VGcollect Checking In Thread (May 2019 edition)

[bikingjahuty]

As we've all seen this forum has been a bit of a ghost town in recently months. Just so we know everyones alive, or at least still gaming lol, I thought it would be cool to check in with everyone to see what you're currently up to in regards to gaming/collecting?


I know we have a "What are you Playing Right Now" thread, and you can certainly comment with what you've been playing, but thought it would also be interesting to see if anyone is in the process of expanding or shrinking their game collections, rearranging their game rooms, looking into collecting for another platform, or pretty much anything you're currently up to in regards to your interest in gaming. Also, if you'd like, feel free to update everyone on anything that's been going on in your life whether or not it's directly or indirectly related to our hobby.

[oldgamerz]

Great Idea in my opinion because things do happen in life, people can die unexpectedly  and can leave their online accounts for good, I have not bought anything yet for this month, I am pretty much just a music collector and my health has not been good in my opinion, I hope more people respond to this thread then just myself, I think it is a good idea. I am not really too sure whats going to happen in the future.

I love video games still but I only like to play the sims anymore these days

[bikingjahuty]

I've been off and on studying for a tech cert for the last couple years, however it wasn't until the new year where I kicked that all into high gear and began studying daily for it. Essentially my life has been either my job or studying since the beginning of the year, and I wasn't going to let up until I took the test and obtained the cert. As of Monday this week I passed the test for the cert, and on top of having the cert I also have my life back again! Having 4-months of your life put on hold for something really gets you wanting to get back into the things you enjoy, and that's what I've been doing over the last couple days.


For one, I am so, so, SOOOOO happy I can finally play games whenever I want to again! I have played a decent amount this year already regardless of studying, but I really want to play some more in depth games such as RPGs and adventures games; most of what I've been playing are arcade friendly games like fighting games and shmups. I've really felt like playing FF8 and will probably be starting that this week.


Also, I'm planning on doing a fairly big update to my game room soon. One of my room goals is to make room for my ever expanding PS4 collection which is getting close to running out of room on the shelf it shares with my PS3 and Vita games, and also to give my budding US Saturn collection an appropriate home. In addition to this I will likely being getting a new TV stand that will fit both my 43" Samsung and also my 27" Sharp CRT. Currently they are on two different TV stands which actually take up more room than if they both just shared a stand. This will free up some room and also give me more room to hook up more consoles. And finally I plan on adding wall shelves in order to resolve the Amiibo/figure sprawl that has overtaken my game room. I currently have hundreds of Amiibos in random places all over my game room and the goal is to have them all on the wall shelves in order to clean up the overall appearance of the room. I'll likely be working on this over the summer and when it's done I will likely do an updated room tour


Going back to playing games, I also need to clean up and do some moderate maintenance on my gaming PC since it's been having some performance issues recently. This will probably involve me backing up a lot and just doing an OS Refresh on the whole damn thing so I can start with a clean slate. After that I plan on playing a lot of classic PC titles. In addition to this I'm also going to start using a Windows 98 gaming rig I bought to start playing games that only run on that era of Windows.


And then finally there is the collecting end of things; during my studying efforts I got bit hard by the US Saturn bug and began collecting for it again. This was initiated by me hitting 2000 games in my collection with my 2000th game being Clockwork Knight 2, and my first US Saturn game in a decade. I plan on buying US Saturn games on a fairly regular basis from here on, and currently there are around 50 or so more US Saturn games I'm after, with a few noteworthy heavy hitters I still need. Other than that I am going to casually collect for my other consoles until I get a wild hair and become very motivated to start collecting heavily for another system. Also, I've been finding a lot more NES stuff in my area and will likely be building that collection up again as well. Unfortunately my NES collection took a big hit these last few years and it's only recently that I've been able to start rebuilding it.


So that's essentially my life as a gamer and collector in a nutshell right now! Probably more than most of you will read, but it's there in case anyone is curious. Look forward to seeing what others have been up to.

[kamikazekeeg]

Haven't been going out of my way for gaming collecting in particular.  I still regularly buy new games, like I'm playing Days Gone and Mortal Kombat 11 right now.  Been actually doing more toy collecting, such as for Godzilla and can't really afford to do a lot of game collecting on top of that.

[bikingjahuty]

Oh, and I'm also going to a pinball convention later this month that I am super stoked about! I won't be buying anything, but there will be tons of machines on freeplay that I'll be getting as much time on as possible

[ignition365]

I'm reaching a point where I'm ready to start dumping my collection.  I'm prepping for a yard sale to get rid of the cheaper games and I've been listing games on ebay that I know I have no interest in keeping.

I'm largely disillusioned with collecting because of companies like LRG.  It sort of terrifies me how much my collection is worth and I don't want to know what I have in it.  GCU/Prime/Elite discounts are all dead, so I'm not buying new retail games anymore.  I'm 4 games away from the full N64 set, and the games I have left I'll probably never buy.

I'm pretty damned close to just cutting as much as I can and going the emulation route for what I can and either dumping/keeping the rest.

I've also been nearly totally out of room for storing games in general.  If I can dump even just a couple hundred games, it'd make things a lot easier.

[wartoy]

Well my gaming has decrease alot im basically only playing magic the gathering on my xbox. Im going to try to get back into playing again soon been getting a desire to play somthing more substantial. As far as my game room is concerned I work on it on sundays adding my weekly score and cleaning and arranging.lm always trying to add to my nes,n64,Dreamcast,gamecube and snes collections first but often I can't find anything I need for these systems. I only buy games when I find them out shopping I never buy off the web.Two reasons for this I'd probably go broke and its more fun to hunt.Anyways im more likely to buy games for other systems because of this.

[bikingjahuty]

It makes me sad that the enthusiasm in this hobby is really on the decline. It doesn't seem to be just here either, but also my local area, including various gaming/collecting groups I belong too. I think that retro gaming and collecting hit its peak a couple years ago and has been steadily on the decline since. I definitely don't fault anyone for wanting to downsize, sell everything off, or just no longer have interest in gaming and/or collecting, but it makes me sad to see some of you who were so prominent on here lose so much interest in something you were so into up until recently. Again, I am not saying anything bad about you or faulting you for anything, just a bummer.


I feel like I knew this time would come eventually, I just thought I'd enjoy it a lot more since it means less competition and cheaper prices in light of less demand, but honestly the more this hobby decreases in popularity, the sadder it makes me...

[oldgamerz]

I don't plan on selling my collection now at least, but I stopped buying them mostly, but I did purchase a The Sims 1 expansion collection part. and "The Sims Life Stories" recently for the PC.

Maybe music will take over collecting in the masses? anyone who has abandoned music now a days needs to listen to all the older stuff, a lot of music I think has been forgotten since video games and movies/anime  became more popular.

Watching movies and anime and/or listening to music is more easier on the mind, most video games are push push push and I just don't have the energy like I used to.

[ignition365]

I don't know.  It's one of those things.  I own the majority of the retro games I care to own.  I've never really cared for anything pre-SNES.  I've never had much interest in the systems with predominantly pricey libraries.  I've never had much interest in the systems I didn't grow up with.  In terms of the platforms I could argue that I care about, I own the majority of the games I care about.  Combine that with having a kid and wanting to save more money in general... plus running out of space.  It's kind of a no-brainer that I'd stop buying retro games at some point.  I do still buy a few retro games on occasion, but I've cut back dramatically, and I've even begun turning down steals just because why buy it.  Couple all of that with companies like LRG straight up exploiting collectors and it makes for a wildly dissatisfied consumer/collector.  And at this point, if I care to own anything physical and spend as little as possible, I pretty much have to only buy these stupid limited release titles.

[marvelvscapcom2]

It makes me sad that the enthusiasm in this hobby is really on the decline. It doesn't seem to be just here either, but also my local area, including various gaming/collecting groups I belong too. I think that retro gaming and collecting hit its peak a couple years ago and has been steadily on the decline since. I definitely don't fault anyone for wanting to downsize, sell everything off, or just no longer have interest in gaming and/or collecting, but it makes me sad to see some of you who were so prominent on here lose so much interest in something you were so into up until recently. Again, I am not saying anything bad about you or faulting you for anything, just a bummer.


I feel like I knew this time would come eventually, I just thought I'd enjoy it a lot more since it means less competition and cheaper prices in light of less demand, but honestly the more this hobby decreases in popularity, the sadder it makes me...

I agree .  It feels like some of the magic is missing and I can't put a finger on it. I always thought i'd love it because less resellers and overblown prices and all the hipsters would get into the next wave. But it seems lifeless.  More so then it even was before the big surge.  But I think it will slowly recover.  And I think the golden part of this waiting period is that once it's over, boy the stores will be flooded and cheap I think.  I think were still in the proccess of some collectors selling off that weren't really into it. We just have to stay happy and keep up with the current collectors who keep passion alive. Like Soera, TheFlea and like the guinness guy that recently took the title.  And AVGN who still posts amazing content.


My main reason for not posting as much lately can be boiled down to writer's block. I know it sounds silly but I am pretty nutty and over critical of myself.  And I end up coming on here and typing out a big thread and then thinking it's stupid and deleting it. Or thinking I have posted it before.  I should get in the habit of hitting the post button with no regrets . 

I hope everyone has a happy May.   I will be attending the American Heritage Museum in MA.  They have a ton of tanks there.  And tanks are rad 

[mark1982]

Collecting is still going good for me, I still make frequent visits to the thrift stores in my area. Seems as if people are off loading their PS3 and X360 collections now, so I'm finding some great titles at a weekly basis for a couple of bucks. No plans of downsizing but definitely plans of re-organizing but I believe it will still take a while until I move into my new place, but I'm doing the research now for what kind of setup I would like to have so that's fun Gonna split my entertainment room into half, for my game collection and for my other hobby, a proper display for my Sideshow collectables and statues.

On a more personal level, I haven't been buying any new games on day 1, unlike before. I find it pointless now to do so, I usually just wait for a sale since new game prices seem to drop pretty fast, plus my priorities in life is shifting with my newborn coming in September, so video gaming can take a back seat for a while, which honestly I don't mind at all, the games aren't going anywhere, especially the newer released ones. The only games I pre-order now are the limited releases that I want, or games like Sekiro which I know I will play right from the get go. Other than that, I look for sales. As for retro games, I pretty much cut down the amount that I have been getting, my buying habits are if I want to play the game or not and I pretty much have a solid retro collection so it's hard for me to find something out in the wild. I believe I reached the point where if I want anything retro related I have to get it online. It's rare for me to do so now, but sometimes I will look for something.

Great thread, nice to share and read what others are up to. I'm also changing my online forum lifestyle.. I use to be a member a few forums, but I had to cut some out because I feel like I'm wasting too much time on them and not playing enough games.. So now I just frequent one other fast pace / latest news gaming forum on my commute to work and VG Collect because it's a lot more laid back. At least now I have more time to play games and spend time with my wife. Before my nose was constantly buried in my phone, so I'm glad I cut that habit, still a work in progress because I plan to cut out more.

As for downsizing, I personally know 2 of my friends that sold off their collections and they still talk a lot about games and play some. They said they missed the thrill of the hunt and so forth.

[vivigamer]

Collecting hasn't been overly exciting this month. The only game I will be buying new is Sonic Team Racing... which actually is a big deal as it hopefully will fulfill my need for a Split-screen Racer which I can play through the campaign and online too!

As for personally, It's been rather quiet, but next week I have time off work as I am heading to London to watch the Distant Worlds concert at the Royal Albert Hall - Which is an Orchestra dedicated to Final Fantasy Music! I went about 5 years ago and had a great time so looking forward to this

[baileykun]

I'm moving half way across the country in July. So I'm going to need to pack up. Also means I have to watch my preordering and shove over the location on the one I'm sitting on: Catherine Full Body. I'm already packing away some of the lesser used consoles and games so I can kinda just do this at a leisurely pace and not be rushing later. Hopefully one I settle down I'll be able to buys games in person though. That'd be cool.

My odd little focus right now is working on my Japanese to get to play more games I want. I might get a hiragana+katakana only game or two soon for practice. DoraemonxBokumono is on my radar right now. I have a soft spot of Bokumono and farming language doesn't seem like a terrible thing to work on. (If you have any other suggestions though I'm totally open!)

[zappman]

As the thread says just "Checking In", mainly been playing Civilization IV on my PC. I did find a buy a wallet full of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 about 2 weeks ago at a thrift store. I ripped the PlayStation games so I can put them on my PlayStation Classic. I had a new grandchild born  last week. This week just found a N64 power adapter, in a thrift store.