As of right now, I still have a pretty sizeable chunk of my game collection. A while ago I sold a bunch of boxed SNES games that I had bought for about 100 yen each back to local used book chain Book Off because they were eating up tons of space in my closet, but most of it remains intact. The problem with this collection though is that it's not doing anything, it's just sat there, collecting dust, I just own it for the sake of owning it.
I do know that there's quite a lot of people who like displaying their games. Piling them up in shelves like in the header image, putting jewel cases and boxes side by side or, in some cases, even putting them in special display cabinets. This is all fine and dandy but there are two problems with that. The first is a problem personal to me and many other collectors living in Japan where our houses or apartments just don't have to the space to do that, so even though I have a pretty sizable collection of PS1 games, they are just hiding in a cardboard box in my wardrobe. The second is that even if I could, I just don't give enough of a fuck do that, I don't see the appeal of it. Games are meant to be PLAYED, not looked at and I'm sure as shit that if you have a full wall of SNES games you aren't playing all of them any time soon. In fact, if what I've seen on Twitter is to be believed, you have that massive wall of games and yet all you do is sit there and play Super Mario World, Super Metriod and Tetris all day while the rest of it sits there unused and unloved.
What I realized though, the reason I started collecting all those games all those years ago is that I care about having access to these games more than I care about owning them. Sometimes, on a lazy afternoon, it would be nice to just grab a random handful of Saturn games, spread them around me on the floor like I'm a young lad again and whittle away the hours playing a bunch of shit I've never heard of. But nowadays that isn't necessary. Mini systems and more importantly, emulation exist now so you don't actually NEED to spend a ton of money and use a ton of space to have that experience, with a few clicks and some computer know how you can have that afternoon with the Saturn but at no cost and you'll still have the shelf space for a cactus or something.
"But Tau! Emulation is IlLeGaL" I hear some of the 40 year old British saddos on Twitter cry. Yes, to some extent they are correct, companies would probably rather you not download 3rd party software and their games and play them on your PC but who is really being hurt by emulation? Let's think on it for a second
One game I love dearly is Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne. A long while ago, after moving to Japan, I wanted to play it again on my nice PS2 that I bought in Book Off. So I went down to that very same Book Off to find a copy, and lo and behold there it was, the regular edition of SMT3 for about 600 yen. But wait, Nocturne in Japan isn't the same Nocturne I had in the UK, I had the Maniacs edition! So a bit more looking and I find the Maniacs edition for TWENTY THOUSAND FUCKING YEN. So I went home and I emulated it via PCSX2. Now who did I hurt by doing this? ATLUS? No because they got my high school pocket money when I bought it in England. The only people that lost out was the company that runs Book Off. Someone who wasn't related to it's production or publication missed out on $200 because I'm not willing to pay jacked up prices for game that came out in 2003.
But the, a miracle happened, a Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne HD Remaster was announced for the Switch and PS4 and lemme fuckin' tell ya, I bought that shit IMMEDIATELY. So the 20,000 yen I didn't give to whatever cunt runs Book Off I instead gave 6000 of it to ATLUS for the Switch version because SMT3 on the go is rad. The other 14,000 that I saved I can now use to buy other Atlus games like P5R (lol) and P5S or Persona Q or something like that. Money that will go to people who actually work on those games to hopefully give me more SMT games (SMT5 release date please I'm beggin ya) If however I HAD given my money to Book Off that instead though, I probably wouldn't buy the remaster because I already had it on PS2 and ATLUS would have lost out on a sale. Emulation reminded me just how awesome SMT3 still is after all those years, and then ATLUS sucked the money right out of my wallet with a version I can play on the go. ATLUS, if anything, owe a big thank you to PCSX2.
If I buy a classic game, I want that money to go to the developers or the people who may be involved in making another one, I want to vote with my wallet and tell those devs or publishers that this is what I want more of. I don't want to make some re-seller little cunt on Ebay $200 richer so he can buy more anime figurines to cum all over
I'm not saying however that game collecting is complete bullshit, if YOU personally get something out of it and you have the money to do it, then go for it. I know a couple guys who collect for specifically the Saturn and the PC Engine and to tell you the truth, the idea of curating a collection of games for one system that you're particularly passionate about does have a sort of lure to me even now. But if I'm being honest I'd rather save my money, support new IP and buy certain remakes of games I really like so that hopefully we can see some more from those series'
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