My 30 Year Journey Collecting NES Games

Matt Hosley
Matt Hosley
6,876
0
Published 2023-09-12
I've been collecting NES games since 1993 and finally completed my licensed collection.

In this video I give a little background on what I consider a complete collection. I then walkthrough some early NES stories and finally tell some of my favorite stories from my collecting journey.

At a later date I may do a more detailed walkthrough of my game room showing off some of the unique pieces in the collection.
All Comments (21)
  • @zZiL341yRj736
    Playing with friends and family are the best memories. It's very different today.
  • @skRapKlan
    Wow, so many amazing stories! Thanks so much for sharing
  • @dups1822
    Really enjoyed hearing your collecting journey. Thank you for sharing!
  • @evenoddprime
    Wow. Little Samson and flinstones in one trip and purchase. Wild.
  • @professors84
    Great video. I'm another old school collector, starting in 1998 in 8th grade. I remember going into a Funcoland to buy a new game and being astounded by the shelves of NES cartridges they had then. I got back to school and told a friend of mine about it and we started reminiscing about NES games and his beloved childhood games were much different than mine - I realized there was a galaxy of NES games I hadn't played and they were dirt cheap. Plus the N64's "one good game a quarter" release schedule wasn't cutting it for me. I went out and bought an old NES(my childhood one was busted) and got to collecting. Those were really the glory days of collecting as games were cheap and people were practically giving them away. Hunting down games was so much fun -it turned my love of video games from a distraction into something resembling a real hobby. I have a few fun stories but nothing as crazy as some of yours! Never had an NES website of my own but I remember yours. There was a real charm to those old NES sites and I am as nostalgic for that era of the internet as much as anything else. Was heavily involved in the NES Scene until it kind of petered out in the 2000s. Funcoland getting absorbed by Gamestop and liquidating their NES games was a real "day the music died" moment for me and while I still collected games when I could, it really slowed down. A decade ago I was in a retro game store and saw a loose copy of Super Mario 3 for 30 bucks and I figured that I it was time to retire from collecting (though I did manage to sneak out of there with a modestly priced copy of Lolo 3). I bought an AVS and an Everdrive and have zero regrets. I have a little over half of the NES releases and physical copies of almost everything I actually would ever want to play. I still have my collection, having only sold a few duplicates and a copy of Power Blade 2 (that I bought for 12 bucks) for over 400 dollars to finance a PS4 purchase a few years back. It's displayed proudly in my office along with my decent sized SNES collection. It gets a decent amount of play and my kids get a kick out of trying random games.
  • @videogames4life475
    Enjoyed the stories of how you acquired the games. Quite the journey. Love your game room as well.
  • @MrEduclass
    Congratulations! It's really cool to see collecting stories, it shows how difficult it is to build a collection without spending a fortune. I've been collecting Nes and GB for about 8 years here in Brazil, and the coolest thing is that I collect some stories too, each cartridge obtained had its own path and a person who participated in it, and I remember most of them, and it's a lot of fun. This shows our passion for Nes.
  • @rodgyretrogamer3334
    Really enjoyed hearing your gaming journey! I love to hear the how's and why's when it comes to game collecting Such a great collection you have there. The nes is such a cool system to collect, super nostalgic for me as it was my first ever home console I ever played and then owned. Nice one 😉👍
  • @nicowelmer
    Great informative and personal video. Definitely more collectors should watch this.
  • @jinknight2439
    Loved your video, hearing your stories is so awesome. Alot of nostalgia feelings. I am not only sharing your awesome video of your NES collections, I subscribed to your channel. Can't wait for new NES games contents.
  • @KeviRun
    Welcome to the 676 club, and congratulations! I enjoyed listening to your stories in this video, and your game room looks awesome! I would lvoe to see more content from you in the future!
  • @LazyRetroGamer
    Thank you for sharing your story with us on YT i loved it
  • @ryanpyle9822
    Congrats on the complete collection! I really enjoyed listening to your story.
  • @AltarOfGaming
    great video and story! and it's always funny to see collectors messing up with bookcases xDD always empty them first guys!
  • @edemaomega
    Fantastic stories Matt, lots of funky trades and great goofball nostalgia ("what's the code for Mike Tyson?!!") Excellent job gathering everything together—it's a stupid big collection, innit? Glad you aren't bothering yourself with the finicky minutiae of variant covers/5-screw vs 3-screw. Just enjoy what you got, and good luck on conquering that beast of a library!
  • @BOBSMITH-YouTubeStoleMyHandle
    From a collector with a complete licensed set (including Stadium Events), congratulations!!!!!! Its a big achievement and you should be proud!!! Welcome to the club....
  • @shreddaily101
    Great stories! Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your collection. That LS/FSaDP picture is so great😂
  • @_Technoman_
    Awesome! I wish I could have a game room like that! I maybe have two or three NES games sitting around LOL.