We are all big retro enthusiasts and fans on here. However have you ever thought about this..

Are you a compulsive hoarder?

Do you see hardware and software you used to own, or even worse wished you could afford to own at the time, and just have to buy it and own it again?

And in the extreme cases do you buy loads of retro gear but hardly ever use it? Just happy in the knowledge you finally own that special piece of hardware you longed for so much years ago?
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Difficult to say, compulsive in getting every games (ROMs of course) existing possible and storing them , but not so much anymore with hardware, trying to get rid of it at the moment.

But I wouldn't go so far to say that it takes over my life. I spend some time collecting, but as I have most of the stuff, it's only updating and sorting, not that much time consuming. I would choose between compulsive and conservative, as I still want to own everything, ROM wise, meaning more than I intend to use.
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Compulsive Hoarder but I'm working towards a Conservative Hoarder and to dedicate time to using All
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I'm bloody terrible I've not played half the games I own apart from my amiga titles, I've been to Gamestation today and spent £100 on PS2, dreamcast, gamecube and PS1 games there currently 5 for £5 and 5 for £10 I know I won't play most of them but for the price I couldn't resist and they will sit on my shelves gathering dust but it just feels right.

Defo a hoarder.
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I used to be a hoarder, but ending up selling a load of stuff on to get more money. Now I just hoard Amiga stuff and Amstrad CPC stuff.
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I guess it depends on what type of a collector you are. I have one console where I am aiming for a full set the sega saturn only 10 games away. The other consoles I just buy the game I want to play. Some people collect sealed games which defeats the point of gaming.
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Extreme Compulsive Hoarder, but I can't say I regret it! In lots of conversations with friends, people always say "Oh man remember this x", and I say, I don't just remember it, check this out, and play it! Hah!
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That's always nice, when you see their surprised faces, and you smile saying, "of course I have that game, plus a million other ones ". I always tell them that I have close to almost every game existing, if they want to play it, just tell me. And often that continues with a conversation about emulation, and how to do it themselves .

Last year I saw my cousin since a long time, and so we were talking about old times. In the mid 80' we were always together and big C64 game swappers, and arcade gamers. So when I told him about everything, he got quite interested about building a cabinet. He got quite into it and finished setting it up very soon, and now he has a damn great cabinet with Hyperspin running on it, looks very neat.
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Money and space is a bit of an issue.
I am a huge retro fan playing anything from the Atari 2600 and early computers up to the Sega Dreamcast (or say the millennium era),but i only live in a one bedroom flat so space is a bit of a premium and i have simply run out of it pure and simple.I have around 25 storage boxes of stuff which is a mixture of consoles/computers,games and junk cables,i also share my flat with 7 arcade cabs so even if i did have the money because of the lack of space i would simply have to sell other stuff first before obtaining new stuff which is counterproductive.
So i now see mysellf as retro fan with just a few things,my collection is small compared to some collectors out there.
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Not as bad as I used to be. Recently got rid of a whole load of magazines, and have stopped hunting around the charity shops for retro gear. Family life and a freakingly small flat do not combine too well to allow hoarding (although I do collect Special Edition PS3 games...)
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