Hiding in Plain Sight

With work picking up at full speed for me, I’ve been exhausted and have barely had time to get through emails, never mind sit down and write a proper post about some of the goodies I’ve run across lately.  Here is the story of some of the things I found hiding in plain sight at a local hock shop!

My boyfriend is always drawn to games that use the light gun and any and every arcade-type game, so Vigilante and Marksan Shooting & Trap Shooting for the Sega Master System were right up his alley.  These games have been sitting on this store’s shelf for almost a whole year, and the store owner was happy to cut the price in half for us.  We got each game for $10, but the manuals were missing.  I’m pretty sure the gameplay is self-explanatory, though!  The game boxes and cartridges look to be in good shape, though SMS games are a little ugly overall compared to the interesting box/cartridge art of NES games and those of other 8-bit consoles of the time.

The second thing we found at the store was a copy of Snoopy and the Red Baron for the Atari 2600.  I don’t usually collect a lot of Atari since we got such a huge lot from someone last April and are quite satisfied with what we have (never thought you’d hear me say that, did ya?!), but I absolutely adore Peanuts and have lots of paraphernalia from the series (mugs, window decals, toys, crochet projects, etc.)  I found out after picking the game up for $10 that it’s actually one of the rarer titles for the system, which always excites me.  The label is a little faded/damaged (might be water staining?) but it’s still very obviously that game.  I can’t wait to pop it in and try it out!  I’m trying to find a way to remove the ink from the label as well.  Maybe some Windex will do it.  I’ve had luck with that in the past!

I finished The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time last year and enjoyed the game tremendously.  Though it’s not my favourite by a long shot, I love the Zelda franchise and happened to stumble upon a ceramic ocarina in its box. I’m assuming it is a third party product since I saw no Nintendo endorsement anywhere on the packaging, though there is art of Link and Sheik on the box.  It came with a fingering chart and some scales to practice, as well as some sheet music for some easy songs like Mary Had a Little Lamb.  I play by ear so the sheet music is of little use to me, but it’s nice to see that sort of thing included for anyone that can handle the evasive art of music reading.

After a semi-thorough washing, I cautiously put my lips to the mouthpiece and had at it for a little while.  Like my ability at most instruments, it’s passable but nothing special.  I played woodwind instruments in a few high school bands back in the day – clarinet fingerings are burned into my brain.  It’ll be hard to adapt if I ever want to get serious about it, but I can’t imagine ever seriously wanting to play the ocarina.  If I were seriously invested in learning this instrument, I’d probably find a wooden one for a more authentic, earthy sound (this one sounds a bit like a wretched recorder.)  Despite the potential for some practical use out of it, I think this ocarina will be nice to bust out on a rare occasion but will mostly make for a nice shelf piece.

I hope many awesome retro games start to wiggle their way out of the woodwork soon.  Picking up these few games lately has me itching to find more great games again!

Thanks for reading!

-GG