600 games in my collection and I'm playing a ROM...

The title really says it all. I own over 600 games for all platforms (from Virtual Boy to NES to PS3 to Xbox1 to Steam/GOG/PC) and what am I playing? 
 
Freakin' EarthBound. On a freakin' emulator. That's how much of an old school motherf*cker I am.  
 
Part of me is extremely bothered by this. Not that I really have any reason to be, I mean EarthBound is an awesome game that I could never beat on my legit SNES copy that erases save files (so I gave up and finally went the emulator route, which a friend gave me. And honestly, she gave it to me like three years ago but I was intent on playing the SNES version and beating that so I never touched it until late last year... but it's an impossibility to beat on SNES....*sigh*) so it only makes sense to play it on the PC where my save files are safe.  
 
I don't know what it is though, but I almost seem stuck in the last gen in many ways. I've missed out on a ton of the current-gen hits and I always find myself returning to games I love such as Metroid Prime or Resident Evil Remake, or in this case EarthBound. Even a couple months back I replayed through the Ninja Gaiden NES trilogy, Metroid 1 and Super Metroid. And I may, just may, play through Link's Awakening which I've already beaten before. And if I don't do that I really feel like returning to my unfinished Final Fantasy 8 save file that I stopped playing half a year ago. 
 
I feel like I SHOULD be playing something NEW (You know, like those unviolated copies of FFXIII and Halo Reach: Legendary I bought. Or even Zelda: Twilight Princess). And you know what I may still play tonight instead? Resident Evil REMAKE. Again. CURSES! 
 
And for anyone who thinks otherwise, I OWN the game so technically playing the ROM is legal for me. I bought Earthbound back in like 1997 at Blockbuster for $15 bucks. :P 
 

Inb4 Cool Story bro 
 
I feel you. I tend to play games im comfortable with like WoW because I dont have to learn how to play it again. You know what you need to do theres no guessing its just a nice comfortable feeling playing what you like. Also you dont have to worry you may not like something if you've already played it. I tend to do the same with movies and just watch things I like rather than things I haven't seen before.

" Inb4 Cool Story bro "

" Inb4 Cool Story bro 

good times playing emulators. you know what you should do man, you should play an emulator and then play something current. you will look at the graphics and think that they are way awesome than what they were for a person that plays them everyday. i do that from time to time. 
 
what i think it is, is that you just enjoy playing older games.

Thanks everyone! Oh I am comfortable but I do really wish I had that willpower, I guess, to play more modern games and have that real desire to do it. I think @iam3green: said it best, I just like older games.... 

Wait, it erases saves? Is it doing anything else weird? If it is, there's a good chance you bought a pirated copy. Earthbound's a dick about piracy (but not about emulators).

Just play with what you feel! And let the hearts, kisses and rainbows do the rest. 
 
I've been getting into oldish games myself, aswell. PS2 era, so not quite Earthbound ;P. Been playing me the LOTR games (which as dates as they be are still some of the best movie2game adaptations you can find) and ordered me a copy of The Warriors having never played it.

" Wait, it erases saves? Is it doing anything else weird? If it is, there's a good chance you bought a pirated copy. Earthbound's a dick about piracy (but not about emulators). "

" Just play with what you feel! And let the hearts, kisses and rainbows do the rest.  I've been getting into oldish games myself, aswell. PS2 era, so not quite Earthbound ;P. Been playing me the LOTR games (which as dates as they be are still some of the best movie2game adaptations you can find) and ordered me a copy of The Warriors having never played it. "

" @astrotriforce:   People were making illegitimate copies of the game long before 2000. That's why Nintendo released a 1.1 release of it (you don't count it as a different game, since it's usually just bug fixes): to screw over people who were copying it onto blank ROM boards or whatever. "

Yep cartridges sometimes have the problem of not being able to sustain a save.  Happened to me once when I tried to play Pokemon Gold on my gameboy color after not playing it for like 5 years and when I go to reload a save it's not there.

" @astrotriforce:   I don't know how Blockbuster operates, but it's at least possible that there's some overlap between their used game market and rental stuff.  Also, what the hell is that game next to Star Fox? I cannot figure out what the hell it is. "

Wow, just wow. I recently started Earthbound again. I never finished it despite the fact that I have started it about 10 times, but I got a couple days off here and I swear I am gonna plow through it.

I've got a gorgeously pristine boxed copy of Mother 2 for the Super Famicom. Problem is, my Japanese is nowhere near good enough to play through it.

I miss my SNES... I've been considering buying one off craigslist, and getting all my old games. I swear I'll do it... one of these days...

Nothing wrong with playing old games. The first 2 games I've finished this year are Comix Zone and Fallout 2.
 
Also, zomg, you have a face.
 
Edit: Link's Awakening is amazing you should definitely play through it again =D

" Nothing wrong with playing old games. The first 2 games I've finished this year are Comix Zone and Fallout 2.  Also, zomg, you have a face. "

i love the psp...when i am playing older games on it :/

Sometimes you just want to play an old game. Nothing wrong with it. I know when I soft modded my original x-box I pretty much only used it to play Chrono Trigger and that was about it. I played it for a week or so, then that was it. 
 
Back when I got my first PC I was using dial up and spending hours downloading old nes/SNES roms and I would spend months just playing old games I always wanted to play as a kid but never could afford to, or could never find them. 
 
I spent something like $500 on games in the month of November, and I have started replaying older games two times now, and I still haven't even touched half of the stuff I bought. I'm new to this whole, having an actually backlog of games thing, so my mind just doesn't understand how it works and I keep forgetting I have all those games sitting over there when I go looking for a new game to play. Just p lay what you want to play, and don't feel guilty about not playing something else.
 
 Anyway, a mod will probably be in soon to lock/delete for talking about something as EVIL as roms.    

" Nothing wrong with playing old games. The first 2 games I've finished this year are Comix Zone and Fallout 2.
 
Also, zomg, you have a face.
 
Edit: Link's Awakening is amazing you should definitely play through it again =D "

" I miss my SNES... I've been considering buying one off craigslist, and getting all my old games. I swear I'll do it... one of these days... "

" I've got a gorgeously pristine boxed copy of Mother 2 for the Super Famicom. Problem is, my Japanese is nowhere near good enough to play through it. "

Nice collection!

" Nice collection! "

" Sometimes you just want to play an old game. Nothing wrong with it. I know when I soft modded my original x-box I pretty much only used it to play Chrono Trigger and that was about it. I played it for a week or so, then that was it.  Back when I got my first PC I was using dial up and spending hours downloading old nes/SNES roms and I would spend months just playing old games I always wanted to play as a kid but never could afford to, or could never find them.  I spent something like $500 on games in the month of November, and I have started replaying older games two times now, and I still haven't even touched half of the stuff I bought. I'm new to this whole, having an actually backlog of games thing, so my mind just doesn't understand how it works and I keep forgetting I have all those games sitting over there when I go looking for a new game to play. Just p lay what you want to play, and don't feel guilty about not playing something else.  Anyway, a mod will probably be in soon to lock/delete for talking about something as EVIL as roms.     "

This past summer I spent almost all my free time replaying games. I have a gazillion games I haven't gotten to (I will install Fallout 3 someday) but the rate at which I catch up on all the new releases is very slow considering how much I'm lured by the games I've already played but want to take for another spin. I almost have a liturgical calendar of replays, as I find myself playing games such as Thief II and Quake at least once every year. 
 
As this year there are quite a few new releases I really want to play, I'll probably actually get to those. As for my backlog, well, I'll have it for a good three to five years, and it will just keep growing, of course. At least I'll always have something to do!

" @astrotriforce: So relate man. I have nearly 600 proper retail games spanning Vic-20 to Xbox 360, with a nice even spread on most systems to date. I have Mass Effect 2 completely unplayed ready to go, but instead of playing I've been YouTubing the complete playthrough of Ys IV: Dawn of Ys on the Japanese PC Engine. I imported that game years ago but never finished it due to the obvious language barrier.  So that 20 year old game is what takes my interest tonight, as the Mass Effect 2s and the Call of Duty: Black Ops are sitting on the shelf. "

" @astrotriforce: Still why do you play the rom for Resident Evil Remake? Is the Gamecube not working?   What do you like about RE Remake? "

Ow! Man, paper towels must hurt. You better switch to some aloe vera tissues or you're gonna develop a rash!

" Ow! Man, paper towels must hurt. You better switch to some aloe vera tissues or you're gonna develop a rash! "