Silverfleet's Big Stupid Collection Thread

[Silverfleet]

A little background: I was born in 1982, right before the big video game crash you read about all the time. For Christmas of 1982, my older sister got a Colecovision, my family played that thing all the time. It was the first game system I ever played as a very young kid. Fast forward to Christmas of 1987, when I was 5, and my parents got me a NES, specifically the set that came with R.O.B., and life was never the same from that moment forward. I was hopelessly hooked.

 

Fast forward to the early 2000's, when I was in college. I caught the nostalgia bug and started playing my old NES and other older systems again, and decided that I wanted more. I was having a conversation with a lady at my part time job who had a flea market booth on the weekends, and she said that there was a big box of old Atari 2600 stuff that they had picked up to sell. She told me I could have it for $35, and I agreed. She brought it into work the next day, and there were over 100 games, complete with instruction manuals, a 4-switch woody, and tons of paddles and joysticks. Jackpot!!! From there, I started hoarding game consoles and games. Anything I could find for cheap, I bought. I hit up thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, and game stores looking for deals, and started amassing a collection. And as brick and mortar stores like Circuit City and FYE closed in my area, I raided them for heavily discounted games and gear. I still lived at home, so a lot of it stayed packed up and unplayed.

 

Fast forward again to 2010. I was engaged, and my future wife and I bought a house. We moved in, and so did my games. My collecting slowed down a but, but I had amassed an inventory of games over the years that would keep me busy for decades to come. A few years ago, my wife decided to change career paths from studying to be a teacher to the healthcare and administration field, so her home office was changed into our "Retro Room". It was small, but it was something!

 

Today, my collection is pretty nicely rounded, with consoles and games ranging from the 2600 to the 360/PS3 era. Modern consoles are in the living room hooked up to the HDTV, while the older stuff is in our "Retro Room". Right now, my wife has been giving me the "You have way too much stuff!" speech, so I'm trying to find ways to better set up the room to maximize the space while making it look less cluttered. This thread will be about the items in my collection, as well as making the best use of space in our small house. Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

[VectorGamer]

BRB reinstalling Windows to see the pix

[Silverfleet]

And now, some pics, because reading is no fun:

 

 

Here's the TV stand I have in the room right now. The TV is a Samsung 25", and it's not great. I bought it back in high school, and while it still mostly works, it only has front and rear composite A/V inputs. My switch box has S-Video Out, so it's kind of a waste. On top of the switch box is my PS2 Slim. To the left of the TV is my original NES game caddy that I've had since around 1990. In there are all my "black label" NES titles. The middle shelf holds my NES, SNES, N64, and Gamecube. The bottom shelf holds my SMS, Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast. There's usually a TurboGrafx 16 and a Famicom floating around there too.

 

 

This is the top shelf of a 4-shelf Ikea wire rack shelf, and this is part of the problem. There is stuff like this EVERYWHERE in this room. Whatever is piled up here can change from time to time, but the Vectrex is always there.

 

 

See what I mean?

 

 

I rescued our family Colecovision from the trash a LONG time ago, and since then, kept it safe and working. It usually hangs out in this box now because I don't have a place to put it on my TV stand.

 

Here it is in it's mutated form! I picked up an Expansion Module #1 for it about a year and a half ago.

 

While I don't have a pic of that big box of Atari goodness I talked about in my previous post, I do have a pic of this sweet hardshell case I snagged at a yard sale. It came basically just like this, filled with mostly Tele-Games carts. This is the 2600 of choice in my house, but I also have that 4-switch woody (and the above Coleco Expansion Module) too.

 

Straight from 1987, it's R.O.B.! He's missing one of the gyro spinners, a gyro, and a hand attachment, but he's mostly there and still works.

 

A friend of mine recently "donated" a lot of his games to me for my collection, including this nice boxed NES and about 30 games. It still has the price tag on the box! I also have a boxed Action Set and another box like this one kicking around somewhere.

 

 

This is a leaning tower of PSone and Dreamcast titles in a closet in my house. When we moved in, a bout 1/3 of these got wet when my garage flooded, which still makes me angry. The games are fine, but a lot of the artwork got screwed up. I'm working on getting them out of the closet and into that room.

 

 

My most recent console acquisition is this AV-modded Famicom that I picked up a few months ago. I love this thing. It's exhibiting jail bars, so I need to take a look inside and see what I can do.

 

 

I picked up this Saturn around 1997 from a friend who got bored of it and got a Playstation instead. I got it and 6 games (including Guardian Heroes!) for like $80. I always had trouble finding games for it, even back then, so my Saturn collection is pretty small.

 

 

I LOVE the long box PSone games. These are the only ones I have, but there are a few good ones in there.

 

 

I also have a ton of booklets, magazines, and posters around. I want to frame and hang this one!

Edited August 11, 2016 by Silverfleet

[Silverfleet]

 

I have a lot of NES stuff, considering it was my first console I could call my own. For years, my carts were relegated to this crappy 3 drawer plastic thing. It was warped from age, and made taking games out to play a chore. So last night, I bought some cheap shelves at a local discount store and did this:

 

 

These are supposed to be DVD shelves, but they fit 24 games in each of the 3 spots when you lay them horizontally, So, that's 96 games per shelf. My "Black Label" 1st party NES titles are not there, as they are housed in my old Nintendo branded game caddy. There's pobably about 20+ more in there. The cassette holder on the top works perfectly for my Famicom games. That will be wall mounted soon right under these:

 

 

These cassette holders were a yard sale find, and work great for Genesis and SMS games! A lot of these have the boxes, but I have no space for them in the room, so this works nicely and looks clean.

 

I have a lot more stuff to show you guys, but it's all over the place right now. I'll get some more pics up soon!

 

 

[Keatah]

There's going to be X amount of space taken up by X amount of stuff. And there seems to be a lot of stuff. Collecting retrogames always means sprawl control sooner or later.

 

You can try building in-wall cabinets or store things underneath stairs. Double up carts one behind the other in a book case. Find cubbyholes and nooks, use boxes under the bed. The obvious stuff. Replace systems you aren't into that much with emulation - if that's your kinda thing.

 

I personally find the more condensed something is, the more difficult and annoying it becomes to use.

 

This thread may help you you out with some ideas.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/255359-media-stands-for-the-space-conscious-classic-gamer/

Edited August 11, 2016 by Keatah

[Silverfleet]

I'm thinking of switching that TV stand to something more like this:

 

 

We have an Ikea somewhat nearby, and they have the 8-cube "Kallax" shelves in stock. I'm thinking that I could also get that side stand on the right as well. That should be more than enough to store all the consoles I'd want to keep hooked up. I have to take some measurements, but if it fits, I think it's the best route to take.

 

I'm also considering ditching the 25" Samsung for a 32" HDTV and a small 13" CRT that I have for light gun games. Only issue is the frame rate weirdness with the classic consoles, and the possible need for an expensive device like the Framemeister. I don't know too much about them yet, so who knows.

 

One thing that's been really taking up space in there is a vintage 1860's steamer chest. The thing is HUGE. If I can move it elsewhere, that will open up a ton of options. Currently in the chest is all my 2600 stuff and a few of my spare consoles, so those items will need to find homes. I hate to ditch it because its so cool, but I might have to.

[Silverfleet]

So, my wife has really been on my case lately about downsizing the collection. To be fair, I have a lot of stuff, and it is taking up a TON of space. One whole room, the biggest closet in the house, and part of the basement is all gaming items, and our house is pretty small. My mission for the next couple of months is to go through everything and see if I can organize it better. I'll be posting some pics of the process really soon!

[Keatah]

Maybe you can ultra-condense it all into a few standard sized containers and keep what your regularly play out in the open.

[Silverfleet]

Maybe you can ultra-condense it all into a few standard sized containers and keep what your regularly play out in the open.

Yeah, that's along the lines of what I'm thinking. I already picked up two long flat "under the bed" style containers that I'm hoping all my 2600, 5200, Colecovision, and Intellivision carts will fit in those. I also picked up one of those over-the-door shoe holders for controllers, wires, etc. Right now, the 2600 stuff is in a big bin inside the ginormous steamer trunk I have in my tiny game room, the 5200 stuff is in a separate box, the Coleco is in its own box, and the Intellivision stuff is all over the place. If I can get the rest of the overflow into a big bin or two and stash it away, then I should be good.

[Silverfleet]

I started going through my loose 2600 stuff last night in an effort to reorganize it. This doesn't include the Sears Telegames carts I have in the hardshell case I posted previously. All of my loose games fit in this bin nearly perfectly. There are a few gems in there.

 

 

 

 

I still have about 10 boxed games, some of which are sealed. Those will likely stay on a shelf, because I have duplicate loose ones in the bin. I have one more of these long bins, which I am hoping will house my 5200, Colecovision, and Intellivision carts.

[Silverfleet]

Spent some more time organizing my little game room over the past few days. I had a giant 1800's steamer trunk in there that was taking up a lot of space, and now that's been moved elsewhere in the house. I also dragged out my 5200 stuff from storage and put it in another long bin like the one in the above post. It can hold all my games and the 5200 itself, but my Wico Command controllers don't fit, and neither does my 5200 Track Ball. Also did some play testing of the 5200, but I'll save that for another thread.

 

I also decided to utilize a few CD holders I had kicking around and bring my single-disc PSone games into the room. My double disc case ones will have to stay in storage for now.

 

 

 

 

My Saturn games, which I don't have nearly enough of, sit neatly on top:

 

Here's a funny little piece I found when moving things around: an original scratch and sniff ad for Earthbound! I wish I had the game to go with it.

 

 

 

 

I also rounded up my Dreamcast games and put them all in my storage closet. You can see some of them here, including a sealed copy of Grandia II I've been hanging onto since about 2002:

 

 

I also revamped my console lineup a bit. On the top shelf, there's my NES, AV-modded Famicom (with a Mario face my nephew made me on top!) SNES, Nomad, and N64. Hiding behind them is a Gamecube, Turbografx 16, and Sega Master System. On the bottom is a Model 1 "High Definition" Genesis (with a Power Base Converter), Model 1 Saturn, and a Dreamcast. I am planning on bringing my Jaguar and Goldstar 3DO into the mix as well.

 

[Silverfleet]

Two noteworthy additions to the collection yesterday, and both for the Colecovision.

 

 

In my first post, there's a pic of my Colecovision with Expansion Module #1 hooked up to it. The guy I got the Expansion Module from is a vendor at a local flea market, and he tends to have good stuff and usually hooks me up. I went yesterday, and he had both the Roller Controller AND the Expansion Module #2 steering wheel controller up for sale. I snagged both of these and Slither for $30 total, which I feel is a pretty good deal. I've been looking for these for a long time, and have never seen either in the wild, ever.

 

The funny part is that when I was little, we had the game Victory, which required the Roller Controller. My family always told me that "it was broken" and not until I got back into collecting later on did I realize that the Roller Controller was required to play it (yes, I know it says it right on the label). So now I can actually play the game for the first time ever!

 

Anyone have a cheap copy of Turbo kicking around?

[Silverfleet]

As part of the "Great Reorganization" of my collection, I dug out my Atari 5200 stuff. It's all been sitting in different boxes for about 5 years, and now it's all together in one place. But before I put it away, I took some pics.

 

It's a 4 port 5200.

 

 

Here are all my joysticks and the track ball. The original controller works, but I much rather prefer the Wico Command sticks; they really do make a difference. The track ball is still untested. I picked it up out of a junk pile at a flea market for $2, and the ball hangs up a bit. I need to disassemble and clean it up. The Wico sticks were a surprise Salvation Army score by my wife for $5! And that came with the extension cables, instruction manuals, and about 8 games! Speaking of games...

 

 

Most games have their manuals, and about half have their overlays.

 

The one thing I don't like about the 5200 is the RF switch/power supply box on the 4 port model I have. That thing is strange.

[Silverfleet]

Last weekend, I scored a cheap, gross, and untested Model 2 Sega CD (I posted all about it in the Thrift Finds thread). I've been looking for one for a long time, but I haven't been able to get one at a reasonable (aka cheap) price until now. Miraculously, it works! I decided to give it a bath.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

While I was at it, I decided to give my trusty Model 1 Genesis a bath too. It was similarly disgusting.

 

 

After:

 

 

I've tested it out with the Model 1 for now, and it works great! I'm picking up a Model 2 off of a friend soon to match it. It also works well with real and burned games, which is cool.

 

 

I'm pretty excited to have this in my collection!

[Silverfleet]

I haven't updated this in a while, because I've tried to lay off accumulating more stuff this year and enjoy what I already have. That said, I have a couple updates!

 

The biggest problem facing a lot of us is how to store, package, and maintain our collections. Most of my collection is stored in the smallest room in our house. As I've stated earlier, packaging the consoles has been challenging. One thing I've always wanted to do in this room is add another TV; a more modern HD one I could mount on the wall. A couple weeks ago, we upgraded our bedroom TV, so the old one got mounted in the game room above my CRT! It's only a 20", but it will do for now until I can get a larger one.

 

Yes, this is still a mess, but I was too excited not to share.

 

 

I have this old Xbox 360 hooked up to it, as well as a PS2 Slim. I'll be getting another input splitter to hook up the OG Xbox up there, too. The TV has only a few inputs: Component RGB, Composite A/V, one HDMI port, and one VGA (I think) port. I could also hook up the Dreamcast to it if I can get a VGA extender.

 

I also added one of my most sought after consoles this year: the Atari 7800!

 

 

Scored all of this off the Facebook Marketplace in an ultra shady Papa Gino's parking lot deal for $60. Everything works, and the console is in great shape.

 

I also upgraded some of the storage solutions for the consoles I don't usually hook up. The 7800 and the Colecovision now have dedicated bins. The Coleco went from this old cardboard box:

 

To this bigger bin:

 

 

That's better!

[bikeguychicago]

You should convert that Donkey Kong bezel into wall art if don't have a cabinet to put it in.

[bikeguychicago]

Since you have a number of loose games, you may want to consider getting flash carts for some of the systems and loading games onto there. They take up a lot less space and you can still play the games on the original machines.

[bikeguychicago]

Last weekend, I scored a cheap, gross, and untested Model 2 Sega CD (I posted all about it in the Thrift Finds thread). I've been looking for one for a long time, but I haven't been able to get one at a reasonable (aka cheap) price until now. Miraculously, it works! I decided to give it a bath.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

While I was at it, I decided to give my trusty Model 1 Genesis a bath too. It was similarly disgusting.

 

 

After:

 

 

I've tested it out with the Model 1 for now, and it works great! I'm picking up a Model 2 off of a friend soon to match it. It also works well with real and burned games, which is cool.

 

 

I'm pretty excited to have this in my collection!

There are a lot of people who swear by the Model 1 machines for sound quality. You may want to consider keeping it and finding a Model 1 adapter for the Sega CD2 on eBay.

[Silverfleet]

To answer your questions:

 

-I've thought about flash carts. I do like having a "library" of physical games to flip through and display, but they do take up a ton of space. I may get some flash carts eventually and store the carts away safely.

 

-That Donkey Kong bezel is going to be wall art; I just haven't hung it up yet.

 

-And yes, the Model 1 Genesis you see there is still hooked up. Not only does it have better sound, but it can use my Power Base Converter. I do have a Model 2 Genesis now to go with the Sega CD, but this works better for now. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one of those base extenders.

[Silverfleet]

I spent some more time in my "Retro Room" this weekend with the collection.

 

First thing I did was add another cassette holder to the wall. These things RULE for holding Genesis/Mega Drive, SMS, and Famicom carts.

 

 

Next, I added another shelf above the NES carts that I've had in the box for months now, and this one houses my Saturn games, some of my boxed titles, and my SMS boxed titles (along with some random Genesis ones):

 

 

I also use this room as a practice room for playing guitar and bass. I've been tripping over my guitars for a while, so I snagged this cheap 7-guitar stand from Amazon that holds most of them:

 

 

I also added some wall art! Here's some Marvel covers my wife got me last Christmas for the room, along with a cool Street Fighter x Tekken piece a friend got me, a sweet Iron Maiden 3D carving of The Trooper, and The Stooges. Also up there is my Phi Alpha Theta certificate from college, because Historian stuff.

 

 

Then, there's vinyl soundtracks of Star Trek III and the Battlestar Galactica TV show, along with a Star Trek steel sign:

 

 

And then there's this. I don't have a CED player (yet), but I saw this a few years back at a record shop for a few bucks and had to have it. Looks good on the wall!

 

 

And finally (for this post), I found this little guy from the height of the Pac Man craze in the early 80's in an antique mall for a few bucks. I couldn't say no!

 

 

I still have more to do in there, but it's getting there.

[Silverfleet]

Over the weekend, I decided to start going through all of my gaming stuff in an attempt to organize it better. Ever since I moved into my place 7 years ago, it hasn't been set up the way I wanted it to be. The bulk of my stuff is split between a large closet in our living room and my small gaming room, with a few plastic totes in the basement for some extra stuff. It was largely disjointed and all over the place, and if I wanted to find something, it ended up with everything looking like an episode of Hoarders. Now, everything is a lot better.

 

First, we'll start with the closet. It's the biggest closet in the house, and my wife lets me put gaming stuff in it. She is awesome!

 

 

That Ikea bookcase was in our living room, but we recently got a new entertainment center with some shelves, so this went in here to replace a smaller one that was in there. It holds a ton of stuff, and was key to the reorganization. Yes, that's a NES Power Pad.

 

 

The shelf holds all my 360 games...

 

 

All my 3DO, Dreamcast, jewel case PC, and Long Box PS1 games...

 

 

All my PS3, sealed PS2, and PSP games, along with a gross Double Dragon Tiger handheld that I hold near and dear to my heart, my NeoGeo Pocket Color, and a boxed NES Advantage

 

 

Above the book case is another shelf, which now holds all of this Nintendo goodness. These were all down in my basement since I moved, and I'm glad to have them up on display now. The two NES ones are complete! I have everything for the others, but the GameCube, SNES, and N64 are currently hooked up in the game room.

 

 

Here's some spare console inventory. It's kinda crammed in there, but there are some NES consoles, PS1's, a 4-switch 2600 woody, an Intellivision, my Coleco Expansion Module #1, a black non-GameCube Wii, and a Genesis/Dreamcast sandwich. Bottom shelf holds some steering wheel peripherals and a boxed Intellivoice.

 

 

Above that shelf are more boxed items: Playstation 1 and 3, a weird and rare boxed Playstation dual analog flight stick (similar to the Sega Virtual On sticks) that I bought for $5 at FYE years ago, a $3 Intellivision I got at a yard sale, and some cool board games.

 

 

While I was cleaning, I found a few things I forgot I had! One of them was my NeoGeo Pocket Color. I bought this a few years back at a flea market for $20 with these games. The Japanese one on the left is a King of the Fighters game (I think) and the other is a great Metal Slug game. Although I wish it was backlit, it's a great little handheld.

 

 

Now this is a relic. This is a really rough and probably unplayable copy of Sneakers by Sirius Software for the Apple II. When I was a kid, my uncle worked for Apple and got us an Apple IIe outfit as our 1st computer. He really encouraged me to learn to use it, and I used to mess with it all the time. Somewhere along the way, we ended up with three Sirius titles: Gorgon (a Defender clone), Orbitron (a really cool, unique shooter), and this game. It plays a lot like Megamania, and is a ton of fun. I thought this got tossed years ago!

 

 

Over in the actual game room, I took this shelf which was in the closet and filled it with goodies. For the first time ever, my boxed Genesis stuff is on display! Also on the shelf are my boxed Intellivision games, boxed 2600 games (some still sealed), Sega CD games, and TG16 games. You can't see the bottom shelf, but it's all boxed PC stuff and PS1 titles.

 

 

 

A SMS game snuck in on the last shot!

 

 

 

I also found a place for my Arcade sign!

 

Overall, I'm happy with how things are now, and it's much easier to find what I'm looking for. It's still not done, but it's better now than it has ever been. Next step is probably ditching some doubles of games and consoles. I already have a pile of stuff waiting to trade in/sell, and there will be more adding to the pile soon.

[Silverfleet]

So, I made a controversial update to my tiny game room: the TV.

 

I went from this setup:

 

To this:

 

That TV is a 42" Panasonic Viera 1080P plasma from 2010. It was my living room TV until a week ago, when we upgraded to a larger 55" 4K TV. It does have an issue: every once in a while, a green band will appear down the center of the screen. If I smack it, it goes away. I think it got too hot in the recent heat wave and something lifted off one of the boards, so I'l address it soon.

 

Obviously, there are trade-offs with replacing my CRT with this behemoth.

 

The Good:

-Tons of inputs! Has 3 HDMI, 2 RGB Component, 2 Composite AV, and coaxial antenna

-Can play PS2 era and up with RGB Component output and last-gen HD stuff through HDMI, so it looks great for that stuff

-Virtually zero lag, even on older stuff, because 600hz plasma panel

-I can actually see text on the screen now! HD gaming occurred on the tiny 20" on the wall before, and I couldn't see a damn thing.

 

The Bad:

-Early consoles look sorta weird on it, even in 480 mode. Scrolling especially looks strange.

-No light gun compatibility

-I still need to fix it

 

I still have the 25" CRT for now, as well as a smaller 13" that I can bust out any time I want to play light gun games.

 

So, here are a couple examples of how this thing looks with older consoles:

 

I have the Official Xbox HD interface for the OG Xbox, and it makes it look GREAT on this TV. When I first bought the TV 8 years ago, I had the Xbox hooked up to it, and I forgot how great it looked. I played a few games real quick, and yeah, totally awesome.

 

 

The NES was the only classic console in the lineup I had time to test with last night. It's hooked up via Composite A/V. The gray borders are annoying, and I don't think I can change the color (Y U NO BLACK???). The graphics look sort of weird, and the scrolling isn't quite as smooth as a CRT would be on the two games I played (Double Dragon and Ghosts and Goblins) but those games had jerky scrolling to begin with. That said, everything is still 100% playable, and there is zero lag due to the plasma panel.

 

I will be hooking up a modded Wii and my Raspberry Pi to this soon. I know those look and play great on it, so if need be, I can get my classic gaming fix through those if the older consoles still look odd.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Silverfleet

[Silverfleet]

Man, it's been a LONG time since I updated this thread. To be completely honest, I have all but stopped collecting games; I haven't bought a physical game since January. I found myself running out of room, and frankly, running out of enthusiasm for acquiring more. The current pandemic here in the US has also changed everything; for a while, nothing was open, and I haven't been back to my local haunts since it all started. Funny thing about the pandemic: I have been working from home since March and will be for a while. I've been working at the kitchen table this whole time. About a month ago, my wife brought up turning my game room into a proper office. At first, I fought it, but after we talked, it made sense. Besides, the crappy couch in there was uncomfortable and it was becoming a catch-all for all sorts of crap.

So, I went from this:


To this:


To THIS:


This is so much better. Here's some more detailed pics:


Here's my modular workstation. I can swap in my gaming laptop whenever needed. The bookcase houses PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PS3, and 360 games. Under the desk lies my tower PC, which is hooked up to the big TV as a 2nd workstation and a home theater PC.


I kept two of the smaller shelves the NES games used to be on, flipped them vertical, and now they hold my Switch games and some other stuff.


To the left of the TV are some of my older games: SMS, Genesis, PS1, NES, SNES, N64, and all my boxed stuff. I also keep most of my guitars in here, so I have a couple small practice amps to play with.



Due to space constraints, some consoles don't really fit in the 9"x9" cubbies, but here we have most of them: Famicom, N64, Genesis Model 1, Xbox 360, RetroPie, SNES, NES, Switch, Dreamcast, Wii, GC, Xbox, Nomad, Saturn, TG16, Model 2 Genesis w/Sega CD, and SMS are in here for now. All my older consoles and my 3DO and Jaguar are in another closet and can come out as needed. It's overcrowded in here as is.



My loose Genesis and Famicom games are still here in these cassette cases. I hung up an over-the-door shoe organizer to hold some controllers and cords.



Where the TV used to be resides my stereo and vinyl collection. It's nicely housed on this Ikea shelf I've had for a while. Works nicely for this. I'm planning on wall mounting a tablet to use as a "jukebox" to run streaming apps and to access my digital music collection over the network.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Not only do I have a better place to work, I have a better place to hang out! My wife is a smart lady. ?
 

[Keatah]

9 hours ago, Silverfleet said:

Man, it's been a LONG time since I updated this thread. To be completely honest, I have all but stopped collecting games; I haven't bought a physical game since January. I found myself running out of room, and frankly, running out of enthusiasm for acquiring more.

Room is a consumable we don't often keep track of till it runs out. Some collections can grow like a cancer taking up every available nook, cranny, dollar, and iota of time. Growth continues till resources are all used up. Then the collector becomes depressed for ill-defined reasons. And finally stops acquiring stuff. But the annoyance doesn't stop there. Next comes the inevitable task of downsizing.

 

Enthusiasm is similar. Not necessarily a consumable resource, but, instead, a supply of energy which can be drained. It can also be recharged simply by refocusing on things that are important and have genuine meaning. This means stopping buying things willy-nilly. No hi-power collecting. No hoarding. Complete moderation and appreciation. The new goal is to acquire only special things that you can enjoy from time to time.

 

Say for example a given system has 2000 titles. You most definitely don't want to purchase all those 2000 titles. You'll never play them all in the depth required to achieve satisfaction. Any attempt to do that would simply result in grinding and agitation and anxiousness as you look at how far you have to go. How many games you have to complete. Staring at a full shelf of games that could "pre-schedule" hundreds of hours. And all that makes whole experience feel like a chore. Or worse.

 

Quote

Where the TV used to be resides my stereo and vinyl collection. It's nicely housed on this Ikea shelf I've had for a while. Works nicely for this. I'm planning on wall mounting a tablet to use as a "jukebox" to run streaming apps and to access my digital music collection over the network.

I did similar with an Intel NUC.

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Keatah

[Silverfleet]

On 9/25/2020 at 4:43 AM, Keatah said:

Enthusiasm is similar. Not necessarily a consumable resource, but, instead, a supply of energy which can be drained. It can also be recharged simply by refocusing on things that are important and have genuine meaning. This means stopping buying things willy-nilly. No hi-power collecting. No hoarding. Complete moderation and appreciation. The new goal is to acquire only special things that you can enjoy from time to time.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what has been going on. I did all the "hoarding" years ago, and I've got games from those days that I still haven't played yet. Hell, I still have sealed PS2/GC/Xbox games I haven't played yet! I am very selective about what I buy now. 

The good news so far is that I've been lining up titles to play from the backlog and actually playing them! I've also set up my Xbox 360 with an external HDD and have set it up to download years of free Games with Gold stuff I've been digitally "hoarding". I also have a crap-ton of PS3 games that I'm really excited to play. 

I'm planning on AV-modding my 7800 as a winter project so I can get some proper Atari representation in the room. I haven't played my Atari today, or even this year. I need to change that.