[The Obligatory "post-divorce, thinking of selling my collection" thread]

Wow.

Asking for life advice from a bunch of video game collectors is a pretty risky move.

But since you asked ...

Unless you were playing games non-stop all the time instead of working or looking for a job - there is nothing wrong with having a hobby.

I collect and play old video games (I have 30+ consoles, 15+ handhelds and a MAME cabinet). It is all downstairs in the man cave - she gets the rest of the house

I play games a few hours a week and she watches her stupid hallmark movies and fixer upper show.

Keep it reasonable, dude - and find a woman who is OK with it because it is you. Don't try to change just because someone else doesnt like who you are. If she isn't OK with it, then she is not the one. There is someone for everyone - Hell, I see guys with girls at comic con all the time.

In case you haven't noticed - it is OK to be a geek these days. Hell, you should have grown up back in the 70s and 80s when I did. You had to hide in the basement and pretty much give up on ever having a girlfriend.

Keep it reasonable and be yourself - cant go wrong.

[Tempest help]

Tempest it tought to translate because it is just not the same without the spinner.

Don't expect it to be all that great on a phone. Play it like it was originaly designed - on an arcade machine (or at least mame).

Use your phone for calling people and talking to them.

[The best arcades you have ever been to?]

 

I vacation in NH with my family every summer (for 12 years now). We go to funspot every year - it is a tradition.

There are TONS of old classic arcade games, many very obscure. It was great to go from one game to another and relive the past fun. There are also dozens of pinball games as well.

Howevver - I have noticed a slow but steady degradation of the experience over the years. An 'out of order' game used to be a rare thing there, now they are all over the place.

This year - Just two weeks ago:

The side to side movement on the joystick in the sit down Red Baron machine did not work - not much fun when you can only go up and down.

The vertical movement on the Gunfight machine did not work.

The screen on the Xybots machine was dark

and worst of all - The Battelzone machine and the Tempest machine did not work at all! Two of hte greatest classics sitting there unplugged.

And on and on.

My friend is an big pinball fan and he was dissapointed that so many pinball machines were out of order as well.

But you could watch a video of the owner on American Restoration and look at a restored 'Shoot the Bear' game behind a rope with a 'do not touch' sign. That would be really neat if the Battelzone game worked as well.

They seem to have plenty of people working on the ticket-spewing redemption games and serving pizzas in the bowling alley, but the classic arcade machines that Funspot uses as thier claim to fame do not seem to get any attention. How tough would it be for the "Worlds Largest Arcade" to get someone to fix the Tempest game. Come on!

UPDATE from this years vacation- two years after my above post.

Couldn't find the Red Baron game at all.

Screen on Xybots stll too dark. Still can't really play it.

The joysticks on Robotron 2084 were fixed this year and it was playable - first time in three years.

The Battlezone game was back in order and working well.

The sit-down Star Trek game was dark - not working.

About 10%-15% of the games were dark and out of order - including the Computer Space game which I remember playing last year.

Not only was Tempest not working - it was nowhere to be seen!!! I have been to the "World's Largest Arcade" three years in a row and been unable to play Tempest.

Overall - it was worth going to since I was in the area - but I would have been dissapointed if I travelled to see it at all. Let's face it, Funspot wants to be a classis video game icon and tout itself in all the promo material and ads, but if they can't have a working Tempest game on sight - it is all blather!!!

Oh, by the way, their 'museum' display is pathetic. They have some hand held table top games, and some new flashback consoles in the case. My basement is a better museum that that.

 

They did have a new indoor putt putt golf course, though. And all the kiddie-vegas ticket games were working just fine.

I also noted that many of the pinbal games now take two tokens..

[Beautiful Moments in Gaming]

When I found a Vectrex at a garage sale for like $25. I cried tears of joy. When the guy plugged it in and it actually worked flawlessly - I was a total blubbering mess.

 

Seriously - When I read that Ralph Baer passed away a few months ago, I had to stop for a moment and pay respect to the great engineer and all around good guy that made all of this possible.

[Consoles you just can't get excited about]

Despite not being a console and living in the UK I can't get excitied about Spectrums, mainly because I grew up with Commodores and the few I have owned have been unreliable and died on me. I think also the graphics is a big put off with many games having the blue\yellow colour scheme. I currently own just two spectrums - Mostly just for use at gaming events as they are popular in the UK - both Grey +2's from the Amstrad Era (seems to be the one to have for most compatibility) and one is Spanish with Spanish Keyboard just to be a bit different from the normal ones.

 

The other is the Atari Jaguar for many reasons - one of the few major systems not to have a proper multicart\everdrive cart system released for it. Even though only 67 games were released for it, its bizarre popularity has put me off wanting to collect for it, but I don't have much love for any of the major systems released during the Fifth Generation and it was a generation of systems I skipped and never owned back in the day.

 

Handheld systems do not excite me much either and I don't collect them or for them. I do still own my original Gameboy though, so guess that is the exception and a modded Sega Gamegear with Controller Port and TV out, so its not really used as a handheld anymore. I also don't class the Virtual Boy as a handheld and own one and have collected all but 9 original cartridges for it - 4 of which I doubt I will ever own due to being stupidly rare and high in price.

 

I own over 150+ consoles and computers in my collection. I am currently going through a phaze of collecting games for some obscure Japanese systems. I do get much more excited about the obscure systems than the common ones and still till this day every so often come across a system I have never heard of or seen before.

No one gets excited about the Spectrums for pete's sake.

[Consoles you just can't get excited about]

The 3DO and Jaguar just dont have enough good games.

The Genesis Sega CD, too. Most of the games blew. They put a lot of little video clips in them. It was neat at the time, but it is dated now and kills the playability.

[Adding a Second Classic System to the Garage]

Get 'em both!

Who are you kidding. If it is that hard of a decision, just get them both. You know you want too, so go for it.

I always tell my wife that I look for good deals so that I can always turn around and sell them and get my money back if I need to.

Never have needed to, though.

[The hijacked Odyssey Market]

I really wanted an Odyssey for my collection bud didnt want to pay the ridiculous prices on most ebay auctions (which were usually the same seller). A few years ago, I bid on and won a non-working system for about $150. When the system arrived, I took it apart and the battery tray was disconnected from the main board - it did not look like it had ever been connected. i connected it and "viollla" the system worked like new. I think it may have never been played.

 

Well, I then contacted Ralph Baer (rest in peace) through his website and he agreed to autograph the console if I shipped it to him with return postage. Now I have an Odyssey that works like new and has Ralph Baer's autograph.

 

Don't give up - keep trying.

[What did you like about the arcade environment back-in-the-day?]

The early 80s were the best! When the dancing and redemption games started taking over in the 90s it was all over for me.

[How to fix a game.com?]

It might be tough to find anyone who works on them, and then it may be more cost effective to buy another one. I had the same issue with my Microvision when it died of screen rot. I had to just buy another one.

Just dont pay too much. In my opinion, the game.com systems are the most ridiculously overpriced handhelds on ebay for what you get. You have to be a total hopeless case like me who just wants to put one in your collection. They are not worth anywhere near what they are going for with respect to their playability value - which is just this side of $0.

[Top Ten eBay Red Flags]

NEVER buy from an ad that uses a stock photo. It is really easy to take a photo of the actual article. They are hiding something.

[Do You Buy Retro Videogames as an Investment?]

No, but don't tell my wife that.

[The best arcades you have ever been to?]

Well I am in NH now on vacation, and one of the main reasons we are vacationing here, is that I wanted to take the family to Funspot.

 

It was amazing to see all the classic arcade machines, but to be completely honest, it was a let down.

 

We spent all day yesterday there (there are tons of redemption games, newer games, bowling etc. in addition to the ACAM classics).

 

There were many machines that were out of order completely, and many more that appeared to be operational, only when you went to play them, the coin mechs were covered with out of order stickers.

 

Even more still had issues like no sound, dim monitors, broken controls etc...

 

No exaggeration, fully about a third of all the machines had some issue and were unplayable.

 

If this were any other place but Funspot, and I saw an arcade with this many machines in disrepair, I'd sounding the death knell.

 

ACAM is in serious need of some help repairing these machines.

 

I don't regret coming here, this area of NH is simply stunning, and a great place to visit, but I can tell you that Funspot itself was very underwhelming.

 

 

I vacation in NH with my family every summer (for 12 years now). We go to funspot every year - it is a tradition.

There are TONS of old classic arcade games, many very obscure. It was great to go from one game to another and relive the past fun. There are also dozens of pinball games as well.

Howevver - I have noticed a slow but steady degradation of the experience over the years. An 'out of order' game used to be a rare thing there, now they are all over the place.

This year - Just two weeks ago:

The side to side movement on the joystick in the sit down Red Baron machine did not work - not much fun when you can only go up and down.

The vertical movement on the Guunfight machine did not work.

The screen on the Xybots machine was dark

and worst of all - The Battelzone machine and the Tempest machine did not work at all! Two of hte greatest classics sitting there unplugged.

And on and on.

My friend is an big pinball fan and he was dissapointed that so many pinball machines were out of order as well.

But you could watch a video of the owner on American Restoration and look at a restored 'Shoot the Bear' game behind a rope with a 'do not touch' sign. That would be really neat if the Battelzone game worked as well.

They seem to have plenty of people working on the ticket-spewing redemption games and serving pizzas in the bowling alley, but the classic arcade machines that Funspot uses as thier claim to fame do not seem to get any attention. How tough would it be for the "Worlds Largest Arcade" to get someone to fix the Tempest game. Come on!

[What are some cheap consoles to get a complete collection for?]

What is the point of collecting something if it is crap? You could collect all the game.com stuff and you would have a bunch of crap. I got a game.com and some games off ebay and after about ten minutes decided to heck with this system, it is crap.

What good is a collection if you dont want to play it? I never understood any other mindset.

[Comedian pokes fun at the future of video games]

Back to the OP, I really didnt think the guy was all that funny.

[Comedian pokes fun at the future of video games]

Back to the OP, I really didnt think the guy was all that funny.

[Sega Game Gear, just picked up some stuff, no idea...]

Depends on what you paid. Nice instant collection, though!

[If you had to pick one system to keep...]

I find myself playing my Vectrex and my Dreamcast the most.

I think I would choose the Vectrex. Because when people see it they go "Wow, what is that?"

[So how did you get your first 5200?]

Try craigslist. I got my 2-port model for $20 from there about a year ago.

 

I keep looking there, too. It seem like CL is all newer stuff these days. Classic systems are getting pretty few and far between.

There was a 5200 on CL about a month ago. It "worked the last time it was played years ago" and "have no way of testing it". He had it listed for over $100. The listing stated that that was because "That is what they are going for on Ebay."

[So how did you get your first 5200?]

I am trying to buy one on ebay -but people seem to think a used 5200 is worth over $100!

I can't seem to touch one for less - everyone keeps bidding them up!

I may never own one - I would like to round out my Atari console collection, but I am not going to overpay for something.

[Boy runs up $2550 iPad bill playing zombie game]

Serves them right.

Watch the kid closer next time.

a $500 ipad on the internet is not a toy for a 5 yr old.

[Ebay sellers!]

This is why I never buy anything that has a 'stock photo' in the listing. I bought a 'like new' copy of Resident Evil Code Veronica for my Dreamcast. What showed up was broken, stained and water damaged. The package was fine, so it had to have been packed like that. I contacted the seller and they gave me a load, refused to do anything, and threatened to report ME to Ebay. I gave them negative feedback, and a few days later, it was no longer on thier profile and they were back to a 100% rating. Somehow they got my feedback removed and I never knew it. Come on, Ebay!! Way to protect the customer.

 

I am now trying to buy a 5200 and I cannot get any seller to give me a clear answer as to the condition of the console and they almost all post blurry photos.

 

I would like to give up on Ebay, but they are now the only game in town for consoles and games - all the used game stores in my area are out of business and Goodwill/Salvation Army never has anything.

[Kickstarter project -- Want to help open a store?]

Working on his third masters degree and working part time at home depot??

[Keeping a collection from getting out of control. (What to keep or not.)]

Don't worry. Keep doing what you are doing. You sound perfectly reasonable and normal to me.

[microvision screen repair?]

My understanding is that screen rot is a death sentence for the Microvision. You can find working ones on ebay for not too much. I bought one about 5 years ago to replace my rotted one and it is still going strong. If it survives 30 years and still works, it will likely stay that way for a long time if you take care of it. Dry environment and no extreme temperatures.