Those who know me well… and there are some of you, although probably fewer than I’d like in some respects… But I digress… know that I’ve got a bit of a thing for collecting video games.
Not for the sake of collection, mind you. You shouldn’t find stacks of pristine shrink wrapped games on my shelf, because I’ve never understood that mentality. I mean, I’m OK with it — if that’s how you get your enjoyment, then go for it. But it’s just not me. As with comic books, as with DVDs, even as with action figures, I want these things to play with, and in the case of games, that means playing those games.
You can see where this is going, right?
Just in case you don’t, let me put it this way. Many gamers have a pile of shame. In my case, though, it’s a wall.
A wall that’s at least two games deep, and stacked very high. This is… erm… part of it.
No, I don’t have a problem. Honestly.
(A quick point of clarification here; as somebody who’s worked as a journalist for some 15 years now, working with (amongst other things) games reviewing, there’s a certain quantity of review code here. As a rough rule of thumb, if it’s PS2 generation or later, it may be review code; earlier than that, and it’s my own purchases.)
I did actually clear out a LOT of cruft a few years ago, mostly stuff I’d accumulated via buying eBay bundles. I had 3 copies of a Shane Warne cricket game for the Megadrive… And I don’t actually like cricket AT ALL.
For the newer stuff, I’ve given away bits and bobs; mostly to the local school fete and a few friends, so what’s here is largely stuff I want to keep, even as it threatens to engulf me. I’m putting a little more time into gaming, but with a freelance career to fire up, a brilliant wife to support in her own career aspirations and 3 kids, that’s a bit limited.
So I thought I’d approach the issue from the other side, in a Desert Island Discs kind of way. What if, for the sake of argument, I could keep all the different games systems I have… but only one game for each of them?
Now that’s a solid challenge. So that’s what I’m going to do for the next little while. Not as a paid project… just for the fun of the exercise. I’m not looking to sell games, nor am I planning extensive reviews; it’s just a thought exercise. So, on with the show… Tomorrow.
Bonus points for anyone who can pick (or thinks they can pick) which games I’d choose to keep for each system, as I’d also like as much feedback/discussion on this as possible within the limits of a one-man blogging operation.
Up first: The Atari 2600. Quick hint: it’s not going to be ET.
I can only speak from my own perspective, but having given the same topic a lot of thought, for the 2600 I will have to go with the only one that you never had to buy – Combat (well it came free with my system anyway). There were much better games, with much better graphics but to me, the genius of Combat was that it was for the time a really,really good game to play against someone else rather than just on your own.