Damn, within one year?⌗

Well then. It’s been just under a year since I started collecting retro games. At the time, I still had the vestigial remnant of games I was able to salvage when my brother flogged off a lot of our games at the flea market in 2005/6 to have money for his driver’s license.

Yep, escalated. How could I afford to do that? I also started playing trading cards since I was 16 - over 20 years ago. Actually, those were why I’d had a part-time job since I was 14. I sold that collection for a high five-figure sum in 2020/21. Most of the proceeds went into the initial furnishing of our house. And the rest I have now spent here. Whether that made sense? Nope. An ETF would have made more sense. Do I regret it now? No. Sure, there are a lot of games in there that you should have as a collector, but really it’s mostly about buying the memory. Be it because you played the game yourself or just looking at the games in the magazines of the time or in Vedes/Karstadt at the gaming station.

The past⌗

My brother and I grew up not “poor”, but simple. Consoles were there every leap year. And only if we had wished for it together and ALL relatives put together for it. There is still a video of us getting a SNES with Mario Kart for Christmas from everyone. We were freaked out. But we didn’t have that many games. You had to borrow games from your buddies and family. That’s unimaginable nowadays when you put a Nintendo Switch or a Playstation in your kids’ nests for Easter. In an emergency, with 0% financing.

The bottom line is that I’m now catching up on all the stuff I wanted back then, but could never get because of the money. But always just CiB. I love the artwork and the tutorials.

The future⌗

Yes. It’s time for a break now too. The hobby burnout is coming too fast.

But there’s still no end in sight. There are still a few bangers on paper that I want to get.

With the Dreamcast, I got the last console last week, which I had so in my “Zockerära”. Back then, at the Karstadt sale. For 50 euros a piece. What a time!? Since one should have really put a pallet in the garage. So if one would have had the money for it.

With the Dreamcast was then but also ended. Playing soccer, partying, working, and studying had priorities. By the way, the collecting instinct started with the Analogue Pocket. It was incomparable to see the Nintendo logo again falling from above on a modern screen.

By the way, I have also modded a lot in the meantime. Technology is another field of retro gaming. Due to my profession, I am already very affine for it. But the soldering. The revival and the “upgrading” of old technology is wonderful.

Memories⌗

When my children hold these “machines” in their hands, and their eyes light up when a 30 year old Mario game flickers across the screen, my heart swells, and I find myself sitting on the window heater on my “snuggle pillow.” Having my feet on my brother’s shoulders, who is also leaning against the heater, and the two of us playing Tetris with the link cable. Because the only console we had twice was the Gameboy. And not because we were annoyed, but because my father wanted to play it too, so when he had a few minutes to switch off after shift work.

On that note. A few more crazy carnival days.