After a long haitus (blame my job!), we are back with another epic UK based collection. Those of you who partake in social media will already have heard of Rich King Retro and have probably already seen snippets of his amazing and diverse collection. For those who haven’t, feast your eyes on a mouthwatering array of retro goodness and be sure to read our interview with the man himself below.

The Collection

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Q and A with Rich King Retro

When did you become interested in video games and what was the first video game you played?

RKR: When I was a wee lad (7/8 years old) i used to cycle down to my sisters house where her boyfriend owned a master system 1 and the first game I ever played was either ‘Hang On’ or ‘Safari Hunt’ the games built into the system, I preferred ‘Safari Hunt’ as I used to find ‘Hang On’ to hard.

What was the first games console or computer you owned and how old were you?

RKR: Master System 2 with ‘Alex the Kid’ build in, because I spent so much time at my sister’s house playing her boyfriends console, for christmas my parents bought me my own

What got you into collecting videogames, computers and consoles?

RKR: Haha, I was always a bit of a hoarder, never sold any of my older consoles and it eventually just built up and before I knew it I was climbing over them, when my friends all started to leave for university I was buying their old systems and after realising I had accumilated so much I started looking out for the games and the consoles I was missing and this evolved into the collection.

Where do you source most of your retro purchases from (ebay, flea markets etc) ?

RKR: In the early days the old 90’s consoles games were sold by game shops for cheap so a lot of it built up from there, also car boot sales as I am always on the lookout for a bargain, trade any that I have acquired duplicates for into game shops for titles missing from my collection. I have used ebay but very little of it has been acquired through ebay as I prefer to see what I’m buying, check the condition and make sure its the correct version I’m missing.

What is your most prized retrogaming possession and how much did it cost you?

RKR: It’s between two items to be honest, either the Virtual Boy which cost £200 pounds in a bundle with lots of other Nintendo mechandise, I traded in a lot of duplicate games to get the cost down way down from that. My other prized possession is Nintendo Rob Deluxe Set which I picked up for £10 but was missing some pieces, I eventually found a bundle of parts for £4 which managed to give me a complete Rob and some spare parts.

What is your favourite hardware manufacturer (Sega, Nintendo, Atari Commodore etc.) ?

RKR: Sony (Playstation)

What is your favourite console or computer?

RKR: Playstation, the original, it was such a leap up from the console I owned before it and got me really excited about each new game that was released

The burning house scenario: which collection would you save first?

RKR: I’d be to busy crying, I have 6 fire extinguishers around the place, so maybe I would go down fighting for my collection.

The Desert Island scenario: which one console and game would you take?

RKR: Do I have a power supply? Am I allowed a television?

Playstation and Final Fantasy VII so I have at least 100 hours of entertainment out of that, after defeating all of the weapons, getting enough master materia for every character (except Cait Sith, Fuck Cait Sith) and wasting a ridiculous amount of time chasing up every rumour on how to bring Aeris back to life.

Where do you want to go now with the collection?

RKR: Slowly hunt the missing titles to my collection and hopefully own all of the titles to my favorite systems.

Have you any tips for budding retro games collectors?

RKR: Look out for bundle deals with consoles to build up the collection at the start, also its often where I find some of those missing games I need for my collection even now.

Also my other items I love to collect are boardgames

16 Bit World

Show us your collection: #26 Rich King Retro