A Face in the Crowd
Meet Will Bowins, better known as Jumpman Jr. amongst other collectors around the net. He's 20 years old and has only been collecting for a year or two yet already has a mighty collection that many who have been pack-ratting for decades would envy. His pride and glory is his massive amount of NES games – with a count of over 700 and counting, Will is dedicated on getting every single NES game out there. However, he doesn't focus all his energy towards the NES, and his collections boasts around 120 Super NES games and up to 80 on the Nintendo 64. He's even taken the time to show some appreciation towards the bastard child of the Nintendo family, the Virtual Boy, making a home for the console's complete library.
While of course we're all Nintendo fans here, we're not beyond acknowledging impressive feats amongst competing platforms, whether it be new or old, and Will is no exception. He's managed a complete Intellevision collection and is near completion on both his SEGA 32X and SEGA Master System collections.
The Interview
N-Philes: When did you first get into gaming? Collecting?
Bowins: I've been a gamer all of my life really. I was born right about the time the NES took over the world, so I sort of used it as an alternate father figure. I spent most of my childhood either playing the Nintendo consoles at my house or the Sega consoles at my friend Ozy's house.
A few years ago, I had surgery on my foot, which forced me to be bedridden for about three weeks. I had nothing to waste my time on so I decided to bring out my old N64. After realizing how much fun it was to bring back my childhood, I wondered if it were possible to be able to find old NES and SNES stuff in the city. I eventually found all of the games that I had liked when I was a kid, and I stopped buying games for a while. Then, I found forums on the Internet where I could buy games off of other collectors. That is when the madness began.
N-Philes: Why exactly do you collect games? Do you feel that it's rewarding?
Bowins:I don't know what it is inside of me that drives me to collect games. I guess a part of it is me trying to rekindle my childhood obsession with videogames. The thing with collecting games is that they have two functions to a collector. One; they are collectors items and two; you can actually interact with them. It is not like collecting something like baseball cards where they just sit on your shelf and don't get used. To me, collecting games is definitely rewarding. I am continually setting goals for myself (stuff like "I'm going to complete a NES collection", or "I'm going to get every Intellivision game") and then through hard work and a lot of looking, I am able to achieve my goals.
N-Philes: What's your favorite part of collecting games?
Bowins:I think my favorite part of collecting video games is interacting and meeting with the community of people that have the same passion for collecting as I do. It is really cool because we are all sort of part of a family where we try to help each other achieve our various goals. I've had the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the nicest people because of collecting.
