Not too long ago I was discussing games with a real-life friend of mine (also a collector, you should see his CIB Game Boy collection, it boggles the mind) and we got on to the topic of gaming and collecting goals. He's a very focussed collector – his games of choice are handheld titles and little else – and when he decides on something he wants he goes all out for it to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. It's a method that has served him well and he's acquired some impressive items though dedication, perseverance and a not insignificant amount of dough.

I, on the other hand, am much more... free with my collecting. I rarely set myself specific goals, preferring to sit back and see what comes my way. That way, I am always surprised when I go retro hunting, whether it be in the real world or on the internet. And, most importantly, it ensures I am never disappointed. Sure, there are particular games I want and would gladly give my left pinky for if they drifted across my line of sight – but I rarely go after them with a vengeance. It's mostly because I'm cheap, partly because I love discovering the unknown, but I much prefer waiting for a surprise bargain – even if it's something I didn't know I wanted!

In the end, we (sort of) agreed that both methods have their pros. His collection may gather more brownie points with the rare game club, but my collection is much broader and more accurately reflects my playing tastes. Sometimes it's best to have a healthy mix of the two approaches. My friend did manage to weasel a few minor collecting goals out of me in the end, mainly little things that I have never pursued with intent. Maybe it's time I started. There are some things you just can't find by accident, after all.

So I decided to make a record of what I deem to be my first official collecting targets, just so I can't back out of them when the going gets tough. Firstly, a few specific goals that should be achievable without too many problems.

Number one, I am going for the complete collection of NES Classics for the Game Boy Advance, boxed and complete. I bought the NES Special Edition SP on release day, along with The Legend of Zelda and picked up a couple more over the following months (Castlevania, Metroid, Zelda II). Now, after many years, I've decided I want them all! I've recently picked up a bunch more off eBay, now there's only three left to get. I've also been looking at the Japanese Famicom Mini releases – I've decided these are something I'd like to get but are in no way a priority. I'll pick those up when I see them.

Still to get:

#1: Super Mario Bros.
#3: Ice Climber
#11: Dr. Mario

Secondary goal: Famicom Mini series.

Progress towards goal: 9 out of 12 (75%)

Secondly, I'd like to polish off my PAL Resident Evil collection, including multi-platform releases but not different versions of the same game (such as Limited and Standard versions, Platinum releases or different language editions). I'm also not including different versions of Resident Evil 5 yet, I already have the 360 LE which will do for now until the others are a lot cheaper. There's about 15-20 individual releases I still need to get, a large chunk of those for consoles I don't own so I don't want to be paying huge sums of cash for them. Priority targets are the original PS1 Resident Evil (I only have the Director's Cut, would you believe it?), Resident Evil 2 for N64 and the remaining GameCube releases.

Brand spanking new pictures of my current Resident Evil collection can be found here.

Still to get:

Original Resident Evil (PS, Saturn, PC big box)
Resident Evil (Wii)
Resident Evil 2 (GameCube, Nintendo 64, Game.com, Dreamcast, PC big box)
Resident Evil 3 (GameCube, Dreamcast, PC big box)
Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, Wii, PC)
Resident Evil Zero (Wii)
Resident Evil Code Veronica (Dreamcast)
Resident Evil Code Veronica X (Gamecube)

Secondary goal: Box and manual for Resident Evil Gaiden (currently have cart only).

Progress towards goal: 17 out of 35 (48.6%)

A slightly less-achievable target would be my long-term plan for my NES collection. I'd love to have a complete UK collection. There's just over 200 games available and thankfully only a few are truly elusive. But NES games are nearly all pretty expensive here – especially complete copies – and I've already acquired most of the cheaper ones. But I'm keeping my eyes open for bargains and am slowly progressing towards this goal.

Some pictures of my NES collection are located here.

Progress towards goal: 111 out of 239 (46.4%)

Those are my specific goals at the moment, subject to change without notice of course! There are a few general goals in the back of my mind though, mainly hardware-related.

I need a Mega Drive. It's unbelievable that I could have spent all 22 of my years in this country and not ever owned a Mega Drive. Oh yeah, I've played with other peoples' plenty; in fact that's the main reason I never got around to buying my own. I reasoned that since half my friends still had their Mega Drives hanging about I could spend my pennies on more obscure stuff. It's not really a valid excuse any more, so I'd love to get my mitts on a good condition Model I, a couple of 6-button controllers and maybe even a Mega CD and Master System converter to go with it. I'll wait until I see a nice base unit on a carboot, they pop up often enough, then I'll likely pick up the rest on eBay. Hopefully I'll get lucky with the carboots this summer.

The other hardware goal I have is to get a MSX computer. There's so much great software out there for these Japanese machines, including early entries in many great series such as Castlevania and Metal Gear. I'd need a MSX2 with a disk drive for a lot of them, and I want a good, reliable model so I really need to do my research. The Toshiba model common in the UK looks gorgeous, but it's too basic for my needs. Luckily the MSX was fairly popular in mainland Europe, especially in Holland, so tracking a nice one down (probably a Philips) shouldn't be too hard when I decide to take the plunge.

There's lots of minor goals and targets I have, but most of those aren't 'active quests', so to speak, and generally rely on picking things up as and when I see them. These sort of vague goals include picking up '80s LCD handhelds, buying Final Fantasy and Zelda titles on the cheap, acquiring everything with Dungeons & Dragons in the title, finding lots of Star Wars games and that sort of thing. I couldn't even keep track of those, so I don't try – and frankly a lot of Star Wars games are crap so I don't want to go too much out of my way for them!

I plan to return to this in the future, maybe on a six-month basis, and see where I'm up to. It's more a record for me than for anyone else, but feel free to post a comment below. Maybe share your gaming/collecting goals if you have them? Or maybe you collect other stuff too? I remember when I was going for the whole set of first edition Fighting Fantasy game books (nearly got there, too)... how geeky is that?