Physical Attraction?

[Escape-To-88]

I was wondering has 2020 convinced you that physical game collecting is pointless

Yes.

I love the aesthetic of old Japanese Mega Drive boxes, but having sold everything multiple times, I think, what's the point? And I don't have a strong enough argument for there being one. I'd rather play arcade machines too. Even having full romsets on emulation makes me want to vomit. I keep a handful (and I do mean a handful) of games on my GroovyMAME PCs on each of my Egrets, otherwise it's pointless and not that fun. I then have a handful of console games I emulate as well. I find it all a bit much otherwise. I'm really glad I made the choice to sell almost all of my gaming gear...apart from two hulking great candy cabs.

[nonny]

Physically collecting anything is pointless to me now. I used to own quite alot of games and a substantial dvd / Blu-ray collection but moving countries (UK to Ireland to Australia to UK) had been the catalyst to my own change in habits.

These days I keep a very trim collection of disc media. That includes music, film and games. Yet my digital collection of film and games is now where I keep what I want to consume.

It's only really music where I've kept the CDs mostly because a lot were out of print or worth pennies. Might as well keep them...

[Wools]

I mix and match but the value of digital for me is I can't trade it. That might sound like a massive negative but with a new physical release I have been known to put pressure on myself to finish it fast while the trade value is high.

I must admit, I totally forgot about trade value.

From when I was a kid in th emid 90's during the hight of the PlayStation to around the early days of the PlayStation 4, all my games were purchased soon after released and if I didn't like it, they were always put towards the purchase of another.

For the past 10 years, I'm a lot more selective with my purchases as I gaming doesn't have the same overwhelming draw for me. In my late teens and early 20's, I used to import all the time, buy all well rated games on release day and soak it all up. Now, I reckon I buy 2 games a year on release date for full price and rarely have I regretted them as they were big hitters. Everything else is picked up in a sale for a few quid and as there's so much content out there to view beforehand, I know what I like and don't think I've been disapointed by a game purchase in... Well, I can't actually think of one!

Because of that desire to only pick up the best, when I actually have time to play it, buying digital isn't much of a concern as I've got a good idea of whether it'll be good for me or not.

Tricky one, this.

I recently bought an RG-350M, and the plan is to liquidate my GBA collection, because the emu handhelds have literally reached a point where it offers an on-par experience to playing on my AGS-101. However, this is partially fuelled by how difficult the GBA has become to collect (with dodgy copies and inflated prices) vs. just how well the machine emulates (like pretty much perfectly).

Conversely, I still own a modded PS2. Would I ditch it if we could easily have a machine that would run PS2 games perfectly - the ENTIRE library, barring literally a handful of games (I'm talking less than a dozen out of the 2,000 or so which exist) - from ROMs? Probably? But that seems so far off, given how weird the PS2 is, that I doubt we'll see it any time soon.

That being said, I have no strong attachment to physical for the sake of it. Having large shelves of stuff is something I see as a bit of an inconvenience, rather than a boon. Just giving it up completely involves too many compromises that I'm not willing to make. That GBA example is a good one, because in that case, going digital has almost zero drawbacks for me, the consumer.

I had not heard of the RG-350M before, just done a Google and it looks like a nice bit of kit!

That's one of the stings of emulation; Not all games run well. I was gutted when I wa splaying an emulated copy of Perfect Dark yesturday and when I got to the Villla, the skybox glitched out and the immersion was ruined. I feel emulation is one of the greatest and most undervalued areas of gaming but, some emulation leaves a lot to be desired. That's when only the original hardware will do.

However, I had a bad experience of original hardwear a few years ago where I hankered after a Dreamcast and Virtua Fighter 3tb, Crazy Taxt, F355 and Sonic Adventure. But after getting the console and games, I slowly thought; "This controller is awful need to buy a brand new one, hate this Scart output, need to look into HDMI Mods, this console sounds unhealthy, need to clean it up." Sometimes, like driving a well regarded car, it looks the business but the reality of owning and using it leaves so much to be desired.

Yes.

I love the aesthetic of old Japanese Mega Drive boxes, but having sold everything multiple times, I think, what's the point? And I don't have a strong enough argument for there being one. I'd rather play arcade machines too. Even having full romsets on emulation makes me want to vomit. I keep a handful (and I do mean a handful) of games on my GroovyMAME PCs on each of my Egrets, otherwise it's pointless and not that fun. I then have a handful of console games I emulate as well. I find it all a bit much otherwise. I'm really glad I made the choice to sell almost all of my gaming gear...apart from two hulking great candy cabs.

I totally get what you mean, I went down that path too many times, valuing the aesthetics of beautiful Japanese boxes and rare hardware over the important thing; How the game actually plays. I totally get it though and can't let go of my original copy of Ridge Racer Type 4 as it looks so good and means so much, but I no longer have a PSone to play it on!

Actually, I own 4 physcial games, 3 are one's I worked on and the other is Type 4.

[Cepp]

I've been digital only for a long time now on PC so it's not like I'm against it. For new consoles its more about price and resale value, digital is too expensive. Chances are I won't replay 99% of the games I buy though. They could get delisted and I could re-add them to my console when it gets hacked but they'd just sit there unplayed. I guess it doesn't bother me as much anymore. There's ways and means if you really want to replay something.

Still, I open the closet and I look at those NES and MD boxes and I just can't let them go.

[JazzFunk]

Getting more and more digital. It worries me. It's easier and less noisy without a disc. I'm addicted to the £25 Xbox cards, used to be one a month and now it seems to be three, sometimes four.

I'm not proud. Must own well over 200 digital games at the mo. Prob more than a 1000 physical. But the divide keeps narrowing.

Also like the 'gaming jukebox' aspect of it and what varied wonders my machine now holds.

I'm still buying old stuff physically (unfortunately the lockdown killed that for a while) and I'll deffo buy current gen physical if it's a proper barg because I like the idea of having something to play without ties because I can imagine what the future is gonna be like and it's gonna be ALL digital...

[dvdx2]

Gaming jukebox is a pretty accurate way to describe non physical. Definitely a different perspective on the way games are played.

[Asura]

That's one of the stings of emulation; Not all games run well. I was gutted when I wa splaying an emulated copy of Perfect Dark yesturday and when I got to the Villla, the skybox glitched out and the immersion was ruined. I feel emulation is one of the greatest and most undervalued areas of gaming but, some emulation leaves a lot to be desired. That's when only the original hardware will do.

Yeah; this is why the GBA is in a unique position, as practically everything runs perfectly on decent hardware. The only stuff you'll miss out on are games like Boktai, which had unique, physical mechanics. I'm sure there are a couple of others but it's a tiny number.

However, I had a bad experience of original hardwear a few years ago where I hankered after a Dreamcast and Virtua Fighter 3tb, Crazy Taxt, F355 and Sonic Adventure. But after getting the console and games, I slowly thought; "This controller is awful need to buy a brand new one, hate this Scart output, need to look into HDMI Mods, this console sounds unhealthy, need to clean it up." Sometimes, like driving a well regarded car, it looks the business but the reality of owning and using it leaves so much to be desired.

I'd never thought about it this way, but it's true in a way, a retro console is like having a classic car. I guess the difference is though that while Ford no longer make the Mustang Boss, they do still make the Mustang '15.

I really feel that Sony et al are slipping up here, though. I feel that if they sold a PS2 replacement, at a for-profit price, it would be expensive, but I think there'd be a decent market of people who would want to buy such a thing.

I totally get what you mean, I went down that path too many times, valuing the aesthetics of beautiful Japanese boxes and rare hardware over the important thing; How the game actually plays. I totally get it though and can't let go of my original copy of Ridge Racer Type 4 as it looks so good and means so much, but I no longer have a PSone to play it on!

Yeah; I still have my copy of Guardian Heroes despite not having owned a Saturn for 10 years.

[Hirst]

Old games - I like having them, but I prefer to have more of a curated selection of games that really mean something to me and use flash carts for the rest. It's down to a combination of daft pricing (caused largely by collectors hoovering them up and then never selling them) but also storage. I can currently get all my games in a neat cabinet with room to spare and that's how I'd like to keep it. But it's nice to get rid of a few games and get something interesting in return. Original hardware and flashcart/drive emulator type solutions has turned out to be a nice way round for me. I got rid of a load of carts that I didn't really consider that special (mostly middling MD stuff that I like but rarely play and can live without seeing the box for it) and used the money for a Mega Everdrive X5 and a nice Famicom setup. I only have a few cartridges now and I intend to cull the CD stuff once appropriate easy solutions exist at a affordable price - the PS1/Saturn aren't far off now so I'll no doubt get rid of quite a few at that stage.

New games - I'll get physical because it's cheaper and I have something that I can sell on later at some stage, it's as simple as that for me. As I mentioned in another thread, there's savings of usually £10-20 for buying physical so I just can't justify effectively paying more for less. Most of the games I buy are English translated ports of Japanese stuff that had been out a while over there, so by the time they're here they tend to have been pre-patched already and rarely need any online component to properly work. I don't buy that many new games anyway so the space isn't a huge problem for me - I think I'm up to 15 PS4 games. If digital was slightly cheaper than physical I think I'd still go for physical except for popular AAA type games (which tend to be worth a fiver down the road).

[Team Andromeda]

Like with my music. I just find it easier and more convent to have them all digital where possible ( no looking for discs and no need to get up when you look to play a different game) . Unless one gets a nice SE or the price of the digital version, is way more than the retail release

[Golgo]

I prefer physical for cheapness and trade value but will retain old games as mementos of good times regardless of whether I ever intend to play them again, rather like the books or records I've enjoyed for example. I may indeed keep them less for the quality/enjoyment of the game itself and more as a reminder of something cool or funny happening in my life at the time, just like any 'souvenir' (the cardboard box of my copy of Drill Dozer on the GBA is mangled on the corner from where my baby son got hold of if and slobbered and chewed it). I don't collect rarities or special editions just for the sake of it. All that said, I don't keep much, but I do think that physical objects are important as memory triggers in the way Maurice Halbwachs described in The Collective Memory.

[wakka]

All that said, I don't keep much, but I do think that physical objects are important as memory triggers in the way Maurice Halbwachs described so vividly in The Collective Memory (and being a historian by profession I obsess about the past in general).

Really interesting perspective!

I think this is so much of the reason why I keep holding onto the games that I do. It's less that I play them, more that I pick them up, handle them, look at them and remember how I got them, what I was doing at that time. That's often much more the significance of them to me than the code on the disc or even the art on the box.

I'll check that book out.

[Golgo]

Really interesting perspective!

I think this is so much of the reason why I keep holding onto the games that I do. It's less that I play them, more that I pick them up, handle them, look at them and remember how I got them, what I was doing at that time. That's often much more the significance of them to me than the code on the disc or even the art on the box.

I'll check that book out.

It's a beautiful book, quite moving. It was published posthumously in 1950 (Halbwachs died in a concentration camp in WWII) by colleagues and students working up his unfinished notes, so it is quite personal, fragmentary and impressionistic but very readable (nothing like the usual academic sociology). He has a lot to say on the built environment and how a community's collective memories are eroded when their neighbourhoods are redeveloped/destroyed and they lose their memory triggers, but his points apply to any physical object. Obviously, the fragility of memory is an important theme. It needs to be constantly worked and refreshed, and 'things' are the scaffolding that hold it up. I hope you enjoy the book.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, I definitely subscribe to the memory trigger thing. So much of my cool stuff is in boxes and never gets used and they only get opened up every few years when I'm looking for something and yet the joy that going through those boxes can bring is huge. There is something really special to me in seeing that old stuff. And it is just old stuff but each piece is like a link to a time of my life. I think there is a value in that.

[Hirst]

Every single one of my older physical games can be split into categories:

Recent Purchase/Gift - These make up a handful, mostly Famicom games I'm trying out for the first time as I haven't got a Flash Cart solution for this and it's a system I'm not as familiar with so it's fun to see "the whole experience".
I Like The Artwork - King Salmon and that kind of thing. Just a few scattered about I like to look at on the shelf.
Games I Have a General Connection With - This makes up about half of what I've got. This is ones where I have strong positive memories of the game, usually playing 2-player with my friends back in the day. This is one where it's not the actual copy I had back in the day (I would borrow/swap games a lot) but I've bought a copy later because the game itself has a lot of good memories for me - so sometimes it might be the Japanese version if it has great artwork (like Alien Storm on the MD).
That Actual Copy Holds a Lot of Memories - This makes up the rest. These are games where I can tell you in great rambling detail how I bought it off such-and-such stall at Wakefield Market or what I had to swap for it in 1993. Usually these are used, because it was pretty rare I'd get any game new back then. It includes my Master System card of Bank Panic with home-made manual cover that I'd done with a pencil and typewriter because the original one was torn off. I like to look at them and think about old times.

I think it's important to keep a few physical things around that give you memories, especially in my case as I'm very forgetful. Much like how it's easier to find your way around a town by using landmarks, I can recall in great detail how it was during one particular winter just by thinking about the game Cyborg Justice and how me and a mate were playing it while taping the footage onto VHS (to show somebody else all the weird robot combinations you could make) and it started snowing so I ended up having about 15 minutes of the game paused while we went to stare out of the window. I'd love to find that VHS, it's in the attic somewhere...

With the new things I don't have that connection yet, but that's just because time hasn't passed enough. And let's face it, new games I buy off the Internet, I'm just sorting it into price order and getting it off whoever does it the cheapest. I won't remember in 20 years that I got my copy of Crabby Adventure DX for PS4 from some eBay wholesaler with a username that was mostly random numbers.

[kryss]

Yeah; this is why the GBA is in a unique position, as practically everything runs perfectly on decent hardware. The only stuff you'll miss out on are games like Boktai, which had unique, physical mechanics. I'm sure there are a couple of others but it's a tiny number.

Yoshi's Topsy Turvy/Universal Gravitation and that drill one are the only ones that spring to mind.
In fact, you can't play TT/UG without the sensor.