*2BOP:Can you tell us how Consollection.de came about and how you two know each other?*

Patrick: Well, I am still studying Communication-Design in Mainz/Germany and  consollection started as a project in the fifth term of my study, 2007/2008. The topic of the course was “design for design” and we should make a catalogue of any collection. I thought of some things of mine, like my vinyl, or other stuff. But then I remembered Phils huge collection.
Before I knew Phil, I thought I was a tiny collector of consoles. Those that I own I played a lot, like Dreamcast, Gamecube, my brothers PS2, NES, SNES, N64, Xbox 360, Atari 2600. Well, that’s all – a pretty poor collection, but I was proud of them. But as I saw Phils collection – well, it was mind-blowing. He showed me some rare  stuff, things I’ve never seen before, like Odyssey or the Virtual Boy of Nintendo.
Finally I asked him, if he would like to have his collection cataloged and we both thought that would be a great idea. He would have his own print-catalogue of his beloved collection and I would have a  great project. The website www.consollection.de launched much later. I programmed it in December 2009 by using StaceyApp. It was pretty easy because Phil has already collected all the data and I had already photographed the whole collection for the book before. So I just had to put it all together. Basically, it was made just for fun. We couldn’t expect that so many people would like it that much.

2BOP: how long did it take to put your collection together and how did you go about acquiring those hard to find pieces in their original boxes. Are there any interesting stories or were they mostly off ebay?
Phil: 
I am a videogamer for almost 20 years. I am collecting for about 10 years now. It started with buying a few systems from my childhood on ebay (Famicon, Game Gear, …). Then I bought some old Pongs at some flea market, which were basically before my time, but I liked it a lot.
Since it started as a hobby, I bought from various internet platforms, got some friends in Japan, USA and elsewhere which support my hobby. I bought of Japanese Grandpas, monks from North Carolina, from kids at an Italian small towns flea market, from fellow collectors on retro-fairs and a lot more. 
Of course, some of those items are hard to find, especially with the original boxes. But with time, the standards of my collection were rising. Where I did not care about original boxes in the beginning, I started to worry about later. I even sold some system to buy them again with boxes, or I bought boxes to add them to the system – where the box was actually more expensive than the system.

2BOP: Do you have a particular favorite console and why?
Phil:
I love the Magnavox Odyssey, simply because it started everything. The Nintendo Famicom (Super Nintendo in Europe) gave me hundreds of days of good times, the Atari 2600 is important, and I still think the Dreamcast was the best console of it’s time. Also, the lesser known and sometimes obscure systems like the Amstrad GX4000, the Nintendo Virtual Boy, the Bandai Playdia and others are always worth a look. These days, I prefer the Xbox 360 over the PS3 to be honest. And the iPhone turned out to actually be a good gaming platform to my surprise.

2BOP:Do you play games on any of the old consoles or do you rather use emulators and keep them pristine?
Phil:
All my systems and games are checked and used. Of course, I can not play with all of them regularly, but I never used an emulator. If I want to play an old game, I try to get it on ebay or the likes – as I will most probably already own the system it belongs to anyway. ;)

2BOP: What do you think of the design aesthetic of the current generation  of consoles?
Patrick:
I really love game consoles, but I have to say that most of them are pretty ugly. Compared with hifi-devices they are made of plastic and never use materials like wood or metall. Of course some look great, for example the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Dreamcast. Although the first two use wood-imitation. Imagine a hifi-device made of wood-imitation.

Phil:
Even in the 80ies, many systems were ugly, but still have a lot of charm and transport the strange trends of each decade. Nowadays, I think that the Wii is pretty nice, the 360 is good looking, and the new PS3 Slim is okay for the living room as well.

2BOP: What are your favourite games of all time and why?
Patrick:
I just played a lot Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 battling my room-mate. My personal record is 10675 points. But then the Atari 2600 broke. It is still a great game, although or just because of the minimal graphics. Some of my favorite games are GTA 4, Battelfield 1942, Battelfield 2, GoldenEye 007 on the N64 (OMG! Did I mention that no-one can beat me in this game? I have unlocked all cheats and defeated everyone who ever challenged me!), nearly every Super Mario title, System Shock 2, Monkey Island I, Gran Tourismo series, Halflife, Zelda Twilight Princess, Resident Evil series, Cannonfodder, Barbarian on the C64.
Phil:
Of course, I have to add some classic, simple highscore retro hits like Pacman, Missile Command, Space Invaders and the likes. However, my favorites are coming from the early age of 3D-gaming: Blast Corps or Golden Eye on the N64, Doom or Wipe Out on the PS1, Shen Mue or Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast. That was a great time, with a revolution happening every few weeks. Before that, the Famicom/Super Nintendo was a blast with F-Zero, Super Mario World, the Star Wars Games, Pilotwings and many more. Furthermore, the current gen delivered a whole new experience. Although I love retro, I spent more time with those. Games worth mentioning are Halo, Bioshock, PGR, Half Life 2, Resident Evil, the Call of Duty series, God of War, Batman Arkhams Asylum and a lot more.
Patrick:
I have to agree. I forgot Shen Mue, one of the best games of all time. And I forgot to mention the Metal Gear series. The first title on the PS is the only game that left a tear running down because of the great story.

2BOP: what do your friends and family make of your hobby and where  do you store your collection?
Phil:
Friends, family and my girlfriend support my hobby. They know I am serious about it, and they know it gives me joy to research, collect and play. Of course, the room / space the collection takes can be a problem. Currently, 80% are stored in the office-room of my flat. It is packed quite dense, and not too nice to look at currently because of the lack of space. However, I will have to find another solution latest in like 5 years from now. 

2BOP: If you could take one console and one game onto a desert island (that had solar power and a TV) which one would you take with you?
Phil:
Tough Choice… It may be
1.the Atari 2600 with some real classic like Missile Command, just to bust highscores for a few decades.
2.The classic Gameboy with Tetris. I spend hundreds of hours there already, and it still motivates.
3.The Dreamcast with Shen Mue or any other classic game of that era.
4.A current system like the 360 with Fallout or GTA IV – any game with an open world, and hundreds of hours of quests, tasks and freeroaming fun.

2BOP: When will the Consollection book be out?
Phil & Patrick:
It is tough for us to get the book published. However, we are in contact to a publisher right now, and we hope that the book will be available soon.

2BOP: Thanks guys again for your time and for the beautiful site

Phil & Patrick:
It was a pleasure! Thanks a lot for your interest.