I always wanted to have something so great to post that the small scores thread just couldn't hold it and I would have to create a new thread. Well this isn't quite what I had in mind. The word bittersweet comes to mind for sure.
As some of you know, my lifelong best friend Jesse passed away two weeks ago after a two year battle with cancer. I've known him since kindergarten and we've been inseparable ever since.
We shared in many hobbies and activities over the years. We were in a band together that we started in high school and didn't stop playing until he physically couldn't do it any more. We loved talking about books and movies, and he changed me from a person who hated going to the beach to someone who couldn't wait to ride the waves of the Atlantic.
The one thing we bonded over above all other things was video games. Even when we were kids I remember if one of us got a new NES game it meant an automatic "Can I come over after school?" from the other.
If you want to hear more about how he and I grew up as gamers, check out the first episode of our podcast Eight Generations.
So fast forward to our adult life, every time I was at Jesse's house to play video games, record the podcast, or just hang out, I had to browse his collection and shamelessly ask him to give me stuff out of it.
You see, he didn't consider himself a collector. He just said he kept games he either loved and replayed often or games he hadn't played yet. I didn't believe him for a while because so many of his games were rare, valuable, or otherwise noteworthy.
Then one day I told him that if he ever was going to trade out his copies of Persona 1 and 2 to please give me first crack at them. His reply: "Oh, you can have those." This score got me and Jesse mentioned on the Collectorcast and he got a kick out of that. Let's take a look at those beauties again.
[img width=700 height=328]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/12f33113-fe15-41b7-8fb2-786a46decea3_zps3f837dcf.jpg[/img]When he gave me these games just for asking I knew he really didn't give a shit about collecting for collecting's sake. I really had to respect that. He knew what these games were worth. He just didn't like them, so he let them go.
Last night while hanging out with Jesse's wife she asked me if there were any games of Jesse's that I would like to have. Again, the word bittersweet does not do the situation justice. I had borrowed some awesome games from his collection and he had given me some others. It was always a crazy dream of mine to have the freedom to just take whatever the hell I wanted and add it all to my own collection. Of course I never thought it would happen, and when it was actually happening it was completely surreal.
So here are the games that I chose. These pictures do not represent his entire collection because for now I only took things I did not have already.
Before I start "showing off the goods" I just want to note that I know one hundred percent that Jesse would want me to have all of this stuff, and that he would love me showing it off to you guys. Like I said he didn't consider himself a collector, but he respected the collecting culture.
There won't be a ton of retro stuff here either. He didn't collect carts, he was big into emulation.
Anyway here we go.
First here is his copy of the premier issue of Nintendo Power. This was actually given to me by his parents a few days after he died.
[img width=700 height=796]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_183224_431-1_zpsa840f700.jpg[/img]Here are some NES and SNES carts. Like I said he wasn't really into them so there weren't that many, I'm not even sure why he had these, though I did find a Retro Duo while going through his things so maybe he just couldn't resist the feel of cold gray plastic in his hands after all.
[img width=700 height=466]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_094224_562-1_zpse4862445.jpg[/img]Next some XBOX 360 games. He typically didn't hold on to these after he was done with them so like I said he either really liked these or hadn't played them yet. He had tried to get me to borrow Asura's Wrath in the past but I wasn't interested. I started playing it this morning and I can totally see why he liked it and I am having a blast with it.
[img width=700 height=559]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_094116_140-1_zpsfc1dadd0.jpg[/img]Some PS2 games. He had told me he would probably give me that sweet deluxe edition of Persona 3 because he knew how much I worship that game.
[img width=700 height=569]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_093558_889-1_zpsb2e1d504.jpg[/img]Original XBOX and PS3 games.
[img width=465 height=799]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_093900_078-1_zps27e8a70c.jpg[/img]A few Wii and Gamecube games. He had recommended Chocobo's Dungeon to me so I am excited to try that one out.
[img width=700 height=665]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_093730_442-1_zpsfe837dd9.jpg[/img]Here's the grand finale. My man had all the absolute best PS1 games.
[img width=603 height=799]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_093019_366-1_zps4fdbcfce.jpg[/img]And if he had ever told me I could take only one thing out of his collection for myself, it would be the following. I borrowed it from him two years ago and playing through it was a life-altering experience. I lost my sister in 2006 so the story in this game has monumental significance to me. This becomes, automatically, the best piece in my collection regarding both actual value and sentimental or emotional value.
[img width=700 height=632]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_093213_963-1_zps92cb5a6c.jpg[/img]While I was taking these pictures I started to get excited to fold all these games into my own collection. However, after each photo was taken I put the games on an empty bottom shelf and when I was done and they were all together, I decided to leave them there for now. It feels like I can leave his gaming identity intact for the time being this way and his collection becomes a sweet little corner of my collection.
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140504_094655_015_zps188f8bbb.jpg[/img]So yeah that's it. Can't call them "scores" really. I'm just going to take good care of this stuff and enjoy them as best as I can. Rest in peace bro, thank you for all the games.
[img width=700 height=525]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/guns_zps42030a3c.jpg[/img]