Taiwan PAL gamer signing in!
Hey guys!
I've been lurking on here for a few months, and really enjoyed reading so many fascinating posts and conversations. I originally heard about NA from Pat and Ian's podcast... I thought i'd do some investigating for myself after some of the things they were saying and came away very plesantly surprised! (Enough about them though, this post is supposed to be about me, right?!)
So about me, well I hail from the UK (Little England), hence PAL gamer, but I have settled in Taiwan with my wife and two kids. I'm 30 now and I've been gaming since the age of 3 (First game played: Super Mario Bros.) and I guess I've been collecting since age 4 as I still own all my original gear (First games owned: Super Mario Bros. 2 & Isolated Warrior (a gem never hidden from me!)). Fortunately never lost/sold a huge amount of stuff growing up, other than boxes (naturally!) and manuals (mostly cut up for the pictures!), perhaps a few games here and there but nothing major.
I took a break from collecting from around 2004 to 2013 (the usual: college, marriage, job, kids), but I got back into it a couple of years ago starting with the DS (I only really had time for handheld gaming) and in the past year I have been settled enough to get back into console gaming. In the past year I spent a couple hundred quid shipping my entire PAL library from UK to Taiwan, and I'm just getting a bit of traction back with collecting. After a recent trip to Japan I now posess just over 500 (physical) games total, but I am not looking to dramatically expand from this point on, just take my time and enjoy what I already own and anything else I find!
I am definitely a true gamer/collector hybrid. I buy games first and foremost to play them, but really appreciate the catalogue I have built over the years, and, as with most of us, probably buy games 3 or 4 times faster than I finish them! Only rarely do I buy games I have no real intention to play, and I also don't buy paper/cardboard (although I am fascinated by and love to witness some of the beautiful CIB and sealed stuff I witness on NA!). I have also long been keenly interested in the history, technology, development and business sides of the industry, and so obviously the font of knowledge that is NA deeply appeals! My system and game interests right now are primarily N64 (favourite system!), NES/famicom, and DS/3DS.
Anyway, that's enough to be getting on with I think! I hope to be able to contribute something of interest to this forum, I am planning on writing up a few of my experiences playing into my backlog of N64 games for the gamer's forum. Perhaps I may also add some other of my experiences collecting and playing from the perspective of a longtime PAL gamer in the UK and now living in a very different gaming environment here in Taiwan!
Cheers folks, I look forward to sharing this site with you all!
I've been lurking on here for a few months, and really enjoyed reading so many fascinating posts and conversations. I originally heard about NA from Pat and Ian's podcast... I thought i'd do some investigating for myself after some of the things they were saying and came away very plesantly surprised! (Enough about them though, this post is supposed to be about me, right?!)
So about me, well I hail from the UK (Little England), hence PAL gamer, but I have settled in Taiwan with my wife and two kids. I'm 30 now and I've been gaming since the age of 3 (First game played: Super Mario Bros.) and I guess I've been collecting since age 4 as I still own all my original gear (First games owned: Super Mario Bros. 2 & Isolated Warrior (a gem never hidden from me!)). Fortunately never lost/sold a huge amount of stuff growing up, other than boxes (naturally!) and manuals (mostly cut up for the pictures!), perhaps a few games here and there but nothing major.
I took a break from collecting from around 2004 to 2013 (the usual: college, marriage, job, kids), but I got back into it a couple of years ago starting with the DS (I only really had time for handheld gaming) and in the past year I have been settled enough to get back into console gaming. In the past year I spent a couple hundred quid shipping my entire PAL library from UK to Taiwan, and I'm just getting a bit of traction back with collecting. After a recent trip to Japan I now posess just over 500 (physical) games total, but I am not looking to dramatically expand from this point on, just take my time and enjoy what I already own and anything else I find!
I am definitely a true gamer/collector hybrid. I buy games first and foremost to play them, but really appreciate the catalogue I have built over the years, and, as with most of us, probably buy games 3 or 4 times faster than I finish them! Only rarely do I buy games I have no real intention to play, and I also don't buy paper/cardboard (although I am fascinated by and love to witness some of the beautiful CIB and sealed stuff I witness on NA!). I have also long been keenly interested in the history, technology, development and business sides of the industry, and so obviously the font of knowledge that is NA deeply appeals! My system and game interests right now are primarily N64 (favourite system!), NES/famicom, and DS/3DS.
Anyway, that's enough to be getting on with I think! I hope to be able to contribute something of interest to this forum, I am planning on writing up a few of my experiences playing into my backlog of N64 games for the gamer's forum. Perhaps I may also add some other of my experiences collecting and playing from the perspective of a longtime PAL gamer in the UK and now living in a very different gaming environment here in Taiwan!
Cheers folks, I look forward to sharing this site with you all!
Comments
When I started I wasn't into the cardboard and paper, but that's changed now. You'll come around welcome to NA!
Ha ha ha, we'll see! There is in fact one system that I do collect CIB, wierdly, and that is 32X!
I never had one growing up, as they are very rare in UK, and then one day I just happened across 5 sealed Japanese 32X games in a run down game store here in Taiwan. I decided there and then to pick them up as this weird add-on had always intrigued me, and six months later I've come back from Japan with a boxed 32X and accumulated total library of 10 CIB Japanese 32X games!
Lol, of all the systems to collect CIB, huh?! Must say that the graphical improvement of most of these games over standard megadrive is barely noticeable, but we're all allowed a couple of indulgences in our collecting, aren't we!