#728-730 - Merry Happy!

Games #728-730
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball, Uncharted Waters, Rad Racket Deluxe Tennis II
Santa Claus
12/25/11

Happy belated Christmas and an early Merry New Year from LGS (fancy abbreviation for my blog that no one reads)!! Hope you had a good holiday spent doing whatever it is that makes you happy. We had a good time moving into a new house and taking a play out of A Christmas Story by eating Chinese food on Christmas day.

Santa managed to find our new address and drop off 3 NES games to add to the collection shelf. Rad Racket Deluxe Tennis II is one of those funky AVE unlicensed carts - anyone ever heard of Deluxe Tennis I? Neither have I.

Uncharted Waters is a military strategy game that my feeble brain cannot understand, so it's going on the shelf for good.

I was most excited to finally get a hold of Dusty Diamond Softball. It's got a slightly different take on the usual baseball formula. You get to choose your players sandlot style before the game - and these are some funky looking kids (I think I saw Dracula in there somewhere). Each player has slightly different strengths and weaknesses that you can play around with. What's really interesting are the baseball fields themselves - strange locations such as the schoolyard complete with a set of different ground rules for each. There's no outer fence in some of the fields, so players can keep running if the ball bounces or rolls past the outfielders all the way to the buildings. It's a nice touch.

Side note - this is the final baseball game I needed. Ever wonder how many baseball games there were for the NES? Take a look:


We're just a few days away from a new year, so this is likely the last pickup before 2012. I started this blog back in April, and since that time I've added 39 games to the stockpile. There are 38 total games left to complete the full set, but only 15 of the gray licensed carts remain. That will be my goal for 2012 - to get those last 15. OK, so maybe Stadium Events will have to wait. 14 games in 12 months? Let's do this!

#727 - Ms. Pac-Man Deluxe!

Game #727
Ms. Pac-Man (Namco)
eBay
12/2/11

The opportunities have been few and far between for me to show you some poorly lit, grainy phone pics of Nintendo games. Today is your lucky day! You can breathe once again! Behold!

The games pictured above are essentially the same game - Ms. Pac-Man. The one on the right is the unlicensed Tengen version. Common. Get it everywhere for a few bucks. Move along.

The one on the left is the harder to find, licensed version published by Namco, released 2 years after the Super Nintendo in 1993 when the NES was collecting dust in closets everywhere.

You would think these two games would be identical, but you would be wrong. The black Tengen cart offers a spruced up version of the arcade classic with some interesting power ups and maps to play around with, while the gray Namco cart gives you a straight up port of the arcade game. Given the choice, I'd rather play the Tengen version - it offers more variety to what can become a stale game.

I'm really glad to cross this cart off my list - it's been a pain to sift through eBay listings for Ms. Pac-Man. Not only are most of the results the black Tengen cart, but you've also got Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and just about every other game system to weed through. Ms. Pac-Man gets around. The gray cart usually gets listed in the $20-25 range - I lucked out and found an auction that went unnoticed and snagged it for half that.

The Pac family is finally all here. In addition to the 2 Ms. carts, I've got the 3 versions of the original Pac-Man (same game, 3 carts) and the bastard son that fell a little too far from the family tree - PacMania.



And finally I'll post up a shitty picture of a box. Yes, I bought a box. 25 year old cardboard. But it means something to me - this is the box that the Nintendo Deluxe Set came in. This was the super groovy version of the NES - it came with a Zapper, Duck Hunt, Gyromite and R.O.B., the friendly robot who will sit and very slowly play video games with you. This is the version of the NES that I got for Christmas in 1988. I actually kept my box for years - but somewhere down the line it was purged and probably ended up in a landfill. So now I've got it back - I've already got all the games that I had as a kid back in their boxes - the only things left to get to finish up my personal history collection is a box for the NES Advantage joystick and an actual R.O.B. himself.


That's all for now! Next time I post will hopefully be to show off a new nerd cave. Moving to the new casa in about 2 weeks...

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?

#723 & 724 - Bubble Bobble Pt 2 & Kid Klown

#723 & 724
Bubble Bobble Pt 2, Kid Klown
eBay & NintendoAge.com
9/14-15/11

All I've got to say is FINALLY! The original Bubble Bobble is in my top 5 games list - it's such a quirky, original, FUN game that I will say I'm pretty good at playing. I've got some good memories of being rescued from awful, long, boring trips to Garden Ridge Pottery by pumping quarters into a BB machine in the food court when I was younger. I can still rack up a decent high score on the NES version. Also - this.

The game has 2 sequels on the NES - Rainbow Islands, which I picked up and blogged a photo of a few months back, and this - one of the Sinister Seven expensive rarities in the licensed cart set. I've seen the price on this mother buck at around $130-$140 in recent months, which has been royally pissing me off. See, I've been sitting on a couple of eBay gift cards since my birthday back in June, and I've limited myself on how much I was willing to spend on the game. I've lost at least a half dozen auctions and let another dozen go by without bidding because the price had jumped so high so quick. I was about to sign off and go to bed one night last week when I decided to throw down a few quick eBay searches in the hopes of finding something I needed. And there it was. Bubble Bobble Pt 2, with a "Buy it Now" price that would be completely covered by my gift cards. Despite the picture in the listing being one of the stock photos, I took a chance, clicked the button and punched in the gift card numbers.

And I immediately got nervous. What if the label was all torn to shreds? What if the cartridge had a big hole it in it? What if this was....the GAME BOY version??? I sent a message to the seller and he reassured me it was what I thought it was and was in great condition. A few days and a trip to the post office to pick up the insured package later, I was the proud new owner of not only a rare and expensive collection piece, but a rather fun and worthy sequel to one of my favorite games - all for the price of FREE (via gift cards). This has been one that I've really been itching to add to the shelf and I couldn't be happier.

My acquisition of Kid Klown in Night Mayor World is a little less dramatic - a cash/trade deal via the Nintendo Age forums. I usually hang on to anything Nintendo, but by sending out a few bucks and my copy of Golf for Virtual Boy I was able to net this pesky bastard. The game itself weirds me out - too many clowns...er...klowns.

Ryan at NA - enjoy your VB game, but remember to take frequent breaks when playing VIRTUAL BOY. You'll go cross-eyed or something.

So I'm sitting here with only 20 licensed carts for a complete set and 3 of the Sinister Seven tackled and tamed. Finding games in the wild has been a chronic bust for what seems like forever and the pace is slowing down - but I'll be sure to add more stories in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!

#722 - Take Me Away, I Don't Mind...

#722
Mario's Time Machine
Craigslist
8/13/11

...you gotta promise me I'll get BACK IN TIME.

It's sure tough to find a good deal on Craigslist, especially when what you're looking for is so specific and uncommon. Once you filter through the chemically-dependent who feel their broken, Kool-Aid stained Game Boy is OMG RARE!! and worth $500, you've got to actually find a listing with something you want. I've been looking on CL for a good long time and even sold a few things, but this is the first time I have actually bought anything.

The post was for a Nintendo and about a dozen games - all the usual fare (SMB, Contra, etc.). What caught my eye was the cart pictured above, Mario's Time Machine. I was able to get the seller to break up their lot and sell me just this one game by itself. She seemed like a nice lady.

Don't be fooled by the title - this is not some adventure through time with Mario running and jumping through the 80's Cafe in the year 2015. This is a piss-poor educational game more in the vein of Where in Time is Carmen San Diego, only this one doesn't come with a free desk encyclopedia.


Hey! Did you know that you could get a pretty good 1st grade education just by playing Nintendo? Check it out for yourself...

#718-721 - L'ittle Chu and the Drunkard Crusade

#718-721
Little Samson, Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, L'Empereur
NintendoAge.com forum
7/21/11

Another score from the fine forum dwellers over at NintendoAge.com! The games in this picture are very difficult to track down - in fact Little Samson is one of the "Sinister Seven" toughest games to obtain. Luckily, a member at NA had these and several more hard to find games for sale, offers and counteroffers were made and a deal that we were both happy with was finally struck.

The star of the lot is of course Little Samson. Not only is it one of the hardest games to find, it's a very fun and unique platformer. Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu, apart from it's cool name, is another forgettable Color Dreams game. L'empereur is another military strategy game that won't likely see much time off the shelf. It's nice to cross Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade off the list if not for finally being able to delete my saved search on eBay. There are actually two different Last Crusade games made by different companies (Taito and Ubisoft), but they use the same exact photo on the cover art. The Taito version is relatively common, so it was always a pain to sift through all of that version in search of the Ubi version.

Well, this purchase pretty much wiped out my disposable birthday cash. I've still got some eBay gift cards and a particular game in my sights - hopefully I'll win an auction or find a decent BIN in the coming days...

#716 & 717 - Adventures of Lolo 3 & Mario Bros.

Games #716-717
Adventures of Lolo 3 & Mario Bros.
NintendoAge.com forum
7/20/11

Another nice deal from the NA forums landed me a couple of games that I've wanted to cross off the list for a good while. Mario Bros. is a port of the arcade original - I was first introduced to it as a bonus level in Super Mario Bros. 3. It's the second to last black box game left for me to collect - again I've gone cart-only for the remaining black boxes until I can find a better deal for a box later.

Adventures of Lolo 3 is the last licensed game I needed that starts with "A", so it's been mocking me for a while at the top of my collection list. The Lolo games are fun puzzlers - in fact I can remember renting Lolo 1 from the local rental shop when I was a kid and having a good time with it, even if I wasn't very good at it.

In fact, nostalgia is a big reason for my decision to collect Nintendo games in the first place (plus the fact that the games are fun to play), so I went on a mission during a recent visit to my parents' house. The Super Mario Bros. glass in the picture was rediscovered in the very far back of a cabinet in their kitchen. I have very distinct memories of using it on pizza nights (usually Fridays) growing up. I don't know where the glass came from originally, but it's going to sit amongst the rest of my collection from now on.

I'm awaiting another mail arrival in the coming days with some exciting additions for the game shelf. Stay tuned!

#715 - Conan: The Mysteries of Time

Game #715
Conan: The Mysteries of Time
Half.com
7/15/11

I've struck upon a mini-hot streak lately with a few purchases online. I've got a couple of games coming in the mail next week, but in the meantime I can show off my latest addition; a boxed copy of Conan: The Mysteries of Time. It's a pretty cool that the box was included - apparently it isn't very common and it's got a Molly Hatchet album cover look to it. Once again, apologies for the crummy cell phone pictures - I'm in the market for a new one.

About 75 of the games in my collection are boxed. I don't seek out boxed games, but if I happen across one that includes the box and the cost is in line with what a cart-only copy would go for, then I'll pick up the cardboard, too. The only exception is the black box series - these are the original 30 Nintendo-published games that were released for the system. Games like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Excitebike and Duck Hunt all had a unifying box style of a black border around a scene or sprite from the game. They look good lined up all next to one another and I've sought out these games in complete condition. The last few I needed to complete the boxed set are a bit out of my price range, so I've gone cart-only with the hopes of stumbling across a cheap box down the road.

#714 - Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu

Game #714
Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu
Games Plus

Finally! It's been a while, but a round of game hunting has paid off with a copy of Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu. Apparently Jackie Chan was popular enough in 1990 to warrant a licensed Nintendo game - who knew? You'll notice the Randall's store stickers all over the cart - I love finding old rental copies. They remind me of when I would rent games from the grocery store or rental shop on the weekends. Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture.

Games Plus is a great little franchise in the Houston area (and maybe beyond...not sure) that sells new and used video games and movies. They pride themselves on besting GameStop's prices by a buck or two on used games, but what I like them for is their stock of retro games. Most of the locations I've been to go as far back as the Atari 2600 - although I understand they're liquidating their stock at the moment. In fact, I noticed quite a bit of clearance rack titles from all systems (mostly commons and sports titles) for as low as $1. If I was just starting my collection I'd be pretty stoked to pick up a big pile of carts for a dollar each. Side note - I'm guessing the Guitar Hero/Rock Band craze has lost all momentum - there were tons of copies of GH/RB titles for $1 as well...

I'd wager to guess that at least 20-25% of my collection has come from Games Plus stores. Most of the games I've bought from them are within the $3-5 range - and they almost always feature a buy x get 1 free (sometimes it's buy 2, sometimes 3 or 4) promotion. When I first started collecting I stopped in at least once a week and left with a half dozen or more games at a time, sometimes stumbling upon an uncommon or pricey game for a deal. I still check in every so often like I did this week, and luckily came away with a new collection piece. I also snagged a complete boxed copy of Mario Kart for the Game Boy Advance - which is super neat.

Unfortunately, finding games 'in the wild' has become more difficult due to the fact that there are so few games left that I need, and the ones that I am searching for are the uncommon/rare titles. So it's back to the Internet to scour for deals...in fact I should have one arriving in the mail some time soon...

#711-713 - Let's Get Dangerous...With Cake!

Games #711-713
Wally Bear & The No! Gang, Darkwing Duck, Rainbow Islands
Birthday Gifts & eBay

Ok, we're back after a brief absence. My birthday was last month, and just like it was 20 years ago, I'm getting Nintendo games. My wife went behind my back and picked up a couple of games for me; Darkwing Duck (a MegaMan clone based off one of my favorite childhood cartoon series) and Wally Bear and the No! Gang (the infamous 'Say No!' game where forest creatures try to get innocent Wally Bear to light up, shoot up and give up). I also picked up a copy of Rainbow Islands off eBay - I notice I'm relying more and more on online deals to fill the holes in my collection. It's been more than 2 months since I picked anything up at a store or flea market.

In addition to the games, a smattering of eBay gift cards have come my way - so expect a big one to get crossed off the list soon! (Hopefully)

I leave you, dear reader, with a picture of the cake my wife made for me. She is awesome. And yes, that's all cake.

#708-710 - RPG's and a Rarity

Games #708-710
Gemfire, Ultima: Warriors of Destiny, Snow Brothers
NintendoAge.com forum

Since I've only got a few dozen games left to go, I know that eventually I'll have to bite the bullet and splurge for one of the 'Sinister Seven' games on the list. These are the rare (or at least very uncommon) games that haven't depreciated in value since their release, in fact many of them would cost more than their initial MSRP. These aren't .99 cent copies of Bases Loaded or Double Dribble that we're talking about here. The list:

Bubble Bobble Pt. 2
Panic Restaurant
Little Samson
Snow Brothers
Bonk's Adventure
Flintstones 2: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak
Stadium Events

Most of these games are of a pretty good quality, so combine that with their short production numbers and the growing popularity of NES collecting and you've got yourself some pricey carts. The costs on these bounce up and down (depending on if they go at open auction vs. Buy It Now or in an online retail shop) so it's difficult to really say what each game should cost, but it's very unlikely I'll find these at a flea market or pawn shop for a buck, so I just keep checking the eBay and forum listings waiting for a deal on the lower end of the spectrum.

Check out this blog for a great read regarding the rarity of NES games.

NintendoAge.com to the rescue! Lucky for me there was a posting in the buy/sell forum for quite a few games that I need (including several of the Sinister Seven). I cherry picked a few and treated myself to Snow Brothers, a poor-selling Capcom-published title whose gameplay looks similar to Bubble Bobble, which is one of my favorite NES games anyway. I'm looking forward to giving it some play time.

The other pickups of Gemfire and Ultima: Warriors of Destiny are DAMN RPG'S, so it's nice to cross them off the list, even though I have no interest in the games themselves.

My collection will be moving to a new location in the next few months as my wife and I are building a home. Needless to say this is exciting for us after years of apartment living, but this also means that I'll be slowing down a bit on the collection. I'll still be on the lookout for the carts that I need, but will be holding back on the frequency of my purchases. I'll also continue blogging as I find good deals or to show off some interesting stuff from the game room. Stay tuned!

#700 - 707 - Crossing the Milestone!

Games #700 - 707
Casino Kid 2, CluClu Land, GI Joe, Kings Quest V, The Last Ninja, Mickey's Adventure in Numberland, Wayne's World, Shockwave
Paid: ??
NintendoAge.com & eBay

Not counting the small handful of games that I hung on to from when I was a kid and a few random titles I picked up over the years, my collecting habit hasn't been going on for very long. I don't remember exactly when, but no more than 3 years ago did I actually decide and act upon the notion to 'go for them all' so to speak. From my small start of 20 games for $20 at a pawn shop, my collection has grown very large, very fast. I'm amazed that I now sit at over 700 games...and counting.

I've mentioned the NintendoAge website before, and it really is a great place. I check the forums several times a day. The community is by large a friendly one, with lots of interesting personalities combining to form a lively discussion group for Nintendo enthusiasts. Among my regular stops when I'm there is the Buy/Sell/Trade forum. What's great about this group is that the sellers are also buyers, so it is rare for someone to be peddling their wares at an extremely inflated price. Reasonable offers are always accepted, which is how I came away with this lot of uncommon carts for a very fair deal. Add to that a random eBay score for The Last Ninja at only a few bucks and here we are!

My thanks to Pedro12345 and Nistle at NA for the deals.

OK - so now we're zeroing in on the last 7-8% of the set. By my count there are 35 'official' releases and 26 'unlicensed' games to go. I've started to sell off part of my non-Nintendo video game collection (all stuff I picked up cheap over the years, but never really played much and won't be missed) to help supplement the cost of these remaining carts. Short term goal is to finish off the official set first - wish me luck!

Update Coming Soon!

Check back here in the coming days - I've got some mail arriving later this week that will push the collection to 700 and beyond! Thanks for reading!

A Bit of a Dry Spell...

Well, there hasn't been much luck finding games lately despite a few trips to some game stores and flea markets. I was able to spend some time today at Trader's Village, a very large flea market on the west side of town. Although I didn't pick up any new NES games for the collection I did snag some Sega Master System games for a buck each, a new Genesis for $5 (replacing my current one that has a warped AC adaptor plug) and the little guys pictured above.

I distinctly remember going to McDonald's as a kid and getting Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meals. The little toys included the Luigi and Goomba shown here, as well as a raccoon Mario and a flying turtle. It's fun to find little bits of Nintendo memorabilia such as these, and at $2 a piece they were an instant buy. The vendor also had the Mario toy, but it was broken. The DVD's were $3 each, by the way. Guess which one is for the wife...

Summer is just around the corner, hopefully there will be some excellent garage/yard sales and a bit more productivity in my flea market runs. Until next time...!

#698 & 699 - Urban Champion & Captain America

Games #698 & 699

Urban Champion & Captain America

Paid $11

Evil eBay

Ah, eBay. So simple to find what you're looking for, but so difficult to find it at a decent price. There are many resellers of retro games on eBay, and at times it can feel like they're all working together to keep prices high. I blame the "Buy it Now" option. Often when you see a game at a high "BIN" price, if you look at the recently completed auctions you'll see that most of those high priced listings didn't sell and the few copies that went on open auction sold at a significantly lower final cost to the buyer.

What's even worse is actually seeing a good deal get ruined by wacky shipping prices. I mean, does it really cost $6.95 to ship a Nintendo game? I know from experience that no, it does not. I could go on ranting about the ins and outs of using eBay, but instead I'll just focus on two recent mail day deliveries - Urban Champion and Captain America & The Avengers.

As I mentioned in my DK Jr Math post, I prefer to pick up the 'black box' games if they actually come with the black box. While Urban Champion itself is by no means a rare game (it's rather common in fact) finding it in the box can cost a good amount - especially on eBay. So this is another one that I don't mind picking up loose and just hope to stumble on a box later.

Captain America I could've bought about a year ago for a few bucks, but didn't for some reason and I haven't seen it again since then. I've seen some gameplay footage on the fantastic website www.nesguide.com - so I might try this one out later, once I finish playing through the excellent but unknown Journey to Silius.

The next game in the collection will be #700 - which is crazy. My plans are to check out some garage sales and flea markets tomorrow - check back later for an update and wish me luck!

Funcoland!

Not much time this week for game hunting - so I thought I'd pull out an interesting piece from the collection and write about it for a bit.

Behold! A Funcoland price sheet circa March 1999. For those too young to remember or not blessed to live in a select part of the country, Funcoland was a new/used video game store in the '90s and early 'aughts. I recall the big draw to the store being the row of TV's with systems hooked up, and a store clerk would (begrudgingly) allow you to give whatever game you were 'interested in buying' a quick test drive.

Of course all the Funcoland franchises were bought up by and subsequently transformed into GameStop stores, and the cartridge-based games stopped being sold quite a few years ago. Sadly, most of my original Nintendo collection wound up being traded in to a Funcoland once I reached high school and got a car that required, y'know, gas 'n stuff.

Looking back, the stores were pretty amazing for their time with their walls and racks filled with classic plastic. I guess they got a lot of phone calls from kids or parents wanting to know how much a certain game cost, so to circumvent this (or maybe to let kids save up their allowance money) the stores produced a monthly newspaper-like price sheet for all of their used games.

It's funny (and heartbreaking) to read the prices on the sheet. Most of the games are less than $4, including many that are less than $1. If only I had a time machine and $20...

Here's a quick sample of the 1999 Funcoland Price and the current lowest "Buy it now" price on evil eBay (which should never be used as a guide to what a game is actually worth, but it's convenient for this list):

Bandit Kings of Ancient China - $0.29 ($36.99)

Gun Nac - $1.99 ($29.99)

Flintstones 2 - $6.99 ($249.99)

Pesterminator - $0.29 ($25.19)

Panic Restaurant - $2.49 ($96.99)

Power Blade 2 - $0.79 ($119.99)

Little Samson - $3.99 ($195.89)

Wayne's World - $0.49 ($32.35)

Zombie Nation - $1.99 ($64.99)

and...

STADIUM EVENTS - $0.29 ($39,999)

Don't even get me started on Stadium Events...

#696 & 697 Bomberman 2 & Donkey Kong Jr Math

Games #696 & 697

Bomberman 2 & Donkey Kong Jr Math

Paid $10

4/30/11 - Sunny Flea Market

Flea markets are awesome. Usually there are a many 'ordinary' people there to clear out attics, closets and storage units - much of their stuff is of the garage sale variety and they just want it gone. Having several of them all together in one place to save you the hassle of driving around sketchy neighborhoods and getting lost trying to follow posterboard signs sure is convenient. Almost all of the sellers are willing to haggle a little bit, so I don't feel bad talking their initial price down a couple of bucks, even when I'm picking up rarities like these.

Most flea markets also have semi-permanent tenants that are there every weekend to peddle whatever wares they specialize in. Power tools, dresses and makeup, jewelry, etc. can be found en masse along with at least one or two video game resellers. Often they will have a good selection, but generally higher prices than the normal folks. Don't worry, they'll bargain with you just the same. One thing I have noticed is that ANYTHING with Mario on the cover automatically commands a $15-$20 price. Even common as dirt SMB/Duck Hunt carts. You should never pay more than a dollar for one of those.

The Houston area has several flea markets within a short driving distance. This was my first (and likely last for a long time) visit to the Sunny flea market located in a not-so-great part of town on the north side. While there were many vendors and booths set up and a couple of other fleas next door and across the street, the video game finds were sparse. Only maybe 6 booths (out of several hundred) had video games, mostly PS2/Xbox. I was able to snag these games for $5 each, and that made the trip entirely worth it. Bomberman 2 is uncommon and in demand - online copies go for $50+ and the only one I've seen in a brick-and-mortar store is going for $35. DK Jr Math is an uncommon 'black box' game - a subset that I prefer to collect in the original boxes. The half dozen games in the set that I still need are incredibly expensive to collect in the box, so a cart only of this educational game is fine by me, especially at this price.

One more quick thing to note about this flea market - it had a Dinosaur Land. Smack in the middle was a little courtyard with dinosaur statues and some benches. No, you weren't allowed to climb on the dinos. Very strange...

So there - after a couple of $20 pickups (boo) and an Easter gift (yay) a real bargain find to share with you. Only 3 more to go before hitting the 700 mark!

#695 Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2

Game #695

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2

Paid $20

4/26/11 - Player 1 Video Games

Well, I don't have much to say about this one other than it was a bit of a splurge considering I'll likely never actually play the game. There are 2 genres that don't interest me whatsoever: strategy games and RPG's. I'm more of an action/platformer fan - I prefer moving left to right and jumping on/shooting things in my way to a level goal. Spending dozens of hours crafting an army or grinding to level up just isn't my thing.

The thing is, a lot of the remaining games on my list are strategy or RPG's. I guess they don't get produced in very large quantities. Combine that with the fact that fans of these types of games seek them out and tend to hang on to them and what you get are relatively high priced pickups. I could wait around and hope to snag one at a bargain price, but with these games I've given up on that strategy. They just don't come up that often. See? I'm just too impatient.

OK - next post I actually DO have a good bargain to share. Stay tuned.

#693 & #694 Impossible Mission II & Mermaids of Atlantis

Games #693 & #694

Impossible Mission II & Mermaids of Atlantis

Traded for a bag of magic jelly beans

4/24/11 - The Easter Bunny

What's the best way to obtain new games for the collection? When they're given as gifts! We've always thrown a couple of small gifts into the Easter basket along with the chocolate eggs and jelly beans - last year I was left boxed copies of Hogan's Ally and Duck Hunt (more on those in a later post). I've even received eBay gift cards that sure come in handy. This year the Easter Bunny threw down a couple of little BLACK squares - the SEI-published version of the PC port Impossible Mission 2 and the AVE cart Mermaids of Atlantis. As far as games go, they're not much to write home about, but as collector's pieces they can be tough to cross off the list.

These are both obviously unlicensed games (I call them bootlegs, but that term isn't entirely accurate). I've got a whole separate shelf for these funky shapes and colors. Here's a quick guide to unlicensed games:

Tengen games are rather easy to track down and feature a good number of quality titles. Tengen began as a licensed publisher, but fell out of favor over Nintendo competing with their own version of Tetris (among other problems). There are solid ports such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Gauntlet and Fantasty Zone as well as the excellent RBI Baseball series. The good-to-crap game ratio is fairly consistent with the normal gray licensed carts.

Camerica games are a shiny gold color and can be hit or miss. Their MicroMachines game is a good racer and there are some solid platformers such as the Dizzy and Big Nose games. There's a quirky dipswitch on the back of the cartridge that is supposed to help the game bypass the NES' lockout chip technology. If position A doesn't work, just try position B!

Bunch/Color Dreams/Wisdom Tree are hard to find aside from the religious games and only a couple of other common ones. This leads to the premium pricing online despite the games themselves being almost universally craptastic. Go play Raid 2020 and wonder if anyone who worked on it was proud of the final product. Most of the blue carts themselves are turning a puke/booger green after all these years thanks to a fire retardant chemical mixing with the coloring - sort of how a lot of old Super Nintendo systems you see look brown.

AVE carts are black and seem to be programmed well enough, but the games are just too simple or repetitive to be fun for very long (see: Venice Beach Volleyball, Solitaire, Blackjack). Notice in the picture the AVE version of Impossible Mission II - same game, different cart.

Beyond these companies you can get into AGCI, Caltron/Myriad, Active and a couple of other minor companies that only released 1 or 2 games. Like I said before, these are rare and therefore command a higher price among collectors and resellers, but if you're looking for a fun game to play, look elsewhere.

Next time...buying games I don't like!

#692 - Die Hard

Game #692
Die Hard
Paid $20
4/22/11 - Game Over Video Games

An Easter weekend trip to San Antonio and Six Flags Fiesta Texas came with some built-in time for a little game hunting. My wife actually lived in S.A. for a few years, but this was before I started collecting so the whole city for me is an untapped resource. My only find (in admittedly limited searching) was at a newly opened Game Over store location. I had heard of the chain before from a video made by ScrewAttack.com, it's half retro game store and half museum. Lined up and down the walls are vintage systems, boxes and pieces of advertisement fluff from years past. It was very fun to just walk around and look at the cool stuff in the glass cases.

Speaking of glass cases, my new copy of Die Hard went almost unnoticed until I showed a sales guy my list and he pointed out the cart hidden under a couple of other titles. Yeah, $20 isn't so great of a deal on this one, but the only other time I saw this game for sale it was $35 and the label was ripped. According to the NA collection tracker, this is the cart that put me over 90% completion, and with this few remaining games I've decided to take a slightly below market value price tag as something I won't pass up.

What really will stand out from this visit is the first thing my eyes went to as I scanned their inventory. There amongst the MegaMan 2's and Ninja Gaidens sat a slightly off-white cart with a boring label that someone had drawn little people on with pencil. The price tag read $999.99. The game was Myriad 6-in-1 - one of the most highly sought after titles by completionist collectors. The game itself is the same as the unlicensed Caltron 6-in-1 but with a new label slapped on by Myriad once they bought out the Caltron stock. Very few of these exist and they command a high price tag. There are about half a dozen titles I know I'll never own unless I really luck out at a flea market or garage sale, and this is definitely one of those. I imagine that a collector with deeper pockets or who has been searching for this game for years would jump at a cool $1k price - but for me, right now, all I could do was look at it and take my crummy Die Hard game home. I did have to laugh that the label was drawn all over with pencil and a big "#14" was written on it with a magic marker.

Next time...what has the Easter Bunny brought for this blogger???

#691 - Wacky Races

Game #691

Wacky Races

Paid $13

4/15/11 - MicroPlay

Let’s start right away with the most recent addition to the collection, a cart-only copy of Wacky Races. Although only ranked a 6 on the NintendoAge rarity list, this is the only copy of the game I’ve come across and eBay only lists 3 available at the moment (all above $30).

I had my hands on the game a couple of months ago when I walked into a store called MicroPlay. Looking through the windows of the shop all I could see were walls of anime DVDs and VHS tapes and a few Japanese toys and trinkets. I’ve found video games in all sorts of wacky places (Pun? Get it? Because of Wacky Races…I’m sorry…) so I decided to walk in anyway. The Nintendo 64 sign hanging up on the wall was a positive signal that some retro games were hiding out somewhere.

At first I was disappointed, there were NES games under a glass case. Hmm…$30 for MegaMan 2? $20 for Yoshi? Oh brother…things were not looking good. Of their limited stock (only about 2 dozen carts) I had them all but one, Wacky Races. The $13 price tag seemed high to me, so I passed on it. After some research online later revealed the going rate to be 2 or 3 times that, and the fact that I’ve yet to come across this cart a little over 2 years of sifting through game stores, flea markets and garage sales, I decided to go ahead and bite.

So I go out of my way on after work one day to pick it up – and the shop is closed. Well, maybe she keeps odd hours – closed on Mondays or something like that. I check back a couple of days later, closed again. A check in to the nail salon next door revealed this charming nugget – “Oh her? She makes her own hours. Sometimes she won’t be open for a whole month.” Gee, that must be nice.

I give up for a couple of weeks and finally decide to try again. Huzzah! Open! Game purchased. She even threw in a ‘free’ Nintendo black dust cover. Thanks, I’ll add that one to the pile.

The game turned out to be a not so bad platformer, if a bit on the easy side. 77 out of 768 left to go.

A Quick Introduction

Well here it is, another dork cluttering up the web with some self-serving, ultimately unnecessary blog about some personal subject that really nobody else should care about. Thanks for visiting, it’s going to be fun!

A quick introduction…I’m 28 years old living in Houston with my wife, my cat and nearly 700 original Nintendo Entertainment System games. I’ve had a Nintendo since I was about 6 years old; in fact I still have my original deck and my original copy of Super Mario Bros. that should have worn out and stopped working by now. I’ve played video games on and off over the years and I’ve (regrettably) tossed out pieces of nostalgia I wish I could get back (I vividly recall an incident involving a basket full of original Transformer toys, a garage sale and $20) but I always made sure to hang on to the Nintendo.

A couple of years ago I was looking online and found a great site – www.nintendoage.com – that included a forum of fellow Nintendo fanatics and even better, a list of every game available for the system complete with a tool function to check them off as you added them to your stash. The idea to go for them all (768 in total) was rattling around in my head for a while when I found a lot of about 20 games at a pawn shop. My offer to the shop owner of $20 for them all was accepted and my collecting hobby was born.

Since then I’ve purchased and traded my way up from that 20 game start – right now my count is 691 cartridges from that NA list. For me, the fun in this hobby is the hunt and finding a great deal – it’s no fun to just go on eBay and pay whatever ridiculous amount someone else thinks the game should cost. The subsequent posts to this blog will be my countdown of the final 77 games I need for my collection, plus some of my best collecting stories.

I hope you enjoy the blog and I hope that I don’t lose interest and abandon it after a few posts. Zing!