I will never wrap my head around why anyone would collect video games, but here it is, Texan Antonio Romero Monteiro, an avid video game enthusiast, who recently got recognized by Guinness World Records for the Largest Video Game Collection. And the number of video games he have in his possession? A whopping 20,139. Holy… That’s a lot of video games right there.
Monteiro’s collection started when he was a just a kid when he received a copy of Sega Genesis Golden Axe. From there on, there is no stopping this mega video game head from stockpiling whatever video games that were released and being released, across any platform imaginable except for PC.
That’s right. Monteiro have it all. From the good’ol handheld like Nintendo GameBoy and soon-to-defunct Playstation Vita (PS Vita) to Sega Dreamcast and Sega Genesis to modern day video game consoles like Xbox One and PS4. Even more impressive is, he actually have over 100 functioning video game consoles on which he can play all the games in his collection.
Over a hundred consoles! Imagine that! The number of games, the varieties and the number of consoles (including 10+ different Xbox One editions) he have only existed in my dreams. Hell, I don’t even dream about that. Here’s an overview of Monteiro collection:
• More than 1,000 PlayStation 1 games
• Complete PlayStation 2 collection for North America
• Complete PlayStation 3 collection for North America
• More than 900 PlayStation 4 games
• Every PS Vita game released to-date in North America
• Complete PSP collection for North America
• Complete Xbox collection for North America
• Complete Xbox 360 collection for North America
• More than 500 Xbox One games
• Complete collection of Wii U games for North America
• Complete Game Cube collection for North America
• Complete Wii collection for North America
• 118 Nintendo Switch games
• Turbografx games
• Super Famicom games – equivalent of the Super Nintendo for Japanese/European marketplace
• Complete Sega Dreamcast collection for North America
• Complete collection of 32X
• Complete Atari Jaguar System collection for North America
• Atari Lynx, complete collection of retail releases for North America
• Complete collection of SEGA CD games for North America
• Japanese Saturn games
• Japanese Dreamcast games
• Complete Game Boy collection for North America
• Complete Game Boy Color collection for North America
• Complete Game Boy Advance collection for North America
• More than 1,100 Nintendo DS games
• Every Neo Geo Pocket game released in North America
• Nintendo 64 collection
• Atari and Gauge games
• SEGA PICO games
• Complete collection of NES games for North America including unlicensed gamesNow, I know the number 20,000+ isn’t a really big-ish as a number by itself, but if you put in perspective, it will take him years to complete playing all the games. As one commented on Guinness World Records’ article posted on March 28, 2019, it could take as long as 11.5 years to finish all the games he have and that’s assuming he take no breaks, no meals or whatsoever. Holy guacamole.
With that in mind, suddenly 20,000+ is really an insane for any collector. In fact, the his collection is so huge that it took Guinness World Records’ adjudicator(s) eight days to count before arriving to the final number and subsequently, confirming it is indeed a record.
As a video game fan myself, I am also impressed on how he managed to get his hands on rare copies, including a super rate, not-for-sale Super Nintendo game called Max Basic Rifle Marksmanship Program released by Nintendo exclusively for the U.S. Military. And then there is the Sega Game Gear (that’s a handheld game console, btw) game called CJ the Elephant, plus a series of educational Sega Dreamcast games, as well as a bunch of Playstation 1 educational games.
It is not known what Monteiro does for a living that allows him such luxury. But whatever it is, it is good that someone is fulfilling our dream on our behalf. That’s just consoling words (for me), if you didn’t get it.
P.S. Ermmm, what’s ‘Gauge’ games (Third last bullet in the above list)? Sorry, but I have never heard of Gauge console. Am I missing something here?
Images: Guinness World Records.
Source: Geek.
