My Video Games
Tearing Down an Empire
October 29, 2008
After two and half years living in Oregon, I've come to the realization that ten years of collecting video games has blinded me from important activities and hobbies that were second nature to me, like drawing, writing and self expression. The impulsive nature of collecting has allowed me to live a life of clutter and distraction with reckless abandon. Somewhere along the way I went too far, and suddenly I feel like I have no space, both physically and mentally, for anything else.
I've started to tear down my empire in order to save myself and the relief has been immediate. I cut down my library of cartridges by 50% in my Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES and Famicom collections. I sold my entire GameCube, GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS collections. With the increase in the number of Nintendo Wii VC titles, I will probably sell my NES and Famicom collections too. I decided to keep my Atari 2600 and Colecovision with twenty game cartridges each, specifically holding on to titles that have an equal balance of nostalgia and playability value.
I don't plan on expanding my collection of coin-op video games. When I moved I sold all but my favorite five out of the twenty plus I owned over the last decade. Five dedicated and two MAME™ machines. I plan on building one more MAME™ machine that will use new technology such as an HD LCD monitor, optimized for head-to-head fighting games and might even sell it commercially one day.
...I'm not giving up on video games completely. There is one collection I own that will always remain active and in my hands: my flyer collection. Though I experienced massive burnout last year and part of this year, I am still very passionate about The Arcade Flyer Archive.
