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The lost weekend is a phrase used to describe an epic drunk weekend that begins Friday night and ends early Monday morning. As much as I love what I do for a living, there's nothing like Friday when you've checked off your last to-do item on the list. An uncaged animal, you now have the next 50 or so hours to return to the comforts of your esteemed sanctuary, game cave or make a random trip out of town. There are few things I relish more in this world than the feeling I get every single Friday evening when I make the drive home from a long, grueling work week. Rolling down the windows, you undo your tie, blast the radio and take in a good whiff of that sweet Friday night air. You know the weekend is here, and you know good times lie ahead. Whatever happened that week is washed away as the weekend promises a respite. Punching out on a Friday is priceless!



Some Friday nights I like to hit the town and check out what's going on. Other times I simply like cruising around with no destination in mind... letting the road take me wherever it shall. I've always been a night owl for as long as I can remember. It seems my energy kicks in right when many prefer to sleep. I'm not as outgoing in my old age as I once used to be, but I do still like to get out there every once in a while to sample a bit of the night life. Lately though, after an exhausting work week, I've found driving straight home to relax and unwind to be slightly more appealing. Being a night owl, there's something magical about the 11 PM to 2 AM hours on a late Friday night/early Saturday morning. Sometimes I'll throw in a movie. Sometimes I play the next SNES game on my queue. Other times I'm working on a review or just hanging out with some pals. Whatever I end up doing, there's something precious about those late hours. There's a nice calm and quiet serenity to it all



Then Saturday morning comes. I just love to hang around town, or even stay in and take care of some projects around the house. More often than not, I'm usually chilling at home. I've got no shame. I love those quiet early Saturday mornings... where it feels like the world is standing still for a brief moment or two. It's even better during the fall season, where you get weather like you see here. It's so atmospheric and it's great to hang out around the house chilling like a bum with no plans
Sometimes, the best weekends happen organically and on the fly



Sometimes I'll stay in and pick the next game off my queue to play through. It's a joy to explore my SNES library. I acquired most of them over 8 years ago in early 2006, yet still there remains hundreds I have yet to play even once. It's the system that keeps on giving. Once in a special while, you have a weekend you will never forget. This past Labor Day weekend was one such time for me. I decided it was time to finally set up and display my CIB SNES collection. A project LONG overdue!
                                       Launching a Labor Day weekend project 8+ years in the making!




It put my 8½ year Super Nintendo renaissance into perspective :)



For over 8 years now, I've kept my Super Nintendo stuff tucked away in bins and boxes. Mainly for two reasons: 1. I was paranoid of getting robbed and 2. I was too gawd damn lazy. Well, in recent times I was inspired to finally set it up. I've been meaning to post a picture of my collection on this website ever since I launched it, but I've never gotten around to setting it up. I was recently inspired by a video on youtube that showed movie critic Chris Stuckmann's N64 games in badass box protectors. They looked über shiny and glossy. I knew right away that I had to do the same for my SNES collection. I contacted Dan of retroprotection.com and purchased 200 box protectors for $142. That may seem like a lot, but at 71 cents a pop, I believe it's more than worth the investment, especially given how flimsy SNES boxes are. And like I said, it adds a nice classy sleek look




Thanks Chris for the inspiration!  ^_^




                                       Highly recommended. Dan the man Godkin will take care of you




I also bought 200 tray inserts off of eBay. Most of my SNES boxes
didn't come with an insert. They help prevent games from rattling



The lost weekend began Friday night as I dug out my boxes and manuals in preparation for Saturday's one man assembly line. Seeing the goods out in full force reminded me of how lucky I was that the nostalgia bug bit me back in January 2006, and not years later as the market would then explode. The prices these babies now command is insane. I was fortunate enough to sort of beat the crowd. 2006 was kind of a golden time to be a diehard SNES buyer as many items were cheap
                                       Most SNES games back in 2006 ran for a measly $5-$10 cart only




It was right place, right time. Kind of like most other things in life




                                       This looked nice but it was time to set up my collection properly



Saturday morning, 9:15 AM. A beautiful morning, the floor was littered with cartridges, manuals and boxes. One at a time I began to put the pieces together. My goal was to get the first 200 games boxed. As I assembled it, I listened to quite a few wrestling podcasts. It was fun listening to Jim Ross shooting the breeze with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Also listened to Drax the Destroyer Dave Bautista talking to Chris Jericho about a variety of topics and learned a thing or two sitting under the learning tree of one, Paul Heyman. It help made the tedious one man assembly line a lot more fun, plus flipping through the various manuals and reading the back of boxes kept me entertained. It ended up being a lot more enjoyable and memorable than I imagined. I felt like a kid all over again seeing my childhood resurrected, coming back to life one game at a time ^_^




                                       Didn't get drunk but I sure got lost in my collection that weekend




What started out bare soon became...



Wow. My jaw dropped as I stood back to admire my collection in half its glory. With another 200 or so games to piece together and display, this is only 204 CIB SNES games. Wiping the sweat off my brow... I stood there for what felt like 30 minutes to admire the beauty of it all. Why didn't I get off my ass to do this years prior! It made me regret hiding all this in bins and boxes for all these years. I love the SNES boxes... yes, they're flimsy, but there's something cool about 'em
                                       They are, essentially, fragments of memories from my childhood!





CLOSING THOUGHTS

One guy put it best when he said years ago, "I feel like... I am fulfilling my CHILDHOOD DREAMS." There's something to be said about walking into a room only to be met by hundreds and hundreds of boxed video games. As a child I remember gawking at the endless Super NES titles on hand at the local SOFTWARE ETC. or KB Toys. I could only dream of one day owning even a small fraction of all those games. Yet as of today, I can say that my collection rivals the ones I saw in my youth. Even, surpassing them. It's a trip. Maybe I didn't get drunk this past Labor Day weekend, but to me it was still a "lost" weekend. A weekend I'll never forget. Finally, I had put together a bulk of my SNES collection and as I did, a flood of memories came roaring back to the surface, ranging from how I acquired a game to my childhood memories of playing a certain game to death. It was an insane flashback weekend for the ages. Indeed, I have fulfilled my childhood dreams. I never ever imagined as a youth that one day I would own so many complete Super Nintendo games. Standing back to admire my boxed collection, I feel overjoyed, as if I had hit the jackpot. Gamewise, I'm set for life. Retirement from that "rat race" of buying games is definitely not a bad thing. I don't exactly miss waking up early Saturday and Sunday mornings to go game hunting at the local flea markets. I much rather sleep in or cross the next game off my to-play queue. That, my fine retro friends, is a good thing indeed



I love the small pleasures in life. And one of them is definitely coming home to your game room. Gazing at those gorgeous boxes and knowing you can pick to play any one of them at any time is an incredible feeling. On lazy weekends I enjoy at long last playing a game I've yet to play and I have been curious about for years on end. Now that my collection is displayed, I feel all the more fortunate to own all the games that I do. The offering of choices is endless and playing the rest of the games still left on my to-beat queue is a lifetime project. I love the feeling I get from going through my work day, and you know how sometimes you'll get the strangest most random urge to finally play game X? And then you head home with that game bouncing off the walls of your mind. You can't shake it. You enter your game room, locate its spot in your collection, pull it off the shelf and pop it in. It's such a great feeling, and part of what makes gaming so much fun. I love movies, but to me there is nothing like retro gaming. They're bundles of nostalgia and wonder. Hey, is it Friday night yet?






If you told me 20 years ago in 1994 that I would one day own over
400 boxed Super Nintendo games, I would have called you loony!






                                       Feel free to check out the YouTube video I shot of my collection!





By the way, I am going to finish piecing together the rest of my SNES collection and when I do, I'll set up all the titles properly (i.e. in alphabetical order) and then I'll update this article with my full SNES collection. New pics, full game list, and a new video will be produced sometime later





YouTube video version of THE LOST WEEKEND: ASSEMBLING MY SNES COLLECTION