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I have found a very much under-the-radar, mom-and-pop local game store...and I will likely be spending my time and money there and no longer primarily at thrift stores. I was referred to this game store by a younger kid running rides at my local amusement park over the summer when I asked where he bought his sweet hoodie. (It was an imported Naruto hoodie from Japan. It had Sasuke's head in a small logo on the front, and the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. Not sure if there are any other anime fans here or not).
This store has EVERYTHING. I saw a lot of stuff in person for the first time here, Famicom games, Super Famicom games, an Atari LYNX, A Power glove, A 3DO, Neo Geo, and even a few Nomads. I guess they make enough to stay in business and continue to import new products from Japan like clothes, drinks, small collectables and such, but don't really move much older merchandise; proving my original thought that the Retro gaming market around Denver stinks.
The biggest problem was that my wife was with me, as well as our kids...if they weren't there, I probably would have stayed until they closed talking games with the owner and his son, but we only stayed for about 45 minutes. I will definitely be going back whenever I have extra time or money. It is so nice to finally have somewhere to go that isn't a big name store with multiple locations that price off Ebay when you ask about a game instead of putting price tags on stuff.
Another summertime weekend for picking and searching. No yard sales this time though. Thunderstorms and hail as big as baseballs in some areas stopped me from exploring those, but thrift stores were fair game.
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Firstly, got an early Father's day gift from my wife. No idea on what she spent, because it was a gift and she doesn't disclose price on the gifts she buys me, but I know it wasn't extreme.
Sega Genesis core system
3 controllers: (1 SEGA, 2 Blockbuster Video third party with blue colored start button)
7 Games: NBA Jam: T.E., NHL '94, Sonic the Hedgehog, RBI Baseball 3, Fatal Fury 2, Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football, Jammit
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It seems now that I own a 2600, games will start falling in my lap. Snagged all of these for 50% off, making them all $0.50 each.
24 Total Games:
2600: Space Invaders, Star Raiders, Warlords, Asteroids, Defender, Laser Blast, Centipede, Robot Tank, Vanguard, Pac-man, Video Chess, Combat, Starmaster, Solaris, Space Wars, Missile Command, and Yars' Revenge.
PS1: Disney's Treasure Planet, Speedball 2100, Tetris Plus, Bravo Air Race, Colony Wars III: Red Sun, and Intelligent Qube
PC: Steel Panters III Brigade Command: 1939-1999 (Sealed)
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Finally, grabbed some systems for pretty darn cheap:
$10: Original PS2 with one original black memory card, an original black dualshock 2 controller, a clear black dualshock 2 controller, and a surprise inside: Kingdom Hearts.
$4: Game Boy with Super Mario Land 2 inside
$6: PSone with A/V cables and Power supply
$3: Clear green Dualshock 2 controller and two original black PS2 memory cards
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I am very happy with the amount of systems I got this time around and how cheap I got them for, since I'm thinking all of these games are pretty common finds. I wonder about the colony wars title though. I haven't seen that one before.
My wife found this box online on a craigslist type posting site for 15 bucks. The colors and switches are as I remember them from my childhood, but I don't remember being able to see the green of the actual circuitry behind the game slot, and it seems super light, so I am not sure if it is an original 2600 or a repro.
Also, these games seem super common, but the shape of the Riddle of the Sphinx cart is not like anything I have seen before. The blue cases were with four of the games and from somewhere that used to rent out these games just a few blocks from where I grew up. The cases seem to be modified VHS tape cases fixed to hold Atari carts. Not sure how rare or hard to find the manuals and warranty cards for 2600 stuff are to find, but they were included in pretty good shape, and I couldn't be happier about that. 
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In an effort to more accurately track my collecting in the wild, I am coming back to the blogs with my "Rookie Collecting" series.
Made a couple grabs today, A store closure liquidating everything at 50% off, (60% if you bought 6 or more at once), another local store with a couple GameCube titles to get me closer to completing that set, and one buy from a yard sale that was noteworthy, but not gaming related.
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The store closure included Viva Pinata, GH: VH, and G-Police for $2 each, DJ Hero for $0.40, and The Sims, The Sims 2: Pets, and Scorpion King for $1.20 each after all were 60% off. After I told the shopkeeper I was collecting GC titles, he pulled Bratz and Wreckless from behind the counter and threw them in for free since they were loose.
The other local store was clearing all XBOX, PS2, and GC stuff for 2.98 each, but my wife and I budget well and keep each other in line when it comes to spending, so I focused on grabbing only GC titles I didn't have yet and grabbed those three sports titles in the pic and Top Gun. There were only about 18 GC titles on the shelf, mostly madden and tiger woods, but for the XB and PS2 titles, probably a few hundred each, but also mostly sports titles as well.
Finally, my non-gaming purchase...for my fellow parents, you should agree it was a great deal at $2.50, since they are 50-60 bucks new in stores.
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As I go through these boxes and bags of games and gaming related stuff to document it and put it up for display, I have noticed something. People seem to sneak the receipts for their purchases inside the front cover of the games they bought and forget about them. In opening every game and looking through the books and extras within, I noticed several of these receipts.
Many of them are full price or high price purchase receipts that they obviously traded back to the same store where I bought them for MUCH cheaper, (I will never understand the logic behind full priced Madden game purchases most of all); and some others are from places elsewhere in the country, that have a story to tell for how they possibly ended up in Denver.
I also started to notice that some games were also tagged with stickers or security devices from places that used to rent out games across the country. And although I really, really used to despise finding these...I have begun to develop a soft spot for them because it also hides a story. How many people rented you? How did you come across these scars, dents, and markings over the years? How did you end up within my collection?
Have any of you had similar thoughts when seeing those old receipts or stickers? Do you eliminate them from the games, or keep them as is within your collections? Do you have any outlying memories when it comes to game renting, or finding receipts showing that your game has been on the other side of the country at some point?
There has always been a lot of discussion about playing our games as collectors. Whether it is because of a lack of time that we cannot play so much of our collections, or that we are simply collecting faster than we can play, (or both), there are games that are left un-played.
That being stated, I have come to a realization that my situation has gone past not just being able to play the games I own...but even keep track of the collection. This month, I celebrate my six year wedding anniversary, and this summer marks the seventh complete year I have devoted to my wife. Over those seven years, I have obviously put more time and effort into my future and relationships with my wife and two children, but I have never stopped buying games and gaming related paraphernalia.
Up until about a month or so ago, my only computer was the same laptop I used in college. It is...dated...to say the least. With 256 MB of RAM and a single core processor, it became difficult to use as technology around me sped by, (Hard to believe it used to run games like Warcraft and Diablo without issue); and as such, updating my collection, writing blogs, and submitting information came to a crawl.
I never stopped buying and dare I say, "hoarding". My collection minus a few titles had always been neatly kept and displayed on a few DVD shelves for myself, my friends, and my family to enjoy. However, upon moving into our new place, I never took the time to set it back up...and certainly never organized or documented anything I bought and tossed into the "man-cave".
Over the past few years, my wife and I have frequented many weekend thrift store sales, the one "flea market" in the Denver Metro area, and even a few yard sales here and there. Each weekend usually yielded only 5-6 games on average and over the many, many weeks that have flew by; combined with more than a few trips to local game stores like Gamestop, Buy-Back Games, and Game Force...I am honestly finding games I forgot I bought, and aside from the thousand or so games I owned and documented before I tied the knot, I honestly think there may be a couple thousand more hidden in all these boxes and bags in my closet.
I am hoping to not only get these documented and updated, but am also hoping to get them organized and displayed in a way where I can easily find and play any title at any time to get caught up on some of these really great titles. My question to all who read this blog is simply if you have any similar difficulties in your collecting experience? or if you pass on stuff you would normally grab because you know you may never actually play, or even display, the item?
(Side Note): If anyone is ever in the Denver area, I STRONGLY recommend any of the local Buy-Back Games stores around the metro area. They sell EVERYTHING. I have found some cool stuff in these shops, games that are old, new, rare, and common alike. I cannot think of a system or generation that isn't represented in the stores. You will find a little of everything from Game Boy to Neo Geo Pocket, the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 to Jaguar...and they are not outrageously priced like you might find in some places. They understand the stuff they sell is hard to find, and are priced as such...but are not pricing these rare games and consoles in the hundreds of dollars as I have seen elsewhere.
I have almost given up on blogging or even commenting on here because I feel my words come out sounding like something my 12 year old brother would type. That being said, sometimes I read something on here and wonder how it is possible that my thoughts are typed in a way that sounds so much better than what I would type. A blog I saw today is one of those times.
My point of view on the next generation has come down to my past, The Wii U will be my next console for the exclusives as I am tired not only of the nitpicking and mud-slinging, but of one of the corporations as well. Microsoft as well as "Cliffy B" (Cliff Blezinski of Gears of War fame) are taking this "Piracy" of console gaming too far. When Microsoft announced they would require online only gaming and prevent my from sharing games with my friends and family, (as well as other reasons), I decided to go elsewhere for my future. Even though they changed their stance, I chose to return to my roots, Nintendo.
I miss the Mario and Zelda franchises, and gaming in groups in one building instead of online. This brings me to my next topic, multiplayer next-gen gaming.
I have played many multi-player games with my brother and our friends over the years. In middle school, it was mostly Super Smash Bros., Mario Party, and Goldeneye 007; in high school, it was Timesplitters 2, Soul Caliber 2, Halo (first and only time I system linked, and it was with four consoles for 16 players), and Super Smash Bros. Melee; in college, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Halo 3 split-screen, and Mario Kart (multiple systems).
With that said, I also spent a great deal of time on two player experiences with my bro, namely Kirby Super Star, TMNT 2, 3, and 4, (Beat 3 with 1 pellet of life left between us and no continues remaining), and the Donkey Kong Country series; as well as some current gen multiplayer as we are living in different states. Dead Rising 2, Army of Two, and Resident Evil 5.
So where does that take us? To the Wii U. I have been missing the old days of single console play and nintendo's first party releases so far are more than enough to satisfy that...with my younger brothers in their teens and my son getting older, it is time to really get back into one room.
What multiplayer experiences defined your childhood? Do you prefer the Call of duty-like multiplayer of today over the old school? What would you like to see from the future in regards to multiplayer?
I have some energy and I am trying to remain focused on getting organized, but I will take a few minutes to share my find from yesterday. I woke up very late yesterday and had cancelled my plans to look for yard sales, but ended up finding a single sale on our way home after doing some light shopping.
Originally, we stopped because of the large amount of kids clothes in the yard, but found games instead. We found the clothes were all too small for my son and started to leave when my son bolted across the lawn and sat down in front of an old computer and started to play with an old steering wheel controller that went with it.
The owner approached us and asked if I "Gamed" (On some level, he must have assumed I did, seeing as my son is VERY familiar with how to hold and use controllers) He advised me that he was having some trouble getting rid of some old games and was tired of bringing them all in and out of the house every weekend. There were three boxes of old PC games, I told him that I didn't have use for PC games, but he was desperate to rid himself of them. He said he would take 15 for all three boxes, not being at all interested in PC games, I said I would take them off his hands for 10. He accepted and even started helping me load them into my car before I could even pull out my wallet to pay him. He proved to me that he really was tired of those games.
After loading them, he and I talked about the games, or rather, he kept thanking me for taking them, over and over again. He told me that these were games that haven't been played in many years, games he and his mother played together starting as early as twenty years and only about a third of the PC games he had. This actually worried me because...1. I know VERY, VERY little about PC gaming. and...2. If this is the 33% he didn't want to keep out of PC games he started playing from 20 years ago, I can't be hopeful there is anything rare or even popular in the boxes.
I just went through the boxes...There are 85 unique titles in the box and as I expected, I know very few of the titles. Some that I have heard of include Fallout, Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Quake, MYST, and Baldur's Gate. Those titles put my mind at ease regarding the 10 bucks I spent, but the title that stood out was "The Bard's Tale" from Electronic Arts.
This title didn't stand out because of the name, but rather because of the type of media it uses. It is unopened, and I intend to leave it like that, with a sticker covering most of the information on the back. I can't see a year of production or the original UPC numbers under the plastic packaging, but I can tell you it uses 3.5" floppy disks as the media and needs at least DOS 2.0 and a color monitor to be played. Again, I don't know much about PC gaming, but this game must be older than I am.
I collect everything I can find related to TMNT, Trading Card Games, and also have started a pretty extensive collection of freebies and items given to me for my performance and raffle winnings at work. (For those of you who do not know, I work for DISH Network in Technical Operations) I received a large coin for the commemoration of the launch of one of our newest satellites when I started working with DISH, and ever since, I have collected everything I have been lucky enough to acquire during my time with them. Premium network companies also give away a lot of promotional items to us to promote new shows and movies on their networks, which I have also collected.
Do any of you collect anything other than games? If so, do you collect anything you feel might be something nobody else collects?
After pulling out and starting to re-organizing the multitude of games I possess, I asked myself, what started this bout with borderline hoarding on my part? Can any of you remember the moment you decided to collect instead of just playing? What circumstances started your collection? Do any of you regret this decision?
This thought has brought to my attention many questions, but I think it would be safer at this time to generalize
I would like to know if anyone can assist me in my current collecting plight. I have an "Auto RF Switch" that I cannot document due to a lack of information on the face of the item itself. I acquired it with a Sega Genesis 2 system, and it fits the RF out plug on the back of the system, but it does not have a part number on it. I have never seen the brand before either; NAKI is what it appears to say, but I cannot find anything with the same logo on any video game accessory anywhere on the internet and I have been looking for over 45 minutes. What I believe to be an "A" in the NAKI logo is represented by a solid triangle with a lightning bolt through it. The lightning bolt also turns the portion of the triangle it passes through transparent, giving the look of the empty space in the capital "A". If anyone has any information on this or anything similar, let me know so I can work towards finding the information I need to register this item on the site. Thank you all for your time.
I knew it would happen eventually, and it is here. 1,000 unique software titles in my collection! The 1,000th title added was "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time w/Master Quest" for Gamecube, one of the more rare titles I had been looking to add to my collection.
It has been a long time since I have went looking for video game related stuff...since before the birth of my son almost six months ago. I was very eager to find something unique to add to my collection. I wasn't disappointed. Spending just under $50, I was able to add 18 games, 1 system, and 10 controllers/accessories to my collection...all without a single yard sale in the mix.
Since I am a little pressed for time this week and probably will not be able to write again for a while, I will make this short and simple.
Pawn shop: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB) and Operation "C" (GB) for $3 each
Gamestop: Black & Bruised (GC), XIII (GC), Asterix & Obelix Kick Buttix (PS2), Oni (PS2), and Wipeout Pure (PSP) for $2.69 each
3 Thrift stores: Dreamcast system with two controllers, four memory cards, A/V cables, Power cable, and 4 games all for $10, (Armada, Star Wars: Demolition, Trickstyle, and Virtua Fighter 3tb), NBA Jam and Madden '93 (GEN) for $0.50 each, Super Mario 64 (N64) for $0.99, a Multi-tap (GB) for $0.99, and something called a "Quickshot" (SNES) also for $0.99.
FYE (For Your Entertainment): Going out of business sale!!! Wartech (X360), Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 (X360), Aedis Eclipse (PSP), Death Jr.: Science Fair of Doom (DS), and Marvel Trading Card Game (DS) (all new and all for a discounted 90%!!!!!) at $2.99 each
I am very happy with yesterday's finds and hope to continue this trend when I move back to my hometown region of Denver, CO this summer. Thank you all for reading and I hope you are having a great 2010 thus far!
For those of you who aren't keeping up on current video game news, there is a channel on basic cable called G4 that broadcasts gaming news and events; in addition to a lot of the tv show, "COPS". Every year, a show called X-Play hosts an award show for the best games of each category. Upon watching the awards, I began to think what we as collectors think.
G-Phoria 2009 Award Winners Are:
Game of the Year - Fallout 3
Best Graphics - Killzone 2
Best New Character - Sackboy - LittleBigPlanet
Best Party Game - Rock Band 2
Best Racing Game - Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island
Best Shooter - Gears of War 2
Best Strategy Game - Halo Wars
Best Sports Game - Fight Night Round 4
Best Action Game - InFamous
Best Role-Playing Game - Fallout 3
Most Original Game - LittleBigPlanet
Deserves an Uwe Boll Movie - Legendary
Best Online Multiplayer Game - Left 4 Dead
Best Downloadable Content - Fallout 3: Broken Steel
Best Handheld Game - GTA: Chinatown Wars
Best Voice Acting - Fallout 3
Best Soundtrack - Fallout 3
Longest Lasting Game presented by Stride Gum - Fallout 3
Favorite System - Xbox 360
Best Downloadable Game - Castle Crashers
I want to know what old school gamers think of these new games, how we all think about the direction gaming is evolving, and what you think about the winners of each category.
To those of you not in the club, I will give a quick rundown of how I came to be in the situation I am in. I joined club Nintendo recently, and they have a system that rewards you for purchasing their DS and Wii games and registering them online using the inserts found in certain DS and Wii games. For each game you register, you get "coins" to use to purchase Club Nintendo exclusive items. (I recently used my accumulated coins to purchase a set of Nintendo's Hanafunda cards).
After reaching the 600 coin mark in a single year, they deem you a Gold Member, and after 800, a platinum member. After a year has passed, they offer a free reward to Gold and platinum members. As a platinum member, they offered me my choice of two items, a choice I have been contemplating for almost a week now...I can't choose, and I am asking for the help of my fellow collector's to help me choose and figure out which one would be worth more down the line.
My choice is between an official and exclusive true-to-life replica Mario hat. The hat is the classic red hat with the trademark Mario "M" and is one size fits all for adults. Made of cotton and polyester, this hat would fit perfectly into any gamers collection as an extremely rare and awesome piece. The other item is a club Nintendo platinum member exclusive Wiiware title, "Doc Louis' Punch Out!!!". The game plays just like the recently released "Punch Out!!!" for the Wii and is simply a one-on-one bout against your in-game coach and mentor, Doc Louis, which for anyone who has played the new game, or either of the originals, would be a real treat to experience.
I am just so torn on which to accept as my reward, I am looking forward to your input!
(Additionally, to any who are wondering, the Gold reward is a much simpler one. It is an exclusive 2010 Club Nintendo calendar, which actually appears to have some pretty cool and unique pictures from more than a few Nintendo titles for each month.)
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