Rare Games and Their Collectors

simtastic writes "John Szczepaniak in his article, Obscurity Below the Radar, exposes the underground world of buying, selling, stealing and acquiring rare, one-of-a-kind, and non-public games and gaming hardware. From the article: 'Oftentimes, such groups run the risk of the law, yet still dedicate their lives to the acquisition and recording of things. In trying to uncover this secret realm, I was graciously granted access to some of the more high profile members, including the head of one such community. A renowned American gentleman who wishes to be known only as ASSEMbler, he tells us a little of himself and also the nature of such undocumented people ...'"

Comments

For all who care

[TheRealMindChild]

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Re:Thrill Kill

[chrisbtoo]

Though it's kind of hard to tell since the article is spread out over so many pages.
"Print" version - select "Text" from the bottom of the escapist page.

Re:Interesting article...

[badasscat]

yeah, a very fluff article. ok, you're all "cloak and dagger", hope that roleplaying works for you guys...

I'm not sure how much of it's role playing and how much of it's a bit of editorial license taken in the article.

I own some of the stuff listed in this article, and have had access to other items (I used to work in the game industry, first as a reviewer and then in the marketing department for a major publisher). So I technically am one of these guys, and I know plenty of others who collect this sort of stuff.

I know I sure don't dress up in trench coats and meet guys in back alleys with suitcases full of cash. I don't know anybody else who does either. Maybe it's because I'm still using my industry contacts and we're sort of a casual bunch; maybe guys who are on the "outside" really do make a real game of it. But I think most of the people who are even interested in something like a Dreamcast dev kit or an M2 prototype probably have some connection to the game industry; otherwise, why the interest to begin with?

There's really not any actual difference between the guys who go on Ebay and blow $200 for a copy of Radiant Silvergun and the guys who are out looking for PS2 TOOL systems. It's the same guys, despite what this article says. Collectors all have their various fetishes - nobody just collects a bunch of totally random stuff; everybody specializes. But whether you're into modern games, classic games, collecting all the Sonic memorabilia ever created, possessing all Nintendo hardware ever made, or whatever... you're eventually going to get to a point where the only stuff you've got left to look for are prototypes, unreleased games and systems, dev kits and debug units, hotel units, or other oddball stuff. A collector is a collector. These guys are not a special breed, though a few of them may think they are.

I'm inclined to think there's a little bit of both of what I mentioned before in this article - rampant editorializing and role playing by a few specific people. The section on Japan ("virtually impenetrable due to the language barrier and sense of security"), for example, is utterly hilarious on both counts. It makes it sound as if there's some sort of secret Yakuza faction hoarding all the rare video game stuff, when in reality all you need are a few Japanese friends. Heck, I'm sure I've bought stuff in used stores in Japan that the guy quoted here probably considers legendarily difficult to come by, simply because I knew where to look and he doesn't, and I happened to get lucky on that particular day.

But that's the thing... read between the lines here and nothing in this article is really all that dramatic. "Connections" is just another word for "friends", for example - but "connections" just sounds so much more clandestine. If I wanted to, I could probably insert myself into an article that sounds just like this, but there's absolutely nothing about my life as a collector that I'd think of as anything outside the normal way human beings interact with other human beings.