How I Became A Retro Game Collector

I reminisce about growing up as a retro video game collector and how I got to where I am today using the limited resources we had back then. From collection picture galleries and forums to yard sales and bargain bins in retail stores and gamer family members, this is how I became the retro video game collector I am today.
I stream games every day on Twitch, follow me: www.twitch.tv/petedorr
Twitter: petedorr
Join my Discord and share your own stories: discord.gg/petedorr
The Genesis video I mentioned: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n37bhGluqtihn6c
Why collecting CIB is so important to me video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6WyZHmMmsmjebM

[@GameEscape]

Let's give it up for Pete for getting back on KZbin. His recent videos have been terrific and are real reminder of how good he is in this format. Streaming might be the future, but the nostalgia of these classic-style uploads is hard to beat.

[@rockpyl]

This really sums it up, for me at least. I started watching Pete when I first got into collecting and haven't really kept up over the years. But these vids have me really nostalgic and appreciative of the wisdom passed on from a more veteran collector

[@dahubbzgaming]

Yes, so true.

[@orwwan]

So true 😊

[@ClassicKrusty]

YT videos are what I watch when I wanna be entertained. Twitch is where I go if I wanna surf different ppl playing games and chat but Twitch can’t hold a candle imo bc watching streams can very non stimulating depending on who’s streaming and what they’re playing.

[@Willtendo2]

Man I've been hoping to hear Pete's origin story for so long now, gonna eat some pizza and chill.

[@dimensiongamer534]

I hope you're enjoying that pizza! : )

[@AvengingOttsel]

Lol I always try to find something good to watch while I eat

[@KeithKillingly]

you've inspired me to put some digiorno in the oven

[@odaddy47]

When i left to boot Camp, they threw out all my NES Boxes😪😭😂😫..WHY??? Love the insight, Thank you for sharing.

[@338684q]

sounds based af

[@ahmadk1195]

Been watching your videos for 11 years Pete and I can definitely say you have made a very positive impact on my life. Keep up the good work, loving the content!

[@jakemcelroy954]

My reason for becoming a retro game collector is because of you! I have loved your videos from the very beginning and I'm so glad to see this more active upload schedule from you. You are one of my favorite KZbinrs/streamers and I can't wait to listen to more of your stories and opinions

[@seb3908]

Glad you're back Pete! I became a collector after watching your old room tour video. At the time it was featured on the front page of KZbin. I think it was back in 2008 or 2009. After I was blown away by your collection, I took my games from my drawer and got a small portable DVD shelf and started displaying them. This was the beginning of my collection, and to this day I still collect. Glad you're still doing videos Pete! I'll try to catch your streams more often. -Toenails from Twitch

[@ToolShopGuy]

In the wake of the apocalypse, one true comfort that I can count on ... Pete Dorr! Love ya Pete, from someone who was ecstatic upon the announcement of the first AGG episode way back when

[@Gamer-lq4wl]

Faxanadu ! Is that the guy who sell weapons ?

[@OrganicBASSd]

Everytime I decide too look for some games on eBay I comeback to Pete's channel to refresh my eBay hunting skills. And while I'm snooping around older videos he drops another banger video!🔥 Kinda trippy

[@miguejuega403]

I started collecting when i was looking for new games for vita and i found channels like yours with such cool looking games, this was like nearly 5 years ago

[@LandonHughes2]

This is so cool! I've known that you've been a collector for a long time; it's nice to finally hear your backstory! 😁

[@theflyingninja1]

There was no escaping it. Pete was groomed from an early age to be a gamer.

[@Rotkop]

Haha.. nature/nurture?

[@InputArchive]

Rotkop Think you may have missed the joke there...

[@hidanprimedude]

Pete, you are the most accomplished person I know of. You set out to use your passion for something good, and ended up entertaining and inspiring so many people through your love for games. I’ve watched your videos since I was 13 or so. I started collecting games because I saw how much love you had for them and I wanted to be that passionate about something. I was supported by friends and family just as you were as I collected modern and retro games and systems, starting off with the Atari 2600 and Genesis because that’s what my family played, and I wanted to be a game developer, or possibly start my own KZbin talking about games. You were my idol that whole time. Then in high school I made a radical shift, taking an interest in film. I would end up selling off my whole game collection, going to film school, and starting a film career across the country from where I grew up. I’m in grad school for film directing now and I only recently started playing games again - coincidentally right when you came back to KZbin. Your first video back explaining how you’ve been on twitch brought me to tears. I felt so emotionally connected to your journey. You’ve reminded me again, as I work through a rough patch in my career and life, what it’s like to be passionate about something. That’s what it felt like when I was stacking Atari cartridges to the ceiling and organizing a bookshelf of games. Thank you for the videos throughout the years. Please keep it up.

[@ronnietravis741]

Pete..... you deciding to start doing more youtube again has made me so happy. Please keep em coming and dont stop. Ever

[@absoluteclownworld]

I was like 4 when my parents got me a nes and I never stopped buying games from there on.

[@PinstripeParagon]

I started collecting games when I was around 13. One of my big influences was watching your Games I Bought Recently series. It gave me an avenue to games I normally wouldn't have heard of, or would have just flown past in a store. I had started with the gameboy color, Playstation, and Gamecube when I was little and have always enjoyed playing games. Unfortunately I only got my first job soon after the prices of retro games started going crazy, around 2015. I remember I got Shadow Hearts for $30 in 2013. Now it is double that typically on ebay if not higher. Anyways, I look forward to more videos and twitch streams!

[@xxkomebackkidxx]

Your journey on becoming a collector sounds similar to mine. When I was young me and my friends would bring our trade fodder to each other’s houses and set up a mini swap meet and trade games,consoles, strategy guides with each other. We didn’t have much cash so sometimes we would barter with games, food or candy. Good times.

[@GatobotShow]

Pete started collecting like: "what could pawsibly go wrong" 🐱

[@helenhomunculus5044]

*"So you wanna be a video game collector! For starters grab all the games you see."*

[@tvandlust]

It’s an interesting point that gamers of a certain age are among those more likely to appreciate certain aesthetic or intangible qualities of games because of the importance of visual communication and marketing earlier on. We tend to place significant value on iconography

[@chutton988]

Love your stuff Craig. Nice to find you here. Also, lovely video Pete! Really nice to listen to and quite special.

[@tylerandal1]

Thanks for sharing your story Pete, and welcome back! I wish that I had the foresight when I was younger to appreciate and keep up with complete in box games. It’s always fun to see games you grew up with on channels like yours, or in a retro gaming stores to bring back some awesome memories.

[@ryangray7832]

Positive Comment. Thank you for making your videos. Really enjoy them. Thanks Pete.

[@kuroibuta]

It's good to see you upload more Pete! Keep having fun with it!

[@helenhomunculus5044]

It so cool to hear about your history with game collecting and where it all started from! It's good to know that your family is so encouraging and supportive with your passion for games and collecting.

[@optimysticquest]

Pete! Heck yeah man. Loving the uploads

[@kenneddyy340]

Honestly can’t explain how amazing this is Pete. Absolutely loving the KZbin content. It’s just so relaxing and nostalgic and gives me all the feels 💜 Your sleepin with Pete videos are my favs and where your just sitting talking - love them ☺️ Hope you are doing well!

[@lolidayo]

I'm so happy to see you more often on the platform. 2020 is not all that bad actually :)

[@janglyriff]

Pete so glad you're making videos again! Your content is always great!

[@bloodhound1212gb]

You were one of the people who got me into video game collecting. I remember watching your videos back in 2009. Thanks for everything, Pete.

[@JMS103]

In my opinion, I think retro games are much better than today’s games. I still love today’s games, but it’s just something about retro games that I find that are much more fun. I have been wanting to go back and play the first Silent Hill. Love the vids man.

[@footloose20005]

Awesome video Pete, it's great to hear how you got into Retro game collecting

[@Yaboiblitz]

I've been waiting for this for a while. Such a cool way to bond with your parents and grand parents!

[@joelmorford183]

Keep the videos coming Pete. Good to have you back!

[@VeiledInDreams]

Thanks for sharing how you started collecting games - I was waiting for this tbh. I subbed to you a while back simply showing your collection and pick-ups and it's how I started to collecting JRPGS/RPGs by watching your channel, so thank you :)

[@pimpedoutstereos9747]

I’ve only just subscribed although I’ve seen some of ur videos in the past. Thankyou for sharing this story and I appreciate how down to earth u come across as

[@MikeMsoficial]

It's great how Pete puts handmade details to his stories. Keep it up Pete.

[@mickyd3509]

I will always support this channel whenever it uploads. It's difficult to keep up with Twitch and videos get removed but I'll always be around for the KZbin channel. Got a bit into Vita collecting myself and it's pretty addicting!

[@dracolit]

Love your vids and been following you quite some time, not mutch for the past 2 years but still visit your KZbin from time to time and always love it. Keep it up.

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

So fun and interesting to hear about how you got into collecting! Seems like it was a very organic and natural progression.

[@retrorick]

thanks for sharing your story!

[@adamball7414]

always pumped to see you have posted a new video! please keep them coming. the part of the video that brought back warm feelings for me was when you talked about gamestop still selling retro games. my family was gamers too, so my mom and dad were always thrilled to find new (to us anyways) super nintendo, sega genesis, or ninendo games in the bin - looking back i think they got more enjoyment from games like that than they did when they would buy my brother and i new games for the n64 or ps1 - mainly due to not having to learn a new control scheme, or become familiar with 3d gaming

[@soccerj75]

Nice to see you posting more videos on KZbin. Been watching you since 2009. Keep doing what your doing, Pete.

[@RetroBreak]

Great video! Always love hearing how people got into this great hobby :D

[@SirenoftheVoid]

I grew up in the rental era too, looking at boxes to decide the games i would like to play :) Few people played with me,i felt like a loner much of the time. My cousins were into it but we hardly ever hung out,and there was my grandma who enjoyed some of her own and liked to watch me have fun with them. I believe i mostly began to collect once i got online, seeing KZbin videos on it and Ebay listings. When i started, i believe i had been playing PS2 or some games of that era. It took me some time before i decided, being inspired, to go back to my roots with collecting SNES games. ALways loved looking at boxes in video game clubs :) It made me, subconsciously, desire Complete-In-Box games because i needed the whole historical package for nostalgia's sake. Lovely story Pete, you were a fortunate child :)

[@shanesteinhauser9680]

Retrogaming is so popular on youtube, but there's not a good old fashioned forum for it anymore. Hearing you talk about these forums from 2001, just makes me pine for a good old fashioned retro-gaming forum.

[@david22262]

Great story, Pete. Thanks for sharing.

[@LEONthemercenarie]

Awesome video Pete, that Kirby Avalanche story was really heartwarming. Especially having that original copy still. I got into retro collecting because I always had an appreciation/attachment to older games and my games from childhood. I never sold my games for the most part when I was a kid because I always wanted to keep my games since I liked them. KZbin was the inspiration to take my games out and display them on a shelf from watching collection videos. I guess I found it cool that there were people collecting retro video games. I did watch your original room tour back then so maybe that was an inspiration too. Really enjoying the videos Pete, glad to see you back on KZbin!

[@dimensiongamer534]

It's really good to see you enjoying posting the videos, I started collecting videogames when I got my PlayStation 1, I'd had other systems before but the Ps1 was where I really started to collect, I was heavy into platformers and RTS games at the time but I would occasionally dabble into other things and eventually I had about 60 or so ps1 games. Then I discovered that I could sell back games I didn't want anymore and that kinda put the stop on collecting for me as I needed to sell games to get others or I wasn't going to be able to get anything new at the time. Eventually, I moved on to Ps2 and Gamecube but I didn't start collecting for the shelf again until the Xbox 360 and Wii when I was inspired by Alphaomegasin and Happy Console Gamer and AVGN and ofc you and others. And these days I am far happier with collecting now that I know that I want to collect the games I want to play as opposed to collecting everything for a system which was a little bit of a problem for me when I was younger as someone who is on a budget like have always been. I was always alone with my collecting though, I wouldn't say anyone was unsupportive they just didn't really notice I guess, but that was ok with me it meant that my saves were saved from other people deleting them. :) Anyways sorry for the wall of text, but it was fun to share some of this stuff :)

[@ConnorLonghurst]

I actually made a video about a month ago, and it was called What Interested Me To Start a KZbin Channel. You and 2 other youtubers help and inspire me to start KZbin and I give you a shoutout on my video, I've been wanted to start do KZbin in 11 years but with all different ideas, different channels names, but now I'm finally doing something that makes me happy. One thing I have to say I just want to say, I've been a fan of your channel in 2009 and if you haven't post your PS2 collection, I wouldn't be interested to do KZbin, thank you Pete for helping and inspire me to getting into KZbin. Great video and keep the great work, man 😁😁

[@lesaburke6762]

Good video Pete glad your back

[@jaketheps2punk]

Great video! Thanks for the upload

[@computerpastiche]

pete going nuts with the uploads! please keep em coming

[@retrohead2408]

It's really cool to see you uploading KZbin content again....

[@EmpireofCheese]

Love your work Pete, been watching for years! Finally getting to collecting for GameCube, played with my older brother growing up. 60 or so games on my wishlist, 8 total games I got right now. Keep it up, hope to have a game room a fraction as good as yours someday

[@stuartgoodman3068]

That was a great video man. I have had moments in my life when I would feel nostalgic for certain video games that I remember from my childhood or would want to try out games that I never had or heard of until I was older and wanted to play it. I will tell you that it is never too late to get into any type of video games because as long as you are enjoying yourself and your life and staying out of trouble, that's all that really matters. Luckily today, we can still be nostalgic and play a lot of old titles on the latest consoles that are out today whether they are old games that are ported or remakes of older games to keep up with the latest technology features and want to add more content and/or features to the package. Creativity in the world is endless on any subject including gaming, so you never know what ideas that game developers can come out with next. So overall, I enjoy having a mix of new and old/remake games because you get to have the best of all and enjoy the games. So remember, it does not matter if you have a whole large game collection, have owned only one console with 5 games in your whole lifetime or have never owned a video game console because as long as you enjoy yourself, what you have, and are happy, you can call yourself whatever type of gamer you want and be into any type of video game you want even if you never own it yourself because we all get to choose and create whatever lifestyle we want. So with all of that said, we should all do what we feel we want as long as it does not harm yourself, anyone else, or get you into trouble. Be yourself :). P.S. I met you at a retro video game convention this past August and have talked to you for a while about games and life. If it rings a bell to you, I am the guy who told you that he owns gadget racers on the PS2 as well, since I know not many people have that game that I have ever met in person. For everyone out there, gadget racers for the PS2 is not very popular at all but it is such a good racing game that it deserves to be more popular than it is.

[@interghost]

Great story Pete. Enjoyed that. And I remember those days when you could grab a budle and find a good game hidden within. Long gone are them days!

[@stakmaster2390]

A half hour Petedorr video. You've made my night!

[@Retrocade1979]

Great video. Very cool to hear the whole story how you started collecting. My family was also very supportive. My dad also played a lot of games when I was young. I remember a Christmas when we played Mercs together on the Megadrive. He also was very into PC gaming: Wolfenstein, Doom and Command and Conquer. Very cool when your dad shares the same passion as you. Keep them coming Pete.

[@Tylerjrb]

Great to see another video. For me it was my family also who got me into gaming. Parents had a PS1/2 + SNES, brother had a PS1/SEGA/gameboy/PC and my cousins had n64/gamecube. So i had most of those consoles/games growing up. Although im not so much of a collector, still have my old retro games and systems and really enjoy them all. A lot of those are favourite series of mine.

[@cdjxman]

Great video, Pete. Keep them coming!

[@OtterSkull]

It's great to see ya Pete!!!

[@gabrieljewett4042]

Loved this video Pete. You're a good storyteller

[@GundamrussGaming]

Great video Pete. I must say my collecting came from watching you and happy console game way back in day. Collecting Retro become to expensive here in AUS sadly so i mostly collect modern titles now. Thanks for sharing your story. Keep up the great work.

[@bringbackmy90s]

yeah while I don't have the power and time to watch the streams, I'm always glad to see Pete uploading youtube videos again. Never missing one

[@carmiliongr]

i'm loving this super hd quality Pete

[@EmanueleMatricardi]

Amazing video!!! I started collecting also because of you Pete ❤️

[@delchavez]

Cool video man! I really liked hearing you go in-depth about how eBay changed the game for you as a collector, and how even that entire realm evolved over time.

[@orwwan]

U have no idea how good it feels getting new videos from you, is like meeting an old friend again over a shared cup of coffee at your favorite cafe, thats how good it feels, like the last slice of pizza, pete dorr ur my pizza, please never change.

[@randompersononthisearth7812]

that's awesome pete. how i became a game collecor as a whole was watching your videos and other youtubers. always wanted a game room like that. however ,many people ask me "why are you into the old stuff?' i guess it's cause while i grew up in the wii/ds era, i don't have very vivid memories of that. and i guess in that way, i'm a lot more open to any generations(only expection is like early atari stuff). But thanks for making these videos pete. always nice to watch these. :)

[@HelvecioGomes]

Very nice story. Thanks for sharing.

[@suppy59]

I've been collecting properly from when I was 12 years old and watching videos like yours back in the day has made me appreciate and discover so many new games that I would never of played before, I'm 24 now and still continue to collect for various consoles and handhelds and find myself still buying some obscure games recommended by you.

[@StrawberryBored]

Thank you for sharing your story Pete! I think we're about the same age. I wish I had the foresight back in my teen years to keep all of my games etc. I think I thought at the time that I had to let that stuff go. I've started collecting again these past few years and even though it's harder to find a deal than it used to be, it's still possible.

[@suprastevio2264]

Nice to hear from you again!!! :)

[@humanzerohumanzero4825]

So wholesome. Also how come no one talking about this guy’s excellent speaking skills? 30 mins no cuts

[@Ji99i3]

hey im new to you and ive gathered the joke is you took off for a bit for twitch. well im lucky youre back just in time for me to sub my man. i like your sleeping series and your games ive bought recently. thanks for your content dude

[@videogameobsession]

Thanks for sharing! It's just occurred to me that I am probably old enough to be your father. I started collecting with the ColecoVision in 1982. Though it was mostly just buying games and never selling them off rather than thinking of it as collecting. I wish my dad was into gaming, but there was a pretty large gap in generations there. At least my brother was into them. I have a lot of fond memories playing games with him, as well as with my friends.

[@takf.gaming7751]

Hey Pete, great video! I enjoy these types of videos. I hope you can make it out to the next A Videogame Con, whenever they allow these cons to open up again lol.

[@onatw]

Great video Pete.

[@PlayasGuide]

Cool story bro! I have a few parallels with you from when I started collecting. I can totally relate to your digital press experience except for me it was Nintendo Age. Those Digital Press books sound amazing by the way.

[@Daffydubs]

Eb gave me some good memories of game hunting, and always looking forward to free promo merch!

[@solnasonen]

Great Pete! Hope you keep making videos. I'm so drunk so I don't remember my C64 collection

[@ravenone6001]

Have you ever thought about having your dad on the channel? That would make for a pretty interesting video

[@GlassEyeGaming]

Excellent video my friend. I used Digital Press back in 2001 as well. I have the thick red rarity guide, but not the blue one. You might remember me from the forums there.. I went by the username “Nintendan”. I think I may go in and log in there again after posting this comment.

[@jonathancurran6851]

Cool story Bro. I had fun doing my usual ebay searches while listening to this. Even though I didn't start collecting games before most retro KZbinr gamers I'm lucky. I now have most of the games I will ever want from the past. Yeah. Anyway. Good to see you back. I remember watching that video when you felt like you had overdosed on games and it had become any overwhelming chore for you. But now ya back to cool. (Nes Manga)

[@pfromdapab]

Love the memories Pete

[@JamieLikesGames]

You mention this guy who had this amazing collection that opened your eyes to collecting To me you were that guy over 10 years ago

[@PaulHindt]

Congo Bongo... Man, I used to play a pirated copy of that on my Atari 800 home computer. It was among the first video games I ever played. I still have my disk with a copy of it, as well as my Atari.

[@sethbielstein2055]

Thanks for a new video!

[@DrasticTimesInc]

probably found your channel during the advent of youtube. OGs know what I mean. Most likely was looking for good n64/Xbox360/PS1/2 games that I may have missed. I'll admit I haven't followed every video whole heartedly but I definitely subbed early on, and remember being stoked that you were listing what I'd consider more obscure RPGs and survival horror games, and even learned of a few I didn't know about, like Rule of Rose as I recall. It's really cool to hear the story of your passion. I definitely remember going to flea markets/yard sales/ mom/pop / regional game stores and judging by the case too. I remember I got Blasto on the PS1 at a local shop when I was 5 judging it just by the case, I remember my dad saying I could get any one game I wanted and I chose it because I thought it was Batman on the cover. Never regretted that decision . Thanks for sharing, kids have it too easy with shit being blasted into their YT feeds on the tablet/phone their parents give them at 5.

[@DrasticTimesInc]

Didn't you say at one point a long time ago that you would stop making YT vids? or am I tripping?

[@The90sGamingGuy]

Ive been a gamer since about 1990. Played NES with my cousin and Pc games with my dad until 1999. My parents bought me and my brother SNES, N64,PS,and PS2. In 2005 sold all my retro video games since i didnt play them anymore. Five years later i missed playing the games, so i bought back all my games andthen some. I don't think I'll ever lose interest in video games. My entire immediate family is into video games.

[@ShopkeepMike]

I'm loving this Pete lore

[@SuperRyanDarcy]

I actually got into collecting because of either yourself and Johnny AGG. Think I first saw your PS2 collection and thought it was really cool. Not got a massive collection but I like going for the hidden gems :)

[@TheSleepy1326]

We certainly did judge the games by the cover. I remember a lot of games with cool covers were horrible and vice versa lol

[@American_Nightmare]

Whoa another PeteDorr video this year

[@theflyingninja1]

I wanted a Mega Drive in 1992, but got a Master System instead. I was a bit disappointed, but I learned to love it, and even now its my favourite console of all time.

[@Gamer-lq4wl]

Can you recommend us some Master System games?

[@GedH-316]

@@Gamer-lq4wl Psycho Fox and Golden Axe, the only games I had on it but they were great

[@caseonfire]

thanks for sharing

[@shanesteinhauser9680]

Hey Pete, here's my story. I started gaming on Atari and Genesis, but didn't really collect. My family got an Atari when I was 5, and a Genesis when I was 7. I didn't really collect back then. Gaming was just one of my many hobbies as a kid. We would buy games and sell them when we were done. Or we would rent games. It wasn't until 2001 that I kind of started to hold onto games that I liked. Even back then I probably didn't have more than 40 games. I was very much into Collectible Card games at the time. I got seriously burnt out on CCGs around 2004. There was some massive infighting within a few CCG communities. Cards never got nerfed. The players that won tournaments were always the ones with money to burn on good cards, using the cheapest tactics. This caused me to cut ties with CCGs in 2004. It also left a healthy distaste for the absolutely predatory way that CCGs were and still are sold. Booster packs sold for $3 and cost maybe $1 a pack for the manufacturer to print. Cards were randomly inserted into packs. After leaving the CCG scene I decided to get more into comics and video games. Especially videogames because they were insanely cheap compared to playing card games. With Card games you had to buy $300 worth of boxes every six months just to have the ability to build whatever deck you wanted. Meanwhile most used games back then could be had for cheap. Around early 2004 I found Gamespy with all its reviews. Shortly after I found metacritic. At that point I started collecting games that scored either 85 or higher on metacritic, or got good reviews from individual reviewers I liked. By 2010 I probably had 150 games in total. But I had a lot of the really good stuff from GameCube, PS2, PS1, N64, Xbox, 360 and PS3. In early 2010 I went off to school to learn how to make videogames. My school was in Phoenix AZ, which still has an amazing retro gaming community, with tons of Mom n' Pop shops. This gave me the chance to shop the gaming stores around there, and build up my collection even more. One day I bought a game called Etrian Odyssey IV on a whim and absolutely loved it. The funny thing is the game didn't have an 85 on metacritic. This wound up shattering my rule of "must score 84 or better on metacrtic" to buy it. Suddenly, I found myself going back and looking at games I had skipped over. I moved the bar to "must be 80 or better on Metacritic." These days my bar is set at "I'll buy it if it's from a developer I really love, and doesn't have 76 or lower on Opencritic." My collection wound up growing by leaps and bounds. But the 16 and 8 bit side of my collection had always been rather small. I think I had 20 NES games, 20 Genesis Games, and 20 SNES games. Mostly just the absolute classics like Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, and Final Fantasy 3. I relied on critic reviews to decide what games to buy, but reviews from 1995 and earlier were hard to find. I also didn't really like 8 and 16 bit games all that much, because they looked like a blurry mess, and the sound quality was terrible. This was because from 2008 to 2018 I played my retro games on a Retron 3, with it's terrible emulation quality and composite cables. Around 2019, I found out about Component Cables, and Mega SG. I also found out about how quality CRTs make a massive difference in preserving the original intention of game developers. Switching from a Retron 3 with it's crappy emulation and composite output to Mega SG and an OG SNES with component cables was a huge eye opener for me. Suddenly these 8 and 16 bit games sounded amazing, and looked amazing to boot. Fast forward to 2021 and I have over 500 games with a rapidly growing collection. What has really helped me zero in on what 8/16 bit games I want for my collection has been youtubers like you, Snesdrunk, SegaLordX and John Hancock. The 8 and 16 bit era is just overflowing with hidden gems. I now have 110 Genesis games with most of them being CIB (I don't try to get paper box games CIB). The move to digital games, microtransactions, and GaaS has left a bad taste in my mouth for a lot of modern games. It reminds me too much of the cancerous pricing of card games I played in 2003. Because of this I've really started to value physical games and retro games more and more. Right now old collectors are running around telling the younger crowd about how they got all these expensive retro games for pennies on the dollar, back in the day. I think in ten or twenty years we'll be telling people how games came COMPLETE, with a physical version that you could sell. And I think a lot of gamers in the future will be even more jealous of retro gamers with their collections of games that came complete.

[@thomasstodghilliv]

Oddly enough, my gaming experience also started at my grandparents' house, but it started on PC. I can remember playing games from Humongous Entertainment but I cannot say which one was first since I was 3 years old. Collecting for me started when I was 12 years old with finding a stack of Super Nintendo games at a Goodwill and the rest is history.

[@epicben-ki7co]

Two words: Amen Pete Collecting with everything included- box, game and manual- is a huge part of gaming. The pure nostalgic thrill is all I can say

[@Nicomanism]

No lie, I collected games because of you. Thats how I found which jrpgs were worth the purchase, suit my playstyle and time. Amazing journey

[@SinfulJon]

Good video Pete, thanks for sharing it. Glad to see you uploading more here. :) I didn't really start collecting until the Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GameCube era though. And I never really went backwards to older games, and still don't really buy them outside of digital versions. The GameCube was the first console I bought with my money.. well I borrowed the money from my uncle when I got my first job and paid him back that Friday when I got paid. He was ridiculously untrustworthy of me though, he called me the same day to remind me I owed him money, and again the next day and again, and again, etc. I never borrowed money from him again. Anyhow, I remember subbing to Tips and Tricks, Nintendo Power, EGM, Game Informater, etc I freaking loved reading about video games, interviews with devs, etc. I unfortunately had to recycle a boatload of the magazines when I moved on my own, they are freaking heavy as all hell when you have as much as I did.. Anyhow, when you mentioned EB games I remembered this one time when I was a kid, at EB games in a mall an elderly lady was putting gaming magazines in her bag. I told the employee as soon as she left and he didn't believe me. When we left, we were just across from the store eating and I seen them looking at the magazine rack waving their arms around, pointing at each other. :D

[@dukert27]

I know this is 3 years old, but I thought it was cool that my first console that was my own that got me into collecting was the 2nd model Sega genesis with sonic two pack in as well. That was so awesome I still have it in my collection.

[@hypersonic1337]

Thanks for the video consistency, its the Pete format I know. My collecting origins mostly came from the fact that growing up, my family wasn't too well off, it was just me and my mom for a long time (parents divorced) my dad eventually would be in my life (he's the one who showed me how to go to swap meets where I would find old stacks of NES stuff and other old games for next to nothing) but overall I didn't have many toys that weren't already hand me downs so games always felt very special to me and I wanted to make sure I held on to them. Originally it was older games at swap meets, old mom and pop shops from the pre-gamestop era and sometimes craigslist (my mom would help me browse because she used it for job searches and if my grades were good she'd take me to buy cheap games). I finally starting using ebay in maybe 2005ish and even then though it was getting more popular, i still got so much cheap stuff there. I got my Panzer Dragoon for like $140 I think it was, and I also thought it was wild spending that much on a game, I think I almost tried to sell it because I felt bad but I held on and I'm glad I did since it still remains one of my favorite games. Eventually when KZbin came around in my high school years (05-09) i remember finding you and others back when just collection sharing was way more popular VS it nearly being dead now and wishing I had good equipment or internet to share my own so I felt a bit left out in that sense but it was still very nice to see other people doing the same things and hearing good ideas bounced around that helped me grow as a collector and curate a collection that (at 29 years old now) feels like one that's very much personal to me. My mom and dad were always pretty accepting of it since games aren't my only hobby and learning to budget and balance what I do by as an adult has been fun. I still buy a few things each month but I'm slowly whittling away that "most wanted" list so at some point it'll be where I want it and I'll most likely focus on just playing more than I already do and maybe even making some videos if I have the time. Either way, thanks for sharing man. Stay safe