Rarity: Retro Video Game Collecting in the Modern Era

I really enjoyed this documentary about the video game industry. As a child who grew up in the 80s/90s spending all my free time playing Nintendo and later sega- this was a really fun walk down memory lane. I really sympathized with all of the collectors and liked the different viewpoints and styles of collecting. Made me want to go home and hookup my N64, which is the oldest system i still own lol.

This film is a love letter to video game collectors, no matter how they collect. It not only pays homage to the O. G. Collectors, but all those that came after, or are starting out. Anyone with nostalgia for Video Games will find enjoyment in this. The director featured Video Game enthusiasts from all aspects of Video Games, from the very first consoles all the way through the original Nintendo, Sega, Sony PlayStation & Microsoft Xbox eras.

It shines a light on different types of Video Game collecting, whether they collect loose cartridges, artwork, Complete in box Video games and even the burgeoning scene of Original Factory-sealed, graded game Collectors and the exciting market that has followed.

The theatre was buzzing, even those like my wife & daughter that have little involvement with video game collecting, found the film very informative & entertaining.

The production is top-notch & the sets are all shot in the locations of these avid collectors, with intruiging backstories of their own.

Look, this "movie" was just put together with self-filmed clips by youtubers and liberal stock footage inserts so technically it's awful, but what makes it a real slog is the need to aggrandize WATA games and that whole scam. They literally just wave off valid criticism of WATA by saying it's all jealousy which is really something else. Then you have the fact that the key faces in this movie are simply showing off their stuff and talking about how valuable it is and how they turn down offers, etc. The actual "real" people like Metal Jesus, Riggs, Hancock, etc are barely in it while the hoarder scammers of the WATA crowd get to wave their proverbial dicks in your face with their rare stuff. Get a life! And no how many times someone says that preserving a sealed game etc is preserving history, pop-culture, or art, doesn't make it true. These things were commodities. You are celebrating plastic and cardboard. The game exists outside of those things. A part of me wishes disc rot on all their rare games, but being somewhat of a collector myself (albeit with way stronger boundaries than these people) I will admit it's neat to see what they have, but the smugness of them really gets me.

This documentary will make u feel like you went back in time to the 80s to 90s, or u took a trip to a retro arcade.

Seeing video games as a collector's game is on a whole different level.

This was a documentary that I decided to check out late in my workday. I treat these like podcasts where I'll listen and look down when something interesting is said. What I normally do is watch ones that are films, in the horror genre or obscure cinema related. I decided to check this one out as I used to be a gamer. I didn't necessarily play Call of Duty, Minecraft or those types of games. My first system was a Sega Genesis before shifting to Nintendo and then to PlayStation. I was a big fan of JRPG when I shifted over to Sony.

Now what we're getting here is meeting a good handful of collectors. What I like here is that we're seeing the guys at the top and others who are more like someone you might work with. There was a good cross section of people. I did like that we got to know them, what got them into collecting and then where do they see their future heading with what they do. Something that is also interesting here is that there is a question posed about if they think what they're doing is obsessed or by having channels to display what they have, is that showing off? I do like that one of them gives the best answer that is somewhere in the middle for sure.

Another aspect I enjoyed here is that we get the history of video game collecting. This also ventures a bit into the history of this industry itself. I enjoyed seeing these people's collections, but hearing more of what they know about what they have or the lore they've heard, that interested me more. There is one who is from Europe who has a complete collection of systems for Nintendo's GameCube. That blew my mind.

Then to shift over to filmmaking. I thought this was well-made. They did a good job of mixing in footage from games with the interviews that we're seeing. How they display the collections and having the interviewees showing the prized possessions was a good touch. The biggest thing that brought a smile to my face was using music that was inspired by the older games. That was a good touch for sure. This does tease at the end that there will be a part two. That is something I'd check out if it is made. I'd recommend it to collectors, especially of video games, or if you're an old school gamer for nostalgia.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.