At work, we have a tradition of celebrating our work anniversaries.

Since I work remotely, I like to get creative with how I celebrate.

This year, I decided to share some selections from my physical game collection. I figure it's a nice break from the regular humdrum work stuff.

This year is my 9th anniversary, so I'm sharing 9 "exhibits".

No more preamble! Lace up your digital sneakers and follow me on this tour.

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Exhibit 1: Ce N'est Pas Rapide

I’m an out-loud-and-proud 3D Sonic fan. "Sonic Adventure 1" and "Sonic Adventure 2" in particular hold extremely high esteem in my eyes. But for every good 3D Sonic game that has been (deservedly) ported and preserved across time and platforms, there are an equal number of stinkers that are left to rot. And it’s these stinkers which I like having around on my shelf:

left to right: "Shadow the Hedgehog" (GameCube), "Sonic ’06" (Xbox 360), "Sonic Unleashed" (Xbox 360).

Let me call your attention to the box art (or lack thereof) of "Shadow the Hedgehog". So many of my games growing up were adorned in this same EB Games used bin placeholder box art with these same low quality recycled DVD cases. I’m very happy that at least one physical game in my adult collection bears witness to that memory.

Eagle-eyed readers may also notice a peculiar “NFL” sticker on my copy of Sonic ’06. What gives? Mario has been known to play street ball in Greenwich Village, but no Sonic was not secretly drafted for the NFL. If memory serves, I think I got "Sonic ’06" in a lot of used games off eBay back in high school which included "Madden ’07". Sonic originally game in a boring gray after market DVD case so I swapped the box art for Madden and Sonic, so Sonic could have the more iconic lime-green 360 case.

Exhibit 2: Clair de Lune

"The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask" is my favorite Zelda game ever of all time: it’s got my favorite Zelda worldbuilding, the best fan theories, iconic creepy-pasta, and it just oozes with personality.

See the marker scrawlings on the backside of the cartridge on the right? Yup, it’s my original cartridge from when I was a kid!

Sadly this cartridge no longer actually plays. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it, but when I give it a quick shake I hear something rattling around internally.

I keep telling myself I’m going to open it up one day but the thought that I might damage the cartridge shell or otherwise alter how it looks unintentionally… I just can’t bear to do it.

And there are better ways to play this game today, anyway: a plethora of official ports, community “recompilations”, the 3DS remake, etc. I also have a physical copy of the 3DS remake.

My favorite thing about this cartridge is its holographic label. The label on the left isn’t weird looking because of my shaky camerawork. It’s holographic, and I just happened to capture it at an awkward angle with awkward light.

I always liked how a handful of N64 cartridges came in cool colors, e.g. the Zelda games, Donkey Kong 64, Turok, Rayman.

Exhibit 3: Unknown Origins

"Condemned: Criminal Origins" is an anomaly in my collection because I do not at all remember getting it.

I cannot remember ever wanting to this game.

I do not know anyone who talks about this game.

I don’t see it anywhere in my Xbox 360 play history meaning I probably have never put this disc in any console associated with my Xbox Live profile.

The game is CIB and the box is in excellent condition.

I’m sure some day I’ll play it. It certainly seems like the kind of game I’d like. A mid 2000s first-person survival horror game? Oh absolutely.

But the longer I don’t play it, the more I like not playing it. I like that it stays this anomalous unexplained thing I carry around in my life.

Exhibit 4: 静かの山

"Silent Hill f" is a recent addition to my collection and my only Gen-9 physical game.

It’s a rare day when a new Silent Hill game releases, and it’s even rarer when it’s good! It also helps that the box art is just gorgeous. No spoilers! I’m still making my way through my first playthrough.

This entry is a bit bittersweet. While I love having the physical disc, it’s missing an in-box manual.

Have publishers and manufacturers just stopped doing this? I wouldn’t be surprised if no games ship with manuals anymore. Sometimes they were pointless, but sometimes they were really cool and full of useless trivia about the characters and setting.

I read and reread the Sonic Heroes GameCube manual as a kid because I liked seeing their confirmed ages (Sonic is 15 and Knuckles is 16 in case you were wondering.)

Oh well. While I don’t have the money to afford physical copies of "Silent Hill" or "Silent Hill 3" yet, I’m stoked to own a copy of "Silent Hill f".

Exhibit 5: The Bomb dot Com

"Bomberman 64: The Second Attack" is maybe the most expensive game in my collection. It’s not jaw-droppingly expensive, but at nearly $200 for a copy in "good enough” condition, it’s quite a far cry from what I’d usually justify to myself.

Like a lot of the N64 catalog, I don’t think it really holds up to modern sensibilities, but with my thick nostalgia googles it’s pretty great.

It had a gauntlet of boss enemies each with their own elemental specialty (kind of like Megaman) and when you defeated them you got their power in the form of new elemental bombs (kind of like Megaman).

This game gave Bomberman a cute little Kirby-like sidekick named Pommy that could be controlled by a second player in the story mode which made sharing the N64 with my siblings more bearable.

It even has a pretty fun multiplayer! A couple of years ago, I played in a local tournament at PAX West and got 3rd place. It’s weird to remember how common local multiplayer modes used to be in games that would have been plenty fun without them.

Exhibit 6: Resident of Evil Creek

5 years ago, I could not have cared less about any of the Resident Evil games.

"Resident Evil 4" I was particularly annoyed by because it looked like a modern third person shooter but you awkwardly had to stop moving to shoot and the first encounter with the villagers in the town is surprisingly hard.

These days, I count "Resident Evil 4 (2005)" among my top 10 games of all time. I’ve beaten the GameCube release, the Wii release, the Xbox One release, the PC release with remastered textures, and the 2023 REmake.

This game is hugely popular and for good reason. Dear lord, it’s like THE urtext of all my favorite 3rd person shooters (e.g. Dead Space.) It’s awesome when a game is both hugely influential AND still so good on its own merits.

Exhibit 7: A New NES Game? in 2026?

"Xcavator" was an unfinished NES prototype from Chris Oberth. It never found a publisher and so was doomed to the demo dumps until the source code was recently recovered. The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) then partnered with studios and publishers to finish the game and release it on physical cartridges as "Xcavator 2025".

How cool is that?

I’m just using this section as not-so-subtle evangelism for the VGHF and video game preservation efforts broadly.

If you’ve ever got a free weekend, I’d highly recommend browsing the VGHF’s archives and catalog of video game magazines. https://archive.gamehistory.org/folder/9a193e8c-67e0-45ff-98d2-a33e85721cc4

Exhibit 8: Magical Game Is Ei-Ei-Poo

My mom likes exactly two video games: Tetris and Super Monkey Ball.

In a way then, Super Monkey Ball 2 is kind of like a piece of my heritage.

Lucky me! Super Monkey Ball 2 rocks.

It’s wonderful that the medium of video games has embraced complex stories, fully developed characters, and striking animation, but there is something sacred about video games which are just a chemically perfect vertical slice of gameplay.

Why are the monkeys in balls? Because it’s fun!!

Oh and did I mention this is another older game where somehow in addition to having a rock solid main “mode” they somehow found the time to add a whole plethora of multiplayer minigames that are just as fun??? My siblings and I played a lot of SMB2 Billiards together…

Exhibit 9: Horror Movies for Turbo Weenies

Alright I’ll be honest, I’m running out of steam here.

So rather than wax poetic about the PS3 which is why I originally picked this game, I’ll just tell you a little embarrassing story about myself.

As an adult, I enjoy a good many horror movies (though I’m still quite squeamish so I’d never call myself a true horror fan.)

As a kid, I was TERRIFIED of them, but that fear also made them really tempting in a weird way.

I read the Wikipedia plot summaries for a lot of horror movies I wasn’t brave enough to watch.

One way that I resolved the push-pull, fear-allure conundrum was by booting up "LittleBigPlanet". If you’re not familiar with "LittleBigPlanet", it’s a lite physics sim, side-scrolling platformer that also included a mode where you could make your own levels and publish them on PSN for others to play.

And I would hop onto to "LittleBigPlanet", navigate to the community custom levels, and just search horror movie names.

I played "LittleBigPlanet" recreations of everything from "Saw" to "The Blair Witch Project" to "Friday the 13th."

I was truly a turbo weenie.

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That’s all! If you made it to the end, I appreciate you indulging my little bit of fun.