Hard Copy Collection Vs Digital Distribution

February 14th, 2008

old game carts

As I mentioned some time ago I am currently on a quest to complete my video game collection. Now despite the growing success of the digital download services, I refuse to use these services to complete my collection. As a gamer of most of the generations that these services cover I feel as though should own as many original copies as feasible. Its my responsibility.

Not everyone is a stubborn as me when it comes to digital downloads. But I’m sure that these services have encouraged new gamers to perhaps take a look around at eBay or second hand stores to see what is available to them in hard copy format. So it begs the questions for both the hardened collector and the person that is thinking about the prospects of collecting. Should I choose Hard copy collecting or Digital distribution or even a mixture of both?

Its topic has probably become a little redundant now but for those still on the fence:

Owning the Original Cartridge or CD

Positives

You physically own the game and its contents; manual, box, publisher propaganda, a world map and in some cases a free watch or soundtrack (Killer Instinct)
You can use the original game pad that the game was made for and enjoy the game how it was originally intended to be played
You get to build up a neat little game collection to impress your mates and pull chicks
If you are a bargain hunter then you will definitely get a kick out of buying retro games

Negatives

Do you enjoy continuously blowing inside a cartriage?
Often it can be quite difficult to find a complete game let alone a game that comes with a box
Should you really need to pay through the nose? Just to get the original copy?
Do you like being overcharged for shipping?
Original games (especially when bought off eBay) generally cost more than their digital counterpart
If you don’t have the console already then you’ll have to buy that too as well as any additional accessories
You physically need to store your games
Carts won’t last forever

Digital Distribution

Positives

You can build up a great supply of games in less than an hour = instant satisfaction
Slowdown and other issues due to the original console’s hardware go away because you are playing the game on a superior machine
Upgrades to existing games like online mode force inferiority onto original games
There is a constant stream of games being added to these services, so there is always something to look forward to
You can buy games never originally released in your region
Save on room space
Games often receive visual upgrades (sharper, high resolution)

Negatives

Peripheral orientated games more than likely won’t be ported over
No physical objects, no complementary gimmick
You don’t get to play on the original pad
A number of Virtual Console games don’t allow for 60hz
There will always be more physical games to choose from
Some downloadable games actually have less features than the original
There is no bargain hunting, you always have to pay premium price
Retro gaming compilations can save you a wallet full of cash
You have the guilt of feeling like a n00b for never owning the original

I hope that this dot point guide helps you decide which path to go down. A mixture of both is always good as well.

Posted in Retro Gaming | Comments (8)
Tags: carts, collecting, digital distribution, ebay

In the Gaming Life of…

November 3rd, 2007

Hey Guys, I am pleased to announced that the time has come. With the exclusion of one Chinese exam I am on Christmas holidays. So I have 4 months without University life slowing down the site’s progress. I am so pleased, you see although the site has been running nicely over the past few months, deep down I have been yearning to do better. And nows my chance.

The other thing that has been stuck in the back of my mind is how to prepare for such a holiday. I mean 4 months is a fantastically long holiday and I haven’t been playing a lot of games this year. So its finally my time to relive my childhood and play games like there is no tomorrow. Ah the summer time. So over the past month I have been utilizing every scrap of my spare time in order to prepare for this glorious time and this is how I did it.

New High Definition Monitor

Now lets get one thing straight here, I’m not a materialistic guy, I bank aboutÂ half of what I earn and only ever buy ANYTHING once I know that its perfect for me. But every now and then I treat myself and this is what I did here.

dell high definition monitor

A few weeks ago I bought myself a Dell 24″ LCD monitor to play games and do some design work on. My twin brother has been eyeing down this model for the past 4 months now. Its gotten some rave reviews and has a pile of useful features, including:

full HD 1080p
Composite, Component, S-Video, DVI, VGA
Card Readers
4 USB ports
A DVI/HDMI cable
rotatable stand(that means vertical play for Ikaruga ;))
3 year warranty

Its pretty much the best in its range and is extremely well priced. The week that I bought it Dell had $100 off and then when I called up with some questions they offered a further $100 off. The only issue with the monitor is that I needed to pick up a separate sound bar(speaker) to play audio. I’m not a big sound buff, so this didn’t really bother me. And hey I can to get some long deserved use out of my Sony headies.

So far I have had a few gripes with the monitor but nothing due to the machine itself. I quickly discovered that I couldn’t use it as a screen(or second screen) for my laptop. My working environment is just not set up for that. So (as in the picture before) I have it on that sturdy bench.

Also using two screen of such resolutions would be too taxing on my weak little laptop. Nevermind that I can’t get the resolution past 1280 X 800. Although I gotta said high def images and video look incredible when displayed on the screen(I used my brothers notebook, its a Dell so it was plug and play 1920 x 1200 res).

gaming bean bag and pillow

Now because the monitor is not on my work desk that means that I need comfortable seating to play games. All I currently have is a bleh bean bag and a large cushion. I use the bean bag and leave my brother with the cushion. Its not all bad though, these things can be easily fixed. It also means that I get to finally plant my ass in a bean bag while playing games. I’ve always been envious of those bean bag gamers.

My final gripe is how damn shitty non high definition content looks. This has taken a while for me to grow accustomed to. I have finally adjusted though, I’d need to adjust anyways as I’ll be playing plenty of old games on it (I’ll get to that later).

The Launch of Metal Gear Ebay

Lame title? Yeah I agree. I was very pleased with this one though. As you know, I have recently been on a crusade to hunt down not so easy to find games. I’m not talking Radiant Silvergun here but rather old discontinued rare PAL games. Being PAL its that much harder.

Now you see, despite my fanboyness towards the Metal Gear franchise, I haven’t actually finished MGS2. All because I kept delaying my PS2 purchase(for about 2 years). Its all about that non-materialistic stuff, it just had to be cheaper, God I’m such a stinge. metal gear solid 2 artowork solid snake

After continued frustration with my copy of MGS2: Substance for the PC I decided that I needed the PS2 version. So I went searching with little luck. Until I decided to give eBay a go. Now I had never used eBay before, for some reason I had some rather negative stereotypes about the service. I desperately need this game, so I’d get it by any means possible. So I did some searching and in a few minutes I’d already found a limited edition copy of the game(with Documents of MGS2) going for a great price. So I snapped it up right away.

I had the game for about 3 days before I started playing it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to wait until I had finished my Uni assignments before I started or not. My mind was quickly made up once I got that week’s work hours, to discover a free day or two. And incidently all of my Uni work had eased off then. So I used this time to capitalize on the game. After getting up to the Big Shell from a few previous play sessions I decided that I needed to go all out. So I spent about 19hrs on and off playing the game until it was beat.

The List

So I had began my eBay journey. Now due to my success, my brother decided to follow suit and he started buying games left right and center. In fact eBay really has opened up a whole new slew of possibilities for us and hence my brother and I have decided use eBay to perfect our already great gaming collection.

We’ve had all of your consoles from Commodore 64, Atari, NES through to the today’s consoles. And for each console we have had a neat collection of games to accompany it. But like everyone whom has a passion for collecting, we have some empty spots on the shelf that we want to fill up, of games that we might have missed the first time around. So with the help of eBay we are now going back and filling in those spots.

A long time ago I wrote a poorly written article about how to Play Console Catch ups. My brother and I used this idea to write a monstrously comprehensive list of titles that we wanted to purchase in order to finish off the collection. So we wrote this list of everything that we are after of games on every console released up until now. That includes Wii VC and games for consoles we didn’t quite have just yet.

The other big downer is the NES. Unfortunately we tradgically sold our NES and its 13 or so games years ago. The only console that we have sold. So we are buying it all back and more. What makes it even worse is that we had a 3 in 1 cart featuring Super Mario Bros/Tetris/World Cup 88(has similar sprites to River City Ransom).

When the dust settled our list was a staggering 132 games long. Don’t forget that this includes all games released in the past few months as well. Not just retro games.

In anycase, I have totally forgotten to mention the games that we have picked up so far:

Gameboy Color(we played the B/W games or the Color games on our GBA)
Donkey Kong Land 1-3
1080 Snowboarding
Kirby’s DreamLand
Pilotwings 64
Kirby Canvas Curse
Super Mario Land 2
Wario Land 3
NES Console
the console came with Super Mario Bros 3, Punch Out!, Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros and ExciteBike
Wave Race 64

The joy in this exciting venture is that some games are ridiculously cheap, some of the game on that list were just $1. I think that the worse part about this whole thing is that a few of these games I’ve owned/played heaps.

Conclusion

Although it took a while I’m glad that I got all of that off my chest. I thought that it’d be a change of pace from the usual news and editorial based content. Tell me what you think of these sorts of posts as am not sure what to think. I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on how our little venture goes.

Posted in General Gaming | Comments (2)
Tags: bean bag, buying games, dell, ebay, high definition, metal gear solid, monitor, patriots, playstation 2, Retro Gaming