The Thrill of the Hunt

You may have recently heard about a massive collection of video games in Paris that contained complete, factory-sealed collections for the NES and Sega Genesis, among other systems. This giant trove of nostalgia wound up auctioning off for about...oh, over 1 million dollars and was purchased by a fellow Canadian. This is all pretty cool stuff...it would be amazing to have a full collection for even any one single system, let alone multiple, and I'd personally love to one day acquire a full NES game collection. Obviously this would involve a lot of cash, but I like to think that everyone's allowed to have one expensive hobby.

Shortly after hearing about this sale, I had a dream in which I stumbled upon a shitload of classic video games in the cellar of an abandoned house, purely by luck. We all already know I'm a massive geek, and I'll admit that video games do in fact permeate my dreams almost nightly in some way, shape, or form (Doom in particular...likely because it's fucking awesome). However, this was the first time I'd dreamed about just finding a mass amount of games in some random building.

I woke up and remembered this dream, and it got me thinking about that damn auction. In particular, it made me ask myself a question: would I ever spend a high amount of cash to just outright purchase a full collection of games for any one system? If I had the spare money burning a hole in my pocket, and there was an NES collection on eBay going for just the right amount...what the hell would I do?

*drool*

My answer to this question is pretty simple, after giving it some thought. I'd damn well ignore the complete collection and be on my way. How stupid is that? Sure, I collect old video games when I can find them...but I personally find that collecting them yourself, as well as the means by which you collect them, makes for a much more rewarding experience. Allow me to illustrate my thoughts on the subject.

Every Thursday, I leave work and take a detour to the video game store in town that offers up some classics. They don't usually have anything too interesting there, but there's always that chance that a gem might be tucked away on the racks. In addition to this, I will occasionally drive to a nearby town which also has a store that sells classic video games (same chain, actually). It often has a wider selection of classic games for some reason, and I just recently managed to acquire Maximum Carnage (red cart!) and Final Fantasy II for the Super NES for amazing prices. I've even made extended trips to various flea markets and other outlets such as A+C Games in Toronto just to search around for some more entries to my collection. I pick and choose...I'm not made of money at the moment, so I don't snatch up absolutely everything. For the moment, I only grab games that I am really interested in and want to play through. Maybe someday I'll be able to splurge and finally get every shitty sports game or LJN failure that came out on the NES, but for now I'm sticking to cartridges that I really desire.

For me, there's something about this action of going and finding the parts of the whole collection that I really enjoy. When I think about this person who now has a full complement of NES (Famicom, I suppose) games sitting in his house somewhere in Canada, I'm prettyfucking jealous. I'd love to attain that kind of collection myself at some point, obviously...but his methods just aren't the kind that I'd resort to. The way I see it is this: any rich hack with enough money sitting in their wallet, who may not even have the SLIGHTEST interest in video games, can go out and buy a full set of games from someone for the right price. Does it make this person's newly-acquired library their collection? In my opinion, no...it's a collection they acquired from another person dedicated enough to put their time into searching out every last cartridge and peripheral. "Yeah, I bought all these games...but someone else put them all together and worked to create what you're looking at."

In that way, I guess it's sort of like a piece of art (VIDEO GAME/ART COMPARISON! BLOW ME, EBERT!). People buy paintings and sculptures all the time, but it's not like they chiseled the damn thing out of a marble block themselves for display. It's not as though they themselves composed a beautiful portrait over the course of days, weeks, months, or even years. Art's a bit different though. For example, you buy a sculpture and you admire and appreciate it...but it's just one piece. An NES game collection, for example, is much different in that it's one large undertaking composed of 785 different individual parts (games) to hunt down.

It's my personal belief that when you go out and search for these "parts" individually, you appreciate them more in the end. Is that guy who just purchased multiple full collections of video games really going to fully recognize every single one? Not likely, since he didn't go through the personal effort of searching them out himself. That collection will likely remain, to him, a single large purchase...but there are thousands of pieces of that collection that all have a history and background to them that the original collector will always be able to appreciate more because it was his effort and work that went into tracking down each game.

Of course, some games are ones you can't find randomly at a store or garage sale.

In contrast to the massive purchase in question, I go out and buy a couple of new games at a time. I love going into a store and looking around to wind up finding a decently-kept copy of a long lost gem or a game I used to play like mad but never owned. There's this weird, nice feeling in my gut when I see something really cool, and nothing really seems to be able to replace that strange nostalgic reaction for me. There's nothing quite like finding a "diamond in the rough" so to speak. For example, when I saw Chrono Trigger recently for 35 bucks, I nearly filled my pants! (With feces and urine.)

Additionally, since these purchases are all spaced out, I can sit down and play them as I acquire them (granted, none of my games are factory sealed) and really get to enjoy what I've spent my money on. For instance, I'm currently running through the copy of Final Fantasy II/IV that I bought the other week and I'm having a blast!* Even if I manage to find something shitty like Bible Adventures or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I'll likely play through them and check them out, and terrible games such as these can still hold some kind of value to someone who knows their stuff.

Anyway, who knows? Perhaps the man who got his hands on this insane collection really appreciates what he's picked up. To me though, it's simply an acquirement that someone else put their heart into creating and shaping for 15 years. To me, the creation of a collection is much more important than just having one, and it comes with memories of how you acquired every game, or thoughts of how long a certain title eluded you to the point that it drove you mad. I love those feelings...I think it's awesome that I can look at my copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 and remember all the time I spent collecting Popsicle Pete points to send away for it; I think it's hilarious that I can cringe at The Hunt for Red October and know that my grandfather bought me this absolutely horrible piece of shit, but he did it because he was kind and thought I'd like it; and I find it awesome that my newly acquired copy of Battle of Olympus is only in my collection now because my long-time friend was in the right place at the right time and thought to contact me.

So I guess to wrap my thoughts up:

1) As envious as I am...I wouldn't spend 1.2 million dollars to just acquire a massive game collection, even if I had the cash to spare. I won't deny though that some extra money lying around to put into going out and collecting would always be nice.

2) I personally find it much more thrilling and fun to go out and hunt these bastards down one by one, as I believe it makes the overall "collecting" process more meaningful and satisfying.

3) The memories surrounding each game I manage to snag are just as important to me as the games themselves, if not moreso. Simply buying a full NES game collection from someone else who did all the work just wouldn't feel the same. I wouldn't have those nostalgic memories about establishing my collection over the years...someone else would.

What're your thoughts on this one? Would you rather purchase a whole collection to just to have it around, or are you also the kind of person as me who prefers to track things down themselves? Am I a stupid idiot?? Sound off below!

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*: Final Fantasy II is the most fun I've had with an FF game in a long time and playing through it further emphasizes what a fucking piece of shit FFXIII was.