How Video Games Shaped My Life
From virtual Harvest Moon to real life Harvest Moon all the while funding my quest for self-sufficiency.
I started gaming pretty young. In 1997 I first played Final Fantasy 7 at 7 years old. LIMIT BREAK!!! This continued with FF8 & 9 in 98' & 99' I got to enjoy so many epic titles at a young age and I am most grateful for that.
I started collecting games when I was 16. As you can see it got a little crazy, and this is only a portion! A whole other closet was full of all kinds of gaming treasures. I've even owned a Panasonic 3DO, micro gameboys, boxed power glove and many more obscure things. I was shocked when I found out how much this stuff sold for and justified further game collecting by that means. I'd buy big lots to obtain specific titles and end up with doubles/games I didn't fancy which I sold for profit that would fund my animal sanctuary costs. I'd meet so many fun gamer people in the process excited that I had what they were looking for. This added a whole lot of excitement to my life and helped me to socialize as well!
My entrepreneurial skills were born of Neopets playing in the auctions. Which I find to be pretty funny what with the prevalence of realpets in my life. After college I played it again for about a month for the first time since I was 11 and made this account lol http://petpages.neopets.com/userlookup.phtml?user=finalfantasys
At one point I had about 400 NES games 60ish complete in boxes. It took me almost a decade to get it to this point. You could say I had a hoarding problem, but this proved to be a really great problem to have. Just to give you an idea the biggest hitters I found in my collection were Zombie nation which sells for a whopping $375 and a DK edition CONTROLLER $200 on ebay. I literally have no idea how much I paid for either of them. I sold them for much less than ebay and shipped them across the country to ecstatic collectors.
Soo much fun times playing multi-player games such as Conkers Bad Fur Day & Mario Party on the biggest screens xD
When I moved into the trailer I narrowed it down in that time to just the cabinet - I had the entire Zelda & Final Fantasy series (mint/original print/complete) including the handhelds & guides. Nearly all of Harvest Moon of course and much more. Before moving out to the forest I had someone buy up the majority of what I had left that I was willing to part with outside the cabinet. About $4000 worth to be precise! This was a HUGE help when it came time to move to the forest shortly thereafter. It's amazing how the universe provides in it's mysterious ways. And then once there I finally decided to sell it all to fund my solar setup as well as a $1600 vet bill. I'm still selling the last little bits, it's a nice small albeit random bit of supplemental income as I adjust to new avenues such as goats milk & honey, blogging as well as labor and eventually working with horses.
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This is the cabinet currently - housing books, supplements, goat milking equipment, cat food and just some handheld gaming stuff.
Anyone whose held onto these types of things/collected will understand how hard it was to let go of the cabinet, but it was funny explaining to people that I was making my real life harvest moon dream come to fruition. No way was I going to be able to afford electricity required to run consoles & TVs.
And now I've got my gaming laptop loaded with emulators and even adapters that allow me to use the official controllers. Funny enough I obtained my gaming laptop by trading - you guessed it! Gaming stuff xD I actually still have the photo of that lot:
You can imagine my surprise when someone inquired asking if there is anything I'd like to trade for and he just so happened to want to trade me a high end computer for a chunk of my hoard.
Of course there are many other ways in which video games have shaped my life, such as developing reading skills, fueling imagination, honing my reaction time, filling my life with incredible music, giving me a love for farming & homesteading and so much more. Some people think gaming is bad for people but I'm here to prove otherwise as it's GREATLY enhanced my entire life.
I've been playing video games since I was 7, too. and Chrono Trigger to this day is still one of my favs. Your collection was impressive but your ability to part with it is even greater. Our family of 3 is currently downsizing an I have quite a collection of sailor moon toys, stationary, manga, plushies, dolls, etc. To go through. T_T I don't want to part with any of it but I know I must for my whole family to rise. This post gives me power and I'll be showing it to my better half so he can use it as power for his Transformers collection. <3 Much love to you, goat milking supplies looking so awesome! What kind of goats do you have?
I adore Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross! But if I HAD to pick just 1 it would be Okami hands down. As you can probably tell by my mask haha. Thankyou, making all that money off it and having limited power use certainly helped though! I loved sailor moon as a kid! I still have some figurines hehe. I'm sure there are other collectors that would be stoked to acquire such treasures! I'm happy you found power in my post ^_^ Much loves to you as well <3 I have an Alpine & two Nigerian Dwarves. Also chickens & bees! One day I'll master the harvest moon life and befriend a horse lol
The Epoch! It was/is everything any gamer ever wanted out of a video game mount or ride. It's an airship. It's a time machine. It has a damn fine theme song. :P
Also, I have milked alpines/nubians before but the nigerian dwarves sound hard to milk. And also ridiculously adorable. Tiny teats, or do they just drop over time? ^_^ It takes some hand finesse to get the tiny ones going, so kudos to you if the teats are small.
Wow. that is a huge collection.
On another note:
I've been invited onto @pennsif's radio show which uses discord. All Stewards of Terra Mater are also invited to be on the same show at the same time. Are you interested?
I'm about to head into town to spend time with family. Asides from that I have never once even used Skype or anything that requires being on live video. Don't think I'm ready for that to be honest! But if it's just typing like this than I'd be more than happy to parrticipate (so long as it's not scheduled during my family visit!)
I don't know when it will be yet, but his show runs Friday from 10 to midnight UK time. When I know more I will let the team know. You won't be alone on the show, I hope to have us all on it if everyone is interested.
I believe that's 2pm my time? I will be at a doctor's appointment. But if it's next week that likely works!
*edit - I just found out my sister can't make it to town because the routes are closed due to avalanches >.< I'm still going to try and make it to my appt, but yeah keep me posted!
The show has not been scheduled yet. I don't know when it will be. Might be weeks from now. I'll let you know.
Okay sweet! breathes sigh of relief
Well grats there Rob you've been busy ;D
I do love that discord has brought so much unity.
You'll never guess who introduced me to the platform.
hehe
Much love @x0xkasumix0x 's other account.
Thank you. You're right, I would never guess. Please forgive me, but I have a hard time keeping track of who's who here because of all the nick names. I don't know who you are. Care to disclose?
Its oki If it wasn't for display pictures I'd never remember anyone.
It was
that fellow I mentioned who showed up...
in that post I later edited. ^w^
(I figure its possible you never actually got to read that post and if so that's quite ok.)
I'm sorry. That does not help me at all. My memory is failing me. So please don't be vague. I don't know what you are talking about.
I'm terrible for that, super sorry.
Hope I cleared that up. :)
Curious but, is there any way to apply to be included into Terra Mater ?
Great post! I used to game a lot. I remember Final Fantasy 7. I played it like crazy, then I got to the point where you could raise and race Chocobos and I never finished it lol. Sadly I became addicted to the mini game. It's still on my to do list. Thanks for sharing! !
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Hahaha oh the chocobos, I loved that part!! Breeding them to get the ultimate ocean crossing chocobo and racing them to the top. The side quests were awesome!
You're definately a diverse and interesting person Jade! And, quite the collection you have had! Personally i don't get video games at all! My son started gaming at 7. He's a happy guy. It's exciting to see him grow up. I wonder how gaming will influence his direction in life. Guess time will tell!
You really weren't kidding ~ wow what a nice collection.
Reblogged and thank you for sharing your story!
#ManaUp ^.^v
I am older then you but played a lot of the same titles. Harvest moon is great and also most of the Final Fantasy titles.
Nice collection. I like the Legend of Zelda shelf, it shimmers with gold. Retro games are always the best. They're making a major comeback these days. @ironshield
As they should! I never could get into the newer consoles and I think that says something. Stay shiny! ^_^
wow what a collection! i grew up with pokemon and yugioh, especially pokemon i had each and every game till DS comes out! i still keep some of those games i don't know i can't give them away not even for money, it's part of my life :P
I loved yu-gi-oh and especially pokemon! My family was pretty obsessed with the cards too haha. I used to have that attachment to the collection but then I found myself faced with a huge vet bill and living offgrid with a generator lol. I can still play everything on my computer so I'm happy with that!
yes it's exactly like that now with the computers we can pretty much play anything so we are more than fine :P