With a lack of an update for so long here, you may have come to the conclusion that my collecting habits died hard long ago. The truth is that while they haven’t succumbed completely, they’ve certainly slowed down to a very small trickle, and this post is going to encompass games I’ve either been graciously given or picked up over the past six months or so. There’s a mishmash of things here, but still a lot of really meaningful and personal additions to my collection. Some things I never dreamed of ever holding in my hands again, and yet now I own them. Let’s get started!
Starting out with one of the most modern purchases I’ve made in a while, it was a total no-brainer to pick up the Game & Watch for The Legend of Zelda that came out last fall. As a lover of the first Zelda game for NES, I was thrilled to see something so neat get released, though the tiny screen is the furthest thing from friendly for my old lady eyes. I don’t know that I will take this out very often, but it looks great beside my Super Mario Bros. one on the shelf.
After I had a blast with NES Rygar, a very nice person was kind enough to send me the PS2 game called Rygar: The Legendary Adventure. I can’t say that 3D games fall within what I could call my forte, but adoring the NES game as much as I do, I look forward to trying this one out and destroying things with the diskarmour!
My Virtual Boy collecting is nearly complete with the additions of Nester’s Funky Bowling and Virtual League Baseball. Nester’s Funky Bowling has eluded me for a long time, and I finally got it for a price I was willing to pay. Baseball was also available for a not-so-terrible price, and even with a bit of label damage, it was a worthy addition. All that’s left for me to collect are a few of the more expensive Japanese-only games and Waterworld, and since I currently have no plans to shell out a ton of cash for those, I’ll settle on calling things done for the moment.
This VIC-20 in the box came to me as a total and complete surprise. A very nice person reached out to me about having one collecting dust in his family’s home and offered to ship it to me, and I am an extremely happy owner of a working, wonderful computer. Having this back in hand after so many years feels great. My family had one when I was growing up and I played it all the time. I had eventually parted with it since a friend of mine at the time was heavy into collecting, and we didn’t have a way to hook it up anymore since we’d gotten rid of the CRT in the basement. I gave it away with all the games and many years later, I learned that he’d sold it to someone without asking if I wanted any of it back. It’s one of my biggest regrets, so getting another VIC-20 at this point and being able to re-experience some of my childhood again has been an absolute blessing. I need to pick up a copy of Radar Rat Race and Gorf!
What’s great is that the box is in relatively good shape and came with all its manuals. It also came with the Datasette unit which takes cassette tape games. I wish so much that I still had the tapes from my childhood to play again, but they’re long gone. I did adventure into making some new ones with moderate success, so maybe I’ll talk about that here or on YouTube someday.
Things have been pretty dry on the NES front, but one game I’ve been wanting for a long time is 3-D World Runner. I learned about it a long while back when I recorded a voiceover for a Nefarious Wes’ video review on the game. It looked like such a fun one and I rarely ever saw it at conventions in the past, but I picked this up at a game store I get out to once in a while. It’s in extremely good condition and looks as if it’s barely ever been played. I’m lucky!
These next two SNES games, Skyblazer and Pocky & Rocky are two I’ve been hunting for for what feels like an eternity. I will admit that I did not get a very good deal on either of these, but in an effort to support one of my favourite stores during the pandemic a few months ago, I didn’t want to haggle or push on price very much. It’s not as if I’d been spending a lot on games anyway, so I had a little extra money saved up. I’d rather support a business that deals in games so I’ll be able to keep buying from them long into the future rather than nickel and dime them and see them struggle even more. Either way, both of these were in great condition, and I’ve since completed Skyblazer. Pocky & Rocky is something I’m going to have to work pretty hard to get through since shooters are not a prominent part of my skillset as a gamer, but it’s really nice to have them both on the shelf.
Well, you’re looking at a photo I never thought I’d be able to take and include in a blog post. I can’t recall how many times in entries past that I’ve lamented over wanting to find Harvest Moon for the SNES. I searched high and low at conventions and out and about at game stores, and the few times I came across it, it was astronomically priced. Over time, the cost just kept climbing, but somehow, fate lined up where a wonderful human being had a copy they didn’t plan to play again and kindly put it in the mail for me. I was completely floored at his kindness and generosity, and I cried a whole bunch when I finally held it in my hands. It sounds silly to put it down in writing here, but after having such a stagnancy this collecting hobby that means so much to me, being able to finally own something that I’ve been searching for as long as I’ve known about this series was overwhelmingly… nice. And nice feelings are few and far between these days. This was one of the last games I’d really, desperately wanted to find for the SNES, and I can’t describe how much peace I have every time I see it up on the shelf in my game room. I am so, so grateful.
Ninja Taro for the Game Boy is yet another very awesome game I had been wanting to find for a long while. I found out about it years ago when I was looking into Game Boy RPGs, but it was another example of a game that never came into view at a price I was willing to pay. On eBay a few months ago, it finally popped up far below what it normally goes for, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I jumped on it, and if you’re wondering how it plays, it’s a top-down action RPG that’s made in the same graphics style (maybe even the same engine?) as Rolan’s Curse. Except unlike that game, it actually has some exploration to do, and I am really looking forward to experiencing this one.
These last two purchases also came from the video game store I mentioned above: The Pirates of Dark Water and Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis are both very nice additions to the collection. The Pirates of Dark Water caught my eye a few years ago at a local hock shop, but it was priced at over $100 in the box with no manual, just like this copy. That store owner was notoriously difficult to negotiate with, so I never bought it and kept looking. I didn’t pay nearly that much for this copy but it’s nice to cross it off the list. With respect to Shadowrun, a few years ago, a friend had recommended I try out the series and said that the SNES game would be better to start with. The Genesis game apparently leans a little harder into the tabletop game’s mechanics etc. so I picked up the SNES game first and only found the Genesis now, years later. I love the MA-13 rating on there. I’m curious to see what would make that happen on a Sega Genesis game where blood spewing out of someone’s severed limbs is just a normal General Audiences rating!
There it is. Many months of collecting all in one place, with some extremely important personal additions to the collection. I will have another update coming soon since I actually got out to a game swap for the first time in over two years.
Thank you again to everyone of you that sent something my way, and of course to those of you that continue to support my endeavours here, on Twitch, and on YouTube. You’re all what make this hobby worthwhile.
And as always, thanks for reading.
-GG
hungrygoriya 