Worst Insults to Your Collection

[larsoncc]

I like to get bitter - it's kind of my hobby. So, I thought I'd share a little event with you, hoping that you all will share your pain.

When I was younger and in school, I was poor.

I was "hmm, I've got water and cheese - do I have a recipe for that?" poor. It sucked. I had my TV, stereo, and games.

During one especially poor week, someone offered my $250 for my entire game collection. This was when a new PS1 was going for $300, and I had one, plus many other systems. Naturally, I told him to STICK. IT.

Yeah, I'm poor - so, I'll give you the only thing that I have of value so that I can be destitute. *buzzz* No. Wrong answer.

----------

So, what's the worst insult to your collection? The day you added your N-Gage? The look your significant other gives you because you "still" play games? A flood that destroyed all your Mint in Box items?

[AB Positive]

... I'm getting an NGage today... for $40 tho...

-AG

[Oobgarm]

... I'm getting an NGage today... for $40 tho...

-AG

Taking advantage of the $200 deal, eh?

[AB Positive]

Nope!

I know someone that just REALLY regrets getting one.

-AG

[larsoncc]

Nope!

I know someone that just REALLY regrets getting one.

-AG

As stupid as this sounds, it's likely to be the best thing to have happened to your collection (even though I poked fun at the NGage). Since no one is buying the NGage, it's probably going to be pretty rare.

[digitalpress]

I look at insults in two different ways.

1) the goddamn games that don't look right with the others. Examples: Doom for 32X. Why is the 32X UPSIDE DOWN? Other examples include early CommaVid games (both the boxes and the carts), Xonox double-enders, Sega CD Revengers of Vengeance (hello, where's the spine label?), and most of the early homebrews like the boxes that deteriorate in your hands when you pick them up *cough*ebivision*cough.

2) then there's the kind you're referring to, which I've got a few of as well, I probably don't need to go into detail here - I bought a Panasonic 3DO on launch day.

[anagrama]

1) the goddamn games that don't look right with the others. Examples: Doom for 32X. Why is the 32X UPSIDE DOWN? Other examples include early CommaVid games (both the boxes and the carts), Xonox double-enders, Sega CD Revengers of Vengeance (hello, where's the spine label?), and most of the early homebrews like the boxes that deteriorate in your hands when you pick them up *cough*ebivision*cough.

Yeah, it's kinda petty, but that bugs me too. The Micro Machines/Psycho Pinball MD 2-in-1 is another upside down spine.

[Ed Oscuro]

I look at insults in two different ways.

1) the goddamn games that don't look right with the others. Examples: Doom for 32X. Why is the 32X UPSIDE DOWN?

See, it's like the upside-down cross in E2M1. Don't stand under that upside-down 32x, bad things will happen. I knew DOOM was a satanic game, this just clinches it!

Yeah, games that don't fit on the shelf annoy me somewhat too. Some of my Super Famicom games just don't want to have the SF logo running the same way on the side.

[Flack]

My biggest insults usually come from friends or family, when they refer to my "treasure pile" as "all that old crap".

Sometimes when I go into a thrift store I feel like it's my duty to "rescue" old pieces of hardware from their fate. A couple of months ago I bought an old Mac Plus because, well, it was .49 cents. It works, too! There's nothing like finding that one piece of treasure, walking out to the car with it, and having my wife ask, "so, what old crap did you find today?"

One time a friend of mine had an old Intellivision. When I told him I'd buy it if he didn't want it anymore, he said, "why would anybody want that old shit ... er, except you, of course." Thanks, pal!

[maxlords]

I've had people make offers to me like $20 for my Saturn Dragon Force before. Basically EVERY single time I've been insulted like that...it was an offer from a gametz user. I had one guy.....I asked him for Terranigma. He had it on his tradelist....PAL version...worth MAYBE $60-75 complete. He emails me back and says he'd be happy to trade it...

...for a FACTORY SEALED Lunar for Sega CD...AND a factory sealed Lunar: Eternal Blue for Sega CD!!!! Hmmmm....yes, please, have my bank account numbers and free access while you're at it too!

I've never had anyone offer me silly low money to buy ne out...but then, I don't let those sort of people know what my collection is like either

[larsoncc]

My biggest insults usually come from friends or family, when they refer to my "treasure pile" as "all that old crap".

Sometimes when I go into a thrift store I feel like it's my duty to "rescue" old pieces of hardware from their fate. A couple of months ago I bought an old Mac Plus because, well, it was .49 cents. It works, too! There's nothing like finding that one piece of treasure, walking out to the car with it, and having my wife ask, "so, what old crap did you find today?"

One time a friend of mine had an old Intellivision. When I told him I'd buy it if he didn't want it anymore, he said, "why would anybody want that old shit ... er, except you, of course." Thanks, pal!

It's like you've stolen my life.

Just recently, I came home with 2 Intellivisions, BOXED, with over 20 games, BOXED, for $10. I was ecstatic.

The wife said "that's cool!" - cause she knows the Intellivision. She didn't think it was a deal though. I had to sit her down to eBay to really make her hair stand on end.

[chadtower]

I think I'm getting a slightly different reaction than you guys. My wife pretty much looks away from, but not down upon, my collection because she knows it makes me happy. My relatives either have no idea about it, think it's cool, or just write if off as "another one of chad's things". I think they've come to expect such things out of me. My inlaws often refer to my basement as "Frankenstein's lab" because it's always full of (to them) intimidating looking open machinery in various states of assembly and cables running from one to the other doing various things. Pretty much every hackable appliance in my house is hacked to do stuff other than the designers included so people are used to seeing things in my house that aren't what they would consider normal.

[MarioAllStar2600]

At my school they were writing an article on someones hobby. Mine was picked, classic gaming, and the teacher said to many people do it and its to boring!!!

[Half Japanese]

I'm going to take a different angle here, the worst insults to my collection:

-Space Channel 5 (DC) - one of the worst games I've ever played. Even for the 2.50 I paid for it new, I still think that would have been best put towards a combo meal at a fast food joint.

-Tobal No. 1 (PS) - One of the most overblown and piece of shit fighting games I've ever seen. Even Akira Toriyama's art is terrible in this one. Just a terrible, terrible game that gets tons of undeserved praise. $3 I paid for this one.

I should have left those two when I found them, and got a burger and fries instead or something.

[Achika]

-Space Channel 5 (DC) - one of the worst games I've ever played. Even for the 2.50 I paid for it new, I still think that would have been best put towards a combo meal at a fast food joint.

BLASPHEMER!


Anyhow, my dad used to say I had a bunch of "crap" in my room. But for the past year or so he's seen how passionate I am about it and has started to willingly pick up games if he sees them while he's out.

My mom has always been proud that there is something I am so into and knowledgable about. If there's "trustful" people around, she'll show them my room and let them gape in awe of it. I'm very peculier about who I want in my room and who I don't want to know that any of that stuff exists.

All of my friends jokingly call tell me I'm "such a dork" but they always bring me things and call if they are out and see something I might want.

My bf isn't into games too much (very casual gamer) he hassles me a little, but it's all in good fun and usually takes me to the arcade or to game stores. His little brother looks up on me and did a report on my room as "a place he wants to visit one day."

In all, most people "outside" I don't let them know about my collection unless I feel we are "on the same page" or something, so I've never really had the chance to be insulted by someone saying "you're such a loser" or something.

[badinsults]

Captain Novolin, most of my friends make fun of that game.

[Bratwurst]

Achika's post brings to mind something I felt similar about- who openly displays their stuff and shows it off and who is more selective about who they show it to? I'm of the latter, though I can afford to be secretive without being a shut in. I've only got about 130 pieces and it takes up a 4 foot square area in my personal bedroom.

I have had things stolen from me before, minor items but enough to the point that I don't want too many people aware of what I own and have incentive to break in while I'm away someday. I also don't want everyone grabbing every friggin thing and ruining their condition. x_x Some close friends have caught glimpses before, and to return to topic, their ribbings were along the lines of 'Dude, don't you have enough NES carts or what?'

Strangely I take those more as compliments than insults.

[larsoncc]

At my school they were writing an article on someones hobby. Mine was picked, classic gaming, and the teacher said to many people do it and its to boring!!!

Oh, BURN.

We're cliche'?

Ow.

[RetroYoungen]

At my school they were writing an article on someones hobby. Mine was picked, classic gaming, and the teacher said to many people do it and its to boring!!!

Oh, BURN.

We're cliche'?

Ow.

I think it's because shops like Hot Topic are selling t-shirts with Duck Hunt box art on them and wantnot, so those people think they're a collector when they're just a punk with art on their shirt. Those people are insults to me just for THAT. I'm getting so sick of them.

One funny yet insulting story I've got is that a friend of mine was wearing one of those t-s I just talked about (how I'm loathing them...) and he thought it was a Space Invaders T when it was really an Atari Football T, and then he argued, TO ME WHO KNOWS, that it's Space Invaders, and then he tells me that the rack he bought it off of said it was SI. I had to school him and slap him around a bit.

But as far as games go, Street Fighter 2010 is an insult. I didn't get past the first screen, I was both disgusted and annoyed to the point that I nearly destroyed it as soon as I pulled it out of my NES. My poor toaster didn't need to be besmirched that way...

[Achika]

Achika's post brings to mind something I felt similar about- who openly displays their stuff and shows it off and who is more selective about who they show it to? I'm of the latter, though I can afford to be secretive without being a shut in. I've only got about 130 pieces and it takes up a 4 foot square area in my personal bedroom.

Well, there's a reason for that too. See, this rather "bad" sector of my family is lying, manipulative, and theives. So if I'm not around, they know to lock my room if this set of family members comes over. What has happened before is they wanted to borrow a game. I said ok, but being Harvest Moon 64 and having a complete copy, I said she could not borrow the instructions. God forbid the game get lost, I could atleast ask her to replace that, the instructions on the other hand would take a great deal of work more to replace. So I told her "no instructions" I called to my parents house, told them exactly where the game was and to get it, bring it upstairs, so there was no reason for the family members to be in my room unsupervised (they lived with us for a period of time and took many things from us. We would have given if they asked, but they didn't) So anyhow it's upstairs. When they come over they LIED to my parents and said, "Oh, Adrienne called us back and said we could take the instructions." So my dad ("agent") gave them the eye, but they took it anyhow. My parents called me at work after they left and told me what happened. I waited half and hour from when they called to call to this family members house, speaking in a firm tone that I don't appreciate them lying to my parents and taking something when I told them NOT to. Also, that I was stopping by after work to get the instructions.

[Sotenga]

I don't like telling anyone at my school that I'm a video game addict on the grounds that they would think I'm pathetic, and so are video games. I've never gotten that comment yet, so I'm remaining low key with it. Teenagers are cruel, I know.

[Bratwurst]

My hoarding nature too was encouraged by negative family experiences. A cousin of mine asked to borrow a genesis game and he was living next door with my grandmother at the time. No big deal I figured. A week later I ask for it back (Because Sonic the Hedgehog was all the rage back then) and he had the gall to loan it to someone at his school in exchange for Dinosaurs for Hire.

Worse yet he lied to my matriarchal granny about asking my permission to do so, and she wouldn't even let me play the game he got in return. This was a time when I had started earning my things with my own money.

[ManekiNeko]

I was involved in a bad trade with someone else, which resulted in my losing a ton of Japanese Saturn games. What did I get out of it? Screwed. Yep, that was a pretty bad deal all around.
I'd almost throw in the time when I traded two games, including Arkanoid and its dial controller, for a copy of Metroid, but that was well over a decade ago. This was just after I hit puberty and just before the debut of Digital Press, so I never really thought about games as collector's items.
Besides, I have to say that I got my money's worth out of Metroid... I played that damned game for dozens of hours.

JR

[portnoyd]

Insults to my collection... I'm not too crazy about the fact that for a lot of cart systems some manufacturer's feel they don't need top labels on their carts (say color dreams). Unless you have games alphabetized, you can't just glance at the game and know what it is. A minor peeve, easily correctly by storing in their own boxes. But a peeve. Instead of having a wall of game labels, you have spots of unknown titlage.

My room is my collection. I still sadlfully, woefully, painfully, live at home, so I like to keep everything concentrated. I don't like showing off the stuff, but I don't mind it. Most of the time my friends advertise it and tell others about it without me knowing. :0 They're kinda amused/amazed by it. *shrug*

dave

[DDCecil]

Sega CD Revengers of Vengeance (hello, where's the spine label?)

Heh, my spine has the title on it, you probably got some wacky variation.

Anyways, the worst insult to my collection is having a Madden game in it (In the collecting sense). Once you own one, good luck getting rid of it a few years down the road...