It’s been a crazy busy summer, after a crazy busy end of the last school year. (PROTIP: Don’t believe the “Teachers have summers off” myth. I’ve been working every week this summer.) Despite this, I did squeeze in some time to continue my retro video game collecting adventures.

I’ve focused a lot of my time and budget on adding original PlayStation and original Xbox games to my library. The original PlayStation collection is over 930 games large now, including more than 70 “long box” games. When I sold off my 8-bit and 16-bit games, I used some of the funds raised to add a few pricier games. Tales of Destiny II, Dino Crisis 2, and Mega Man Legends 2 are now complete in case. Xbox curiosities like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and a Raiden variant of the Mortal Kombat: Deception Kollector’s Edition are also now mine.

I’ve finally started adding more Nintendo 64 games, after a bit of a delay in doing so. One of the reasons I’d held off was that my N64 games were disorganized in a cabinet… so I picked up some six-quart small plastic bins to put the games in, and six of them were able to house the 110 games that I own. I still have four bins left, so I have space (and motivation) to buy some more games. In fact, I have plans this week to visit a couple of video game stores to see what I can find from my wish list.

I’ve also gotten around to filing all of my recent original PlayStation game additions into my plastic drawer units, as well as organizing and housing all of my factory-sealed games and accessories, which I’ll eventually get around to opening some day.

The rest of 2024 may see a slowdown in buying these games, though. Back to school means less time to hunt around, plus I’m getting to the point where I’m pretty happy with most of what I have. Many of the remaining games on my wishlist are big-ticket items that I have a hard time justifying paying that much money for. I’ve also exhausted a lot of my storage space. It’s become difficult to find room to store more games, and that’s a telltale sign that it’s time to back off.

This doesn’t mean I won’t add things over the rest of the year, of course. I’d like to find some more games for my Nintendo handhelds. I’ve found myself building some interest in playing these games during shorter bouts of down time, like breaks at school or before bed at night. Also, Nintendo 64 will remain a priority.

So, that’s where we are. Hopefully it will be a much shorter time between this entry and something new.. I’d like to talk about a relatively new local video game store, talk about what I’ve been playing lately, and more. For now, the best way to keep up with my video game thoughts, impressions, and related media is to check my socials on eX-Twitter, Threads, and BlueSky.