OMG! Video Game Heaven!

http://i.gizmodo.com/319409/ultimate-1700%252B-piece-ocd-video-game-collection-up-for-grabs-on-ebay

 Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Coleco ColecoVision, Coleco Gemini, Coleco Telstar, Commodore 64/128, GCE Vectrex, Mattel Aquarius, Mattel Intellivision, Mattel Odyssey 2, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, APF TV Fun, Miscellaneous Handheld Games, Miscellaneous PC Games, SC Eight Thousand, Sega Pods, Miscellaneous TV Games, NEC Turbo Duo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo NES, Nintendo Nintendo 64, Nintendo Super NES, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Nintendo Wii, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Saturn, SNK Neo Geo, SNK Neo Geo Pocket, Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 2, Texas Instruments TI 99/4A, VM Labs Nuon.

OMG! ITS THE MOTHERLOAD!!!

OK How kewl is that? There’s the Holy Grail of video games, all in one place. Just about everything imaginable for the last 30 years of video gaming. I spent probably 23 of those 30 years playing video games. Ive probably have seen, and have fond memories of a lot of stuff in that collection. Got me thinking today about my experience with video games over the last 20 some odd years.

I started my gaming addiction in the very early 80s at my grandparents house. When I was little, we didn’t have a whole lot of money, but my grandparents decided so that I would have something to do when we visited, they would get a Collecovision. This was awesome to a 7yr old. It was this big old console system you plugged into your TV. The controllers looked like really old TV controllers with a keypad and a circular paddle thing. I played endless hours of AstroBlaster (I think that was the name) and various other card games, etc. Then, not long after that we got an Atari 2600. Whoa, I swear I never left the TV. I played everything I could get my hands on. Combat, PacMan, some Starwars stuff, Pitfall, Adventure, you name it. Of course at this point I was getting in a lot of trouble b/c my grades were suffering

I really never got much into the new fangled consoles in the 90s. I had a Nintendo, but never really got the 64, or any of the other systems. I would usually just play on friends stuff. I did get a PlayStation, but that was for Final Fantasy 7. I played all of them from the first on the Nintendo. I had to get it after seeing it at a friends place. (and yeah I spent months playing it there before I got it myself, I think I would go for like 16-18 hours at a time sitting there playing that stupid game lol) My PlayStation just sits around and collects dust now. Sometimes Ill bust out Wipeout XL, but maybe once every couple years.

My main lack of fascination of console games came from when I got my first real PC in like 1987. 8088 4.77 mhz Epson something or other. I had a TI 99/4A for a while, but that wasnt a PC . I spent many hours at the age of 11 learning to program in Basic on that TI heh…Friends of mine had Comodore 64s, and that where I learned of the wonders of Marble Madness. That was a great game. Anyways, so I got my PC, and man, the video games blew away Nintendo. Even though you were limited in color, the games were much more immersive, especially some of the text adventures from Infocom. Heh, I had a dream of growing up to write games for Infocom when I was a kid. Its basically what started me seriously programming in the first place. I had lots of fun with all kinds of games on the PC for a many years. Doom, Pools of Radiance, Mechwarrior (the original ran on my 8088 lol).  Some of my favorites were Nethack, the Zork Series, SpaceQuest, Dungeons of Moria (played that on a Digital that had the orange screen lol). In my opinion, I think PC games have stayed way ahead of consoles till now, so I lost my love of console gaming really early.

Now, its the 21st century. Consoles and PCs are about the same level of gaming at this point…hell the consoles are now just stripped down PCs. I started playing some decent games after I could afford a good computer. I had been stuck with a Pentium 75mhz machine for a while, then got a 600mhz P3. Finally caught up to the rest of the world and got a P4 and started some serious gaming. I spent a lot of time playing FPS, Ghost Recon, Rainbow 6, Hitman, Unreal Tournament. I played some RPGs here and there, Dungeon Siege, Diablo, some other stuff. Then I discovered the world of MMORPGs. I was bored with what I had one Christmas, and while watching CNN on my lunch on my computer at work, I came across a story about weddings in EverQuest II. This was about a month after the game launched, and what I saw of game play in the story, I had one thought, “I NEED TO GET THAT GAME!” So, the next day, I go down to CompUSA on lunch. I stand around in the game section, drooling over all the stuff, wondering which will keep me occupied for months. I go looking for EQ2, and its sitting there with World of Warcraft, EQ1 and some other stuff. I picked up World of Warcraft b/c there was like a million signs and books and stuff all over the place for it. I look at the box, and like I always do, I studied the screenshots with an intensity of a crazy man. Then I put the package down and picked up EQ1. Looked at the screenshots and thought “meh.” I pick up EQ2 and I’m like, OK, that’s seriously kewl. I stand there for like another half an hour comparing EQ2 and WoW. It came down to EQ2 having superior graphics in my mind. So I buy it, go home that night and install it. OMG! So, I create this Half-Elf and Im off to explore. Was quite frustrating at first, b/c of course I figure, “well, I never read the instructions to begin with, I usually just go to the options and check out the key bindings and figure it out from there” MISTAKE. Not ever having played a game like this one, I got pwnd repeatedly in the face by those goblins on the Isle of Refuge. Probably partly my fault for rolling a Ranger right off as my first toon, but still Eventually, I go out and get the Prima Guide (I still have it sitting around somewhere) and I go back and hack at it. Needless to say, I was looking for something to occupy me for a few months, I ended up with something that’s consumed much of my time for 3 years now.

The world to me in December ’04 was immense to me, and it only gets bigger and bigger every year. I have made a lot of good friends playing this game. I think the social interaction involved with MMOs is the biggest part that keeps you addicted. Ive been playing with the same person and her husband for 3 years now. Were really good friends, and we would have never met if it hadn’t been for EQ2. The expansiveness of EQ2 is just mind boggling. In 3 years I’m still finding stuff I haven’t seen in older content. The game environment is so immersive, I have no problem sitting there for 16 hours at a time sometimes lol. I’ve had my days of: get up in the morning, sit down in front of EQ2 with some coffee, then not stopping until 2 or 3 the next morning. Sad, I know but what else do you want to do on a weekend and don’t have anything else to do?

After playing for a while I discovered that the forums for EQ2 were actually quite useful. I started reading, then posting…eventually you end up part of a community of players that all share the same love. No matter how irritated or how much you may not agree with a change made to the game, there’s still the underlying love for the game. Its pretty kewl to sit there and discuss something you have a passion for with people all over the country and all over the world. Being part of a community like that, and the ability to hang out with people from all over while playing a REALLY KEWL LOOKING video game, is like Nirvana, it really is.

This collection though, wow…If I had $9,000 to blow I would so totally be there. I could see myself with some of the early stuff, just sitting there for hours and hours playing all the old games I remember from my youth. I know you can get the same stuff with emulators on the PC, but its not the same. There’s something to be said for being able to sit in front of the warm glow of the TV, joystick in your hand, and hearing the bleeps while you’re getting lost in the little boxes or whatnot moving around on the screen. Who wouldn’t want that collection?

~ by g0thicicecream on November 9, 2007.