gotten too out of hand). My JP copy was ￥8000. Still expensive yes, as it's about the same price of a new Switch game. But much more reasonable for a retro game with such high demand (imo at least). Sapphire and Ruby I bought for about 5000 each CiB, and Fire Red/Leaf Green for about the same (a bit more actually but I forgot wat exactly). All those games are in the $300-$400 range.

Outside of Pokemon I can give other examples. Like Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, which is about a $200 game, but I found a copy for ￥8800 this weekend. The Fire Emblem Games are about $150, but I bought mine for closer to ￥6000. Golden Sun is about a $100 game, but here you can get them for ￥3000-4000. The Super Matio Advance games were all ￥3000 or less CiB. Sure they are not that expensive for NA copies (like $40-$50 maybe?), but still that's some good savings over all the games. Anyways, I think you get the point lol

Another reason I collect JP is because there are a lot of games I like that are JP exclusives that I want in my collection, A good 20% of the games in my collection are probably exclusive to the JP side of the GBA (Ace Attorney trilogy, Fire Emblem Binding Blade, Rhythm Heaven, Mother 3, Legendary Starfy series and so on).

I guess the main reason is just convenience though. I've been living in Japan for almost 5 years now. And whenever I go to a game store that sells retro games I would always see these super cheap (compared to their NA counterparts) GBA games. I was collecting GBA for 5 or 6 years before coming to Japan and prices for some games were just too high for me personally, and it has only gotten worse (especially from like 2018 onwards). The fact I just see all these sweet games in stores makes it more fun to "hunt" for them too. I feel like finding CiB GBA in Canada was super rare. Almost all NA GBA games I had to buy online, which takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

[sworddude]

That is interesting, japanese gba you really like the box art and the way the boxes look I'd assume. cause out of all them japanese consoles I'd argue even in japan it's pretty pricy boxed for quite some games even the rpg's it's not that far off if not higher priced than western versions for allot of stuff. it's quite pricy in comparison to most other of the popular retro consoles that cost a fraction in comparison. japan really loves them handhelds it seems.

Not really. CiB Emerald is like what? 600USD+? (I actually stopped tracking that one cause its gotten too out of hand). My JP copy was ￥8000. Still expensive yes, as it's about the same price of a new Switch game. But much more reasonable for a retro game with such high demand (imo at least). Sapphire and Ruby I bought for about 5000 each CiB, and Fire Red/Leaf Green for about the same (a bit more actually but I forgot wat exactly). All those games are in the $300-$400 range.

Outside of Pokemon I can give other examples. Like Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, which is about a $200 game, but I found a copy for ￥8800 this weekend. The Fire Emblem Games are about $150, but I bought mine for closer to ￥6000. Golden Sun is about a $100 game, but here you can get them for ￥3000-4000. The Super Matio Advance games were all ￥3000 or less CiB. Sure they are not that expensive for NA copies (like $40-$50 maybe?), but still that's some good savings over all the games. Anyways, I think you get the point lol

Another reason I collect JP is because there are a lot of games I like that are JP exclusives that I want in my collection, A good 20% of the games in my collection are probably exclusive to the JP side of the GBA (Ace Attorney trilogy, Fire Emblem Binding Blade, Rhythm Heaven, Mother 3, Legendary Starfy series and so on).

I guess the main reason is just convenience though. I've been living in Japan for almost 5 years now. And whenever I go to a game store that sells retro games I would always see these super cheap (compared to their NA counterparts) GBA games. I was collecting GBA for 5 or 6 years before coming to Japan and prices for some games were just too high for me personally, and it has only gotten worse (especially from like 2018 onwards). The fact I just see all these sweet games in stores makes it more fun to "hunt" for them too. I feel like finding CiB GBA in Canada was super rare. Almost all NA GBA games I had to buy online, which takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

Them pokemon games are definitely much cheaper for sure cause of them not being that playable as rpg's kinda ignored those since I don't really collect japanese rpg's but those are definitely popular pickups for many as shelf candy, mostly thinking about other stuff when I think jap gba and looking at examples such as metal slug or gunstar heroes being quite expensive on the jap gba I guess those keep sticking in my mind too much. gba does feel more pricy than other japanese systems even when hunting on japanese markets I feel but sure plenty of affordable stuff on there still. and even common rpg's do hold some value compared to other nintendo systems I'd argue even if more affordable compared to us.  almost any big name sfc rpg is often like 2K yen tops allot of em can even go lower than 1K yen. with gba those prices are less common for them rpg's. and if where looking for non common action stuff it often easily goes in the 20K + range

regardless you are right overall cheaper than western for sure, just tunnel visioned too much on a select few titles and just overall higher general prices of them games compared to sfc, n64 etc

it do be crazy how many thrift and game stores japan does have, and the stock is pretty insane. also how japan's fodders would be gold in the west. for more modern systems on say nintendo wii almost all first party titles are their fodder sports titles lol and just allot of their retro systems in general. klonoa door to phantomile is pretty much fodder in japan in junk bins for like 1K yen. it's a different world out there.

canada must have been rough for retro, cib gba for me personally has been pretty accesible there was always decent supply out there in my experience it has been one of the more ez to collect retro systems cheap sets where underrated less competition for it handheld games are less valued where I'm at. collecting for it was pretty fun as a result.