NES_4Life - A World of Retro Treasures!
Where did it all begin?
Like most children of the 80's I was given a few console during my childhood and enjoyed playing many others alongside friends. Unfortunately for me, like most children of the 80's, I discarded those consoles and left them by the wayside as I got older, ignorantly forsaking my future-self's retro collecting tendencies. I know my story is not unique but at least it means there's a generation that can relate to it....
Is this your first collection?
No, my first attempt at starting a collection was during my time at university when I bought a NES - the console that defined my early childhood. I got about 60 games together but, in an hour of madness, I sold the lot off and bought a PowerBook G4 for my studies with the funds. I had some really good games, including all 5 PAL Mega Man games - 1,3,4 & 5 are still missing from my collection today.
What started collection 2.0?
Well I put it down to a many things coming together at the same time. A few christmases ago I got given an edition of Retro Gamer, I bought myself a classic Xbox to mod into a media centre, and I received a copy of Games Master from my unassuming mother-in-law... included within it was this poster:
Walk us through your collection then!
OK... where to begin? I'll go through the consoles individually and then show the games. Here's most of it residing in my study:
The consoles that best represent my early childhood are the N.E.S and Mega Drive. I was given the NES by my wife last Christmas (I'll explain how I played all my NES games prior to that a bit later). As my twitter username suggests, I sided with Nintendo during the console wars:
Here's the more 'modern' part of the collection. I've fitted the Xbox classic with a 250GB hard drive and it's running XBMC with a load of emulators. As a side note it's hooked up to my network so i can backup all my personal files to yet another location. I picked up the Playstation 2 slim as a cheap DVD player but now it's setup in preparation for an inevitable purchase of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (if you've got a copy you want to donate then please get in contact!). The Dreamcast will need some further explanation:
So, recently I helped my parents clean out their garage. They've run a few youth groups over the years, but I wasn't really prepared for the hoard that I discovered. A Playstation, PSOne, PS2, Dreamcast, and Sega Saturn (amongst many assorted games and peripherals) make a good addition to my shelves.
Recently I've been the recipient of some retro treasures courtesy of a few generous work colleagues. It's great sharing the retro bug at work, and I'm fortunate enough to have always found one or two guys who at least seem marginally interested. Donations included a Texas Instruments TI99/A, Amiga 1200 (which I'm in the midst of modding), a bucket load of SNES, NES and Game Boy games, a Super Game Boy, a broken RetroDuo, a Game Boy Advance, an Atari Lynx, an Interton VC 4000 and a Commodore C64c (still boxed):
I regularly frequent a local bootfair where i acquire most of my games. I picked up a ZX spectrum for £4 and my Mega Drive for £3 with a couple of games. I've a few regular haunts in my little corner of the world too. I just can't stress how great it is to walk into a store, chat with the vendor about a classic console they've just displayed, and then gaze over a glass case of so many games... you know you can't possibly own them all but still you try! I'm grieved at the loss of Games Focus, which was on Goodge street in London, as it was one of my favourite lunchtime drop-ins. I make a point to regularly tweet links to local retro vendors and small online stores in the fleeting hope that I can send a few people their way.
Last year I discovered the satisfaction of playing real retro carts (not ROMs) with modern portables. I bought a portable NES (the FC-Mobile II by Hyperkin) and have been daily slugging it out with Link and Kirby whilst on the train. I knew that if there was a portable NES then there had to be a portable SNES and Mega Drive... a few purchases later and I'm now the proud owner of a SupaBoy and GenMobile! The former is by Hyperkin but the latter is from a third party (and is still in transit at time of writing this). I actually asked Hyperkin why it was so hard to get hold of their products in Europe and if they'd be interested in me writing a comprehensive review of some of their products... I initially got an invite over twitter to email them but sadly I've heard nothing back since my email.
So here are the games that make me salivate... if you follow me on twitter then you'll know that I've opened up each one, cleaned the contacts and scrubbed off the decades of dirt:
What's your favourite console and game?
Tough one... but I'd probably say Kirby's Adventure on the portable NES. We all know that SMB3 is often highlighted as the NES' crowning glory, but after playing through Kirby a couple of times I can't help but think that Kirby betters it in many ways. Other then being a very cute platformer, Kirby himself can take the powers of his enemies by swallowing them whole, fly just by holding his breath, kill enemies with a single puff of air, use stars as a form of transportation, and he can duck, slide, swim, run and jump - Mario has to collect flowers and mushrooms before he gets anywhere near as cool! It's a dynamic game that allows players to employ a variety of different strategies in order to complete it.
What's next on your hit-list?
Well, for those who picked up on the broken RetroDuo comment earlier, I'd really like a SNES. The modern portable version is amazing but I want a slice of classic action on my shelf too. I also once owned an N64 which holds some great university memories - so I'll be tracking one down this year.
Do you have any other retro treasures tucked away?
Other than the collection in my study I have one more retro wildcard that I keep in my garage... a Neo-Geo MVS arcade machine complete with Metal Slug, Neo Turf Masters, World Heroes 2, Puzzle-de-Pon and Fatal Fury 2. It gets a good thrashing every now and again but it really needs some more love and attention - a soldering session is probably not too far away as some of the connections are loose. The mars coin unit isn't that reliable either so I'll probably be replacing it sometime soon too. I'd love to have the time to indulge in an Arduino project to add an external credits display or additional score monitor:
Do you have any other collections?
Boardgames. They're awesome and social:
Any final words?
It's been great sharing with you guys. If anyone wants to chat then feel free to catch me on twitter as @NES_4Life and I can also be found at retrocollect.com and retrog
Keep collecting, swap your duplicates with others in the retro gaming community and don't forget to actually enjoying playing your games!
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