doczoidberg: I'm gonna be a retro game collector, with a basement like the Angry Video Game Nerd's.

Upsides:
-Some games can be cheap. Even a lot of good games are dirt-cheap because like a zillion copies were produced.
-Multiple avenues to purchase games.
-A pretty good buying / trading / selling community is out there.
-Quite a few games have actual difficulty, rather than just "repeatedly mash the quicksave button every five steps."

Downsides:
-Remember all those jerks who kind of ruined comics in the 90's? They're back, and they've heard that "vidya games" is the new way to make money. They prowl every flea market and garage sale, looking for old games to throw on eBay.
-A lot of sweaty man-children run stores and sell stuff at ridiculous markups. They'll claim that "Super Mario / Duck Hunt"  cart is worth $100 because it's rare. And by "rare," he actually means "out of print."
-Some older games go for small fortunes because they actually  are rare, which sucks if you want to revisit some childhood classics.
-Your collection will soon take up more of the house than you know what to do with.

doczoidberg: ...And what does RASPEK mean?

It's a bastardized version of "respect."

Antimatter: alwaysjaded: lordargent: Glitchwerks : It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Sony and Microsoft bring out their new consoles and if all the rumors of being unable to play second hand games is true or not.

If that happens, I will perform the rite of ascension where I will rejoin the master PC race that I was descended from.

If that does turn out to be true, the Steam console will be a first day purchase for me. I've been a console gamer my entire life (but have played a few PC games) but the upcoming changes I'm hearing about might finally send me over the edge.

As other pointed out, you would be in the same situation, ie, no used games on the PC. Hasn't been a market for those in what, a decade or so? Every since cd-keys became the norm I think. Older steam games are cheap though. then again, so are many older console games.

Back to farming dungeon defenders on steam. Damn, them lv 80-100 xp requirements are rough.

Eh, it's not just that. I just don't like the direction console gaming seems to be taking lately. I'll most likely wait to hear what Sony and Microsoft will announce concerning their new systems.

doczoidberg: I'm looking forward to not trying to stay on top of new games as they come out.

I'm married. And an undergrad. At the same time. I gave up on that a while ago.

I don't think I got any brand-new games last year. Everything was either an older game, used, or something I got from a Steam sale. I think the only games I got "new" were "Retro City Rampage" and "Hotline Miami."

The year before that, the high point was getting "Skyward Sword" as a Christmas present.

Theory Of Null: super mario 3 is best mario.

As it concerns the 2D games, that easily goes to Super Mario World.  We have guides for just about everything, so everyone forgets how farking cool it was to roll through a couple of exits and find all these absolutely bonkers levels in the Star World.  Not to mention that the levels in Mario World were generally larger and more complex.

RoxtarRyan: In fact, right from the FAQ:

You are entitled to use the Software for your own personal use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Software to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Software to others without the prior written consent of Valve, except to the extent expressly permitted elsewhere in this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use

Well, heck. There goes my plan to give some of my chaff to people. Sometimes I look at a game on my Steam library and think, "I'm never going to play this again. I will give it to a friend who might actually enjoy it."

So far the only reason to by a Wii U...Wish they would release them to XBox.

Zafler: As much as I love Mario 3, I'm going to have to agree with Mike here. Which makes me question everything about myself.

I'll just add by saying that Mario World's greatest asset is one of the reasons that the New Super Mario Bros. games (and Super Mario 3D Land) drive me absolutely nuts.  The secret exits are not only inconsequential, but the reward for finding an exit is almost always displayed on the screen before you even started the level.  What kind of fun is that?  Super Mario World's hidden exits and hidden levels were just the natural extension of Warp Zones and hidden coin rooms.  I dunno.  I guess at some point, Nintendo decided that today's five-year-olds were too dumb to explore their game worlds and stripped out one of their strongest qualities.

Zafler: Haven't played the newer ones, so have no clue there. I did find it frustrating that many RPG's now basically require you to buy the walkthrough to not miss stuff. The most infamous example that comes to mind being FF 12(?) where, if you opened a chest on your way through, you denied yourself access to the best weapon for one of your characters later on. Crap like that is idiotic.

But, so long as there aren't any explicit directions on where to go to find the secrets, I probably wouldn't have too much trouble with them having a way to indicate multiple ways of beating a level. Super Mario World did with the different colors for the level gems on the world map, and ghost houses were guaranteed to have 2 ways to be beaten.

Yeah, when companies do that, it's because they know their audiences are completionists to the bitter end and have them by the balls.  And when companies do that, they should be called out for it, because it's terrible game design.  (I know everyone has a hard-on for Cave Story, but the things you have to do in order to get the items that allow you to complete the level that allows you to get the good ending defy utter logic.)  Just as you mentioned, Super Mario World did it perfectly.  It told you (or rather, implied) what the criteria was and told you to have at it.  And also more important: When your save file came up, they never told you how many levels were 100% completion.  (I believe "93" was the maximum number you could have for your save file.)  In the new Mario games, once you begin finishing checklists for Star Coins and various secrets, they attach stars next to your profile, which is to say, "You've explored everything there is to explore.  There is absolutely no reason to ever play this game again."  The feeling that you could have missed something is one of the most powerful tools in building a game world that is fun to explore.  (The Donkey Kong Country games also subverted this by making the max completion percentage higher than 100%, a gigantic "eff you" to anyone who became complacent.)  So yeah.  Super Mario Bros. 3 is a pretty solid game by any stretch, but jumping through a stained glass window or finding a secret exit is always the coolest thing the series has had to offer.

Zafler: Star 96 actually would be displayed at 100%.

Holy shiat.  You're right.  I didn't realize that.  To hell with my life.  So much for my assertion.  wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Mike_LowELL: Zafler: Haven't played the newer ones, so have no clue there. I did find it frustrating that many RPG's now basically require you to buy the walkthrough to not miss stuff. The most infamous example that comes to mind being FF 12(?) where, if you opened a chest on your way through, you denied yourself access to the best weapon for one of your characters later on. Crap like that is idiotic.

But, so long as there aren't any explicit directions on where to go to find the secrets, I probably wouldn't have too much trouble with them having a way to indicate multiple ways of beating a level. Super Mario World did with the different colors for the level gems on the world map, and ghost houses were guaranteed to have 2 ways to be beaten.

Yeah, when companies do that, it's because they know their audiences are completionists to the bitter end and have them by the balls.  And when companies do that, they should be called out for it, because it's terrible game design.  (I know everyone has a hard-on for Cave Story, but the things you have to do in order to get the items that allow you to complete the level that allows you to get the good ending defy utter logic.)  Just as you mentioned, Super Mario World did it perfectly.  It told you (or rather, implied) what the criteria was and told you to have at it.  And also more important: When your save file came up, they never told you how many levels were 100% completion.  (I believe "93" was the maximum number you could have for your save file.)  In the new Mario games, once you begin finishing checklists for Star Coins and various secrets, they attach stars next to your profile, which is to say, "You've explored everything there is to explore.  There is absolutely no reason to ever play this game again."  The feeling that you could have missed something is one of the most powerful tools in building a game world that is fun to explore.  (The Donkey Kong Country games also subverted this by making the max completion percentage higher than 100%, a gigantic "eff you" to anyone who became complacent.)  So yeah.  Super Mario Bros. 3 is a pretty solid game by any stretch, but jumping through a stained glass window or finding a secret exit is always the coolest thing the series has had to offer.

SotN (and the like-minded Castlevania games that followed) has a great way around this too, what with the hidden half of thw game and completely arbitrary 210.4% completion amount.