Playing on All the Teams: Sega, NES and Neo Geo

I haven’t been able to make it out to many swaps all summer because of conflicting scheduling with other life things, but we finally got to make a weekend trip out of one this past weekend.  I am really excited to say that we found some very excellent things, and of particular importance, some things I had been looking for for some time now.

Because we recently acquired a bunch of doubles (and in some cases, triples) while buying up my friend’s large game collection, it was a goal of ours to be able to do some trades at this swap rather than spending cash.  Not only was this to save some money, but also because we have so many extras hanging around that it’s problematic storing everything.  Though I wasn’t sure how successful we would be, I was pretty happy that people were interested in some of the trades I had to offer.  Here’s a photo of what we went with (don’t worry, Hamtaro stayed put at home):

I finally managed to round out my Final Fantasy Legend collection by finding the second game in the series.  I was graciously given the first game by a wonderful friend, and had found a bad label copy of the third game at a hock shop last year.  Final Fantasy Legend II is in absolutely excellent shape, and we actually used it to test out something else coming up later in the post that I won’t spoil for the moment.  I also found a copy of Conker’s Pocket Tales, a top-down collecting game that came before Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  It looks cute and relaxing, so I’ll be intrigued to play it.  Both games were without boxes or manuals, but they’re in absolutely fantastic condition.  I’m quite happy to have them.

I’m sure you guys are getting tired of hearing me whine about wanting to find Skies of Arcadia (Legends), so I finally bit the bullet and picked up a copy for the Dreamcast.  Though I’ve heard some good things about the GameCube port, I just couldn’t find a copy of it at the last few swaps that wasn’t horrendously overpriced.  The copy I got came complete and was in excellent shape.  I played through part of the introduction awhile ago and am looking forward to starting this game.  I don’t have a ton of Dreamcast games that I’m itching to play, but between this and Grandia II, I’ll be sure to keep busy.

My Sega Master System collection grew by one game, and that’s Master of Darkness.  I can’t even begin to describe how excited I was to find this one.  I spotted it on lockdown in someone’s glass case at their table and recognized the iconic Dracula-themed game case art even though the title was covered up.  Unfortunately the game didn’t come with its manual, but the cartridge itself is in excellent shape and fired up with no issue on the first try.  For anyone that doesn’t know of the game, it’s very much like Castlevania but with a different backstory.  It seems to have many of the same game mechanics and macabre atmospheric touches as the Nintendo game.

While we’re on the topic of Castlevania, I also found Castlevania for the NES.  For the longest time now I’ve had a copy of Simon’s Quest and Dracula’s Curse, but despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to find the first game for a good price.  After asking every vendor selling NES games for it, one of them finally had it.  It’s in absolutely beautiful shape and looks brand new.  The Castlevania trilogy for NES has been a dream of mine to have, and I’ll be quite happy to hear that phenomenal soundtrack blasting out of my Nerd Room stereo soon enough.

My boyfriend nearly threw down with an older lady at the swap who was going around and buying up random things she thought her grandchildren might like.  As my better half was reaching for a copy of King of Monsters for Neo Geo MVS, the lady picked it up.  She asked the vendor if MVS games could be played on the home console AES version of the Neo Geo, but even when she was told that it wasn’t possible and that it would cost about $600 for an adapter to make that happen, she still bought it anyway.  It drove my boyfriend a little nuts to see a game he was after disappear into that lady’s bag to never return again, but he did have a second choice on the table that we did pick up: Metal Slug 2.  We don’t currently have a working Neo Geo to try it out on, but hopefully it’s in good working condition.  There aren’t a lot of cartridges I’ve met that don’t work.

For the Sega Genesis, we got two games.  The first was Shining in the Darkness, the first game in the Shining Force series.  The game came with its manual and had a saved game on it when I popped it into the Genesis to test it.  I don’t know if I flubbed when trying to load the save file, but the game decided the save didn’t exist anymore and sent me into a new game instead.  I’m not sure if the game needs a new battery or not, but it’s not too much trouble if it does.  I absolutely love the game art here.  It throws me back to old Disney.

The second game *drumroll please* is Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (I’m sure one of our favourite retro game reviewers over at I Heart Old Games will be very pleased)!  Some of you that follow me on Twitter might be familiar with my cries and howls about how every time a copy of the game comes up on the classifieds sites that it never seems to work out in my favour.  I’ve had deals for game lots including Moonwalker fall apart on me twice in the past year, so when a guy at the swap was willing to shuffle through all my trades to find some things he liked instead of paying out the heinous asking price, I felt pretty good about that.  I’ve still got Smooth Criminal stuck in my head and it has been hours since we tested the game out.

The last games I wanted to mention here were two boxed SNES games I picked up.  The first is Brandish, an action RPG/dungeon crawler game that has generally gotten negative reviews because of its “controversial” movement mechanic that involves rotating the screen around your character rather than changing your character’s direction instead.  I knew of the game, but it had been quite some time since I’d thought about it and was pretty hesitant to buy it at its steep price tag of $250.  Conveniently, the bag of trades saw me through.  The game box is practically brand new and came packed with a poster, registration card and game manual.  The only downside is that the thing smells like cigarettes, and I’m not about to start adding soapy water to paper and cardboard to alleviate that scent.  I’ll just have to let it air out I guess!

The second SNES game was Brain Lord (woohoo!).  You can see from the photo below that the condition of the manual and the fold-out information poster are teetering on the verge of being pitiful.  Even though they’re being held together with copious amounts of tape and smell like cigarettes and mustiness, at least they’re there.  There’s also a tiny bit of label damage on the cartridge that I couldn’t care less about.  If I had seen the cartridge on its own in that condition, I wouldn’t have hesitated to buy it up.  Brain Lord is lesser-known and lesser-loved than many other RPGs that were released for the SNES in its heyday, but I was still really interested in giving it a go since it’s one of the last RPGs I have to find for the console.  I make that statement a bit casually since I know that there are still a lot of games for the system that are probably great, but I just haven’t heard about them yet.  I do have a lot of what I’ve set out to find for that console.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was probably the best deal we got all day.  I alluded to it earlier when I was talking about Game Boy games, so allow me to elaborate here. We recently got a Framemeister, an upscaler that cleans up and improves video/audio quality from older games.  I wanted one so that when I was creating videos or streaming that the quality would be as good if not better than the spectacular view I get to have on my professional video monitor.  Anyway, the Framemeister has a Japanese D terminal for hooking things up to it.  My boyfriend, with his hawk-like eyes, saw a Japanese GameCube component cable sitting on a table populated mostly by foreign games that would fit that D terminal connector, and we bought it for $80.  This might seem steep for a cable, but for those of you that might not know, GameCube component cables are rare and expensive  and can go for hundreds of dollars because they can’t be replicated by third parties.  The cords have a chip in them that makes them completely proprietary.  You might be thinking that we are fools since it’s possible to play GC games in high resolution using the Wii, but what we didn’t have was a way to play games using the Game Boy Player add-on in high quality.  This component cable blew this opportunity wide open for us, and we did a test last night using Final Fantasy Legend II (I still have the battle music taking turns in my head with 16-bit Smooth Criminal.)

The quizzical thing about the cable is that it doesn’t seem to transfer audio along with video, so you need to have a secondary component cable plugged into the second port to get both signals.  Despite this weirdness, it works beautifully and I’m so, so excited to eventually do some game capture using this method.  The videos are going to be absolutely beautiful!  I won’t show a picture of the cable here, but if anyone is interested in that setup, let me know.  I’d be happy to write up a post about it and get some video comparisons made to showcase how different things look for Game Boy games with and without the GameCube component cable.

Looking back on everything, I can say without a doubt that this was a very successful swap.  I crossed a few things off of my list and had some unexpected success in other ventures I didn’t even know I was going to be undertaking with the GameCube component cord.  Here’s a little photo of everything together so you can see what I got here all in one swoop.

Believe it or not, we didn’t even trade everything away to get all this stuff.  I think I spent out $180 in cash two of the games and the component cable, and the rest we got in trades.  I still have that boxed Secret of Mana, the two GBA games, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy Chronicles and a Super Game Boy left from that original trades photo from the beginning of the post.  All in all, I’d say we didn’t do too shabbily.  Now for the endless updating of inventories… sigh.

Hope you’re all staying cool in the summer heat!  Thanks for reading.

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Sega Genesis/Dreamcast

This is the eleventh post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

Many folks know that I’m a huge Sega fan, especially now that I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole of collecting great games for the Sega Master System.  My love for Sega is not new since I started out with a Sega Genesis in my youth and got my very first Dreamcast console just last year along with some wonderful games, including Seaman.  In Joe’s collection there was very little to be had in terms of all of the aforementioned consoles, so I’ve decided to lump them both together into one post.

Unlike most consoles we received, the Dreamcasts were some of the few that did not come boxed or with any inserts or handouts.  On the bright side, we did receive two consoles in working order, and each with their own controller but with only one VMU to share between them.  Both games we received here we already had, but I’m pumped to have a second copy of Grandia II to either trade for something I don’t already have, or potentially bundle with a console if we decide to sell one.  I also love seeing the old price sticker for $19.99 on there.  Have times changed, or what?

Along with the Dreamcast greatness, I was thrilled to find three model 1 Sega Genesis consoles amidst all the items of the game collection.  Two of them were loose with some controllers, but one came boxed with its instruction manual and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  The box was in pretty great shape for the most part with some wear and tear from age/storage.  Despite some aesthetic issues, it still has really great integrity!  In total we got four controllers, one of which was a 6-button.  This was a pleasant surprise.  Not only are they harder to come by, but the 3-button counterpart tends to feel mushier and mushier as years go by.  The 6-button controllers tend to have a little more snap.

Along with the Sonic 2 pictured above, there were a handful of other games games in mixed condition (and if you’re wondering, that’s a different Sonic 2 below.)  Most of the issues were only label-deep (marker or stickers over the game’s labels), but all games are working which is what is most important.  I wish that all the games came with their manuals, but only three games had them.  Altered Beast had a manual but was missing its box.  It was truly a mishmash of incompleteness, but at least Altered Beast and Toejam and Earl were new to us.  The other games are ones we had already.  To date, I probably have about as many copies of Sonic 2 as I do of Devil May Cry (to those that have not been following these posts, it’s a lot of copies.)

So not much new for us here, but there are definitely some good things to come our way in this chunk of the collection.  I’m mostly excited to play Toejam and Earl again.  I absolutely love the sequel, but I remember accidentally renting the first game instead of the second and hating it because it wasn’t Panic on Funkotron.  I really need to give it a second chance!

In other news, I went to a game swap today and made out like a bandit by making some good trades.  I’m hoping to get a post together about that when I have a chance to get some photos taken of everything, so stay tuned for that!

I hope you all have a lovely week.  As always, thank you very much for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Virtual Boy

This is the tenth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

A long, long time ago back when I was just a youngster, I remember lying on my stomach with a pillow under my chest in my best friend’s computer room, struggling to get my eyes level with the eyepieces of the Virtual Boy on its stand.  We took turns playing the Mario Tennis game, and I don’t remember enjoying it very much.  This was the first and last time I saw a Virtual Boy in the flesh until I almost bought a loose one with a few games about six months ago.  Thankfully I didn’t because I snagged one in Joe’s collection.

For starters, we got the Virtual Boy console with its stand and controller in the box.  Unfortunately the box’s insert and all its papers were nowhere to be found, but the basics were all there!  When I picked up the controller it felt pretty heavy, and I was worried that batteries had been left inside and might have leaked during all those years in storage.  Unfortunately the batteries had been left inside, but by some miracle they were still intact and actually still powered on the system for about 2 seconds before they died forever.

With some fresh batteries installed in the controller, I fired up the console.  The boot screen felt like some kind of weird eye test.  After wiping tears out of my eyes trying to focus and get used to the picture, I noticed that the left eye’s picture wasn’t showing at all.  I was pretty bummed out thinking that the console wasn’t working properly, and my boyfriend and I were soon deep into web articles on how to fix broken Virtual Boys.  Because I wasn’t much help wading through the sea of technical jargon, I decided to try out a game for a while with the one eye working and eventually the broken side just kicked on.  Maybe it just needed to be warmed up after so long?  Who knows.  All I know is that it’s functioning normally now and I am very, very relieved.

We also got a bunch of games with the system.  One was boxed with its manual (3D Tetris) and the rest were all loose, but we definitely got some of the best games for the system.  I’ve heard absolutely wonderful things about Teleroboxer and Wario Land’s use of the virtual reality/3D abilities of the console while many other games fell short.  I did try out all the games for a little while and can certainly see myself coming back to them.  3D Tetris feels like my worst nightmare, though.  For anyone that’s ever played Skyward Sword and had a hell of a time trying to manipulate those 3D “keys” to unlock doors in some dungeons, you’ll have an idea of how miserable 3D Tetris feels to me.

Can I also just say how ugly the colour schemes for these cartridges are?  The overall design is reminiscent to Master System cartridges and just feels yucky to me.  The reddish/pinkish-brown is a far cry from the sharp, bright red of the system itself.

Though there is not a huge library of games for the VB and it’d be easy enough to collect to completion for this , I’m not so sure I’ll be actively seeking out any more games for the system for a little while.  I have more than enough to enjoy, especially with Wario Land at my disposal.  Maybe I’ll even warm up to 3D Tetris sometime.  Maybe.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week.  Thanks for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire – PSP

This is the ninth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I got a screamin’ deal on some PSPs within the past year but didn’t have many games to play.  I will admit that the number of games I own for the handheld has not increased substantially with the acquisition of my friend Joe’s video game collection, but there were certainly a few games worth sauntering through in the bunch.

One thing I was happy to see were two more PSPs.  You might think I’m a greedy, terrible person for now owning four of the very same thing,  but in attempting some gameplay with the silver one we got, it’s a little finicky and constantly asks me if I want to quit playing which makes it difficult to enjoy using it.  These two PSPs were in excellent shape and each came with a memory card, something lacking in my previous PSP purchases.  One came in its box as well, so that was also a nice addition to the numerous boxed consoles/accessories we got in this lot of stuff.  I even got a sealed copy of Spiderman 2 on UMD to watch.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not since I don’t really follow a lot of superhero movie politics, but time will tell.

For games, there were a few really nice additions for the collection here, and some sealed doubles I might be able to use for trades at a swap coming up in the next few weeks.  As usual, the games came complete with their manuals and sometimes other inserts and were all in pristine condition.  The first three here are completely unrelated, but didn’t fit into my other weird “categories” for photos I imagined up.  Of the three, I think I’d like to try out the God of War game the most given that the internet tells me it’s good.  I think streaming from a PSP is possible as well, so I’m definitely looking into ways to get that set up.

The second bunch of games here are either puzzle or shooter games.  Space Invaders Extreme as a title made me laugh out loud when I saw it.  I can just picture advertisements for the game with beefy, tattooed, bandana-wearing guys yelling, “Extreme!” while flexing in front of an alien wave, but in all honesty, I’m sure the “extreme” part of the game is some of the extras that they’ve added onto the typical gameplay – bosses, power-ups, etc.  Loco Roco is a game I’ve always been interested to try out, so that’s one I’m hoping to play sooner than later.  It’s on the same level of interest for me as Katamari Damacy.

The last set of games here are, as always, RPGs!  Even more excitingly is that two of them are of the Final Fantasy variety since there were plenty of re-releases of many classic games for this format.  I think that with this new addition for the PSP, I now have three iterations of the original Final Fantasy game with the others being for the NES and PS1.  Though there are many people out there that dislike FFII, I actually don’t.  It’s a different spin on the usual, and I vowed long ago to actually finish the game someday.  I’ve started it twice, and for various reasons had to put it down.

From what I understand, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is a port of the original PS1 version of the game.  I’ve mentioned here before how I always get the PS1 RPGs that start with the letter V confused with one another (Vandal Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, etc.), but after double-checking again with the internet and what I already own, Valkyrie Profile is one of the more elusive of the bunch because of its limited release.  Though this PSP version is obviously not the original, there are apparently very few differences between the two releases.  I’m excited to play it, though I hear the premise is really sombre.  Doom and gloom isn’t so bad, right?

I deliberately put off talking about Crisis Core above because I wanted to share a special edition of the game I received here instead.  It comes with a cardboard sleeve, the game with all its usual goodies as well as an art book.  The art book has barely even been opened – the spine made a cracking noise when I took a peek inside.  I’ve heard Crisis Core is incredibly moving and an excellent game all around, so it’s definitely going onto my list of things to eventually play.

That’s it for PSP stuff.  As I mentioned above, there are definitely a few really great things here that I’m excited to try out, and I’m even more excited to see if I can stream and record some gameplay for fun.  We recently added an upscaler to our stream/recording setup, so video quality can definitely be improved upon if the PSP doesn’t output in a lovely signal.  I haven’t looked into things too much yet, but I’m hoping to in the coming weeks.

In other news, I am primed to go to a few swaps over the next few weekends.  Hopefully I’ll have some other things to write about outside the realm of these big collection buy posts, though I’m happy many of you are enjoying them.  Thrift stores and classifieds ads have been so fruitless lately.  I’ve only found one measly game at a yard sale and a few Playstation games, but that’s about it.   I’ll probably put a post together about those shortly to change it up here.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Game Boy/Game Boy Colour

This is the eighth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

I’ve decided to amalgamate the acquisitions for original Game Boy and the Game Boy Colour into one post since to me, they’re hardly distinguishable and are rather natural extensions of one another.  Joe really, really seemed to like GB/GBC stuff, so there’s lots of really fun and interesting stuff to talk about here.  Off we go!

For starters, we got a boxed Game Boy handheld console.  The box is in immaculate shape, and so is the unit itself.  I was strangely excited to find the crappy headphones that came with it tucked into their slot inside the box’s styrofoam interior.  Getting a functioning Game Boy is excellent news since my own personal Game Boy from childhood’s screen fell off in recent years.  It looks as if it just completely came unglued, but because of its state, I haven’t picked it up in a long while.  Time to huddle under a lamp near an outlet into the wee hours of the morning playing Link’s Awakening!  Oh to be 11 again.

Along with the console itself, we acquired some boxed games.  The most exciting for me from the bunch was Pokemon Yellow, though it was missing its manual.  Though I had never before heard of Faceball, along with the boxed copy below, we also ended up with three additional loose copies of the game.  Joe had been planning to have some sort of Faceball tournament at some point in his life, but it never happened.  Maybe I can realize his dream.

The number of loose games was substantial.  Among some great common titles were some pretty interesting ones like Great Greed, an uncommon RPG that is apparently really good, Ultima II: Runes of Virtue, as well as Metroid II: Return of Samus.  What I thought was really convenient is that the only duplicate game we got here was Nemesis (far left).  Everything else was brand new to us!

We also got a few interesting attachments (if I can call them that) for the Game Boy.  The first was the Game Boy Camera.  I was pretty excited to get this because I’ve always wanted to try it out.  I saw it inside the Game Boy at first, but it turned out that we also got its box and manual.  There was an after market cable produced to transfer the photos to a computer, but the box it came in was empty and we never did track it down.  I’m sure they’re out there.  We just have to find them!

Another accessory we got for the Game Boy was the Barcode Boy Set.  The version I have is from Japan.  I don’t think I understand how it works entirely and haven’t had tim to test it out yet, but the premise behind it was that you could scan cards with barcodes into the system, and some barcodes would generate a character for you to play as, whereas other barcodes could be for enemies to battle, or for different kinds of buffs.  Sounds easy enough, right?  I think the strangest part about all this is that you were encouraged to find barcodes from every day items to scan in to see what they might generate.  I bet scanning a barcode from a Sega game would probably generate some kind of unfathomable horror.

Even more interesting is that they also released a successor to this for the Super Famicom called the Barcode Battler.  I forgot to include it when I talked about SNES stuff, but I thought I’d include a photo here since we’re on the topic.  I’m not sure what changed between the two releases, but it must’ve been popular!

For the Game Boy Colour, we got a number of handheld units in a variety of colours!  Below you can see the mix that we got.  The purple one (leftmost) has been modified, though I haven’t shown a photo of it here.  It’s modded to hook up to some sort of external power source rather than AA batteries.  The purple one is my favourite and I would like to see it become unmodded, but it’s not looking good.  The battery terminal plates were not in the lot of stuff.  All of the GBCs turn on and seem to be in good working condition with the expected scuffs and scratches from regular use.

We received more boxed games for the GBC than for the original GB, again with a mix of common games and some uncommon ones.  Revelations: The Demon Slayer being an Atlus game automatically makes it coveted, but I was also surprised to see Legend of the River King 2 and Resident Evil Gaiden here in such great condition.  Other notable things here were the two Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 games, which are like a Pokemon game in a Dragon Warrior universe with a lot of breeding involved.  All in all, this lineup of beautifully maintained boxed games will be great to add to my exploding Game Boy collection.

Lastly, we got some loose GBC games to round everything off.  I haven’t had a chance to look into a lot of these titles just yet, but I had a brief run with Mr. Nutz and have become very excited to try out Power Quest.  Robots fighting seems like a good time!  Remarkably, only the Game & Watch Gallery 3 cartridge was something we already had.  All the other games were completely unique to us, which seems almost surreal considering how much we already had for these handheld consoles.

Thar she blows!  I hope you folks are enjoying these posts as much as I’m enjoying putting them together.  I’m just thrilled with the games we received here, and I still have lots more to share in the coming posts.

Thanks for reading, as always.

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Nokia N-Gage

This is the seventh post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

“Engage.  Wait, N-Gage? N-Gage? What’s an N-Gage?”

That was my initial reaction when I was talking to Joe about what mysterious things awaited me in his collection and he mentioned the Nokia N-Gage.  We got a box for the second release of the unit called the N-Gage QD, which apparently corrected some issues and complaints about the first version of the gaming console/phone.

That’s right, I said the box.  The box was devoid of the actual device, and it never did turn up after we finished looking through the many, many boxes that housed Joe’s video game collection.  Joe had been upfront in saying that he didn’t know where it was or if it’d turn up at all, but even in anticipating the worst, I was still pretty disappointed.  The likelihood of me buying one to complete this collection at the moment is slim since they’re fairly expensive online.  Maybe I’ll find one at a yard sale this summer, but my hopes are not too high.  Here’s a lovely photo of the box and all of its contents.

Though we didn’t get the console, we did get a lot of games.  Because I had never heard of the N-Gage previously, I wasn’t sure what the games released for this system were.  Were they ports from other systems?  Were they released especially for this device?  The truth is that the games are a mix of the aforementioned: some remakes/ports, some exclusives.  Because the entire N-Gage library is only comprised of 58 games, we’ve put quite a dent in that number with what we ended up with in this purchase.  All but one game was complete, and a few were even still sealed.

We got quite a few sports games for the handheld.  There’s a nice variety in sports types here, though I don’t know why anyone would ever want to play another golf game after experiencing Neo Turf Masters.  Unless that game of course is World Class Leaderboard for DOS.  Then I’m all over that.

Among the bunch were also many games from pretty popular franchises that could be classified as shooters or action games.  I was really surprised to see games like Call of Duty and Splinter Cell released for such an obscure little device like the N-Gage.  We’re talking tiny handheld phone screen for playing on here!  I’ve watched some game capture videos from this thing, and the quality is pretty grainy.

As usual there were some RPGs in the mix, and these included some pretty exciting titles.  Many of you probably know of my deep, undying love for Faxanadu on the NES, and Xanadu was its predecessor on the MSX.  These games are part of the Dragon Slayer series, which has seen many games released.  Unfortunately not many of them ave been particularly popular in North America.  Xanadu Next was actually rereleased for PC in 2016, so if I can’t track down a console I might have to try it out that way.  Pocket Kingdom: Own the World also looks pretty neat.

The most expensive game according to the Unholy Interwebs is the N-Gage-only release of an Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey.  Unfortunately for me, this was the only cartridge missing, but you can see the game case below.  It did come with its manual.  Joe said that the game is probably with the N-Gage, wherever it ended up.  Schmoo.

Lastly, here a bunch of colourful, fun-looking games that I’d absolutely love to try out sometime.  The Sonic the Hedgehog series is one of my favourites, and Sonic N is an N-Gage exclusive.  Need to find actual N-Gage… rising…

Obviously there’s some great puzzle games like Puyo Pop and Puzzle Bobble here, as well as classics like Bomberman, Rayman and a Crash Bandicoot game as well.  I haven’t done much research on those so I’m not sure if they’re ports of games for other systems or also exclusives, but I’m absolutely loving the diversity of games for this handheld console/phone thing.

It’s nice to have an instant collection for the N-Gage, but it breaks my heart a little to know that it never did well on the market.  The manuals were all beautifully done with lots of colour and detail, and each individual game came with a carrying case for cartridges (the plastic thing on the right side of the case in the photo below folds into a little holder.)  The people that worked on putting things whole endeavour out there clearly put a lot of time and care into the products.  I feel like I owe it to them to try to track one of these things down and give these games a whirl.

So there it is.  Another come-and-gone console that I never knew about, but now seemingly have a lot of stuff for.  I am planning to keep my eyes wide open yardsale-ing over the next few weekends for one of these, though if I’m unsuccessful, I’m hoping to run into one at a swap in the future.  Who knows?  There might be one of these babies waiting for me for a good price!

Thank you very much for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Xbox

This is the sixth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

Ah yes, the original Xbox.  It was part of a console generation that I missed in its entirety in my youth and am just now finding out more about.  My boyfriend and I have recently stumbled upon a few cheap Xboxes out in the wild and have been trying our luck at modifying them into multi-console emulators with great success.  These have made great gifts for a few friends of ours, but before acquiring Joe’s collection, we probably only had about 3 games for the system.

Way back at my blog’s first entry when we acquired the collection of A.S. long, long ago now, one of the things he withheld giving us was his crystal Xbox.  He had gone on about how much he loved playing Jade Empire and couldn’t bear to part with the machine, and at that point I didn’t care one way or another.  In the past year we’ve seen the consoles going up and up in price and though we’ve never actively sought one out, we’ve always said that if a good deal came along that we’d jump on it.  Well, Joe’s collection delivered a chance to us, and conveniently the console came complete in box with a matching controller.

The console was in its original styrofoam packing and was still in a bag, so it’s entirely likely that the thing has never been turned on.  We are debating what we’d like to do with it since it’d be nice to modify it, but there’s also some allure to keeping it in its native state.

Along with this beautiful console, we got a bunch of games as to be expected.  The first bunch of games here are all various versions of Halo and Halo 2 with some extras.  Though at first glance it might seem as if there’s two copies of Halo and the Halo 2 Collector’s Editions, but there’s a regular copy of both along with Not For Resale/Display Only copies.  I’m not sure if there’s a difference in gauged worth for these different releases, but it’d be interesting to look into them to see what they’re all about.

The next set of games are both Doom 3, the regular and collector’s editions of the game.  The collector’s edition comes in a steel case and is actually quite heavy, but both games are complete with their manuals and discs in immaculate condition.

There were lots of games that we got for the Xbox I personally have very little interest in playing, and many of the Tom Clancy games fall into that category.  I have many epic RPG quests to embark on, so I’ll leave these to my better half who might enjoy them a little more.

Along with these came many more games, and some of these I’m a bit more familiar with and am interested in.  I’ve heard really great things about Psychonauts, Beyond Good & Evil, as well as the Star Wars games.  I’m still looking into a lot of the others here since this is a console I normally don’t collect for, but it’s looking to be quite a well-rounded bunch of games.  Every single game here is complete with its manual and sometimes has its other inserts as well.

Every time I see Max Payne: The Fall of Max Payne, I keep thinking of the physical interpretation of someone falling and crack up.

Last but not least, there were a handful of RPG-esque games for the console in the bunch.  I was hoping to run into both Panzer Dragoon Orta and Fable, but Otogi and Otogi 2 came as a total surprise to me.  I hadn’t heard of the series before now, but it looks pretty cool!  I’m definitely looking forward to some action RPG action!

And that about wraps up what we got for the Xbox from Joe’s collection.  If I don’t sound super excited about this portion of the buy, I apologize.  I have truly never spent much time looking into the Xbox or its games, so this is all really new to me.  If anyone has insight into some of these games and can tell me of their goodness/badness, I’d definitely appreciate some information, as usual.

Thanks for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire – NES

This is the fifth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

Ah yes, the foundational springboard system of success for Nintendo!  My family owned an NES in my childhood, and I have some very fond memories and nostalgia associated with that ugly grey box with its squeaky door flap and winking red light.  Joe’s collection yielded a number of interesting things that I did not already have previously.  Onwards!

Probably the biggest acquisition from this portion of the game lot was a boxed NES console.  If you follow me in Twitter, you may recall I once posted a photo long ago of my own Action Set from childhood complete in its box, but this one from Joe came with the Power Pad and is aptly named the Power Set.  The box is considerably larger than that of the Action Set to accommodate the extra accessory.  You can see in the photo below that the box has some wear and tear from age, but it came with everything it advertised and then some!

As always, I was happy to see the manuals, inserts and posters, especially those having to do with Nintendo Power.  Nintendo pushed Nintendo Power so hard with every single product release, and they often did a special game-specific art to hook you into a subscription (I don’t know how my parents ever resisted.)  This became more popular with releases on later systems,  though you can see a Nintendo Power magazine advertisement on the far left in the photo above.  Very alluring!  Along with the zapper, controllers and other manuals for various parts of the set, there were two posters included as well: one for (you guessed it!) Nintendo Power and the other for game show games of all things.  I was chuckling to myself looking at the game show poster since I don’t remember any of my friends having a copy of Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune back in the 90s.  To be honest, I’d love to give those games a whirl today to see what the puzzles and questions are like, especially Jeopardy!

The copy of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet looks as if it had never even been removed from the NES until I pulled it out, and its manual was also in pristine condition.  We still need to fire this one up to test that it’s working, but everything looks so unused that unless there was some horrible manufacturers defect, it’s likely fine.  If we give the power pad a whirl sometime, I’m looking forward to pounding it with my fists like so many evil children/people avoiding exercise before me.  It should be a fun time.

Along with the boxed console came another boxed item, the NES Advantage.  For anyone that might not know, this accessory was a joystick that was compatible with the NES with Turbo capability.  I personally prefer the standard controller to this, but my boyfriend and his love of arcade games will surely appreciate this accessory while playing some appropriate games.  I can’t imagine playing something like Super Mario Bros. 2 with this beast, but the box boasts about how you can defeat fire breathing dragons with it…

Truly, I’d like to read the author of this caption.  It’s so exciting!

Reading the box piqued my interest in the exclusive slow motion control.  I wonder how that works!  It sounds like the only way I might ever get through Gradius without pulling all my hair out.  Below, you can see the NES Advantage in all its glory, including more Nintendo Power propaganda.

The NES games we received were all loose in great condition, and most were common.  I was especially excited to see Hydlide and Bartman Meets Radioactive Man since I’ve been dying to try those out.  Another thing in this collection I’d never seen before was a standalone version of Duck Hunt.  I’ve seen Super Mario Bros. by itself, but never Duck Hunt without a companion game on the same cartridge.  I’m sure there’s no difference between the two versions, but it’s still fun to see all the different iterations of a particular game.  Mechanized Attack is a rail shooter zapper game I’d never heard of before now, but I’d like to try it out.  It actually looks fun!

Related but also unrelated was a watch we got with a Super Mario Bros. 3 game on it.  The battery is dead and you need a virtually microscopic screwdriver to get into the back of it to change the battery, so I have no idea if it actually works.  I think it’d be awfully weird to bring this to a watch repair shop, so it might stay unworking for eternity.  The watch also comes with one of those plastic wristbands that likely makes your wrists smell awful if you sweat even a little.  It’s certainly not something I would wear in real life, and it honestly barely fits my adult wrist.  It’s still pretty cute though, despite having the scariest version of Mario I’ve ever seen, what with his black sclerae and maniacal smile and all!

Speaking of appendages and accessories for them, we also got a Power Glove!  Unfortunately it’s unusable because it didn’t come with any sensors, but it’s still a lot of fun to have and see in the flesh.  I have pretty small hands and it’s quite big on me , so I’m not quite sure how kids would’ve fit into this gargantuan thing!  As well, we got a second NES console that was not boxed but came with its cords and a controller.  You can see the power glove ignoring all rules of personal space below with the lone console.

That just about does it for what we got from Joe’s collection for the NES.  These items are a wonderful addition to our collection, and it was honestly so great to finally get an NES Advantage, a Power Glove, and a Power Pad.  The new games we didn’t previously have will also be fun to try out, especially the Simpsons game!  I’ve heard such good things about it, and after playing Bart vs. The Space Mutants/The World, I could really use a go at a decently good game from that franchise.

I hope you’re all having an excellent Hump Day.  Thanks for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: N64 (aka The Fun Machine)

This is the fourth post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

The Nintendo 64 is a console I have fond childhood memories of but never personally owned growing up.  My best friend and I used to play hours of Mario Kart 64 with friends in her parents’ basement, trying our luck in the reverse mode her brother had unlocked.  Apart from this game and Super Mario 64, I wasn’t very familiar with much of the game library when I started collecting and was left scratching my head a lot at swaps and the like wondering which games would be the most worthwhile to track down to play.  After going to the obvious ones (Zelda, Smash Bros., etc.) and getting some great recommendations from Mr. Panda, I set my sights on some great games.  Joe’s collection yielded quite a few good ones along with a particularly rare game, so without further ado, here’s what we got!

Firstly, we ended up with a boxed N64.  Though the box boasted the inclusion of the atomic purple controller, it was nowhere to be found after we finished organizing the entire game lot.  Though there was no sign of the purple one, the grey controller was present and in really good shape with a snappy analog stick.  The N64 console itself is in good working condition and came with all its cords.  I would say that the box itself was in very good condition even though it has a crushed corner (you can see it in the top left corner in the photo below.)   Because I’m not usually eyeing up boxed consoles at game swaps, I had never really looked at an N64 box with much care before.  In taking some time to read everything, I was tickled to see the subheading, “The Fun Machine” below that iconic N64 logo.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call it that!  Maybe I should start the trend.

In addition to the first console we also got a second special edition one: Jungle Green with its controller.  This one came with an expansion pak, but unfortunately Donkey Kong 64 was not included in the game lot.  I’ve heard mixed things about that particular game with many people calling it one huge collecting-fest, but those kinds of games are fun sometimes as a break from the story-driven RPGs I adore so much.  I’m sure there’s some challenge to Donkey Kong 64 as evidenced by the challenge level of games previous to and that followed this game, so I’ll have to see if I can track it down for a good price.  The only negative thing about this part of the lot is that the analog stick on the green controller is a little loosey goosey, but I’m sure it’s still useable.  Either way, it’s our first unique/special N64 and we are quite happy to have it.

Along with the consoles, we got two memory cards (a massive 32x and a memory card plus) as well as a transfer pak.  I didn’t manage to get those photographed and they’re in a bottom of a bin somewhere, so you’ll just have to use your imagination!

For games, we got some that were loose, some with just their manuals, and some that were complete in box.  I’ll start here with the loose ones.  There were definitely a few great ones in the bunch along with some that were a bit unexciting like the snowmobiling game.  Contrary to popular belief, just because I’m Canadian doesn’t mean I like snowmobiling in real life or in video games!  My boyfriend was very excited to see Doom 64 and Starfox 64, and we conveniently got two copies of each of those.  Joe seems to be a huge fan of Tetris and there’s at least one Tetris game per console platform it would seem, so as expected there were two Tetris games here.  Some other classics included Bomberman Hero, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and the two Zelda games from this console generation: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.  Quake II was also a nice addition to our collection since we already had the first game, and it was also great to see a game manual for Mario Kart 64!  That was one I didn’t have already and is now in my loose manual bin.

The boxed games were generally in great shape, but I will start with the one in the worst condition first.  GoldenEye 007 was the player’s choice version with a torn manual cover and some weird spotting on the label itself.  It almost looked like it might be a chemical stain of sorts, but despite the aesthetic issues the game is working.  This was a game I never tried playing with friends, and I really disliked the single player mode.  I’ve heard such great things about how much fun it is when you play with someone else, so I think I need to ask my better half to give it a spin with me.

Next, we got a boxed copy of Super Mario 64.  This was also a player’s choice edition and a nice touch for our collection since we currently have a loose and a sealed copy of the game.  I’ve never wanted to bust open the sealed copy to see all its innards, so it’s nice to see one already opened with its manual and other inserts.  This is a game I’ve started at least twice in my life and never finished, and it’s a shame.  It’s so good!  I just get frustrated and end up quitting.  In my most recent playthrough attempt, I got frustrated with the level with the giant mountain and gave up.  I think my problem is that I always go for every single star in each stage, so I get bored pretty quickly.  I’ve thought about starting it again, but the thought of having to beat the damn penguin slide level makes my blood boil.  It might be a while before I can bear to pick it up again.

We also got a near-perfect condition copy of Perfect Dark.  The game cartridge looks like it has never even made its way into an N64 before, and the box is completely devoid of nicks, tears or scratches.  I’m tempted to get a box protector for it to keep it in its pristine condition.  It’s going to sound silly, but seeing the box for this game was nice because I finally got to see this lady’s whole face and both eyeballs at once.  I never realized that one half of her face was on the cartridge and that the other was on the manual.  What an interesting choice for the art for this game!  Having all parts of the game makes it feel truly complete since you literally get the “whole picture”.

Much to my excitement, there was one boxed RPG in the mix: Paper Mario.  This game was also generally in very good condition but did not come with its manual.  Because I buy up manuals all the time whenever I see them for a good price, I had an extra one for this game lying around to make it complete in box.  What fun!  I think I also have the strategy guide for this game hanging around somewhere.  It’s definitely a game I’m interested in playing some day, after I finish up Super Mario RPG on the SNES.

Last but certainly not least is the rarest game in the bunch, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack.  Word on the internet is that this game comes close to being one of the rarest for the N64, so I was very pleased to find it among everything in such excellent condition with its manual.  Between finding this game and Ogre Battle 64 lately, I’m quite sure most of the fun to play rare games are now a part of my game collection.  Thanks again to Mr. Panda for recommending this game to me what feels like ages ago.  I’ve been keeping my eyes open for it until now.

I’m quite happy with what we’ve found in this portion of Joe’s game collection.  Though we already had some of the games we got here, we’ve been able to upgrade some of those to complete games, or at least have gotten a cartridge with a better label in some cases.  As always, adding boxed consoles to the collection is a nice touch, and there are plenty more to follow in future posts on the topic of this major collection acquisition.

As usual, thanks for reading!

-GG

Hungry Goriya Used Acquire: Sega CD

This is the third post in a series called “Hungry Goriya Used Acquire” that serves to highlight the contents of a large game collection I procured from an old high school friend of mine, Joe.  Read here for the backstory.

The Sega CD is a console I barely knew about a few years ago until I got to talking about games a lot with my boyfriend.  He was a bit obsessed with tracking one down along with a Sega Master System, and I truthfully had no idea what all the fuss was about.  It wasn’t until our third or fourth swap until he finally got one for himself, but because of the ridiculously high game prices, we didn’t end up buying very many games to play.  Until recently we only had Jurassic Park and Sonic CD, and now we can say we have a few more, including a 4-game Sega Classics compilation disc (Columns, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage) shown in the photo below!  Before I mention anything else about the other games we got, I first want to show you a photo of the console.  It might not be what you’re expecting…

It’s the front-loader!  If you’re like me, you’ve only ever known about and experienced the side-by-side version of the console.  This alternative console release came boxed, and I’m really happy that the box and manual are in good condition, save a few buckles and normal wear and tear from storage.  In addition to being less common than the side-by-side version, the front-loading Sega CD is also a lot more practical than its bulky sibling when it comes to saving space.  The Sega Genesis sits on top rather than attached on the side, so it’s considerably more compact.  The photos below are of the side-by-side version.

The other thing I like about the front-loader is that it’s meant to accommodate the model 1 Sega Genesis rather than the model 2.  In the photo above we clearly have a model 1 attached, but in all my photographic prowess, I’ve cleverly hidden that the base plate is too short for that version of the console; the model 1 actually hangs over the edge of the base plate by a few inches.  The reason why I like the model 1 Genesis better is because it is superior in both sound and video quality compared to its successor.  Below, you can see how the front-loader and the model 1 were meant for one another.  They fit like a glove!

Another little trivia fact is that the front-loader and side-by-side Sega CD consoles have different start-up music.  When I get the ability to capture game footage back (my boyfriend is working on upgrading my setup so it’s all disconnected for the moment), I might record it for fun and post it here at a later date.  If your curiosity is burning away in the meantime, there are a few videos online to showcase the differences!  For console system start-up music, both versions are pretty groovy (this word is not-so-subtle foreshadowing to a game we got in the lot below… guess now, or forever hold your peace!)

Onward!  Now for the games!  As I mentioned above, the market for Sega CD games is phenomenally expensive.  There are some games for the console that are so rare and sought after that they go for hundreds of dollars on their own.  We definitely found a few winners in this game lot.  First off, we got Sewer Shark.  This game was a pack-in with some versions of the console and is a really strange rail shooter.  It really has some quirky full motion video moments.  I can’t wait to don my helmet and shoot some sewer bats!

Next, we got the non pack-in version of Sonic CD.  I absolutely adore the manual art for this game – I’m loving what appears to be a throwback to Metal Sonic.  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Sega Genesis is one of my favourite games of all time, so I’ve got a big soft spot for the Sonic series.  I’ve been told that this game is a lot of fun and beautiful to look at, but I’m also a little hesitant.  I still haven’t beaten many of the earlier Sonic games apart from the first two, so it feels a little like cheating to jump ahead to a well-done, fast-paced beauty like Sonic CD.

We also received Heimdall, a weird little RPG-ish game based on Vikings that I had never heard about until I was holding it in my own two hands.  Most of what I’ve read or heard about it is on the negative side, but I think it’s still something I’d like to try out sometime.  It’s poo-pooed for not having stellar graphics and music and for being a little convoluted, but if you guys know anything about me by now, it’s that my desire for perfect graphics and straightforward gameplay is practically non-existent.  Heimdall might just be a good time compared to some of the games I’ve been picking up to play lately!

Another game we got that I had never heard of before is called Heart of the Alien, a sequel to a much-loved game called Out of This World.  Conveniently, both games are on the disc so I will eventually be able to enjoy both, perhaps even back to back.  From what I’ve watched online about both of these games, they punish you a lot and force you to think of ways to maneuver through many different kinds of puzzles and predicaments.  They almost remind me of all the hardest parts of King’s Quest games that can make the story unbeatable, but instead of being an occasional occurrence, it’s the whole game.  It honestly looks like fun.  The death scenes are gory, and there’s nothing I like better than creative ways to die in video games.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched Prince Alexander or King Graham die in death compilation videos online.  Sounds sadistic, but when the writing/animation is good, it makes for a funny time.  I have a feeling the deaths in Heart of the Alien/Out of This World have a significantly more sombre tone though.

The Monkey Island series is hands down one of my very favourites out there.  I’d say that Guybrush Threepwood is one of the funniest game characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing through a game as, and I was absolutely thrilled to find The Secret of Monkey Island in the box with all of the Sega CD stuff.  Along with my elation came feelings of confusion since I had no idea that The Secret of Monkey Island had been released in this format.  I had the wonderful experience of playing through the remastered edition on PC, but there’s something about tackling the game in its original form that’ll be a lot of fun.  This was the only cardboard game box in the bunch, and it was in surprisingly good shape considering it had been in storage with many other games for so long.

Earthworm Jim: Special Edition is also now ours.  You may not know, but my boyfriend is in love with and is conveniently really good at the Earthworm Jim games for the Sega Genesis.  The Sega CD version is just a graphically and musically superior version of the first game with an extra level and some additional content.  It was a dream come true for him to be able to own this game.  Earthworm Jim: Special Edition is pretty scarce like many Sega CD games are, and when it does show up online for sale it tends to go for a lot of money.  Its price is one of the reasons we haven’t picked it up ourselves until now, but as part of an enormous game lot, we certainly weren’t going to say no!

As a small aside, I remember renting the Sega Genesis game growing up and wondering why Earthworm Jim sounded like a country bumpkin.  I used to watch the television show where Jim sounded like a regular North American human being without the “drawl” and wondered how they could get his character so wrong in the games.  I was shocked to learn that the games actually came first and that the TV show made him into a totally different “person”.  So strange!

Last but not least, we got an RPG (hooray!).  Lunar: The Silver Star is a game I’ve been wanting to own/play since finding out about the Sega CD.  I own Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on the PS1, but I’ve been told that there are significant differences between the PS and Sega CD versions of the game.  I was happy to see Lunar come to us in such good shape.  It’s going onto my increasingly long list of things to get around to playing.  I need more hours in my days.

We definitely got some good Sega CD stuff here, and it’s nice to have nearly tripled our Sega CD library with this game lot purchase.  The only thing that keeps nagging at me is that Joe mentioned he had already sold some of the bigger Sega CD RPG titles a few years ago, like Popful Mail and Snatcher.  A little part of my joy for this purchase died when finding that out since those games are far, far beyond the price I’m willing to pay for a single game ($500+), and it would’ve been surreal to get them in this game lot.  I’ll likely never see either of those games come to my hands at that price.  Though it goes against the spirit of collecting physical media, thankfully the Sega CD can play burned games.  If I’m ever feeling desperate to play some of the hard-to-find RPGs for the system, at least I can.  In the meantime, I’ll keep my eyes open at yard sales and flea markets for $2 copies of these big titles.  Maybe some day!  Who knows?

I hope you all enjoyed this seemingly tiny snippet of our total findings in this game lot purchase.  There’s still a lot more to come!

Thanks for reading!

-GG