The Nerd Cave

About a year ago I was sitting around and I thought to myself; "Self, you should start a blog about Nintendo game collecting!" - to which I replied to myself; "Inner-Self, that's stupid. Nobody cares what I'd have to say about buying obsolete video games." Well, despite my better judgement I began to write Little Gray Squares and I sit here on the 1 year anniversary of post #1. Remember April 17, 2011? The sun has been shining a little bit brighter ever since.

Anyways, I don't have any new games to show off today, but I figured now is as good a time as any to show off the entire collection. My first LGS post showcased a blurry cell phone picture of my NES collection. Since then I've moved to a new house and expanded by 49 the number of original Nintendo carts, but I haven't mentioned or shown much of the rest of the 'Nerd Cave' as my wife has nicknamed the game room. So I'll shut up now and show off some slightly less blurry cell phone pics.

Have fun spotting all the Star Trek games.

First up - these are all the games. NES carts on the left and top of the right. Everything else below that. The carts are stacked a little weird in order to fit more on a shelf.

That's right...no human being would stack books this way.

The third shelf that holds paper and toys. Super sweet Deluxe Set box on top next to nerdy video game tournament trophies and a really awesome DK Jenga set.

Dark and dreary close up of some old strategy and tip books. Jeff Rovin boxed set and BOTH Skip Rogers VHS tapes are the highlight. Remember, level 3 is tough...have patience!

More old paper - Nintendo Power, Game Players magazines, some walkthrough cheatbooks.

TOYS. CANDY. Cool!

Some nifty boxed accessories like the Double Player wireless controllers (mine smell weird) and the Aladdin Deck Enhancer that allows you to play unlicensed Aladdin games. I like the Mario Christmas cards circa 1988 that I picked up for a dollar at a flea market.

Who likes board games? Apparently I like four of them.

Back to the video game shelf - these are the boxed NES games I've stumbled upon. Boxed games are fun to look at, but ultimately take up too much shelf space. Still, I hesitate to get rid of any of the boxes I've come across.

Unlicensed carts on the shelf above, 'black box' games on the middle shelf. The black box set are the first 30ish games Nintendo published for the NES and they look nice all next to each other, especially when you add the Zelda games, Ice Hockey and a few others. I'm missing a few for a full set, they can get pricey. Below that are the Aladdin games - mine appear to have never been played.

The boxed games below (plus Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Gyromite, Excitebike and Donkey Kong 3) represent all the games I owned as a kid back when NES was 'new'. I distinctly remember getting only a few of them - but safe to say that they were mostly given as birthday or Christmas presents or bought with a saved up allowance. I DO recall that Ghosts n Goblins was one of the first games I owned when I was 6 or 7 years old...which could be considered a form of child abuse.

All killer, no filler (if you ignore Mario is Missing) Super NES collection. Not going for a full set, but I tend to find really good SNES games for really low prices quite often.

Boxed SNES are even bigger, bulkier and uglier than boxed NES. Still, Super Metroid is my favorite video game and I had to have a complete boxed copy.

For a brief time I thought it would be fun to collect boxed N64 games. It wasn't fun. I stopped.

Put on your 3D glasses for this picture of Gamecube games!

I enjoy the Wii more than most people do. Squint your eyes and you'll see another Star Trek game in there somewhere.

Truth be told, I probably played more Genesis in my tween/teen years than NES, but mainly because I was way too into sports games. I sold off, but eventually re-purchased most of my collection and then some. Super Baseball 2020 is AWESOME.

DS games.

I've been buying up PS2 games a lot in recent months. It's definitely the cheapest console to collect games for - luckily most of these games are good.

PS3 and PSP games - FINALLY a fun Back to the Future game.

A boxed copy of Mario Dance Dance Revolution sitting next to a pile of console and accessory boxes covered with the Mario 25th Anniversary backpack thingy that my wife got me for Christmas with the Wii version of Punch Out.

As most collectors have already discovered, these plastic storage bins serve a game room well by offering a place to stash all the little crap, wires and controllers that end up all over the place.

And Game Boy games!

Those pins are totally retro - purchased from my school's 2nd grade book fair.

Speaking of books - here are a bunch of manuals.

They can't all be winners, can they? If I cared I'd pick up the stand that goes with the Virtual Boy...if I cared.

Controllers, random crap, more controllers...

My retro gaming set up. Got the TV a few weeks ago from Goodwill after the old one died a dishonorable death. ROB guards the consoles from the approaching swarm of unloved Rock Band instruments.

I've trimmed my console collection considerably in the last year - this is what's left.

That is MY original Nintendo that I got for Christmas in 1988. It still works...sometimes.

The Super Nintendo and top-loading NES stay out all the time as they get the most playtime. The top-loader is prettier and more reliable, but gives nasty 'jailbars' on the screen due to lack of RF shielding or something.

Several posters hanging up - DK, Mario and Zelda are Club Nintendo freebies, the ROB poster came out of an old black box game and the Metroid Prime poster was given away with preorders of Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii.

Lastly are posters for 2 of my favorite movies and a quick snapshot of my DVD/Blu-Ray collection. What Nerd Cave would be complete without them? Look at all that Star Trek! How embarrassing! Thanks for reading Little Gray Squares...here's to another year of dorkiness online!