New Acquisition!

Wow have I ever been getting hits from Australia… G’day mate, how about we toss another shrimp on the barby!  Sorry, even though this Paul Hogan travel advertisement is SOOOO cliche, it not only dates me, but is still kind of funny?!  I mean after all, Crocodile Dundee put Australia on the map for most of us North Americans… well that and that Lex Luther, the evil villain from Superman wanted to rule the continent!

I picked up this little bad boy from JJgames.com.  It was advertised as “stickers on cartridge”, and I wish I only paid what the sticker asking price was (probably in the 1990’s).  Unfortunately, this worst ever Nintendo Entertainment System game goes for A LOT more these days!  That being said, the advertised price was fair for today’s value, plus I had a discount as a repeat customer, so it made the price even better!  But ya, it is a really dumb game where you actually have to shade in different dinosaurs… I believe within a time limit to win the game, but then again I’m only speculating as I’ve never played it, and never will!

While we are on the topic of JJgames, it is of note to mention that they sold their copy of Little Sampson for an asking price of $1350US… now this doesn’t include any discounts they may have offered to certain customers, but even at my rate the game was too expensive!  C’mon Pat (whose an NES punk!)… let your prophecy come true!  It’s a $400 dollar game, no more, no less!

For Christmas, I bought a download of Cuphead for the Segadude and I must say that I have really enjoyed playing it with him!  The graphics are in a 1930’s cartoon style are so much fun!  Now I must admit that as a big time old school Disney fan, I’m a bit bias, but I love it!  It is boss heavy, very difficult, yet super fun… if you have an Xbox One, I highly recommend it!  I will not rest until I have collected all those souls!

There has been an article in the Toronto Star about video game addiction… well as far as I’m concerned suck it up dude!  It’s not like you are sticking a needle into your vein!  Just stop playing!  I’m sure easier said than done, but c’mon, fortnite isn’t THAT good!  I must say though that it has inspired some pretty cool dance moves that all the kids know almost professionally!  The article about video game addiction… specifically related to fortnite can be found here.

Anyways, apparently the Sega Dude has a bunch of extra blank cases that have a tab on the top… I guess that is a big deal?!?  Anyways I’m supposed to bring over all my Sega Master System games over to his place soon so I can upgrade them!  Awesome!

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

History of Mortal Kombat

This is a neat little series on the history of Mortal Kombat.  I must say that I lost interest after finishing Mortal Kombat 3 (which by the way has my favorite playable character in Kabal).  Anyways this series brings us up to date on the MK franchise in all it’s successes and many failures.

Mortal Kombat and I go way back to 1992 when the original game arrived in my arcade.  By this time, I had mastered Street Fighter 2 as much as I was going to, and was looking for another machine else to take my quarters.  Plus I needed something to do with my friends when we skipped school (grade 12 was not a productive year!).  The graphics on this game looked killer, and with all the blood and gore, what wasn’t there to love?  At first the controls seemed a little stiff compared to SF2, and it took a while to get used to the “block” button, but after spending about $5 on the game in quarters things seemed to feel more comfortable.  Now you have to remember that this game was brand new, and there was not internet to look up the moves and/or combos.  You either learned a move by random button mashing/joystick maneuvering, or through word of mouth.  It didn’t take long for us to figure out Scorpion, so he was my boy in the beginning… plus his finishing move was really easy…. get about 3 inches from your foe, hold “block” and press up on the joystick a bunch of times.  We knew all the characters had finishing moves (as we discovered by dying in single player mode), but had absolutely no idea how to get them to work.  This was a brilliant scheme by Midway as it kept us coming and pumping in the quarters!  It took months to figure out all the characters… and well over a year before the games secrets went from rumor to reality!  Reptile!

Then in 1993, just as I was walking around with a high level of confidence for my MK skill, Midway released the second chapter!  All of the original characters were in the game (Sonia and Kano were prisoners in the background and thus were unplayable), plus you had seven brand new ones!  These 12 playable characters was a bit intimidating at first, however by this time MK was really popular and thus the learning curve wasn’t nearly as steep as the original.  Plus the sequel had even more blood and gore to discover!   Fortunately I was juiced into a good union job as a janitor at a hospital on the weekends so the quarters flowing.

On a personal note, one of the creators of the game was a former student of my karate Sensei, and apparently was such a fan that he named two of the characters (Sonia and Mileena) after Sensei’s daughters… both who kick ass in real life, and now in the video game world as well!

This game came out in 1995, and to be honest I was a little MK fatigued by this point, so didn’t really give it a shot in the arcade.  In university, the Sega Dude and I were roommates the first year, and MK3 was released for the PC, we were quick to acquire a copy!  Although lacking the competition of the arcade forum, this game was still fun as it presented us with a total of 20 playable characters… as I mentioned, Kabal was my favorite.  It also had a really cool minor boss in Motaro… a huge demon centaur with horse legs, a human torso, goat horns, and a deadly tail!  It was always fun taking down this beast!

After this though, I kind of lost interest in the franchise.  There were other games, some complete flops, others not too bad… but none really captured the magic of the first three in the series.  If you are or were ever into Mortal Kombat, I recommend sitting back, drink a few beers, and and enjoy the five part series that 616Entertainment just posted on YouTube.  I thought he did a fantastic job in walking us through the fame and glory that was/is Mortal Kombat.

Happy Holidays, and until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Change in Direction?!

Lately I’ve been pondering where this blog is going.  I haven’t exactly been keeping up with the theme of Nintendo, or even retro video gaming in general.  The reason is that my NES finds are very few, and far between.  If I posted only an acquisition, I would likely have a biannual entry.  That’s why I’ve been talking about current events and goings on along with my hobby news… and while I haven’t received any criticism, I’m not sure it is appreciated among my legions of loyal followers.  Although I’m not usually needy, I’m asking for feedback in the comments section.  While I get extremely excited about new NES acquisitions, I also really enjoy putting out there what I think about the current climate.  What I might end up doing is putting the retro video gaming section news first, and my additional comments later so you aren’t forced to read them.  Here it goes.

I’ve noticed a flaw in my “mint” Gaiares game for the Sega Genesis that I picked up last week.  There is a slight gouge on the back of the cover through the UPC code.  It is a very minor flaw, but honestly I’m not sure I would have picked it up (even at the discounted rate) if I had been aware.  I’m usually better than this, but I must have been caught up in the big discount.  Perhaps I’ll swap the cover for the Sega Dude’s when he isn’t looking!

My wife gave me the news the other day that they have made a Primus themed pinball machine.  While I appreciate pinball for it’s arcade nostalgia, I never really was into it.  That being said I loved Primus in high school!  That Les Claypool has to be one of the best bassists in alternative rock.  My favorite song has to be Tommy the Cat, but I think Jerry was a Race Car Driver would be a better theme for the pinball machine.  Honestly, the machine looks rather weak in it’s play-field, but a Primus themed version lead by front man Les Claypool who played a fretless bass guitar and tuned the thing as part of the song’s progression gives it reason to notice.  He might not be the best bass player of all time, but at least he was the best of the music genre!

Have you checked out the copy of Little Samson on JJgames.com lately?  It’s actually gone UP in price for no apparent reason.  It currently sells for $1873US on the site… what’s going on over there?!  In fact all of the major online retro gaming sites have outrageous prices… jjgames.com, lukiegames.com, gamestreet.ca, goodtimegames.ca…. I mean if they are getting what they are asking, then more power to them… but there is no way in Hell I’m paying those prices!

That’s me on the right on Halloween.  I went out as the infamous manager of the heavy metal band GWAR, entrepreneur extraordinaire, Sleazy P. Martini.  That guy has confidence like no one else!  If you need anything… and I mean anything!  You have but to ask Mr. Martini.  He ran for president back in the 1990’s, and the country would have been run into the ground even faster than Donald Trump is currently leading it!  That takes dedication!

 

What do these women all have in common?  All four of them are token female NFL correspondents during regular broadcasts on various channels. My wife and I argue about this all the time, but as most of you know, I am a feminist…

Pvt. Vasquez

… for as you know (if you are a follower of this blog), Private Vasquez is my favorite Colonial Space Marine from the movie Aliens!  I’m a fighter for female equality, and personally I’m offended that these female NFL correspondents get such a lousy role!  I mean if the NFL was serious about incorporating women into their broadcasts, there would be at least ONE in their main sportscasters!  Now before you jump all over me, not all the great ones are ex-players.  I don’t believe the infamous Joe Buck every played on an NFL team… yet he is one of the premiere announcers.  Now honestly I don’t mind a dominantly male cast calling an exclusively men only league, but let’s not pretend to care about diversity when it’s so bloody obvious that they don’t!

That’s all for now,

Nintendo Joe

 

 

More Sega Corner!

 

This is a current Ebay listing for Little Samson for a whopping $899US!  Are you kidding me… with that kind of label damage this thing isn’t worth the space it takes up in the landfill!

Wow… jjgames.com is now charging a whopping $1928.75US for their copy of Little Samson!  Clearly, old man JJ doesn’t believe in Pat the Nes Punk’s prediction on the trend of prices in retro game collecting!  I could swear that two weeks ago the price on the same site was about $150 less… what are they thinking over there?!

There has been so much demand for the Sega Corner department on this blog, and as such I’m happy to announce a new/big development.  The Retro Game Bros., were having a Black Friday sale at their store this past weekend, and I must say that their discounts were pretty exciting… so much so in fact that both the Sega Dude and I traveled to the store together on a big date!  How could I resist a 40% discount on all NES games?!  Unfortunately they didn’t have any heavy hitters, but they did have a copy of the Namco version of Ms. Pac-Man.  However there was a bit of label damage and if you follow this blog, you’ll know my feelings about imperfect labels (glorified pieces of trash).  I am a proud label snob!  Anyways this copy of Gaiares for the Sega Genesis was picked  up for a great price…. considering the game goes for $128 on price-charting.com, I got a 60% discount (you do the math) for a complete and mint copy of this title that I used to think was groundbreaking when it first came out.  I want to say that I paid $110 for the game back in 1990 which was/is crazy expensive, but I got my money’s worth out of it as I played the crap out of it.  Renovation really had some great games like this one, and Granada, but also had some real duds like Earnest Evans… I actually almost bought this game for the Sega Dude thinking he didn’t have it, but the guy fortunately wouldn’t take my offer of $30.  As it turns out, not only does this game really suck, the Sega Dude already has it in his collection.

I think I already did a bit on this game last year, but as I received this game as a gift the other day I thought I would talk about it again.  The original US version was called Target Earth and was awesome as it had a cheat in the game that allowed you to acquire every weapon the game had to offer after the first stage.  The Mega Drive version did not have this option, and as the game was REALLY hard, it was nearly impossible to beat.  But man was it every fun!  Though this re-released version of the game has been out for a while on the PS4, I really want to play it now!

Did I mention I purchased an over the air PVR which makes the NFL experience 100x better!  I realize this isn’t a sports blog, but seriously… no more commercials and lousy commentary that no one but my brother-in-law cares about!  My life just exponentially improved!

This is my boy Branson and he’s a real Marine in that he wants to kill everything he sees… except most people, but there are even a few of those whom he would like to meet in a dark alley some day!  I’ll be honest in that I’ve not really done a great job in training him, and most of the time it feels like he’s my master in that I let him on the couch to cuddle with, and that he whines when you don’t pet him hard enough.  He’s a big suck most of the time, but it wasn’t always this way.  I had to dominate him when we first brought him home.  He wouldn’t stop barking, and at one point jumped on my back… I remember looking at my wife saying what do I do now?!  I don’t believe in hitting people and especially dogs, so that option was off the table.  What I did was whip around, and yell in my battle cry voice “ENOUGH!”… since then he doesn’t give me too much grief.  In fact he treats me like the second coming of Christ every day I come home after work! Anyways we’ve had this monstrous beast living with us for the past 6 years, and as such I’ve learned a lot about him… such as:

Favorite Book:  Cujo by Stephen King

Favorite Movie:  Air Bud… Ole Yellar was a close second, but we always cry at the end!

Favorite NFL team:  Clevland Browns… dog pound!

Favorite NHL team:  Phoenix Coyotes

Favorite NBA team:  Minnesota Timberwolves

Favorite University:  Georgetown… go bulldogs!

Favorite Song:  Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baha Men.

Favorite Comedian:  Triumph the insult comic Dog… honestly I love this guy too.  Although his best work was at the premiere of Star Wars episode 2, and he was also great when he appeared on Hollywood Squares, and when he handled that douche bag Eminem… I must say that his newest political roasting is fantastic!  The world is for Triumph to poop on!

Does anybody actually care about the Canada Post rotating strikes?!  It has literally zero effect on me.  What they should do is destroy 10% of all packages they receive… that would get people’s attention!  The fact that we all get mail delivered to our door in Toronto is just a bonus that most others don’t get.

 

That’s all for now.  Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

 

Waiting for the Big Score!

First of all, I promise that I won’t mention the NFL in this post.  Even though I love it, and NFL Sundays are my favorite day of the week, I realize that many of you don’t share the same passion.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my friend Pat the NES Punk predicts that the prices of rare NES games are going to come drastically down.  This is good news because there is no way I’m paying what they want for these few titles.  I also agree with Pat when he says that Little Samson isn’t nearly as “rare” as people claim it is.  I see it at almost every game swap that I go to, and never once have I ever seen a sale.  This tells me that people aren’t interested.  I mean according to Video Game Price Charting, the game goes for over $1400CAN… and JJgames.com is charging $1785US, give me a break dude!  Pat predicts the game will go down to around the $400 mark.  I’m still not happy (and maybe never will be), but at least I don’t have to sell both kidneys to purchase it!  So yeah,  I’m going to hold out for the most expensive games… even if I have to wait several years.  My collection thus far is awesome, and will have to do for the foreseeable future.  I still look forward to going to game swaps and stores, however I will not be bringing in wads of cash.  My soul is for sale though if that means anything to you!

My over the air PVR came in the mail the other day. It is a Mediasonic Homeworx model and cost $80CAN after shipping.  This is just the basic model, but from what I can tell the only thing that separates it from the much more expensive version is that it can’t record more than one show at once.  Who cares as I hardly watch network TV anyways!  It took me a while to set up as the instructions for how to record were very poor.  However thanks to my nerd skills and a couple of beers I was able to figure it out.  I can now watch regular TV on a slight delay and skip the commercials!  I didn’t think it could be done, but Judge Judy just got even better!  Give ’em hell Judith!

The other day I was picking up a package from the post office, and when I got back into my car, this teenage punk started staring at me like he wanted to fight.  He started staring at me… I mean right bloody at me!  Now I’m not one for violence, but at the end of the day I’m just another bloke with a pool cue… (this line was inspired by Francis Begbie from the movie Trainspotting and has been made appropriate for family viewers… the real version is much better though!).  Anyways we traded glares and went on our separate ways.  I don’t think I project the image of as tough guy who wants to fight, but then again I have Scottish/Irish in my blood so who knows?!  I can honestly say that in my 43 years of life, I’ve been lucky enough to never have gotten into a real fight in my personal life (karate doesn’t count as it is controlled).  I just can’t help but wonder why this kid wanted to have anything to do with me?  Teenage angst I suppose.  Anyways it gave me a good rush!

I’m getting pretty tired of YouTube commercials… especially now that they are doubling up in hopes of getting paid subscribers!  That being said, I have released my latest update on an edit to a film that I feel makes it far superior to the original.  My thing is this… Star Wars:  The Last Jedi in my opinion was the absolute WORST of the franchise… even Phantom Menace was better.  This was just pure crap, so what I did was edit out all the bad parts, and although my version is much shorter, I do believe it is superior!  If Disney is looking for some redirection, the Sega Dude and I are ready to quit our jobs and come on over to give you a hand on saving the franchise!

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Best Buy, Red/Blue States

I was in Best Buy the other day because I have been looking to buy a PVR that doesn’t require a cable subscription.  We cut our cable over ten years ago and haven’t looked back since!  I do miss watching a Raptor game every now and then, but for the amount of money that this would cost for either a Bell or Rogers account (both are evil entities run by Satan by the way) just isn’t worth it.  I’m satisfied with my over the air antenna which gets 23 channels… most of them reliably in excellent quality.  The three channels that I need are CTV, CTV2, and Fox as these carry the NFL games that I love to watch on Sunday afternoons.  I want a PVR as I am so tired of watching the endless commercials during games.  They are mind numbing!  I figure I’ll start taping the game at 1pm, then start watching around 2:30pm so that I’ll be caught up (sans commercials) by the end of the game.  Genius right, we’ll see… any ways Best buy didn’t carry such a device in their stores, but they did have a new antenna that supposedly had a 115km range.  Even at a pricey $224, I thought this would be a good investment.  I set it up, and literally put it right in front of my $60 antenna.  It was WAY WAY worse!  Even the normally reliable channels would be sketchy.  I didn’t hesitate to take this piece of crap back!

I had some time to kill while I was in the store, so I thought I would mosey over to check out the latest PS4 games and came across Red Dead Redemption 2.  From what I hear, this game is quite good, and I must say I really enjoyed the first chapter on the Xbox 360… at least for a while.  I found the game was a bit repetitive, and didn’t really have much of a finale at the end.  However I’m interested in seeing the sequel as they made a big deal about it on last weeks episode of South Park.   I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently Officer Yates was upset at all the school shootings happening lately, as it took him away from playing Red Dead Redemption 2.  Quite disturbing, but I would expect nothing less from my boys at South Park!

I found a map of the United States for everyone to help them determine if the State they are travelling to is acceptable or not.  Blue States are good, red states are bad, and green states are neutral.  I’m happy that unsurprisingly New York went blue as it means I can still visit my relatives in Buffalo.  I’m disappointed that Wyoming went red, as I really wanted to go on a cattle drive vacation over there next summer.  Most disappointing however is my beloved Florida.  Why man… WHY?!  I loved you Florida, and this is what you do to me?!

 

 

I’ve joined a jujitsu club called Silver Back Gorilla in mid Scarborough as a colleague of mine was telling me how much he enjoyed it.  I did the free trial, and got my ass handed to me.  I was sore for the entire next week afterwards with bruises all over my chest and arms.  I was later told by the lead instructor (pictured above) that the reason I got hurt was because I was trying too hard without knowing the techniques properly.  So I tried again last Thursday and he was correct.  I didn’t try to muscle my opponent as much, but rather focused on the technique and it seemed to have better results.  I signed up for the next three months, and the first thing I plan on doing afterwards is choking out the Sega Dude over at Retro Megabit!

 

 

SEGA Corner: I noticed that there was an $80 price tag on Red Dead Redemption 2.  At first I thought this sounded really high as what kid has this much money to blow on a game… but then I remembered the $90 – $100 the Sega Dude and I paid for Japanese Megadrive games back in the early 1990’s.  I couldn’t have asked my parents for the money as the definitely would have emphatically said “NO!”.  Thus I must have relied on my only source of income… my Toronto Sun paper route which paid about $10/week.  I think I was paid about 30 cents a paper… that’s a lot of deliveries I had to make just for an early copy of Thunder Force 3 and Mickey Mouse!  At least they were both awesome games!

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Voting and Gaming

Tomorrow is the big day… if you are an American living overseas, then I hope you’ve already voted!  If you are living in the United States and can legally vote, then you really have no excuse… get out there and have your say!  Tomorrow might be the most important election ever!  The world is watching!  I’ve already made it known to my American relatives that I will boycott them if the election doesn’t go well.

Pat the NES Punk

This is my boy Pat, and he’s an NES Punk!  He was one of the first collectors that got me into collecting retro games in his Flea Market Madness series on YouTube.  He seems down to earth and we share a lot of the same views towards other video game collectors.  Pat has been collecting forever, and was lucky enough to complete his NES collection before it became crazy expensive.  I think he has a great TurboGrafx-16 collection as well.  Oh if only I could go back in time and start my collection before it became popular… but then would it have been as fun going on the hunt?  Probably!

Anyways the reason I bring up Pat is that he has a podcast that I occasionally listen to if there is a topic that interests me.  His most recent episode is about the declining prices of rare games… mostly NES which of course is of interest to me.  According to him and his friend Ian, the prices of rare titles such as Little Sampson, Flintstones 2, etc., will be coming down in the next few years.  This is obviously just a prediction, but they make some valid points.  We’ve all seen these games at collector shows… but has anyone actually seen a dude buying the games at the insane prices?!  I did see a guy trade a heap of games for a copy of Flintstones 2, but that was several years ago and felt he gave up WAY too much for this rare, but very lousy game!  I hope Pat is right and that the prices drastically come down for how can I justify paying top dollar for a pretty crappy (though far from the worst) game?!

I thought this photo was lost forever, but we recently dug out some boxes and it was rediscovered!  This was taken at Christmas 1981 and man did I ever LOVE my present!  I played so much that I remember having trouble sleeping that night due to a throbbing thumb!  Those were the good old days… my mom even let me go to school late one day as I was having a record game… over 58,000 points… not bad for a six year old eh?!  I loved this game and wish I still had it.  I occasionally see it at retro game shows, but I don’t want to spend $100 on it… even if the condition is mint.  Looking at my hair, my mother must have spent a long time blow drying it straight like that… naturally I look more like Ronald MacDonald.  In fact once when my wife and i were walking down the street in Florida one Spring Break, some dude shouted out at my from his car that I looked like a clown.

I’ve been watching a lot of NFL football these past several weeks and I must say that overall I’ve profited from my favorite team (the Buffalo Bills) losing so much.  They have an abysmal record, but if you have bet against them at Sports Interaction you could have made some sweet coin… actually I’m down about eleven bucks for the year, but I would have been doing much worse had the Buffalo Bills actually started winning!  They are an embarrassment to Western New York, and I must admit that my stress levels have really decreased since I dropped my emotions for the team in pursuit of greater glory.  In my heart, I’ll always be a Bills fan… but it’s just been too hard.  17 years without a playoff appearance, then we make it, score a lousy 3 whole points, and are back in a rebuilding phase?!  How am I supposed to by loyal to a decades long loser!

I’m really excited by the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs!  This Patrick Mahomes has breathed new life into this team and almost beat those bastard New England Patriots!  I REALLY  hope there is a rematch in the play-offs and that they bring Tom Brady down hard!  Seriously though… Mahomes is super good looking… my wife would leave me in a second for a date with this stud, and I can’t really blame her!

I’ve compiled a list of NFL teams of which are okay to support, hate, and no one really cares about (all in order of most to least).  This is for those of you new to American football and are trying to break into the game.  I’m telling you, the New England Patriots are the most evil team in all professional sports… I hate them, but will always watch their games in hopes that they lose… and they usually don’t lose which is yet another reason I’m often upset.  I mean they are in the same division as Buffalo which means we have to play these bastards twice every season.  That being said, as much as I hate Tom Brady, he is the best quarterback to have ever played the game.  He has a Superbowl ring for each finger on his hand!

SEGA Corner: This a neat looking product is called the Mega Retro HD.  It resembles the original console, and apparently it works very well to play you old Genesis and MegaDrive games on… but if you have the Retron 5 which plays almost everything (besides TurboGrafx-16), I don’t really see the point?!

That’s all for now.  Get out there and vote!

Nintendo Joe

 

 

Another Successful Show!

Two Sundays ago was the semi-annual Durham Game Swap.  I was approached by Flavio and the Sega Dude to sell with them at their table, but I’ve got nothing left that I want to part with except for a few old PS2 and XBox 360 games that no one wants… hell I’d give them away for free if someone can actually make any use out of them!  I actually thought that some of the titles (Rachet & Clank series, etc.) were pretty good, but I can’t even get a song for them!  Anyways I went to the show as a buyer and I’m glad I made the trip.  Here’s my loot:

 The two games on the left, Solomon’s Key, and Championship Pool are nothing special, but Flavio had them, and I didn’t.  The former is actually a decent puzzle game and is the prequel to Fire N’ Ice… a much more expensive game!  Day Dreamin Davey is one that I see a lot, but it is never at a price that I want to pay.  I started talking to the dealer as he had a copy of Chip N, Dale 2 (In a past blog I stated that I owned all the Capcom games…. This was an error that I hope to correct some day) with a great price on it… I picked it up and immediately returned it after seeing the label damage… to me a damaged label means the game is less than worthless!  Anyways when it came to buying the Davey game I offered him $20… he took a long time to come down from the $25 he had marked stating quite emphatically that he “usually” gets full price.  Not from this guy pal!  I’m trying to complete a collection here!  And $20 is market value so big whoop!

The dealer was also trying to tell me that Aladdin was a USA released game, and that it was his favorite Disney title.  He wasn’t impressed when I told him it never left Europe,  as you can tell by the circular Nintendo Seal of Quality symbol.  Am I wrong?!  If I am then there’s yet again another game I need, and I probably owe the guy an apology for being so matter-of-factually.

Onto the next booth.  I’ve been on the lookout for these two games but the price was always way too high.  I asked the guy for fun what he would take for the both, and he said $200… I thought this was a pretty good price as the labels are in great shape.  I must have been blind though for as you can see there is some writing on the Tomato cartridge:  Normally I would have passed, but I must have been caught up in all the excitement of the deal!  Does anyone know how to get permanent marker off plastic?  I heard that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers don’t work as they discolour the NES shell??  I hope there is a fix because if there isn’t then I’ll need to buy a replacement/upgrade at some point as I just can’t have a game in this condition in my collection.  Got to love OCD!

These games were purchased from Peter at P- Market Games in Belleville Ontario who was also had a dealer booth in Oshawa.  He claimed that he was giving me a great deal… and while his prices have come down substantially since I last saw him (he previously had $300 on Sword Master), they were just at market value and while perhaps a deal at a store, I want more from a retro game show.  Then again, as soon as I picked up Sword Master another dude swore under his breath as he was about to pick up the game.  Hey man, I’m glad I have it, but the price tag at $200 for what most people consider a piece of plastic with a sticker on it is still pretty high…

Home of my NES collection!

… which brings me to my next point.  When I got home and my wife took a look at what I had bought, and I had to promise her that we would pay off the mortgage before buying the top five most expensive NES games (Little Sampson, Flintstones 2, Panic Restaurant, Bonk’s Adventure, and Power Blade 2).  I agreed to this as the mortgage interest rates are going higher, and our money would be better spent meaningfully on our investment.  However what if I’m presented with a deal I can’t refuse?!  This will be hard, but it may blow over if I can convince my wife that we will donate the “savings” to the World Wildlife Federation.  In other words what I’m trying to say is that it will be a couple of years before I can attempt to complete the North American released NES collection.

Sqoon was actually purchased online from JJgames.com.  They don’t often have any real deals, but for $75 US including shipping this was decent.  Whenever I see it here it sells for around $130CAN which is above market price and thus I’m not sure how many copies sell.  You should check them out from time to time as you may find a good price every year or so.

Well that brings the needed NES games down to a mere 27 (unless I’m wrong about Aladdin).  While it doesn’t happen often anymore as I’m pretty much at the mercy of Flavio, the Retro Game Bros., and game shows for NES titles to add to my collection… there are occasions where it just seems to work out!

On to other business…

Cannabis leaf isolated on white

Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand, you’re aware of Canada legalizing the use of marijuana, and as many of you know I’m not a fan of Doug Ford (Ontario’s Premiere).  The other day it was released what the Provinces rules/laws were around the use of cannabis.  Namely you can’t use it within a certain distance of a school, etc..  I was just wondering if Doug Ford followed his own rules when according to the Globe & Mail newspaper he was allegedly selling it to people in the 1980’s?!  Hmmm.

 

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones holds a pre-draft press conference in the scouting atrium at Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, Monday, April 22, 2013. (Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)

Joe’s Grievances:  Has anyone noticed that the Dallas Cowboys get way too much air time on nationally televised NFL games?!  They are owned by this racist douche bag, Jerry Jones who at one point took a knee in support of his players in protest during the national anthem before a game… then later said that he would fine players for kneeling as it was disrespectful to the country when Trump declared it “unpatriotic” to kneel.  It’s clear what side you are on dude… not mine!  While we are on the topic of the Dallas Cowboys, what do we think of a team whose star running back is a wife beater, and horrible human being in Ezekiel Elliott… or Zeke as fans like to call him?  It’s amazing what people are willing to put up with from a dude who can run a football a few extra yards!

SEGA Corner:  Well they’ve finally done it!  They have fixed the bug in Phantasy Star Generation 2 (a remake of Phantasy Star II) that made the game unplayable on the Play Station 2.  I can’t wait to get my mitts on this game as this was the chapter that made me fall in love with the series.  That being said it was the first chapter I played on my newly acquired Sega Genesis in the early 1990’s.  Playing the original game on the Master System “Power” Converter was a massive bonus!  Phantasy Star III sucked, but was made up for in part IV!

That’s all for now.  Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Mega Man 11 Review

 

Blockman

If you read my last post I purchased a copy of Mega Man 11 for the PS4.  I haven’t played it extensively yet, but rather have only managed to beat one stage… Blockman.  I had no idea where to start so I went with the first choice in the stage select menu.  It was fairly challenging for a novice player… but it wasn’t long before my Mega Man skills of times past kicked in and I was able to beat the stage! I can’t wait to try the level on difficult once I master this!  There is a lot that I like about this game, and very little that I have issue with.  Now, this isn’t really an big deal, but this game (so far anyway) isn’t really a sequel, but rather a series reboot.  Not that there was much of a continuum in past Mega Man games (aside from a few common enemies) but this one completely rewrites the series…

… It ignores my good buddies Gutsman, Iceman, Cutman, and the rest of the robot master fellas from the original game.   While it keeps the same premise in that you beat a robot master, acquire his weapon, and use it as a weakness of another robot master… there is no rhyme or reason to it.  I mean in the original Mega Man, it made sense to start with Bombman, then use his acquired weapon against Gutsman (the strong man miner), then use this weapon against Cutman… it had a rock/paper/scissors feel to it.  This game makes no sense at all, but then I shouldn’t complain too much as there wasn’t much reasoning to the order of robot masters in the original Mega Man sequels.

As I said, this is a minor complaint, and overall I’m really pleased with the game as it brings me back to a better time where as a kid I had no actual responsibilities except B.S. my way through school and have fun!  Go Lancers!

The graphics in Mega Man 11 are great, but then I would expect no less from a PS4 game!  The music has a good beat/rhythm to it, but honestly I thought the 8-bit music was more technical and fun from a musical standpoint.

The controls are pretty tight as would be expected from a Mega Man game and if you die it feels as though you made a mistake as opposed to other games where there is delays, etc..

I like that the robot master battles are more complex than in the original games.  While I’ve only beaten Blockman,  I liked how there were three stages in the fight so it wasn’t as simple as memorizing one pattern and kicking ass.  The enemy became huge; even rivaling the dragon in the first Wily stage of Mega Man 2!  I think this is great, however another complaint that I have is that you can’t shoot diagonally or up… I thought this would have been a nice touch.

So far however the game is really fun, and I look forward to playing it for a bit each day!

We’ve been making good progress on Alien Isolation, but unfortunately the wives ruined our sausage party this Friday and we weren’t able to continue.  The game is different, but a lot of fun… and I hear there is a sequel coming out!

We (the Sega Dude and I) are off to the Durham game swap this Sunday October 21st.  I’m really hoping for some great deals on hard to find games!  I think my soul is about the right price for LittleSampson, and if the devil is at the show we just might have a deal!

Joe’s Grievances:  I’m quite upset about the demise of the VGCC game swap in Waterloo.  From what I hear, the organizers of the show got drunk one night, insulted each other like teenage girls often do, then cancelled the event?!  Has anyone heard differently?  This really sucks as I always looked forward to going to Waterloo twice a year for this event:(  Come on Pete… make amends with Andrew and lets get this great show up and running once again!  You are partly why I regained interest in the retro gaming community!

Joe’s Plugs:  It appears that some people from Norway have been checking out mynintendodimension.com lately which is fantastic!  In fact I’m hoping that my man Leo Moracchioli is going to be preforming near Oslo this winter break so I can come to your awesome country and watch!  I’m a huge fan!  Check out his metal covers at Frog Leap Studios.

Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty answers media questions after appearing before the Special Committee on Justice Policy at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto on Tuesday May 7, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

I had a thought the other day… if Dalton McGuinty (Ontario’s former Premiere) married Andy Dalton (the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals) and took his name… he would be Dalton Dalton!  Awesome!

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Mega Man 11 Released!

My 100th post!  Mega Man 11 was released today and I’m super excited!  I’ll definitely pick it up this week as the $40 dollar price tag is fair… and I’ll actually play the thing!  I’ll do a review of it in the weeks to come.  The boss robot masters look great, huge, and intimidating.  I can’t wait to destroy them!  This doesn’t pose as great news for the newly acquired Mighty No. 9 however.  It will go on the back burner, but I WILL play it!

This past Saturday, a few friends came over for our first “Alien Isolation No Gurlz Allowed Sausage Party”.  The wife was out of town, and this was the perfect opportunity to engage a horrific Xenomorph… and terrify me it did!  I’m sure the Sega Dude will be posting an unflattering video of me playing the game and getting cornered by an Alien.  I screamed just before it tore me apart.  It’s been over a decade since I’ve screamed in panic like that and unbeknownst to me it was filmed which I’m sure the Sega Dude will post on his site in the near future.  In my defense however, how can you not scream when you are being hunted by an Alien?!  I can’t remember if we made it to the fifth or sixth mission, but we plan on getting together again this Friday to advance further into the game.

In other news, Nintendo successfully sued a company called MariCAR in Japan that was renting Mario Kart costumes and go-carts to people (mostly tourists).  You can read the article here.  Or not, I pretty much summed it up.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I have a lot of things that are really bugging me lately and even though this is a video game hunting blog, I’m running out of ideas.  There just isn’t really much to find on the cheap in terms of thrift stores, Kijiji, garage sales, and certainly not Ebay.  The days of possibly finding Little Sampson for an awesome deal are long over unfortunately.  As such, I’m opening up a new department on My Nintendo Dimension aptly named “Joe’s Grievances”.  Here is today’s issue:

I was listening to the morning show on Q107 while driving into work, and one of the hosts (Ryan Parker) said he has been on Tinder app the for a while and is finding it hard to find dates as most women aren’t interested in dudes under 5’9.  I bet he’s right, and I stand at a measly 5’7 with my Doc Martins on, I guess I would still be having a hard time finding a date!  This is even weirder as my parents are both taller than average.  One could argue that my mom got “friendly” with the mail man, but this theory is debunked as besides the hair colour, I look exactly like my old man.  This sucks!  I am happily married to a woman who apparently has a shorty fetish, so it isn’t really an issue, but it’s more the principle of it all.

SEGA Corner:  Sega makes Alien Isolation (see above) so that’s the news for today.

Next week we will be discussing what ever happened to the game swap in Waterloo which was put on by Video Game Collectors Community (VGCC).

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe