The Control Pad- Lets Talk Collections

This is one of those game stores that you won't forget if you are a nostalgic gamer like me. Located in Freemansburg, PA this game store specializes in selling, trading and buying old games and some new ones. This isn't a gamestop but it's not your bazaar market either- there are a plethora of NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast and PS1 games for sale. Today I picked up Mario Bros 3, Dr. Mario and Gundam Battle Assault 2.


I like to collect things, so you could call me a collector. A collector has a passion for something and begins collecting items of that sort. A baseball card collector probably likes baseball, collects baseball cards and I am sure he collects autographed balls. There is a central theme here- the collector likes baseball. I currently have a collection of:

• Eastern Swords (small)


• 1/35 Scale Military Vehicles/Armor collection ( I build and detail myself)


• 1/350 Model Ship Collection


• NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, DC, GCN and WII collection. I am collecting older NES games and I am at a system and 5 games (Mario Bros, Mario Bros 3, Dr. Mario, F-15 Strike Eagle II, Ninja Gaiden which is HARD)

so I collect models and games- there is a certain fascination to playing card games and table top games that I have. Warhammer 40k is way too expensive for me to maintain so I enjoy the Mechwarrior RPG by Whizkids. I am a card collector as well- but I use them more for play than anything- I play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic the Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG. Card games offer a lot of versatility and strategies to build decks.

Deck building is a lot of fun for me and I like building different decks to play opponents with. Unfortunately not everyone on campus likes WOW or Mechwarrior so I am left out in the cold playing by myself or with others that use my collection. Everyone would rather spend money on games "they know" people play on campus, MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Not venturing to try new games will lead to a stale hobby and metagame.

The gaming crew on campus will play Brawl, Mortal Combat or Soul Caliber 4- they get stale after 3 months straight of play. There is also tension between competitive players who whine when things don't go there way and those who look down on them. This phenomena is destroying the guild on campus. Because I don't like to create enemies, and although I reserve my opinions I choose not to get involved due to some problems with both parties- the guild itself and the competitive players. Folks, getting worked up over a game by yelling, threatening and storming out of a room warrants serious therapy. At the same time, gossip ruins lives. I hope the competitive players and the guild, respectively understand this that we are all acting like a bunch of sissies (well, you guys are!).

I have enjoyed games since I was 3 years old (so 17 years then!). I had an NES with Mario Bros, Dr. Mario and Mario Bros 3. I have purchased another NES (grandmother lost the original one?) and I am enjoying all these fantastic oldies. I loved the PS1 as well, I added Treasures of the Deep, Musashi, Blast Chamber and Coolboarders 2 to my collection. I want to track down Armored Core and Armored Core: Project Phantasma. At one point I had both of these games. Unfortunately the Genesis is packed away somewhere and I recovered my SNES, but no cords, games or game pads.

Perhaps your thing is anime figurines- books, keychains, water guns, airsoft guns, pictures, newspaper pictures, articles, anything can be collected and shared.