Show us your collection: #7 Danny Major (Guy Fawkes Retro)

Already, we are on our seventh featured collection and this time back in the UK with a jaw-dropping collection all housed in a fantastic looking games room. Danny Major, AKA @GuyFawkesRetro is our man and here is his awesome collection, enjoy.

The Collection

Most of my Amiga games have never been used. I like to use certian disks for originality but I copied all of them so they could stay in the boxes.

I still have all the original contents from the Amiga boxes. The warranty is a good thing to keep, though I doubt Commodore will accept it now…
Here is what is inside the warranty pack, nice jumper.
I don’t use the Amiga 1200 anymore, I reverted back to the 500, so I put it back in it’s box.

Just some of the stuff i have, the Elite Finale box set being the most rare of the Amiga games to me. It contains Ghost 'n' Goblins, Paperboy, Overlander, Space Harrier, Return To Fantasy Zone and a boxing Game.
Just some of the stuff I have, the Elite Finale box set being the most rare of the Amiga games to me. It contains Ghost ‘n’ Goblins, Paperboy, Overlander, Space Harrier, Return To Fantasy Zone and a boxing Game.

I try to keep everything I have got in good shape.

I like a box or two…

I like trying to hunt down boxed Nintendo games.
I like trying to hunt down boxed Nintendo games.

Taken me a while to get a setup like this, but it was worth it.

Q and A with Danny Major

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

Danny Major: The first video game I played, that I can remember, was The Ninja, on the Sega Master System. I remember a school friend had just got the system for Christmas and I went round his to play it. I must have been about 5 years old and new to the whole thing. I played Double Dragon straight after, two players. It was from then I was hooked. I begged the parents to buy me one, but I got something a lot better a couple of years later.

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

Danny Major: The first computer I got was the Amiga 500. I was 7 years old and it was Christmas 1991. There was a huge box under the tree, surrounded by loads of smaller boxes. I remember opening it to see the Commodore logo on the top of the box and became a bit excited. I was a dubious of that fact it was not a Sega MegaDrive or Super Nintendo, but as soon as I turned it on and loaded Shadow of The Beast 2, I was blown away.

What got you into collecting computers/consoles?

Danny Major: I can’t say really why I started to collect video games and consoles. I guess when I was younger, I had an SMS, SNES and MegaDrive. I started collecting more & more games around the time the Nintendo 64 was released. I found that the games I could not afford back in the day, were becoming more available at a second hand price in local games shops. I took advantage of this obviously, but never considered myself as a collector until recently when I discovered I had no room for them. That’s when I knew I fell into that category.
I basically bought games for the computers I had, like the Amiga.

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

Danny Major: I have to say that I do tend to use eBay, but I make sure I am getting my money’s worth. You can find some great games that are listed wrongly, or somebody’s parents have cleaned the loft out and are selling a job’s lot of rare and vintage games. I can say I do like looking around local boot sales, I find it interesting to see what people value the games at. Some people have a knowledge of what they are selling, which can be a pain, but also the other extreme is that people don’t care what they are selling and list everything for a pound. I once found Phantasy Zone 3, on the MD at a boot sale stall. The guy gave it to me for free as he was packing up the stall, so I helped myself to a few old titles.

What is your most prized retro gaming item and how much did it cost you?

Danny Major: Hard to say really, I am thinking a copy of Super Star Wars for the SNES, never played. It was a present and I played it, games are there to be played. So I did. It’s still in mint condition though. But, one of my most prized possessions has to be my Master System Plus. I paid £20 for it only four years ago, all in it’s box, included everything. It’s not the most expensive or flash items I own, but it has to the best deal I have ever got on eBay. It was listed under sound equipment, misspelled as a ‘Mega System by Saga’ and a buy now price at twenty quid. I took a chance and it was near mint when it arrived.

What is your favourite hardware manufacturer next to Commodore?

Danny Major: Has to be Nintendo or Sega. Nintendo may just top it… they are leaders in the whole industry. The products they have sold over the years has varied so much. Absolute pioneers. Also, it’s interesting to try a hunt down mint & boxed games up until the GameCube era.

What is your favourite console or computer and why?

Danny Major: I will say my Amiga 500. I’ve always had one, although it is now a ‘frankinamiga’, it’s still my Amiga 500. I have an Amiga 1200 that I worked on for a couple of years. I installed a Blizzard RAM expansion upgrade, installed a 8G hard drive with WHDload compatible flash card. It had over 3K of games. The 1200 could play games like Doom 1 & 2, Quake and Wipeout2097 at a respectable speed and frame rate. But, I got bored and decided that I wanted my 500 up and running again. I started to collect the games I could not afford from a youngster and have not looked back since. I have over 1k of discs with games and programs. A lot of the games have been trained and cracked (something I took an interest in when I was about 12) & a lot are from the Demo Scene which I still find amazing. Using WHDload is great if you simply want select a game from your HDD and play instantly, but I feel the need to listen the disks loading in the 500. I think nostalgic reasons are to blame, but I actually play a lot of the games as seriously as I would play a modern game. It’s the computer that started it all.

Where do you want to go now with the collection?

Danny Major: I see my collection staying as it for the time being, I need to play some games that I have. There’s a few NES, Amiga and N64 games I want to find, but at the moment I want concentrate on writing about them. I will still collect, maybe one or two a month. Who knows?

Have you any tips for budding retro games collectors?

Danny Major: I would seriously say do your research. Stick to a console that that you own or that you had and go from there. Don’t go and buy a rare console, like an Apple Pipin Atmark Bandai  or a 3DO. Stick to 8bit 0r 16bit or the time being, then once you get a feel for the retro games bug spread out a bit. Games are there to be played, that’s the whole point.

Links

Twitter: @GuyFawkesRetro

 

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