what got you into collecting video games

[htimreimer]

for me it started when my older brother went to volunteered at a garage sell (i was about 7,8 or 9) and he came back with a comforter from a hotel,a nes with one game one controller and all of the cords and something that i can remember for free
we played with it for a bit and then put it a way years past and then three years ago i got it out of its box and with more mature eyes i played with it and love it and that is how i got in to video game collecting

[soera]

Collecting or playing? I got into playing games when I was really young, my mom brought home an Atari with some games she got from a garage sale. She loved garage sales and was getting atari games every day so within a few months, we had a couple hundred games. Then the Nintendo came out and I was mesmerized. It never stopped from there.

As far as collecting, I think it started with the PS1. I mean I saved games here and there from all my systems but the PS1 is what made search for games continuously for RPGs to add to my stock pile. I bought most of my games right off the shelf. Only as of late, have I started working on collecting NES carts.

I collect Dragon Warrior stuff cause its my first RPG. I also collect Final Fantasy stuff but there are so many games/items out there that it would be insane to really try to get everything (especially since I cant stand some of the games that were released).

[ffxik]

I have always loved video games, and I have always hated parting with them.  Because of that, I guess you could say my insatiable hunger took over and before I knew I had built one of the largest collections in town.  If I could get paid to play them I would.

[atariboy]

Mine started with going to my best friends house and playing on the Atari 2600, I then bought my first computer which was a ADAM. I would haul that thing downstairs when family came over. We played the hell out of Slither, Tappers, and Cabbage Patch Kids. I got tired of always hauling that computer down so I bought a ColecoVision. I never wanted to get rid of it due to being my first dedicated Video game system. Forward a few years later I get married and am now faced with a step son. I buy him his first NES, Then he wants a SNES I offered to get him one in trade for his NES and all Games, he was going to trade them off to get a SNES. Then the N64 came out and same offer etc.... up to about the XBOX. He will inherit all this one day so in hindsight he will get his stuff back. So that is how I got my start into collecting.

[jcalder8]

There really wasn't one specific moment in my life that I decided to collect video games but I have always collected something, used to be marvel cards then dvds before moving on to video games.

The closest thing to a single event was when I got a job at a second hand store.

[scott]

We had an Atari 2600, then I got an NES for Easter one year. Played the hell out of Super Mario 1, Duck Hunt and 1943. Got Cobra Triangle shortly after and then my Nintendo Power sub and Dragon Warrior. I'd say after that it's been a blur of gaming. Eventually I started being able to buy games for myself and amassed a collection of games.

[blipcs76]

I've been playing since my parents gave me a 2600 for Christmas 1982.  Since then, I've always been a gamer.  In the mid-90's, I moved towards PC gaming for about 5 years, but eventually came back to consoles. 

I didn't really start collecting until after i graduated from college and had more free time and disposable income.  I got bit by the nostalgia bug and started picking up old games and systems, which eventually turned into a hobby.

[darko]

My Grandmother - as explained in the top 5 thread.

[amauriel]

I've been playing as long as I can remember, as I stated in the Top 5 thread, since my parents had a ColecoVision even before I was born. As far as collecting, it started with just never selling things back. Then I met Ronalopolis, and he was more of a Sega kid, and he wanted to expose me to those games, as I had never really played anything on the Sega. Then one garage sale season, he and a friend came back from a sale with a TurboGrafx, many Intellivisions, a 2600, a couple of Odyssey 2s, literally over a hundred games, and I don't know what all else, all for $50. We had a blast that night, splitting games out and playing games we'd never tried. I realized then that garage sales could be a cheap way of getting games I had always wanted to try. His love is consoles, so he was always on the lookout for new systems, and every time he'd find one, I'd find some game I'd heard about to go with it.

10 years of collecting later...

[kingrat101]

I think I really started playing as early as I can remember, the year I was born my dad HAD to have the SNES, apparently according to my mom, I would actually play it fast forward a few years and my earliest memory of playing SNES was when I was about 5 with my dad beating DKC.
I only really got into collecting maybe a few years ago, I've always had quite a bit of games but am now regretting trading so many of them cause now I'm buying them back again

[scott]

I've always had quite a bit of games but am now regretting trading so many of them cause now I'm buying them back again

Same here. I've been jogging my memory trying to think of all the ps2, Xbox and gc games I had so I can get them all back. I'm pretty sure I'm making good headway on it. I'm still working on replacing my nes games too.

[soera]

Thats the only good thing about being super picky of the games I played when I was younger. It was a small list (although Ill be damned if any of them are cheap). Its been years and Im still trying to figure if I want to drop the cash to replace Magic Knight Rayearth, Vay, and some others I used to have.

[turf]

I've been playing games most of my life.  So, what got me into video games is a mystery.
What got me into collecting is a different story.  I'll give you the Readers Digest version. 
My parents are incredably frugal (read: cheap) people.  My Dad actually bought generic Kool Aid on more than one occasion.  Kool Aid was $0.05 a pack and he wants to get the cheap stuff because it's $0.03.  There are just some things you don't skimp on.  Anyway, my parents are cheap and that rubbed off on me.  After saving and paying $50 or $60 for a game, there was no way I would sell them or trade them for something newer.  I still, to this day, have never sold or traded a game for less than I paid for it.  So, I have every game I've ever bought new.  That was the start of a collection without even realizing it. 

Fast Foward >> a few years.  I was in college and a friend came around asking if I still had my old Nintendo games.  Of course I did.  He offered $2 a piece for the whole 40 or 50 I had.  Of course, I said no; but I did trade my R.O.B. for a boxed Star Wars for the NES.  (I had a good start on a Star Wars collection at the time)  One weekend I went with him to some flea markets and pawn shops looking for games.  This was awesome!  He got a pile of games for something like $20!

This inspired me.  I pulled my old NES out of retirement and when through the classics.  I had forgotten how great this thing was!  Then, I hit a pawn shop or two, a flea market here and there, and a used game shop had opened up in town.  The pieces fell into place.  I was hooked.  It started off with buying the games I never had a chance to play, but quickly evolved into buying every NES game I saw.  I wanted a complete collection.  Then, my friend that started all of this was moving into a smaller place, and didn't have room for his collection.  I got first dibs and a great price.  I was pumped to bring my old R.O.B. back home where he belonged.  I was a NES collector for a long time. 

Take another Fast Forward to a little over a year ago.  I was nosing around a GoodWill and found a Sega Saturn with Virtua Fighter for $10.  It was too good of a deal to pass up.  That was a big mistake.  My NES collecting mutated into Video Game collecting.  So here we are today with piles and piles of video game stuff.  I even refused to buy Sony stuff, and ended up with 3 Playstations.   

[jcalder8]

@turf, that's pretty cool that you were able to get your same ROB back. I know there are a few items I wish I had back.

[scott]

@turf, that's pretty cool that you were able to get your same ROB back. I know there are a few items I wish I had back.

Agreed, I've gotten rid of games, and some systems. I've slowly been working on replacing them with the same versions as what I originally had. The day I got a replacement MM2 cart was a good day for sure. Only I still miss my copy original copy, since it was a bday gift from my cousin and really sparked my love of the Mega Man series.