Game Collecting

[Clonehunter]

Maybe a weird question, but does anyone here buy games that you may find in a thrift store (or normal store) and buy, even if you don't own the corresponding console? Like maybe you're strolling the aisle in Goodwill, and you spot Jaguar Doom sitting by itself on a shelf for a buck. You don't have a Jaguar, but it's kinda cool anyways and it's only a buck so you buy it.

For example, there was that site (What was it?) that sold 1 dollar games, and they had Rad Racer for the SNES, though I have neither that system nor a PowerGlove (a la The Wizard), got 32x Doom though I have no 32x, and got a Genesis Jurassic Park game without the Genesis. I mean, I pick these titles because I'm familiar with other versions and their IPs, so I guess I kinda just collect 'em. It's too bad I'll probably never get to experience them, but it's nice to have them as far as, I don't know, collecting, I guess. Another variation of this is that I bought a copy of the Xbox Doom 3 Collector's Edition, though I didn't have an Xbox (I do now, as well as a quaint library of games). But it looked cool on a shelf. I don't know, anyone else do some compulsive cartridge buying, or the like? Or maybe, here on a Doom forum, colelct Doom ports without the actual consoles? Maybe it isn't that weird, from a collecting standpoint.

[doomgargoyle]

I collect all kinds of stuff. Usenet is my preferred store of choice. Sometimes DDL though, when downloading gets slow. Often I burn what i collect on CD/DVDs and sell them on a street corner for a profit. Business is great. I also sell them online. I could post some URLs if anyone here likes.

[Nordevai]

I've done this quite a few times actually, and just like you I bought the 32x doom despite not have the 32x to play it. In my younger years, I would buy Sega Saturn games (that still had there long boxes intact) simply for the fact I liked how they looked stacked next to each other on the shelf. I would have these games, including Doom for the Sega Saturn, for years before I finally decided to go by a Saturn console to play them.

Other examples of this include:

1: Buying a boxed copy of Doom II for the Mac while having never owned a apple computer.

2: Finding (and buying) a boxed copy of Raiden for the Atari Jaguar despite not having a Jaguar. I just thought having a boxed Atari game would be a cool addition to my game collection.

3: Buying Japanese Megadrive versions of Shinning Force I & II just because I really enjoyed the English games. Just like the example above I thought it would be cool to have them.

[Inkie]

I have an expanding collection of RPG books I'll probably not get enough friends to play, does that count?

[geekmarine]

I love collecting old games, but I'm kinda pragmatic about it, in that I collect them so I can play them. It's conceivable I might pick up a game for a console I don't currently own, but that's only going to lead me to later set out to acquire said console. Right now, though, I'm kinda focused on rebuilding my NES collection, so I tend to ignore old games unless they're NES... though I mean, if I happened to see something for another console at a Goodwill, I might consider it, but then again, the Goodwills around here are total crap and never have anything interesting.

But yeah, like I said, I collect the games to actually play them - downside is it means I'm okay with adding games to my collection even if they're not in perfect condition (got a couple with scratched labels and whatnot). But hey, I just beat Double Dragon II on medium today, so that's pretty sweet (even if technically speaking, it doesn't really count because you can't even get to the final boss unless you play on hard).

[Quasar]

I went around to every thrift and charity store and pawn shop in this area looking for copies of either DOOM or Final DOOM for PSX and cannot find either.

They're easy to find places like eBay, but I'm terrified of buying a CD-ROM based game on there. I know I'm going to end up blowing $30 or more on a game that shows up scratched to fuck and either won't boot or crashes mid-way through the game by locking up the disc drive.

If anybody has excess copies of either of those games, or SNES DOOM, I am open to buy. Maybe also interested in GBA Doom and Doom II, to a lesser degree :P

[Clonehunter]

I've encountered the game a couple times at various Half-Price Books stores, Quasar. I think they were less than 30 bucks, but still a lot more than their normal game prices, roughly 12 to maybe 20 USD. They always seemed to be in decent condition, though. I don't know if you have any of those stores around you, Quasar.

Inkie said:

I have an expanding collection of RPG books I'll probably not get enough friends to play, does that count?

I've actually been collecting any Cyberpunk 2020 books I find. :P

[GreyGhost]

Clonehunter said:

I don't know, anyone else do some compulsive cartridge buying, or the like? Or maybe, here on a Doom forum, colelct Doom ports without the actual consoles?

Heh. I've purchased most of the console ports and the Mac Dooms, but none of the hardware to run them on.

[MFG38]

Nah, I don't really collect games in that nature. We don't even have proper thrift stores where I live, and even the few that do exist don't sell games apart from some old PC titles that I couldn't care less about.

[Yuki Senmatsu]

I've seen some myself. One of the was a gem I was looking for ages, Toejam and Earl Panic On Funkatron. I've also found Rise Of The Triad full version, however only has its jewel case.

This may seem a bit off topic but, I've also found a Sega CD and boy, was it pricey. $60.

Dang.

Another was Take No Prisoners (Boxed), Quake 2, and one of its expansions, HeXen II (Boxed), and Fripple town.

Heck, there was one time I found a hell of a lot of Old PC games at this years City Wide Yard Sale. a dollar a piece. Quite a bargain!

Don't ya just love it when filesize is over 200 KB? Bah:
http://puu.sh/cVJjY/27297fd1d1.png

My childhood like that never dies when it comes to pawn, thrift shops, and yard sales if lucky.

[Kontra Kommando]

My friend had purchased an unopened NES a few years ago, and actually opened it to play games.

However, similar to out-of-box, NESs that have been used for the past 30 years, it suffers from the same malfunctions. When you turn it on, it takes a while to get it running, because the console will continuously resets on and off.

On a side note, I had an SNES, with a bunch of games that I had actually kept for many years. But my other friend, who was a dope head, stole it and sold it for heroin money. I would probably still be mad at him, if he wasn't dead right now.

[Waffenak]

I collect games and consoles quite extensively. I buy games for consoles which I dont own, yet. It's like building jigsaw puzzle, you are making progress slowly and connecting bigger areas together. For example, I had atari jaguar custom duo-power powersource before I even had the bloody console. When I see a good bargain I buy it because I know someday I will have some use for it.

[Pencil of Doom]

I do plan to buy X360, X1, PS4 games in the future as well Saturn, PSX and PS2 games because by buying them it will save the trouble of looking for them and buying them, even through i do not own any of these consoles except the PS2, but until then it will take some years before i have enough money to purchase them.
And when i do have all the games i want, then i will buy thier respective consoles and buy another one and some controllers to serve as a backup, in case a controller breaks or a console brokes, then i won't have to worry.

[StevieWolfe]

I collect a lot of classic and retro games when I have the actual funds to do so. If they're on a system I don't even own, eventually I buy that system...I'm one of those people who go out of their way to play PS1 games on an actual PS1 even though I already own a backwards compatible PS3 (otherwise known as a loud as fuck space heater). Its like part of the nostalgia I guess.

[geo]

I collect a lot of shitty Steam games. Luckily it doesn't take any space.

[geekmarine]

You know, the NES is a hardy little machine. The problem, as I understand it, is mostly due to the spring-loaded mechanism that sometimes interferes with the games connecting correctly. That and dust and whatnot getting on the leads. But I will say, even given their age, I've never had an NES outright fail on me - or any games, for that matter. It may take a little fiddling with the system, cleaning the leads, or whatever, but I've never had a game just not work altogether.

[Kontra Kommando]

geekmarine said:

You know, the NES is a hardy little machine. The problem, as I understand it, is mostly due to the spring-loaded mechanism that sometimes interferes with the games connecting correctly. That and dust and whatnot getting on the leads. But I will say, even given their age, I've never had an NES outright fail on me - or any games, for that matter. It may take a little fiddling with the system, cleaning the leads, or whatever, but I've never had a game just not work altogether.

I always had to resort to the placebo method of blowing into the cartridge. When I was around 5 or 6, I had even thought getting a bit of saliva on the computer chip part somehow helped. Even taking q-tips, and wiping the chip with rubbing alcohol. Then there was the method of patting the cartridge against your lap, to rattle around the insides. Pretty much the same logic of hitting a TV to get it to work.

[Inkie]

geekmarine said:

You know, the NES is a hardy little machine. The problem, as I understand it, is mostly due to the spring-loaded mechanism that sometimes interferes with the games connecting correctly. That and dust and whatnot getting on the leads. But I will say, even given their age, I've never had an NES outright fail on me - or any games, for that matter. It may take a little fiddling with the system, cleaning the leads, or whatever, but I've never had a game just not work altogether.

IIRC it was the pins that contact the cart were made of cheapo metal and corrodes easily. There exists replacements of a hardier material.

[Stupid Bunny]

One problem with the front-loading NES's as I hear it is that, because of the way the games are inserted (or maybe it is just the metal used), the 72-pin connectors would get slightly bent out of shape over time and eventually unable to contact properly. My NES has been working fine for years, so long as I keep taking care of it. I also have an Atari 2600 which definitely has issues connecting with certain games sometimes. Some of those carts lack built-in dust covers which is kind of annoying too, since they'll accumulate dust quickly and I feel nervous about cleaning them. My friend also gave me an SNES some years ago but I keep forgetting to look for it.

[CODOR]

Clonehunter said:
Maybe a weird question, but does anyone here buy games that you may find in a thrift store (or normal store) and buy, even if you don't own the corresponding console?

Sort of; I've bought games for systems I own but aren't operational (not necessarily unusable, just taken apart and put in a box somewhere). For example: I finally bought Doom 64 sometime after Doom64EX came out, even though my real N64 hasn't been turned on in about a decade. And the binge I went on a few years back buying physical copies of a bunch of DOS games (most of which haven't been run outside of DOSBox).

I'd probably buy copies of various Doom console ports if I were to find them, despite only owning an N64 and SNES...

[Kontra Kommando]

Inkie said:

[The metal] corrodes easily.

I believe this to be the most significant reason for an NES malfunctioning. More so than wear and tear, and dust. My friend's unopened/untouched NES malfunctioning is a testament to that.

[GreyGhost]

Kontra Kommando said:

Pretty much the same logic of hitting a TV to get it to work.

Not much point doing so these days, but a bit of percussive maintenance would occasionally work wonders with valve TVs.

[Doominator2]

Its strange for me, some games I do collect them in there physical form and others I will just digitally download(for example: I have a boxed version of Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment, however I have a digital download of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2)

[doomgargoyle]

I collect games and other programs, like porn and such, on external harddrives, usually theyre easier to carry when the ESA and BSA raids come along.

[Nordevai]

StevieCybernetik said:

backwards compatible PS3 (otherwise known as a loud as fuck space heater).

Have you taken it apart and cleaned it lately? Back when God of War 3 came out a friend of mine bought it and I came over one day when he was playing it on his PS3. The damn thing sounded like a rocket trying to take off into orbit, so we took it apart and cleaned out the ridiculous amount of dust that had gathered inside the console. After that the console was not nearly as loud as it was before.

[Kontra Kommando]

GreyGhost said:

Not much point doing so these days, but a bit of percussive maintenance would occasionally work wonders with valve TVs.

I meant the old tube sets. I guess this sort of method evolved from Happy Days, when Fonzie would hit the jukebox, and make it work. lol

I would never think to strike a beautiful LED display though.

[Quasar]

Kontra Kommando said:

I meant the old tube sets. I guess this sort of method evolved from Happy Days, when Fonzie would hit the jukebox, and make it work. lol

I would never think to strike a beautiful LED display though.

I had a CRT attached to my 486 that, for a while, needed a good "slap upside the head" in order to make the color correct. It would suddenly go all yellow, or cyan, or magenta, like one of the primary signals was shut off. Slapping it really hard would suddenly make the color go back to normal. I discovered this just by getting frustrated with it the first time and giving a relatively light smack.

As time went on it started requiring harder ones. I got rid of that monitor (and the computer unfortunately, regrets >___<) after not very long though.

[Waffenak]

Boxed games are just too much fun. It'sa joy to pull a box from game shelf, look at the cover art, read the manual and play the game eventually. I also always clean consoles I acquire, that way you also learn how to maintain them and the structural layout. I use compressed air via compressor because bottled air is just stupid and costly if you already own compressor. Cleaning cartridge pin connectors qtip and windex is recommended, blowing cartridge gets them just more dirty. Youtube user adam koralik got some good hardware/game maintaining videos if you are interested in keeping your gaming stuff in pristine shape.

[doomgargoyle]

Quasar said:

I had a CRT attached to my 486 that, for a while, needed a good "slap upside the head" in order to make the color correct. It would suddenly go all yellow, or cyan, or magenta, like one of the primary signals was shut off. Slapping it really hard would suddenly make the color go back to normal. I discovered this just by getting frustrated with it the first time and giving a relatively light smack.

As time went on it started requiring harder ones. I got rid of that monitor (and the computer unfortunately, regrets >___<) after not very long though.

I had one of those too, that I got while dumpster diving in the neighborhood, and going through some stuff in a moving truck. Its amazing what people leave unattended.

[GreyGhost]

Kontra Kommando said:

I meant the old tube sets. I guess this sort of method evolved from Happy Days, when Fonzie would hit the jukebox, and make it work. lol

Haven't fed a jukebox for ages. They have a fairly complex mechanism that's driven by a handful of electric motors and solenoids, and are probably prone to jamming if not serviced regularly. Fonzie's trick is knowing where and how hard to hit. ;)

Quasar said:

I had a CRT attached to my 486 that, for a while, needed a good "slap upside the head" in order to make the color correct. It would suddenly go all yellow, or cyan, or magenta, like one of the primary signals was shut off. Slapping it really hard would suddenly make the color go back to normal. I discovered this just by getting frustrated with it the first time and giving a relatively light smack.

Most likely a dry solder joint or two, with the tube socket and RGB driver transistors being my prime suspects, that's a few minutes work with a soldering iron. Slapping the monitor can temporarily remake a connection by jarring the affected component/s into a slightly different position, unfortunately that movement tends to further weaken the already damaged solder joints, so naturally you compensate by slapping it harder until percussive maintenance no longer has any effect.

Worst case scenario would be an intermittent short inside the tube, which is unrepairable.