Author Topic: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?  (Read 3936 times)

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #15 on: November 02, 2020, 06:17:43 pm »
From what I seen it's mostly RPG and Mario and Nintendo brand games. that cost a lot of money to own, but then there is the NES mini and the SNES mini that can be purchased for the same price as one old loose original game cartridge. and it's compact, why keeps Super Mario Bros 1 2 and 3 when you have an NES mini/classic?

You'd be surprised at what games have become pricey or expensive within the past year or so, and especially since Covid. The funny thing is that NES and SNES haven't changed much.

Titles that have increased over 40% since March 2020:

PS2: 105
GameCube: 103
PS1: 91
XB 360: 76
PS3: 63
Xbox: 41
PS4: 36
Dreamcast: 31
N64: 27
SNES: 25
Saturn: 23
Genesis: 16
Game Boy: 11
Wii U: 8

This is not necessarily first party games, or RPGs. Pretty much any genre is fair game for an increase now. I've seen racing games going for over $100, depending on the title. Lots of 5th and especially 6th gen stuff is on the rise, as well as some 7th gen already. Quarantine and crisis relief money is definitely having an impact on the market, and not just the niche parts of it. I mean people are paying out good money for games like Def Jam on the PS2, at this point you shouldn't be surprised to see anything spike.

I believe you, I've seen the prices for online video games I think last month?, I was ridiculous, but it might be harder for you to buy games that you don't have. remember that your collection is twice as big as mine, according to your banner. When it comes down to the nitty gritty in collecting sometimes all of us just got to play what we got. Because once we all amass a big impressive collection we'll eventually it's then harder to find anything left to buy that we don't already have.

I just saw the original Spyro game for the PS1 go for over $20 so yea I am not saying your wrong @Warmsignal  :)
« Last Edit: November 02, 2020, 06:36:15 pm by oldgamerz »
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Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2020, 09:26:24 pm »
Not as much as I was before. Like one of the posts here, I got the majority of my stuff in the early 2010s when prices were not on par with what they are now. As a result with a few exceptions, I managed to get alot of what I wanted at reasonable prices or atleast by standards of that time. Not only that but the advent of me purchasing flashcarts has drastically stopped my collecting habits. Aside from a few things here and there, I'm not buying huge hauls like I used to and part of that also has to do with stores like Gamestop and Best Buy doing away with their discount programs so I'm a bit more picky and not buying for the sake of buying most of the time. I do playing them because variety is key but buying them at the rate I was before is no longer the case and I am okay with that.

pzeke

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2020, 05:11:37 am »
I was fortunate enough to get everything I wanted early on, before the scene got the way it has now. Sure, there are still big ticket items I would like to have that I missed or outright ignored—Ninja Five-O instantly comes to mind—but overall I have a good sizable chunk of what I wanted. My want/wishlist only got a tad longer in the past few months only after getting a PS4, so in that regard I'm also good, as I'm slowly getting games, effectively shrinking it one or two at a time. I did take the majority of the expensive games off my lists, as I stopped caring about them—life is too short to be hunting white whales.

As for the main question, yes; I still play retro games, and prefer them quite frankly. Collecting them has become more of a pain than it should be a pleasure these days, so I don't bother myself with it. But like I said above, I already have everything I wanted.

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Flashback2012

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #18 on: November 03, 2020, 07:52:35 am »
I was fortunate enough to get everything I wanted early on, before the scene got the way it has now. Sure, there are still big ticket items I would like to have that I missed or outright ignored—Ninja Five-O instantly comes to mind—but overall I have a good sizable chunk of what I wanted.

Good ole Ninja Five-O. I have this knack for holding games in my hand and whilst holding them, knowing I could obtain them for a good price. This has happened more times than I can count. Anywho...the story on NF-O goes that the GameStop I was working at back then was given the order to convert all remaining GBA from new to used inventory. We still had a copy of NF-O for sale at the time. My then manager allowed me to keep all of the boxes/books for the GBA games instead of throwing them in the trash and the box/book for NF-O was one of them.

GameStop obviously wasn't too worried about inventory control on some of those games and most ended up in a red tray by the register. I remember fishing NF-O out of said bin and actually playing it on a GBA that was getting traded in (to ensure the GBA worked). I thought the game was decent but I distinctly remember the game was marked at $5. Of course by the time I got around to looking at those boxes and deciding I wanted that game, it had sold.  :P

One of these days I'll come across a legit US copy and have it CIB.  8)

kashell

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #19 on: November 03, 2020, 10:56:02 am »
I still love retro stuff. I still play a lot of it.
I still hunt for stuff.
I just don’t buy near as much as I did. That’s mostly because of prices. I just won’t pay today’s prices.  I just buy things I want to play right now.

Word.

soera

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2020, 12:05:28 pm »
I dont really do the retro stuff anymore. The current gen (and soon to be next gen) has way too much to offer for me to keep going back to games Ive already played. There are a few titles that stick out retro that always entertain me (8/16 bit Metroid and Zelda for example) but I havent even touched any of those in a while. Gotta keep looking forward!

shfan

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #21 on: November 03, 2020, 12:53:57 pm »
I can hardly play any of my retro systems/games because they're not here with me or not set up, but I still actively collect and will probably start emulating at some point. Lack of availability is the main problem - the only games I come across in the wild now are PC CD-ROMs from the noughties, which is fine since I'm collecting them eagerly ATM, but anything else is few and far between (or traded for). I found a Spectrum game for 50p recently and scored 2 Megadrive and a Master System game for £2.40 each, as well as an interesting big-box PC game, but that's over the last few months and before that there was nothing except those noughties PC games and a couple of tasty PS2 games I traded for (10,000 Bullets and Sword of Etheria). EDIT: and CT Special Forces (PS1) and DW4/DW4 XL for the PS2.

wartoy

PRO Supporter

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #22 on: November 03, 2020, 08:53:05 pm »
I still love to collect and play retro but it's harder to find stuff I don't already have in my collection. I won't buy online cause I rather hunt down a good deal.Also I find it keeps my spending down it's just too easy to click a button and buy anything I want off ebay. Guess that's why even after 35+ years of collecting I'm still searching for so much stuff.
But I still love this hobby and wouldn't want it any other way.

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #23 on: November 04, 2020, 08:42:23 pm »
I definitely do. Just got done playing through Zelda 1 & 2, DuckTales, Crystalis, and Contra recently.

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #24 on: November 05, 2020, 11:41:13 am »
What you said is mostly true for me. I got into collecting during a time when it was accessible, cheap, and fun. I'd go to my local flea market every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend and literally fill up an entire backpack, with awesome retro games and consoles. Back then there was so much I still wanted and the idea of potentially finding that stuff for a few bucks somewhere really excited and motivated me to go out and hunt for it. Sadly around 2013 the hobby just took off and many of my honeyholes that I used to score big at consistently became less and less lucrative until I just wasn't finding anything anymore. I feel like hunting for retro game deals really died for me around 2017 or so; at that point I was lucky to find anything at a price I was willing to pay, and I rarely ever scored like I used to.


However, by that time I had 90%+ of what I'd ever wanted. My perspective on collecting really changed around that time too when I was forced to sell off a fairly large chunk of it twice. It just sort of made me realize I was far less attached to a lot of my collection than I once thought. Owning some super rare game was fun when I first got it and occasionally I'd think to myself, "wow, it's so cool I own that game" but other than that I wouldn't think about it ever. Also, there were a lot of games I owned that I told myself I'd play someday when I bought them, but being honest with myself I just couldn't see myself realistically doing this at any point.


If anything right now I'm more attracted to the idea of downsizing my collecting than expanding it. Sure, I still add games to it, mostly modern stuff, but someday having a massive, The Flea sized collection isn't something that appeals to me anymore. I'd much rather have a medium sized collection with games I really, really want and have some sort of attachment to. Also, wanting to play the games I own is also a must as well. I've also been way more interested in finding ways to preserve my ability to play older games and also how to play them with the best picture and sound. This has resulted in me being heavily interested in flash carts, disc emulators, upscalers, and better cables. I've been very interested in this stuff and am gradually working on optimizing and preserving all of my consoles and being able to play their games for the rest of my life without issue.


Sort of the final frontier of actual collecting I plan on getting into is buying arcade and pinball machines I grew up with in the 90s and early 2000s. I've never had the space and up until maybe a few years ago not even the money to even get started on this. I need to get a house first, and of course I'll probably be lucky to add 2 arcade machines a year to that collection, and even 1 pinball machine. Hell, I'll probably be lucky to get more than a single pinball machine every 2 or 3 years with how expensive they are, especially a few of the ones I'm after (Monster Bash, Medieval Madness). And yes, there are still some retro console games I'd still love to own. I've also been after CIB copies of games I already own loose carts of, particularly on the N64, Genesis, and SNES. I'm really in no rush though with these and just pick them up when I happen upon them at meetups or if someone is letting them go on one of the various Facebook collecting groups I belong to.


I'll always love video games and I'll always technically be a collector, however the days of picking up $2 SNES game pickups and adding 50 games to my collection in one month are long, long gone for me. But that's okay. I have so many wonderful memories of my time as a hardcore game hunter and collector, and I count myself very fortunate that I got into it during a time when it was way easier to do than it is now. So yeah, I don't have the same zest of retro game collecting I once did, but I still love retro games and always will.

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #25 on: November 16, 2020, 09:30:54 am »
Collecting AND playing anything that was available in my youth, from Nintendo Entertainment System until N64, and it's timemates from SEGA and SONY.

So, yea, HERE is someone who actually does - daily  8)
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WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM !!

telekill

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #26 on: November 16, 2020, 10:00:02 am »
I'm not out to buy complete sets or anything. The only retro games I buy these days are for my Game Gear and that's coming to an end after a handful of games are finally checked off the list. It's slow going and will wait well into next year for me to continue, but I'll eventually snag the last few on my list.

megasilverx1

Re: Is anyone among VGC still into collecting retro or playing retro?
« Reply #27 on: November 17, 2020, 09:49:05 pm »
I still get retro games but pretty much only stuff that interests me and isn't expensive; typically thrift store finds and import games is where most of my retro collection comes from. I recently dipped my feet into the WonderSwan library and was finally able to find a listing for a Game Boy Color game I've been waiting two years to get after trying it on an emulator. While I do play modern games, I don't end up purchasing all that many mainly due to how picky I am with modern games and my cheapness (why spend $60 or now $70 on a game day one I may or may not like, when I can just wait a few months or years and get it for considerably less?). I'll eventually get a PS5 at some point in the future when either a slim model releases or when/if Dragon Quest XII is released on it, but for now I'm perfectly content with my Switch and PS4 Pro for modern gaming.