Samuel “Acegamersam” Girand owns a so many video games. 32-year-old Québécois has a huge library of classic console titles, including a full collection of North American Dreamcast and N64 games. Five years ago, with a Twitch channel, Girand began streaming Nintendo titles to a small audience. That audience quickly started to grow once he set a goal complete all 296 of them, a feat no one else has claimed to have accomplished before.
As of last week, half a decade later, Girand had completed this monolithic task. Based on the rules agreed by a Discord community of others striving to accomplish this task of perfection, the streamer beat every Nintendo 64 game released on store shelves in North America. Yep, even included Superman.
Acegamersam’s hobby of collecting classic games began in 2009, in irony: It was triggered the first time he parted with any game. “I just sold a couple of classic games that I no longer play, and it breaks my heart to say goodbye to games from my childhood,” he said. Kotaku. “I think I want to find and save my childhood games.”
In trying to fill those gaps, Girand discovered he was happy to take the action of finding them. “I really enjoy the process of finding games online or visiting vintage game stores. Two or three years later, I’ve got a few hundred games, and I keep going! “
Focusing on the NES, SNES, N64, Master System, Genesis and Dreamcast, the emphasis at the time was on gathering, rather than playing. And as with any attempt to complete a collection, there are games that are harder to find than others, or at least at a reasonable price point. For that complete N64 shelf, Girand told me, “It took me a while to find good copies at reasonable prices for Clay Fighters Sculptor’s Cut, Stunt racer, Super Bowling, Worms Armageddonand Transformers Beast Wars Transmetal. “But once he had them all, he thought it would be fun to play them on Twitch.
“I started playing games like Super Mario 64, the Sonic game from Sega Genesis, and a few Disney games. Mostly games from childhood. Super Mario 64 brought me a growing audience of Nintendo 64 fans. During these live streams, Girand mentioned to viewers that he had collected a complete collection and started receiving requests from people that he played his childhood favorite games. their. “After a few games,” explains Girand, “I decided to create an official challenge where viewers would ask the game for me to play.”
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Then this turns into a challenge to complete the game. But as Sam Girand told Radio Canada, the viewer’s suggested format means he only goes through the most popular titles. “In the end I’ll… end up with bad things.” He created a points-based incentive for a small number of his viewers to recommend more confusing games.
But of course, “finishing” a game isn’t usually dry. Sure, you beat the last Bowser fight in Mario 64 and the game is done, but how does it work, such as International soccer superstar 64? To establish such rules, a Discord group of other players will discuss and debate the agreed criteria. I wonder how others react when it becomes clear that Acegamersam looks to be the first to achieve this arduous record.
“Our Discord is a great place,” Girand replied. “All people with the same passion to complete the challenges on the console. There isn’t any competition among team members. We all share our knowledge, and everyone beats games at their own pace. “There’s no race for it,” he explained. “The important thing is that in the end they all reach the same goal.”
Of course, combining this extraordinary marathon with trying to deliver something worth watching to an audience is no easy feat. I wonder how the audience is maintained during the dullest or worst matches. Turns out, that wasn’t a problem at all. “People love watching someone suffer a bad match on Twitch.” He would send out a message on social media telling how “terrible or difficult” a game was and people would flock to see his reaction. “I had some of my best [numbers] play the worst games for the Nintendo 64. That’s a good thing, because it got me through the worst parts of the challenge. “
296 is a terrible game, and while some games are catchphrases, there must be other games he’s never played or else it really surprises him. “I had the opportunity to play games that I never had as a child, or [had] never heard of before,” Girand told me. In fact, a list, including Mystical Ninja starring Goemon, Winback, Naughty maker, Gemini Jet Force, Goblin Battle 64, Goemon’s Great Adventureand even Mario Paper 64.
So with this crazy quest complete, he’s done, right? Sure? Well, no. Girand now intends to start a new challenge: Complete all 200 games featuring Sonic. This sounds interesting, until you realize that means multiple re-releases of the same game and, you know, 3D games. “I’m scared to discover games like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic and the Secret Ringsor Sonic and the Black Knight“He told me, as well as sequels like Sonic Labyrinth and Sonic Shuffle. “The last part that scared me into this challenge was that I included the official compilations, if at least one Sonic game. That includes a game like Sega Genesis Classics, which includes over 50 Sega classics. That would take too many hours to complete! “
However, that doesn’t seem to discourage him. However, he fully knows how bad it can get. “There are many more games that I don’t know about, so I will probably find even more terrible games along the way.”
You can watch every complete N64 finished game via Acegamersam’s YouTube channeland follow Sonic’s adventures (sorry) via his Twitch.
