My winter break from teaching is over, and I spent it working on a project that was long overdue: beginning the process of reorganizing my video game collection. It’s been a daunting task to attempt, as I have thousands of games in my library and a limited amount of space in which to store it all. Admittedly, things were getting pretty bad as there were piles of games just growing in three separate rooms in my apartment. There was no rhyme or reason, and it felt overwhelming to the point where I really didn’t play much at all.

My decision to cull about a third of my overall collection helped with this problem, as it created space that I was lacking. I started paring down my collection late in the summer of 2023, starting with NES games and some SNES games that I brought to a local independent video game store that had actually sold me a lot of them since 2011– so it was a homecoming of sorts. After about three trips, though, at a plastic bin apiece, I hit the pause button because I didn’t want to overload the store.

Fortuitously, over my winter break, a Facebook friend who owns a video game store reached out and worked out some things to receive what I had left over that I didn’t decide to keep. My remaining NES and SNES games, along with my SEGA CD library and select Gamecube and Wii games, were finding a new home. This meant that I was gaining more space, and that my plan to start reorganizing my “retro” library could finally begin.

The first step was to set up my gaming space. That meant taking down the systems I was no longer using and resetting the space with the ones I am using: original PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, original Xbox, and Wii (which doubles as my Gamecube player). That’s still plenty of consoles to enjoy, and my collection still has thousands of games to play.

Next came the PlayStation reorganization.

This project took two solid days to complete. Having to go through every game, then put them into alphabetical order (and some genre separation, which I’ll get into shortly), and then get many of them into drawers for easy access was a lot of work. I found that I had quite a few doubles, so I had to look at each set and figure out which copy was best.

Next came putting the games into drawers. I decided to separate my sports games into their own drawer unit because I own so many. A good 25% of my original PlayStation library consists of sports games. Down the road, I’ll share why I got into collecting sports games… but this was an important step to complete. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, auto racing, and more are here to play. It’s genuinely fun for me to go back and play these, not only to relive personal memories… but to also see how sports games had evolved from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras to the first 3D/polygonal generation.

Not all of my sports games are in these drawers, however. I have a “Favorites” rack in my living room, housed at the top of a bookshelf that holds my Gamecube, Xbox, and Wii games. This rack has a bit of almost everything… sports, arcade games, action, adventure, fighting games, and more. In addition, some sports games come in original longbox cases, which are from the first year of the original PlayStation’s lifespan– when we could just call it “PlayStation” without being number-specific.

Then came the RPGs. More than 25 of them, many with dual CD cases. This genre deserves its own space… not only because of how valuable the games are, but because of how important it is when it comes to the original PlayStation. This set isn’t complete, of course; many of these RPGs command high prices in today’s video game market. Still, it’s a formidable mini-library that can provide weeks of gameplay on its own. I do have disc-only copies of notable RPGs, like Alundra, Breath of Fire III and IV, and Tales of Destiny. I don’t think I’ll be getting complete copies of these, but you never know.

The final five drawers house the rest of my complete-in-case collection of games. It’s a nice representation of the variety of the original PlayStation’s software lineup. Many are “black label” initial releases, but there’s a fair number of “Greatest Hits” re-releases. I even have both black label and Greatest Hits versions of a few games. Since the original PlayStation didn’t have internet connectivity, patches and fixes could not be applied after release… so Greatest Hits versions sometimes had fixes that the black label versions did not have. Gran Turismo 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy (which I need to get), and Jet Moto 2 are examples of the Greatest Hits versions being superior to their black label counterparts.

Finally, I have the complete set of PlayStation Underground CD Magazine issues. Some of these are even sealed– though they will get opened down the line. These are basically demo disc sets that were released every three months that came supercharged with extra content. Full code archives (because cheat codes and passwords were still things back then), demos of import games, interviews with developers and producers, behind the scenes video features, memory card files for certain games to unlock content, Easter Eggs to be found that unlocked certain demos or features, and more exist in each issue. Some of the stuff is a bit… “cringey” by today’s standards, but for those of us who were around and playing games back then, we get the context.

Not pictured are two small tubs of discs. One has all of my “loose” discs, which are just the discs and no manuals or cases. I got many of these from GameStop during the mid and late 2010s. Mega Man Legends and its sequel, Einhander, Castlevania Chronicles, Rival Schools, and both Bloody Roar games are “loose” in my collection. The other tub has demo discs in it, ranging from the earliest demos (like the Developer CD that was a console preorder bonus and the first two PlayStation Picks demos) to demos given by retailers or restaurants (like Toys ‘R Us and Pizza Hut) to JamPacks to demo discs included with the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.

It feels great to have this console’s library fully organized and ready to enjoy. It was certainly a lot of work– and less gaming time during my vacation– but it’s ultimately worthwhile to have it done. The PlayStation joins my Gamecube, original Xbox, and Wii games as being fully reorganized. That leaves my Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2 libraries to fix. N64 will be easy, as it’s less than 100 games… but PS2? That’s almost 1,000 games! It’ll be a big challenge.

But that’s for another time.