Well, I had a whole synopsis written up but someone at home erased it so you guys get a shorter version of the story. (Well, I found most of what I wrote. Posted below)As some of you may know, I had surgery in April and I have been out on leave since then. With this time off, I have had more time to go shopping at the “thrift” stores. I have thrift in quotation marks because, let’s be honest, most of the Goodwill’s and thrift stores don’t mark video games at thrift store prices any more. With my searching I’ve found a few items but nothing spectacular until one day I entered the Christian store.
There is Christian store in town with a “thrift” store attached (or so I assume as it says Bargains in the window with no mention of thrift or how to donate items. For all I know, it’s just bargained priced items from the Christian store.) I’ve driven past it several time but the outside of the building looks a bit rundown and I’ve been hesitant going in as it always looked dark inside (at least the Bargains side of the store did) and I was never sure if and when it was open. I’ve heard stories about how old new NES games were found abandoned (
http://www.wired.com/2008/09/lost-virtual-bo/) and forgotten in a warehouse over all these years so I always check the Christian stores that I would find in hopes I would find some “abandoned” NES religious games as these games were only sold in religious stores back in the day and not in retail stores such as Target or Shopko.
I finally decided that I am off and have some time now, so I will enter that store to see what they have, so after PT I drove over and found that they are closed on Monday. Guess what day it was. Monday. Will I be brave enough to come back? I had to do it, so after my second PT appointment of the week I went back and they were open. I entered the Bargains section of the store. There were two workers chatting away with each other and the store itself was not that bright, a few lights here and there. I said, “Hello” and starting walking around the store. To the left were clothes. I walked amongst the clothes and found records for $1.00 apiece and thought maybe this store has potential. I turned to the right and down the first aisle, walking slowly, I looked left and right. I noticed some biblical PC games on the bottom shelf to my left and kept walking. But I did a double take, as I caught something out of the corner of my eye as I was walking down the aisle. A blue boxed game. I noticed it was Sunday Funday but figured it was for the PC as they were next to the PC games. I bent down and noticed that they were NEW IN BOX. And for the NES. And multiple copies! Imagine my heart racing when I knew what I found. My body was shaking. It was incredible. Too bad I had no one with me to share this find with me in the moment. I had found somewhat of a “Holy Grail”. You don’t find new NES games in the wild. And not this game. I texted Duke pics for verification on if this was a legitimate seal, which was confirmed. These have had to have been here for years because there were layers of dust on the copies so I had complete confidence that this was the real deal. I’m guessing these copies got put in the back room after the NES lifespan was over and long forgotten until a few years back when they were found and put out in the Bargains section of the store. I looked around to see if there were carts or baskets to put the items in but this store did not have any. I guess I was going to have to carry all these games up. After completing the purchase it was a sigh of relief that I finally owned these. I found my warehouse and my “Holy Grail”. Remember to search high and low and in unlikely places, and you may find a warehouse of forgotten games.
[img width=700 height=933]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/cvanderhoef/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160517_1505145_rewind.jpg[/img]
12 NIB, 1 open but complete.
Author
