It Never Hurts to Ask

When I see an ad for a lot of video games go up on a classifieds site, nine times out of ten I already have at least one game in the bunch and for that reason am hesitant to buy it or even make an offer.  As much as I don’t mind accumulating doubles of games, I only like to do so when they are dirt cheap so that I can use them as trade bait at a swap or give them away to family.  Retro ad posts have died down considerably with the snow settling in as I mentioned previously, and most ads posted are for *~*Hot Christmas PS4 Bundles*~* and the like.

When two ads for some SNES and N64 stuff popped up last night, after having a look and seeing that I owned probably 60% of both lots, I was disheartened.  In those game lots were two games I’ve wanted to pick up for a long time, and those were Kirby Super Star for SNES with its manual, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day for N64.  I hummed and hawed for at least two hours trying to decide if the price was right for the lots.  At the end of it, I decided that they were too expensive.  One of the lots included the Donkey Kong Special Edition N64 with controller and the game which was pushing up the price considerably.  I’m not really interested in special edition consoles unless they have something to do with a franchise I really like, and even then, I’m not often willing to pay extra money for a different “skin” with no addition to functionality.  I decided to be brave and message the seller to ask if he’d be willing to separate out the stuff I wanted from his game lots.  Much to my surprise, he was!  We managed to settle in at a price of $150 for both games, which is pretty good considering that Conker’s Bad Fur Day often sells for close to $120 on its own, and the Kirby game with its manual is normally close to $70 Canadian. Here are some photos of the games.

As you can see, the games/manual are in absolutely immaculate shape.  I found out from the seller that this was his personal childhood collection that he had rediscovered recently and was looking to part with.  He was one of the nicest people I’ve dealt with to date, going so far as to invite us in to show us the games working and giving us a bit of a backstory about his small collection.  I’m pleased to have found copies of these excellent games in such good condition that were well-loved by their previous owner.  Nothing is better to me as a lover of games.

The only thing I regret was that this seller also had a copy of Super Smash Bros. for N64 that I should’ve picked up last night as well, but didn’t.  I always go back and forth on that game since I played it to death many years ago on my friend’s copy that had everything unlocked.  I was doing solo play back then, so when I see the game come up, I often first wonder what more I could possibly get out of it when I’ve already played through it multiple times.  Then I remember that I have never played it through from scratch and haven’t experienced unlocking each of the characters.  I’ve messaged the seller this morning about buying the game, but he apparently has someone coming by to pick up that game and the rest of his lot sometime today.  I am patiently waiting to see if that falls through, and if so, I’ll be at his door!  Regrets, regrets.  If it doesn’t work out, another will come.

Either way, the games I did find come highly recommended, and this was the best price I’ve seen for them in a long, long while.  When I’ve seen them both at swaps, the price has been so inflated that I’ve never bothered, and this is especially true for Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  Generally, people are non-negotiable with that game because they know that there is a high demand for it as it is a rarer game for the N64.  It was also one of the few games to somehow sneak right by Nintendo’s strict policies on lewd/inappropriate content and is filled with the crassest of jokes.  The game is also difficult to emulate – we tried and failed several times!  Buying the cartridge for a decent price was the only way to go as far as I’m concerned.

With respect to Kirby Super Star, it is the better Kirby game on the SNES.  Kirby’s Dreamland 3 though charming in its own right has been reviewed as sluggish and slow-paced compared to other games in the series.  Kirby Super Star has several different adventures to play through, and boy do I love variety!  That said, I have yet to complete a Kirby game since the completionist in me gets irked when I have no idea if I’ve found all the secrets or not.  I’ve racked up quite a few games in this series even since starting this blog, so my Kirby backlog is starting to rear its ugly (or cute?) head.  I am pretty sure I have games to play for life at this point.

Anyway, I hope all you American-folk had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  Thanks to all of you for reading!

-GG

The Holy Grail – Sega Master System RPGs

I recently found an eBay listing that I couldn’t get out of my head.  I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.  It was a beautiful lot of Sega Master System games that someone was taking offers on.  The games were mint condition RPGs (and similar like rogue-like, action RPGs, etc.), complete in box with maps and manuals.  There were three games in there that I’ve been searching for over the last year or so to no avail and on top of that, there were also eight other RPG-style games for the taking that I had read up on in the past and thought might be worth a look.  I knew that if I bought this lot of games, I’d obtain nearly all the Sega Master System RPGs in one fell swoop.

Dream come true, right?  My problem was in the amount of money the seller wanted for this game lot.  After a little bit of wrangling and sending in a few counter-offers, the guy settled on $675 with me.  As much as I almost never drop huge amounts of cash on games like this, for me, this was worth it.  I put aside money each month for game collecting and with things slowing down for winter, I had some unspent cash left over.  For 11 games for $675, it was like I was paying full price for 11 brand new games.  Considering that some are fairly rare and that they are all in complete and amazing mint condition, I didn’t mind so much.

Zelda screenshot borrowed from:  http://tartarus.rpgclassics.com/zelda1/1stquest/walkthrough/treaswalkthrough4.shtml

I suppose I will group the games into their style categories to organize things a little bit.  I’ll start with the one and only rogue-like game in the bunch, Dragon Crystal.  I haven’t personally played a lot of rogue-like games, but from what I gather from watching reviews of many different ones, they’re ruthless.  They deliberately leave you in the dark about what items are intended for, and it’s a tremendous feat built on a shaky foundation of  trial and error.  This game by far has some of the nicest Sega Master System box art I’ve ever seen.

The second type of game in this excellent group are turn-based RPGs and the first one I will mention here is Ultima IV.  The Ultima games are some of the oldest RPGs I personally know of, and I think many RPGs that followed them borrowed heavily from the series.  From what I’ve gathered, Ultima IV is a quest in the traditional sense but also introduced a morality system alongside the open world exploration and combat from earlier installments in the series.  I had a chance to pick up some of the earlier Ultima games in floppy disk form last summer but passed.  Those magnetic-based mediums are unpredictable, and the thrift store had them priced way too high for my taste (plus, I didn’t have a Commodore to play them on!)  Here’s some photos of Ultima IV and its game map.

Miracle Warriors – Seal of the Dark Lord is one of the earlier 8-bit RPGs to hit the system and also involves turn-based combat.  Like Ultima IV, your actions in this game are of consequence later on and can alter your reputation with NPCs.  At first glance, this game seems daunting because you have limited perspective on what’s around you.  The “overworld” is limited to a small 9×9 tile map at the top of your screen that you can move about with and see what’s around you, but thankfully the game came with an absolutely beautiful map.  It’s a thicker paper and quite enormous compared to what you might normally expect!  Have a look below to see the game and its gorgeous map.

Another well-known turn-based RPG from this lot is Phantasy Star.  If you’ve been following my swap posts, you’ll know that I’ve recently picked up Phantasy Star II and III and have been itching to get my hands on the first installment for quite some time.  I’ve always seen it for sale with its case or as a lone cartridge, but never complete.  I love the idea of first-person perspective dungeons mixed with traditional overhead world maps and towns.  When I popped this game into the Sega Master System, it didn’t start up right away and I got an error screen.  It took a good scrubbing, but it seems to work fine now.  Thank goodness!  This was one of the main reasons I wanted this lot so badly.  Here’s a photo of the cartridge, its manual and the game case.

The rest of the games on this list can be broadly classified as Action RPGs or Action Adventure depending on how you slice them.  I’ll start with two of the Wonder Boy games: Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap.  These two games are side-scrolling action RPGs with many enemies to fight and shops along the way.  They remind me of a weird Adventure Island/Little Nemo Dream Master fusion with towns and other RPG elements sprinkled on top.  From what I understand, the Monster Land game is much more linear whereas The Dragon’s Trap leans heavily towards a Metroidvania approach.  They are staples in any Master System collection, so I’m quite happy to have found them here in such excellent condition.

SpellCaster is another game with side-scrolling action sequences combined with a unique point-and-click component.  In addition to this, there are towns and people to talk to in between.  From a quick glance at some reviews online, this is easily some people’s favourite game on the system.  I played the beginning of the game while testing it, and I’m really curious to find out what all the fuss is about.  I paid no attention to the story at all, but from my initial impression, all I can say that some of the music comes off as a bit grating.  I’m sure it gets better.

Lord of the Sword is another game that can be classified as an action-adventure game with some RPG elements.  There is much side-scrolling action to be had along with towns and shops along the way.  This one reminds me a little of Faxanadu for the NES in both its style and layout.  I’ve heard that this game is difficult because it has a limited number of continues as opposed to a password system or save feature.  For a longer game, this can obviously become problematic.  I’m hoping that after getting a feel for the controls and beginning to recognize enemy patterns that I’ll be able to get through it without hitting a Game Over.

Within the last six months or so, I discovered the Ys series for the first time.  I do so much reading about this stuff that if you asked me how or when I found out about it, I couldn’t tell you.  I was happy to grab a copy of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys recently from a swap and have been determined ever since to track down its predecessors.  Much to my dismay, there are not many options available for getting Ys II in English unless it was purchased together with the first game on a handheld.  The choices were for Nintendo DS or for PSP.  I’m hoping to stream my gameplay of many RPGs in the coming months while things are quiet with collecting, and the DS doesn’t have an output for streaming.  Frankly, I’m not sure how to go about it with the PSP either.  Not to mention the price of these compilations!  Both games are quite expensive!  These compilations are also remakes, and the reviews on the gameplay/appearance/music changes are mixed.

Either way though, I did get a copy of the first Ys game in this game lot, and it’s called Ys: The Vanished Omens.  It’s a top-down action RPG where you simply bump into enemies to harm them with whatever weapon you have equipped.  The angle that you attack from dictates how much damage they (and you) take in combat.  The music in this game is phenomenal and I’ve been humming it all week since I popped it in to test it.  We just downloaded a copy of the TurboGrafx CD compilation of both games to see if I like the second one enough to try to find a legitimate copy of it sometime.  Here’s a photo of the first Ys game for Sega Master System.

There are two games from this lot that are generally classified as “Zelda clones”, but I beg to differ.  Sure, there are some similarities, but they end at parallels in graphics and gameplay mechanics as far as I’m concerned.  How many ways can you really depict bushes, rocks and the outdoors on an 8-bit system?  I digress.  Golvellius – Valley of Doom is the first and it’s a top-down action RPG with some side-scrolling action segments.  Its gameplay mechanic is a mashup between the first and second Zelda installments on the NES.  You’re fighting monsters on top-down perspective overworld, but when you go into labyrinths, you’re travelling in a sidescrolling fashion and whacking enemies with a weapon.  I obviously love Zelda, and for many people that didn’t own a Nintendo, this was their Zelda!  I will be excited to try it out when I finally get around to it.

I’ve saved the best for last.  The second “Zelda clone” is Golden Axe Warrior, a game I discovered for the first time in a Sega Master System Review video by Game Sack.  Intrigued since at the time we had just bought our SMS, I had taken a look online to see what its price point was.  As usual, it was tremendously expensive.  Over the last year, I’ve been searching high and low for this game at swaps and have never come across it even as a loose cartridge.  It’s fairly rare and there are no copies of it available on eBay in North America at the time of this post.  Ones that are available internationally come with the case and no manual.  This wonderful person on eBay had a complete version of the game and it was in practically brand new condition.

The gameplay looks awesome.  You play as a character from Golden Axe, but you set out to avenge the death of your parents.  It has about as much obscurity as the original Legend of Zelda and has great visuals and fluid gameplay.  I can’t wait to try this one out!  I’m so glad to finally own it!  Between this and my recent find of Crusader of Centy for the Sega Genesis, I’ve killed off two of the three rarest games I want to own and play.  The last one left that I want to track down is Snatcher for the Sega CD, and that one on its own will cost a small fortune if I can find it.

Though I was initially a bit torn about dropping so much money on these games, I’m at peace with it now.  I own a rare bit of gaming history and will have the privilege to play these games legitimately the way that they were meant to be played.  I hope you’ve all enjoyed seeing this group of games.  I’m happy to finally be able to give some love to Sega here.  Though I grew up with a Sega Genesis, before this past year, I didn’t even know that the Sega Master System existed!  Now my world has been blown wide open with an entire library of games I’m discovering for the very first time.  It is a truly exciting thing!

Thanks so much for reading this lengthy post!  Enjoy what’s left of the weekend!

-GG

Last Swap of the Year – I Forgot These!!!

I don’t know how I forgot to mention this, but at the same event last weekend I mentioned in my previous post, I picked up a few old PC games!  My boyfriend is a PC game fan, and especially a fan of some of the Sim games.  A vendor there was selling boxed games for $2 each, so I picked up a few of them.  One was a complete Sim City 2000 CD collection which includes a bunch of add-ons for the original game.  I also found SimTower, which was my personal favourite Sim game (and truthfully the only one I’ve ever played.)  I spent many hours as a kid playing a pirated version of this game and even beat it once!  A few years ago when my boyfriend was fiddling around with running Windows 98 in a virtual machine, we installed that game and I got sucked back into it like I was 13 years old again.  So, so much fun.  Now I have a legitimate copy!

I also found Age of Empires III along with two of its expansion packs.  My boyfriend is a fan of real time strategy games and he has played the original of this series.  It was a shot in the dark, but for $2 for each box, it was worth it just in case he wanted to play it!

On the topic of PC games, we are currently trying to get my family’s old 386 computer up and running again.  When we first turned it on, it told us that the CMOS battery was toast and wouldn’t boot up because of it.  So far we’ve replaced the battery to see if it would go through its boot cycle, but now we get some beeps and bloops and end up with a blank screen.  I’m so sad that it’s not working, but I’m hoping we can figure it out.  There is a strong yearning inside me to have a go at Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Wolfenstein 3D and a bunch of other games from my childhood again.  Fingers crossed, please!

Thanks (again!) for reading!

-GG

Nintendo Stuff – Last Swap of the Year

This past weekend I made it out to a small event that wasn’t only focused on video games, but also on many other facets of Geek Culture such as card games, table top gaming, and comics.  I can’t say that I dabble at all in the latter three, but it was interesting to see so many people come together around those activities.  I’m starting to learn a little more about them by following a few blogs here, even if it’s only a passive absorption of information.  There were only three video game vendors at the event, and I made sure to visit their tables multiple times.  I even shook hands with a vendor I’ve seen a few times at other swaps, and now we are on a first name basis!  Pretty great!

One man’s table had a raffle for an NES Classic Edition, which I entered but didn’t end up winning.  He didn’t draw at the event, so for all I know he just took all the money home with him and laughed all the way to the bank.  The same vendor also had a Mystery Bag attraction where he had shoved 150 games into a sleeping bag and was asking people to pay $5 to stick their arms in and pull out something from inside.  There were games available to win from most consoles that I’m interested in as well as gift certificates to the table.  I must’ve rummaged around in there for a good two minutes looking for something that felt like an NES or an SNES cartridge, and finally I found one.  When I pulled it out, it was the grungiest, dirtiest most awful game I could’ve picked for myself: NHLPA Hockey for the SNES.  I won’t even taint your day with a photo of it because it’s a really, really gross cartridge.  I am trying really hard not to think about what else I might have unknowingly touched in there.

Despite the willies-inducing mystery bag experience, I did find a few interesting things.  There was a table of SNES games that was jam-packed with great deals (for once!) and I got a copy of Super Bomberman 2 and The Lost Vikings for $60.  Both cartridges are in great shape.  I normally would’ve tried to wrangle a deal out of some of the vendors here, but since this was the first time this particular event has ever run, I wanted to support them so that they might be inclined to come back again next year.  I did manage to save $5, which is still a savings at the end of the day!  Here are the two games:

I used to play the first Super Bomberman with a good friend as a kid and loved it!  She also had Mario Paint and we always played Gnat Attack together too.  I was the friend who would go and visit her and she would know to go and get out the Nintendo.  I only had an NES and a Sega Genesis growing up, so this was the only chance I had to play some of these other games.  I’m glad I had the privilege of getting a taste of the SNES in my youth.  Based on my impressions of the first Super Bomberman, I’m sure the second will be good too.  I’ve heard it has only added and improved upon the first game.  The Lost Vikings looks like a fun puzzle game as well.  I own it on Steam, but took the plunge for a cartridge copy!

I think the most exciting thing I found was a boxed copy of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening that also came with its manual!  I have been eyeballing a boxed copy of this game at a local hock shop for months, and they are asking $80 without tax, which was plenty more than I was willing to pay.  I bought my copy from a hard-of-hearing older man whose son did a lot of repeating to him on my behalf.  They sold it to me for $70 (they were asking $80 but came down a bit for me), and all of it is in good condition.  For anyone wondering, I got the original Game Boy game and not the Game Boy Colour release.  I’d like to own the GBC version and play that at some point since I understand it has additional content, but I’m quite happy with a complete copy of the original.  Link’s Awakening was one of the first games I fell in love with and I would say is my favourite Zelda game (so far, anyway).  It’s a game I’ve played through many times and am looking forward to playing again!

That wraps up the last swap of 2016.  Snow will be here any time now, and I don’t know that people actually host these kinds of events in the winter months at all.  I’ve never seen advertising for them, anyway.  Now we transcend into the darkness of The Wintertime Game-Finding Void.  Sigh.  I already can’t wait for Spring.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Five Dollar Awesomeness

I went thrift shopping the other day since my best friend had come for a visit and hadn’t been to a thrift shop in some time.  After finding her an Ugly Christmas Sweater for her pending annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, we stopped off at the glass case where the retro games are usually stashed.  There was nothing good to be seen, and just as we were about to leave, one of the workers recognized me as the “Video Game Lady”.  He said that they had just priced some stuff and hadn’t put it out yet, but that he’d go and grab it for me if I was interested.

He returned with two things.  The first was an NES Four Score, an accessory that allows for the NES to plug in four controllers instead of the usual two.  The greatest part about this was that it was still in its box with all its inserts and a very cool Nintendo Power poster.  The original price tag on the box said $4595, which I’m sure means $45.95, and the thrift store had this priced for only $5!  This is one accessory that we didn’t already have, so I scooped that up in a heartbeat.  After getting it home and looking online to see how much it’s going for, I was shocked to see that i was pushing $60-$70 Canadian in the completeness and condition that this one was in.  Talk about a deal!  Here’s a photo of the accessory, its box, and all its fun inserts!

The NES Four Score is compatible with about 30 games or so.  The most interesting ones on the list for me are Bomberman II, Gauntlet II, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Smash TV.  There are lots of great sports games that support it, but I’m not much of a sports game girl.  We do already have an NES Satellite, but it introduces a bit of lag that I can’t get over in platformers.  I used to use the NES Satellite to be able to sit on my couch across the room from my TV, and not so much for the four player advantage.  It’ll be nice to have a lag-less option in the NES Four Score!

The second thing that we were handed was a PSP!  I know I just picked one up recently, but this one was also for the low, low price of $5.  It looked practically brand new.  When I asked to test it out, the unit didn’t turn on, and the power cord didn’t seem to turn on the charge light (it turns out that it was a power cord for some weird phone that I’d never heard of before.)  I had a charger at home to test it out with, and when I got it home, it worked after charging for a few hours.  I don’t have any games to test the disc portion yet, but I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity for a PSP for only $5.  Here’s a photo of the machine!

This was a great thrift day.  It truly helps to know people in these places, and the small town-ness of my city is certainly helpful for building a rapport with people.  Anyone have some good PSP recommendations?  I’m not too familiar with a lot of PSP-exclusive games.

A few updates:

1. I finally made some progress in EarthBound.  I was stuck at a spot that I thought I had screwed myself over in by initiating a cutscene before getting weapon/equipment upgrades.  After a little grinding and some perseverance, I made it.  I am hoping to finish this game in a timely fashion and finally get to playing some of my other games soon!
2. There is another swap close by this weekend that I’m hoping to get to.  Send me all your luck!
3. I overspent on a lot of Sega Master System games on eBay recently.  I’m still torn because I know I spent way too much, but there are some great games in there that I’ve never seen at a swap that I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to find for a while.  The package is on its way, and when it gets here, I’ll do up a proper post about it.

I hope you’re all well.  Thanks so much for reading.

-GG

$10 GameCube Games and the Controllers from Hell

In all the excitement of the swap and desperately wanting to share what I found there with you all, I had forgotten entirely to post about a couple of games I bought just prior to it.  I’ve found some other things since as well, but I’ll save those for another day.

First off, have I ever mentioned that timing is everything with buying video games from classifieds sites?  Where I live, if you’re even a few minutes late after an ad goes live, it’s very likely that someone else has already pounced.  Conveniently for me, I happened to be the first visitor to an ad with a lot of about 20 GameCube games.  The most amazing part?  The seller only wanted $10 for each game, and there were some good ones in there!  They also had two controllers for $5 each, and a memory card for $5.

I was interested in three of the games on the list: The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, Pikmin, and Luigi’s Mansion.  After phoning and speaking with the woman selling the games, she told me that all three games had their manuals and that the cases and games were in decent condition.  I didn’t bother asking about controller condition (stupid me), but said we’d be right over.

Well, we got the games and the controllers home, and it’s pretty obvious that these people didn’t care for their stuff very well.  The game discs are in okay shape.  There are a lot of small scratches on their surfaces, but nothing that will prevent them from playing (I hope… I’ve tested them and they all start up, but I can’t be sure until I play the games in their entirety.)  Two of the three manuals are in reasonable shape, but the Pikmin manual’s cover is torn completely off and ripped across the back.  It’ll take a little TLC to fix it up to a reasonable state again.

But the controllers?  Ugh.  They’re another story altogether because they are just in the worst shape!  I didn’t bother to look at them at the door when we picked up the stuff because it had been getting close to 10 p.m. and the people I was buying these games from were having a party of sorts.  When I got everything home, both controllers were missing the thumbstick rubber altogether.  One of the thumbsticks has no spring left in it at all, and after trying them out with the games, the other has absolutely no deadzone.  Characters walk/face up even when the stick is not being pushed in that direction at all.  It was certainly a waste of $10 for those, but I guess you can’t win them all.  Maybe they can be salvaged for parts or for some sort of artistic venture.  Here is a photo of the worst of the two (this one’s cord also has exposed wiring from what looks like tears or bite marks.)  It’s hard to see from the angle of the photo, but you can see the thumbstick hanging off-centre.

I am happy for a chance to finally try out Pikmin for the very first time, and to also see beautiful and crisp renditions of four classic Zelda games.  When I started up the Zelda disc, there was some fun bonus content there that I wasn’t expecting  including a preview for The Wind Waker, a retrospective video that showed game footage from many of the Zelda games up to the Collector’s Edition’s release date, as well as some other cool little things.  I was quite pleased to discover that!  Speaking of discoveries (or rather rediscoveries), in trying out Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link again for the first time in ages, I have a burning passion to finally finish that game.  I might take that up soon.  I’m debating whether to play this version or my NES cartridge, though.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Swap Day: Genesis and SNES Excitement

After the disappointments of missing out on the last two game exchange events either in part or entirely, I was determined to get out to the last long distance swap we had been planning to go to for this year.  Where I live in Canada, we are very restricted with travel in the wintertime because the highway conditions become atrocious.  Travelling long distances out of town on treacherous highways for the sake of video game hunting is a huge risk that we are both not willing to take.  There will be one more swap much closer in proximity that we might get to in a few weeks, but nothing that will involve 10 hours in the car like this one did.

I went to this one alone.  My boyfriend had been pumped to come along but awoke on the morning of departure with glassy eyes and swollen neck glands.  After I tucked him back into bed and got on the road, I made it to the swap only 30 minutes after its start time.  Boy oh boy was I ever in for a treat!  The swap was a smaller one with 50ish vendor tables, and thankfully most of the vendors were actually dealing games rather than other game-related merchandise.  I love people’s art and various gaming-related creations, but I’m definitely a person who goes to these things looking for games.

There was a vendor table with a bunch of game manuals strewn about in a haphazard way.  I’m always picking up manuals for games I own loose.  I bought the manuals for Super Mario World and Super Mario All-Stars for SNES, and Adventure Island for NES.  In total, these three gems cost me $7!  They were in very good shape.  The Super Mario World manual is the Canadian version, so it’s double the size because it also has French language instructions.

At the same table, there was a copy of Hey You, Pikachu for $5.  This game has skyrocketed in price because of the renewed popularity of Pokemon, but unfortunately stores don’t seem to realize what the game actually is.  The game on its own is useless as it requires a receiver and a mic for the N64 to play.  Nobody seems to have them where I live, nor could I find any at the swap.  I bought the game in hopes of someday finding the mic and receiver for a decent price.  How fun would it be to talk to Pikachu?  Think of all the things we’d have to talk about!  Here is a photo of the cartridge that came to me in excellent condition.  For the record, I saw another copy of the game a few tables over going for $40.  I think I got this game for an excellent deal and I’m glad I scooped it up in time.

I had really excellent luck finding a some great games for the Sega Genesis.  There were a few I passed up on and am still feeling a little regret over not getting like Phantasy Star IV with its box but no manual/map and a really beat up copy of Shining Force II.  The games that I did buy were good titles in really great shape, and I’ve put them all into a group photo for your viewing pleasure below.

I found a beat up copy of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego and Rocket Knight Adventures for my boyfriend for $5 and $20, respectively.  I was happy to find Rocket Knight Adventures for this great price in good condition since we had been tempted to pick up a copy with a faded label for double the price the other day.  I’m very glad we resisted!  Ristar was another game I snagged and I paid $30 for that one.  I’ve heard that it is an excellent platformer, and it was another game to cross off my boyfriend’s list.

For me, I added to my Phantasy Star collection by grabbing Phantasy Star II with its manual and box, but it didn’t include its map.  Everything was in excellent shape, and for some reason I can’t remember how much I paid.  I think it was $20-$30.  I only need to find the first and fourth installments of this game series now!

One of the most exciting finds of the day for me was that lovely cartridge in the middle of the above photo: Crusader of Centy!  This is an extremely rare Sega Genesis game, fabled to be about the third-rarest for the system.  The label is obviously torn, but there are very few copies up for purchase online.  The ones that are available come at an extremely high price!  A quick search shows this game’s value running from $200+, and even reproductions of this game fetch a pretty penny.  The vendor seemed skeptical when I started examining his cartridge and began explaining to me how rare and expensive the game was as if I didn’t know what I was holding.  I pretty much told him to save his breath and proceeded to wrangle him down to $160, which was a total steal for this game.  When I got it home, I opened it up to check its authenticity, and sure enough, it’s all fine and good.  Here is a photo of the label and the PCB.

So exciting!  It’s an action RPG game that is often called a “Zelda clone”.  It has a lot of unique characteristics, a wonderful soundtrack and great graphics.  I think it’ll be fun to play through.

As you all know, I’ve been searching for SNES RPGs and am nearing the end of my collecting for those.  I collect them loose so that I can afford more of them, and one in particular I had been interested in picking up was Robotrek.  I’ve read a lot about the game and watched lots of reviews, and despite having one of the most annoying battle themes I’ve ever heard, it looked like something I’d enjoy immensely.  I found a vendor that had not one but four copies of the game (two complete in box and two loose.)  He wanted to charge me $80 for a loose copy.  I scoffed at his ridiculous price and skulked away trying to find a better deal.  By the end of the day, no better deals were in sight, so I decided to try to appeal to the vendor.  I explained how far I had travelled and how I could’ve stayed at home on my couch and had the game delivered to my door for his asking price of $80 (shipping in).  I also pointed out that one of their loose cartridges had some scratches on the label in hopes that they’d cut me a deal.  They finally did, but only by a little.  I picked up Robotrek for $70.  It was much more than I wanted to spend on this game, but after looking for it at several events and finding nothing, I felt like it was a good decision.

Final Fantasy II is another RPG I’ve been trying to find, but I have been waiting patiently for a deal on the price.  I’ve seen many copies around at $60-$70.  I finally managed to find one for $50 at this event in the greatest condition I’ve seen yet, so I pounced.  I’ve played this game through a few times on the PS1 compilation disc called Final Fantasy Chronicles, but I’m excited to try it out on SNES.  It is one of my favourite Final Fantasy games, so I was pretty happy to finally be able to add it to my collection.

Finally, the last thing I found today was Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen for SNES.  This is a game I’ve heard many people rave about, talking of how deeply involved the gameplay is and how the multiple endings of the game make it extremely replayable.  Although I’m not normally a real-time strategy fanatic, I think I can get behind one title that set the stage for many other games of its kind to follow in its footsteps.  With no manual or box in sight, the game was priced at a whopping $180.  I pleaded with the sellers and pointed out some label damage to them that I thought would bring down its price a little.  It also helped that I picked up FFII from them too, so they were amenable to flexing the price for me.  They wouldn’t go any lower than $150.  It was more than I wanted to spend on one game, but I’m okay with it.  I got some great deals on other things that day, so in the end I feel like it all balanced out.  Here’s a photo of Ogre Battle.

I am thrilled at having had so much success at one event.  For the first time ever, I actually spent out all the money I brought along, and truly feel like I got a really great deal on some stuff.  I’m still on the lookout for a few games that were heinously overpriced there like Skies of Arcadia (Legends) and Secret of Evermore, but hopefully I’ll run into them soon enough.  In the meantime, it’s back to hunting locally and trying to start streaming gameplay of my backlog more regularly.  I’m hoping this winter will be a pretty solid start to tackling my backlog!

Thanks for reading, as always!

-GG

Master Higgins: Capturer of Hearts

The Adventure Island games are some that I have adored onward from my youngest years on this earth.  My first of the series was Adventure Island II, a game I played incessantly after my sister received it as a Christmas gift in 1991 when it came out.  My younger self loved the dinosaurs and kindly gave them all the most wonderful names: Daphne, Reddy, Bluey, and Terry.  These in-game friends joined me on all my adventures through caves, forests, and even up into the clouds.  The fondness I feel for that game to this day puts it up in my top 10 games of all time, hands down, no question.

Sprites borrowed from The Spriters Resource.

When I got a credit card and started perusing eBay in my late teens, one of the first games I bought after Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was the original Adventure Island game for the NES.  I knew a friend growing up that owned it and I remember loving it.  However, after receiving the game in the mail and popping it into Old Faithful, I can honestly say the experience was lackluster.  Compared to the second game in the series, the animation was different, there were no dinosaurs, and the music was extremely repetitive.  Sure, it had all of the game’s basics: same characters, hammers, skateboards, etc., but its successor was far better.

Fast forward to a few months ago.  I had glanced quickly at a Twitch stream over my boyfriend’s shoulder, and someone was playing what I thought to be a mod or hack of Adventure Island II.  Everything looked and sounded the same, but then a new dinosaur appeared: the green rolling dino!  And then suddenly the player was running around with boomerangs and had the ability to duck.  When the guy game overed, I was floored when I noticed that there was an Adventure Island 3!  I’m not sure why I never thought to check into other series installments before that moment, but I was immediately smitten.  When my boyfriend went to make a snack, I sat down and watched Adventure Island 3 for a while.  I soon after took to the internet to see what the pricing was like, and good Lord, was it expensive: $85 plus shipping!  I had a moment of weakness when it made its way into my eBay cart, but I removed it a short time later.  I couldn’t spend over $100 on a game, even if it was something I knew I’d love.  Good things come to those who wait.

Recently, a seller posted an ad for Adventure Island II and 3 (not sure why Hudson Soft dropped the Roman numerals, but okay…) and he wanted $75 for Adventure Island 3 on its own.  After attempting to negotiate a better price unsuccessfully, I wanted to see the condition of the cartridge because the guy was claiming it to be “mint”.  Boy, was he right!  There is barely a scratch on the thing and it looks like it could’ve come straight out of the factory.  I did open it up to make sure it was a legitimate copy and it all checked out just fine.  Here is a photo of my three Adventure Island games.  I have Adventure Island II complete with its box and manual, but I only have the cartridges for the other two games.  Also, I excluded my copy of Super Adventure Island because it’s a different beast altogether!

I am happy to not only have discovered a game that panders to all the things I loved about Adventure Island II, but to also now own it and have the ability to play it through as much as I like.  It turns out it’s really hard, but that’s a challenge I’m willing to take up!

In other good news, it’s swap day tomorrow!  We have upwards of 10 hours in the car over the course of the day, but it’ll be well worth it for the last out of town swap of the year.  So far, I’m hoping to track down the usual SNES culprits: Robotrek, Secret of Evermore, and Breath of Fire II.  I’m also on the lookout for Skies of Arcadia (Legends?) as well as a copy of Final Fantasy II if the price is right (it never is.)  I’ve got a little price research on the go for this evening, and then it’ll be off to sleep!  We have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.  Send us all of your good luck vibes for some good discoveries!

Thanks for reading, as usual!  Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!

-GG

The Tale of the Inept Shopkeeper

Because we’re only a few days away from Halloween, I bring you both an Are You Afraid of the Dark-esque title and an equally scary story.  All I need to complete the atmosphere for this post is a bag of magic dust, some 90s clothes, a campfire and the theme song from Are You Afraid of the Dark playing softly in the background…

We had a particularly frustrating experience today at a hock/pawn shop that we frequent while travelling between cities.  They have a fairly large stock of old cartridge games and have had a few interesting gems that I’ve scooped up over the years.  Today, we were looking at a copy of Tagin’ Dragon, a rarer NES game from an unlicensed company that put out a few titles in its time.  My boyfriend asked the woman behind the counter to open up the game so we could see if it was authentic (it was priced for $65, so we weren’t too keen on picking it up without some validating first), and she refused to do so outright.  She informed us that the store never opens up any games they purchase, but are entirely comfortable putting an Online Going Rate Price-Tag on it.  This proceeded to get both my boyfriend and I worked up to a point where we stayed in the store for almost 20 minutes trying to explain to this woman why checking for counterfeits is important in the video game market, and how irresponsible it is of them to pass that kind of risk onto their customers.

As someone who frequents stores and swaps in search for video games, I have a pretty good idea of what a game I’m interested in looks like before buying it and what to look for in counterfeit cartridges.  This comes right down to label details: spelling, colour of text, placement of logos, label sheen, etc.  I can even look at the connectors on the end of a PCB sticking out and see if it looks old or not to at least know it’s not a brand new counterfeit board.  What really bothered me about this woman and this store is that for myself as an experienced buyer, I don’t feel like I’m taking a risk buying expensive games because I’m educated in this kind of thing.  For the average person who hasn’t done lots of buying though, I think it’s completely irresponsible of a store to be potentially peddling counterfeit materials and not seem to care at all about losing their own money buying the stuff, or consequently forcing their customers into some overpriced fake merchandise.

Some high points of the conversation included the woman saying the following asinine things about how they run their business:

1. They buy games up at about $4 per game, so she isn’t losing money buying up counterfeit games.  She’s buying cheap and selling high.
2. It takes too much time to open up a bunch of games if someone brings in a whole box of them, so she doesn’t bother.  It’s apparently a waste of time to do her job.
3. If someone opens a game, it breaks the “seal” inside and collectors won’t buy it later (p.s., there is no seal.)
4. If a game does turn out to be counterfeit, they have a return policy so you can bring the game back in for a refund.  Even though they’ve openly admitted that they know absolutely nothing about what a counterfeit cartridge or PCB might look like.  So good luck proving that to get your money back.

What an awful experience.  Despite the miserable time we had conversing with this woman, we ended up picking up the copy of Tagin’ Dragon since it is a rarer game and we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.  Here it is in all its baby blue awesomeness.

Needless to say, this will be the very last transaction we ever have with the store.  We are even considering posting an ad online in the Video Games section of the classifieds against the business to warn people that they are risking their hard-earned cash if they’re buying there.  I feel like sending in a swarm of people to start asking them to open up games before they buy.  At first, them not wanting to open up this game for us to look inside felt personal, but now knowing that they don’t ever do it makes it a matter of principle.  As far as I’m concerned, as a business owner, if you don’t want to take the time to authenticate your stock, get out of the business!  Could you imagine if antique dealers dealt like this?  How fast would their sorry butts be out at the curb and out of business if they didn’t know the tips and tricks to grade the age and condition of items they come across?  It’s terrifying to know that this may be the very first time that these people have ever considered the idea of counterfeit games.

Sorry for the rant.  Regular happy posts about wonderful games will resume shortly.  I’ve found some good things lately, but I wanted to throw this out there first while it was freshly stewing in my brain.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

A Sunday Drive to Nowheresville

While browsing the classifieds on Saturday night, I managed to find an ad for at least 30 N64 games for sale.  Because I didn’t grow up with an N64, I initially hesitated because so many of the titles I didn’t recognize.  I typed a few game names into a search bar to see if they were any good based on a quick search.  Most were not or were titles we already own, but as I continued to poke through the list, I saw some familiar titles that came in a past recommendation from Mr. Panda at Mr. Panda’s Video Game Reviews.  These included the two N64 Goemon games for the system which includes Goemon’s Great Adventure and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, as well as Mischief Makers.  There was a fourth game on the list that I had watched/read a few negative reviews about that I wanted to pick up: Quest 64.  Call me a sucker for punishment if you must, but there’s something about a game like that that I just have to experience at some point in my life.  I find experiencing the bad with the good gives you a broader appreciation for life’s little nuances.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll find that game to be particularly riveting!  Below, you can see a photo of the four games I picked up.

The games did not come easily to me because they were located out of town, but the price was right and I can’t resist a good deal.  The seller only wanted $50 for all four games, and considering I’ve seen a copy of Mystical Ninja with a bad label sitting on a shelf in a local hock shop for several months priced at $50 alone, I thought I might be getting a decent find.  Although I’m usually into RPGs, adding some fun and colourful platformers to my collection is always a good thing.  As much as I love a good, long game with a great story, there’s something to be said about the wonderful interludes that platforming games bring to the party!  If I ever finish EarthBound (yes, I’m STILL playing that one…) I’ll definitely welcome something a little more straightforward.

Hooray!  I hope you’re all enjoying this lovely Hump Day.  There was ice on my windshield this morning, so I’m truly hoping you’re all having a warmer day than me.

Thanks for reading!

-GG