Has buying retro died on Bordersdown?

[Strider]

Dunno mate, but I know at least 3 20-somethings who went straight into sales after uni and after a year are on over £60,000 at least, I'm guessing a bunch of those chaps or chapesses.

Wow. I don't make half that after 30 years of work, let alone straight after uni…

[fuse]

Share your thoughts on emulation / sd solutions. For consoles I'm less interested in sure, but for the consoles I own there's just something that keeps me going with the genuine article. CRT an all

I am a big fan of the genuine article too, and even when the money's not going to the 'right' people I don't mind paying a bit of a premium to own a more scarce thing. I don't mind emulation / SD solutions to help out with convenience or to allow you to play things that you can't play any other way, but I will always try to own the games I want to play. Case in point: I have Snatcher and a Mega CD, but played it on an emulator for convenience. Similarly, I have an NDS flash cart loaded up with fan translation ROMs of games - but only of those where I bought the original Japanese versions of the games.

This makes me sound much more virtuous than I am, so just to balance this out: I used to download a lot when I was younger, and there's many games I wouldn't have been turned on to without having done that. Eventually though, I got far more into having a collection of legit games rather than disc wallets stuffed with burnt ISOs, which mercifully coincided with the time when I had the disposable income to do that kind of thing.

[Escape-To-88]

Wow. I don't make half that after 30 years of work, let alone straight after uni…

Tell me about it mate! I mean, I do make more than half, but that's in a job that required about 5 years of training. Maybe it's a Surrey-thing as we border London, but it's bloody mental.

[speedlolita]

Living with me ma still on the 18k gross I make a year in Surrey. I hate Surrey.

[Escape-To-88]

Living with me ma still on the 18k gross I make a year in Surrey. I hate Surrey.

I didn't know there were any fellow Surrey-ites on here.

[Mayhem]

Yep live in Surrey as well, although the other half is in Coulsdon, and that may be where I go rather than her come to me...

Wow. I don't make half that after 30 years of work, let alone straight after uni…

Yeah, partly the reason I write freelance in my spare time!

[Protocol Penguin]

^ my aim for ages was to do that on the side. All those fanzine articles written never helped me 'break through', unfortunately.

[Decider-VT]

Apart from running out of space, I reached breaking point when I found a Dreamcast in my cupboard that I had no recollection of buying. I had two other Dreamcasts out along with it and I just looked around the room and wondered what I was doing with my money. What sort of person doesn't even know how many Dreamcasts they own? It made me slow down completely and re-evaluate what I was getting out of collecting games.

Ironically enough I now make enough money to be able to buy a few more of the things I would've gone crazy for a few years ago but the thrill of the chase is a bit hollow after the wake-up call and the money seems like it'd be better saved than spent. The high number of fakes now circulating in the SNES market doesn't help at all either.

[DeathAdder]

Wow. I don't make half that after 30 years of work, let alone straight after uni…

Yes, but you presumably have a lot more fun working on Retro Gamer than people sitting in an office staring at sales reports, or whatever office job they might do. Swings and roundabouts.

[Strider]

Yes, but you presumably have a lot more fun working on Retro Gamer than people sitting in an office staring at sales reports, or whatever office job they might do. Swings and roundabouts.

Oh don't worry. I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I'm well aware I've got a job I love

[QualityChimp]

I normally just have a retro itch to scratch and I'll pop onto my Coinops Xbox and play for a bit and then move on.
I have a PS3 that plays PS2 and PS1 games (plus those consoles up the loft) if I have the urge to play Stuntman or Gradius v.
I have a Dreamcast for those lovely shmups, but they're slowly moving over to the Switch, and with a Tate holder, it's a nice way to play.

For example, [MENTION=2924]Leon Retro[/MENTION] recently did a Retro Arena: Neo Geo Scrolling Beat 'em Ups and I played all four games listed:
Robo Army - 1991; Mutation Nation - 1992; Sengoku 2 - 1993; Sengoku 3 - 2001.
I had a fun night working my way through them and might go back to one or two, but the thought of paying the prices of these games is ridiculous. Hundreds of pounds, each!

I'm fully aware that I'm not playing these things the legal way, but if I wou'd have to choose between playing a retro arcade game that costs hundreds of pounds or playing a modern game with prices from £1-£60, I'd choose the latter.

As the OP states, I love seeing all of your retro stuff, but I'm happy to make do with emulation and coverart books.

[Mayhem]

^ my aim for ages was to do that on the side. All those fanzine articles written never helped me 'break through', unfortunately.

Not sure I ever "broke through", but gained enough attention and contacts for a few paying gigs over the years, on top of the occasional article for Retro Gamer, but as I noted, I've never had to rely on it as THE income because I have a full time job instead of doing that permanently. Still waiting for the SNES book to be released and the rest of my payment on that...!

[Wools]

Personally, I find buying back an old system makes the nostalgia pangs leave me only to be replaced with disappointment and a short lived experience.

Buying back a console or piece of hardware with lots of games makes me want to fully play each title but all I've ever done throughout time with retro is play a game for 30 minutes then move onto the next one. This experience is multiplied X10 with emulation, where it's so easy to load a new ROM, I play a game for a few minutes, exhale, then load another one!

I've come to find that new games are better experiences for me in the here and now, but some games deserve their classic status and I find I want those games ported to modern hardware and given some love, so I can enjoy them again fully, rather than putting up with some of their weaker points, sometimes amplified by the hardware; RGB Sockets, manky controllers, non functioning ports etc.

I think the only games I've gone back to every few years and continued adoring the game to play to competition is Doom, Tomb Raider, Pefect Dark, Super Mario World and Resident Evil 2. Retro is a fickle market, trading on nostalgia for yesteryear and not only does it not always stack up in 2018's lens, but porting is becoming more commonplace so you can get your fix there.

As such, the original hardware is becoming more a museum piece than a functional bit of hardware to use. I wonder what the inventory of Xbox 360 consoles will be like in another 10 years?!

[Wools]

What are these people doing for a living that they can afford to drop a grand on vampire killer? That's what mystifies me, and there seems to be so many people who can afford to do so. I make a pretty good living, but I'd baulk at the thought of a four figure MD game. Are these 'collectors' just burying themselves in credit card debt for the sake of youtube likes?

Reminds me when I was on £12K a year in the Videogame industry but was spending all my cash on gaming!

Now, I'm on nearly 4 times that amount but have to reign myself in when I see a game on PSN for £20! Times change but I do sometimes think, yeah I should spend a few hundred on a mint Japanese Saturn and games with spines, before I start breathing into a brown paper bag and come to my senses.

Gaming is a luxury and fun, if you want to spend a few hundred quid on a **** but rare game, why not go for it?

[Zaki]

I have set myself a target of not purchasing anything old or new for the next 6 months. Must save for property...

I'd like to have a lot more retro bits, but I don't think I will play and finish every game I own in this life time.

My gaming purge is long over due. Need to have a deposit saved this time next year.

I think there will be another thread called "resisting the urge to sell what you can't buy back" or something along those lines