How do you decide what to buy?

[PapaCharlie]

Just curious what source(s) people here use to pick and choose which games to buy, which ones to hunt for, et cetera, when collecting Atari 2600 games. Currently, I've been scrounging around the Video Game Critic website (linked in the details of many games on this site), which is giving me a good idea of which games to get for this system. Currently, I'm looking for a copy of H.E.R.O at an affordable price!

 

I've found that as my collection grows (up to 106, not counting duplicates, and growing!), it's no longer acceptable to just grab a big stash of cartridges I don't already have if I see them at a thrift shop, without knowing anything about them. What other sources do people use to find that game they just can't live without?

[yuppicide]

I buy what is cheap and rare and worth more than it's selling for. I also buy games I've tried in emulators and liked.

[keilbaca]

I buy games for the collecting, but more for history value. like, I got me a complete Custer's Revenge, because it was the first game to cause controversy with "sexually related themes".

[sku_u]

Easy: If it's available, I don't have it and I can afford it, I buy it. :wink:

[Mindfield]

I dunno about others, but I kinda went through stages.

 

Initially, it was a quest to get the games I had when I was a kid. I couldn't remember what all of them were, but I knew what my favourites were, so I aimed at those. And of course anything else I didn't have.

 

Once I'd amassed a collection that was respectably sized and contained most if not all of the games I remember having as a kid (which was around the 200 cart mark), I mostly just concentrated on getting whatever I didn't have.

 

Then, somewhere between the 300 and 400 mark, I began focusing on completing company-specific collections -- CBS, Activision, Atari, etc. I've managed to complete quite a few, and am only a few away from still more. (Those would be the hard to find and expensive ones; R8s, 9s and 10s mostly). I'm still missing the odd common here and there, though.

 

Now, though I'm still trying to focus on specific company titles, I've whittled it down to select and usually expensive few, so it's now come down to specific titles I'm looking for. And, on the side, I've taken to collecting Brazilian and Asian pirates, just for something different and/or unusual and/or cool. Multicarts are especially fun. :-)

 

At some point I'll probably start getting into the homebrew scene, too, though those would probably be AA store purchases, since you rarely ever see those on eBay (which is where the vast majority of my stuff comes from).

[Blackjack]

I buy stuff that has (or is)

A) Great Gameplay

B) Some strange story or historical significance (like Keilbaca I love this stuff) 2 of my favs are tooth protectors and dukes of hazzard. They're not a lot of fun to play, but there is a cool story to go along with each.

C) Really cool artwork - I'm a sucker for a really cool label

D) Unusual hardware - I love some of the contraptions they came up with to play the games with like the Joyboard and the Flight Commander. I wish I could get a Mindlink!!

 

Just get what you think is cool. In fact, you should join High Score Club and play along weekly. I've found a few games I dearly love now because of it.

[SteveW]

If I find Atari 2600 games in a thrift store (fat chance nowadays!), i'll usually pick up games that'll fill in holes in my collection. I don't collect hardcore like a lot of people here, because i'm far too cheap. I'll pick up games that are odd, or games that i've never heard of. I will also keep my eye out for games that I know to be rare, and will pick them up if I find them fairly inexpensively. I never sell off anything out of my collection, but I like the bragging rights involved with finding something incredibly rare.

[Voch]

I'm mostly filling in games I don't have and have set my cut-off to pre-crash systems. My friend loaned me his old Pocket PC PDA so I can have my have- and rarity-lists with me when I go shopping.

 

Voch

[Shawn]

I'm cracking down on the final few games (11 or 12 to go) I need for my personal collection as I am with Mindfied's former perspective and I just collect the games that I found fun as a kidteenager. I only collect ATARI 26007800, NES & SNES. I have got close to 300 games and they are all titles I will play over and over. I can't justify buying games just for the sake of having themsticking them on a shelf cause they where made by "such and such" a company or came in in the year 19XX. I am quite pound of the games I have massed up and also quite happy to be bearing down on completing my collection. It's gonna be kinda weird not having to participate in "the hunt" anymore. Heck for that matter I don't even think I will be posting on any message boards after I complete my collection as chatting it up with fellow collectors is awsome and always fun but it has always been a fringe side of the hunting online thing. Should be intresting when it's all said and done for the final few games I need as I have no intentions of collecting for any other systems after I get whats left on my list. I want to get a pinball machine after I know that and maybe build an pong arcade machine just for fun but can't see myself at the message boards very often then, It will be a joyful, yet sad goodbye to AA & DP. But I will always poke around at CGCC cause its just hilarious to read the dumbass shit that gets posted there, alot of nice fellas there but about 6 or 7 real morons that just can't stop posting either and they are the ones that make the place funnier than a George Carlin show.

[PapaCharlie]

I was never much into the Atari 2600 as a kid, I did the Atari 5200 mostly (still regret selling that monster years ago) and the NES. At last count, though, my systems were:

 

Atari 2600

Atari 5200 (sold a couple years ago)

Colecovision (sold that at about the same time)

NES

SNES

Gameboy (B&W)

Genesis

Sega CD

Game Gear

Philips CDi

N64 (no games for it yet, just a console & accessories)

 

Right now, all I'm collecting for is the Atari 2600. My mind set, as it stands now, is to basically flesh out as many "common" (Rarity 3 or less) titles as I can, mostly because any Atari game is entertaining to me, and at less than $3 a piece usually, it's an affordable way to amass a huge collection for entertainment value.

 

Since I didn't much play the 2600 as a kid, I'm using websites like Atari Age and Video Game Critic to find descriptions of games I might like, along with ratings. Despite the ratings, though, I still have a copy of E.T. and love it - these sites are just a modern "catalog" to go by for me.

 

My goal is to eventually have a small table with all my systems lined up in chronological order, with a dial-box connecting them to a television so I can play whatever I want without having to unhook and re-hook things (and avoiding chaining them together will reduce signal degredation). This would be the "focal point" of my games room. My original focal point was going to be an original Goonies arcade cabinet, in primo condition, but I passed on buying it because I didn't have room at the time (kicks self repeatedly).

[NovaXpress]

At an average of a buck a pop, why not pick up one of everything? You can't rely on someone else's opinion. The alternative is to download an emulator and try them all out.

 

I can't stand Pitfall, but most people love it. One of my favorites is Bermuda Triangle but you never hear that talked about. The only things we all agree on are that Solaris rules and Skeet Shoot sucks.

[PapaCharlie]

I've never been too good at Pitfall!, too hard to control Harry's jumps. I always liked its Coleco rip-off, Cabbage Patch Kids' Adventures in Babyland Park. Yeah, it's a fruity turn on a classic, but with superior graphics and a lot better cotrol over your character.

 

Plus, when you got sick of staring at all the happy, smiling dolls, you could drown one in the mud. It was as cathartic as video games got in the early 1980s

[minorleagueguy]

Plain and simple....I buy what I don't have.

 

minorleagueguy

[sku_u]

 

I can't stand Pitfall, but most people love it. One of my favorites is Bermuda Triangle but you never hear that talked about. The only things we all agree on are that Solaris rules and Skeet Shoot sucks.

 

I'm also a fan of Bermuda Triagle. That'd make a great HSC game of the week since its a sleeper title that many haven't given a fair chance.

 

I disagree on Skeet Shoot. I actually don't mind that title. :wink:

[Lord Helmet]

Plain and simple....I buy what I don't have.

 

minorleagueguy

 

I second that.

[Laner]

Whatever's cheap - I'm going for quantity at the moment Also, I tend to gravitate more towards Atari carts as opposed to any of the other manufacturers.

[Stingray]

99% of my carts come from local classic game shops. If they have something that I don't, I buy it. Easy as that. Now when I buy online, it's usually from members here on Atari Age in the marketplace forum. You have to be a bit more selective when shipping is a factor.

 

-S