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

Nintendo Quest NES Collection Budget

Remember a while ago (three years to be exact) that movie called Nintendo Quest that was a documentary on a guy (Jay Bartlett) who challenged himself to getting all 678 North American released NES games in 30 days?!  There are some spoilers here so stop reading if you intend on watching it.  I thought that it was a pretty good film if you are into game collecting and I met Jay at a game swap in Waterloo ON,.

I do however have a few issues with the film:

1. They never mentioned what Jay’s budget for all the games was, however I’ve done some calculations and figure that he spent around $15,000 – $18,000… give or take3 a few bucks.  I’ll explain my calculations more on this at the end of this entry.
2. They rarely mentioned how much Jay paid for each game which would have been nice to see how much of a deal he received as well as a better estimate on what we the common people should be paying for these games.  This is especially bothersome as he went into some stores and claimed to have received some really good deals.  One of the stores he went to in Toronto that he said gave him the best prices was A&C Games on Spadina Ave..  I know first hand that this store has ridiculous prices… five years ago, they wanted to charge me $15 for an Atari version of E.T.  The guys said that was because E.T. is rated the worst game to ever be released on every console to date.  The game was and still worth $1 or less.  What really burns me is that even the Game Chasers who have a Youtube show went into this store and received good deals just because they featured the store on the show.  So unless you are filming a movie/show and are willing to give free media recognition, stay away from A&C Games unless you want to get ripped off.  A&C Games sucks!
3. Jay had some friends who GAVE him some really rare and expensive games like Stadium Events, Panic Restaurant, Cowboy Kid, etc.  While very generous of them, these options aren’t available to most of us collectors so and I felt a little cheated… and jealous!
4. Jay never mentioned his girlfriend once in the entire film.  It would have been more realistic to see him arguing with her about how much money he was spending/wasting on games when he could have been paying down the mortgage.

Onto how I calculated the amount Jay I think spent on the entire North American NES library.

Firstly, at the end of the 30 days, he was short 25 games and it said he had 9% of his budget left.  I calculated the market value of how much each game cost in todays prices, and that came to roughly $3,140.  Figuring that the price of games back in 2014 when the movie was filmed were considerably lower, I can estimate that the missing games would have cost him somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2,200.  If this was represented 9% of Jays total budget, then he started with around $24, 444 .  However, we must keep in mind that he bought in bulk and therefore received a discount, and the store owners saw an opportunity to advertise their store on Jay’s movie, and thus gave him a much lower price then any of us would ever get… like at A&C Games.  With this in mind, and considering he received some of the most expensive games for free, I think it is safe to say that Jay spent somewhere between $15,000 – $18,000 on completing his NES collection.

I’m envious, jealous, and all that of Jay Bartlett for it really felt like he had a lot of fun on his quest.  Congratulations on completing such an awesome collection… now go pay off that mortgage!

Nintendo Joe

How Obnoxious, and Who Knew?!

It’s one thing to get beaten to a garage sale, but the competition is starting to become obnoxious.  While garage sailing this past weekend I went to several sales and gave my usual greeting of “Good morning… you don’t by chance have any Nintendo for sale do you?”  Usually I get told “sorry we don’t”, or “sorry I’m keeping it”, and occasionally I get told “you should have been here earlier.”  Now I can understand the getting there earlier thing and of course the desire to keep these little treasures, but I was told something new last weekend that I hope is just a one off.  I approached this one sale and was told that the games had already sold….no big deal… as I said I get that all the time (hey, you can’t hit every sale at once!)  Now what was interesting about this particular sale was that this family was supposed to have this event two weekends ago, but the weather was cold and wet so they cancelled.  Apparently, some jerk came to their door anyways and asked for the games.  I was astounded… how obnoxious!  I can’t imagine someone coming to my door wanting to buy something when I don’t have a sale going on.  My wife tells me that this is just the type of thing that the people I watch on Youtube do, but I think this is well past most of us.  Or is it… what do you think?

Anyways the above two games are what I found garage sailing as most regular people do, and for the price of $4, how could I go wrong?!  Now when I first saw these games, I recognized Harvest Moon as being a fairly popular title. I had never heard of Radiant Dawn before, but was somewhat familiar with the Fire Emblem series.  Apparently this is one of the rarest, most sought after, and expensive Wii games out there.  Xenoblade Chronicles falls behind all three categories, and that’s saying something because supposedly it is an incredible game.  So no, I’m not going to sell/trade it…at lest not yet.  I want to see what all the hype is about.  Is it just expensive because it’s rare?  Lets face it, the Nintendo has put out some pretty crappy games that are now rare and expensive because no one bought them when they were first released…. Colour a Dinosaur, Donkey Kong Junior Math, etc.).  Is this the fate of Radiant Dawn?  Well I think this is worth a look-see and I plan on hooking up my Wii to give this baby a test drive.  This is the first really rare video game I’ve ever owned so I’m rather excited about it.  And if it sucks I’ll sell it for 100 bucks and take my wife out on the town.  In the end I’m doing all this collecting for her!  I love you honey;)

I found the above book in a bin at a yard sale.  Too bad that this was the only Nintendo item they had.  It would have been pretty sweet to get the games that this guidebook goes with.  In fact, The Legend of Zelda:  Oracle of Seasons is the only Zelda title that I am missing… oh no wait, I don’t have a copy of Hyrule Warriors either so I take that back.

The Sega Dude actually got me to use my PS4 as something other than a device that plays Netflix.  He kind of bullied me into playing a game called “The Division” with him, and I must say I’m rather glad he did.  I enjoy gaming, but lately the newer games are a bit much for me… I must be getting old!  But The Division is actually pretty good.  The mechanics and graphics are great, though I fear it will become rather repetitive and boring as I work my way through the game.  That being said I’ve not entered the Dark Zone yet and I hear this is where it really gets interesting.  I’m going to go rogue and get me some loot!  Anyways after we were done playing, the Sega Dude asked if I wanted to go visit the Retro Game Bros..  As I’ve not been there in a while I figured why not?!  They are a pretty cool bunch of guys that like to talk about retro games.  Hopefully they aren’t getting tired of it yet.  Actually I’m rather envious of them as they have done what I can only dream of doing… opening up a retro game store.  The thing that’s held me back is that I would have to quite my day job that I already do okay at, and don’t entirely hate.  The other reason is that I really feel that the popularity of video game collecting right now is just a fad.  I mean even three years ago games were about half as expensive as they are now.  Those were the days… actually ten years ago were the days for retro collecting.  It is so popular now that it has almost become cliche, and I’m starting to feel like a moron every time I ask for Nintendo at yard sales.  Since when has that stopped me though?!  I just don’t think I’ll be going door to door asking for games just yet… but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures… and times are becoming rough for game collectors like us:(

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe.

The Hunt Must Go On!

 

I remember when I first asked the Sega Dude if he wanted to go game hunting with me, he thought that I wanted kill a deer and eat it.  I was shocked when he told me an emphatic “NO!”, but then later realized what he thought I meant.  Anyways… So I went to the above three events looking for games and I came out with some pretty cool titles.

First the pick ups are from Fan Expo.  What’s interesting here is that there was a store represented here called The Blue Gryphon which is a place that I visited in Gatineau, Quebec last year… but at the store their prices seemed a bit high… however at Fan Expo the games were not only at a good price but the owner was also willing to deal with me.  Also I finally acquired a title that I’ve been looking for since I started collecting for the NES… Might & Magic:  Secret of the Inner Sanctum!  I’m a huge fan of the M&M series and as this was the only title on the NES I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find; I was wrong.  In fact I had only seen the game once before at a store called Buy & Sell Kings but they had it complete with the box and that jacked up the price to over $100+tax… even though it is a cool game, it’s just too much.  Besides as you know I lik to buy my own boxes thanks to the help of the universal game cases, and thecoverproject.net (which by the way was down for a bit, but is now back up and running business as usually…phew!).  Might & Magic is an RPG that is from a first person POV.  There are many monsters to defeat, and many items to acquire… I can’t wait to get started as I’ve only played the beginning on an NES emulator for my Mac.  So in addition to M&M, I also bought Rollerblade Racer, Rally Bike, Garry Kitchen’s Battle Tank, and Tecmo Baseball, all for $70 cash.

For whatever reason I just didn’t have Tecmo Baseball in my collection… it is such a common game.  I sifted through several boxes of games and managed to pick out the few I didn’t already have from his common titles.  In his “rare” bin there were a few I needed but just didn’t want to spend the money.  One title that I kind of regret not buying was Nobunaga’s Ambition 2 for the NES.  The price was fair (I can’t remember how much exactly) but as I said, he wasn’t giving it away for a song:(

We went to Fan Expo on Friday night, and hit up the Barrie Game Exchange the following Sunday.  While I didn’t win any of the door prizes (they were actually really terrible prizes) a good time was had.  I met up with a few people I knew who were selling games including the Retro Game Bros., Flavio, Fred (my guy in Lakefield ON), and also had a chance to meet SeeJayAre who does a live garage sale pick ups video on youtube (he was just selling games like other vendors but no one knew who he was except me.  You should actually check out his channel as it is pretty cool… he was one of the pioneers of the hidden camera at garage sales video (at least up here in Canada).  He is actually from a city just outside Toronto… and man does he have lots of luck… but in a way he makes his own luck.  You’ll see what I mean.

Anyways the Barrie Game Exchange was bigger than I thought it would be… at least compared to the July exchange last summer it was fairly big… like 90 tables.  Still though it was no Waterloo Video Game Swap Meet which puts on the best game exchange in the area.  I believe the next one is on May 29th.

Above are the pick ups from the Barrie Game Exchange, the most notable being Rainbow Islands that I picked up for $30 which was a deal as most other dealers had it up for $50.  At least I didn’t talk myself up in price this time!  Paperboy has been a title that I have wanted, but the price was always too much for the game that it is.  I haven’t played it on the NES, but I have played it on the Commodore 64 and I remember thinking it was pretty good.  But the $20 most vendors wanted just didn’t seem worth it.  I managed to score Paperboy, Paperboy 2, and Jackal for $30 all in.  Not bad eh?!  F-15 Strike Eagle was part of the Rainbow Islands deal… this s a game that isn’t really worth speaking about so I won’t.

 

 

 

 

 

The above carts were traded to me from the Ice Man for the store credit that I had accrued last Christmas.  While the credit wasn’t “free”, it sure didn’t feel like I was spending my cold hard cash.  If you’ll recall, back last Boxing Day I went into the Ice Man’s store in Peterborough ON, and traded in pretty much all the doubles I had collected in a year… usually I sell these at the game exchange, but the Ice Man gives the best trade in value in town… the downside to this is that his games are also fairly expensive, but if you look hard you can find a deal.  The best deal that I found was for a copy of Dusty Diamond All Star Softball which according to RetrowareTV.com is the second most rare sports game on the NES (Stadium Events was not included in this top 10 list but rather as an honourable mention).  This is officially the rarest game in my collection.  The game normally sells for around $70 – $85CAN, but this carried a $65 price tag.  I’ve never seen the game before so jumped at the opportunity to trade for it.  Plus when you trade there is no tax on retro games… that’s another 13% savings:)  The other titles were fairly pricy… too much for my wallet, but not for trade.  To acquire the $450 in store credit, I probably spent about $100… so $4.50 on the dollar isn’t bad and makes these pick ups great as I probably would not have otherwise have gotten them.  Anyways the titles are Conan (obviously cool), Mickey’s Adventure in Numberland, and Nigel Mansell’s World Championship.

There is absolutely nothing remarkable about the above two games except that I once owned them and they disappeared.  I had the universal game case complete with covers printed, but somehow managed to lose these games.  The Sega Dude swears he didn’t steal them… and I believe him… which means they disappeared into thin air which does happen from time to time around these parts.  Anyways my North American NES black label collection is now complete:)  What is interesting is that this was all I started out collecting.  Then it got out of control, but that is a story for another day.

Until next time,

Nintendo Joe

Next Generation of Gaming

Well the unbelievable has happened… I actually talked my wife into letting me buy a PS4.  Our Xbox 360 was acting up so it was time for an upgrade.  The Sega dude has been harassing me to get one of these things since it’s release, however I held true to my word that I would never get one… at least for a long time.  But then…. Star Wars Battlefront came out and I was hopelessly out gunned.  The detail that went into that game was too much for me to handle (foot prints in the snow?!… Come on!) so I caved and bought the console from a guy on Kijiji:)  In addition to Battlefront I’ve also purchased Fallout 4, and The Witcher for the system… again on Kijiji.  I’ve been told that The Witcher is an awesome game… and it looks awesome, but honestly I’ve had a hard time getting into it.  Between my job and school I just haven’t had the necessary time to dedicate to the game.      I haven’t even loaded Fallout 4 yet, but I know I won’t be disappointed by it… I’m a huge Fallout Fan!

Enough of that… onto Nintendo!  Honestly there hasn’t been much to say in the past while.  I picked up a complete copy of Cybernator for the SNES at a local pawnshop for a fairly good deal at $29, but this is the only real acquisition I’ve made since Christmas.  Well that and I managed to pick up a horse for my Ganon figurine that I picked up at a local retro toy show last weekend.  I actually had bought Ganon at a thrift shop for next to nothing, but for years it he has had to walk around my basement.  No longer however… now he has his trusty steed.  The horse looks pretty cool… kind of like a Nightmare in Dungeons & Dragons minus the flaming feet.  I have always thought it would be cool to own a black horse and dye it’s mane and tail bright red, though I’m sure PETA would have something to say about that and I wouldn’t want to cross those guys!  It would be pretty cool though eh!?!

The horse was the only pick up at the toy show that I made.  The Sega Dude managed to score some Insectors figures which I haven’t seen in a really long time… that was pretty cool, but unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of retro video games at the show.  In fact there was really only one two tables that had games… and one of them wanted WAY too much for his wares.  $40 for Super Star Wars… get out!  No really, get OUT!  He must have really not wanted to sell it, or as a buddy of mine says, “he must have been real proud of it.”  There is no way it will move for that price!  Then this guy also said he would be willing to pay $1200CAN for a copy of Little Sampson.  If that is what the game is going for these days… then I have to throw in the towel.  Even though it might be one of the best games on the NES, there is just no way it is worth that much.  At least not to me… and I’m Nintendo Joe for goodness sake!

Holy crap… $30 for a lousy copy of Super Mario Bros.?!!!  And to think… this was at Value Village thrift shop!  You know this was a pack-in game right, and every jerk in town owns a copy even if by accident.  They must have:

1.  Saw that it was Nintendo, and since retro games are currently a hot item MUST be worth a pretty penny.

2. Saw that it was a Mario game… and some Mario games go for a lot… but not this one!  If this sells for $30 then honestly, I’m done.  I’ll sell off my entire collection and retire for good! That would mean no more blog… and how sad would that be!  Actually it wouldn’t be sad at all… I would be suckling down rum and cokes on a beach and playing video games for the rest of my days. Oh the dream!

SEGA Corner:  Well there isn’t much to say here other than that the Cybernator SNES game that I bought is actually a prequel to Target Earth (Assault Suits Lynos) which was a Sega Genesis game that totally rocked.  I don’t currently own a copy, but if I remember correctly it was a really hard, but really awesome game.  There were of course a few cheats that made the game beatable… such as ignoring everybody in the first level except for shooting down the boss ship… this awarded you with every weapon in the game which gave you a major advantage in the early stages… while still proved challenging in the later levels.  I think there was an invincibility code too, but I can’t remember what it is.  Anyways if Cybernator is half as good as Target Earth then this was money well spent.

Target Earth is also to be re-released on the PS4 soon… actually I’ve heard it has already been released in Japan but not yet in North America (or anywhere else in the world for that matter).  I am anxiously awaiting it’s North American debut!

That’s all for now.  Until next time…

Nintendo Joe

Talking Myself Up!

So looking around on Kijiji like I usual do on a Friday night (yes we really know how to party  here at my-nintendo-dimension!) I found an ad for a new game store opening up here in Toronto.  They call themselves the Retro Game Brothers and as it turns out I have actually met them before both at my yard sale and at the Waterloo Video Game Swap.  We’ve had our differences in the past, but that is all water under the bridge:)  When I heard they were opening up a new store in my area I figured it was the perfect opportunity to bury the hatchet.  They were having a big sale on Saturday, and as an added bonus we got to meet Mario and Luigi in person!  Unfortunately I was too shy to ask for a photo, as grown men in cartoon-like costumes kind of intimidates me:(  I picked up the Sega Dude and off we went to this new store.

It’s a small place (as most start ups are), but they have a really nice collection of both common and rare Nintendo games on all consoles.  I wasn’t planning on buying much, but one thing stood out… their prices are actually fair… in this city that is a rare thing!  Most game stores around here charge at least 30% more than pricecharting.com or… or any other app for that matter.  The Retro Game Brothers have raised their prices a bit from what they used to be, but that makes sense now that they have an actual store and the overhead costs that go with it (property in Toronto is crazy expensive!).

Anyhow lets get down to the loot I scored:

The first three games here are just commons, but were in a $5 bin (a feature I thought was pretty cool to have in a store).  Mission Impossible is an upgrade from the Commodore 64 version of the same name.  I remember really liking it back in the day and I’m excited to get to try it out again.  I remember the haunting voice that said “Destroy him my robots!” as being really creepy.  Hopefully it stands the test of time.

I’ve never tried Phantom Fighter or WCW Wrestling before, but I don’t have them and as they were in the $5 bin I couldn’t resist.

A special thanks to the Sega Dude for handing over Stinger and Mission Impossible NES carts as I needed them for the collection and had completely passed them over.  Stinger looks eerily familiar to that of Phantasy Zone on the Sega Master System and Turbo Grafix-16… which would be a GREAT thing as these games were awesome.  I seem to remember actually beating the Sega versions of Phantasy Zone back in university, however it should be noted that the arcade version is MUCH MUCH more difficult (this is obviously true as I said “much” twice and in caps!).

Beetlejuice is a game that I’ve been looking for a while now as my wife loves the franchise.  The movie was fantastic and even the Saturday morning cartoon was pretty good, however when I brought this gem home she could not have cared less:(  This might come across as a bit harsh, but I’m beginning to think that she doesn’t care about retro video games?!  She is also big time into the Smurfs, but I don’t think she would care if I brought home the NES title of the same name.  Maybe I’m overthinking the situation, but I’m worried that this could be a deal breaker.

The above three titles are games that I’ve seen before, but the price was always too high.   Magician for example has a value of $27, but I’ve never seen it for less than $40 and thus I’ve not picked it up… until now.  This is a game that seems like it could be really cool, but is also very difficult to figure out.  It is an RPG that kind of reminds me of Faxanadu with better music and graphics.  You play a character named Paul, and aren’t given much information as to why you are there (at least at the start).  The only people who will talk to you are peasants who wish you luck.  Most other NPC’s in the game simply ignore you.  It doesn’t sound like much, but the game does have potential and has received positive reviews… unfortunately by no one I’ve ever heard of

Clu Clu Land is a black box title that at first glance reminds me of Pac Man.  However it didn’t take long before I realized that it was kind of a reverse version of the aforementioned game.  Clu Clu Land is kind of like a maze that must be solved while uncovering rupees (the look exactly like the rupees in the Legend of Zelda) while avoiding other sea monsters. The learning curve on this game is high as it has some dynamics that are hard to master, but the fun factor is high once you play the game a few times.

But alas the title of this post is “Talking Myself UP” and I think it is now time for me to confess my sins.  Stack Up… the only other NES game (the other being Gyromite) that you could use the R.O.B. for was a game I thought I would never own for it’s price was always way too high… I’ve never seen it for less than $95… until now.  The Retro Game Brothers were selling it for $50… HALF of what most other stores were charging.  I figured there must have been something wrong with the game for it to be so cheap… and by now you should know that I’m always looking for a deal.  So the price tag said $49.99… I put on my negotiating cap and went to work.  I actually told one of the owners that it was “worth WAY more than that”…I even then proceeded to show him my NES collector app on my iPhone which showed how much the game was worth.  I felt like I was possessed by a demon and  couldn’t stop myself… the words just kept coming out of my mouth and I was powerless.  But really, why did I do this… that is an excellent question… one that I don’t have an answer to other than that I am stupidly honest and as this was a start up company I didn’t want to take advantage.  Some have called me dumb (actually everyone has) for pointing this out.  So I talked them into changing the price to $70 AND I still bought the game!  I blame the Sega Dude really as he was supposed to be my wing man.  He stood there when the demon possessed my soul and used my body as to carry out it’s evil deeds.  I just can’t believe it… what is wrong with me…. the game was $50 and I talked myself into paying $70 for the title?!?  Who negotiates UP a price???. Apparently I do 😦

Anyways I look forward to many more game transactions with the Retro Gaming Bros.

Until next time!

Nintendo Joe

 

It’s Been a Fortnight!

I’ve been ripped off!  Last week I picked up these Pokemon games at Value Village for $6 each.  Sounds like a steal right?!… and it was.  Honestly I couldn’t care less about Pokemon, but i do know that they are popular and would sell/trade well.  I put an ad up on both Kijiji and Craigslist (I find I get way more hits on Kijiji) with the intent to sell, and as you would expect I received he usual lowball offers.  I find it rather funny that even when you price the games well below that of pricecharting.com you’ll always get some dink who wants it for less.  Even if I offered it for 25 cents they would offer 20.  I guess you can’t knock them for trying, but I usually don’t respond to these offers.  Anyways I get a hit from a guy who says he’ll give me $100 for them on Paypal if I ship it to him.  I thought why not this sounds like a great offer!  Well he ended up backing out, but suggested a trade instead.  He offered up a copy of Mega Man 5 (the most elusive of the NES series) plus a copy of Mega Man X for the SNES.  He sent pictures and they all looked like they were in very decent… though not perfect shape.  It’s a fair trade considering the value of both my games and his were approximately the same.  He would have come out a bit ahead, but what did I care as I only spent $24 on the four titles?!  He comes back later saying that someone has offered him $150 for the games and wanted to back out??!!??  I sent him a text saying “that was a load of S&%# and that we had a deal that needed to be honoured.”  He agreed with me and said he would send the games that day.  I agreed to do the same… you see I like to trust people.  Well what a fool I am!  I sent him the games, and 10 days later still have yet to receive my package.  So by my account, he sold the games for $150, and got a free shipment of Pokemon games from me.  The Nintendo Museum believes in giving back to the community, but this is robbery.  Stupid thing is that I know where he lives and it isn’t that far away.  Should I wait a bit and strong arm him?  While I might like to, I’m a bit more civilized.  I would go to the police, but I really have no proof that he didn’t send it.  In my entire life I haven’t had a package not reach it’s destination… and now the one I actually care about gets lost???  I doubt it.  I was scammed and feel like a schmuck for being so gullible. Ah whatever, you live you learn.  I won’t make the same mistake again.

 On a lighter note, I also found this Gameboy Color at Value Village.  This will be a nice addition to the museum as it is the second last handheld system that we don’t have… the only other being the Nintendo 3DS.  Of course there are other colours of this system, and I’ll pick them up if I find them for cheap, but for now this will do just fine:)

I also manage to pick up these NES titles from a dealer in Peterborough ON called Chumleighs.  It’s a family run business whom has done very well over the last 20 years.  When we were in university I dropped a fortune there picking up Disney and other VHS tapes.  They are now all worthless.  Fortunately I also purchased a copy of Mega Man for a mere $7… though you have to remember this was in 1997 when no one really gave a crap about NES games.  Now everyone is an expert and the prices are inflated beyond ridiculous!  The Pirates game and Street Fighter II Turbo were actually purchased from a dealer in Lakefield ON, whom I find to be more than fair.  His prices can be good, but most importantly he is willing to haggle.  Funny thing is this guy never has change so is always willing to accept less than his requested amount.  I picked up these two titles for $20 which seems like a good deal considering I’ll actually play the Street Fighter game.

 This next find was the best of all, and the price was right… free!  You see my wife or her sisters were the proud owner of a Galaxian mini cabinet, and everyone thought that it belonged to someone else.  My wife thought it was her sisters, both her sisters said it was my wife’s.  Well it is in the museum now where it belongs.  It isn’t in mint shape… some of the labels are missing or peeling, but it does have the battery cover… and it works!  Plus as I mentioned the price was perfect!

So that’s it for this edition.  You never know, maybe that package really was sent… though it was from Oshawa ON, which is spitting distance from Toronto so I doubt it.  I think what really bothers me is not knowing what happened, though as I mentioned before I suspect foul play!  At least it was fun thinking that I owned a copy of Mega Man 5 for a while.  That might be as close as I get to it as I will never pay what dealers or people on eBay charge for the game.  Maybe I’ll luck out at the Value Village one day, but I doubt it:(

Another Week of Collecting Retro Games

This was my “best” find of the week.  Unfortunately I already have a mint copy in my collection.  I thought I would use it for a trade, but apparently the Sega Dude doesn’t have it and i just can’t resist giving it to him.  It’s important to keep him happy so that when he finds something that I don’t have he’ll give it to me.  Otherwise I can always expect a text saying “look what I found… no big deal”, whereupon he lords his purchase over me.  I haven’t had that happen in a while though… maybe keeping the beast fed is a good thing:)  The price I paid for the game is a bit more than I would have liked for a thrift store, but then again it was Super C (part of the Contra series) and usually sells for around $20.  To put it in perspective, they wanted $9.99 for a copy of Super Mario/Duckhunt so they were just throwing numbers out there when pricing these games.  Usually they go for around $3.99 at this place, but alas because it is retro they figure they can get more for it… and they were right as the next time i was in the store all the games had been sold.

 

I don’t know anything about it, but it has the Silver Surfer in the title, and I needed it in my collection.  Plus $8.99 isn’t bad.  The graphics and sound are pretty good, but the game itself is REALLY hard!  It’s so hard that it makes it not that much fun to play.  It’s an side scrolling and overhead shooter which normally i’m pretty good at, but in this case I’m terrible.  The one redeeming feature in the game is that like in Mega Man you can choose which stage you want to conquer first.  That way you get a bit more variety in how you start the game.

This game I bought because it was under priced at $6.  For a complete game this is a really good price and I’m hoping to trade it for some more NES or SNES at the next video game show in September.  While I’m waiting though I’ll enjoy playing it.  Graphically it looks amazing, and if you are a fan of Robotech this isn’t one to miss.  There are a few problems with the game, the biggest being the controls.  I’m not sure why they didn’t use the two stick analogue controls like most games do… this would have made the game much more fun in my opinion.  However that being said I haven’t played it much at all so we’ll see what it has in store.

The last game I purchased was Lemmings for the SNES.  I don’t know why but I have always wanted to play this game but never have.  It is a puzzle game that you have to solve in order to prevent all the Lemmings from falling to their death in mass hordes… as they sometimes do in the wild.  What a gruesome and bizarre sight that must be.  I remember seeing this game on the PC and it looks like fun.  Hopefully the SNES version holds up to the test of time.

Donkey Kong and Misc.

Before we get started on this weeks blog, I feel I need to give a special shout out to the MartianOddity for commenting on this blog.  The Sega Dude has commented before, but if truth be told I know him quite well so it doesn’t really count.  Thanks MartianOddity and I hope to hear from you again soon:)

The bounty from our trip to Value Village this week was a nice addition to the Nintendo Museum… A Donkey Kong figurine from the Mario Kart series along with a Gameboy Advance copy of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance for $8 in total.  A good find, and I’m excited to play Baldur’s Gate, but not nearly as cool as what I found on Craigslist.

Shigeru Miyamoto was the creator of the original Donkey Kong which was released in the United States in 1981 by Nintendo which had a love triangle between Mario, Pauline, and a gorilla… loosely based on the Popeye, Olive Oil, and Bluto relationship for which Nintendo failed to get a license to produce.  This was also Nintendo’s mascot Mario’s first of many appearances.  One thing I’ve always found it interesting was

how Donkey Kong received his name.  Apparently Miyamoto thought “Donkey” was an English translation of “Crazy”, and Kong was from the 1933 movie King Kong.

The original Donkey Kong (DK) was an instant arcade classic, and there is currently a war going on between Steven Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, and the current DK Guiness world record holder Hank Chien with 1,064,500 points.  The last time I was in Hollywood Florida I stopped in the restaurant that Billy’s family owns.  I asked if he was around so I could meet him, but sadly he was not:(  I was hoping to get an autographed picture of myself and the former champ and will attempt to again when I visit Florida again for spring break.  Now that would be a nice piece of history to have in the Nintendo Museum!  Billy, if anybody can beat Hank’s score it’s you.  I’ve tried to dethrone him and failed miserably!  Have faith in yourself and I know you can do it!

Billy Mitchell

Steven Wiebe

Hank “the King of Kong” Chien

Wow did I ever get off track!  Last friday on Craigslist I purchased a 1981 arcade-mini version of Donkey Kong  made by Coleco (Nintendo didn’t have a home system yet).  I’ve always had a place in my heart for these little guys as when I was 6 years old for Christmas I got a Pac Man arcade-mini.  I became obsessed with it.  I wanted to be the Pac

Man King.  I’ll never forget the time when I was doing really well at the game that my mom wrote me a note to give to my teacher explaining my lateness… I was getting my best score ever at around 58,000 points!  While not of Billy Mitchell’s calibre, for a 6 year old this is an awesome score.  Billy Mitchell by the way has a perfect score in the arcade version of Pac Man.  I’m not really sure what a perfect score means, but it sounds ridiculously hard!  Anyways I played my Pac Man machine so much when I first got it that I eventually had to stop playing because my thumb hurt too much.

Well this is a huge find, and one that likely won’t be topped for a while to come.  I’m in Value Village at least once a week, and lately the spoils have been quite nice.  I guess when it rains it pours.  This DK arcade-mini will go nicely with the remake of the Frogger I picked up for $5 earlier this year.  I would love to get the original, but it is’t every day that you come across these.  I know a guy who has a Ms. Pac Man and is selling it for $100 but will let it go for $75.  Is it worth it?  What do you think?  I mean there are several other arcade-minis that I need to complete the collection…. Donkey Kong Junior, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, the original Frogger, Galaxian (am I missing any?).  My sister in-law actually has a Galaxian arcade-mini which hopefully she will give me or “lend” to me indefinitely.

Oh, the guy who I bought the DK machine from asked if I was interested in some NES games.  That was a no brainer… and nearly was the $2/game price he wanted.  How could I go wrong.  So we added Caveman Games, Ultima: Exodus, Overlord, Deadly Towers (a really crappy game!), Wrestlemania, Mad Max, and a not-so-great shape copy of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.  That brings the collection of NES games to whopping 237… or 28.87% complete!  A long ways to go and probably impossible to complete, but that’s partly why I got into this in the first place:)

NES Advantage

I was digging around my basement last summer I came upon many loose X-Men figures, and six mint in box.  I have way too many collections on the go and have come to the conclusion that I must consolidate.  There is just no room for the X-Men figures, and to be honest, I forgot I had them.  I posted them on Craigslist and Kijiji and was able to sell a few of them for $40, however the post was up for months and they just weren’t selling.

There is a store in Peterborough called Things From Mom’s Basement that sells all sorts of retro toys.  If you were ever a kid who liked toys, you will definitely find something that you like here!  He had a few NES titles so I asked him if he would like to do a trade.  He gave me $110 for my X-Men figures plus $50 of store credit so that I could pick up the NES games I didn’t have.  There are two titles that stick out in my mind.  The first game is Cobra Triangle which was released by RARE Games in 1988.  While I did not have this title when I was a kid, it feels like a decent game.  People often compare it to RC Pro AM (also released by RARE Games) and with reasonable cause.  The games are nearly identical in that they are both racing type of games where you upgrade your vehicle.  I don’t think RC Pro Am had any boss battles though, so this is one thing Cobra Triangle has going for it.

The second game that is worthy of mention is Dick Tracy.  This game had a lot of potential, but was a complete bust… much like the movie released around the same time!  The Angry Video Game Nerd (while annoying) on youtube hit the nail on the head.  The driving sequences were brutal in terms of controls.  Also, it just wasn’t’ fun driving around town when people are shooting at you for no apparent reason from the roof tops.  It’s as if every building had it’s own sniper.  The side scrolling action wasn’t much better than the driving parts.  The game itself was probably only released do to the hype of the movie, but this enthusiasm quickly evaporated when people realized the movie sucked big time!

But I digress… the real find that I’ve added to my collection was an NES Advantage joystick controller.  This was one of the first controllers that allowed you to speed up, or slow down a game… and when you consider that most NES games were nearly impossible to beat, the name Advantage really hits home.  It is made with a combo metal and plastic base which gives it a nice heavy feel to it.  The only problem I have with is that I’m not used to using a joystick anymore.  I’m too used to the gamepads so this puts me at an NES Disadvantage… did you see what I did there… the humour never stops here at my nintendo dimension!