Inside the Brain of a Collector Gamer. Museums exist for a reason.

Inside the Brain of a Collector Gamer.... Museums Exist for a Reason

My Story of Falling in Love with Video Games!

Museums exist for a reason. History is not only remembered, but recorded, researched, reused, recycled, and repeated.

There was a time many lightyears ago when I would hop. (sometimes fall) off the steps right off the bus, toss my backpack, forget my homework and fire up the Sony PS1. I played SSX 2 every single day. I played all the sports offered on there, but the snowboarding was my ultimate favorite. It inspired me, or rather doomed me to go out to Toys R Us and buy a snowboard (20 seconds in I fell flat on my face).

I remember the smooth texture of the PlayStation 1 exterior, the feel of the controller, and the excitement of pushing the power button and seeing that little green light turn on. I was excited everyday to play this system.

One day, my excitement turned to anguish. The system belonged to my eldest brother, not I. He had come home as I was wasting away at school to reclaim his glorious console! I was devastated. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way to replace it, I was 8 and jobless.

A millennia passes…. I am 20 years old and my mother brings me a PS1 she bought at a local hillbilly auction. $5 bucks she paid! I couldn’t believe after all these years she had remembered that console, she was working during that time, so she must have heard my late night sobs the following months after the PS1 was snatched from my arms. I immediately took her credit card (with her permission and a budget) and drove 45 minutes to the closest retro gaming store. SSX 2 was a cool $1.99, but many other titles that people called old and outdated held their value. It took a while to realize that these systems break or get tossed in the trash, the discs get too scratched, and accessories, games, etc. are not as readily available as they were when the system was the dominating factor of the Sony empire in the 1990s. I (rather my sweet mom) paid up for some good old classic titles. Here we are, nearly 13 years later and there are less of these items available and more people like me yearning for them.

I convinced my mom one year to buy a PS2. I have no idea how. She bought it along with a copy of Def Jam Fight for NY and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and some other stupid game we returned. I was elated! This console all to myself that none of my siblings were allowed to touch. (My older sister didn’t like to share her game gear). I will admit that it took nearly a year for me to beat San Andreas (judge yourself). 😊 However, I loved the feel of the cellophane sliding through my fingers and just opening that new game. I loved the smell of it, the idea of playing it, and just simply looking at it. That person now wants to see and own that copy of that game brand new or complete with the case, manual, game disc, and any other inserts that were initially included.

There are gamers, collectors, and collector gamers. I am a collector gamer. I want to play San Andreas, but I want the map, the same map I ruined hanging up on my bedroom wall. I want to see that seal to bring back that beautiful memory of buying it with my mom and playing it for the first time. We attach a lot of sentiment to video games and systems. I respect the person who doesn’t care about the reprint artwork or missing inserts because they just want to play the game and may have no intent of keeping it after it has been beaten. I understand playing, but I also understand collecting. Happy Gaming! 

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