Interview Attempt: (Possible) World’s Largest Video Game Collection Owner
March 24th, 2006 by Benj Edwards
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!]:
![[ VC&G Forum ]](http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-content/themes/vintage-square/images/vcg_forum_button_welcome.png)
March 24th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
And I thought I had lots of games.. this is pretty * unbeleivable! Just try to imagin yourself how much money the guy invested in there.. I’m not sure “invested” would be the good word to use though.
Too bad he wasn’t very cooperative about answering your question…
Cheers!
Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News
March 25th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
learn to link to coralized links, like nyud.net:8080
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/
becomes:
http://www.videogamecollectors.com.nyud.net:8080/
For more info, see coralcdn.org
March 27th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Not much of a conversationalist. Methinks he needs to get out of the basement a little more.
Either that or he doesn’t want to reveal his means of collecting so many games. Last time I tried to collect games for a living I wasn’t very successful
March 27th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Yeah, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a pretty bad interview.
But at least the world knows that somebody tried to ask him about it, instead of being completely in the dark about who the mystery man behind the collection is (ok, so maybe not much more light has been shed on him). I told him I wouldn’t give out his real name, but I will tell you that he lives in Canada. I’ve also heard from one of his friends that he runs a video game booth at a local flea market on the weekends. So that explains a lot about this mess ‘o’ games.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:52 am
If he sells games for a living, maybe these photo’s are of his stockroom: rather than just a collection…
March 27th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Indeed…indeed. I do know from his friend that he does actually collect games though, intending to make a set of at least one of every game for every system (or something similar). The collector himself didn’t say as much, but then again, he didn’t say much anyway. His friend called him “eccentric” and doubted that he would ever reply to my emails in the first place, so I guess it’s no big surprise.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
His wife must support the family or he got a good inheritance from someone.
March 27th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
That “Canada” shirt… could he be Canadian? If so, that makes his collection more impressive, because when I went to Canada, I shit my pants when I saw how expensive games where! Aside from the exchange rate problem, tax is high as well. Animal Crossing: WW was like $50 CAD over there. It would also explain his English, is he’s of French descent.
Also, I noticed there were more mom and pop stores and game traders, so if he runs one, that may explain how he’s amassed such a collection.
What’s sad is, he’s probably played about 10%-20%… well, more than fifteen minutes. I’m a collector myself, and I can’t keep up every knew release; with work, family, and other responsibilities, it’s hard to find the time.
March 27th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
I have just recently (2 years) been getting into collecting video games, but this is insane! I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of money in his basement. The fact he does this for s living(flea market) and the amount of duplicates leads me to also believe this is also a bit of a storage/stockroom (as mentioned by nibbles) for his sales booth. He best have a good insurance policy…a flood or fire would be devestating! A total replacement value would be sweet…maybe we should start a pool!
March 27th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
It seems a little wierd to me that all his consoles are just sitting on the shelf, not plugged in at all. Theres a xbox360 just sitting there. I wonder if he actually plays any of them at all?
March 27th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Yes, he’s from Canada, Brill. Great point about possibly primarily speaking French. That might very well explain his English indeed.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
well redwolf if you can give us his ip or paste the email headers u got a reply from(if u ever emailed with him) i can probably look into finding who the guy is/where he lives etc as i am from quebec too, and with a lot of resources.
March 27th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
lester2700@hotmail.com. es impresionante ese wey es narco o que pedo?
notable como puede tener tantos titulos actuales como antiguos . E mueble de las consolas es impresionante.
March 28th, 2006 at 6:34 am
@joseph - why would you want to know who he is and where he lives? You can keep your (probably illegal use of) ‘resources’. Twat.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:13 am
i wonder how much he would get if he sold it all.
aligit is kool
March 28th, 2006 at 9:16 am
@RW - He wants to know so he can break in and steal all that great stuff, of course!
Anyways, i think this guy should some kind of reward.
Outstanding geekness or at least some kind of Nobelprice for the betterment of mankind.
Onwards!
March 28th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Massive Video Game Collection
Before the advent of the internet, we could take solace in only suspecting that people like this existed.
This is not to say that I have any sort of problem with people with massive video game collections, I just think it’s a little disturbing to…
March 28th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Yeah, I’m not sure why you’d want to find where he lives either…I guess it’s people like joseph that make him want to keep his privacy.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:16 am
FYI - Here are the questions I asked that the collector didn’t answer:
1. Where are you from?
5. How many of your games are unique and not duplicates?
12. About how much money do you think you’ve spent on your video game collection?
14. Some people might think your collection is a little excessive. How would you respond to that?
15. Do you have a wife or girlfriend, and if so, what does she think of your collection? What do your friends and relatives think?
17. Pictures of your collection have spread around the net pretty quickly since I linked to your game room page on videogamecollectors.com. Is there anything else you’d like to mention to our readers or have them keep in mind while viewing your collection?
March 28th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Good article. The light grey text on a black background is very difficult to read (so I almost didn’t). I’m not sure what the point of the color selection is but for most people, if they can’t read it, they won’t.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:47 am
[…] read more | digg story […]
March 28th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Well Fred, that isn’t my color selection. The site is currently being inundated with many thousands of people attemping to view the pictures at the same time, so the page loading is slow. What happened for you is that the background image for the text area (which is mostly white, by the way), failed to load because of a slow response from the server. I have since changed the default non-image background color with white (from transparent) so people should no longer have that problem. Thanks for your comment.
March 28th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
If you do a follow-up interview be sure to ask how much he insured his collection for.
March 28th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Perhaps the man is in fact the kid in disguise..
March 28th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
I am encouraged by the fact that he also owns a stationary bike.
March 28th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
WOW! crazy collection!
P.S. me so horny
March 28th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
First of all, how do we know that this guy doesn’t operate a video/game rental business? He might be keeping some inventory at home.
The other thing I find quite strange is that he has spent probably $750,000 - $1,000,000 on games but he can’t afford a nice TV? Look at that crap that he still uses in that basement…
The other thing is that do we actually know that all of those cases contain games? You know there are wack jobs out there that might only collect the boxes/cases…..
March 28th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
That’s a great looking collection! The question I’d like answered is whether he has a normal single-format addiction (like only NTSC) or if the habit’s gone full blown rock star and he’s got full sets in PAL, SECAM, etc as well? Bravo!
March 28th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
re: comment on sh*tty tv. well i have a old tv but won’t switch unless it breaks.
also new tv’s have 100mhz which most old 8but systems doesn’t like.
March 28th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
I think it’s cool that he will not tell any more about himself. I know if i suddenly became popular because of something like that and i could keep who i was a secret i would. I don’t want a bunch of people to come knocking on my door wanting to see my game collection. BTW i think it’s an uber cool collection of games, keep it up unknown man with the collection in the basement!
March 28th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
[…] - Link […]
March 28th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
The guy didn’t have much to say.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Mines bigger.
j/k
March 28th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Man! That’s sick…there’s other things that are fun.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
amazing collection, but why in the blue hell does this guy have a crappy ass TV? seriously, if I had all that gaming stuff, I would HAVE to have a kickass TV or even three to play them on, and that’s no joke.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
[…] A week ago I posted a link to a photo gallery featuring pictures of an insanely large video game collection. Here’s an interview (attempt anyway) with the guy who owns the collection. […]
March 28th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
March 28th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
HA, and my mom says that I have too many games…
March 28th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
[…] I thought I had a collection of games. […]
March 28th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
[…] Quite a few places (digg, del.icio.us, etc.) have mentioned this, a HUGE Video Game Collection in someone’s basement. Apparently, it’s taken on the order of 16 years to produce. […]
March 28th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Hmmmm …
I am a small time collector myself. However, I fail to understand why would someone have 2 copies of Men of Valor, 2 copies of Tony Hawk’s Undergroung, 2 copies of some sports (like MLB etc) 2003; specially if these did not come in the different covers.
You may not be able to read the titles, but you can see the patterns and realize that he has more than 1 copies of some games.
I think it is just an online store or a small used gaming store, tryin to get famous in cyberspace.
- JP
March 28th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
[…] Whoa. That’s a lot of video games. […]
March 28th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
March 29th, 2006 at 1:14 am
[…] World’s Largest Video Game Collection […]
March 29th, 2006 at 4:44 am
the only thing i’ve ever collected was empty batteries hehehe…
u think this guy is looking for attention?
March 29th, 2006 at 7:15 am
I wonder if he’d sell this anytime, or just hair it to his son, but he would problably sell them all.
But you havent seen the size of my Pokemon collection….
problably more energy cards than every single game he has.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:36 am
JPSNagi: If he’s collecting via eBay auctions, then odds are good he’s bought large lots of games, though he only needed a handful of the titles in the lot. Would lead to a lot of dupes if he hasn’t had time to go back and resell those (though he indicated he wanted to rid himself of duplicates.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:42 am
RUBBBBISHHH PLAYING KIT!
THAT TV LOOKS AS IF IT’S FROM ‘LOST IN SPACE’!
March 29th, 2006 at 10:45 am
World’s Largest Video Game Collection
The title says it all. The photos are unreal.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:46 am
To all those who are insulting his TV — his real entertainment system is probably upstairs. You’re simply seeing his basement, which is where he stores everything.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:13 am
[…] אם אתם חושבים שספריית המשחקים שלכם גדולה, תסתכלו על התמונה הזאת ותחשבו שוב. […]
March 29th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
i think he spent all his brain playing games, he forgot how to talk
March 29th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
[…] Esto puede causar un ataque de envidia! Quizás la más grande colección de videojuegos del mundo!!! […]
March 29th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Forget the TV, god, he likely plays upstairs. I know I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be enclosed in that basement. He’s got games on the floor! Running out of room as it is, how would he fit in an entertainment center?!
March 29th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
the ‘junk” tv people are referring to looks like a broadcast monitor in fact …
can be quite expensive — though it still looks like an older model ..
March 29th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
At least he uses the bike when not playing games…
March 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
WOW that huge midget has alot of games!
March 30th, 2006 at 12:06 am
[…] El sitio web Video Game Collectors, se encarga de mostrar fotos y detalles de las distintas colecciones privadas de video juegos de sus miembros, buscando por sus archivos encontramos esta coleccion mostrada en las fotos, sin duda una de las mas grande de la historia. Vintage Computing debido a la cantidad de veces vista esta coleccion ha procedido a realizar una entrevista chica con su propietario. Publicado por Antonio Bajo Cibercultura, Entretenimiento, Juegos […]
March 30th, 2006 at 2:20 am
what is a broadcast monitor?
March 30th, 2006 at 3:47 am
[…] Link al artículo No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> […]
March 30th, 2006 at 6:16 am
[…] Shall we play a game? - the story: A week ago Vintage Computing posted a link to a photo gallery featuring pictures of an insanely large video game collection. Here’s an interview (attempt anyway) with the guy who owns the collection. […]
March 30th, 2006 at 6:48 am
waw perfect archive.
March 30th, 2006 at 7:58 am
[…] Vintagecomputing.com […]
March 30th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
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.
Nesvidiot
March 30th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Nesvidiot, great post!
Hopefully it will clear up many questions people have.
Thanks for posting!
March 30th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Good call, jb, I was just about to post along those lines. Having done some work with broadcast video, that does indeed look like a studio monitor, Between the shabby appearance, the barely-visible badging on the side, cheesy single speaker and the plexi cover over the tube it does look that way.
HoUzEr, basically, they’re tv sets with greater line resolution that standard televisions, and high quality control, basically the equivalent of high-end displats that print designers use that can be color-calibrated, etc. The picture may wind up looking like crap on someone’s Rad-Shack squeakbox, but it’s not leaving the studio looking like that, dammit.
The other feature that they have is the ability to accomodate odd video formats, for example, 24p in modern ones, and quite a few of them can take both NTSC and PAL, which is why I could see him having one. That one looks a bit out of date, but it would likely have to be; a new 19-inch studio monitor can easily run you $2000-$5000, depending on features. And that was prior to HDTV. Used ones go for much less. And they all look like total trash, except for the TV picture.
Of course, it could just be some Sampo-brand Canuck TV from the 80’s, too. But it could also have cost more than your new 1080i HDTV.
March 30th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Just a note — I just published an interview with the collector’s friend (Nesvidiot above) here:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/109
Check it out. It is more like the original interview should have been.
March 31st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Way to many games. Kind of creepy to be honest. I wonder how many he’s actually played through. The cash spent on all those games could have been used alot more effectivley I think.
April 1st, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Sweet jesus… mother of god. That is incredibly impressive!
April 1st, 2006 at 7:48 pm
WOW!! that a HUGE collection man!!
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:53 am
[…] I’m sure you guys have all seen the room with thousands of video games in it. This man has possibly the largest collection of video games, that he has ammased over the past 16 years. I was scoping around and I found an interview with him. It’s pretty interesting. Read up on it! […]
April 2nd, 2006 at 4:17 pm
wanna know whats really sad?…
i have more unopened hotwheels cars than that.
April 2nd, 2006 at 7:34 pm
damn
April 2nd, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Anybody know when www.videogamecollectors.com will be back up and running? It’s been down since this “interview” was posted…:(
April 3rd, 2006 at 8:08 am
i wonder does he have property insurance in case of an disaster?
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:26 am
I would never leave The room! this is unbeliveable wow
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:25 pm
[…] Interview: (Possible) World’s Largest Video Game Collection Owner. […]
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:05 pm
[…] En een gezond sociaal leven gewenst. […]
April 6th, 2006 at 7:42 am
[…] To quote vintagecomputing: “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.” Quickly bookmark “What happens when you get addicted to collecting videogames?” via: […]
April 11th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
[…] life’? No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTMLallowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> […]
April 25th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Is it RetroJim?
May 8th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
[…] In einem Interview auf vintagecomputing.com gibt es noch ein paar mehr Informationen vom Sammler selbst. Zudem haben derartige Sammlung natürlich schon einen Platz im Internet: Auf Videogamecollectors.com präsentieren im “Room of Doom” kontinuierlich Sammler Ihre Erungenschaften. 08. Mai 2006 | Kategorie: Retro/Classic Gaming | […]
May 10th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
[…] the Captain N Forum - On DVD Interview Attempt: (Possible) World’s Largest Video Game Collection Owner […]
May 12th, 2006 at 8:00 am
Instead of wasting all that money, give it to the children in africa or some organization…
February 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
One of the guys from ScrewAttack has a pretty cool collection.