Like myself, I know many of you have rather large collections of retro games. Have you ever gone to play one of them and found out it’s not the game you remember buying?
That happened to me tonight!
I thought this could be a general thread of discussion about the condition of our games, but man, I was just floored by my own bad memory.
My copy of Atomic Runner on Sega Genesis (Chelnov in Japan I think) is not the one I bought new way back when. It’s a former rental, which means at some point I sold the first one and then reacquired it later. What a dope! If you ever needed a reminder not to sell your games unless the situation is dire, well, there you go.
That leads me to the condition… which is actually quite good despite being a rental, but of course it has those unremovable video store stickers on the cart and the manual. Video 2000 in Louisiana to be exact. The case has some masking tape crap on the back I never removed too.
Anyway, before you’re 47 like me, take a swing through your collection again and make sure it’s everything you remember it to be.
I went to go play Activision Anthology (GBA version-the emulation is really good) on my Gamecube Game Boy Player the other day and the cart isn’t in the box and I have no clue where it went. Now I need to buy a loose cart.
Selling my Saturn and Dreamcast collections back in the day was really stupid. I got the majority of the games I had back now and actually did it when it was still fairly cheap. On the Dreamcast though, I had a complete Official Dreamcast Magazine collection and all the demo discs. I also had all kinds of cool Dreamcast swag from shows, store promos, strategy guides, soundtracks, posters and limited time stuff bought directly from Sega. I probably sold both my Saturn and Dreamcast collections for a total of $450. I actually had a good job back then, so I didn’t even need the money. Argggghhh….
I’m pretty accepting of lower quality boxes to save money, as long as they’re mostly intact. Inside box protectors they still look decent, even 99% as good in some cases (eg squashed boxes) and hold up well enough.
Box protectors are the game changer for them IMO, as one of the issues of a deteriorating box in the past was it getting worse, but now it can be saved at current state.
I got a Micro Machines V3 out the other day to redump, and for some multiplayer action, and there are two discs in the box. I have no idea or recollection as to how or why.
I was the manager of a video rental store for a few years so I own a number of former rental games from my time there. I can snap a shot or two of those and even give you reasons why we did what we did with the stickers!
Awesome! That’s be cool, I hope it’s not a weird request.
I just think the rental stickers on the occasional game give it that personality and history that take it above being just a game shell. It’s kind of like when you come across someone’s name on the cart or writing within the manual - there’s a story there.
Yeah, I get it. I like the stories too. I just thought this game had a different one! That’s like my MUSHA. I always note I got it for $9.95. It still has the sticker on it.
Alrighty… some video store comparison pics. On the left is my Sonic 3 that came from the video store I operated. Notable… we deterred lost manuals with the $40 charge. Green stickers are the VOID ones that mess up your game cart or the paper because it leaves stuff behind. White barcode was used to scan it in and out.
The Louisiana place uses silver stickers like our green ones. I won’t ever try to remove those. They are just nasty. I didn’t show the boxes but both are a little sun faded. That’s a typical problem with rentals.
Condition of games is something important to me but sometimes probably too important. To a point we’re I think I have an ocd about this stuff. Whenever I see someone posting stuff that he bought (on reddit for example) in bad condition, I always ask myself “why would you buy those?” even if it’s a good deal. I would rather not buy 10 games for 5€ if the condition is shitty. If it’s only the box I could kinda live with it because you can replace them sometimes easy.
I bought an original Xbox a few weeks ago and it came with a few games. I was stoked because those were some pretty good games. Was pretty disappointed when they arrived due to the condition. Luckily, the Xbox itself was in a good condition. I sold all the games and will probably rebuy most in good conditions.
Also, some people on the internet have a weird conception of “good” or even “mint” condition. That’s why I usually only buy stuff after seeing some really high def pictures.
This is me. Except I know I have OCD. Though I don’t wonder why other people would buy things since I know I’m the odd one for caring about something so meaningless. That it has meaning to me is enough.
I don’t care about the condition of games, but the condition of hardware and controllers are paramount.
I’m generally cool with buying a banged up cart that plays well and still saves. It’s more about experiencing it on original hardware than enjoying a fresh looking copy.
Stains on the cart or label are a no-no. But wear and tear is fine. CDs/DVD games I’ll need to be more mint and complete though.
But I don’t care if the game box has some issues. If you need to get rid of some ugly looking games, I’m your guy
