Wisdom Tree’s Plug and Play: The Arkade

At some point during university, I happened to stumble upon the Angry Video Game Nerd’s episode 17: Bible Adventures.  Having been raised Catholic, the games being reviewed were more intriguing to me than they might have been to others because I was familiar with some of the biblical figures being portrayed and their stories.  The hilariousness of how far removed some of the gameplay was from the actual bible had me laughing so hard that I had tears pouring down my face the entire time I watched James Rolfe’s rage-fest unfold before my eyes.  My love for the AVGN was born in that very moment.  Since then, I watch that episode on a fairly regular basis, especially if I’m having a bad day.

Wisdom Tree is the developer and publisher of these Biblical-themed games featured in the AVGN episode.  For those unfamiliar with them, all the games they developed were not Nintendo official.  In fact, their cartridges required some nefarious finagling to override the lockout chip in each Nintendo system they produced games for (talk about good Christian values.)   Now, as if to ride out the positive uproar over Nintendo’s NES Classic Mini coming out in the fall, they’ve decided to release their own plug and play unit called “The Arkade” that will feature all of their previously released games.  They are looking for support through a Kickstarter route.

Their games are pretty awful.  I own the Bible Adventures cartridge for NES that features 3 individual games of biblical proportions, and they are some of the most poorly programmed games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.  With that said though, there’s an element of It’s So Bad It’s Good in there that keeps me coming back to play it once in a while.  Especially Baby Moses.  There’s something so satisfying in beating a game that’s so broken.

Despite the history with this company and the poor quality of their games, I will probably support their kickstarter for a few reasons.  The first is that I don’t currently own any of the other games they released and would like to.  One of them is a Zelda clone, and I love Zelda clones!  Secondly, because these games have been popularized through various routes like the AVGN episode, their prices have gotten to be pretty inflated.  I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on awful games.  I’d rather spend my beans on something I know I will love, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to use the word “love” to describe how I feel about Bible Adventures.  Thirdly, with some of the pledge levels, you can get multicart compilations of all the games for the original consoles that the games were originally released for: Sega Genesis and NES.  They’re also offering up copies of Super Noah’s Ark 3D, which is a re-skin of Wolfenstein 3D (yes, you read that correctly.)  That aspect is what is tickling my fancy the most.  I love cartridges and playing on my original hardware.  As nice as a plug and play would be, I’d much prefer a cartridge that’ll output the way I want it to rather than being stuck with potentially low quality output from a plug and play unit.

If anyone else is interested in the project, here’s a link.

I’m hoping to post an update on some acquisitions in a little while.  We have been so busy fighting the good fight against our renovation projects that I’ve been too preoccupied to do much thrifting or post when we have found stuff.  Come back soon.

Hope you’re all enjoying your day so far.  Thanks for reading!

-GG

Classifieds Finds: GameCube + Accessories

My boyfriend and I were perusing video game ads on the local buy and sell site last night, and lo and behold… there was a GameCube for sale for $20.  At first glance with no controllers or games and no sign of an AV cable, it didn’t look like much of a deal.  Then my boyfriend noticed the Game Boy Player attached to the bottom.  Although not too hard to come by, the price on those seems to be going up and up.  I bought one a few years ago at a swap for $60 on its own before I even owned a GameCube, and personally I feel like the Game Boy Player is one of the greatest inventions of all time.  I have no personal beef with handhelds, but I hate the neck strain from staring down at a screen for hours on end.  The problem with the ad was that there was no sign of a start-up disc in the photo.  Like many disc-based consoles, the GameCube has to be “tricked” into thinking that it has a real game disc in it before it’ll run any of the Game Boy, Game Boy Colour or Game Boy Advance games in the Player itself.  Without the disc, the Game Boy Player is useless.  I phoned the lady right away to let her know we were interested in picking it up at her earliest convenience.  When I inquired about whether or not there was a disc for the player, after a brief interlude of rummaging noises, she managed to find it.  Today, we drove for just under an hour to her house and picked up everything.  In the picture below, you can see the GameCube with the Game Boy Player attached on the bottom, the GameCube manual, the start-up disc and its box, as well as three cords that weren’t mentioned at all in the ad (as usual, I didn’t include any ugly power cords in the photo).

There were three kinds of surprise link cables.  The first on the right links two Game Boy Advances to one another, and also has a female Game Boy Advance port in the middle of the cable (I’m not quite sure what that’s used for… maybe a third player?).  The cord in the middle of the photo has two kinds of jacks and links either two Game Boys or two Game Boy Colours.  The last one on the right is the cable that allows for Game Boy Advance to connect to the GameCube.  There were a few other cords in the bag that I wasn’t sure about, but it turns out that we also got a 12V car jack power cord for the original Game Boy as well.  This will be potentially useful for long car rides which we seem to take rather often these days!

In addition to this great find, about two weeks ago, I managed to get Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube from a hock shop out of town for $30.  I had a tough go getting this one for the price I wanted.  They initially had it marked at $50, but I managed to get them down to $30 by complaining about the scratches on the disc’s surface.  I conveniently picked up a strategy guide for this game a few months back, so now I have a complete set!

Getting this game from that particular hock shop was actually a pretty miserable experience.  Without getting into a long-winded account, the shop owner basically accused me of buttering him up to get a deal because I was acting nicely towards him and being a bit assertive.  I am genuinely an extremely polite and professional person, so if people think I’m flirting with them because I’ve treated them kindly, that’s not my fault, right?  At least I got a deal out of it, though it feels like an ill-gotten gain in some ways.

Thar she blows!  The pickings have been extra slim lately, so I have been unable to update as regularly as I would like to.  It also doesn’t help that I’m starting to really round out my collection, and although there’s stuff to buy up, I already have a lot of what I want already.

I also wanted to say thanks to I Heart Old Games and Critical Teatime for nominations for the Liebster Award.  I have a large portion of the post written already, but I’m having a tough time coming up with my own questions.  Keep your eyes peeled for that shortly.

Thanks so much for reading!

-GG

NES Mini! – A Retro Gamer’s Dream

Oh joy!  I am elated to hear about Nintendo’s announcement of the NES Mini.  As a nostalgia fiend, it checks off all my boxes: its looks are identical to the original console, the controller looks as if it’ll feel like the real thing, and most importantly, it’s mini!  There’s something about tiny versions of larger things that make them feel cute.

One of the things I love most about this is that it’s accessible.  Collecting retro games has become increasingly difficult due to arbitrary price inflation, and as a Canadian, I am also stuck dealing with a crappy dollar when buying from international sellers.  This new tiny  console will allow for people looking to dabble in nostalgia to be able to do so without having to break the bank buying up the actual console and cartridges.  A quick tabulation of what the games alone might cost if people were going the purist route comes out to well over $400, and Nintendo will be offering this console for $60.  I’d like to think that this is Nintendo’s secondary answer to the surge in the retro game market, with the first being the virtual console options for the Wii and WiiU.

Apart from its general appeal and accessibility, I think the most important thing that this little console will do is provide new gamers with the opportunity to experience retro Nintendo games for the first time.  Instead of having to buy up a Wii or WiiU and then buy digital copies of all the games they want on the Virtual Console for at least $100, they can get a snapshot of some of the games that made many of us fall in love with Nintendo in the first place.  I think there’s a lot of merit to this because there are roots that run pretty deep in gaming’s history that began with Nintendo.  I can’t personally imagine experiencing today’s games without having known where everything grew up and out from.  Anything that makes retro gaming accessible to everyone is something that I can get behind without question.  I also like the fact that the NES Mini will combat game piracy to an extent.  I only play emulated games when I’m using websites like retroachievements.org, and even then, I already own copies of the games I’m playing through.  Although people will still pirate games, I’m happy that Nintendo is offering an alternative for those that would prefer to buy them rather than resorting to emulation.

As someone that collects retro games, I think this is something I’d still buy for my collection.  Although I already own most of the games on the list, the portability of a Plug and Play is very attractive, especially when you’re the one bringing the gaming experience to other people’s houses.  Because of its HDMI capability, it’s the kind of thing I could bring to a party easily, or can see myself giving to my younger family members that might some day feign an interest in gaming. Passing on what made my childhood particularly enjoyable is something that I’d love to be able to do!

I hope you’re all enjoying this lovely day.  Thanks for reading!

-GG

 

 

Slim Pickings: Finally, SNES!

Firstly, if you have never heard the song Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell by The Offspring, you should probably have a listen.  I think of this song whenever I think about there being “slim pickings” in the retro hunting world, so I thought I’d share one of my favourite tunes by my favourite band.  If you do watch the music video here, at 2:32 there’s a very Zelda 2-like falling scene for a few seconds…

A few days ago, I got an email from a guy we had bought games from in town previously.  He said he had a boxed copy of The 7th Saga with its manual and map and that it could be all mine for the low low price of $150.  Normally I like to buy up boxed games if the price is right, but this offer was definitely pushing it for me.  When I was contemplating buying a guy’s SNES collection for $2000 last year, I had done a pile of reading on many RPGs including The 7th Saga.  Of all the SNES RPGs, it was certainly closer to the bottom of my list of things I still wanted to acquire, and I wasn’t too keen on picking up a copy for more than $30.  I ended up checking online for the game, and the lowest price I found in Canadian dollars was $30, shipping included.  I bought it up and turned this guy down.  Someone out there that loves The 7th Saga and would enjoy the game in its completeness deserves to have this guy’s copy.  I did ask about any other games this guy might have come across recently, and he did have a copy of Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts with its manual.  From his initial offer of $40, I got him down to $30 and we agreed to meet the next day for pick-up.

Living in a small town can become problematic when you’re answering anonymized ads all the time.  You unknowingly run into the same people a lot, and that can get a bit awkward.  Sometimes you’ll encounter good people who are willing to work with you and reward repeat business, but sometimes there are others that make doing business unpleasant.  For example, this guy that I bought Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts from completely stood us up.  He left us waiting in a parking lot in sweltering midday heat for 30 minutes and didn’t respond to texts or emails for several hours after our meeting time.  Most people would just not do business with him again, but it’s the small town curse: 1 out of every 3 ads I respond to are his, so burning bridges is tricky business!  Because we’ve had good luck with him in the past, we gritted our teeth and reluctantly accepted his apologies and went back to meet him the next day.  The politics of small town retro game buy-ups is serious stuff, I swear!  Sometimes I just wish I had more options.

For anyone wondering, despite our best efforts, neither my boyfriend or I could even beat the first level of Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts.  I own and have played Ghosts and Goblins on NES and can at least beat the first level, although everything goes to Hell once I get to the Ogre House partway through Level 2.  Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts is tremendously difficult for the moment, but it seems like one of those games that requires practice.  With some solid time with the mechanics, I’m sure we’ll be able to make it out of Level 1 someday.  At least we have the trusty manual with its obscure descriptions and hints to guide us along this horrifying quest!

I picked up a few other things recently but haven’t had a chance to photograph them yet.  We have been renovating the house, so that’s been eating up lots of my spare time.  Hopefully your adventures in gaming have all been more fruitful than mine.

Thanks for reading and sleep well!

-GG

Bad Labels Make the Thrifty Heart Grow Fonder…

The other day while I was out of town visiting friends, I decided to pop into a hock shop.  They actually had a pretty good selection of retro games, but much of what they had available I have acquired already.  My collection of cartridges for handheld consoles is minimal at best, so I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for Game Boy, Game Boy Colour or Game Boy Advance games.  The first one I saw that caught my eye was The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages for $19, which I put aside immediately (go here to see the trials and tribulations we endured to resuscitate the cartridge back to working order.)

Also in their inventory were two bad label games: Final Fantasy Legend III, and a GBC game that was simply labelled “Lufia”.  Both games were priced at $10.  The amount I care about a game’s esthetic on a given day really depends on a) how much I know and love the franchise (i.e. I like my Zelda games in excellent condition), b) my mood that day, and c) how good the price is as a result of the label damage.  In this case, I was quite happy to see a significant discount applied because of the label condition of both of these games: the label for Final Fantasy Legend III was pretty disgusting, and the Lufia game’s label was gone entirely.  Although pretty cheap, the Lufia game felt like a bit of a gamble.  I had only ever heard of the SNES Lufia games and lucked out getting them both mostly complete for a great deal a few months ago.  I haven’t done much research into that game series at all, and I actually had no idea that other Lufia games existed.  I normally don’t buy games I know nothing about, but the guy I was dealing with at the shop told me that it was in the same series of games as the SNES Lufia games and not some offshoot like the Final Fantasy Legend/Adventure games are from the main Final Fantasy series by Square(Enix)soft.  Although his words were reassuring, I couldn’t help but think about unknowingly picking up a travesty along the lines of something like Bubsy 3D.  It, for example, was a horrendous jump in the wrong direction from its predecessors for the Sega Genesis.  Despite all my conflicting thoughts and not even knowing the title of the game, I decided to get it.  Here are the games as they appeared in the store (they are some of the ugliest games I’ve ever bought, besides from my torn-label EarthBound):

After getting home and popping the Lufia game into the console, it turned out that it’s called Lufia: The Legend Returns.  I’ve been doing some reading about it and have come across mostly good reviews of the game.  I’m grateful to have a Game Boy Player that hooks up to my GameCube, which will allow me to play these GBC games on my television rather than on the handheld system.  I am happy to have probably made a good purchase with this one!

I should also mention that when I tested out the Lufia cartridge, the music was absolutely captivating.  I don’t know what it is about those old RPGs, but if the intro screen music has me entranced, I’m even more excited now than I was before to play that game series!  I haven’t talked much of my love for video game music and how it can make or break my gaming experience, but here’s a link to the title music if you’re interested.  It sounds totally epic and quest-y, which are my two favourite things in an RPG!

Does anyone have any recommendations for RPGs (action or otherwise) on the Game Boy Colour/Game Boy Advance systems?  I’d love to discover some new games, and it’ll be helpful for my research before the next swap next month.

Hope you’re all well, and thanks for reading!

-GG

Game Repair: An Alternative Method for Reflowing Solder

I was so excited to find a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages for a mere $19 today.  Normally, I’d seen the game priced for at least $30 at swaps or in hock shops, so I seized the opportunity to snatch it up.  It was in okay shape with the label wear you come to expect for cartridges of handheld consoles.  It was not nearly as nice as my practically mint version of its counterpart Oracle of Seasons, but nice enough for $19!

I got it home and tried it out a few times in my Game Boy Advance SP, but the game wouldn’t load up.  I managed to get the Game Boy logo, but the White Screen of Death appeared afterward.  Having bought many used games in my lifetime, I had a few hunches.  First and foremost, the culprit is normally dirty contacts.  I got out my trusty Windex and Q-tip duo and scrubbed away as I normally would.  The contacts were disgustingly dirty, and the cotton turned that horrid grey that it normally will if a game has been left collecting dust for a long time.  Feeling confident post-cleaning, I popped the game back into the machine but it was like I had done nothing at all (stupid sexy Flanders).  I decided to try the cartridge in my Game Boy Colour instead, just for science.  No good.  The White Screen of Death even appeared in the Super Game Boy, which I don’t think even plays GBC games!  It was quite telling.  The game was dead.

I felt like putting this cartridge into a frame with a plaque that reads something like, “Oracle of Ages: There’s a First Time for Everything – Cartridge of Ultimate Disappointment”.  There had not yet been a time in my life when I couldn’t coax even the finickiest of cartridges into working.  This time though, I felt dread in the pit of my stomach.  With the buyer beware policy of this particular shop, I didn’t think it would have been possible to get my money back.  Truthfully, if I had wanted to waste money, I could’ve melted down some of our fun and colourful plastic Canadian currency into some sort of illegal money art and consequently spent the rest of my life running from the police for committing a felony.  Sigh.

My hopes would not be so easily slain.  I took to reading the interwebs and came across a few articles and videos that talked about reflowing solder on specific chips on the game’s circuit board when all else has failed (there’s a good video here by Average Dave).  The various sources I consulted make specific reference to two chips in particular on Game Boy Colour cartridge PCBs that can have their solder reflowed for this purpose: the tiny one in the top left corner, and the big one at the bottom right (they’re circled in red below.)

All the videos I watched about this recommended starting with the small chip in the top left corner and using a soldering iron to touch each of the pads to cause the solder to melt again, thereby “reflowing” it.  If the game still wasn’t working, the larger chip’s pads could also be reflowed using the same method.   Generally, on forums, success levels were very high.  However, if you’re anything like us, you might not have a high end soldering station with an iron (complete with a solder sucker) or all the bells and whistles that the forums recommend.  We had to implement some drastic, desperate measures.  I want to tell you what we tried and what ended up working for us, but I must state something obvious here: you should NOT try this yourself unless you can tolerate potentially permanently damaging your game and rendering it dead forever.  I was only willing to try in this case because it was a last-ditch effort to get my non-refundable game going again.  You should also try to remove the battery before starting, if possible – heat and batteries don’t mix.

This method required two people.  Here’s what we did:

We opened the game cartridge by removing the screw using a special game bit.  Then, we removed the PCB from the game cartridge and put it onto the bottom of our biggest cast-iron pan.  We chose to work on top of our ceramic flat-top stove in the kitchen.  There, we would have excellent lighting and a fan for any fumes that formed.

After that, we took a pop can and using an x-acto knife, we cut off the top and bottom and discarded them.  We made a vertical cut down the body of the can so that we could flatten it out into an aluminum sheet.  This would serve as a heat shield for the rest of the board.  Then, we cut a hole the size of the first chip (the small one in the upper left corner of the PCB) whose solder we were going to attempt to reflow.  We positioned the aluminum shield over the PCB so only the chip we wanted to work with was exposed.  We used heavy, non-flammable items like pot lids and butter knives to hold the shield flat while we worked.

Because we didn’t have a soldering iron to work with, we used a heat gun instead.  We held the heat gun approximately 2-3 cm away from the chip on the highest setting.  To monitor the temperature, we used a digital laser thermometer that was pointed directly at the chip.  We heated the chip to between 225 -250 degrees Celsius and maintained that range for at least 30 seconds and then allowed the solder to cool and harden again.  When things were cool enough, we tried the game in the system but the White Screen of Death persisted.  We decided to try again on the larger chip this time, adapting our shield to accommodate its larger size.

After reflowing the solder on the second chip, we popped the game in and it worked!  It was like some kind of magical sorcery that I had absolutely no faith in until I saw it with my own eyes.  Like Doubting Thomas, I was changed!

Now, there are a few things that we should’ve probably done before we started.  As I mentioned above, the battery should be removed from the PCB before heat is applied.  Heated batteries can potentially explode and/or leak, which could be pretty detrimental for the life expectancy of the game.  Don’t forget the potential for personal injury!  Because we couldn’t de-solder it, we left it intact for our experiment and thankfully nothing happened.  The other thing to consider is that the battery is attached using solder and glue.  When we heated the chips, the glue did melt a little and stuck to our shield.  I’m not sure how you could avoid this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.  Our battery came through this like a champ.  The game saves and everything!

I am very happy that this worked out in the end.  Oracle of Ages/Seasons are games I’ve desperately wanted to play since playing Link’s Awakening and falling desperately in love with it.  The Oracle games are made in the same engine as Link’s Awakening, so it’ll be a real throwback for me.  I wanted to own both games to be able to play the complete story.  I’ve heard that you can use a save file from one game to play the other and that there’s continuity between them, so if Ages had stayed dead, I would’ve had to continue the painstaking journey of looking for it.  I can put that aspect of collecting to rest.

I truly hope that this method can help someone who might not have lots of fancy equipment at their disposal.  It’s not that a laser thermometer or a heat gun aren’t fancy, but they’re a little more likely to be around than a precision soldering station.  If you do try this method, please let me know if it worked for you as well as it worked for me.

Thanks for reading, as always!

-GG

Hock Shop Madness: More Zelda and Some Pokemon!

First and foremost, happy Canada Day! Right now it’s raining where I live, but I’m hoping that the weather clears up for the fireworks display later this evening.  There’s nothing quite like watching fireworks over a beautiful lake.  Onwards!

A few years ago, I bought my boyfriend a WiiU for his birthday.  We had the option of a free download at the time, and the choice was between The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a Metroid game, and something else that I can’t recall at the moment.  I had excitedly pressed for Wind Waker since it was one of the Zelda games I had never owned or played.  After downloading it, I blissfully played through over half the game before having to put it down earlier this year to concentrate on work and other commitments.  I’ve recently developed an interest in collecting GameCube games.  Because I already owned Wind Waker in virtual form, I wasn’t itching to buy it, but thought that if I came across it for the right price and in great condition that I might consider it.  I had seen it come and go on buy and sell sites and locally in hock shops, but it was always too expensive or was not complete/in poor condition.  There was one copy of it that I had kept my eyes on over the course of a few months: a local hock shop had a copy for the price of $35 with a beautiful manual and the game’s Nintendo Power subscription insert.  I decided to bite the bullet the other day and asked the store’s owner if he’d take $30 for the game, and he agreed.  Dealing with him was a nice change.  I’ve normally dealt with one of his regular employees, and she is literally the angriest looking lady I’ve ever seen.  Her actual personality matches her grumpy exterior, and she has been extremely unpleasant to deal with in the past.  I was pleased to be dealing with someone other than her, and he gave me a deal.  Go figure!  I will vehemently avoid buying from the store when she is working in the future.

I wonder if I can still order this T-shirt.  It looks pretty cool.  I’d also like to know what they meant by, “get in the pink” in their opening line in their little blurb there.  It sounds a little nasty to me.

In other news, my boyfriend and I were driving through downtown the other day and saw a Pikachu doll peeking out of one of the store windows.  Intrigued, we pulled over and walked into the store to find that it was a brand new venue that would soon be filled with nerdy things.  We met a pleasant, shy man who told us he was just getting started with his retro-everything business.  He had a small inventory consisting mostly of comics and Magic cards, but he had two retro games: Total Carnage for SNES, and a copy of Pokemon Ruby.  I had no interest in spending $45 on that particular SNES game, so I inquired about his Pokemon game.  He said he wasn’t sure if it saved or not, but to support his venture, I decided to pick it up.  I already own a copy of Pokemon Sapphire that came in a lot of Game Boy games I got ages ago, but for $20, I felt good about helping this guy get going.  The game still saves, but the battery won’t keep track of time in the game. Here’s a photo of new Ruby, old Sapphire, and my Game Boy Advance SP.

I’d also like to mention that one of my favourite things I like to do after picking up a used game is check out the names on the save files.  Not only does it let me know that the game can indeed save, but it sometimes renders a kind of hilariousness that is pretty unique.  I always put some thought and planning into what I’m going to call myself in a game.  I feel it’s a personal and intimate decision, and I find myself using nicknames or terms of endearment that not everyone I know would normally know about.  In this case, I was tickled to find the save file named “Dr. Ass”.  I wonder if there is a Namingway-esque character in this game that can change your name for you if you have regrets later.

Well, I suppose I should go and figure out a backup plan in case this rain doesn’t stop tonight.  Have a safe and lovely day, everyone!

Thanks for reading!

-GG

An Unexpected Gift: 118 in 1 Plug and Play

I have been a fan of the multi-cart since I was a young girl.  My best friend used to have a 72 in 1 Cartridge Story cartridge, and we spent many hours perusing through the game list.  Back then, we had no idea that these games had been pirated or what a third party cartridge even was.  With no moral hang-ups, some of our favourites included Pooyan, Circus Charlie, and Antarctica.  Unfortunately, her family was robbed before we had reached our teen years, and that cartridge was taken along with many of their other NES games.  I thankfully chanced upon a copy of the game a few years ago at a local hock shop and purchased it.  My friend and I finally had a chance to seek retribution against our lifelong nemesis: the Trapeze Level of Circus Charlie.  I am sad to report that despite our best efforts, to this very day we still have not successfully finished that game.  The controls in that level are as mysterious as those in River Jump in Snoopy’s Silly Sports Spectacular.  On top of the 72 in 1 cartridge, my boyfriend and I also picked up a few other multi-carts in the massive purchase we made back in April (read here if you’re interested about that amazing find.)  Here is a picture of the few multicarts we own:

This brings me to the point of my post: a friend of ours in town was picking up and moving across the country and knew of our passion for video game collecting.  She gave us a plug & play system along with several of her beautiful house plants (for those of you that like plants, we now own a lily , an arrowhead, and a giant spider plant.)  The plug and play system is by Mega Gun Power and is a 118 in 1 unit.  In the top picture below, the controller on the right is the “console”.  It has audio and video outputs, as well as a power input.  The controller on the left is for two-player gameplay and it plugs in on the underside of the larger one.  I’ve also included the games list included on the instructions below.

Unlike most multi-cart lists, the names of the games aren’t all deliberately changed to loosely mask their identities.  To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a multi-cart or plug & play system without things like Kung Fu, Warpman, Lunar Ball, Lode Runner, Binary Land, Devil World, Nuts and Milk, Chack Pop, etc.  Interestingly for me though, there were a few new titles that I hadn’t seen before: Bird Week, Door Door and Sqoon.  I decided to put together a video on my YouTube channel showcasing the gameplay of these three games (go here if you’d like to see it.)  I use the word showcasing loosely: this was my first time playing through all three of these, so some of the deaths are cringe-worthy.  I apologize in advance for any cringing that ensues.  Especially with Sqoon.  I definitely need to work on my Sqoon skills.  I also apologize for the fact that it looks like this gameplay was captured from a potato.  The output from this plug and play doodad isn’t anywhere near top notch.

Random sidenote: if you did watch the video or looked up Sqoon, isn’t the title screen music from that game awesome?  The title screen on its own is so interesting: A mermaid holding a cross, random dudes swimming about, and a weird looking submarine that you commandeer to blast random sea life to smithereens.  The level music is not nearly as cool, although it is pretty good compared to some NES music I’ve heard (Bible Adventures, anyone?)

I am looking forward to playing with this system a little bit and exploring it further.  Maybe I’ll finally be able to exact my revenge on Circus Charlie.  The version on this unit seems to start you two levels further into the game than what I’m used to so I might actually have a chance!!

Another interesting thing I wanted to mention in this post is how multi-carts actually work.  I never thought twice about it until I was reading online about the 190 in 1 cartridge that we picked up.  Someone in a forum happened to casually mention that these cartridges were mostly produced internationally and could only be played on an NES console by using a Famicom converter inside the cartridge.  I was flabbergasted.  Truth be told, I had always wanted to pick up Famicom games because they’re often much cheaper (as long as they’re in English, of course).  We opened up one of the multi-carts to check out this theory.  Sure enough, there was a Famicom game PCB loaded into a Famicom converter inside!  Mind blown.

We conveniently have a top-loader NES, so we can get away with extracting this converter to use with Famicom games and not risk having it get lost or stuck in a standard NES console.  Because the other game converter I bought recently isn’t working properly, this is how I was able to test the Famicom version of SMB3 I had picked up.  Neat, eh?

Well anyway, I am a big fan of the novelty of multi-carts despite their perceived nefariousness by many people out in the world of the Internet.  They, along with plug and play units, have their place in a game collection.  Does anyone have any strong thoughts or feelings on the topic of multi-carts or plug and play systems with pirated games?

Thanks for reading, as always.

-GG

Liebster Award Post – Thank you!!!

When I first saw the Liebster Award come up in my WordPress feed, I was pretty excited about getting to know a little about each person that had been nominated.  Most of the blogs I follow are video game- and thrifting-related, but it’s nice to hear a little about the people behind the keyboard.  Truthfully, reading through people’s questions and responses was reminiscent of the good old days of being included on a long email list for a “survey” that asked you questions about everything from your crushes to your favourite food.  I’ve only been at this blog for a few months, so I am incredibly flattered to have been nominated twice in the last few days by some cool folks who have incredible blogs: Master of the Fist and The Maximum Utmost.  I would highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already.  Thank you so much to the both of you for nominating me!

I thought I’d answer both sets of questions in one post.  Since Master of the Fist nominated me first, I’ll start with his questions:

1. What do you feel you accomplish by blogging?
   When I put my thoughts down here, it’s like I finally have someone to talk to other than my boyfriend about retro video games!  The accomplishment for me is having a feeling of community for the first time in a long while.  At this stage in my life, there aren’t many people that I know that are into retro gaming or video games in general.  I suppose by blogging, I’m finally able to reach people with similar interests and feel connected again.
   
2. What do you consider yourself most talented in?
   I don’t have many talents other than being able to pick up a lot of music by ear.

3. If stranded on a deserted island or continent and only allowed 4 items what would they be?
   I would probably want to have a tent, a knife, a fire-starter and a water purifier.  Sounds like back-woods camping in Canada!

4. What form of transportation do you prefer most?
   I am partial to driving a car, myself.  I drive often from town to town, and it’s nice to be in control and be getting to where I’m going at my own pace.  I’ve heard trains are lovely, too.

5. What impact do you hope to have on the world?
   I hope to impact the world positively.  I realize that that’s very vague, but I really do make an effort to  be kind to everyone I meet.  Hopefully that can have a ripple effect and bring more positivity to others.
6. Do you believe conflict can be settled just with words, or does physical violence have to be involved when necessary?
   I think conflicts between any two bodies can be settled with words.  Violence in many cases is a means to an end when people become impatient.  I’ve never had to raise a hand to anyone to get my point across.
   
   
7. What is your favorite genre of music?
   Punk rock.  My favourite band has always been The Offspring.  I am also extremely partial to orchestrated music, especially with the surge of orchestrations of retro video game music over the past few years.  If you got into my car, you’d find The Offspring, a compilation of Vomitron music (they do metal covers of many epic NES tracks), and video game music Zelda’s 25th anniversary CD that came with Skyward Sword.

8. What would you do if you were gifted 2 million dollars, how would you invest?
   I would probably start some sort of scholarship fund.  I’m a strong believer in accessibility to education, so I’d want to support that cause.
   
9. What is the first thing you do in the morning after opening your eyes?
   I am normally running to the bathroom.  I always have a big drink of water before bed to make sure I don’t just roll over and ignore my alarm.

10. What is the most rewarding experience you have ever had?
    Moving out for the first time and buying my first home.  I lived at home longer than most, and it was really rewarding to finally own my own property without any help.
    
11. Do you think that you could live abroad for an extended period of time? If so, where?
    Definitely not.  I’m way too much of a homebody and love sleeping in my own bed.  I’d miss my family terribly.
    

Here are the second set of questions from The Maximum Utmost.

1. What made you want to start writing a blog?
   My boyfriend and I have a pretty great game collection and although we both enjoy it personally, I wanted to share our experiences with collecting and hunting for games with others.  As a retro gamer, the whole process of finding games in good shape that I actually want is a feat, so I thought it’d be fun to chronicle my experiences for the general public.
2. Outside of gaming, what hobbies do you try to cultivate?
   Gardening (vegetables and flowers) and finally finishing learning songs I’ve been trying to learn for years on the piano.  I play by ear and it takes me forever to learn from sheets.
3. Night Owl or Early Riser?
   Definitely a night owl.  I can’t recall a time in my life where I’ve ever enjoyed getting up early, although I do find it peaceful being up at the crack of dawn once in a blue moon.
4. Book or movie that had the greatest influence on you growing up?
   To Kill a Mockingbird was a book that really resonated with me.  We read it in English class in high school, and I can still hear Atticus Finch’s wise words echoing in many of today’s issues.
5. Favorite beverage to relax with?
   I am completely in love with all kinds of tea, especially homemade iced tea lately.  Iced tea in summer and a hot tea in winter are my relaxation beverages of choice.
6. Favorite character from a game?
   Oh gosh, this one is tough!  I like many characters for many different reasons, but if I had to pick, I’d say Vivi from FFIX.  I really related to him and his struggle with mortality.  Seaman is a close second.  He’s hilarious!
7. Favorite season of the year?
   Canadian Autumn is beautiful.  Especially in the area of Canada where I live, there are so many beautiful trees changing colours at that time of year.  Driving anywhere is a real treat, and the weather is nice and crisp.  Scarf weather is my favourite.
8. What was the first game that really made you like video and computer games?
   The first console game I ever played was Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt back in the early 90s, but we also had a lot of DOS demos growing up as well.  I used to love playing Wolfenstein 3D, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, as well as Commander Keen at the time.  The game that really got me excited about RPGs (which is now my favourite genre by far) was FFX.  I got that game for my 16th birthday along with a PS2, and the rest is history.
9. The Beatles or Led Zeppelin?  (Or neither?)
   Definitely Led Zeppelin.
10. Pie or cake?
    This is tough.  How can I choose?  I suppose if I have to pick one, it’d be pie.  Especially cherry, apple, blueberry or strawberry-rhubarb.
11. Favorite number?
    6.  It’s always been lucky for me.

So there are 22 things you never knew about me.  My 11 questions are:

1. What fictional character have you related to most?
2. Do you think human life is possible on Mars?  Why or why not?
3. Do you keep indoor plants?  If so, what kind?
4. What’s your favourite campfire food?
5. What new or old animated television show was/is your favourite?
6. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever found at a flea market or thrift store?
7. What food dish do you consider to be your best work?
8. Do you have any interesting or funny stories about online gaming with strangers?
9. What’s the first console you personally bought new?
10. If you could acquire a skill with no effort, what would it be?
11. What is your favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?

My nominations are:

retr0pia75
Blow In My Cartridge
the Well-Red Mage
Nintendobound
Nick the Gent
Mr. Panda
benez256
thriftstoreapocalypse
Master of the Fist
The Maximum Utmost

I’ve really enjoyed reading all of your blogs so far!  I’m looking forward to more.

Thanks for reading and for thinking of me!

-GG

Thrift Store/Hock Shop Purchases

After finding those GameCube Harvest Moon games while yard sale-ing this past weekend, it got me thinking about which other Harvest Moon games I wanted to pick up in the near future.  Magical Melody was crossed off my list, but I was gently reminded of Friends of Mineral Town by a commenter in a previous post.  I had watched plenty of videos on people’s top picks for Harvest Moon games, and Friends of Mineral Town often comes out close to the top in a number of categories.  Conveniently, I had seen a loose cartridge in recent months at a hock shop, but the price there never felt right to me before.  They have had it for sale for $25 for as long as I can remember.  When I first saw it there, I had looked up online prices to compare and they were about par.  I’m of the opinion that if a shop is selling a game for the same price as Ebay or Amazon, I might as well just order it and have it come directly to my house rather than having to spend money driving to the hock shop and consequently having to deal with unreasonable, obnoxiously greedy people.  I could go on all day about how frustrating this particular shop is, but I will refrain from ranting too much.  I’ll just say that sometimes the blatant cash grabbiness of the people doing the pricing is really obvious because they’ll include shipping in their price to fervently salt your wounds just because they can.  For example, right now they have a loose, beat up Chrono Trigger cartridge priced at $180.  That’s essentially the inflated Canadian price + shipping.  I’ve been told several times that they’ll “save me the shipping” when I’m trying to get a price down.  So yeah.  Total turds.  If I wanted to pay shipping to buy stuff in town, I’d sit on my couch and never leave it, ordering things from various corners of the world and eating all kinds of snacks to fuel my spending fury.  End rant.

Last night when I checked into the pricing of Friends of Mineral Town on various websites, it seemed to have gone up quite a bit from the $25 price tag, and thankfully not just because the Canadian dollar is horrible right now.  The dollar has been doing mildly better the last few weeks, thank goodness!  In true unknowledgable hock shop style, these folks didn’t adjust the price of this particular game when the market shifted. At a clear advantage here, I decided to go for it.  As much as I hate supporting this particular store, it’s the only place I’ve seen Friends of Mineral Town.  Harvest Moon games are timeless classics, and I don’t mind swallowing my principles once in a while when I’m coming out on top in a deal.

At the same shop, my boyfriend also picked up an aftermarket GameCube power cord for the console I got on the weekend that came without one.  Ridiculously, for the official Nintendo power cord, they wanted $20!!!  When you can get a whole console for that price with all its cords and a controller normally, it feels like a slap in the face when someone is stubbornly trying to convince you that a single cord is worth $20 because the High and Mighty Ebay says so.  Such good business tactics, right?  After getting nowhere with one salesperson after making him an offer of $5 for the official cord, his coworker stepped in and told him to see if there was an aftermarket cord we could have for that price instead.  The guy did find an aftermarket cord priced at $10.  Instead of coming down to our price of $5, he was now holding his ground on $10 until his coworker swooped in again and firmly put his foot down on our behalf to a final price of $5.  My boyfriend said it best to the both of them: if they negotiate with us on prices that are reasonable, it’ll keep us coming back to buy more games in the future.  Being inflexible is unacceptable in my books.  It’s a hock shop where prices can vary and should vary.  It’s not like I’m trying to get a deal on my grocery bill or something ludicrous like that.  They’re squabbling over prices of things that they probably bought cheap and are looking to sell high.

After that kerfuffle, we went to a much more reasonable hock shop and spent $40 on four more games.  Here’s a photo of everything we found today, minus the power cord:

 

This other hock shop is locally owned and run.  The owner has gotten to know my boyfriend and I over the past couple of years since we’re in his store every couple of weeks and normally buy something.  We had already bought Beauty and the Beast and Gangster Town today when the store owner rushed up to us and asked if we collect Nintendo stuff as well.  We said yes and he showed us a box full of games he had just picked up that he hadn’t even put out yet!  Most of the NES cartridges we already had, but there were a few things in his bag of handheld stuff that I wanted.  I managed to get a second copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for $10 after just recently spending $30 on my copy at the swap, and I also got a Game & Watch Gallery 3 cartridge for $10.  We definitely got some first-class citizen treatment.  It’s that kind of interaction that keeps me going back to that store.  There’s some sense of loyalty there, and it really means something to my boyfriend and I when someone recognizes that we’re just out to play some games and that we aren’t cutting to the lowest possible bottom line so that we can resell.

I’m sorry for all the complaining in this post.  I have to admit that my feelings are a little bruised after being given the run-around at some of these places.  I’m getting better at holding my ground and walking away when people refuse to budge, but I just wish that buying video games wasn’t some weird chest puffing contest, and that it didn’t require me to be on my toes to come back with witty repertoire at a moment’s notice when someone is throwing Ebay prices in my face like they’re the Written Rule.  Maybe I’ll try the thrift stores later today.  They tend to yield better luck and smilier faces.  I also have a discount card I need to use.

I also just wanted to add that I’ve heard many people say that the Beauty and the Beast game is on the verge of being horrible.  I’m a sucker for Disney and have Aladdin, The Lion King and the Little Mermaid for Sega Genesis.  It was only a matter of time before I picked this up.  I’m truly looking forward to banging that one out sometime soon.  Has anyone played it?  I’m curious to see if there are any opinions out there.

Thanks for reading!

-GG