It’s official: Brett Martin has a metric buttload of video game memorabilia. By Mr. Martin’s own estimation, his collection clocks in at about ten to fifteen thousand individual pieces. But not all of those trinkets of molded plastic, cast metal, and fluffed polyester are depictions of Nintendo’s famous Italian plumber. His gaming nicknack collection actually spans a diverse range of characters from different franchises, companies, and eras.

Martin is married to a loving wife that is tolerant of his collection. But in the process of settling down and moving on to a new phase of his life, he recently realized that some things have to go. So Brett set up a new website to help him thin out his massive collection, while also sharing it with the world. The site, called the “Video Game Memorabilia Museum,” is a virtual museum of Martin’s pieces, which he is always updating with new photos and entries when he gets the chance.

The main gallery area of the VGMM site is divided into sections dedicated to specific video game franchises like Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby, Mega Man, and Crash Bandicoot. Each main franchise section has sub-categories based on characters from within the franchise. Within those are further sub-categories based on the type of item (keychains, plushies, figures, and pins usually among them). Further probing reveals individual items from his collection, complete with pictures. He also has a section with a number of items for sale, as well as a community forum. It’s a lot of fun looking through all the stuff he has up there — I definitely recommend taking a stroll through the museum at least once yourself.

Brett recently sent me a new batch of photos his collection, which are splashed throughout this article, and agreed to an email interview, which is reproduced below.

[ Continue reading The Land of 10,000 Plastic Marios » ]

Who knew that you could have interviews about interviews? Well, when you are personally responsible for publishing the world’s least-interesting interview, you can! Oh the perks. For those of you who don’t know, the subject of that first interview (and the owner of the “Possible World’s Largest Video Game Collection“) was a bit vague about the details of, well…just about every question I asked. The decision of whether to actually publish the first interview was a hard one. I wanted to let people know more about the man behind the monster collection, but as it turned out, the collector’s answers were so unspecific that they essentially poured gas on the flames of Internet speculation. In other words, my initial mission was a total failure. Without the new pictures provided by the collector himself, and the other pictures I had to share, I would have shelved the whole thing.

But I didn’t shelve it; I published it and lots of people started getting interested in the collection — many more so than originally expected. Those same people, in the absence of any concrete information, soon began assuming all sorts of unflattering things about the nature of the man behind the collection (That’s the net for ya. Whoo!). Having no one but myself to blame for so much intense public scrutiny of this man’s personal life (trust me, he did not seek it himself), I thought I’d try to set the record…a little more straight…by interviewing his more outgoing friend and game shopping companion, who also happens to be the man who took most of the original pictures of the collection and persuaded the collector to put the pics online in the first place. And so I did, via email (The Official World’s Worst Interview Medium). In grand Internet naming tradition, he shall be referred to as “Nesvidiot.”

Yes, he likes Nintendo.

Vintage Computing and Gaming: How long have you known your friend? How did you meet?
Nesvidiot: We met at the flea market in about ’95.

VC&G: How old are you? How old is he?
NV: We are both mid-30s.

VC&G: Where is he from and what does he do for a living?
NV: Western Canada. He sells games at the flea market on weekends and eBays during the week.

VC&G: Some Internet commentors have suggested that he of has some sort of psychological condition, i.e. obsessive-compulsive disorder, problems with hoarding, etc. because of his incredibly large collection. How would you answer those people?
NV: People do whatever they want to do — it doesn’t matter if it is collecting video games, or hockey cards, or bottle caps. What ever makes you happy is all that matters. People that think he has a problem are usually envious and trying to hide their own problems by focusing on others. Hey, if it makes you happy…

VC&G: Other commentors like to make fun of the small monitor on a table near the SNES exercise bike in one of the pictures as if he played all his games there. Can you tell us what that monitor is for, and does he use it for gaming? Further, could you describe his real gaming setup (if he has one)? Is it upstairs?
NV:He plays games with the family upstairs on the 60″ TV. Downstairs is where he keeps everything and tests games on the little monitor.

VC&G: Why do you think he answered my original questions without much detail?
NV: He doesn’t like to boast, he is a really quiet, humble person.

VC&G: Do you have any idea how many games he has? Does he have a system for keeping track of them all?
NV: He has over 10,000 for sure. Yes he keeps lists, although it is hard to keep up with everything sometimes.

VC&G: Can you tell us about some of the highlights of his collection? Any cool and rare stuff worth mentioning?
NV: The SNES Life cycle with Mountainbike Rally/Speed Racer. The Panesian carts boxed, his new crystal DS’s, there is just too much cool stuff to mention.

VC&G: How much do you think he spends on video game collecting every month?
NV: Not a clue, probably every spare cent he has after bills.

VC&G: Where does he get most of his games?
NV: We go shopping every couple of weeks together — pawns, thrifts, game stores (EB, Microplay etc.).

VC&G: Does he have a wife or girlfriend? What does she think about his collection?
NV: Yes he has a wife of 17 years, and 2 children. This is what he does, obviously if she didn’t approve she wouldn’t have stayed with him this long. There are a happy family.

VC&G: Likewise with relatives. What do they think of his collection?
NV: He comes from a background of collecting and selling. They all understand and support him.

VC&G: How do you think his son feels about his father collecting so many video games?
NV: His son LOVES all the games and will inherit it one day I’m sure.

—

In addition to the interview, Nesvidiot added this comment at the bottom of the original interview page:

How many of you, if you had a collection of this size would advertise an open house viewing? Think about it, how many of you would even say anything about it, for fear of becoming a target.
No he is not French-
He has a 60″ bigscreen upstairs
the pics you see are of his collection- not his stockroom
he does collect a lot of import, including over 1300 Super Fam, a ton of Brazilian games, Pal variations, name it he’s had it at one time or another.
Most of you big collectors out there have bought games from him at one time or another- whether it be on the old newsgroups 10 years ago or on E-bay since it started.
This is what he does. I collect, videogames were even a business for me at one time, now only a hobby. But this is what he does- all he does. And it seems to work out pretty good for him.
He operates a booth at a flea market on Saturdays and Sundays, during the week he game hunts and ebays games.
Don’t be envious- it is hard work to accomplish what he has. Be happy that he is willing to share it with the world. There are other huge collections out there that will never see the press that this one has. It took me a long time to get him to post pics- a lot of the pics were taken by me. I still am in awe everytime I visit him- and he is one of my best friends.

That’s all for now. If I here from the collector himself again, I’ll update you on it. I’d like to thank Nesvidiot once again for the interview and shedding some light on his somewhat elusive friend!

I first ran across this man’s amazing collection a little over two weeks ago when looking at pictures of cool “game rooms” on Videogame collectors.com. What struck me as most unique about this collection was the sheer volume of games and the fact that they almost entirely covered all the walls and the floor of an entire room. After posting a note about the collection on my blog, word of this massive collection quickly spread around the Internet, unfortunately toppling the Videogamecollectors.com site under the heavy weight of intense visitor traffic shortly thereafter…from which it has still not yet recovered (oops!).

Fascinated by the collection, I managed to track down its owner (who wishes to be known publicly only as “videogamecollector”) and conduct an email interview with him. Well, I attempted to, anyway. He’s a bit reclusive (answering only 10 of 17 questions asked), and not exactly a master at typing the English language (I’ve had to clean up his answers quite a bit), but he was kind enough to provide a nice little window, however small, into his unique world. He also sent me some new pictures of his collection, which are displayed throughout the interview below. And for sheer completeness, I’m also providing some of the original collection pictures (from Videogamecollectors.com) at the end of the interview. (Note: Be a pal and please link to this article, not directly to the images. Thanks!) And now, on with the show.

Update (03/30/2006): I just posted an interview with one of the collector’s best friends, which reads more like this original interview should have. He sheds a lot more light on the mystery collector. Check it out here.

Vintage Computing and Gaming: Thanks for agreeing to the interview. A lot of people have seen your impressive video game collection as linked from my blog recently and are eager to know more about it. First off, what do you do for a living?
Videogamecollector: Collect video games, for now.

VC&G: About how many games do you have in your collection? Have you ever counted all of them precisely?
VGC: I’m not sure if I really want to know.

VC&G: What has driven you to collect so many games?
VGC: It seems to be the rush of finding something I don’t have. Or you can call it my addiction.

VC&G: How many game systems (physical console units) do you have, including duplicates?
VCG: Again, I’m not sure — gotta get rid of those duplicates.

VC&G: What parts of your collection are you most proud of? [i.e. complete SNES game library, all RPG games for Saturn, etc] Also, what are some of the rarest items in your collection?
VGC: Gotta think this one over for a few weeks.

VC&G: What are your collecting goals? For example, are you simply trying to collect every game ever made, or do you focus on label variations, all games for a particular system, game genres (RPGs, fighting games), etc.?
VGC: My goal is to get the games on my want list and sell all my variations and doubles.

VC&G: Do you have a database or a list of all your games so you can keep track of them better? Or perhaps a system for storing them so you know where everything is?
VGC: I had a list of everything, and I’m now redoing my lists.

VC&G: Your collection seems to take up a lot of space. Where is the collection located? Is it in your basement? Have you ever had to physically move your entire collection?
VGC: Yes, everthing is in the basement. I’ve never had to move everything yet.

VC&G: How long did it take you to amass your video game collection?
VGC: 16+ years.

VC&G: Do you know of anyone on Earth with a larger video game collection?
VGC: There are a few collectors online that have more, I think. Not sure though.

VC&G: Is the young boy in your collection pictures your son? If so, what does he think of your collection and video games in general? Do you ever let him play any of your games?
VGC: Yes, my son plays games. He has a few hundred games in his room that he plays.

VC&G: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me.
VGC: Thanks.

Do you have or know of a video game collection bigger than this one? If so, drop me an email!

And now, as promised, here are the original images [Note: Be a pal and please link to this article, not directly to the images. Thanks!]:

Late last year I found this classic (for me, anyway) picture lurking in my files and scanned it. It’s a Polaroid photograph of one corner of my then “computer room” taken by myself somewhere around late 1994 or early 1995 (yes, my family was lucky enough to have the space for another room dedicated mainly to my BBS computer, but filled with my other junk as well). I was 13 or 14 at the time. As you can see on the picture, I’ve labeled certain items in the room with numbers. Each number is associated with an item that I talk about below. With that out of the way, click on the image to open up the bigger version and let’s start the tour!

1. DEC VT-125 Terminal – A true classic in the terminal world, pulled from a dumpster. The neighbor of my father’s company serviced minicomputers and was always throwing neat stuff out. I got about 3-4 of these, took a few apart, eventually throwing them away for space concerns. But I think I still have one or two left.

2. Micromint Z8 Board – Part of the Micromint Z8 Basic Computer/Controller set. Inherited from my father’s old workplace. The Micromint Z8 system was a BASIC language-programmable microcontroller, essentially for early “embedded computer” applications. I have a bunch of cool expansion boards too, including one that lets you save/load your program to cassette tape, and another that lets you burn EPROMs of your BASIC programs! Cool stuff — I should play with it again.

3. NES Games – Back in 1994, my NES game collection could actually fit in one cubic foot of space. Crazy. A NES Game Genie code book can be seen here, awkwardly sticking out of the top of the plastic basket. Eventually my collection would spill out of the pictured basket and beyond…

4. Commodore CBM 2001-32 – This was had at a hamfest for $10, including the separate companion disk unit. It’s tucked away in the far back corner of the room, so I guess I didn’t use it very much.

5. Zoom 2400 BPS Modem – My first modem, given to my family by a friend. The top cover is off because I was playing around with hooking the speaker audio output to headphones — both for kicks, and for late-night modem sessions without waking the parents (I did this before I figured out the Hayes AT command to turn off the internal speaker) . This very modem is responsible for introducing me to the world of BBSes sometime in 1991. Of course, this being 1994-95, my main workhorse at the time is an Intel external 14400 modem across the room (not pictured).

6. Apple II+ – My dad bought this for me around 1990-91 (from a hamfest, big surprise) so I could learn BASIC on it. And I did, having loads of fun with it over the years. At the time of this picture I had the luxury of a color composite video monitor (#11). Up until then, I was stuck with a monochrome green-screen. But somehow it almost didn’t feel like an Apple II any more once it was in color.

7. Odyssey2 Games – Yes, this black blob is actually fifteen Odyssey2 games in interlockable cartridge racks, purchased for $10 along with an Odyssey2 console at a hamfest in the early 90s.

8. Nintendo Entertainment System – Back then, I took everything I owned apart, and the former “family NES” was not spared this treatment. Thinking myself clever, I switched the one and two player ports around, along with the “power” and “reset” buttons. How delightfully obnoxious. This unit, 11 years later, went on to become the NES DVD Player hack I did recently.

9. EPROM Eraser – It’s the gray rectangular box on top of the Apple II+ (#6). Never really used it very much. It was inherited along with the Micromint Z8 controller board stuff (#2) and was used to erase EPROMs programmed by the unit. It works by shining UV light through a tiny quartz window on the EPROM.

10. Apple II Disks – Stacked here are two boxes of Apple II disks. The lower one is mine, the upper one was given to me by a friend (with all his Apple II disks in it!). In fact, it was the same friend who gave my family the 2400 BPS modem (#5). It’s nice to have good friends.

11. Composite Video Monitor – What a grand day it was when I acquired my first color composite video monitor at a local hamfest! In this picture, the monitor is performing triple duty between the Apple II+ (#6), NES (#8), and Atari Jaguar (#14). I simply switched the AV connectors at the back depending on which one I wanted to use.

12. Atari Lynx – I bought this under-utilized portable wonder in used condition from a guy who regularly called my BBS (“Raven,” if you must know) in 1993 or 94. The transaction was done entirely by mail and we never met in person (imagine that!).

13. Mystery Sticker – I’m not sure what this is. It looks like a random peel-off trading card-sized sticker just stuck on the wall at an odd angle. Weird. This picture have been taken after my dad made me take down the 100-odd posters and other crap I had tacked and taped all over the walls, believing they were a fire hazard.

14. Atari Jaguar – I was a total Atari nut in the very early 90’s, believing strongly that Atari was the greatest company ever. “What’s this Nintendo business?” I said. “Atari was first!” I heard rumors of their Panther, then Jaguar, consoles and waited anxiously for their release. My birthday in 1994 was one of the happiest days of my life: I received an Atari Jaguar System and Super Metroid for the SNES. Here, Doom can be seen in the cartridge slot, a version of the seminal 3D FPS rivaled on consoles only by the PlayStation version.

15. Apple III – The prize of my collection at the time. When I first heard about the Apple III years before, it was like some magical, mythical beast. Would I ever catch sight of one, much less possess it? Naturally, I was extremely excited when my father and I came across this one later at a hamfest (again, big surprise). $10-20 later, I had my first Apple III, complete with dust cover (pictured on the unit). I only had the Apple II emulation disk for it, though, and to this day have never run any native Apple III software. Shortly after my Apple III was obtained (turned out they were not as rare as I thought), the Apple Lisa quickly became the next mythical beast to be had — a beast I’m still chasing in the wild to this day.

16. Plug ‘N’ Play Mosaic Book – This book is how I got my first copy of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser (it came on a floppy disk in the back). Shortly after, I began to develop my first home page, and boy did it suck. It’s funny reading lists of “cool” web sites from back then because, well…there were only about ten web sites back then. Ergo, all of them were cool (and listed in this book).

17. Handheld Video Games Magazine – I just found this particular issue (Spring 1991) again recently while working on my “Game Ads A-Go-Go” column for GameSetWatch. Good issue. I apparently didn’t value it very much at the time because it’s sitting on the floor right next to the spot where our cats would leave all the dead birds they’d caught that week. Yum.

Well that’s the tour, hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for accompanying me on a nice walk down memory lane.

Welcome back to RedWolf’s New Adventures in Famicom Land. Our latest trip takes us to an exciting island called “Akumajou Densetsu,” which promises to shower us with interesting music unlike any we’ve ever heard before on the Famicom or NES. That’s because Akumajou Densetsu, or the Japanese version of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, uses the VRC6 chip, which provides for three extra sound channels (in addition to the Famicom’s original five). And Akumajou Densetsu utilizes those three extra channels brilliantly. Unfortunately, due to some hardware setup in the NES that I don’t understand, the US games could not utilize these extra sound channels. As a result, the music for Castlevania III had to be rewritten and simplified for the US release.

I had heard tales of how cool the music is, but I always wanted to hear for myself. So I bought a copy of Akumajou Densetsu recently and plugged it into my new AV Famicom. I was confronted with a flurry of new low bass notes and more complicated percussion. Sure, the music is nowhere near up to SNES snuff, but it’s an incredible experience nonetheless — Castlevania III’s music is some of the best on the NES. The rest of the game is the same as far as I can tell (except that, for some reason, the jumping “Igors” in the US version were changed from jumping demonic frog-like things in the Famicom one), so if you’re serious about Castlevania III, then it’s worth it to pick up this cart and a real Famicom to experience the music as originally intended. FCEU seems to emulate the music pretty well, but I highly recommend getting the real thing.

Jake, if you don’t have a copy of this, you should definitely get it. 🙂

How do you know if you have a video game collecting problem? How about this: when you can’t even walk on your own floor because every square inch is covered with games. Talk about painting yourself in a corner…with video games. And my fiance thought I had a problem. The next time your wife complains about your collection, show her these pictures.

All kidding aside, this is looks like an important library of video games. I wonder: if this room were discovered like some long-lost vault or tomb in the year 120,402 A.D. by our descendants after World War 15, what would they think of us?

Update: Read an interview with the owner of this collection and see more photos here.

After playing my new AV Famicom and the 18 games that came with it for a few days, I have a few things to report. The first of which is that yes, I still love it. But if that were all I had to say, then this would be a boring article. Luckily, the other things are more interesting. For example, I am quickly falling for the Nintendo “dogbone” controller. It’s strange really; I’ve had one for years but never really gave it a good chance. I was biased immediately by the slanted A-B button arrangement, which I definitely do not like for playing Super Mario Bros. games (because I constantly hold down B with the tip of my thumb and use the ball of it to hit A and jump — the upward-slanted button line makes this play style awkward). But for every other game, it’s really comfortable. I now highly recommend getting one and giving it a chance if you haven’t already. My old US dogbone needs a good scrubbing and some new conductive rubber pads (I might have some left from an old controller repair kit somewhere) before it will be completely up to par. But once it is, I think it just might become my new favorite NES controller. I noticed something funny when comparing the Japanese dogbone and the US dogbone side to side. The Japanese dogbones have three foot controller cords, which is a pathetically short length by US standards. But it’s no big surprise; after all (or so I hear repeatedly) Japanese people all live in tiny apartments the size of my kitchen, so they’re never more than three feet away from their TV — even when taking a shower. Anything longer than three feet and the annual choking and tripping deaths in Japan would skyrocket. But hey, that’s Japan. In the US, we’re proud of tripping over our cords; it’s a matter of national pride. So how’s this for comparison: the cord on the US dogbone controller is eight feet long. No, not your standard six feet. Eight. Because of the three foot Japanese cord length, I think Nintendo of America decided to tack on another couple feet just out of spite. Either that, or Nintendo has a death wish for Americans.

So what else is new? A few things. First of all, you must drop everything and play Tetris 2 + Bombliss. This cart contains my new official favorite version of Tetris, and it comes with a bonus Tetris-like game called Bombliss. This particular version of Tetris was never released in the US, so not many American gamers probably know of it (and no, it’s not Tengen’s Tetris). And for some reason, despite the number “2” in the title, it seems to be the same ‘ole Tetris that we know and love. This version was developed by Bulletproof Software, has great graphics, smooth gameplay and controls, and relatively relaxing music (instead of relentless, frantic Russian marches that typically make me want to jump off a bridge when under level-11 duress). Bombliss, also included, is a game played with Tetris-like pieces, except that some of the pieces contain — surprise — bombs. Every time you complete a horizontal line, all the bombs in the line explode. Your goal is to blow up everything on the play field (normal blocks included) by tactical bomb placement. Bombliss also has a puzzle mode, which is really addicting and worth playing. The game even lets you put in your initials and saves all your high scores to SRAM. All in all, I think Tetris 2 + Bombliss is a must-have for your Famicom collection. How do you get it? Well either track down an original copy of the cart (worth having), or perhaps find it through other means.

The last thing I have to report is a follow up on the couple Deadly Towers articles we had on here. It turns out that one of the 18 used games that came with my AV Famicom was none other than the Japanese version of Deadly Towers, known as Mashou (“Evil Bells”) over there. The only thing I really have to say is that I played it for a while, and it appears to be exactly the same as the US version, which is to say that it sucks just as bad. I’m exaggerating a bit, because I really like the charm of it, but of course, it’s no Zelda. Overall, the coolest thing about owning Mashou in cartridge form is that the cart has a nifty red LED built into it that lights up when you turn the system on (see white cart in picture above). For that reason alone, you must own it now. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest…Japan. Try not to trip on the way.

The Tetris part of the sublime Tetris 2 + Bombliss.

The Bombliss part of Tetris 2 + Bombliss.