Our latest crib comes courtesy of Neitzey, new dad and retro gamer extraordinaire.

   Some of his retro games

As you can see from the setup he has a lot of older console games. I was curious as to how he managed to compile his collection. Most of my old consoles and games disappeared into the ether.

 

"My collection has a bit of a strange history. As a kid, I sold almost all of my stuff off at yard sales or to friends. My entire NES collection I sold for dirt cheap to a friend's mom running a day care out of her home. It wasn't until after college and getting a full-time job that I started purchasing everything I ever owned (to some degree) back on eBay and local flea markets.

At one of the yard sales we had, we somehow sold my Atari 2600 games and my cousin's Atari. After my aunt died I ended up with it. As I was buying stuff, I bought back some of the games I remembered playing."

 

For gamers like Neitzey his crib is a creation of what we would have dreamed of as kids if we were rich enough!

"My favorite thing about room was that it was completely my own. It was like having a bedroom as a kid but without the unnecessary stuff like a bed and dresser. It was a dream room for my innerself as a 10 year old. Well, who am I kidding...a 30 year old too."

 

This reminded me of a TED lecture I watched recently about 'Manspaces'.  For guys in their 30s who grew up playing video games these spaces are less about pool rooms and sporting memorabilia but more about recreating what they did in their spare time growing up. Gamer cribs allow us to achieve an almost nostalgic space that recaptures some of those memories from our childhood. To hear the full lecture visit http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_martin_builds_a_room_of_his_own.html.

 

His gaming room used to double as a guest room with an Ikea futon doubling as a makeshift bed for visitors. In his words, "Having people over like cousins and parents always felt kind of weird putting them in there. It was kind of like saying, "Welcome to my home! Did you bring YOUR toys?" Although the room is now a nursery he is currently working on remodeling the unfinished basement to house his collection.

 

"The plan has always been to move all the gaming stuff downstairs and out of the way of our son. Of course, he'll end up owning the basement as a teenager, but then that's the way it should be."

 

As a retro gamer Neitzey is very particular about the type of television he uses to play these old games. Although he has two flatscreens, a Polaroid 37" 720p LCD and a Sceptre 42" LCD, he uses a CRT to play the older games.

"It's just not right to play these games on a flat panel LCD. It's like listening to music you have on vinyl from an iPod; it just doesn't sound the same. With old games, they just don't look the same.