As I described in this post, I'm an avid collector of games and consoles. I own tons of games for every system from Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft. I even have games for the Virtual Boy, Atari Lynx, Wonderswan Color, 3DO, and a ton of other obscure systems. When I started to put together this collection, I fancied that I'd play all these great old games all the time and I'd never be without an awesome game to play. The odd thing is I almost never play them; I seem to get more satisfaction from owning the games than I do from actually playing them. I guess I just like knowing that they're there.

The first game I ever remember playing was Combat for the Atari 2600. My sister and I would get up early on Saturday mornings and play for a few hours before the good cartoons came on. Our favorite game mode was the one where one person controlled the big, slow plane (we called it "Fat Momma") and the other controlled three superfast fighter jets. We'd play that game for hours and always had a great time. Every now and again one of us will bring up "Fat Momma" and it's always good for a laugh.. I still have the game as well as an Atari 2600, and though I never play it, just opening up the drawer and seeing Combat in there brings back fond memories.

I was one of the last kids on my block to get a Nintendo Entertainment System, and when I did finally get one I didn't have any money to buy games. I'd get two or three new games a year, but most of the games I played were borrowed from friends. This means I didn't have a whole lot of choice when it came to what I played, but I wasn't going to complain; it was either play a crappy game like Back to the Future or beat Super Mario Bros. for the 100th time. Somehow over the years I've developed a fondness for lousy games like T&C, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (I was stuck forever!), and Fester's Quest . It's amazing that the positive memory of joking around and having a good time with my friend Jason completely overshadows the anger and frustration we experienced trying to dodge stupid milkshakes in Back to the Future.

Then there are the games in my collection that I own only because they were so bad. One such game is the infamous Superman 64. Other than a brief bit of time with the demo in an Electronics Boutique (yes, they were dumb enough to put it on display), I never played the game. I did, however, read all of the stinging criticism the game got in magazines such as EGM and GamePro. Now when I look in the N64 drawer and see Superman 64 in there I have fond memories of reading those magazines, and I'll never forget the beating that game took from critics.

My friends and family have always described me as a big kid, and I guess they're right. The fact that I have a big collection of games and systems primarily for the reason that owning them makes me feel like a kid again probably qualifies me as a big kid. But that's OK with me. I hope that when I'm 45 years old I have a gaming room filled with games that I rarely play and not a formal dining room filled with china that I never use.