Looking for game collection advise.

[ninken]

So I've noticed that allot of people have huge large game collections.

However I don't want to bogged down my collection with games such as Sesame Street/Elmo/ Counting 123 ABC.
If you get my drift, I respect the archival process, but having everything is not my cup of tea.

So I'm keeping my collection to like Top 10,25,50 games depending on the platforms and avoid game duplications as much as possible. 
Most importantly I want games that a exclusive to that platform that are hits. 

However as I was researching games for Top games for that platform, I've still noticed allot of titles overlapping with other platforms, and newer editions.
So then my next step was to look which platforms has Pros and Cons since the game had to be altered slightly or sometimes more, or different exclusive goodies.

So now I'm at a cross road on what choices to make.
Examples could be MK1,2,3 , Ninja Turtles Arcade, Cool Spot.
Things like Arcade I'm keeping them, but for console edition I'm not sure.

Does anyone else makes these types of decisions with there game collection?
If so what have you done? Do you have a game list you recommend for each platform?

 

[ItchyRobot]

I just import the entire rom sets. Then I do some YouTube searches for "best of".  And start adding games to my favorites list for each platform. These favorites will show up at the top of the game list, basically acting like a filter so you dont have to scroll through everything (I use a text view, no clear logos - this will add a star/asterix in front of the games that are shown at te top of the game list).

The way I look at it is if I have enough storage space, I might as well add them. No telling when I will hear of a new game to try, then I can just do a search of my library and add it to the  Favorites list.

[Mr. RetroLust]

I downloaded entire sets and checked the games out one by one by either playing it for a little or deciding if it's my cup of tea from the video snap. Removing any game I didn't like, it's fun to do (in my opinion for that matter lol) and still have a lot of systems I need to add. Never much cared for lists by others or general taste, I like Bubsy go figure

[Pietro]

Man, I was talking about this with my friends last week. And I am personally saving all games of all plataforms that I can. Cause as the years go by, it's getting harder and harder to download some games. So I'm kinda making a backup for life hahhaha

[Lordmonkus]

6 minutes ago, Pietro said:

Cause as the years go by, it's getting harder and harder to download some games.

Really ? I find it easier than ever nowadays with the Internet Archive and a certain "roms" sub reddit, combine that with Pleasuredome and everything is easily accessible.

[Pietro]

Just now, Lordmonkus said:

Really ? I find it easier than ever nowadays with the Internet Archive and a certain "roms" sub reddit, combine that with Pleasuredome and everything is easily accessible.

Man, I'm struggling with some videogames to find the complete romset. Videogames from the 2 or 3 generation. Sometimes the only thing I can find is old and dead links. 

It's disappointing sometimes.

[DOS76]

can always look into the MAME software list set they have pretty much everything. Well some of the last few generations stuff hasn't been added yet.

[Lordmonkus]

Newer stuff is more difficult because it is still relevant content and no one wants to get in trouble for piracy. Second and Third generation is quite easy to find on the sites I listed other than PleasureDome, they don't want Nintendo coming down on them but Internet Archive has DMCA exempt status.

[Lordmonkus]

4 hours ago, ninken said:

Does anyone else makes these types of decisions with there game collection?
If so what have you done? Do you have a game list you recommend for each platform?

My daily use set is a small collection of hand picked games, I avoided "top lists" because they typically only have a small selection of the heavy hitters and miss a lot of the lesser known but still high quality games.

There was no easy process to this other than my own gaming experience and going through my games to find ones I liked and didn't like.

[ninken]

Thank you for your replies. 

I totally get Top list "who cares".
I'm adding them in with my personal favorites to add some variety for other people taste, or for some nice throw backs. 
Hence the Top list route I was trying to take. 

However trying to figure out which game was best at what platform is hard choice for me.
If someone has some list to suggest or sites to point me to for a slim but best single choice game for a certain platform.
That would be great.

This all started to look at what others have done, but everyone put every game in the collection.  I want to limit choices down.
I get that I can hide them, but I just rather off load them into storage and not have them in Launchbox/Big box. 
Also I learned the hard way on Mame roms, that you have to rebuild them with newer version of Mame because it's actually missing "Stuff".
So I'm focusing my questions on Console gaming of the past.
This also allows me to slim down the games to fit be faster on the Arcade I'm building.

I'm open for suggestions.
 

[Lordmonkus]

Here's a bunch of lists of games for the systems I hand picked games for. Obviously these are my personal choice lists so they won't appeal to everyone, in fact im sure there is a bunch of stuff missing that most people would have.

2600.txt 7800.txt N64.txt NES.txt PC Engine.txt Genesis.txt SMS.txt SNES.txt PS1.txt Sega CD.txt Saturn.txt PC Engine CD.txt Gamecube.txt GBA.txt

[fromlostdays]

It's a really difficult question to answer. Everything is subjective. You can look up "what are the best versions of Final Fantasy games" and you'll get a lot of info. But even the best "version" is subjective and you'll have to take games like Mortal Kombat on a case by case basis, google, see if someone has noted the exact differences in versions etc. And then, even in the No Intro sets there can be Revisions and you'd have to take that into account as well. It's kind of a monumental task and in the end you'll have only built a list of games that is subjectively the best to you anyway. I can tell you what I did though when I asked the same questions you're asking. I created two launchbox installs. In one, I import everything. The second, I hand pick  and I also went to the top 25 lists for systems I never really played. So depending on what kind of mood I'm in, I might want to play a specific game on my second install (which is MUCH smaller, and this allowed me to spend more time on the art etc so it looks just how I want it to). Or, I might want to open the big install and just browse around and occasionally find something I like enough to include on the second install. I'm pretty happy with the results. It's kind of a "less googling more playing" approach to these questions. 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by fromlostdays

[ninken]

Thank you Loardmonkus, your list and taste seems to be in good order.
Fromlostdays, that's what I've been doing too, it's just allot of research when you want to keep the game duplication down too.

Example like from LoardMonkus Collection.
Ecco the Dolphin is on Sega Genesis, and Sega CD, however one would claim that Sega CD was the better version due to the CD audio sound tracks. 
Those are the things I'm looking to have someone say that game is the better of them all. 
Also game consoles system had different color palettes, audio output, and scrolling functions too.

I'm wasting allot of time playing and researching which one to pick. Or should I just say pick one and move on?

 

[Darkstar]

That's a question I'm sure many of us have. I like to see this hobby as a living digital collection. Just like my real collection, when i see something i may like i pick it up. I also merge my physical collection with my digital collection within launchbox. I just describe in every new entries if this is an imported rom or a physical copy. Every so often i export an xml file of every system into excel. This way when i'm in the haunt for games in the real world i have an exact and up to date statement of wich game i have and in wich format.

For digital haunting i would highly recommend these YT channels:

Metal jesus rocks ( see hidden gems list)

My life in gaming (very detailed hardware specificities)

Modern vintage gamer (system reviews)

Game sack (many game list)

Classics gaming quaterly (system and game reviews)

Slopes game room (many game series descriptions and knowledge)