Fellas, Getcha a Good Woman!

Game #726
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
eBay (gift)
10/22/11

Even though her interests lie mainly elsewhere, I've taken my wife along for the ride with my Nintendo collection. I've dragged her to numerous flea markets and Goodwills, forced her to stop on the way home so I could rummage through the same used game stores I've been in a million times before and even managed somehow to accidentally (I swear!) set her iPhone up to notify her when my watched auctions are about to end. I've taken over a room in our 2 bedroom apartment to house classic plastic and have plans to take over another when our house is finished.

Through all of this she's managed to build up a little excitement as we close in on the last dozen and a half gray carts to finish off the set. She's given me eBay gift cards and games as birthday/Christmas/Easter gifts. She's even sat down and played Kickle Cubicle with me. And now she's given me another gift - a complete, boxed copy of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom.

This is a weird text/choose your own adventure game. The main characters are royal vegetables. The villain is a pumpkin. King Broccoli is dead and his daughter (a tomato?) has been kidnapped. The box art for this game is in the running for the best of the entire system's library. Too cool.

18 licensed games to go.

PS - I took my wife out to dinner.

#725 - D-Dub-Three

Game #725
Dragon Warrior III
NintendoAge.com forum
10/3/11

Here we have another pickup of a game that likely won't see much (if any) play time, but I'm glad to cross it off my list. I'm sure there's an RPG fanatic reading this (waitaminute...nobody is reading this - who am I kidding?) that's rather upset that such a gem will go unplayed and unenjoyed. Well, I understand where that sentiment comes from, and I do feel a little guilty, but I'm sure someone else out there is going for a full set that's never played any of MY favorites. So it all evens out in the end. Also, they're video games - no reason to get upset over them, is there?

Of all the RPG's in my collection, the Dragon Warrior series is the one that I would give a fair chance to. Apparently, the first game in the series is very basic and was designed for noobs like me to take a chance on an unfamiliar genre. Nintendo Power magazine even went so far as to give away copies of the game to subscribers. That's one reason why Dragon Warrior I is common as dirt and can be had for a few pennies. The rest of the series gets exponentially more expensive on up to #4, which is A) uncommon and B) highly sought after for its gameplay and C) the last in the series that I need for my set.

I've had some good luck at flea markets lately; unfortunately I haven't scored much in the way of NES games. I did pick up a sweet Playstation 2 light-up store display ($8!) that will go nicely in the new nerd cave once the new house is finished (any month now...), some Game Boy and N64 travel bags and a $4 copy of Banjo-Kazooie for N64. I'd say that if I were to go for another full set after my NES one is complete, the Nintendo 64 would be a tempting choice. The system only saw 299 games released in the U.S. with only a few commanding high-dollar, so a full set would be relatively easy. Plus, I missed out on a lot of the gems outside of the usual Mario, Zelda, Goldeneye and Super Smash Bros.

BUT, the focus right now is on the 19 (!!!) licensed games I have left for the NES set. Anybody out there have a spare Stadium Events that they'll trade for a Doug Drabek autographed baseball?