I know, the
website's fallen by the wayside.
That'll change, trust me. But in the meantime, I have been making the most of some of my retro. The reason being, it's all being sold to fund a Nintendo
Wii.
"WHAT?" I hear you cry... "
Sacrilege!"
No, really, it's not.
I've had my money's worth out of them. It's time to let someone else enjoy them. Yeah, it's been a little bit painful to let them go, the
Dreamcast and Saturn especially, but for God's sake, they're only games consoles, and old ones at that. I've beaten the games several times, I've had my fun over the last TEN years of them, and in the case of the
SNES, I only paid something like £20 for it in the first place.
So the
Dreamcast, the
SNES and the Saturn have all gone now, as have all accessories and games. I still have an N64 and a
Playstation, with lots of accessories and games for each, so I'm making the most of them while I still can. I'm getting my fun in on the N64 (I want to complete Perfect Dark before it goes), then I will savour the last games on the
Playstation (Time Crisis, for example), and then I will be a member of the
Wii family. Oh, yes... the
Gamecube will be going in too... simply because the
Wii is backwards compatible.
The final days of Saturn ownership were strange... I played Athlete Kings for the final time, and set 4 new World Records... apparently my fingers are working better now than they were in 1999, despite having records unbeaten since then!
Virtua Cop and
Virtua Cop II proved no match for me, thanks to the EXCELLENT Saturn Enforcer Light Guns (Still to my mind the best light guns of all time), and I actually found myself ENJOYING
Daytona USA. I never liked that game before.
The
SNES, as I was surprised to discover, was probably the best preserved out of all my collection. Not only was the box in near-pristine condition, the polystyrene inners and even the plastic bags that the power pack,
joypad, RF cable and console came in were still there. The "Mario All-Stars" pack was complete in every sense of the word, warranty cards and all.
So the harvesting is almost complete. With the advent of the
Wii and the ingenious control device, fun-for-all concept and design, a huge back-catalogue to already go at, big name games still to come, easy wireless online gaming, it's time to move on.
But that doesn't mean I've stopped loving Retro. Time and money permitting in the future, I'll relish the
opportunity to retro-hunt again, but for the now, the games and consoles that I've used over the years have served their purpose... They've entertained me, sharpened up my reflexes, and I've certainly got value for money from every one of them. Now they can go to another retro lover and be appreciated all over again.
My memories of retro won't fade for a long time yet, so writing my reviews and articles about them will continue... Just because I've decided it's time for me to move on from them doesn't mean I won't ever return to them, and it certainly doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend retro-hunting to anyone else.
You might not have the flashy graphics that today seems to crave, but what you will find in their place is a huge quantity of sheer playability. Sure, there's emulation, but that will NEVER capture the charm of playing a game in the way it was meant and designed to be played... on the console, and indeed the joy pad for which the game was designed.
