Retro Game Bubble - Will it grow, decline, or finally pop?

bulbousbeard said:

Hey Greedo, which PCE game does your signature come from? I've been trying to collect all the game graphics of video games.

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Please don't make more shitty frontends.

herb said:

Please don't make more shitty frontends.

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You better watch out - he might make a video about you that no one will watch.

RAZO said:

Being a collectard just isn't cool any more.

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It never was IMHO.

greedostick said:

There are 3 types of collectors/gamers that I see.

Hoarders that rarely/never play (collectors, spend more time researching games/prices than playing games)

Gamers (those who enjoy playing more than collecting, will game any way possible but normally prefer real hardware)

Tinkerers (those who collect normally hardware to tinker and mod them, bring them back to life)

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You are right on with the type of gamers I am usually a Tinkerer with hardware but will sit down and play my games. Right now I have a backlog of projects I need to finish. Working on restoring my big red, cmvs, and some repair work for some friends locally.

IMHO the type of gamer/collector is pretty universal across gaming communities. One of my worlds is pinball, and we definitely have the exact same types there.

Aurich said:

IMHO the type of gamer/collector is pretty universal across gaming communities. One of my worlds is pinball, and we definitely have the exact same types there.

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The pin collectors always fascinated me more than the autistics that hoarde console games.

I've got to the point where I still like collecting my favourite games, but I no longer need everything and I no longer care so much about condition. My Cyber Lip is in horrible condition, but I never plan to sell it, so I really don't mind. The condition was always part of the worth of a game, when you stop caring about that the conditions don't seem so important.

There's more than a few big resellers that are noticing some trends. The scaricty of these games hasn't changed.
The NES community points to the price of Contra as a market indicator. This is a $5 loose game all day, yet prices are over $35.

Are people buying games for the value only? Yes.
Too many of these people and the market crashes.

The life of the consoles is irrelevant. Look at the least reliable consoles. FDS?

Even without nes contra prices taken into consideration, the fact that there are people who presently collect "games" for the tiger R-Zone is a sure sign that the only thing that matters is the fact that "collectors gonna collect". People will collect anything and the fact that R-Zone toys are also now selling for crazy amounts of money right now (crazy being anything even remotely close to the original msrp of these things), is a sure sign that people will collect absolutely anything gaming related right now. This may slow down as many people dump their hastily acquired game libraries over time, but will likely contunue until our generation dies off as many posters in this thread have already supposed. Even as working hardware becomes scarce, there will always be a chunk of our generation that is willing to restore and play our past/childhood.

Like dolls, model trains, coca-cola/disney branded items, trading cards, and stamps, videogames may remain most relevant to a certain generation, but the hobby will likely endure via collectors beyond our generation. The amount of people who collect will certainly decrease as years go by and the items that subsequent collectors value will likely shift as products begin to breakdown. Some future collectors may not even care to play the games themselves and may see the ability to play the game as an "added bonus" (many modern game collectors view collectors this way).

What is being debated today is no more than a simple clash between those who want to play these old games and those who are more interested in treating them as a fun collectibles that you can also play if you feel inclined. Sellers aiming prices at the latter group is making the hobby more expensive for those in the first group. The truth is that both views are correct and people are entitled to do whatever they please with the items they buy. I only own games that I have the time to play, but that shouldn't effect people that choose to own every game "just in case they want to play it one day".

FilthyRear said:

The pin collectors always fascinated me more than the autistics that hoarde console games.

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I didn't know that they are autistic. I guess that explains some things.

BlackaneseNiNjA said:

Even without nes contra prices taken into consideration, the fact that there are people who presently collect "games" for the tiger R-Zone is a sure sign that the only thing that matters is the fact that "collectors gonna collect".

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Might as well add Atari Jaguar, Game.com, Hyperspin, CDi, and Atari Lynx to that list.

greedostick said:

Might as well add Atari Jaguar

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Come ooooon!

It has an handfull of cool games for it! Not the worst console there is. I still like it.
Way more than the 32x in example.

Atro said:

Come ooooon!

It has an handfull of cool games for it! Not the worst console there is. I still like it.
Way more than the 32x in example.

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Yeah add 32x too. Point is theres not enough exclusives on jaguar that are 9/10 good so its just not worth the investment. Its a shit system in my opinion.

ElectricGrave said:

It never was IMHO.

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It was for me when I was younger and would have friends over and we would talk about all the cool shit sitting on the shelf. Now I look at this stuff as cool shit taking up space in my busy little world.

2600 and PC games have fallen like a rock in this time period. SMS and Genesis stuff had doubled but now have fallen down a little. Japanese Saturn is still really low also. Plenty of options for collectors or players alike. When one type goes up, you just shift to something else.

So my much truth in this thread.

Too much autism too.

Tripredacus said:

2600 and PC games have fallen like a rock in this time period. SMS and Genesis stuff had doubled but now have fallen down a little. Japanese Saturn is still really low also. Plenty of options for collectors or players alike. When one type goes up, you just shift to something else.

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Japanese saturn is effing insane. There not a single shmup or rpg i want under a Ben. Most are in the 200 range or more.

greedostick said:

Japanese saturn is effing insane. There not a single shmup or rpg i want under a Ben. Most are in the 200 range or more.

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No one buys Japanese RPGs, do they? When I had a Japanese Saturn 90% of the RPGs were worthless because they're unplayable without knowing Japanese. Shooters are insane prices, you're right there, but the common games are still very cheap. Japanese copies of Virtua Fighters, Sega Rally, Daytona, Athlete Kings (DecAthlete), Street Fighter Zero 1&2, etc. are all at rock bottom prices.

MattBlah said:

No one buys Japanese RPGs, do they? When I had a Japanese Saturn 90% of the RPGs were worthless because they're unplayable without knowing Japanese.

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This may change, once people discover that they can build-in English patches into original Japanese carts and play them.

oliverclaude said:

This may change, once people discover that they can build-in English patches into original Japanese carts and play them.

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Won't you still have to burn a new CDR with the patched game (or mod the console to run games from an SD card) to play it?

Kind of defeats the purpose of buying the original copy since you won't be playing it anyway.

duck_king said:

Won't you still have to burn a new CDR with the patched game (or mod the console to run games from an SD card) to play it?

Kind of defeats the purpose of buying the original copy since you won't be playing it anyway.

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A friend of mine bought an original Japanese King Colossus cart with an English patch inside. Plays fine on his Japanese Mega Drive. What do you mean by saying he won't be playing it anyway? The game's a masterpiece, worth playing for the OST alone.

oliverclaude said:

A friend of mine bought an original Japanese King Colossus cart with an English patch inside. Plays fine on his Japanese Mega Drive. What do you mean by saying he won't be playing it anyway? The game's a masterpiece, worth playing for the OST alone.

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I was talking about Saturn RPGs above, so a patch would have to be a rewritten disc and not affect the value of an original copy.

MattBlah said:

I was talking about Saturn RPGs above, so a patch would have to be a rewritten disc and not affect the value of an original copy.

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Which JRPG is Greedo talking about? The only expensive one I noticed from Japan is Shining Force 3.

MattBlah said:

I was talking about Saturn RPGs above, so a patch would have to be a rewritten disc and not affect the value of an original copy.

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I stand corrected, thanks.

bloodycelt said:

Which JRPG is Greedo talking about? The only expensive one I noticed from Japan is Shining Force 3.

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Yeah, that was my point. As far as I know, Japanese RPGs on the Saturn are nearly all worthless.

bloodycelt said:

Which JRPG is Greedo talking about? The only expensive one I noticed from Japan is Shining Force 3.

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I was talking about english rpgs