Retro Gaming Plans for 2016 | GamesYouLoved
On New Year’s Eve I made the bold statement on Twitter that my New Year resolution was to get myself a Vectrex. I have for some time now thought that a Vectrex would look magnificent in my retro gaming room so as 2016 draws on we shall see how successful my resolution goes.
Article by RetroGamerDaz
My main problem will be the cost of the system because as always what I see as good value for money may seem a bit excessive to my good wife. This is understandable really when you have other commitments as most of us do like mortgages & clothing our children amongst other important things.
The problem is though from my point of view once I start looking the hunt draws me in whether it’s a Vectrex or a Commodore 64 Mastertronic title that I might be looking to add to my collection. It’s a good job my better half is more committed to clothing the children as if it was left to me we would have an absolutely superb retro gaming collection that I let my kids play with whilst they complain that their ill-fitting summer clothes get a bit chilly in February!
Anyway we shall see what happens with my Vectrex ambitions.
What the Vectrex owning dream has also lead me to think about is my existing collection & what I should be looking to do overall retro game wise this year. Here are my sketchy plans for 2016:
Sega Mega Drive Games
I have decided to focus on starting the year by expanding my Sega Mega Drive collection with a view to adding games I loved back in the day. So at the moment I am looking at games I used to own, rented or missed out on back in the day.
I find Mega Drive games quite enjoyable to buy as you can often find a bargain if you hunt around on EBay & they are often reasonably priced if you put a bit of time into looking around.
Commodore 64
I love playing on my C64C but I have found in the past that buying games can be very hit or miss. The main problem is that you are usually buying untested games which are always a bit of a gamble even if they are cheap.
I have brought bundles in the past & there are always some that you can’t get to load. So what I have decided to this year is to get a few titles that I really want the physical copies of & also get an SD card reader.
This will mean that I can play virtually anything whilst slowly adding to my C64 games collection with specific titles & carry on collecting Hit Squad titles.
Retro Gaming Events
Last year I went up to Play Blackpool & attended on the Saturday whilst having a bank holiday weekend break with my family.
I had a great day & would like to attend again but my wife isn’t too keen on another weekend trip so if I do go I will have to go solo. The only thing putting me off at the moment is the distance to travel as it took about 5 hours last year with a stop so we will see.
More close to home though (about 25 minutes by car) is the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge & as always their retro gaming nights will be great fun.
In May they will also be having an evening with Ocean Software featuring Simon Butler, Mark Jones and Stephen Thompson & this is definitely right up my alley.
Car Boots
Last year I went to a couple of car boot sales early on in spring all on the same day & I was put right off.
What few retro gaming items I did find were tatty & the prices were just silly to be honest. From there I had some success on EBay, local Facebook selling pages & some local 2nd hand shops so I didn’t bother again. I will try again this year as I have a Car Boot literally up the road every other Sunday so this year I will become a fair weather visitor & see what happens.
Nintendo Entertainment System
I play NES games all the time via emulation & Punch Out is one of my favourite games of all time. So really I need to get another NES at some point. What may get in the way of this will be the Vectrex hunt but hopefully at some point this year I will find one at a decent price with a few decent games. I
have really great memories of my original NES (which died on me many years ago). If anyone out there is looking to get rid of one feel free to get in touch.
Get To the Seaside More Often
Why you may ask? Well just to get some arcade time really. I love arcades (although they nowhere near as great as in the early 90’s golden age), my kids love arcades & my wife enjoys them too.
You can more often than not find at least a Sega Rally cab somewhere & possibly some older titles too & when you’re done you can have fish n chips or an ice cream. Happy days. I am sure other stuff will crop up throughout 2016 that distracts me from the above but at least I have a rough plan for this year.
I think the biggest challenge for a lot of people now is that the popularity of everything retro has driven up prices & this looks like continuing for quite some time yet.
SNES
I have struggled with buying SNES games due to prices being quite high & it is very hard still to find a genuine bargain. All I would say is think a little outside of the box, check Facebook selling pages ( I recently missed a SNES with 10 games that sold for £15!!!), find some local 2nd hand/trade type shops or simply just talk to people you know as you never know what might be stuck in someone’s loft.
Hope you enjoyed this & do feel free to share your retro gaming plans for 2016 too.
RetroGamerDaz
On Twitter: @RetroGamerDaz
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