The best part of 2nd hand gaming

As I went over last article, part of the fun in games is the adventure and magic of a well realized world we can react in. Every game sort of has that feeling of magic to it, and discovery. As someone once put it, if you swim to the bottom of a dirty lake you'll probably just find mud and plants. In a game, there might be a treasure chest. Well there is one way to get that feeling we love in video games in real life, and it actually involved getting games themselves. Its called thrifting, and while real treasure hunting may be expensive and dangerous this is the easiest way to get that sort of thrill, and its a great experience to get into if you always have a few bills to expend and know your locations.

The joy is within the unknown, but without the actual danger. You go to a place like goodwill, browse the collections, and come up with some ancient game you never heard of with the curiosity to try it out. I recently discovered Lego Racers 1 was made on the PC, and it was sitting alongside an ancient DVD copy of the little Rascals show, some sega dreamcast games I couldn't play, and an animated Disney musical with a mexican theme over it. Not exactly like finding big gold like some who've found new Wii U titles donated and priced there $20, but its amazing to find these things because its obscure cheesy junk that would have been forgotten if it hadn't been for a place like this. You discover hidden gems, amazing deals that beat the crap out of digital rip-offs, childhood nostalgia on shovelware or ad pushing products, or.... well on and on. Its forgotten stuff, and its like little targets set for your own little personal archive. Sometimes the products are indeed full of garbage. I have to admit defeat in buying the video game copy of Sitting Ducks for $1, because I loved the show and heard the game was a weird attempt at beating GTA. I was met with amazingly broken visuals, no grip of the controls, poor parralels to the show it was supposed to tie in with, and the objectives were basically following a coin trail over and over and over and over again. Still I can't help but feel like I've hit some kind of weird bargain, like I stumbled on some lost relic that meant something slightly more to me than the many who didn't know it even existed.

Behold, obscure junk!

There's just something special about thrifting, off brand cheesy junk, and these hidden finds that I love. Sure I also found GTA5 for $30, I found hits like Infamous 2 slightly under Gamestop's price, and most of the time I don't find anything worth value to me. Still the act of going there excited about the mystery and legacy of some random stock donated, sold, or just dropped into one of these places is something special. I get the same sort of feeling when going to BigLots and finding some weird energy drink like Arma, RipIt X, and Jolt and being curious about what it tastes like. Its something kind of exciting, and seeing as to how digital media just isn't keeping up with this fulfillment... its kind of sad to think the PC games I find there will become more harder to come by as time goes on, or the concern that some PS3 game will be in need of patches that one day aren't on the servers any longer. Furthermore, this is why I despise EA and other's attempts at screwing with this wonderful joy. However as it stands, I love that joy right now, and I'm glad small oddball shops like that exist in addition to bigger retailers.