delscape.

Games

updated: 2025.05.13

Over the years, I've collected many video games. In more recent years, my collection has slowly transitioned away from physical media towards digital with platforms like Steam / PlayStation+. That being said, I still have a soft spot for booting up a cartridge or disc to play my favorite titles. I've actually found myself slowly returning to my physical collection, re-introducing a bit more analog into my life again. You can check out my vinyl album collection for further proof.

Below are all of the physical games in my collection, all of which are still playable in their respective consoles.


Microsoft Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 was my introduction to true online multiplayer gaming. After test driving the console at the houses of friends with split-screen modes in games like “Call of Duty: World at War” and “Halo 3”, I knew I needed to get one. My dad purchased an Xbox 360 “Pro” for the entire family which came bundled with “Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures” and “Kung Fu Panda”. It wasn't long until we were caught in the cycle of buying the latest Call of Duty and subscribing to Xbox Live. A few years later, I acquired my own used Xbox 360 which allowed me to branch out from the family-oriented Xbox and get a personal gamertag (which was a big deal for me at the time).

Microsoft Xbox

The Xbox is an extremely powerful console. At some point in 2003, my Dad acquired a used Xbox (likely at a rummage/garage sale). He knew a guy where he worked that could install a mod chip and hard drive into the console so you could rip games. After modifying the console, we would go to places like Hollywood Video or GameStop, rent a few games, rip them to our Xbox at home, and return them next day. We amassed quite the library of games, some of which I still return to and play often ("Voodoo Vince", "Spyro: A Hero's Tail", "The Simpsons: Hit & Run", and "Halo: Combat Evolved"). I would later go on to buy my own Xbox and make the same modifications to it, but still have acquired a few physical games over the years. If it were not for the fact that “Voodoo Vince” was later ported to PC, I would probably still keep the Xbox hooked up often to have access to that game.

Nintendo 3DS

The 3DS was my introduction into the DS world. I had owned other Nintendo handhelds in the past (all in the “Game Boy” family, but this was the first time gaming with a touchscreen. I still think most of the implementations of the touchscreen (and especially the 3D slider) were gimmicky, but there are a few standout games that took advantage of the touchscreen for inventory management, and on rare occasions, spanned the game across both displays for a unique experience. This form factor is unbeatable, and the “clam-shell” design for portability still remains triumphant in the age of handhelds like the Switch and Steam Deck.

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 (N64) is a newer acquisition for me. I pre-ordered the Analogue 3D which will allow me to play my one N64 game, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”. I played the N64 over at friends' houses growing up (and waited patiently a few times in line at the N64 kiosks in the McDonald's PlayPlace (if you know, you know)), but really never latched onto a desire to own one until rather recently. My earliest playing N64 memories are that of “Pokémon Stadium” and “GoldenEye 007” with my cousin. Most of the other games I've played from this console were ports to future Nintendo consoles, specifically the Wii (virtual console).

Nintendo DS

I was late to the DS craze. I had gotten my hands on one or two over the years via friends to play games like "Mario Kart DS" or "Nintendogs", but never owned one myself. It wasn't until I bought a 3DS that this library games became available to me. I love backwards compatibility (if only I could also play Game Boy Advance games on my 3DS…)!

Nintendo Entertainment System

I had one encounter with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) while I was growing up. The year was 2006; my grandfather had just passed away and the clean-out of a storage locker he owned had just begun. In that storage locker was a trove of classic gaming memorabilia / consoles / games / etc. To preface, my grandfather owned many pawn / thrift -type shops over the years and had clearly amassed a collection of “things” (so much that it required him to offload some of it to a storage locker). That being said, one of consoles was a NES and my parents brought it home briefly before bundling it up for resale. I'm not sure why I didn't push harder to keep it, but while it was in my house, I got to experience "Super Mario Bros."" and "Duck Hunt" (with the zapper!), which was pretty great. It wasn't until much later (when I had a paying job) that I would purchase my own NES and get to dive deeper into the fantastic catalog of games that system offered.

Nintendo Game Boy

The Game Boy (GB) was my first introduction to portable gaming. The GB I played while I was growing up was my Dad's that he was gifted by my Mom when he was in the US Navy. I always liked to picture my Dad unwinding after a long day of ship maintenance with a few rounds of "Tetris" or "Alleyway". I should ask him sometime which games were his favorite. Either way, this thing was a car trip beast. Long car trips with the GB are the reason I am a "Super Mario Land" pro, and have beaten it on multiple different occasions.

Nintendo Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance (GBA) was the first console I ever owned that was truly “mine”. It was gifted to me by my parents during the holidays of 2003 with the game “Sonic Advance 2”. I would go on to acquire many other games for the GBA over the years, most of which were also gifts by my parents. They would usually grab me a new game when we would go on longer road trips to keep me occupied. My favorite road trip GBA game was “Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure”. My favorite memories of the GBA though were when I would get together with my cousin and play “Mario Kart: Super Circuit” over the link cable. Simpler times…

Nintendo Game Boy Color

I never owned a Game Boy Color (GBC) growing up, but I owned a few of the flat cartridges that could be played both in the original GB and GBC. It wasn't until I owned a GBA that I could truly tap into that library and play them in their full “colored” glory. I still think the GBA is the superior Game Boy, but if I had to pick something in that original form factor, the GBC takes the cake.

Nintendo GameCube

I was late to the GameCube. The Wii was already either announced or released when I dipped my toes into games like "Super Mario Sunshine". I remember buying my used GameCube at GameStop (likely EB games at the time) with a game or two for cheaper than one standalone Switch game costs these days. Most of my core memories of the GameCube were when I would be at friends' houses that had them. Many hours were spent grinding “Mario Kart: Double Dash” and “Super Smash Bros. Melee” with friends.

Nintendo Wii

It feels like everyone and their mother (and sometimes even grandmother) owned a Nintendo Wii. There was something about the gimmick of motion controls paired with Nintendo's library of high quality franchises that lured everyone in. Most of my memories of this console were spent playing “Mario Kart Wii” or “Super Mario Galaxy 2” on the big TV in our family room growing up. Swapping friend codes, typing up our landline talking with my cousin while racing on Koopa Cape in Mario Kart until the early hours of the morning, and getting my ass absolutely handed to me against my school friends in “Super Smash Bros. Brawl”. Gimmicks or not, Nintendo's Wii will never be forgotten.

Nintendo Wii U

I bought a Wii U just to be able to play The "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD", as the console and game were both easier to find than a single copy of "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" for GameCube (at the time). I would later find a copy, but many years later. The Wii U was kind of a swing and a miss on Nintendo's part, especially considering it had no GameCube compatibility, making the original Wii the superior console. That being said, the Wii U did have some fantastic games that would later be ported to the Switch (making the Switch the ultimate way to play games like "Mario Kart 8", "Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze", and "Super Mario 3D World"). This is my long winded way of saying that my Wii U never gets used and is ultimately a paper weight in my collection of consoles.

Nintendo Switch

I impulse bought the Switch upon launch. After many successful years with the Wii, and loving the portability of my 3DS, the Switch sounded just right to me. The Zelda launch title, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, was also a must have, alongside the ported forward “Deluxe” copy of “Mario Kart 8”. My Switch still gets much use (especially as an emulation handheld) and likely will for the foreseeable future (until it dies and Nintendo lures me over to the Switch 2). I used to own more physical games for the Switch, but the majority now are digital via the eShop, or borrowed cartridge rips.

Sony PlayStation 1

The PlayStation 1 (PS1) was my first real gaming console growing up. My parents bought a PS1 and owned a few games, mostly in the "Crash Bandicoot" and "Tomb Raider" franchises, and as a result those were some of the first games I was exposed to. Some of my earliest PS1 memories involve playing split-screen multiplayer games with my Dad, specifically "Medal of Honor". I wouldn't get a true itch for the first-person shooter genre until games like "Call of Duty: World at War" on the Xbox 360, but "Medal of Honor" on the PS1 was a humble start. It's safe to say "Crash Bandicoot" (specifically "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back") is one of my all time favorite games. My sister and I received the “Spyro the Dragon, Collector's Edition” trilogy pack the holiday season of 2002 which kick-started my love for Spyro, and further deepened my love for the 3D action/platformer genre.

Demo Discs

Sony PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is my all-time favorite console. Not only does it have the greatest collection of games ever released, it also let you play all of the PS1 titles that you had collected with the previous gen. My favorite PS2 release is “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy”, cementing Naughty Dog as one of my all time favorite developers.

Demo Discs

Sony PlayStation 3

I almost missed the PlayStation 3 (PS3). I was deep in Xbox 360 land when the PS3 launched, so the thought of owning two modern gen (at the time) consoles never occurred to me. Most of my friends were playing "Call of Duty" and "Halo" on the Xbox 360, and the PS2 and PSP were still scratching my Sony itch at the time. Sometime in 2010, my parents bought a Sony Bravia TV that came bundled with PS3 Slim that was still pretty new at the time. For the longest time, it pretty much only acted as a Blu-ray player (as it was really good at doing so), and played a few stray games here and there ("LittleBigPlanet" comes to mind). It wasn't until I borrowed a copy of “Dante's Inferno” (would later discover that this was also a Xbox 360 title) from a friend at school that my love for the PS3 would become unlocked. I would then go on to acquire a few more games over the years via a GameStop membership that gave me money off of used games. The majority of my PS3 games were used, and a solid chunk are in tattered GameStop boxes. Shout out to Naughty Dog for once again dominating my game library with hits like "Uncharted" and "The Last of Us" (later ported to the PS4). I'm glad I didn't sleep on the PS3.

Sony PlayStation 4

I bought a PlayStation 4 (PS4) just after the Pro version came out. I had just acquired my first (still current) 4K TV and was needing something to push the display to it's advertised limits. My drive to purchase this console was also exacerbated by the launches of the “Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy” and the “Spyro Reignited Trilogy”, both of which had me driving around to various GameStops to demo during their early advertising days. If it weren't for those two games, I probably would have slept on some other fantastic games like “Spider-Man”, “God of War”, the remasters of the "Uncharted" Trilogy, and “The Last of Us” remastered. I would go onto buy a PS5 which would allow me to continue to play my PS4 library. I passed my PS4 Pro along with a few physical games to a friend that had been itching to play some games from that generation of hardware. A good chunk of my PS4 (and all of my PS5) library exists via my PlayStation account rather than physically.

Sony PlayStation Portable

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) was a huge deal for me. It was the first console I bought with my own money. If you don't count handhelds as consoles, than my first would be the GameCube, but either way the PSP was my true first gaming purchase. It was the winter of 2007/2008; I had fresh holiday cash burning a hole in my pocket and I had been eyeing up the brand new limited edition silver "Daxter" PSP. My Mom drove me over to Best Buy after discovering they had a few in stock. Upon arrival, there were no "Daxter" PSPs to be found… I was distraught and started to head towards the exit, when an employee stopped us and asked if we needed help finding anything. After mentioning the "Daxter" PSP, they took us into the back of the store, where the employee climbed a ladder to a locked/gated stack of boxes where a single "Daxter" PSP emerged. I coveted that PSP for many years to come. It was my favorite gaming handheld, it was my favorite music player, and it acted as a pretty solid web browser in the early days of “smart” devices. That PSP would later become one of the first consoles I would modify, allowing me to run custom software and delve into the world of emulation. The PSP was fantastic for custom firmware.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

I do not have much history with the Super Nintendo (SNES). I had emulated several of it's games over the years, but I never really had the itch to own one or play any games from it's library. That was until I played “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”. There are many other ways to play that game, but the superior way is on the SNES. I now own an Analogue Super Nt and acquired a few SNES games over the years. I am not sure I will hunt down many more games for the SNES, but I'm proud to own the ones I do and have the means to play them physically.

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