Con-soul Searching: Your Princess is in Another Store
I have a lot of games. I actually own a few games that I have never played. I suppose it is kind of a waste of money but I got to spend it on something. After I graduated college (and actually had money to spend) I decided to start collecting all the games to my favorite franchises, Resident Evil, Zelda, Kirby, etc. Moving to Tulsa made it easier to find and buy old video games. Before Tulsa, I lived in the western part of Oklahoma and there were next to no options for finding vintage games. In Tulsa we have these stores called Vintage Stock. We talk about these stores on the podcast a lot. But “Vintage” is a store that sells old and new video games as far back as the Atari 2600 as well as movies, comics, toys and CDs. It is a haven for all different species of nerd. Honestly, Vintage is one of the reasons I moved to Tulsa.
Anyway, I started my collecting with Kirby. I would have started with Metroid but I already had all of them. Over time I found the SNES games and the GBA titles as well. I had a hard time finding the older Game Boy games. I soon discovered that it was just as much fun to go to the store and look for a game as it was to actually play it. Maybe I’m just a huge nerd, but it was really exciting to find a game after looking weeks for it. One thing I have noticed, the last game I need is always a Game Boy game. For Kirby it was Kirby’s Star Stacker, for Mega Man is was Mega Man V and for Resident Evil it was Resident Evil: Gaiden.
I can be a little OCD about this whole collecting thing sometimes. So I figured I would ask our wonderful, faithful reader’s opinion on some of the questions I find in collecting games. First, when would you consider a collection complete? The simple answer is, “when you have every game.” However, it isn’t always that easy. Take the game Resident Evil for example. There are four different versions of that game for the PlayStation. The original, a DuelShock version, a Director’s Cut and a DuelShock Director’s Cut. Do I have to own all four to complete my collection? How many of you would consider that the same game? If you do your homework, you will find that every one of those SKUs have different cut scenes in them. Is that enough to make them different games? Then there is the remake that came out for the GameCube. No doubt that is a game needed to complete a RE collection. What about ports of RE to different consoles? RE 2 and RE 3 have this same problem since they were both ported to several consoles, some versions having more features than others. I told you I was OCD about this.
Speaking of ports, what about digital download versions of games? Not only can I buy RE games of the PSN, but I can buy Kirby, Metroid and Zelda games off the Virtual Console. Is my Kirby collection incomplete because I didn’t rebuy Kirby’s Dream Land 3 off the VC? I have it for SNES already and it is the exact same version. Do I need to spend the extra money to own all the digital copies of games I already own? Am I the only one who thinks about this? You can tell me if I am crazy, I promise I won’t be mad.
What about crossovers and cameos? I still haven’t bought Soul Caliber II
for some reason. I think any Zelda fan would call my collection lacking without it. I should probably get around to buying Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks too. What about the CD-i games? I know they are not official Nintendo games and most fans consider them the black sheep of the franchise but I still think you have to own them if you want the complete collection. I know that means I have to buy a CD-i at some point. Dang it. Do I have to buy the Zelda wrist watch and the Zelda Game and Watch game? Buying those seems to cross over some line. Mostly because I would probably only find those for sale online. One rule I have about collecting game is to not buy them online. It takes the fun out of the hunt. It also works as a barrier to keep me from going too OCD over this collecting bug of mine.
These are just a few of the questions I have about my insane hobby. If you guys give me enough feedback, I will probably write a part two for this article. Maybe I can talk Tony into making a topic for the next podcast. Y’all let me know what you think in the comments. I can wait to hear how crazy you think I am.
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Every once in a while I’ll go into Vintage Stock with $5 in my hand and I’ll say, “What can I get today?” and I’ll just go over to the NES and SNES sections and just pull a random game off the shelf. I don’t always care what game it is. I’m trying to go back right now and build a bit of a handheld collection. I just bought two Game Boy Pockets for $9 off of Ebay and I’m trying to play some of those old Game Boy games I missed. I need to get a Game Boy Color so I can play Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.
“I soon discovered that it was just as much fun to go to the store and look for a game as it was to actually play it.”
This is me. But then it became way to expensive of a habbit for me and I can’t keep up with affording it now. So, I am looking for ways to curb my OCD into more specific collecting habbits. I was practically forced to sell off about 1/3 of my collection about a year ago, and since then it has gotten a bit easier. But, of course, haha, I have purchased many of those games I sold off again already.
So, as of now, I stand at rules of one version of a game. Preferably always hard copy versus digital, unless that doesn’t exist. Though, I have ventured to digital downloads on some games that the desire to play beat out the desire to collect at the moment. Even though I still desperately want to purchase those games in hard copy form as well, I will not let myself do that right now.
I also agree with you to buying games in stores and avoiding online purchases. They are too easy and take the fun out of it. But, occasionly certain games nag on me too much, that I turn to that option eventually.
But I am really trying to controll myself right now, and specifically narrowed some things down to major releases in select franchises. They have to franchises that really really interest me. I have tried to sell of games in other franchises were i only had mild intererst in an effort to minimize my collection to games I truly want to actually play – if I would ever even have time to play all the games i already own in my life time…
I’m a Star Wars fan, and a few years back, I said to myself, “I should try and collect all the Star Wars video games!”
I’m still working on that, slowly but surely.
This topic made me think about the Lego Star Wars games.
They have the Original Trilogy game, Prequel Trilogy, and then The Complete Saga…am I supposed to buy all of them!?
Well, my cheapness says, “No!” The Star Wars nerd says, “Yes!”
If my cash was limitless, and I was a hardcore collector, trying to complete a collection, I would say all versions of a game would have to be bought, for a COMPLETE collection.
I think the case of each game having different cut-scenes like the Resident Evil example you gave, would be an example of somebody that is a hardcore Resident Evil fan, wanting to have the collection and being able to play the games and know the differences.
You started by saying, “I actually own a few games that I have never played.”
I made a “rule” this console generation.
“No new games, until I beat the ones I have!”
The rule has just now started to be broken in the last few months.
Metroid Prime Trilogy is still sealed up.
Endless Ocean: Blue World has been played once.
Medal of Honor: Vanguard, played once.
Resistance: Fall of Man, played three times…maybe.