Does anybody just buy the game only or complete

[Jungell]

Now, I don't collect Nintendo games. I wouldn't say that I collect Megadrive or Master system games either, I just buy them - to play them. NES, SNES and N64 (aswell as Atari 2600 etc) games all came in cardboard boxes. These boxes tend to break if you're constantly opening, closing, taking it from the shelf etc. I wouldn't collect CIB Nintendo games because of this.
I use to have an N64 and pretty much all the boxes broke. The packaging doesn't seem to be a part of the game, it doesn't last!

But with Sega games the boxes seemed like a part of the game itself, it wouldn't break. It lasts! to me that's part of the fun. Picking out the game you want to play, look at the artwork, open the box and then putting the game in the console. The box was made to store the game, it had a purpose!

Nintendo even made those sleeves to store the games in! To me that says that the original cardboard box was not meant to be kept, it wasn't meant to store the game. It was just fancy packaging. So if I ever start to buy old Nintendo games I wouldn't care much for CIB games as I don't think the packaging was actually meant as anything more than just packaging...

I also like it when there's some consistency, if a couple of games are boxed, they all have to be boxed. That is also part of my reason for buying boxed games, they look so darn good! I like it looks like these items belong together. That's why my Evil Dead dvd's, the ones where the dvd came in the Necronomicon, is stored by themselves with other special edition dvd's with special packaging. I want my horror collection to look uniform, categorized by sub-genre. All the same size.

[Gamerforlife]

see i feel the same way about snes,nes,genny,n64 etc carts. They all look nice themselves. but any disc game needs to be complete. The game just looks like crap with just a jewel case or a gamestop case. I still don't know why people throw out their cases for cd/dvd based games.

Well that's fine and dandy, but why does a game have to look like anything? It's an experience, meant to be experienced. Do you value the fun to be had by playing these games or do you value the act of owning stuff? Ink pressed unto paper pressed unto plastic to me is nothing, it is inherently worthless. Like the ink pressed unto paper pressed unto plastic that is a Slurpee cup or a Burger King bag.

Not to say that there is anything wrong with the collector mentality. My mom collects souvenir shotglasses, but I've never seen her take a hard drink.

Myself, I'd much rather get drunk than own a bunch of tiny pieces of glass.

I think you have a different perspective than some other gamers do. As far as I'm concerned, the whole package is part of the experience. Checking out the box art, flipping through the manual to see if there's anything cool in there THEN actually playing the game. Why do you think some games have had instruction booklets full of pictures or humor. It's all part of the experience. I'm reminded of the instruction manual for Donkey Kong Country with all the funny quotes from Cranky Kong, including one about the useless note section they put at the end of instruction manuals LOL

To me a cartridge looks naked. When it's not in a console it should be "wearing" a box with matching instruction booklet LOL

I'm also big on quality over quantity, my collection of 16-bit games is small compared to some people because I don't focus on getting carts only. I'd have a bigger collection if I did, but when I can look at those boxed games on a shelf, it makes me happier than seeing three shelves of loose cartridges would