I started my wild and crazy path into the world of gaming back when I was a wee lad of 4. My aunt would babysit me while my parents went to work, and what better place to take a little kid than a bar?

Yes, I said a bar.

While it probably wasn't the most kid-friendly of places, it did have a couple pinball and arcade machines. The bartender would give me a chair or stool to stand on, and I'd go to town playing whatever machine was available at the time. People in the bar, friends of my aunt, would give me quarters to keep me happy. I have no idea if I had to do a crazy little kid dance or carry beer to their tables; it was a simpler time in 1981, so maybe they just gave them to me without any goofy requests. Thankfully, I walked away with only a video game addiction and not a love for booze.

Anyway, flash-forward 27 years, and I've now got a nice little collection going. Nothing like the collections you'll see online where some dude has every single NES game, or has an entire room filled with games and consoles. But, I'm proud of what I have and figured I'd share it with my fellow Destructoid members.

Here's a shot of everything together, along with a couple game-related figures:



The picture shows somewhere around 410 video games. See? I have a problem, right? I'm just happy that my wife understands my obsession and was kind enough to agree to allow me to display most of the games in our family room (the NES and Genesis are in storage, taken out the other night so I could get them in the picture).

Sadly, I can't find my old Atari games; they are probably buried somewhere in my parents' cellar. And my SNES games were given to my little brother after my SNES died, so I didn't include them. I'll get them back from him someday.

Here's a closer look at the games:


The NES games, with the few surviving manuals. There are a few that I cannot find, such as the first Megaman. Pretty sure those games are in a box with the Atari games at my parents' house...


The Genesis and GBA games, with two of my favorite figures (Mitsuru and Orange Knight). I actually did not own a Genesis; I came upon the console (not pictured) and games when the in-laws moved out of the house we now live in. My wife has a love for ToeJam and Earl, and when we found the box containing it and the other games, she wanted to keep them. One of her brothers sold the family's N64 (bastards), so we didn't want the Genesis to disappear as well. Her parents were cool with it; we didn't tell her brothers (one lives in Florida, the other still lives with my in-laws). They probably don't care either.


The 360 and original Xbox games. My 360 collection has grown quite a bit since I got the system last June. I only own 4 original Xbox games because I never actually owned the console. I also didn't want to buy a game and find out I can't play it on my 360. Stupid pseudo-BC...




The centerpiece of my collection: the PS2 games (also pictured are a few of the Wii and PS1 games). My NES collection didn't really take off until much later, when I started tracking down games I wanted when I was little but couldn't convince my parents to buy for me. My SNES collection was somewhat small, and while I owned quite a few PS1 games, it was the PS2 era that caused my collection to expand dramatically. The 360 and DS may be taking up most of my gaming time, the PS2 was (and is) the one that, in my opinion, had the best and most diverse library. I'm still keeping an eye out for a few titles I missed; one, Shadow Hearts, I am buying off my brother this weekend. Just have to find the other two in the series, along with a copy of the Mega Man X Collection.


...and the rest; the Gamecube, DS, and remaining Wii games (also pictured are a few PS1 games, which I'll get to momentarily). Funny (or sad, depending on how you look at it); the Gamecube is considered a failure by some, with the Wii being marked as a success for Nintendo. Yet, I own more games for the GC than the Wii, and probably spent more time playing those games.

Guess I'm not the target audience that Nintendo is aiming for with the Wii ;)

Finally, I give you a closer look at the PS1 games; apologies for the not-so great pictures. I didn't want my games to take up an entire wall, so I put the shelves up in a corner of the room. After I started to organize them, I realized that there would always be games stuck in the corner. Since I don't play much of them anymore, I put the PS1 games back there so I could easily grab any one of the newer console games.

I also didn't feel like pulling them all out, after digging out the NES and Genesis games. I'm lazy. Sue me.


The unmarked game is Darkstalkers 3; got the game through Goozex with the disc and instructions.


Pretty sure the game under Incredible Crisis is Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Forgot to look at these the other night to see if any names were blocked, and I don't see that one in the other pictures. Also, both Lunar games contain all the junk that came with them. Almost sold them on eBay a long time ago...glad I didn't.




Sorry about the cut-off on the right in this picture. Didn't realize I did that.

And there you have it, my collection. Good? Bad? I do wish I could find my Atari games; while I have a good amount of them on the Atari Anthology disc for the PS2, I would like to be able to show my kids what started my home-console gaming obsession off (they've seen arcade and pinball machines already). They also probably wouldn't believe me if I told them that a console once had a wood finish on it...