What inspired you to collect retro games?

[VideoGameCritic]

It just occurred to me that the beginning of my classic gaming obsession began with a small, one-page article in Rolling Stone. It was from the late 90's and it talked about how all your old favorite games from your youth were now easily available on the internet. The article featured a picture of a pristine Atari 2600 console with a big stack of colorful games.

You know the rest of the story. First you try to collect your old favorites, and then you start collecting systems you never owned but WANTED to own back in the day. Next thing you're collecting obscure stuff like the Vectrex and CD-i.

So what's your story?

[Retro STrife]

I would guess that almost every story is along the same lines as yours Critic, with some variables along the way. Maybe the only big difference is where it ends, since some people are better at using their good sense or financial reasons to avoid getting too far down the obscurity rabbit hole. But my guess is it almost always starts with everyone going through the phase of collecting their old favorites.

[In fact, because everyone goes through that initial phase, usually in their 20s/30s, it creates a bottleneck of excessive collecting for certain eras (usually 2-4 system generations in the past) that temporarily inflates the interest and prices of games from those eras. This was the premise for my theory that "Every Good System Gets Two Lives" that I posted a few months back. viewtopic.php?f=5084&t=15026 ... But I digress...]

As far as my variables...for me it was that the Saturn got me started, although it really wasn't even "retro" yet at the time. In like 2001 or so, I bought a Saturn and caught up on that library. I was still in high school and I liked that I was playing unique games, like NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon Saga, that none of my friends were playing. I liked it so much that I bought an Atari Jaguar for the same reason. Then I found out about the Zelda games on CD-i and I had to try those, so I got a CD-i and the Zelda/Mario games for it. I was hooked. I probably bought a few other old systems around that time that I never had, and also caught up on old favorites. I got away from it for the first few years of college, but then got back to it after that, and went right back to snatching up less mainstream systems (like 3DO and Turbografx) along with the more common stuff. While I do own all the mainstream systems, I still prefer finding the terrible and obscure systems that no one else wants. My most recent obscurity was an Action Max set that I stumbled upon at a convention this weekend...I like that kind of find much more than any old favorites.

[Gentlegamer]

Pretty sure we've had this topic before.

I never stopped playing old games, but through my magical discovery of emulation in the late 90s.

Looking up info led me to Atari Age, Digital Press, and here, where not only were old games celebrated and played, but collected/preserved/documented. I slowly got into buying "the real thing" over time.

One big factor was seeing all the articles on Video Game Mania on this site. And why it burns my soul that VGM has been discontinued permanently. *sad face*

[rockofhysteria]

I don't know if I'm Necessarily a collector of classic games it was more like when I started making real good money from Pro Wrestling I wanted to go back and experience some of the consoles I missed out on in my youth things like a SNES(grew up in a Genesis Family) a Colecovision(my dad would rave about it all throughout my childhood especially the game Ladybug) and a PS1 (N64 family). I don't actively seek out games or anything like that it's more if I happen to come across something I would like to try I buy it.

[Robotrek]

Back in the mid 90's I too was on the net, and realized that the local newspaper had it's own "craigslist" type deal going on. I remember seeing ads for NES games. Parents who's kids had left for college or other purposes wanted to unload all of this stuff. I went from house to house for 3 years picking up NES games for either cheap, or for NOTHING in many cases. By 1999 I had acquired well over 400 NES games. I then moved on to the Genesis and kept on from there. I guess I did this because I wanted to play all of the games I had missed. It's like how now, 7th gen stuff is SUPER cheap, because it's just now falling out of style.

[Herschie]

Been playing them all my life and they're fun. That's about it.

[pacman000]

I was started on classic games.

Went to a birthday party at a skating rink. Didn't know how to skate. There was an arcade, so my mom showed me how to play Pac-Man. When we got home my dad pulled out the Atari, & I got to see Tod Fry's craftsmanship. Not that bad, to a 6 year old . I kept my eye open for Atari games since then, when going to yard sales and the like.

Eventually I got a Game Boy for Christmas. I was probably 7. I never really stopped playing Game Boy games, even after the system was obsolete. I did get the latest versions GB Color, GBA. I stopped upgrading when Nintendo dropped backwards compatibility. Still haven't gotten anything in the DS line.

We got a PlayStation after the PS2 came out; I've never really dropped that one either.