Organizing your game collection

Duiker

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Dec 18, 2022
Whether it is digital or physical, how do you organize your gaming collection. I've never changed mine in a long while, but with my digital collection getting big getting big, I feel I may need to change things up.

My physical collection:
>By Console
>>Then by Alphabetical

Digital Collection is composed of Four big folders:

>Needs Installing
>>Folder per game, each one containing just the ISOs or zip files.

>Installed
>>Folder per game, it can only go here if it can be booted from this folder

>Emulation
>>Folder Per console, and inside it are three folders:
>>>ISOs/Roms
>>>Emulator for that console
>>>Bios or misc files.

>Steam Library

My method works for me, but I do have some doubling up in space consumed since I'll keep files in the Needs Installing section, even if a game is in the Installed folder.
 
I don't have any physical collections anymore.
But i have both emulators with roms in one folder and the entire steam library folder in another drive. Inside i created some collections to organize games by type or franchises.
 
My steam game organization consists of typing the first few letters of the game I want to play in the search bar.
 
By genre (worker placement, abstract, deck building, deception, co-operative...) However they fit on the shelf. But some games are too big for that.
 
1. What I'm working on completing
2. What I've completed
3. Everything else

I barely have a physical collection anymore, too much of a hassle especially in terms of preservation. It's so much easier to just own a decent computer and emulate everything. Emulating 8th and 9th gen consoles is a crapshoot (with the exception of the Switch, rare case where the emulator is legitimately better than the hardware), but the vast majority of their libraries are also available on PC.

I'm fine with managing a handful of high storage capacity hard drives and replacing them every once in a while. My physical collection was starting to get bigger than James Rolfe's set for AVGN, it was time for it to go.
 
I have a hard drive for ROMs sorted by console and a hard drive for PC games. The only physical game I kept is Megaman Legends 2 because it's relatively rare and I had some fanciful notion of selling it, but will probably never get around to actually doing so.
 
When it comes to steam i generally make a big collection for games I haven't "completed" (havent completed main campaign, still need to do major expansions/DLC/add-on content). Depending on how I felt about a certain game I made a collection for games to come back to either achievement hunt or complete the other routes/endings. Otherwise I sort by either the broad genres most games are in or divide it by publisher/developer depending on how big the catalogue is for the latter.
 
My avenue of collection is pretty specific but I keep it organized by decade, going back to the early 1970s up to the present. Everything is functional (why collect if you can't enjoy it?) and I entertain a lot at the house so they get decent use, which is nice. The more modern systems are kept out in the family room. Like I said, I like to have people over and have a good time so one of my televisions is configured as a giant Clone Hero machine. I set that one up about two years ago and have zero regrets. It is extremely popular and even on normal days after work it's actually pretty fun to have Guitar Hero/Rock Band in the house again.

Anyway that's my general organizational structure. I am looking to acquire a DJ Hero setup now because I never had one when it was a thing and I've heard that it is actually an incredibly well-made game and very fun.
 
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