She’s Going Down!

I’ve just done a recalculation of my collection… and for all my wheel and dealing, I’m lucky if I broke even at today’s prices!

The above games are an example of what I overpaid/traded for.  Collectively I traded $850 dollars worth of merchandise for these three games… which was an exceptional deal at the time!  Now collectively, these three games sell for around $610… that’s a 29% decrease in price since two years ago.  This is the reason I’m holding off on selling a lung and kidney for games such as Little Sampson, etc.!  I’m like a water : camels compared to NES games : Nintendo Joe.  I can wait dude!

I was missing these guys, so picked them up at the last Barrie Game exchange for a total of $30.  Not the best deal, but I haven’t seen them very often.  Honestly these games blow, but as I said they have been very elusive to my collection.

Back in the day, a guy offered me a mint condition version of this game for $125. Clearly this game was meant only for rich people!  I thought he was out to lunch… am I really going to pay that much to fight bloody carrots?!  Nope, I was going to pay $250 for the experience 4 years later and this was actually a deal even at today’s prices!

Maybe I’m getting old, and am thinking about my retirement in 20 years, but these games are just so damn expensive, and are going down in value!  If only I had invested in Google and Amazon when their stock was low I could quit now!

NintendoJoe1985 and Ultimate_Megatron on Instagram:)

 

 

New Haul!

Last weekend, we went to the Barrie Game Exchange (my wife stayed in the car).  I was able to pick up two NES games that I needed for the collection

This title is the last of the “super cheap” games that I needed.  By super cheap I mean under $10.  Nothing remarkable.  I thought this might be like the board game Taboo which can be a lot of fun, but no this is a game of Tarot cards.  In fact the instructions say not to play this game if you are under 14, and not to take the advice given to you seriously… Nintendo’s way of covering it’s ass if you do something bad based on what the game told you to do.  The music is actually pretty good, but that’s where it stops.  I can see why this is an under $10 game, and can’t believe people actually bought this thing at full price back in the 1980’s.

The game play in Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt actually isn’t the worst title out there, and this is a way better game than the earlier Addam’s Family.  The controls are actually a lot like Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion on the Sega Genesis in that it’s a platformer where you jump and sit on enemies to dispatch them.  The weird thing is that there is hardly any music in this game, and that’s a major bummer!  Overall I’d give the game a 5/10.

Over all the show was worth the drive, but I don’t understand why dealers bring their very rare/expensive games if they don’t want to actually sell them?  I mean one dude had Little Samson at $1800?!  What moron would fork out that kind of cash?  I’m waiting on the advice of Pat the NES Punk who predicts the game should take a drastic dive in price.  Also this guy had Stadium Events (that wasn’t even for sale) whom said he was going to get graded first.  He valued the game at around $14,000US… I think he’s either extremely high, or that he’s REALLY proud of it! Pricecharting.com values it at under $2700 Canadian dollars, and my collectors app has it at just over $3300 for a good condition copy.  Even this is outrageous considering the same game can be bought with a different label for under $5!  Essentially you are paying for a sticker…. a rare sticker, but just a sticker!  The guy also said that there were only between 35 to 50 copies out there.  Weird how they keep coming up?!!  Every where I look online tells me that the low estimate is 2000 copies.  Oh ya, this guy was real proud of it!

SEGA Corner:  Coincidentally after buying Pugley’s Scavenger hunt on the NES and comparing it to Mickey Mouse, I ended up paying $40 for a complete copy of Castle of Illusion.  This game is awesome… great graphics, sound, and game play… just some good wholesome fun!  I remember back in the 1990’s when I bought it (at full price!) that the Sega Dude thought I was crazy.  Well the jokes on him as this was one of my favorite games on the Genesis!

Retro Game Bros. Score!

If you’ve been paying attention to this blog (and judging by my views, you haven’t), you’re aware of my two Instagram accounts @nintendojoe1985 for games, and @ultimate_megatron for my g1 Transformer collection.  Well the reason I finally signed up for an account came true the other day.  The Retro Game Bros. also have an account, and they showed a recent haul of NES games… one of which I needed!  We negotiated a price, and all that was left was for me to pick it up.

I actually think I’ve seen Die Hard in their store before when I first started collecting, but as it is a rare game and kind of sought after the price tag was probably too high.  I just wasn’t Die Hard material yet.  But honestly this game is in great shape, and I’m proud to have it in my collection…. sort of.  Let’s be honest, this is a terrible game!  The graphics aren’t much better than an Atari 2600 title.  It reminds me of Berserk except there’s a reason to be playing other than simply surviving.  The music and sound effects are awful and the game is really hard right from the moment you begin.  NES had a lot of great titles, but this one’s a turd!

I had missed this game in the Retro Game Bros. list, but saw it in the store and inquired as to the price.  The price tag on the game wasn’t theirs, but rather from the collector who bought it.  I sure as hell wasn’t paying that price!  Without any negotiation, I was offered a way more than fair price, and I’m a cheapskate!  The offer was better than anywhere I’ve seen including retro video game shows.  Thanks boys, you made my day!  My wife has finally started to respect me now that I own this title.  The best part is that this game isn’t a turd… in fact it is the complete opposite.  It’s very similar to the first Chip and Dale game… just an extension for those of us who loved the original.  Now here’s the thing.  Remember in a previous blog entry I had said that I had a complete Capcom NES library,… and then later on I realized I had made a mistake when I added Ducktales 2, and Snow Brothers I NOW had a complete collection…. well I forgot about this guy.  So now, for REAL-ZEE I have a complete Capcom NES collection.

This Sunday April 7th is going to be a great day.  There is a retro video game exchange in Barrie, as well as a retro toy show in Mississauga.  It will be a full day, and I’m really excited for it… even if it means I’ll miss a mortgage payment or two!

SEGA Corner:  The action at the Retro Game Bros. didn’t stop with the previously mentioned NES titles.  I’m also on the lookout for Sega Genesis games I remember playing with the Sega Dude back in high school.  However they not only need to be in great shape, but also complete which drives the price way up!  I was accused by a guy that “Nintendo Joe shouldn’t be looking at the Sega pile”.  He as a point, though that being said I do stray from time to time… it keeps my relationship with NES fresh, and in the end I always come home.  Nintendo and I have an “open relationship” and often invite other partners into our fun!  I’m not a big fan of beat ’em ups, but Golden Axe was actually a lot of fun.  I didn’t like the sequel as much as it was just more of the same with slightly better graphics.  Forgotten Worlds is a classic two player game that I actually played semi-recently and thought that it stood the test of time.  The false god you have to defeat is way cooler though than the final boss!

Until next time… hell maybe even after the game exchange next week!

Nintendo Joe

Instagram Influencer!

Last January my wife and I went to the Ontario Collectors Con in Mississauga and had heaps of fun!  My only complain was that it was a little Star Wars heavy… I mean nearly every booth had Star Wars something or another.  Don’t get me wrong… I love Star Wars (except The Last Jedi which is trash), but there were hundreds of other great toys too… and video games!  Unfortunately while there were quite a few vendors selling NES games, there were none that I needed for my collection.  This was a shame as many of the dealers had great prices.  For example, Super Mario 3 went for $12 at one table which is a pretty good price for this game!  In fact Super Mario 3 is my bench mark game.  When I walk into a store or retro game show, I’ll look to see how SM3 is priced.  If it’s priced well/fairly, then I’ll look a lot more closely at what the vendor is selling.  If the price is too high, then I know not to really bother as his/her other games are probably over priced as well… this results in merely a quick skim of the merchandise.  Alas there was nothing I needed.  There was tons of Genesis games for sale, however the Sega Dude had them all so there is no news on that front.

What I did find was these two G1 Transformers that have eluded my collection all these years!  This is Scoop and Needle Nose.  The plastic is in great shape, however many of the decals have seen better days.  Plus they are missing their weapons, and as they are both Target Masters that’s kind of a big deal… but at $15 for both it wasn’t really a big decision to make.  The purchase also sparked an interest in Instagram so I’ve started two accounts.  One is nintendojoe1985 which is obviously about my NES collection, and the other is ultimate_megatron which features my G1 Transformers.  It’s not really that big a deal (other than since I was a little boy I wanted to be a Instagram influencer/sensation), however it allows me to relive the memories and gives new meaning to the games/toys.

A new NES game has been purchased, and should be on it’s way from the United States.  If you thought Color a Dinosaur was good (it isn’t)… this one blows it out of the water!  I’ll post about it when it arrives!

Sega Corner:  I was over at the Sega Dude’s house the other day, and he showed me this game on his PS4.  It looks amazing and I’ll have to give it a go some day!

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

 

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

 

 

It’s Been a While…

I looked at the last time I posted and it goes back to October 2016.  It’s been a while, but the NES collection and others continue to grow.  I’m now at a whopping 566 NES games after these new additions.

Recently the Sega Dude and I went up to Barrie for a video game swap.  While I didn’t bring anything to trade this time, I was hungry.  Hungry to buy more NES games to add to my collection as I haven’t really made much progress recently due to the fact that I rarely ever go to Value Village anymore as they have gone crazy in terms of their pricing of retro games.  $30 for Super Mario… give me a break!  If they can get some sucker to pay that amount, then more power to them… but it’s finds like this that scare me away.

Another reason I haven’t been game hunting lately is because Kijiji and Craigslist are also flooded with WAY over priced games… higher than even the local game stores around here!  What’s worse is that these people won’t budge on their prices as they think they are holding on to the Crown Jewels!  I’m tired of seeing the same ridiculous ads that have in some cases been posted for over a year.  Buddy… your games aren’t worth your “asking” price… nobody is buying them!  EBAY is a dud for the same reason…plus the global shipping fees.  The only solution is to occasionally go to retro game stores to try and swing a deal.  There prices are lower than Kijiji, and they have an overhead cost to think about which at least justifies why they are charging what they do.

Garage sale season is fast approaching, but honestly I’m not really looking that forward to it as my collection has become so vast that what are the chances I’ll find something I need?!  It’s a lot of racing around town in the wee hours of a Saturday morning for not much return.

So, retro game stores and shows seem to be the way to go, and now that I’m finished my rant I’ll get back on topic to the Sega Dude and I going to the Barrie Game Exchange.  It was actually really good!  I had previously made a deal with a guy I/we know for about 10 NES titles…

… the games got all shuffled up in my loot bag from the show so I can’t remember which titles I purchased from him, and the games I got from other vendors.

On the way to game swaps, the Sega Dude often asks me what I’m looking for, and I always tell him I want the remaining three Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games… only to be disappointed.  Well you do see Heroes of the Lance often which is fairly common but I already had it… despite the awesome cover this is also the worst game in the series.  Alas, at this show I found all three missing games.  Pool of Radiance (the best game in the series) was actually part of the bundle that I previously arranged, but I did see other vendors selling this game at the show.

These sticker prices are a bit crazy but I was able to swing a deal.  I paid close to $150CAN for the three games I was missing which is a deal considering Hillsfar goes for around $120 alone.  Dragon strike came with a mint manual which is rather nice.

Bomberman and Wizards and Warriors 3 I actually managed to score from Kijiji during the Christmas holidays.  Bomberman is in great shape, and W&W 3 is mostly decent except for the top label which is peeling.  I have seen W&W 3 a few times before, but none of the labels are ever great so I decided to pull the trigger on this one.  I think both games cost me $40CAN.

This is a game that I have never played before… and for whatever reason (it isn’t that rare) have never seen in stores.  However the while out game hunting, the Sega Dude texted me a picture of what the store had in stock.  This was the only game I didn’t already have, and the price was decent so I went for it.  I’ll have to give it a try and get back to you on that.

I’m not really collecting much for the SNES anymore as I already have the games I want for this system (except Donkey Kong Country 3 which the Sega Dude has and Lords over me).  However I was in a store called Pawn Pals in a neighbouring city and saw this complete Gemfire game.  I have heard good things about this one, but at the price of $50 tax included I couldn’t resist.

On to some miscellaneous pick-ups…

I found this game the last time I was in a Value Village (it was months ago) and thought it looked interesting for $2.  I’ll probably never play it and will put in my trade pile.

This t-shirt is from an arcade in Ottawa Ontario.  A friend of mine lives there and happened to be passing by so I asked him to pick one up for me.  This place has been around for a while and I think I even used to go there as a kid whenever I was in the area.  I just thought it would be neat to have an arcade shirt.

Ah, a remote NES controller.  The Sega Dude gave this to me for Christmas and is a welcomed addition.  No more cord limitations!

So ya, that’s where I’m at right now.  A bit cheesed off at the high prices of games (though they have gone down in value over the past few months… if I’m ever to complete my collection I hope this trend continues!  Also the rarity that I find games that I need at fair prices is also a bit discouraging.  In fact I was thinking on selling off my Game Cube, Wii, Game Boy, and a few GBA titles so that I can focus on my NES collection.  It’s just gotten too expensive and while I want to continue collecting, I don’t want to have to take out a second mortgage to do so.

SEGA Corner:  

The Sega Dude (have I mentioned him enough in this post?) picked these games for me on a forum.  The price was good, AND it completes my Wonderboy collection for the Master System which I’m kind of excited about!

Target Earth (or Assault Suit Leynos on the Japanese Mega Drive) is a game that I used to love.  It is VERY hard to beat without cheating.  I think there was a cheat in the game where on the first level you had to destroy the boss ship only… leaving everyone else alone… and that got you every weapon in the game which were quite hard to come by on normal play.  So yes I was able to beat it, but only by cheating.  I did get quite far on it in normal mode once… but only once.  I look forward to trying this game out again.

Until next time… and it might be a while since I’m not quite as active at game hunting for the aforementioned reasons… plus Judge Judy is on twice a day!

Nintendo Joe

The Reason I Sale

Last weekend myself and several friends went garage sailing as the area my parents live in was having their annual garage sale event.  Honestly, the pickings were really slim this year.  It seems to have been in decline every year for the decade that I’ve been going to this event.  The odd common Wii game here, and a copy of Namco Museum for the GBA was all that there was… in other words there was nothing even remotely interesting to look at, let alone talk about on here.  Who knew that at approximately 11:00am I would strike gold!

I found a box of gaming paraphernalia with the above sign taped to it at an unassuming older couple’s house.

The first thing in the box that caught my eye was a PS1 console and the above games.  Nothing to write home about as even though these games are complete, they along with the console are fairly worthless.  So I dug a little deeper…

Ahhh… some SNES manuals.  Not pictured is a sealed copy of all the manuals for the SNES console.  I already have these, but something told me to dig deeper and so I did…

Complete mint in box copies of the above games were found.  Now we’re talking!  Generally I don’t keep boxes unless they are for a really good game, however I already have a copy of F-Zero and I’m not interested at all in Extra Innings.  I used to love to play baseball, but playing the video game versions (regardless of the platform) always seemed really boring.  The Sega Dude expressed interest in having these so I’m going to give them to him.  Now that I was hot on the trail, I kept digging…

What’s this… Turbo Grafx-16 games?!  Even though these are sports titles, you never see games for the TG-16 any more.  In fact this is the first I have ever seen them at a garage sale… and I have been to a lot of sales!  However, this is fools gold compared to the 24K rock that I found at the bottom of the box…

Holy Toledo a Turbo Express and a copy of Bonk’s Adventure!!!  Now we’re talking!  When I first saw this I knew I had stuck gold.  I knew it was expensive but didn’t know just how valuable this was.  I figured it would sell for around $150, but after the Sega Dude told me that the Retro Game Bros. have it currently for sale with a price tag of $500 I was floored!  Can you say Cha-Ching!  I have zero interest in collecting for what is probably one of the most difficult systems to collect for, but I may be able to sell this and buy a really rare NES game that I otherwise wouldn’t have any business owning.  I’m going to keep this for a while to check it out… and see if this puppy actually works.  I don’t understand why it is so valuable as it is just a bulky hand held system with a REALLY small screen, but for some reason people are looking for these.

So, I’m $10 poorer than I was when I set out last Saturday, but I feel very lucky!  I scored huge!

SEGA Corner:  The events described above didn’t happen exactly as I told it… in fact I didn’t even see the sign that said it was all for $10.  I saw the mint SNES boxed games first, and then the Turbo Express… and I knew I had to have it.  When the guy came out asking for only $10 I was giddy with adrenaline.  The other games were just a bonus… if only the previous owner wasn’t such a sports fan but rather was into RPG’s instead:(  Oh well I shouldn’t complain… but there was one more find in that good box…

It’s not very exciting… maybe even a bit of a let down compared to the rest, but I’m going to mention it anyway to keep SEGA Corner alive.

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe