Why Go Retro in 2022 (Part 2: Retro Gaming)
In my last post I talked about why I use vintage computers in my daily life. Often those machines are used for playing and tinkering, but they are sometimes also used to do real work as well. Well, in this post we’re talking about straight up fun.
RETRO GAMING AS A HOBBY
I was once told that the difference between an interest and a hobby is how much you spend on it, and that’s not entirely wrong. Interests are typically something that you find fascinating and that you want to learn more about. Taking it a step further and being willing to put some skin in the game, or money on the table is part of what turns an interest into a hobby. As a kid I was interested in video games but I was limited to what my parents were okay with buying me. As I got older my taste in gaming developed into a genuine interest and I would rent a game a week from our local Blockbuster Video and occasionally buy one if it was good enough. Fast-forward roughly fifteen years to 2016 and once again video games sparked my interest.
I had sold most of my games and consoles years ago as it was time to “grow up and be responsible”, but in late 2015 my little sister gave me her old slim PlayStation 2 that had been collecting dust for years. I didn’t have the time or the means to play anything with it – I didn’t have the cables for it, I had no games for it, and I didn’t even have a TV at that point to play it on — but I was happy to have it in my possession. While I’d previously owned all three consoles from the early 2000’s, the PS2 was my by far my favorite of that generation and I had fond memories of playing way too much Metal Gear Solid 2/3, Final Fantasy X, and GTA Vice City.
The next year, when life had finally started to settle down a little bit, I did some digging on where to pick up old games and cables. I had the TV covered at that point, finding an old 9-inch CRT (cathode-ray tube) set that my wife had bought when she was in high school. It wasn’t a great screen for gaming, but it was better than nothing. I found a place in town called Software Seconds – which I found out later was the oldest retro gaming store in the Carolinas – and immediately found the components I needed as well as a copy of my favorite PlayStation 2 games: Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. Little did I know that that purchase would be my first step into my first real hobby of my adult life.
RETRO GAMING OR GAME COLLECTING?
From my experience there are two fundamental approaches to this hobby: retro gaming, and game collecting. Obviously there is overlap between them, but they both approach it from different angles and seek different outcomes. As a general rule gamers buy games they want to play. It’s about the gameplay experience and it’s often about nostalgia for certain games. This is the group that usually brings in new fans of retro gaming, namely people who remember games they played as kids that they want to enjoy again and potentially share with their own kids.
Collectors, while still gamers, tend to go deeper down the rabbit hole. Collectors, from my experience, seem to form a very broad and diverse community of people with differing approaches to the hobby. Some are interested in console gaming, others are into PC gaming, and some are into both. Some want to own complete catalogs, while others only want certain titles from certain platforms. Some focus on one or two consoles, while others focus on multiple console generations. Some are cool with using modern technology like HD televisions and upscalers, while others — like myself — are more puritanical and insist on using a CRT with original hardware. Some only collect the games, while others seek out their boxes, manuals, and inserts for a complete-in-box collection. Some prefer home consoles, while others focus on handhelds. Some want a room with walls covered in game shelves, while others are content with a handful of their favorites; it really just depends on the person, what they’re interested in and how much time and money they are willing to invest.
GAME PRESERVATION
While I should have probably included this in the previous section, I think it’s worth noting the game preservation community as well. Preservationists, in some ways, go beyond collecting. They focus on repairing old consoles and old game cartridges, sometimes in highly technical ways. They are also actively backing up game ROM files and archiving manuals, and some go so far as to create documentation on the history of various parts of the gaming industry. If you are interested in this kind of stuff, I’d recommend you check out The Gaming Historian, The 8-bit Guy, LGR, and Odd Tinkering on YouTube. There are plenty more to choose from all over the internet, but those four do some outstanding work.
RETRO GAMING AS INVESTMENTS
Just like any old item games, consoles, and computers break down over time, which is what makes preservation so important to the community. As these things degrade and eventually make their way to the landfill, the supply is dropping. Where there may have been hundreds of thousands of NES cartridges in the late 90’s and early 00’s, they are getting harder and harder to come by – and often the ones you can find are damaged or worn out. In addition to this, kids who played these old games are hitting the age where they’re nostalgic for them and wanting to play them again. This increased demand and shrinking supply means prices are going up; and now they have been sky rocketing as investors have entered the market, buying up rare and expensive items for exponentially more than what they should have gone for and artificially inflating the prices on just about everything.
WHERE SHOULD YOU START?
Well, to answer that question, you have to start by figuring out what you’re interested in. Were you really into the Super Nintendo as a kid? Pick up an SNES and a few games, though be mindful that those prices are significantly higher than they should be at the time of writing this. Did you love your old PlayStation 1? Pick one up and grab a copy of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 along with Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, and Twisted Metal! Do you, like my wife, absolutely love the Legend of Zelda series? Work on that!
The question of where to begin with retro gaming really depends on each person. Do you just want to play old DOS games from the 80’s and 90’s? Well you can always pick up a vintage PC, and track down the floppy disks or CD-ROM for the games you want, and get the whole thing set up; or you could just go to Steam or GOG and buy them for a couple of dollars to emulate them on your fancy new computer. Do you want to play old Nintendo or Sega titles? You can track down an NES or SNES, or a Master System or Genesis (Mega Drive for my friends across the pond), a few games and all of that; or you can virtualize it with something like the Virtual Console on the Wii, Wii U, or 3DS. You can even track down an NES Mini, SNES Mini, or Genesis Mini if you only had one or two big titles you wanted to play.
Do you want to have a few games that you can enjoy with your family around the TV every now and then, or do you want to have an entire game room with display cases and memorabilia? The nice thing is that it can start at one end, go to the other, and return again. For me, it started with picking up those two games that I missed playing from my college days and it led to getting more that I liked from back then. Eventually it led to picking up the other consoles I’d sold and games I never even had back then. Now, I have an entire corner of my den dedicated to my retro collection — some I’d owned before, and others I hadn’t. The point is, if you want to get into retro gaming, just dive in with what interests you.
A WORD OF CAUTION
Before we wrap this up, I should caution those of you who may be new to it.
Watch out for scams. There is a lot of fraud out there surrounding retro gaming, and gaming in general. Scalpers are buying up items and selling them at significantly higher prices.
Buy from reputable sellers. If you buy online, be careful. Places like eBay are packed full of reproduction cartridges (repro carts) that may look like the real deal, but are not. If you just want to play the game, that may not be a huge deal, but if you’re a collector or someone who is interested in having some games that might be worth something in the future, there’s nothing worse than picking up a copy of Pokemon Blue from eBay only to realize later that it’s a fake.
Don’t trust eBay prices. Speaking of eBay, they really aren’t a good indicator of the market value for games – even when filtered by sold items. Instead, shop around and see what you can find. Sometimes you will find a good deal on eBay – I’ve gotten several myself – but other times you’ll just end up paying 10-20% higher than you probably should. That’s not much on a $10 copy of Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus with free shipping, but if you’re thinking about dropping over $100 for a copy of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on the GameCube, that will hurt.
Buy local whenever possible. This should go without saying, but if you can find a game or console (or anything else really) from a local seller, or a mom-and-pop store you should definitely give that a look. Often times local sellers aren’t asking as much as someone on eBay, and they may be willing to negotiate on the price, or even trade for something else. Meeting up, or going to a local shop also gives you the opportunity to inspect and test it. Obviously you can’t test out an XBOX game in the middle of a grocery store parking lot, but you can at least check for scratches or other damage that might be a deal-breaker. Also, you’re supporting a local business, which is always a cool thing to do.
Check with friends and family. You’d be surprised at the stuff people hold onto that they want to get rid of, but just never get around to it. Often times, if you’re nice, they might just give it to you to get it out of their house. By no means should you expect to get it, just because, but it’s often a mutually beneficial arrangement. A good portion of my collection (both games and computers) were given to me by friends and family who didn’t want the stuff anymore. A co-worker gave me an old CRT television that had been sitting in his garage since 2010. Another co-worker gave me his barely used Wii U and Xbox 360 with all of the games they had for them because they never played them and didn’t want to keep them. My nephew gave me his broken PlayStation 3 that he was about to throw away, so I fixed it and now we use it as our Blu-Ray player. My ThinkPads and all of my Apple machines were all given to me by friends and family who didn’t want them anymore and didn’t know what to do with them. All you have to do is ask. And lastly,
Don’t overlook thrift stores. While most of my collection was either mine from my childhood, or bought at various places, several came from thrift stores. Often Goodwill’s in nicer areas have a pretty good selection, and you can sometimes find the random PS2, XBOX, or SNES game at a local thrift store in smaller towns; and typically they are only asking $1-2, $5 max and that is a great deal. You can also sometimes find controllers and other peripherals there. For my main desktop setup I’m using a vintage Dell QuietKey SK-1000REW keyboard that I picked up at my local Goodwill for $3 and it works perfectly.
I hope that this was of some use and/or enjoyment to you. Retro gaming really is a fun hobby, and it’s something that you can share with your kids or other loved ones too. My kids love playing all of my old games as well as our newer ones. The oldest is working through Kingdom Hearts 2 on the PS2, my middle son has been working on his island in Animal Crossing New Horizons. The youngest is going to town on Minecraft, and my wife is working on The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I am working on my annual play through of the first generation Pokemon games. There’s something for all of us, and it’s a lot of fun to see my kids enjoy the things I loved as a kid too.
I’d love to hear what your experience is. Are you a gamer? A collector? What are you working on at the moment? Are you a normie who’s looking to get into it? Let me know what you think about these posts so far. I’ve got one more planned so far, so next I’ll cover retro and vintage audio tech. Until then, take care.