The struggle to not cash in on Neo Geo AES consoles and games..

donluca

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Classic example of the stuff you own ends up owning you.

Honest question: is this necessarily a bad thing?

Is there something wrong with identifying part of ourselves, maybe a particularly happy moment in our lives or something we really care about with an object like a videogame console, a game cartridge, a photo, a painting or anything else?

I feel like Fight Club took this concept to its extreme to criticize our society, but when we're talking about specific items, is it really a negative thing?

Personally, I don't think so and there's nothing bad about wanting to revolve your life around single, specific things with which you've created a strong bond throughout your existence.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
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Classic example of the stuff you own ends up owning you.
lachlan already made this point and I already responded to it.

Maybe I didn't express my point well, but you've got it totally backwards. This thread is about second guessing your decision to own stuff. I've known what I wanted for many years, and I bought a house that has useful space in it regardless of what I end up using the space for. I was lucky enough to finally be able to own a home with the space I've always wanted.

I'm with donluca. I don't subscribe to this Mari Kondo BS. If I don't want my games anymore some day I'll get rid of them and then that will free up the room in my basement. I'm sure my wife will have no problem turning it into an office or craft room.
 

ballzdeepx

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It's human nature to covet and collect, and everyone is addicted to something whether they perceive it or not as well.
In all things you have to ask yourself is obtaining these items or feelings necessary, beneficial, or detrimental to yourself or those around you.

Shit, look what happened to Gollum.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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It's human nature to covet and collect, and everyone is addicted to something whether they perceive it or not as well.
In all things you have to ask yourself is obtaining these items or feelings necessary, beneficial, or detrimental to yourself or those around you.

Shit, look what happened to Gollum.

Fb groups are this in a nutshell.
 

Bishamon

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I've known what I wanted for many years, and I bought a house that has useful space in it regardless of what I end up using the space for. I was lucky enough to finally be able to own a home with the space I've always wanted.

I'm with donluca. I don't subscribe to this Mari Kondo BS. If I don't want my games anymore some day I'll get rid of them and then that will free up the room in my basement. I'm sure my wife will have no problem turning it into an office or craft room.

I agree. I appreciate videogames as art (interactive art), and I enjoy owning original copies of those games, even if I can play them in a more convenient form. I like being able to connect the original hardware and play the original games, and I actually enjoy playing copies/ROMs of those games more with the knowledge that I also have an original. Nostalgia is also a part of it, as I definitely have a greater desire for games that I have a fond experience of playing when I was younger. It may not make practical sense, but emotions aren't practical.


It's human nature to covet and collect, and everyone is addicted to something whether they perceive it or not as well. In all things you have to ask yourself is obtaining these items or feelings necessary, beneficial, or detrimental to yourself or those around you.

Definitely. Some people collect paintings or antiques (or beanie babies, license plates, rare coins, etc.). If it brings happiness, it can be a good thing. If it brings financial ruin, or alienates friends and family, it can be a bad thing.
 

jsiucho

Sakura's Bank Manager
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Everdrives, NeoSD, Emulation via Mini consoles have made it easier to sell off a collection. I still have mine but mostly game using everdrives or Emulation for the classics.
 

donluca

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If it brings happiness, it can be a good thing. If it brings financial ruin, or alienates friends and family, it can be a bad thing.

Although this can be applied to everything in life, it's always good to remember that whatever your passions/hobbies, those should never take over common sense and, generally speaking, taking everything in life with moderation.

If you have the money, space and time to have a complete MVS/AES collection and play it regularly while still caring about relationships (friends/family) and duties (again, family and work), then why not?

But if you notice those are taking away or taking over anything mentioned above, well, yeah, you could say that particular thing is "owning" you.

EDIT: just to make it sure, I'm not dismissing this as a non-problem. We're seeing a surge of "men-children" which are adults with a family and a job but they're irresponsible and without a proper scale of priority or values and are ruining their (and others) life.
This is pretty bad and what's worse, there are internet personas/youtubers which are actually encouraging this by "don't let anything or anyone get in the way of your passions/hobby".
It's good we're discussing such things here.
 
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yagamikun

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I was in the same boat in my mid 20s - a gargantuan AES collection and over $40K in games and consoles by the mid 2000s - then life hit and I HAD to sell it all just to make ends meet. Hell, that's why I took a LONG hiatus from the Neo fourms (can't believe it's been 20 years since I joined, and even more if you count the old Neo email listserv from AOL in the late 90's).

Now that I'm older, financially stable, and just got a new house with space for it, I'm building my collection back piece by piece. My partner is supportive, and laughs that instead of a Corvette my mid-life crisis is having a game archive. I have some rules for my archive to keep finances in check, though, and making sure my family, friends, and retirement savings are taken care of prior to any large purchase is paramount.

For me, nothing beats walking into a beautiful library filled with a curated selection of the best "books" - it's a place to chill, look at art, and enjoy the time it takes to select the right game. My gameroom is less of an ostentatious nostalgia bomb and more a comfortable, shared living space with video game flair. :) While the bug to sell everything may come in time, it hasn't hit yet in my modern life as I immensely enjoy being surrounded by the art I love.

Link in bio to my website and what I'm calling "collection 3.0" and my journey of collecting, then selling off everything and going completely digital, to going back to collecting (I desperately need to update collection pictures on there - my Instagram has most recent pics).
 
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Ramad

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If I could get a Neo Candy cab with a NeoSD in it, I'd sell off my AES collection. That feeling of playing a unique arcade game is what young me still wants to experience, that is hard to get via emulation.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
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Honest question: is this necessarily a bad thing?

Is there something wrong with identifying part of ourselves, maybe a particularly happy moment in our lives or something we really care about with an object like a videogame console, a game cartridge, a photo, a painting or anything else?

I feel like Fight Club took this concept to its extreme to criticize our society, but when we're talking about specific items, is it really a negative thing?

Personally, I don't think so and there's nothing bad about wanting to revolve your life around single, specific things with which you've created a strong bond throughout your existence.

Yes. it is/can be a bad thing.
Buying stuff is so much easier than selling stuff. It ends up being a burden.

Owning stuff isn't intrinsically bad. Collecting is the gateway to bad.
 

donluca

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Well, there are several degrees of collecting.

I've found out that I really wanted to collect all the original Mega Drive Japanese Sonic games (Sonic 1,2,3,&K) and that was pretty much it, 4 games and I'm happy.

I might extend it to Master System and Game Gear Sonic Games as well, but I'm not really into "full set" stuff.

As I said before, the important thing is taking everything in life with moderation or even the most seemingly harmless thing can become an issue when taken to the extremes.
 

Bishamon

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As I said before, the important thing is taking everything in life with moderation or even the most seemingly harmless thing can become an issue when taken to the extremes.

Absolutely. It is very 'on trend' to de-clutter, but that too can become an obsession.
 

donluca

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Exactly.

To avoid that, I have kind of a rule, which is trying to keep (vaguely) track of how much time has passed since I last played/used something.

If it's been over 5 years, it's time to give it a go again and see if it's still something I want to own. If it doesn't then it's going to be sold, because there's no point in owning it.

Then there are things which, as I said before, are part of me, maybe they belong to my childhood when I was a kid and I don't want to sell them, because just by looking at them it brings me relief or joy, it doesn't matter if I haven't used them for more than 10 years.
The hitchhiker guide to the galaxy books are among one of those things I'll never sell, even if I won't read them again in 20 years.
 

Samuray

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Hell no.

Well, I mean....it IS tempting, because I'm 40 now and in the spirit of a looming midlife crisis it would probably be prudent to get a convertible. :D
But nah. I love this stuff way too much. The console is the same one I got as a kid in 92, still have all the games I accumulated, I play the system regularly and have several friends who enjoy it as well.

But there's a but(t): I'm at a point in life right now at which I have very little money for gaming due to family stuff, and while I am not considering selling at all, it's nearly impossible to acquire anything new, and that's frustrating. One new game maybe once a year or so would be rad. I'm not even looking for heavy-hitters (except for MS4 and Rage of the Dragons...yeah, one can dream) but for rather affordable stuff like Riding Hero, Crossed Swords and an AES conversion of Captain Tomaday...but alas, no luck.

Anyway. I too am surprised that seemingly everyone here has sold his collection, but I'm pretty sure I won't be joining that club. :)
 

elGRIZZbo

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Emulation is so good nowadays that it's hard to justify keeping original hardware and games around. For example, my PS4, Raspberry Pi, modded Wii and EverDrive 64 give me access to just about everything I need so I could actually see myself letting go of my collection eventually. I was merely joking earlier when I mentioned wanting to be buried with my collection.
 

Missile

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I have never sold any of the games I like. Although I have got rid of some excess games that I didn't really play or like that much.

Now I only collect the games that I enjoy or the ones that mean something to me (e.g. for nostalgic reasons).

This is controversial but I really hate game shelves and games rooms the way most people organise them. It's like people just cram in as many games and consoles as possible. The best way to display them is to get maybe 10-12 games out and put them on display with a console ready to play them. Put the rest out of view. Looks way better and people actually notice and talk about what games you have. There's a reason why when you go to an art gallery they don't try to cram all the paintings into one small room.
 

bulbousbeard

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Today's MAME release is pretty much the last nail in the coffin of real Neo Geo hardware.

New -lowlatency switch, which in combination with a GSync or Freesync monitor can get you input latency under 5 ms (1/200th of a second), down from 18-20 ms. (And it's also lower for normal monitors, just not as much).

Basically no point anymore. There's objectively no advantage. No remaining visual bugs left. Even those SD cart solutions can't compete with instantaneous load times with a PC with an SSD. Even if you want to play on a CRT you can still connect a PC to one and use framedelay to get similar results. And this is also ignoring the fact that you can play thousands of other games on the same box.

 
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Kid Panda

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Today's MAME release is pretty much the last nail in the coffin of real Neo Geo hardware.

New -lowlatency switch, which in combination with a GSync or Freesync monitor can get you input latency under 5 ms (1/200th of a second), down from 18-20 ms. (And it's also lower for normal monitors, just not as much).

Basically no point anymore. There's objectively no advantage. No remaining visual bugs left. Even those SD cart solutions can't compete with instantaneous load times with a PC with an SSD. Even if you want to play on a CRT you can still connect a PC to one and use framedelay to get similar results. And this is also ignoring the fact that you can play thousands of other games on the same box.


Still waiting on that metal slug 1 pc port that runs at @120 hz and 600 fps Bob Martin. You got time to post this but no time to post the progress you've made?
 

Heinz

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Still waiting on that metal slug 1 pc port that runs at @120 hz and 600 fps Bob Martin. You got time to post this but no time to post the progress you've made?

Oooh I wonder if that project was a completely unnecessary venture that deserved no time devoted to it. Hmm, toilet thoughts.
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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one day ya'll will wake up and realize that owning all this shit doesn't make you happy
 

Syn

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Stuff I bought years ago is now funding more current interests. Like others have mentioned, everdrives, minis, etc makes having so many physical copies of games unnecessary.

I have 41 years of stuff I've collected. My original Atari stuff to now. Too much space used.
 

NGT

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My collection funded my house and helped me keep it while my wife was out of work. Wish i could say i got today's prices, lol. But i have equity i guess. After a long run of being inside gaming, is rather be outside with my kids anyways.
 

donluca

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Today's MAME release is pretty much the last nail in the coffin of real Neo Geo hardware.

You mean what's been basically available for years on GroovyMAME and has been only recently implemented in baseline? https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/5901

How cool.

Too bad that emulation still isn't perfect due to incorrect bus timing and lack of wait states in the emulation of the Motorola 68000 CPU.

Although that might change in the not too distant future... https://twitter.com/topapate/status/1199782781091532800?s=20
 
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