Igniting Our Human Senses From Games Collecting
As a human being, we have 5 basic senses:
- visual (to see)
- tactile (to feel)
- olfactory (to smell)
- auditory (to hear)
- gustatory (to taste)
From a collector's perspective, there are only 3 human senses we utilize when dealing with the games amongst our collection. Unless of course you are a weirdo and lick your games or hear voices coming out of the game box/carts! In which case, perhaps you should stop reading, and go seek medical attention soon.
It's interesting to take a few moments to ask "what kind of collector am I?" Because what human senses you enjoy the most would likely mould you into the collector that you are today. For example, if you enjoy putting games up in the shelf for a neat display, then you enjoy the visual sense. If you're a sealed collector, you enjoy looking at games covered in a plastic wrap. If you're a VGA collector, you enjoy looking at games covered in a bulky acrylic case. Conversely, a CIB collector likely enjoys the tactile sense of fingers on carts/manuals/box. Collectors who like using their smell sense perhaps go for brand new items to simulate that fresh aroma from the game's shop/factory origins!
So the question is: how many human senses do you use when you handle your games, and which sense do you favor more?
- visual (to see)
- tactile (to feel)
- olfactory (to smell)
- auditory (to hear)
- gustatory (to taste)
From a collector's perspective, there are only 3 human senses we utilize when dealing with the games amongst our collection. Unless of course you are a weirdo and lick your games or hear voices coming out of the game box/carts! In which case, perhaps you should stop reading, and go seek medical attention soon.
It's interesting to take a few moments to ask "what kind of collector am I?" Because what human senses you enjoy the most would likely mould you into the collector that you are today. For example, if you enjoy putting games up in the shelf for a neat display, then you enjoy the visual sense. If you're a sealed collector, you enjoy looking at games covered in a plastic wrap. If you're a VGA collector, you enjoy looking at games covered in a bulky acrylic case. Conversely, a CIB collector likely enjoys the tactile sense of fingers on carts/manuals/box. Collectors who like using their smell sense perhaps go for brand new items to simulate that fresh aroma from the game's shop/factory origins!
So the question is: how many human senses do you use when you handle your games, and which sense do you favor more?
Comments
Hell, I'd even go so crazy far as to say you can even taste them, without ever setting your mouth anywhere near the hardware itself. For instance, Joe & Mac on NES reminds me of strawberry marshmallow candies, as I had a bag of them while playing the game for the first time as a kid. Tacos remind me of Beauty and the Beast for Super NES!
Hell, I'd even go so crazy far as to say you can even taste them, without ever setting your mouth anywhere near the hardware itself. For instance, Joe & Mac on NES reminds me of strawberry marshmallow candies, as I had a bag of them while playing the game for the first time as a kid. Tacos remind me of Beauty and the Beast for Super NES!
That's a great point. Jalapeno chips reminds me of Oblivion because I ate a whole bag of them my first time playing it.. no regrets. And really smoky/salty beef jerky reminds me of Zelda II because when I first played it it was in the dead of winter and we just filled our freezer with sausages and stuff.
As for me, those experiences are the reason I collect, but I view collecting as secondary to gaming. It's really the experiences as a whole that matters. A few things come to mind:
Sight - seeing the SMB2 box art for the first time, the Pokemon R/B/Y box art, The SMB/DH title screen, LoZ gold cart, LttP intro... and so many more.
Sound - The Konami SNES splashscreen jingle, the ding when you turn on a Game Boy, and literally all video game music from the games I had as a kid. I think the music and sound effects are burned into my memory forever.
Smell - this one is weird, but I remember the Super Nintendo would smell kind of metallic after I played it for too long.
Touch - Just the crispness of a new game, ripping off the plastic wrap and flipping through a bulky full color manual.
Another 'sight' one that I think should be mentioned is riding home in the back of the car with a new game, looking at the screenshots on the back, or reading the book.. everything BUT playing the game - I know my imagination always ran wild thinking about how awesome this game was gonna be. Same thing when renting games or seeing walkthroughs in Nintendo Power for the first few levels of a game you didn't have. I don't know if it's still the same for kids nowadays (growing up with the internet) or if you just lose that childlike sense of enthrallment as a part of growing up.
Hell, I'd even go so crazy far as to say you can even taste them, without ever setting your mouth anywhere near the hardware itself. For instance, Joe & Mac on NES reminds me of strawberry marshmallow candies, as I had a bag of them while playing the game for the first time as a kid. Tacos remind me of Beauty and the Beast for Super NES!
That's a great point. Jalapeno chips reminds me of Oblivion because I ate a whole bag of them my first time playing it.. no regrets. And really smoky/salty beef jerky reminds me of Zelda II because when I first played it it was in the dead of winter and we just filled our freezer with sausages and stuff.
As for me, those experiences are the reason I collect, but I view collecting as secondary to gaming. It's really the experiences as a whole that matters. A few things come to mind:
Sight - seeing the SMB2 box art for the first time, the Pokemon R/B/Y box art, The SMB/DH title screen, LoZ gold cart, LttP intro... and so many more.
Sound - The Konami SNES splashscreen jingle, the ding when you turn on a Game Boy, and literally all video game music from the games I had as a kid. I think the music and sound effects are burned into my memory forever.
Smell - this one is weird, but I remember the Super Nintendo would smell kind of metallic after I played it for too long.
Touch - Just the crispness of a new game, ripping off the plastic wrap and flipping through a bulky full color manual.
Another 'sight' one that I think should be mentioned is riding home in the back of the car with a new game, looking at the screenshots on the back, or reading the book.. everything BUT playing the game - I know my imagination always ran wild thinking about how awesome this game was gonna be. Same thing when renting games or seeing walkthroughs in Nintendo Power for the first few levels of a game you didn't have. I don't know if it's still the same for kids nowadays (growing up with the internet) or if you just lose that childlike sense of enthrallment as a part of growing up.
One of my most memorable moments from when I just started getting into PC gaming was picking up the big box of Might and Magic 7, and I didn't even have a PC yet. I knew I was going to build one, so I wanted a game to play on it, and picked that up cuz it looked cool (the box art). It would be a week or so before I actually had the computer to play on, so I spent literally all that time planning out my party ahead of time. I made little charts based on the manual and listed out what skills I'd give each of my four characters, stuff like that. I poured over it all that time, on car rides, in class at school, all the damn time. It made for one palpable experience when I played the game and it lived up to all the hype I put myself up to for it!
Though I would argue from a collecting perspective, you can't really taste or hear your collection. That's more likely the power of nostalgia that creates a pseudo-sense of a past imagery.
I agree taste is a difficult one to use as a way to describe how all games made me feel but Rogue Squadron for N64 will always remind me of ranch flavored cornnuts and a 1L of Pepsi. Simpler times.
If you're a Switch collector, you can definitely taste your collection.
I haven't been following consoles after the Wii era, can you please explain the above statement?
If you're a Switch collector, you can definitely taste your collection.
I haven't been following consoles after the Wii era, can you please explain the above statement?
Switch games are coated in some ultra-bitter thing to prevent kids from eating them.
Thanks for bringing this up. It's neat think of how of how our senses are engaged. Even now, there are probably games that might associate with the smell of cleaner after being recovered from a grimy state.
This post edited because my phone was impatient haha.
If you're a Switch collector, you can definitely taste your collection.
I haven't been following consoles after the Wii era, can you please explain the above statement?
Switch games are coated in some ultra-bitter thing to prevent kids from eating them.
As the saying goes...Games are meant to be played, not to be neglected on shelves or be permanently prisoned in plastic wraps.
Or was the saying..games are meant to be eaten and not to be tasted..?
The world is getting too confusing lately!
I wonder if anyone shook a cart to see if any piece of plastic was loose inside
Yes, I do this regularly to check any loose stuff inside a cart. I also shake slightly the game case/box to check for loose items within an unopened case/box. So in this regard, I guess I do use hearing as a sense. In respect to hearing as a gamer then yes, it's a vital part of gameplay. I remember back in the early 90s, I originally had a Megadrive. So impressed was I with the music in Sonic, Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi, I actually recorded some of the music onto a cassette! (Pre-digital recording era).
Well we probably have more than 5 senses (http://www.jhupressblog.com/2012/...). I'd say one that gets overlooked that video games demand and which I think plays heavily into controller design is Proprioception (body awareness). Once you get used to a particular controller or scheme of what buttons do what it can be hard to adjust to another.
One can argue that as a gamer, playing videogames help with our proprioception (at least in the hands). And on the topic of extra senses, as a gamer I often find myself losing the sense of time.
Here's a made up formula:
[how addictive the game is] is inversely proportional to [how much time sense you will lose]
Well we probably have more than 5 senses (http://www.jhupressblog.com/2012/02/01/how-many-senses-do-we... ). I'd say one that gets overlooked that video games demand and which I think plays heavily into controller design is Proprioception (body awareness). Once you get used to a particular controller or scheme of what buttons do what it can be hard to adjust to another.
One can argue that as a gamer, playing videogames help with our proprioception (at least in the hands). And on the topic of extra senses, as a gamer I often find myself losing the sense of time.
Here's a made up formula:
[how addictive the game is] is inversely proportional to [how much time sense you will lose]
So true!
Golden Axe 3...