Top Five Systems I'd Love To Collect For... But Won't

Whether you're someone who just has a casual interest in the games of yesteryear or you're a hardcore 'full set' collector, one thing has been increasingly clear for years now - it's an expensive hobby! I sold much of my collection around 12-14 years ago and, like so many that have done the same, now regret it. At least part of the reason for this is that pretty much everything I sold is now worth about four times as much! Accordingly, for anyone who doesn't A), earn a lot, and B), have an understanding partner, collecting retro stuff is not particularly realistic these days.

Sadly, I do not earn a lot and nor do I have an understanding partner, so collecting old games is not something I have really pursued for many years now, aside from the ultra-cheap Xbox games I bought a few years back. I do still have some parts of my old collection, and I do still get the odd Master System game, but that's about it for me. I have often thought about collecting for a specific system though, and was recently thinking about which I would most like to collect for if money and partners were no object. More or less in order, here's what I came up with:

5. Amiga

One of many things that pains me as a retro gamer is that I pretty much missed out on the Amiga's awesomeness. I mean, I had other awesome systems and I knew about much of the goings on in the Amiga world though magazines, but I only actually got an Amiga really late on and have oft wished I'd had one from much earlier. In an attempt to rectify that, I had resolved many moons ago to get an older Amiga, perhaps an A500+, and collect original games for it. As fas I was aware, they weren't hugely expensive, even in CIB form, so it was certainly doable. 'Twas at this juncture, however, that my good friend Luke, whom I had informed of my plans, advised against it due to the assumed unreliability of magnetic disks as a long term storage medium. In other words, he thought the games would stop working before long. Then again, it was a good few years ago I had this idea, before I started this blog, that's for sure, and I haven't heard too many reports of games dying yet.

4. Spectrum +3

One of my biggest regrets from a gaming point of view has long been my decision to sell my old Speccy and all the games I had amassed for it; even more so since it was a +3 and many of my games were in disk form. I almost immediately bought another +3 with a box full of tape games but I had lost the most important items. Then, when I did a feature here on my +3, I decided I wanted to rebuild my old Speccy set-up. I quickly discovered, however, that it was by now too late. I still had a +3 of course, but disk games had risen in price a great deal in the intervening years, now far exceeding their original sale price, and worse still, the Multiface 3 I had with my original Speccy - a crucial part of the set-up - now cost a bomb (well into three figures on eBay, on the rare occasion one shows up). The idea of having my Speccy permanently set up is still highly appealing, even if it was Multiface-less and all the games were tapes, but in reality I probably wouldn't have time to actually use it properly very often, so is it worth the effort? I fear I shall never know...

3. MSX/MSX2

The various MSX systems have not always been all that appreciated outside of their homeland(s). I don't recall any coverage of them in the magazines of the day and didn't really even know what they were until many years later. Since starting this blog, however, I have learned much about them and played a good few of their games under emulation too, and I have been impressed. This is partly due to the fact that both systems remind me of others that I have great affection for - the original MSX is a little Speccy-ish and the MSX2 is very similar to the Master System (they even share many games). Accordingly, I think I'd very much enjoy collecting for them, particularly the MSX2. Unsurprisingly though, many titles cost a pretty penny these days, and that's when they even show up for sale somewhere. There really are some great games on these systems though, some of them exclusives too. I've been looking into them in some detail lately so, even if I can't have a real MSX/2, you can expect to see a few posts here over the coming months.

2. Sharp X68000

The system in the top spot here was a legend just out of reach in its day, but the mighty Sharp X68000 remains so to this day for most of us. Again, it wasn't covered by the magazines of the day, not even the ones that covered the Japanese scene, so I hadn't even heard of it until many years later. Once I had, however... jeepers, what a mighty machine! It looked super-cool and played host to some of the best arcade conversions ever seen at the time - a time that many including me consider to be the peak of the arcades in terms of the awesomeness of the games, no less. I'm therefore definitely not alone in coveting this amazing computer (for yes, it's a full-on computer rather than a console). Unfortunately, as well as having the same problem as the MSX/2 regarding the games, the system itself also costs a bomb (a quick eBay check reveals prices ranging from around £450-£2000). In terms of sheer cost, this one is up there in Neo Geo territory and is almost certainly the least realistic one to collect for on this list from that perspective. It's even a pain to emulate too :(

1. PC Engine

As I have mentioned several times here already, the mighty PC Engine took on an almost mythical status for many of us in its day. Unlike other Japanese systems, it was at least fairly accessible for those willing to buy via possibly-shady mail order companies (some were set up specially to sell the Engine), and it was definitely worth the effort. I had one for many years along with a decent selection of games and it has long been one of my very favourite consoles, but I always wanted to really collect for it. Not a complete set as so many collectors seem obsessed with, but certainly all of the wonderful action titles. When I first had this desire, most of the games were still pretty affordable too, but of course, I 'procrastinated' to use my wife's favourite word, and as with most systems now, a good number of Engine titles cost a significant sum. It's not in the #1 spot because it's the most expensive to collect for - despite the price rises, it's still not impossible to amass a great collection - it's more because it's the one I still most want to collect for. But, as mentioned in the post title, I won't, simply because I can't really justify it any more...

Honourable Mentions: MegaDrive (Japanese), Super Famicom, Saturn (Japanese), Sega Mark III, PC-98... So yes, basically anything Japanese and thus largely unavailable to collect for in its day...