I guess it'd be a good idea to finally introduce myself. I've done this on a few sites I venture to often and a bit of my info of course has changed over the years so what the heck, why not. By the way, I don't know how the site statistics work out but I've done a good amount of lurking in the past year while logged in so it looks a bit off.
But anyhow, the name's Matt as quite a few may already know and I'm 22. I've been into console gaming since my childhood but didn't begin really buying games until around 4 years ago. I decided to purchase games I had played on emulation and stock my shelves with them to the point my parents go insane. There are currently more than 1000 games in my collection but I have no plans to really go for quantity as my tastes are changing and I'm turning into a direction of quality and personal favorites but I don't plan on making quick and dramatic changes, more of a slow progression. However, currently I'm wanting a complete (CIB) collection of licensed domestic Saturn and Atari 5200 games because they are my favorite systems. The units I own are mostly main-stream and easy to find because this is a laid back hobby of mine and I prefer not to fork out tons of bucks to high-bid eBay auctions but I will shell out the money on games locally I must have.
Taking a step back from consoles I do collect PC games, though I don't have any near the amount some other may have and it doesn't compare to my console stuff. My alternate universe of computer gaming (which ironically I spend more time playing) is filled with classics and modern games. I specifically bought dual monitors earlier this year just to play RTS games over both and it opened a new light on those that supported the resolution. If Starcraft II takes advantage of this setup I will be stoked but Supreme Commander, Cossacks, Age of Empires, Command & Conquer and many other RTS games work quite well with dual support so it won't be a heart break.
So now taking a step to the side (giving you a workout) I have a bunch of arcade boards and parts in my attic at the moment. I received them a few months ago and have plans to get knee deep into arcade goodness over time and build my own cabs to host these classics. A 6-slot Neo Candy Cab would be a nice addition down the road but that's a different story. I've been slowly progressing at plans to create a local arcade/pc/console organization involved with gaming guilds and restoration but it's been rough with lack of participation of local gamers. There have been some on-line responses and a few local game store owners wouldn't mind helping out a bit but it's still in its infancy and we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Some other interests/hobbies of mine include movies, anime, music and software engineering. I buy movies on DVD but anime can come on any format I have a player for (VHS/DVD/LD). Some of my favorite animes are Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Love Hina and Lost Exile though there are numerous others I enjoy. Generally older series I pickup on VHS since it's really cheap but if a DVD compilation pops up I'll buy it. I only have 1 movie on LaserDisc but I've tried to get a few others on eBay (local scene is dead) but got out-bid last second (go figure). For music I buy anime and game soundtracks on CD at pawn/thrift stores if they're to things I like. One of my DJ buds has some game music on record which kicks ass, unlucky for me I mainly find 1960's-80's records and I pick up most I find in great shape that appears it'd play without any problems. Lastly I'm a CS major currently in my senior years at a local university so programming runs through my blood. I've been writting software since I was 12 and wrote some games through middle and high school, sometimes selling the games for lunch money. I designed many clones of Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Night Driver, Tron and various other games but also made a few originals that were addictive to classmates. Due to that I of course followed the field and hope to one day create a local game company.
Welp, that's a good bite-sized overview of what attracts me here and to games. I plan to go back through my game collection and posting them to my web domain in my sig in addition to updating my list on here since it's outdated and I never completed it in the first place. I've slown down so much in adding new games to my collection it's the best time but due to work and school it'll be yet another timely process. Any questions, comments or random stuff just lemme know.