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

Electric Grave

So Many Posts
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For Games.
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Luckily the main thing we're all here for; Fighting Games...they're still pretty cheap all things considered, specially on the Saturn! As long as the market is filled with collectards that can't play worth a damn I think we're pretty safe.
 

BlackaneseNiNjA

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Luckily the main thing we're all here for; Fighting Games...they're still pretty cheap all things considered, specially on the Saturn! As long as the market is filled with collectards that can't play worth a damn I think we're pretty safe.

Amen.
 

FAT$TACKS

Not Average Joe., Not Average Homeowner., Not Aver
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2600 and PC games have fallen like a rock in this time period.

Boy howdy, no kidding there. My 2600 collection is almost worthless. I've maybe one game that I would consider worth something and that would be maybe 40-60 range tops. However, it just stays in one of the countless boxes of crap in the closet. Thankfully with it all being about worthless, I don't go broke buying the stuff. It was about worthless when I started, the prices short up, and are back down to nothing, so I spent about nothing and lost about as much.

Anyhow, now I just buy the stuff when I find boxes of it cheap. I've boxes and boxes of untested 2600, 5200, 7800 crap in storage, maybe someday when I get moved I'll go through it all.

I'm the worst kind of collector. Really.. more like a hoarder I guess.
 

DevilRedeemed

teh
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jesis what a long thread I would love to read but it's too much and we've gone round and round on this so many times.


you know what would be really interesting? if crt monitors and such where made today but somehow them being more manegeable. this is probably impossible.
but the fact that we all have flat panels with hdmi and stuff - it's not the same.

so I know that many of us who like the older stuff seek out the monitors that will do the job of providing a great image - this is an aspect of the retro gaming field probably overlooked by the new collectors.

on the subject of retro gaming - I was startled back about 97 when retro game collecting as a hobby was becoming a thing in London (the xchange shops) - it was an offshoot off of import/grey market gaming which already had that element to it. it was very interesting back then - mixed with the early gains in emulation that was something akin to magic at the beginning.
the past few years have been a little sickening, put me off the whole thing.
I like playing old games a lot - but also like the art and design - the older tech pushing boundaries. which is why it's noiice to have original stuff.
but I find it hard to enjoy when all of it has become a stock market.
it's meaningless.

edit: just want to add that if these carts lose value eventually because they no longer work, I would probably be willing to buy them non working but for a lower price. I like the object and the paper manuals as I said before. not needing perfect condition stuff.
 
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beigemore

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People collect things because they simply feel the need to own shit. It doesn't matter what it is, they just want to have it to say they have it. You see all these faggots on youtube with a fucking warehouse of games as their backdrops and they can't tell you anything about a single one of those games outside of approximately when the unboxed it or ordered it on ebay.

kJZmTme.png
 

sylvie

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i pretty much chose the Saturn to be my personal console. I can't afford to collect a lot of stuff, so everything I have is either given to me or its very personal or I saved up for it for that reason. I have a humble little Saturn collection but I love all the games and I love the stories behind getting some of the games, particularly thanks to some of you guys here on the forum. I like to make sure they are nice and have spine cards if possible but I sure as hell love playing them. One of my weirder items is the Saturn port of Doom. I knew it was a pile of shit before I even bought it but I couldn't justify not owning one of my favorite games of all time for my chosen console. And believe it or not I enjoy playing it at night sometimes! Especially if I have a friend over.
 

andsuchisdeath

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People collect things because they simply feel the need to own shit. It doesn't matter what it is, they just want to have it to say they have it. You see all these faggots on youtube with a fucking warehouse of games as their backdrops and they can't tell you anything about a single one of those games outside of approximately when the unboxed it or ordered it on ebay.

Haha sound jealous of game collection? :smirk:

Sure, though, these youtube scumbags are ignorant poseurs.
 

hyper

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def sounds a lil jelly

I spend more time reading/chatting about this niche micro-universe of ours, than actual gameplay

after all culture, ideas & infomation are more valuable than some material collectibles amirite??

one man's wall of sealed CIB NES is another man's lulz [derisive laughter intensifies]
 

andsuchisdeath

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def sounds a lil jelly

I spend more time reading/chatting about this niche micro-universe of ours, than actual gameplay

after all culture, ideas & infomation are more valuable than some material collectibles amirite??

one man's wall of sealed CIB NES is another man's lulz [derisive laughter intensifies]

I don't know. His post quoted below came to mind.

He admits he doesn't play games, so at least he's not a phony.




I'm starting to clear out my games. I used to see my "game library" as someone would view their library of hand picked books, but now I just don't give a shit about the physical copy of the software. It takes up too much space and collects dust. I don't ever play the stuff, and if I do, it's usually in an emulator because it's quicker and easier. I used to be very adamant about owning physical copies of games, but they're going to way of the CD.

I do still own a shit ton of old PC games. Those are actually pretty cool because of all of the extras they used to throw in like maps, tokens, mini-novels, VHS tapes, etc. I'm sure I'll get rid of those within the next few years, too, along with all of my old 486/Pentium components. It's just easier playing that stuff in DOSBox. I do plan on keeping my MIDI synths, though, like Roland SC-55 and Yamaha MU80. At least those can still be used with modern PCs and other hardware.
 
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beigemore

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Nah, I'm definitely not jealous. I've wasted a lot of money in my life time buying and selling games, but at least I can actually talk about them (stories, art, soundtracks) unlike a lot of the people on youtube. It's almost like the games have been some kind of safety blanket where I just felt better knowing I had them sitting in my closet or wherever. Over the past few years I've started seeing video game collecting as a form of OCD and questioning why I need to have this stuff surrounding me. It no longer really defines me and I guess it was reaching the point that I felt it was becoming suffocating. Getting rid of the video games, along with some other things, has been very liberating. I'm surely looking at this at a very different angle from you guys, but I know people here are "legit" and can probably see where I'm coming from. Game collecting is ok if I can pick one of your random games and you can tell me about, but blindly owning them just to own them is pointless. I still like to talk about games, particularly 80s through early 2000s stuff -- I just don't want to be engulfed in it anymore. Maybe I partly just don't want to be associated with what collecting has become. Is that like a hipster?
 
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bulbousbeard

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jesis what a long thread I would love to read but it's too much and we've gone round and round on this so many times.


you know what would be really interesting? if crt monitors and such where made today but somehow them being more manegeable. this is probably impossible.
but the fact that we all have flat panels with hdmi and stuff - it's not the same.

so I know that many of us who like the older stuff seek out the monitors that will do the job of providing a great image - this is an aspect of the retro gaming field probably overlooked by the new collectors.

on the subject of retro gaming - I was startled back about 97 when retro game collecting as a hobby was becoming a thing in London (the xchange shops) - it was an offshoot off of import/grey market gaming which already had that element to it. it was very interesting back then - mixed with the early gains in emulation that was something akin to magic at the beginning.
the past few years have been a little sickening, put me off the whole thing.
I like playing old games a lot - but also like the art and design - the older tech pushing boundaries. which is why it's noiice to have original stuff.
but I find it hard to enjoy when all of it has become a stock market.
it's meaningless.

edit: just want to add that if these carts lose value eventually because they no longer work, I would probably be willing to buy them non working but for a lower price. I like the object and the paper manuals as I said before. not needing perfect condition stuff.

CRT monitors are still plentiful. You can get any 27" Sony TV with component inputs off Craigslist, get a component --> VGA converter, and use GroovyMAME. The output's perfect. Everything at its original resolution and refresh rate.

Even though most arcade monitor tubes are burnt or shitty at this point, it's still really easy to find an early 2000s TV with component inputs, and the picture's really good on them.
 

Sikleflaming

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Comparing arcade games to console games is apples and oranges.
Didn't realize this thread wasn't about arcade games too, I assumed the rising prices of MVS carts was included. Even if we're just talking old console games though, emulators still aren't perfect; the differences may be small but I'm sure there are still SNES and Genny games that have a different enough play experience on the console vs on an emulator to warrant buying them.

This may change, once people discover that they can build-in English patches into original Japanese carts and play them.
I did this to a copy of Fire Emblem 4, I kinda feel silly/embarrassed going through so much to get a playable physical copy of a game I'd beaten 3 times in an emulator but I loved that game so much that I don't really regret it
 

greedostick

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That makes more sense. But... which one, given your preferences listed in the Lost Odyssey thread, I'm not sure the Saturn has anything that fits that.

Shining force
Shining the holy ark
Panzer dragoon saga.
 

bloodycelt

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Shining force
Shining the holy ark
Panzer dragoon saga.

Get Holy Ark, if you don't like it you can sell it at what you paid for.

Emulate Shining Force 3, its the only way to use the english patch that's needed to play all 3 chapters.

PDS :( Every time I look, I count myself fortunate that I bought this game at funcoland. I'd just wait and see if you can borrow it, or buy it from someone at a more reasonable price... its not that rare.
 

oliverclaude

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I did this to a copy of Fire Emblem 4, I kinda feel silly/embarrassed going through so much to get a playable physical copy of a game I'd beaten 3 times in an emulator but I loved that game so much that I don't really regret it

If it's either that, or being thrown away, then why not? The point is, it's a great game and you offered that particular copy another life.
 

JoeAwesome

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Didn't realize this thread wasn't about arcade games too, I assumed the rising prices of MVS carts was included. Even if we're just talking old console games though, emulators still aren't perfect; the differences may be small but I'm sure there are still SNES and Genny games that have a different enough play experience on the console vs on an emulator to warrant buying them.

I brought up CMVS to the OPs point on hardware, but you brought up MAME. Moving on, though, what point does the differences in experience (subjective, mind you, because even from an emulation standpoint, people will have different setups with different results on BSNES/Higan, for example) have to do with driving up the market on games such as Road Runner's Death Valley Rally or Jurassic Park?

I would think it'd make them more sought after, but imo, it's not affecting this bubble either way.
 
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bulbousbeard

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Even if we're just talking old console games though, emulators still aren't perfect; the differences may be small but I'm sure there are still SNES and Genny games that have a different enough play experience on the console vs on an emulator to warrant buying them.

Not really. SNES, Genesis, and Neo Geo are done deals. If you use a CRT monitor emulation setup with the right software configuration, it's indistinguishable at this point. PS1 and Saturn emulation are still crap, though.
 

GohanX

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CRT monitors are still plentiful. You can get any 27" Sony TV with component inputs off Craigslist, get a component --> VGA converter, and use GroovyMAME. The output's perfect. Everything at its original resolution and refresh rate.

This is intriguing, I always assumed converting VGA to component on a SDTV would look like crap.
 

DevilRedeemed

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i pretty much chose the Saturn to be my personal console. I can't afford to collect a lot of stuff, so everything I have is either given to me or its very personal or I saved up for it for that reason. I have a humble little Saturn collection but I love all the games and I love the stories behind getting some of the games, particularly thanks to some of you guys here on the forum. I like to make sure they are nice and have spine cards if possible but I sure as hell love playing them. One of my weirder items is the Saturn port of Doom. I knew it was a pile of shit before I even bought it but I couldn't justify not owning one of my favorite games of all time for my chosen console. And believe it or not I enjoy playing it at night sometimes! Especially if I have a friend over.

I get this completely.
see about 9 or 10 years ago I had built up a nice little SFC collection, made up mostly of very niche relatively unheard of games (back then). it was a time when you could fish some nice catches in what was then the ebay estuary.
I loved it. and it was mostly down to the ways I had gotten ahold of these games. I also had more common but beautiful and important - Final Fight and the Makaimura game that came out for the machine. it was a time when obscure was not hipster related lexicon with mass appeal, something that had personal, private appeal.
A collection was a mix of nostalgia, aesthetic taste (collecting has a strong aesthetic component with respect to certain items - japanese games of past eras for instance) and the challenge of the hunt. but you could get stuff because people didn't think back then they owned gold bullion.
 

DevilRedeemed

teh
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CRT monitors are still plentiful. You can get any 27" Sony TV with component inputs off Craigslist, get a component --> VGA converter, and use GroovyMAME. The output's perfect. Everything at its original resolution and refresh rate.

Even though most arcade monitor tubes are burnt or shitty at this point, it's still really easy to find an early 2000s TV with component inputs, and the picture's really good on them.

nice one. I kind of meant that it would be nice to have crt - like screens with more modern designs to round off playing retro games in the modern era.
the ugliest thing about the whole thing is the old massive TVs in my opinion - the the images are and always have been, jaw dropping to me. like pointillism art.

vga converter and groovymame - what's this all about?
 

Mr Marth

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I can relate, I currently collect for SFC. It was a lot easier to get games even 6 or 7 years ago because you didn't have people who knew what they had was possibly rare and valuable
 

DevilRedeemed

teh
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I can relate, I currently collect for SFC. It was a lot easier to get games even 6 or 7 years ago because you didn't have people who knew what they had was possibly rare and valuable

valuable only in terms of it's worth for those who looked upon these things in a certain way- most scarce SFC games where not expensive at all and pretty much available.
 

bulbousbeard

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This is intriguing, I always assumed converting VGA to component on a SDTV would look like crap.

https://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/9A60A

The key is to get a VGA --> component transcoder and not a scaler. You don't want to modify the image at all.

Scalers are crap because they'll change the frequency/resolution. So basically, any decent 480p TV with component inputs, a transcoder like that one, and GroovyMAME, and you can play pretty much any game on a CRT at its native resolution and refresh rate.
 
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