To Collect or to Play?

[black dog]

I'm more of a collector now,but I still love to fire up the 2600 about once or twice a week and play. I'm also not as hardcore of a collector as some other people. I'm not going to shell out hundreds of dollars for a game. I've decided just to stick to the flea markets and thrifts to try to find games in the wild.

[Brian R.]

PLAY!

 

Just like with Atari games... what's the point of owning a cartridge unless it's played? Of course then you can get into the buy-one-to-open, buy-one-to-keep-sealed thing, but that's even worse, I think.

 

So...

 

Stamp collectors should lick and send out their stamps?

China collectors should drink tea from their 300-year old cups?

Bone collectors should make soup of their dinosaur bones?

 

Millions of people have been collecting just about anything, regardless of functionality, just for the sake of collecting. Collecting itself is considered a great way of spending your free time.

 

Anyway, I guess there's no sense in trying to convince you that there is little for you to gain in putting other people's interests down.

 

Cheers,

Marco

 

So, who's the one being condescending, Mr. Roll Eyes. Did I strike a nerve? Did you somehow think my general words were aimed directly at you? Are you the one not willing to listen to someone else's point of view?

 

An unlicked stamp can still be admired.

An unused piece of china or a tea cup can still be admired.

Dug up bones can still be admired, examined, displayed.

 

Would you take a valuable stamp and seal it in a box?

Would you get an attractive piece of china in the mail and leave it in the box?

Do you see dinosaur bones at museums sealed inside crates?

[Brian R.]

I collect games to play. I am always trying to purchase games I don't have, both to play, and becuase I don't have them. So simply by buying new games to play, I am amassing a "collection." However, unlike most collectors, monetary value is meaningless, condition is not an issue (game just has to work,) and whether it comes with a box/instructions is a mute point. So I guess I do 'collect' games, but only for the sheer pleasure of being able to say at any given time, I can 'play' all my games. The only exceptions to this are my Star Wars titles. Being a huge Star Wars fan, and collector, I went out of my way to purchase these games complete with their boxes, and instructions. Otherwise, give me my games with Actiplaque, ripped labels, and ancient heiroglyphic initials written on the cartiridge. . . just make sure I can play them!!!!!!!

 

Here here! I've got some Activision carts I bought for 25-cents each from a run down, dirty, disgusting roadside second hand store. Labels were dirty, worn, torn... but the carts work! That's what matters the most. Sure, I would like to have pristine labels, if I can get 'em... and I've got some carts that were new old stock and look great... but I value my beat up carts as much than my "new" carts. Plus the wear gives them character, they have a history, and were saved from oblivion.

[Godzilla]

im a playa first and a collector second. With the number of times I've loved games that got slammed by reviewers, I find that only my own counsel is valuable in determining what games I do or don't like, so I collect so that I can find those games out there that I never knew I'd like in the first place, and the rest are just the price I pay to find the worthy games.

[Marco]

So, who's the one being condescending, Mr. Roll Eyes. Did I strike a nerve? Did you somehow think my general words were aimed directly at you? Are you the one not willing to listen to someone else's point of view?

 

I was more than willing to listen to your point of view, but I fully disagree with it. You say collectors are "missing the point" and peolple who collect sealed games "are even worse". I don't like statements like that, no matter if they apply to myself or not.

 

Cheers,

Marco

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Brian,

being a homebrew author and player myself, I partially agree with your opinion. But please don't forget that people are different and that times for the 2600 have changed. It has become part of videogame history.

 

Yes, those games are (still!) meant to be played, everybody who doesn't IMO makes a huge mistake. But we also need people who preserve the other orginal stuff, like boxes, manuals, labels etc. They are also part of the history.

 

So collecting and playing are IMO just different sides of the same coin. Both are equally important and therefore we should respect both sides.

[bobafett07728]

Here here! I've got some Activision carts I bought for 25-cents each from a run down, dirty, disgusting roadside second hand store. Labels were dirty, worn, torn... but the carts work! That's what matters the most. Sure, I would like to have pristine labels, if I can get 'em... and I've got some carts that were new old stock and look great... but I value my beat up carts as much than my "new" carts. Plus the wear gives them character, they have a history, and were saved from oblivion.

 

And your point is. . .? If it friggin works. . . nothing else matters to me. Others may have a different opinion on what is important in their Atari cartridges, but there is no need to poke fun at their preferences, either. Your opinion is valid and respected, you should do the same to everyone else's.

[CPUWIZ]

God dammit, I wasn't going to say anything but I can't help it.

 

Sealed or $$$$ games = Collecting

CuttleCart, SuperCharger or EPROM-Cart = Playing

 

End of story.

[Fretwobbler]

I dont collect or play Atari games. I just think the carts make good ash trays. I can t remember what this game was called, It could have been spanish.....Malaga?? Malagai?? I cant remember,...anyway, it made a good ashtray whatever it was

[JB]

Oh no, not this debate again.    

 

I bought a mint-condition factory-sealed game, and OPENED THE BOX! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!  

 

Now you collector folks enjoy Chase the Chuck Wagon.  

I'm gonna go play Super Breakout.

 

That's what this discussion always turns into. Why do we have to condemn others that do things differently?

 

 

Just game & collect on, everyone and enjoy!

 

Cheers,

Marco

Sorry. Got a little carried away there. What was meant to be a little good-natured teasing turned into ... well, just mean.

 

 

 

 

Just to clarify, I'm not some psycho that burns boxes in a big bonfire. I usually save everything that comes with the game. I like having the book and the box.

 

And I'm not actively screwing the "gaze with wonder upon the great wall o' factory-sealed boxes" crowd, since I won't PAY massive amounts of cash for a game just so I can rip it open and play it, which automatically reduces my offenses to rather common games.

 

 

 

But I will admit that the blood of the collector does not flow through my veins.

 

I see an old factory-sealed toy, and think

"I want that! I want to rip the box open, slap the stickers on it, and play with it! When I'm not playing with it, it'll be proudly sitting on my shelf, waving it's... Wait a second... I can't pay that much for a friggin' toy! Certainly not that one. Now where's the slightly-damaged die-cast Voltrons? Those'll look pretty sweet by that old Jetfire with the rust stains from someone's garage."

 

Same with games. I view them primarily in their intended purpose.

A crap game is a crap game is a crap game, and will forever be worth less to me than a Combat with a peeling label(except I've managed to acquire 3 Combats, and I don't need but one).

 

 

 

On the other hand, I'm a packrat. A crap game won't wind up in the trash. It goes in with the other games, to rest untill I forget how bad it is and go to play it again. So fear not, for Chase the Chuck Wagon shall never meet the dumpster should it wander into my posession.

...

Though it may meet eBay, because I'm no fool.

Mucho dinero is better than a game I don't really want. Especially when someone else DOES want it. Heck, it'd pr'ly get away from me relatively cheap if I knew it was getting a good home.

 

 

 

 

Again, my apologies to anyone I offended.

I'm not actively buying and destroying collectables to spite people, breeding a bacterium that eats shrink-wrap and label glue to damage mint collections, or building a secret factory off Costa Rica to manufacture mass quantities of reproduction carts that look just like the real thing(wasn't that a Bond film?).

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

Oh, and you can't make soup with dinosaur bones, beause they're actually rock.

[figgler]

Can't we just all agree that any way you slice it, Atari kicks arse? Then we get back to playing and/or collecting and/or smoking cigarettes and butting them on our carts.

[jamesb69]

Advice to collectors....Don't hate the player, hate the game.

 

Sorry couldn't help that one.

 

Haha as I said early I mainly collect, though only cheap stuff cuz i am poor. But i also share with the players because I will buy the cart as long as it works. If it is half missing a lable, who cares. And I sort of see the box/instructions as having no value, if it is sealed i will keep it sealed, if it isnt, i sort of find it meaningless because, a used game is a used game the box is gonna sit there adn the cartridge will be stacked with the other cartridges.

[rockman_x_2002]

I collect (very slowly) to play.

 

While it would be nice to have a large collection with rare titles and all label variations, I have only a humble little collection of near 90 games (both 2600 and 7800 included in the count). That collection grows about one cart every six months or so (whether 2600 or 7800 cart). Most of these are commons, with only a couple of rarer titles in the mix... the rarest one I have being "Gremlins" with a rating of 6.

 

But I do pull out the Atari from the closet now and again and enjoy a week or so of gaming every so often. I also play on emulators whenever I'm too lazy to dig through the closet. But honestly, I prefer gaming on the console. It just has more of a retro feel to me.

[AtariDude]

I do play with the games a lot when I get them. I don't collect any games that are really rare because they are just too expensive for me. I collect and play all the common Atari 2600 games.

 

I would agree however that someone having 600 or more games is not playing them. That is just too many games to find the time to play them all.

[Albert]

Interesting discussion, and it has come up before.

 

The simple answer for me is "Both", but it didn't start out that way. I initially picked up an Atari 2600 system and some games in the mid 90's for the nostalgia factor, spurred on by a former 2600 programmer I was working with at the time. At first I picked up many of the games I had fond memories of playing so I could experience them all over again. Soon thereafter, I decided I wanted to try all the games I *didn't* have as a kid, which turned out to be most of them since we couldn't afford to buy many games back then.

 

So I'd go around to thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, and other places looking for 2600 games. Back then it was still relatively easy to find them, so I quickly amassed a collection of common and uncommon games, and many rarer titles as well. At some point the "collector" in me clicked and I thought it would be cool to actually have one copy of every 2600 game. Of course, that is nearly impossible, but you can acquire a large portion of the 2600 library fairly easily. I also didn't realize initially at how *large* the 2600 library is, but part of the fun is finding these obscure titles that very few people had the opportunity to play back in the day.

 

My collecting spread quickly to the 5200, then the 7800, and non-Atari systems like the Intellivision and ColecoVision. Some of these were systems I owned when they first came out, others weren't. But all I had played in some capacity, thanks to friends who had them. So I had fun exploring each of these systems as my collecting tendrils reached out.

 

With so many classic systems, to say nothing of modern consoles as well as PC games, it's hard to get in as much time as I'd like to play games on all of them. I find that I spend a lot of time playing homebrew games (mostly on the 2600, but also for the 5200), and oftentimes via the use of a Cuttle Cart. I'll also often pop in a particular game when discussion of it comes up on AtariAge. Recently, I spent many hours playing 5200 games when I was testing the Redemption 5200. The 5200 has a great library (and I've always been an Atari 8-bit computer fan), made better when you're not fighting with those infernal controllers.

 

So, in short, I greatly enjoy playing games in my collection, but I also enjoy the collecting facet of it, and they go hand in hand.

 

..Al

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

The simple answer for me is "Both", but it didn't start out that way.  I initially picked up an Atari 2600 system and some games in the mid 90's for the nostalgia factor, spurred on by a former 2600 programmer I was working with at the time.  At first I picked up many of the games I had fond memories of playing so I could experience them all over again.  Soon thereafter, I decided I wanted to try all the games I *didn't* have as a kid, which turned out to be most of them since we couldn't afford to buy many games back then.

 

Y'see, that's me too. Typically, before buying something I'll try it out on an emulator. And through my emulator voyages, I've also amassed a "dream list" of games I'd like to get the genuine cartridges of just because they're so much fun. That was part of the reason I ponied up $30+ for Shuttle Orbiter this past spring - not because it's a rarity 6 or 7 or whatever it is (watch it be a 4 now that I've said that), but because I liked the game.

 

Homebrews and new releases, however...kind of a different story. Safe to say I'll be getting as many of the CGE releases as possible, and I'm going to be buying large swaths of the AtariAge table at OKGE in September. But again, those I intend to take out of the box, stick into a cartridge slot, and PLAY. The thrill for me is seeing these things running for real on the old hardware, with their old graphics, and that old boxy 2600 joystick in my hand. It's magic, I'm tellin' ya.

[Albert]

But again, those I intend to take out of the box, stick into a cartridge slot, and PLAY.  The thrill for me is seeing these things running for real on the old hardware, with their old graphics, and that old boxy 2600 joystick in my hand.  It's magic, I'm tellin' ya.

 

I agree, even when emulation is *perfect*, there's just something about playing Atari 2600 games on a real television with a real system, and the one-and-only CX40 joystick (although I sometimes substitute an Epyx stick). And the homebrew games are especially more powerful in this format--who would have thought that 25 years later, people would still be writing new games for the 2600, and that they'd be so damn good?

 

..Al

[Frostbite Z]

There's nothing wrong with stating that you stand on one side or another, but as a (predominantly) player I see no reason to hassle the collectors.

 

There is a certain pleasure that comes from playing a good game of Super Breakout. There is a different sort of pleasure that comes from holding a MIB Quadrun in your hands. Collecting is about more than the game. It is about the art, the packaging, the way it looks on a shelf, the memories of seeing the game many years ago and finally having it again right in front of your eyes. It can be an expensive hobby, but some people can afford to pay more for their diversions so its all relative to your own finances.

 

It is fun when your bedroom looks like a 1983 video game store. I appreciate the play value of the old 2600 games, but the experience is definitely enhanced by the nostalgia of it. If I was a little older I'd probably be stuck on NES games.

 

Lately, I have been more into amassing boxed games, especially as I want to complete my boxed Activision collection and would like to do the same with Imagic games for both the Atari and Intellivision, so I suppose that lends itself more to the collecting side. I have to confess that those boxed Activision games look awfully nice lined up on a bookcase, very much indeed like going into an 80s era store as you suggest, which I remember quite fondly. With that in mind, I suppose part of my collecting of the boxes is heavily for the nostalgic feel of it.

 

That said, however, I have copies of the games to play when I need that trip down nostalgia lane or just to be reminded that a great game is more about the gameplay than the graphics.

[Brad2600]

I feel that I like to play most of the games more than I like to collect them. I realized recently that I have so many games that haven't been played and I probably never will play. That's ok because for every unplayed game, there's a game that has been played to death.

 

Hell, I just love having a lot of choices and if there's a certain game that catches my eye, I always post a topic for it(H.E.R.O, Tapper, etc) and it's not done for profit.

 

Sure, I can always plug in my PS2. However, when I'm playing 2600 games through my 7800 (none of my 2600 systems work..sadly ) Then there's a new kind of joy that I don't get from regular modern games.

 

I wish others that I knew could share in this joy. I'm trying to get my brother interested in Atari again since he seems more hooked on modern games. Not an easy task but he remembers when we used to play Combat head to head and games like Kaboom and Chopper Command

 

So to answer the question, I reside in the gray area. I'm not a collector..or otherwise I would have bought Quadrun and every other rare game. I'm not a player full time as there are still plenty of games in my collection that I look down on. I'll hold onto them as long as my financial situation holds up. If I don't have any more rent problems, then I'll be keeping my collection for a LONNNNGG time.

[Brad2600]

There's nothing wrong with stating that you stand on one side or another, but as a (predominantly) player I see no reason to hassle the collectors.

 

There is a certain pleasure that comes from playing a good game of Super Breakout. There is a different sort of pleasure that comes from holding a MIB Quadrun in your hands. Collecting is about more than the game. It is about the art, the packaging, the way it looks on a shelf, the memories of seeing the game many years ago and finally having it again right in front of your eyes. It can be an expensive hobby, but some people can afford to pay more for their diversions so its all relative to your own finances.

 

It is fun when your bedroom looks like a 1983 video game store. I appreciate the play value of the old 2600 games, but the experience is definitely enhanced by the nostalgia of it. If I was a little older I'd probably be stuck on NES games.

 

Lately, I have been more into amassing boxed games, especially as I want to complete my boxed Activision collection and would like to do the same with Imagic games for both the Atari and Intellivision, so I suppose that lends itself more to the collecting side. I have to confess that those boxed Activision games look awfully nice lined up on a bookcase, very much indeed like going into an 80s era store as you suggest, which I remember quite fondly. With that in mind, I suppose part of my collecting of the boxes is heavily for the nostalgic feel of it.

 

That said, however, I have copies of the games to play when I need that trip down nostalgia lane or just to be reminded that a great game is more about the gameplay than the graphics.

 

I agree on the Activision and Imagic games. Did you know that Activision/Imagic/Absolute were once under the same umbrella?

 

I have almost all the Imagic games for the Intellivision(missing 4) and almost all the Activision games for the 2600(mostly loose with the exception of 2 that are boxed) so it is quite fun. I got turned onto getting all the Activision carts because my brother had a copy of Activision Classics for the PS1 and we'd spend a lot of time on it. After that, I decided that I had to have all the games on that colleciton. As for Imagic for Intellvision, well I love Imagic and since the games are fairly cheap to acquire, I thought, "why not?" .

[Frostbite Z]

I agree on the Activision and Imagic games. Did you know that Activision/Imagic/Absolute were once under the same umbrella?  

 

I have almost all the Imagic games for the Intellivision(missing 4) and almost all the Activision games for the 2600(mostly loose with the exception of 2 that are boxed) so it is quite fun. I got turned onto getting all the Activision carts because my brother had a copy of Activision Classics for the PS1 and we'd spend a lot of time on it. After that, I decided that I had to have all the games on that colleciton. As for Imagic for Intellvision, well I love Imagic and since the games are fairly cheap to acquire, I thought, "why not?" .

 

I do remember that, though mentally I tend to look at Activision and Imagic in their heydey, before the unification and the licensed games at Activision. I realize that is not technically accurate, but hey, it is my collection after all.

 

With that in mind, I have all of the Activision games boxed except for Checkers, Fishing Derby, and Beamrider though I do have all of them loose. For the Imagic Intellivision games, I have all boxed except Fathom, which I do have the cart with overlays and instructions--just minus the box. The packaging on the Imagic games was excellent--almost as good as some of the games themselves.

[Brad2600]

I agree with the Imagic for INTV. I need only a few more games though I dunno that I'll ever be able to afford Fathom.

 

As for Activision games, I'll have a boxed Space Shuttle and a boxed Commando when it's all said and done. Most of the other games are loose..some with instructions.

 

It's fun, fun and fun!

 

Fishing Derby rocks by the way!

[Frostbite Z]

Fishing Derby--such a simple game but what a neat one, and the shark is just plain mean!

[moycon]

Right now I play more than collect.

Thats not saying much tho.

I've put all extra spending on hold to save up for vacation.

And I've been so busy lately I dont play much.

[Mubo]

i would have to say that i collect to play, i used to collect action figures but to constantly woory about the packaging and all that got so annoying...plus all i could do was admire the collection! --- and then i started collecting things from my youth that i could play with .... it started with a hunt for Battlestar Galactica hand held..... and grew from there....

 

i had always had my 2600 woody set up in my wall unit ready to play a quick game and started getting the URGE to collect for it after realizing that mom and dad had "accidentally" sold a box of my goodies i had in their garage.... that put me on the hunt to bulk up my collection to it's past cart count..and my collection just didnt stop! --- 25cents here and there for carts was SOOOOO much cheaper than crappy ol' action figures...PLUS I COULD PLAY THESE GAMES! ...

 

im up to over 400 in my collection and i love the feeling of popping a cart into the system and playing with an official 2600 joystick in hand....to me there is no greater sense of joy than spending all day flea market and thrift store shopping ...then coming home and enjoying the fruits of your labor!!!!