letting the past go
When I was a kid, I collected toys and comics and games. These days I collect collectable toys, graphic novels and...well, games.
Lately, through, I've found the urge to hold onto my gaming past waning — perhaps thanks to my increasing age or just reality setting in. Will I ever open up and play that copy of Onimusha 3? Do I need to keep every game I've ever played? In the past the answer to these questions was always "yes," and I have hundreds (many hundreds) of games to prove it. These days that answer is starting to lean towards the "are you fucking kidding me?" side...
It started with getting rid of recent games I've beaten or just stopped playing. Amazon is a great place to buy stuff, but it's also a great place to sell the same. While I've never made a profit, getting back an average of half (or sometimes quite a bit more) of what I bought a game for makes it that much easier to buy new games. And it also keeps the shelves somewhat clean of items that would normally just collect dust.
Then a couple of weeks ago I began to put PSP games up for sale on Amazon. I have a good 40 of them, and now that I'm mainly rocking the PSPgo, they're just taking up space. Those sales went well, and I began to eye plastic boxes of the past in my closet.
This weekend I went a little nuts, took a solid look at my DS, PS2 and Xbox games, and started putting them in piles.
- Things I'd Keep - These have sentimental value of some sort, or I really, really plan on playing them one day
- Things I'd Sell - Looking up prices on Amazon was quite a shock. Everything in this pile are games I'm done with, but will fetch 8 bucks and up on the market (some as high as 40-60!)
- Things I'd Donate - Games that have almost zero value on Amazon, or are too damaged to sell. Wow, I kept a lot of crap (and cool but worthless) games...
The crap pile (note
X-Squad)
The numbers were
pleasing. I'm keeping around 10-20% of what I looked
through, selling around 60 games, and giving away
about the same. Which means my collection just got
around 120 games lighter, and I should have enough to
cover a majority of my future iPad with the sales...
Also, a cleaner closet.
I still have many hundreds of Japanese and PS1 games
I'll likely hold onto, and quite a few collectable
ones I'll never let go, but it is a strange feeling
of freedom knowing I could sell this stuff. A few
years ago I would have laughed at the idea, and now I
couldn't be happier.
Ah, getting older...
happy day
OMG, my day was just
made. The "This American Life" iPhone app (iTunes link) is simply amazing...
It has every show ready to stream (nearly 400 of
them!) plus tons of extras, and it starts to play
instantly over 3G. Instantly. Not sure if
I've ever made a better $2.99 purchase. :)
cleaning for cash
Huh, my one-stop place to buy stuff is now also my one-stop place to sell things as well... Ah, my Amazon overlords, I welcome you.
34 years old
changes
It made for some good lessons, though, and this year has already made for some major changes. Since late last year I’m playing games less and learning more — pounding away at UDK and slowly jumping back into programming. Being a creative-focused designer is fine and all, but without polishing the base skills, well...I’m less marketable than many of my peers. I’d like to feel like my job is solid, and I’m working on keen high’ish-level stuff, but last year’s events
The neat thing is I’m having tons of fun getting back to the basics; I forgot how much I enjoy making stuff. I’ve been going through tons of Unreal tutorials (hot damn those are nice tools), and am slowly putting together the pieces for a game idea. I’m a good six months away from having anything truly representative of what I’d like to do (haven’t even touched the scripting yet), but I feel confident. Plus, I’ve spent a few minutes to a few hours nearly every day with UDK at home without losing any energy... Hell, I feel inspired. Which is nice.
That said, I need to start playing games again. I barely touched half the stuff I’ve gotten lately, and I almost feel guilty relaxing in front of the TV with a controller. I’ve never really had balance with games, and now it’s tipped a different direction. An arguably better direction, but still. Funny that I have to carve out time to just play games these days, prior to this I’d carve out time from playing to eat. Heh.
wow
A wonderful (and powerful) 42 second film by director Chris Milk, with a beautiful mix of imagery and music. And Pauly Shore. I’ve already watched it a bunch of times today, and it still gives me chills.
flashback
OMG, this podcast is my old
life. The one that (almost completely) revolved
around collecting and trading inane Japanese
gaming minutia, where friends would try to
out-geek each other by spouting off about little
known import gaming facts while discussing other,
slightly more well known gaming facts.
Maybe it’s just the nostalgia talking, but yeah.
Really missing those days right now. That said, I
have no idea why it took me until now to start
listening, but I’m damn happy I started, and just as
pleased that I’m hooked.
hot day, cold sake
And for a hot day like today (combined with an ice-filled carafe), there’s very little better....
weekend
Really, really impressed with the update. Love the feel, from the slightly thinner and lighter mass, to the matte finish, to the (thankfully) less-mushy D-Pad, to the larger screens, to the WPA support; it’s great all around. While the lack of a GBA slot is slightly missed, I haven’t played one for a while (and I have both a Micro and SP Light if the need arises) and the cleaner lines are a plus.
The thing I’m most happy with, though, is the future potential. Sure, the DSi Shop doesn’t have anything I really want right now, but I have high hopes for some great classic or original titles for download. Hopefully we’ll see some Virtual Console games on here eventually (want the original Ys on DSi, dammit), and the ability to “share” select titles between the Wii and DSi would be freaking amazing - sort of like the PSN original PlayStation games that play on both PS3 and PSP. For now, though, I have plenty of slightly (or non) played DS games hanging around, and a new (and great) reason to play them.
Oh, and I finally got my Club Nintendo all up to date - it took a while with the tons of quick surveys and the such, but now I have a nice 850 coins. Not that there’s anything I want to trade them for now, but it’s nice to be at Platinum standing for this June’s mysterious prize...
This is sort of cool, I haven’t felt like such a Nintendo Fanboy since the Wii was released. :P
new puppy
my week
good and bad
And damn awesome logo art.
Bad: So then, I apparently took a mysterious trip to San Diego last week?
Either that or somebody cloned my bank card. Crap. Oh well, first time and all... Plus, it could have been much worse. At least they didn’t totally clean out my account. Um, yay?
All they seemed to do was eat, shop for groceries, fill up their gas tank and eat some more. Huh.
amp it up!
I just ordered that headphone amp from this guy. Actually, it might not be that exact casing, there are multiple options and I told him to surprise me. And now I’m all jonesing for a quality pair of headphones for my upcoming birthday.
You know, I always disliked headphone snobs, but now I want to be one!
Yay for getting old(er)!
palm just got cool again
I really hate CES, it’s filled with nice things I
want but don’t need (and can’t afford to buy).
goodbye my old friends
It was the first game magazine I loved, the last one
I worked for, and one of the few I still read.
And now it’s gone. Crap.
Making this feeling even worse is the shuttering of
1UP Yours. Weekends are no longer confirmed, and that
really, really sucks.
I’m shocked this all went down so suddenly, and I
wish everyone the best of luck.
Thanks for the memories.
very married
Vegas this weekend, on a helicopter over the strip. Rad.
netless
I think it says a lot about me that two hours without access to fast internet was almost maddening. Also, holy shit the iPhone is slow on Edge.
neat things
I also got this:
OMG it's huge. Like, Bible huge. Yikes, this is going to take a while to really get into...
And this:
Wow. Much, much, much faster than the previous version. With "previews" on, it doesn't pause to load when quickly skimming pictures. Yay! Looking forward to trying out the other new features as well...
birthday
Been a great day so far, raining (which is rad) and I got a keen present from the lady (which is even radder).
Limited edition print from the last i am 8-bit show.
Ah, she knows me well. :)