The one question that I think all collectors eventually ask themselves is: "Why do am I collect?", which will sometimes precede the most dangerous of all questions: "Why do I have all this crap?"  The last time I asked myself this I ended up dropping a good chunk of my most prized pieces on eBay before I managed to stop.  Since that dark day over two years ago, I have lived in fear of the eventual day the question floats back into my conscious mind.  I hoped to never think it again, or if I did, it would be far enough into the future where I could pass my collection to my son or daughter.  The other day as I brushed my teeth I thought idly: "Why do I collect?"  I stopped brushing and thought about it, bringing the origins of this errant question from light grazing to mental mastication.
   I guess there are several reasons I collect.  Part of it is the thrill of the hunt, a feeling many of you share, I think.  Another is the enjoyment I get from watching my collection grow on a shelf (something like retail therapy maybe), because after all, nothing looks better next to a game than another game.  But often there is another reason that keeps me collecting: a reason that can either jump start a collecting frenzy or drive me away from the thrift stores.  The thought process behind these things generally take time with me, like the incubation period on the ebola virus; and the longer it takes, the more negative the effects are. This savior/killer of collections is nostalgia, and this time it started with a read through of one of my favorite articles, and a listen to one of my favorite podcasts.
   Three weeks ago I read NES_Rules' Treasure Hunt Chronicles #15 and noted the Tiger Electronic game.  It was a brief note, and I promptly forgot it after spying the CIB NES haul further down the article.  The other night as I washed the dinner dishes I listened to the lastest Retronauts (which was covering the history of handhelds).  About halfway through I had a brief thought, "Hm. Didn't mention tabletop games."  Of course they did closer to the end and I once again forgot.  No doubt at this point my subconscious was brewing something especially rose-tinted, and later that night (about 11pm) these two thoughts emerged, dripping with nostalgia from my childhood.  One involved a small and very cheap Tiger LCD game, and the other was a heavy and somewhat cumbersome to play tabletop arcade game.  The name of the game I could not recall.  All I could remember is playing a side-scrolling shooter while I kept warm at the heating vent in my room.  I would play it obsessively, and at one point finished it no less than three times in a row before being called down for dinner.  Thunder Blade, maybe.  Hmm.  The second, however, is a much clearer memory.  I remember a sort-of friend (more like a bully whom declared a temporary truce) tell me of a kid who traded video games.  I accompanied the sort-of friend to this kids house, and was quick to note there was not one videogame in the place.  I asked him about trades, and he seemed to remember a game, which turned out to be the Tomy game, Tron.  At this point I'd never seen a tabletop arcade game, and I was instantly floored.  I had to have it.  The problem was, while the douche-bag was finding the game, he also found a dull kitchen knife, and proceeded to try to throw it into his bedroom wall.  I think we can effectively blame the American Ninja movies and Michael Dudikoff for this kind of behavior.  The sort-of friend who had accompanied me quickly joined in, and things started to look glum.  There was a definite air of pre-pubescent testosterone in the air, which youthful experience had taught me an ass-whuppin' was close at hand.  All the money I had left was a five-spot, which represented about two days of bottle hunting (in Michigan 1 bottle equals 10 cents).  This money was destined for the token machine at Little Caesar's Pizzeria, I reasoned with myself, but that Tron game looked damn awesome, and my decision was made in the space of a few seconds.  I made a quick transaction, and hauled my geeky ass out of there.  What followed was about an indefinite, but long period of total bliss, and nothing would even come close until a friend down the road got an NES.  What happened to this lovely piece of hardware, I may never know.  I have my suspicions, which may or may not involve my father and a garbage bag.  However, I would not mourn for long, as in Christmas of 1988 I received a NES.  My mystery Tiger LCD game, along with my beautiful memory of the Tomy Tron tabletop vanished and lay dormant for over twenty years.  When the memory came back fully in my mind (the other night), I sat down in front of my laptop and researched for an hour or so.  Before long I had correctly identified the Tiger game as ThunderBlade from scanned instructions on Hasbro's website, and watched video on YouTube that some blessed soul put up for the Tron game.  Needless to say I desperately want to re-experience those games, so I checked around a bit.  A no-go on the ThunderBlade game, but that was nothing more than I expected.  The Tron game was also a bust, but in a different way.  The only copies I found were on eBay, and the owners aren't willing to part with their machines for less than $120 (UPDATE: There is one for actual auction now, so we'll see how that turns out).  I normally don't like using eBay (or walk-in stores for that matter), as the hunt is pretty much what motivates me to collect.  I mean, I could walk into Destiny Games (a local gaming shop) and get an original Xbox or a N64 pretty cheap, but pulling one out of a cardboard box full of odd junk as if it were a baby being birthed by cesarean is much more fulfilling. 
   So here I am, in something of a strange situation.  My nostalgia for handheld games is unfulfilled, and since I'm a hunter at heart, I'm unlikely to get my fix anytime soon.  The oddity is that because of this, my focus is now on handheld and tabletop gaming exclusively.  I've since made a few finds in that department, which I'll write about later (first: honey-do list).  I even passed up a NES with Tetris and MAX controller so I could look in couple more stores first.  But if this reads as if I'm complaining let me assure you:  I'm loving every minute, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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