Item Number 35: Game Controller, V3 FX Racing Wheel (PSX)

Time in possession: Around 4 years, but probably a few more.

Description: Black plastic steering wheel and pedals, for use with the Sony Playstation. Pretty damn near caked in dust. I mean, I'm looking at them on my bed in that picture and I feel like I need to sneeze. Gross.

Cost: While I want to say $10, my memory is pushing me towards $15, which is kind of shameful.

Story: This item was purchased during my initial foray into the local flea markets. Usually whenever I find a new source of cool crap (eBay, pawn shops, flea markets, trips to places where people don't like crap that I have become obsessed with) I very quickly both a)Lose Money and b)Accumulate said crap. Now this isn't usually an issue, except in my buying frenzy, I usually end up with one or two things like this. No, on paper there is nothing wrong with my owning a V3 FX Racing Wheel , but that paper is excluding the fact that a)I don't really like racing games, b)I own one racing game for my Playstation and c)I've played that game on my Playstation once, just to see if it worked.

It doesn't help that said game, Driver, starts with a stupidly difficult training level that requires you to successfully pull of a bunch of manoeuvres that you might never require in actual game play. Still, if you can't do them all (and I couldn't!) then you can't play the game. Frustration abounds. Now, I'm all for challenge in games and I do feel that content can be locked to give the player a sense of progress as they go through the game, but when the entire game is shut off to you until you jump through a bunch of arbitrary hoops... well, that's just dump.

Rant = off. Now you might have noticed the dust that adorns this controller, truly pointing it out as a abandoned peripheral. That's the other problem with the thing. I've got plenty of controllers that I never use (that kind of happens when you own well over 50 individual controllers for dozens of systems) but this one is so damn big that the only place I could find for it was on top of a bookshelf which is pretty high on my list of places where I never stumble across things. Also, the controller isn't even that good.

To give you an idea about this whole new-place-buy-fest phenomenon, about 2 or 3 months after buying this bad boy I came across a similar controller for the Nintendo 64. I came this close to getting it, despite the fact that a)I didn't own ANY racing games for the N64 and b)I hadn't touched this thing since making sure that it worked. I think this is proof that I am, indeed, a consumer whore.

And how!