I've played games since I can remember. My dad and I played Castelvania (first game I can vividly remember) for NES and after that point I was hooked. Today, sitting around and playing video games I often remember those early days, when I was completely committed to beating a video game and in some cases, 100% it (example all lvl 99 characters in ff3 + best esper bonuses gogo gadget Odin). But I digress.

I'd been looking on ebay lately due to a new found desire to rebuild my childhood game collection and essentially reconstruct the building blocks of my video game roots. I already owned an NES which thankfully is in fine working condition (even after I peed in the box after a way too drunk night at a local drinkery) with the essential games. I set my sights on a new (used) SNES, which arguably was the defining system of my childhood. There was just one problem, I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to spend nearly as much as was listed. I stopped looking for a while and was visiting my friend in Baltimore where I discovered that he had a SNES complete with a pretty diesel collection. I asked him if he played it ever and he said no so I offered him $20. He took it and here's what I got:

Super Mario World
Brain Lord
Illusion of Gaia (2 copies)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2 copies)
Super Mario All Stars
Super Mario Kart
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mega Man X
Nickelodeon Guts
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
Super Buster Brothers
Super NES Super Scope 6
Donkey Kong Country
Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball
Earthbound
Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Joe and Mac
World Cup 94
Yoshi’s Safari
Troy Aikmen Football
Act Raiser
Mario Paint
Street Fighter 2
Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Super Adventure Island
Krusty’s Fun House
Mortal Kombat II
Spanky’s Quest
Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition
Earthworm Jim
Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure
The Itchy and Scratchy Game

Pretty solid line up for an Andrew Jackson. That being said, after making the initial $20 investment, I've been back on Ebay and purchased FF2, FF3 and Secret of Mana for 20, 30 and 25 dollars respectively. I was able to justify spending $75 on old video games (which I already have on emulator) in my mind purely because of the emotions attached to the physical cartridges and the tangible relationship between myself and the controller.

I haven't played any games yet except to make sure they worked and I'm finding it harder and harder to fit in gaming to a busy work schedule. I'm freakin trying, but its hard. Did I NEED to spend $100 on an SNES and some pieces of plastic? No, I felt that $100 was a fair price to pay for a little shot of nostalgia and I'm fixing to spend about $60 on Chrono Trigger within the next few days. I think there's something to be said for a game if you're willing to pay $10 over original retail for a game thats 10+ years old. Or maybe I'm just a sucker. What do you think?