I love retro games, I always have. Despite my childhood being the 2010’s, I grew up with a gameboy color, and I would emulate GBA, GB, and even N64 games on my crappy android I had at the time.
Because of the power of emulation I was able to grow up with classics like Silent Hill, Megaman Zero, Pokemon Crystal, Metal Gear, so on and so forth. But when I turned 16, and I was able to get my first job, I became especially interested in collecting games, games that I actually like to play. But now that i’m older and I actually have financial responsibilities, and don’t even get me started on how the retro gaming market just continues to inflate, its getting to a point where its just not feasible for me to continue collecting.
Silent Hill 3 is literally my favorite horror game ever, and I will never be able to afford a copy, or even if I did have the money to spare I could never justify the absurd price. I will never own a legitimate copy of Megaman Legends, Pokemon Platinum, Rule of Rose, or so many of these games that I really do care about and want to be able to experience on authentic hardware.
But whats even more frustrating about it all to me are the types of collectors that want something specifically because it is rare. The type of people to buy a game and shove it in a plastic box on a shelf where it will collect dust and never be played or appreciated beyond it’s box art. It is so frustrating to me because collectors of games, as opposed to people who actually want to play and appreciate these games and make memories off them and share those experiences with their friends, are driving up the market values of games to unaffordability.
Anyways I think I am going to give up collecting games. I still have a large collection of PS2, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, MSDOS, and PS1 games, but I am done trying to get more. I might occasionally shell out a little bit on the occasional cheaper game that catches my eye, but trying to get a lot of my favorite titles is a sisiphusian endeavor.
I like to look at my games on the shelf too. When I pick up my copy of ruby, I renember the first time I beat the Pokémon league back in elementary school. When I pick up my copy of Megaman Zero, I renember how many tries it took me just to beat the first boss and how proud I was when I finally did. The difference to me however, is that I beleive that video games deserve to be played, that they are made to be played. For as long as our consoles still run, for as long as disks can escape the slow inevitability of disk rot, they should be enjoyed and appreciated. The original experience won’t exist forever. So we should just enjoy it for as long as it is there. My PS2 just broke recently, and I’m buying the part to make that repair to it because I could just not fix it and leave it as a paperweight on my shelf, but I actually care about playing these games.
When you shove sealed games inside a plastic display case never to be opened again, you aren’t getting the same value as someone that will play that game, because playing a game doesn’t preclude you from admiring it on your shelf.
The gaming collection scene isn’t quite what it used to be. Now it’s people trying to flex how big their wallets are, show how many titles they can hoard like a dragon. Scarcity and the decay of old tech will inevitably lead to prices rising, but now it’s all hype and very bad speculative investments. It’s not about the actual games and being able to re-experience that anymore and I think that’s sad.