Over the coming weeks I will be showcasing some of the collections of Australian Nintendo fans. What trials and tribulations have they been through? What exciting gems lie in their collections? Venture forth with me and find out!

First up we have Jordan, who is the owner of the Australian Video Game Collectors forum and obviously an avid Nintendo fan.

What is your early history with video games & Nintendo?

My first videogame encounter I think was at my cousin’s house when I was really young. Back in the NES era he had an NES deck and a handful of games, our favourite being Mario Bros. I never really got to visit him much, but when I did all we played was NES.

My first console was a Super NES and that’s where my passion lies. We ended up with 15 games or so before we sold it. The scope of games was amazing to play with as a kid, but I think Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario All-Stars, and LoZ: ALttP were the only games I managed to complete. When the Nintendo 64 was released my mum bought us a console plus Goldeneye and Super Mario 64, only after she found out that Goldeneye involved shooting each other, so she took it back to the store for a refund, deprived childhood haha. One of my favourites on 64 was Banjo Kazooie, that game is amazing even to this day. After the 64 life-cycle it was PlayStation from then on (PS2-PS3).

Why did you move away from Nintendo games at that point?

It wasn't really a personal choice. I had three other siblings so my say in what console and games we would buy was limited. My mother was usually the one doing the purchasing for the family console so she relied on advice from her friends and store workers. Having three siblings is the reason I missed out on a fair few gems when it came to buying games back in the day.

When did you start getting into collecting?

I think it was not long after I finished school, I was 17-18 and I’d just started to earn some decent money. I decided to head down to my local Gametraders and buy a SNES and N64 console to relive some childhood memories. It was an absolute blast. I still had all my 64 games from childhood and I played through a few of them start to finish. After I’d finished the ones I liked I thought maybe I’d buy the ones I wanted as a child but wasn’t allowed to have. Before long I was buying games I thought might look fun. I also joined a few online collecting communities. Seeing other people’s collections inspired me to go after the full set of Super NES titles as sort of a personal challenge and journey of discovery. I’ve played every SNES game I own and there are hundreds of terrible games, but still a heap of surprisingly fun titles hidden throughout.

How many games do you have in your collection?

It’s bordering on 600 games right now. Out of those at least 350 are Super NES games.

SNES!!

Do you like to try and collect boxed games, or mainly stick to carts? Do you mix and match?

I mainly stick to collecting carts as far as older systems go. Anything that was originally released in a cardboard box I tell myself I don’t need. There are a few reasons I only buy carts for the most part, first and foremost, it’s out of my budget. Some pieces of cardboard and paper are worth insane amounts of money. Secondly, boxes are easy to damage. Thirdly, they take up a lot more space that I don’t have. The spare bedroom in my house is almost full of gaming related items. When it comes to systems where games were released in plastic clamshell cases I do like to have the boxes, and also all disc based systems I like to have cased. These cases are more readily available and I think they look great. Disc only games annoy me without cases.

It may seem strange but I have different standards for a few systems. To sum it up: NES/SNES/N64/GB/GBC/GBA Cart Only, PS1-2-3-4/GC/NDS/Sega CIB. At the end of the day, for the price of a cardboard box to go with one of my games I would rather buy another game or something cool and unique like a kiosk, an arcade machine, or advertising memorabilia. This might change in the future if my disposable income changes, but for now that’s where I sit.

What are some of your favourite rarities?

Definitely the Playchoice-10 machine I own. I picked up one recently and I love it. I’m in the process of a full restore replacing all the buttons, Perspex, decals, lights, monitor, etc.

Unrestored

Whats the Playchoice-10, and how did you come across it?

The Playchoice-10 was an upright arcade cabinet built using similar hardware to the NES console. It has a board with 10 slots in it to house 10 different daughter boards containing NES games such as Super Mario Bros, Contra, Mega Man, and Ninja Gaiden. It was designed to bring Nintendo's best into the arcade and also as a way of advertising the home console to potential buyers. What made it unique was that money didn't buy you lives or credits, but rather gave you a set amount of time to play as many of the 10 games as you wanted. You could quit a game and start playing a different one at any point during play.

I Stumbled across the cabinet by accident on eBay. Sometimes for a good laugh I order all video games buy price in descending order. About 20-30 pages in I stumbled across a listing titled "Nintendo Game Machine". It was listed in the wrong section under a very generic title which was probably why I managed to pick it up so cheap. One of my good friends James from retrospekt helped me pick it up and bring it home. We're pretty happy we rescued it as the man we bought it off was telling us his plan to chop it up and put a chipped x-box console in it or one of those 100-in-1 boards. It's currently being refurbished by myself with a new monitor and buttons, decals, etc., so it's not very pretty, but It will look amazing when it's done. It even came with 17 games for the board which I was stoked with.

Being an Australian collector, how do you go about collecting?

Collecting in Australia poses its unique challenges compared to collecting in other parts of the world. For us it’s generally more expensive per game and postage is a big killer here in Aus. It still baffles me how you can send a game from the UK for $4.90 and Australia post charges you $8 to send the same parcel next door. I spend a lot of time browsing gumtree; there are always some reasonable deals to be had. eBay have some good deals (very) occasionally but games always tend to fetch a premium there. Collecting groups and forums are a great way to Network and find games. There are a number of Facebook groups dedicated to game buy/swap/sell. I am a member of several large collectors forums, but I lurk on most of them as they trade in mainly NTSC games.

It struck me as a good idea because of this to make a forum solely for Australian collectors so I started the website Australian Video Game Collectors. It’s a small forum at present but we do have dedicated and active members. I’ve met many people who are now close personal friends because of it, and new members are always welcome. Garage sales are really hit and miss but occasionally there are really good deals. I find networking another great way to find games, from friends, family, and other collectors. If you’re known as a collector and someone who doesn’t resell for profit over helping out other fellow collectors then deals sometimes come to you too.

What is your favourite Nintendo system to collect?

Hands down it’s the Super Nintendo. It was the system I spent most of my childhood on and it’s the one that sparked my collecting passion. It’s the only console I’m currently aiming for a complete library on.

Any stories about obtaining a particular game or system?

Just last week I found a Mario Party 3 (N64) for $40 not working and managed to fix it in just a couple of minutes.

One time while picking up a Nintendo 64 from someone’s house I asked him if he had anything else to get rid of. He told me he had a junk Nintendo 64 game holder tower. Apparently the father of one of his friends at school worked at a plastics manufacturer in Lonsdale. The tower was a manufacturing by-product from when the injection moulds were being flushed through with black plastic from the prototype grey plastic. It’s strange looking grey with black swirls through it. He sold it to me for $10 and it’s become one of my favourite pieces because it’s so unique. I was also surprised to find they manufactured these towers in Adelaide.

The marble looking N64 Tower

Do you collect any related media? For instance, old Nintendo magazines?

I do have some posters from the old Nintendo Power magazines which look great, but I’m not displaying them until I have a dedicated game room. I also have some game guides but I don’t really collect the magazines. I would love to start collecting them, but I already constantly have to re-focus my collecting goals and habits as it’s so easy to get side-tracked and start chasing a new set of games/consoles. I just don’t have to time or resources to collect everything I think is awesome.

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Thanks to Jordan for taking the time to answer these questions. Look forward to another Australian Collectors interview in the coming weeks.