Basic premise of this thread is a simple one:

1. What was the first game you "collected" ie. you bought it and it's remained unplayed up till now and perhaps...forever?

2. What was the last game you played? (ideally played properly with repeated gaming sessions)

(If you don't remember the exact game(s) then just throw up a rough guess)
---------------------------

I'll start:
1. Sonic 2 - played Sonic 1 back in the 90s, and the Megadrive was the first platform I started my collecting venture around 2010. Being arguably the most popular game on the Megadrive, I had bought it quite cheap. Over the years, I probably have a dozen variants for it as part of my collection. Still have yet to play it!

2. Toss up between Geometry Wars 2 and Defense Grid on Xbox Live. Both highly addictive! I've actually got top 10 on the leaderboards on a few of the Defense Grid levels, which confirms the amount of ridiculous hours I've spent on it!

1. No clue
2. Etrian Odyssey Nexus

1: Mario Kart 64
2: Borderlands 3

SMB3, Nintendo World Cup and Contra at once. Went to a flea market in 2012 intent on buying and old Nintender and some tapes.

Detective Pikachu on 3DS.

For "first game collected" I'm going to assume that testing it out for a few minutes to make sure it works does not count as playing it...

1. Axelay
2. Adventure Island

First game collected: Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt at my church's fall festival in the early/mid-90s, where I also got my NES that I still use today! All my hometown's churches have/had similar events, but strangely mine was the only one that ever had video games. It's also where I picked up my Sega Genesis year's later.

Last game played: O-to-X by Sole Goose and Haunted Halloween '86 by Retrotainment. I can get the X2 but it's been awhile since I fared that well. And Haunted Halloween is getting me into the seasonal spirit.

1: Dragon Warrior 2 (Only counting this because I still kept up with it all these years)
2: Beast Quest on PS4

1. M.C. Kids
2. Duck hunt

1. Blaster Master. I played it and actually made good progress, but then it crashed and I never went back to it.

2. Runescape. I've been playing a lot of Old School Runescape lately, getting that nostalgia fix.

1. Super Mario Bros. only played it for a few when I got my NES and never touched it since.

2. River City Girls (completed)

1. All my games have been played, so I don't remember.
2. Properly played and beat Doom 3 again when it finally came to Switch. Now working on Breath of Fire on Switch.

1. Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
2. CoD4:MW Remastered

1. Klonoa (PS) - This is what started it for me. Was amazed an older game was going for a decent amount so I started buying games I intended to play in the future when I found them cheap/reasonable.

2. God of War 4

Ok I think the question wasn't asking what was the first game you ever owned, but rather *collected*. Unless you've all been collectors since the NES era.

I'm not 100% sure if truly the first one, but:

1. Super 3D Noah's Ark for SNES. I got a really good deal on this many many years ago, and haven't even tried it in the console to this day. I meant to, just haven't.

2. Collection of Mana. Specifically, Trials of Mana. I really enjoyed Secret of Mana on SNES, so it's nice to finally play an official translated Seiken Densetsu 3. Little did I know that not soon after this one, a remake was in the works. oh well!

You get full marks for reading comprehension! A+

 

Interesting to see Axelay. It was a game I drooled over when seeing it as a kid in the gaming mags. Glorious mode 7!
Funnily enough, I'm also in the same boat in that I've only played it for a short session as well, and never got around to playing it in full. Geometry Wars 2 has taken over most my spare time to get my shoot'em up fix.
Also, just writing this post kinda makes me nostalgic for that 16 bit era, where a time Konami and Capcom were at their prime. Almost anything they touched were instant classics!
 

I've played everything I own even if only once. I started collecting Nintendo games during the Super Nintendo era. I think the first game I bought and still have is Super Mario Bros 2. Circa '94.

Last game I really got down on it was NEScape!

Last game I played is easy, Mario Kart 8, first game I collected but haven't played, that's a tough one because I sold off the lion's share of what I didnt really play so my answer is gonna be Beethoven for Super Nintendo, had it forever dont even remember from where and just have not got around to playing it yet lolol. What a glorious era that someone could just be like "what about a Beethoven game" and then boom it gets made

You’re right. However, it’s hard to say when one started collecting if they never got rid of their old games and have just been accumulating since they started gaming.

I can’t honestly say what was the first game I bought to add to my collection rather than just play. I bought a bunch of NES and SNES games at once around 2002.

 

1. Shadowgate is probably the first game I bought in my current phase of collecting, and I'm not sure I've ever popped it in yet. It was one of the few games I got to rent when I was a kid and I never owned it. So when starting out that was the first one I bought.

2. Last game played on NES, Rush 'n' Attack. Last played about a month ago. I've been working on that in 5-10 minute sessions for about a year now. Last game played seriously, Regular Show Mordecai & Rigby in 8-bit Land (2DS), beat that a couple weeks ago. Took me a few months of irregular play. Last last game played, today on my day off I tested/went through the self assessment in Cooking Mama (Wii) that I got at the thrift store for $4 yesterday. Never played it before. I hope I can get Ms gunpei into it.

1. None because I buy games with the explicit intent of playing them. But the first game I bought that I clearly remember thinking "I'm going to collect games" was Tetris Attack for SNES in 2009. I bought many games before that and "collected" prior to that but I never really thought about the collecting aspect til then. In 2009 a retro game shop opened up in my area, the first one that I can even remember, and it was years and years since I bought an old game in physical form, so the opening of that shop kickstarted my renewed interest in retro gaming. Tetris Attack was one I rented as a kid and loved but never owned until I saw it in that shop.

2. I just played Spyro Reignited Trilogy on Switch last night.

Yes I agree it’s not that easy coming up with a precise answer. I guess it’s more an exercise as to what year or era you started being “lazy” and no longer able to game everything you purchase?
 

Mario 1

1) That was over 20 years ago so no idea.
2) Animal Crossing on the 3DS as I decided to revisit it about two weeks ago now and I just played it shortly ago.