Collector’s Corner
Jason Lindsey takes time away from Youtube to show us his collection
This month we’ve been lucky enough to chat to Youtube sensation Jason Lindsey about his amazing game room
If you’ve ever spent much time browsing retro gaming videos, you’ve probably seen a video or two from the Metaljesusrocks channel – with over 750,000 subscribers, it’s one of the most popular on Youtube, inside or outside of our hobby. The man behind it is Jason Lindsey, a veteran collector with thousands of games in an impressive room that serves as the backdrop to his many videos.
Jason started gaming on the Atari 2600, but it was moving from the console to computers that proved pivotal. “It was the Commodore 64 that really sparked my interest in collecting and playing all those wonderful games. And then later while working at Sierra On-line in the Nineties I got access to their entire game library, which was amazing at the time.”
Jason has been collecting for 35 years now, though it hasn’t always been his focus during that time. “At one point I sold off all my big box PC games during college because I got tired of hauling them around from rental house to rental house. They take up a lot of room! Thankfully, I have reacquired all of them and much more.”
Although his collection also covers a diverse range of console platforms, the computer scene is still Jason’s specialism today. “I really enjoy collecting big box PC games from the Eighties and Nineties, and I have several thousand of them complete in box. They are getting a bit hard to find these days, but every time
I go to a retro gaming expo I always do a quick lap of the vendors to see if I can spot anything I don’t currently have.
Old Atari 8-bit, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Windows 95… I’ll take it all!”
Showcasing that collection in video was a natural move for Jason, as it represented an intersection between his career and his hobbies. “Before Youtube I had a background in audio production engineering, and I worked in a local recording studio recording live music, but also editing some local Seattle commercials. I also loved shooting home movies as a kid,” he explains. The channel really took off following a tongue-in-cheek look at one of his favourite computers. “When the ipad 2 was released in 2011,
I did a video called ‘ipad vs Commodore 64 – Which Should You Get?’ It was a fun review where I tried to help potential consumers decide which system they should get, and it went viral (for the time), getting over 60,000 views.”
Jason’s collecting experience also incorporates one of our own worst fears – as viewers of his channel will know, water damage and mould were found in his game room in 2018. “The actual damage from that basement leak could have been so much worse because it was such a slow leak. All I really lost was furniture, however the fix was very timeconsuming and costly. That’s one of the risks of having my collection underground and living in the Seattle area,” he explains. “One of the nice things about my new home is that my collection is not underground, so it should be okay now.”
So is there anything he’s still after?
“I’d like a copy of Softporn Adventure by Sierra on PC,” he concludes. “It was one of the first releases by Sierra, and features a naughty photo of owner/developer Roberta Williams in a hot tub on the cover. It’s incredibly difficult to find in great condition at a reasonable price.”