The Collector's Quest

McDonalds is one of the most American things ever, but the Famicom game Donald Land is a whole McDonalds platformer that never got released in America. We're talking about western licenses that never got western releases. You know, the import stuff you can look at and go "I can't read Japanese but at least I know what Back to the Future is!".

A basketball fan and a guy who doesn't watch sports cover four reasons you might collect perhaps the least collectible genre of video games.

Or as good as it might realistically get. Near term economic uncertainty aside, we're discussing some current and future factors that might have us looking back on today and saying "I wish I bought that before it blew up". Tools, charts, and ease of access to detailed information are unusually poor but there are numerous startups trying to improve this. The days of CIB Nintendo games costing 1.5x...

Collecting is a weird hobby where the top things are often the top things just because they're the top things. We talk about, and disagree, on what some of the top things should and shouldn't be.

We're talking about going straight into the matrix in the most classic fashion: with crappy little paper 3D glasses. We're talking about the most interesting games (and virtually every game) that includes pack-in 3D glasses.

We're talking about the first 10-ish Saturn games we'd collect at any budget because of all consoles maybe the US Saturn library isn't the best one to be poking around random cheaper games looking for gems.

We discuss the state of the video-screen laden amusement ride industry for 20 minutes, then go on to discuss a few psychological concepts that entrap us collectors like the sunk cost fallacy and endowment effect.

We're going deep into one of Johnny's niches: weird, weird Disney stuff. From various first appearances to inexplicable high quality Japanese exclusives to strangely rad computer games where Mickey has a gun.

We're talking about digital games, mainframe games, lost games, and all manner of video games that we can't own that make our collections incomplete.

Hey, this one is a real episode! We're talking about the first 10 games we'd each start our Sega Genesis collection with, and what version of each. You'll never guess how many times Altered Beast on our lists!

Learn what we know about Neo Geo. (This is the April Fools joke).

We're talking about the Sisyphusian cycle of finding new sets, new interests, new consoles and never being done with acquisitions. Is there ever a point where we are done and happy rather than burnt out?

We look back at the 30s, 40s, and 50s and only the absolute apex of pop culture media is well known by the average person. Within our lifetime, the vast majority of the dozens (or hundreds) of games we all thinks of as unyielding classics will discarded to the unremembered realm of obsolete media. We're taking a look through the lens of the not-too-distant future to see what might realistically be...

Johnny does an Ask Me Anything session with members of the CQ Discord. This is not a standard episode, it is not collector focused, it is just me telling personal stories that have very little to do with gaming and answering questions about why, how, and what I collect.

We dive into Gamecube and the world of $1,000 Mickey Mouse sports games, impossible to find Pokemon games, and one of Nintendo's most vibrant lineups.

We're talking about collecting some of the most important and influential games of all time (that are possible to own, sorry The Sumerian Game fans). We only have 14 games, so get ready to write in with outrage that we didn't include Final Fantasy VII or Bloons Tower Defense 6!

A primer to give the ground work on how to collect Funko Pops. Listen to the Dialogue Alley Podcast where we go into detail about Harry Potter Funko Pop collecting. https://www.dialoguealley.com/podcast

We're talking about games and merch you could only acquire via the antiquated, arcane, annoying process of sending away for it by mail, you know like the way your grandma used to order things from magazines.

We're looking back at how and what COOL GUYS collected 15-20 years ago when we both started collecting. Before anyone cared about Hagane, Left Bros, and the yet-to-be-found sticker sealed Mario, everyone simply knew that unlicensed NES porn games would forever be the most desirable collectible games forever. A lot has changed.

We're looking at how we did in 2022. Did we achieve goals? Did we fail with bad purchases? Did we FOMO? What happened in the market? If you don't care how we're personally doing as collectors this probably isn't the episode for you!

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas with a marathon length episode about perhaps the most popular, least collectible Nintendo console. Does it perhaps have more depth than you originally thought?? Or is it basically the small pile of games people care about and 1000 games no one does.

In a world where collecting for disc-based consoles is more popular than ever, we're going back to basics to discuss in our opinion the ten most collectible CIB SNES games, major variants, and some other cool games besides.

Check the notes below for a list of most things we discuss --> BOOKS: The JRPG Book ($50) HardcoreGaming101 Books (~$25) Game Engine Black Blook series ($35) The Making of Prince of Persia ($23) Video Game History in 64 Objects ($25) Sierra Collectors Quest I ($100) Family Bits Vol. 1 ($35-65) NES Oddities ($40) The History of Sunsoft Vol. 1 ($35) HOMEBREW: Various Game Boy (Check dmgpage.com, ~$5...

Oh baby that clickbait. We're talking about the tastes, preferences, and shifting demographics of the game collecting scene and perhaps how "retro game conventions" would be better titled "video game conventions". Also, unrelated, the sealed market is a dumpster fire right now.

What a horrible night to have a curse, Tyler is ill so Johnny goes it alone and talks about modern horror / spooky games you can collect that might be collectible in the future. Do You Like FMV and Limited Print Games or do both of those things scare you? Either way, that is what is discussed.