Turbo Grafx Collecting

[glazball]

I collect and I play, the two are completely intertwined for me

  Just had to qft.  I want to play everything, from laughably shitty to epic.  I can't play a game until I have it (I don't do emulation), and then not selling it later makes me a collector.

Edit: Zeta, wow I never noticed the eyes before!  How did I miss that?  That's damn creepy!

[RoyVegas]

Seriously, can anyone even explain WTF is going on in this illustration?



The road is...a hoceky mask? Or...WTF is this?

The answer is not "awesome", btw.

Considering the view is from inside the car, rear view mirrors...  I think the real question is, why is the hand facing the wrong direction?

[Retrocool]

I personally buy games that i personally want because I want to play them.  I, myself, is not going to buy sports game because I am not a big fan of sports. So there is no desire there to ever play them.  Why have something in my collection that will just collect dust.  I rather have that game out there for someone else to purchase and actually enjoy.

I do want games that I am willing to pay money for, even though that game is absolutely ridiculous in price, but I want it because I want to play it. Nowadays, I am only looking for a select few games that I MUST HAVE.  I do not need a Bonk 3 Hu Card when I already have the CD of the game.  It is just not fair, the only reason I would get that game if I want to play it on my express, but I usually only play Alien/Devils Crush on that as well as puzzle games like Klax or Tricky Kick.

[vestcoat]

They idea that people actually do collect it, honestly, earnestly, not even realizing how shitty it is, (or worse/better they DO realize how shitty it is but for some reason they love stuff that sucks) is nothing short of amazing, and the prices people are paying...

I agree about prices, but the "why collect shitty games?" argument doesn't hold up in the digital age because collecting any physical media is so obtuse. For the collector with a shelf full of laserdiscs to critique the sensibilities of the the collector with forty extra TurboGrafx games is kind of funny. Now you happen to have pretty good justifications for your pursuits - high standards for video games, Factory vinyls with artistic merit, etc., but the fact is physical possessions tie us down and waste our energy. They cost money, they require storage solutions, cleaning/dusting/buffing/re-capping, organization, a modicum of security and protection from the elements, and they make it hard to move. We'd all be better off if we consolidated our man caves into 6TB hard drives.

I'm sitting in a room surrounded by twenty-year-old video games, D&D books, and CD's. I have two shelves full of VHS tapes and most people don't even buy Blu-Ray anymore. I have a 1/4" 4-track that weighs half as much as I do and I have a SCSI CD-ROM enclosure for my hardware sampler. I have boxes of comics, Star Wars figures and Transformers. Am I foolish for lowering my standards and collecting one extra CD shelf of crap games like Super Volleyball? I guess, but it's doesn't make a goddamn bit of difference. If I had any sense, I'd sell all of my junk, download the appropriate torrents, and take a long vacation with my girlfriend.

[glazball]

  You're absolutely right Vestcoat.  Allow me to kickstart your Vacation Fund Sell-Off.  Send him your PMs with offers.  I'll go ahead and call dibs on your Terraforming

  Madonna (or her songwriter) was right too - it's a material world.  Might as well enjoy all this plastic and silicone while we're here.  I can only hope that whoever gets all my CDs and VHSs and video games after I'm dead and gone will appreciate them half as much as I have.  Hmmm... or maybe I'll just have them cremated with me!  Don't want anyone else to suffer with the burden of storing all this shit.
  

[esteban]

STATUS: Delighted that Zeta finally bit! I am quite happy that he provided images, too (please include more--with commentary--in the next post). Here goes...

Like it has gone so next level into the areas of sucky and stupid and obliviousness to its own sucky stupidity that its BEYOND PARODY.

Like...I can't even come up with jokes to describe how crappy and insane TG-16 collecting is anymore.

"You'd probably pay $40 for this POS!"

"Nope! I paid $55!"

"You probably see something well made but, out of fear of competency, reject it and pay more for something shittier. Right Esteban?"
"Yep!"

Seriously, can anyone even explain WTF is going on in this illustration?



The road is...a hoceky mask? Or...WTF is this?

The answer is not "awesome", btw.

I don't want to conflate two separate issues:

(1) TG-16 collecting

(2) The artistic merit of TG-16 cover art.

J'ACCUSE!: In my truly fantastic prior post, I argued that the cover art that is sheepishly mocked ad nauseum (especially by Swiss folks and J'apanotaku and you, too, average forum member) does indeed possess artistic merit. Now, I freely admitted that som stuff (like the Dungeon Explorer cover) was pretty damn generic and could be hung in a coffee house (or at a Dangerous Journeys convention). Would I still want said painting of TG-16 Dungeon Explorer? HE'LL YES. The Japanese original is nothing to get excited over, either. But, since I love Dungeon Explorer, I'm not going to kick the cover art out of my bedroom (indeed, I'd hang it above my dresser).

BOTTOM LINE: So...Dungeon Explorer is pretty mediocre.

IN DEFENSE OF MOTOROADER: Holy shit! You honestly aren't intrigued by that cover art? It actually is one of the very few examples of TG-16 art that actually does something interesting! I'm not bullshitting you here. Really, I'm not. There are truly surreal elements to the bold composition of MotoRoader. It's not messy, it's clean. The imagery and color are sharp, bold, deliberate. This wasn't thrown together randomly. This isn't incompetent. This is as close to Magritte as we're going to get with 5-player overhead racing games. Familiar, archetypical images comprise this seemingly simple painting...yet, as you correctly identified, your gut tells you that something is wrong. I love this cover! A masterpiece.

[SignOfZeta]

The most fascinating thing about that cover is just sitting around thinking about it. What...AM I looking at? What made the artist think this made sense?

The great big TG16 logo in the middle of it really f*cks it up though.

But seriously, what is going on in this thing?

[esteban]

The most fascinating thing about that cover is just sitting around thinking about it. What...AM I looking at? What made the artist think this made sense?

The great big TG16 logo in the middle of it really f*cks it up though.

But seriously, what is going on in this thing?

DON'T LUST FOR THE LITERAL: As you correctly pointed out, good art forces the viewer off his couch (or out of his desk chair) of passivity and encourages an active dialogue (sometimes an existential "WTF?" is all it takes to start this dialogue). The meaning to any masterpiece like MotoRoader, of course, lies beyond a merely literal description.


THE LITERAL: It's actually quite obvious what this is...a driver in a futuristic racing world is wearing a mirrored helmet. We see only his eyes--the rest of his helmet is a reflection of his immediate environment (dashboard gauges, road ahead, etc). I could go on with the details, but you get the gist.

L'INTERPRETATION: On the deserted, desiccated, barren wasteland of Life, we choose certain paths to move forward. Sometimes we may be running away from pain; at other times we are desperate for help and support. Sadly, the barren desert offers no assistance. You will never have anyone who can truly help you. You are alone. A menacing city looms in the horizon and you, with your stone hands frozen in fear, grip the steering wheel like an octogenarian in a dragster: "Please, please let me sip the sweet nectar of life tomorrow. Just one more day!" you plead with a distant, uninterested Fate. But wait, what's this! It appears to be a Honda Civic, circa 1987, with a wicked sweet after-market spoiler! Surely, this is Salvation! Surely, this is that kind soul, that mentor, that friend, that confidant that can help you traverse the Brutal (paved) Road of Life! Surely, at the very least, they can show you The Way.

No. You are mistaken. The other driver doesn't offer assistance, but rather, Pain. Pure, Unadulterated Pain (or PUP, as I like to call it). The other driver--THOUGH HE MAY BE YOUR BROTHER, SISTER, LOVER, FATHER, MOTHER, FRIEND--that other driver is your HINDRANCE, your obstacle, your albatross, your doom.

MotoRoader. 5-players. Ayn Rand Approved.

[vestcoat]

I foresee a new youtube channel of TurboGrafx art reviews.

[SignOfZeta]

The most fascinating thing about that cover is just sitting around thinking about it. What...AM I looking at? What made the artist think this made sense?

The great big TG16 logo in the middle of it really f*cks it up though.

But seriously, what is going on in this thing?

DON'T LUST FOR THE LITERAL: As you correctly pointed out, good art forces the viewer off his couch (or out of his desk chair) of passivity and encourages an active dialogue (sometimes an existential "WTF?" is all it takes to start this dialogue). The meaning to any masterpiece like MotoRoader, of course, lies beyond a merely literal description.


THE LITERAL: It's actually quite obvious what this is...a driver in a futuristic racing world is wearing a mirrored helmet. We see only his eyes--the rest of his helmet is a reflection of his immediate environment (dashboard gauges, road ahead, etc). I could go on with the details, but you get the gist.

L'INTERPRETATION: On the deserted, desiccated, barren wasteland of Life, we choose certain paths to move forward. Sometimes we may be running away from pain; at other times we are desperate for help and support. Sadly, the barren desert offers no assistance. You will never have anyone who can truly help you. You are alone. A menacing city looms in the horizon and you, with your stone hands frozen in fear, grip the steering wheel like an octogenarian in a dragster: "Please, please let me sip the sweet nectar of life tomorrow. Just one more day!" you plead with a distant, uninterested Fate. But wait, what's this! It appears to be a Honda Civic, circa 1987, with a wicked sweet after-market spoiler! Surely, this is Salvation! Surely, this is that kind soul, that mentor, that friend, that confidant that can help you traverse the Brutal (paved) Road of Life! Surely, at the very least, they can show you The Way.

No. You are mistaken. The other driver doesn't offer assistance, but rather, Pain. Pure, Unadulterated Pain (or PUP, as I like to call it). The other driver--THOUGH HE MAY BE YOUR BROTHER, SISTER, LOVER, FATHER, MOTHER, FRIEND--that other driver is your HINDRANCE, your obstacle, your albatross, your doom.

MotoRoader. 5-players. Ayn Rand Approved.

I think that's supposed to be a 959 but the artist is so...bad...that he has malformed its spoiler to be about 5 times higher than its supposed to be.

As for the helmet, it came to me in a dream a little before I read your post. MotoRoader is actually a pseudonym for Peacemaker:



It has to be. I've never seen another helmet so featureless and yet so polished.

[esteban]

STATUS: Zeta is slowly clawing his way to a clearing in his forest of confusion concerning art. Zeta, let go of your lust for the literal. The videogames you play and love are absurd and surreal and lovely--allow the cover art that represents them room to breathe. The exaggerated proportions on the 959 are intentional, deliberate and serve a purpose. The polished mirror mask you deride is standard issue in the Futuristic Racing World (FRW) that includes HOPPER and sanctions the use of weapons!

Zeta, do you want cereal box art with disclaimers (the automobiles and helmets have been enlarged to show texture) to distinguish the Literal from the Figurative?

I would be thoroughly disappointed if the artist commissioned to create the cover art for MotoRoader followed the safe, predictable, generic path you seem to wish for: a screenshot of the game? A pixel-for-pixel painting of a screenshot from the game? Or perhaps a cover reminiscent of NASCAR and Ridge Racer and Lord-knows-what-else? Slick and shiny and Xtreme (even the logos should be slick, shiny and "in your face"!). The Fast and Furious 5, if you will allow a TurbTap into the mix.

I feel our minds and souls have connected on some plane of existence, dear Zeta: though we may disagree, we shall ever be indebted to MotoRoader for provoking a serious discussion on Art, Life, Realism, the Literal vs. the Figurative, etc.



I am the helmeted racer. You are the helmeted racer. We are anonymous creatures, safely hidden behind our protective racing gear, protected in our own impenetrable bubble of ideology and philosophy. And yet, in rare, glorious moments (such as this thread), we get a glimpse at each other's eyes. Our eyes are telling. Our eyes reveal all. You can read my heart, my soul and my mind by looking into my eyes (of course, if it's a sunny day, the glare of the sun reflecting off my helmet may make it difficult to peer at my eyes through the exceedingly narrow slots in my mask).    

[BlueBMW]

I love estebans posts....

[soop]

Me too what a guy!

[Keith Courage]

The helmeted racer? As long as that means he has Helmet cranked up on his car stereo while racing then that's fine by me.

[runinruder]

The helmeted racer? As long as that means he has Helmet cranked up on his car stereo while racing then that's fine by me.

Yeah, "Ironhead" going full-blast makes any goofy-looking racing helmet forgivable.