NES pickups October 4th, 2014

Just a quick update to the collection. After work I picked up 4 more games from Shayne that he had kept aside for me: Alien Syndrome, Genghis Khan, Flying Dragon, and Xexyz.  I can't express how great it has been to meet all these other collectors and NES fans out there who so far have all been very helpful and friendly.  I found another contact that wants to trade games this week and perhaps even buy a few of my doubles.  It is always nice to be able to recoup a little bit of the money that I have put into this hobby, but like most things it usually goes right back into what your passionate about.  So given the contacts I've been making lately I see 500 games on the horizon and maybe not in the too distant future.    Highlights from this lot would be the Tengen game, Alien Syndrome (which I have on my M.A.M.E. machine and play from time to time and Xexyz which is really an underappreciated game in the NES library.

Checking on the score... these additions have the totals at:

Nes carts:  458
Licensed games:  424/687
Unlicensed games:  34/90

NES pickups October 2nd, 2014

Today Missy and I left the kids with Nan and went for a thrifting trip a few towns over.  Like a fool, I forgot my GPS at home so we were left to tracking using google maps and whatever free wifi hotspots I could find along the way.  Even with our technology challenged navigation we managed to find several of the second hand stores I'd made a list of the night before.  The first stop was the best for me as there was a Fantasy/board game specialty store two doors down from the thrift store stop.  While Missy went into her shop I ducked into All a-board Games and found a couple display cases brimming with retro goodness.  There were Retron consoles, a turbo-grafx 16, some n64 titles, snes and then finally I saw the NES section.  Wow.. there were so many great games. I had visions of supermarket sweep and imagined the damage I could do with an empty buggy and 60 seconds on the clock.  This was definitely an example of one of those 'if money was no object' situations.  After perusing the 40 or so cartridges for about 10 mins (while a group of guys behind me sat at a table playing a rousing game of dungeons & dragons or whatever today's equivalent board/dice/card game is) I came up with 3 games that were within my price range.

From this store I got:  Orb-3d,, Ninja Kid, & Vindicators.  Something that I found interesting was the sticker that is still on the back of the Orb-3d game.  It is (what I assume to be) the retail sticker from the original store it could have been purchased and/or rented from.  Not sure what other stops it made along the way, but at least at one point in this game's history you could walk into Rob's Video in Newport, KY slam down $95 and this classic was yours.   I love these stickers.  I like that they warn the renter to *please rewind before returning.  Apparently the Format of this game is Beta?  Hmm... pre-release?  or Betamax?   At any rate I got a chuckle out of that sticker and think I might just leave it on there for nostalgia sake.  If anyone has any idea when this business might have operated feel free to comment on twitter using the hashtag #8bitbobby   the Facebook page I found was:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robs-Video/117909535002280?sk=info

Anyway back to the blog.  There were a few other stops on our trip that had games, but the one place only had the very common ones and the other that had 1 or 2 I didn't have were asking too much for them so I passed.  I did find a very curious 'nintendo-related' artifact at Value Village though.  It is a Mario's Cement Factory Mini-classic keychain game. (Unopened from 1998).  Not the original LCD handheld unfortunately but a smaller, playable, re-release I presume.   A quick check on ebay showed an average sell price in around the $20-25 mark.  Not sure whether to trade, sell or just display it.  It is a neat little item.

All and all it was a really good day.  We managed to spend all of the money that we had taken with us on the trip and, without a solid backup plan, --night before payday and no plastic with us-- I was tasked with calculating the exact amount of money to hold back for gas to get us home.  At that moment I felt like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, pacing back and forth and repeating.... about $10, yah... $10.  We had a wonderful dinner out @ BP and spent all that we had in our pockets on vintage goodies, save for the slim fuel budget I guessed at.  Needless to say  I shaved it closer than a Quattro razor.  When we got back into town.. literally 2 mins from home, the gas light came on.  Whew.  The perfect end to a fun-filled day!  Stand-outs for today:  The cement factory mini-game, Vindicators (because it's a darker shade of gray) and I guess the sticker on the back of the Orb-3d game that makes for an interesting conversation.  Let's check on the score, shall we?

Nes carts:  454
421/687 Licensed*  
33/90 Unlicensed*

*  = totals are based on my own exclusions from Geekbox's List.

My NES Collection by the numbers part I

As a child of the 80s, the desire to collect was instinctual; almost intrinsic.  There were comic books, Star Wars figures, trading cards of all description but most notably hockey cards. The beautiful thing about collecting in those days is that the collections themselves were defined.  What I mean is that each series had a beginning and an end. It made completing a collection attainable.  They further made it easier by including a card with a checklist either as separate stand alone card or on the back side of a card(s) in the collection.

With game collecting there is no checklist on the back of a cartridge. We rely on the collectors we follow and those in the know to compile what they believe to be the most complete and accurate list of known game titles, variations etc.  The danger in that is it becomes difficult to know who's list should be followed, which list is most complete.  I have an app on my idevice that has been invaluable out in the field when I'm buying games both as a quick reference for approximate value of a game and as a checklist for which games I have and do not have, but it does not include some games.

After countless hours scouring forums, blogs, and youtube channels, (I found Pat & Ian's podcast on the subject particularly helpful), I have come to the conclusion that a collection guide (for use by hobbyists such as myself) should include only those games that could realistically be obtained.  The most complete guide I would choose to mold my checklist from is from Geekbox's NES Collection guide.  In the guide they list 687 licensed NES games.  After looking at the list, I would make certain deletions at least where my personal list is concerned.  First off I would remove games from the list such as Flintstones: Suprise at Dinosaur peak and Stadium Events.  The first because it was a Blockbuster exclusive rental game not for sale in the commercial market and the second one because it was recalled from store shelves and later reintroduced to the mainstream market as World Class Trackmeet.  I would strike from the list both of the Nintendo World Championships cartridges because there is only a little over 100 of them in existence (combined).  I would remove games that there was no change to the rom itself to improve gameplay or change anything about the game. These would include the gray variation carts of Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and the label variations of the games: Metroid, Blades of Steel, Wayne Gretzky Hockey and Gunsmoke.

With the unlicensed games I would remove 7 titles from Geekbox's list including:  Cheetahman II  as it was never official released, 6-in-1 by Myriad as it is identical to the Caltron release except for the label as well as any of the Aladdin Deck enhancer titles that they also had a separate version of that didn't require the enhancer (i.e. Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, Micro Machines, Quattro Adventure, Quattro Sports and Linus Spacehead).  These deletions give us a total of 90 unlicensed titles that are unique (though some may still be near impossible to find).  

Now that being said, if any of these games were to fall into my lap I would most certainly keep them with my other games and treasure them every bit as much as those I would include in my collection totals (some even moreso).  What this little spin puts on a collection is a seemingly more realistic approach to collecting these games which helps to give novice collectors such as myself a sense that a complete collection could be possible.

So in terms of combined game titles I currently site at 451 (this does include both Adventure of Link carts).  I have 418/677*  Licensed games or 62% of the collection.  25/30 Blackbox games (for those unfamiliar these were the original launch titles for play on the NES system. They all featured pixelated (sprite art) and, as you'd expect, came in black boxes.  Some also include three titles that were released about the same time entitled the Graybox releases:  Metroid, Kid Icarus, & Rad Racer.
I currently have 32/90* unlicensed games.  I do get some gratification from the fact that one one of the other appendices on Geekbox's site is a list of 100 NES essentials (game titles that are must-haves either because of collectibility or playability) and of these I have 88%.

In future installments of this series I will delve deeper into the titles in my collection and discuss where I am at with some of the mini-collections in the nes library.

NES Pickups: September 27th, 2014

Today's pickups are quite special because they were a surprise!  I didn't realize that there was a trunk sale going on in our town and I was at work when my wife called me and said she was standing in front of a table of games.  She rattled off a bunch of titles and I relived my childhood briefly with the 'need it, need it, got it, need it got it" routine from the hockey card days.  At any rate there were two titles that I didn't have yet and one that (for the price) I couldn't pass up.  Hoping it will make a good trade sometime down the road.  

She picked up: Life Force & Wheel of Fortune (family edition) and for good measure the extra I got which was a double was the always entertaining Bubble Bobble.  The two new games bring my total to:  451

Another note of interest is that I have been trying to compile a list of my games which includes dates when they were acquired and the source.  This may be of little interest to anyone but me, but it will allow me to create some back blogs so to speak from the earlier times of my collection.  To do this I put on my detective cap and sifted through backups of old emails, bank statements and game lists. It has been a huge undertaking and even when I'm done there will be holes in the timeline because (prior to this blog) I did't keep very good records as to the who, what, when and wheres of my collection.  The standout from this set would have to be Life Force!  It is an extremely fun shooter that I played alot in my teenage years.  It is listed at #38 on IGN's top 100 nes games (and for good reason).  Happy hunting and thanks for reading!

Trade/Lot pickup September 21st, 2014

For a day that started with me skipping the flea market in order to host a garage sale I never would have imagined gaining 13 new carts!  While putting my feet up in between "customers" I got a notification about a closed group for Video game collectors in my area.  One of my friends sent me an invite to this group and so I clicked on it and began to peruse the site during my down time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my new go-to-guys for games had recently been to Vancouver and hit up the garage sales down there.  In all he came back with dozens of new games; among them several that I did not have yet.  After trading messages back and forth all afternoon he finally came by and showed me his new cache of games.  We put together a deal that included some trades and some cash and in the end I walked away with 13 new games (pictures below).

It was very difficult to contain my enthusiasm when I saw the list of games he had picked up and this latest batch has helped me to complete my collection of Simpsons games, Star Wars games, and Quattro series games for the NES.

Today was what I would refer to as a pulp culture bonanza!  I picked up The Last Action Hero, Simpsons: Bartman meets Radioactive Man and Empire Strikes Back, There were more than a couple of standouts in this set but I would say the three above, as well as Kiwi Kraze, Fantasy Zone, and Tiny Toons Cartoon Workshop.  Many of the games from today I had not seen in the wild so far so that was extremely exciting.  All labels were more or less intact and the only real problem cart was the Last Action Hero.  It has some stubborn (I cringe to use the word permanent) marker below the label that I am hoping can be taken care of with a magic eraser and some elbow grease. Despite this flaw I was excited to put this steampile of  "Ahnold" goodness into my collection.

Next game pickup blog should see me hit another mini-milestone in my collection.

I currently sit at 449 carts and 55% of the overall collection. Thanks for reading and if you do happen to see this please feel free to comment me on twitter via the hashtag:   #8bitbobby

Nes pickups September 18th, 2014

For a change of pace this week my wife and I drove one town over to visit the thrift stores, pawn shops etc. in search of games for me and the usual knick knacks that strike her fancy.  She was on a mission as well to find fabric for our kids' halloween costumes and the latest round of handmade dolls that she creates.  [inserting shameless plug]  If you'd like to check out some of her work she can be found at the link below:

Boopsiedaisy on Etsy

After visiting several second hand stores in the area and coming up empty handed I finally picked up a copy of Lego Batman for the PC (lego games have become one of my guilty pleasures of late).  Then at the local comic book and collectibles store, Ebenezer's, I found a few games that tickled my fancy (and separated me from some dollars).

From the name sake of Mr. Scrooge himself I found an employee, who couldn't have been further from that persona, to help me out by opening up the NES display case so I could take a closer look.  I found about a half dozen games that I still need to put into my collection but for today I picked up.... Rollergames (which I believe is an arcade port) and Joshua & the Battle of Jericho (an unlicensed game by Wisdom Tree and manufactured by Color Dreams).

The most humourous feature of this game is the esoteric instructions they give you on the front label;  ** TO START GAME: Please wait up to 9 flashes on TV screen.  ** POWER ON:  Please wait 7 seconds between Power OFF and ON.

Well that's clear as mud (as is the shield on the right side of the picture that tells you that this is designed for use with the nintendo entertainment system... if you didn't know you would need a magnifying glass to read it).  Couple that with the normal blinking of the power button at the best of times and you have the recipe for awesome!

Even though they aren't legit games by Nintendo's standards I have a soft spot for these few that fall outside of the grayish color pallete popularized by the NES.  The Colordreams blue and black carts, the Camerica Gold carts, and the Tengen black carts are all personal favorites.  So it was really a no brainer when I was able to add Joshua to my lineup for less than what my app valued the game at. These two additions put my NES cartridge count up to: 436.  Until next time!  Happy collecting.

NES Pickups September 14th, 2014

It's been a slow month on the collection front...  but today I did manage to find a couple of new games at the flea market.  It was bitter sweet because even though I came home with 2 new carts I found out from my regular vendor that the Flea Market will cease operations in October.  Unless they find a new venue it will be the end of an era (of sorts).

Okay on to the additions:  today I got WWF King of the Ring and Gyruss.  I haven't played this particular wrestling game before, but I spent many hours playing Gyruss.  These two bring my total cart count to 434.

As you can see, Gyruss is in very good shape. The label is clean and the cartridge itself has stood up to the last 25-30 years quite well.  King of the Ring on the other hand is starting to look like it is in the twilight of its career.  It is sporting all of the bumps and bruises of the many piledrivers, bodyslams and suplexes it has likely endured during its lifetime.  Either way it is nice to add these.

Side note: I also picked up a near mint copy of Road Blasters. The label on my original one was starting to peel quite badly.  

She put the NES in happines[s]

Yesterday I received a package in the mail from my friend Jennie!  It took me a day and a half to gather my wits in order to try and write some semblance of a thank you to her for her unreal gift.  She told me several weeks ago that she was cleaning out her closet and came across several bins of N.E.S. related goodness.  Well a package containing many of these goodies showed up on the doorstep.  I was absolutely floored by what was inside this cardboard dwelling and her thoughtfulness has slowly coaxed me out of my shell and prompted me to try my hand at a video blog.

Now I should preface this by saying that I have no experience in video production and I drink nearly a pot of coffee every day so my hands shake badly.  I poked fun at myself so no one else would have to state the obvious in that I broke rule one of the youtube bible: the unnecessary posting of vertical videos.  Link to the video is below, but to keep this blog somewhat succinct I will finish this with the update portion (spoilers for those who want to watch the video)

***********************************************************************************

Today I received the following:   Codename: Viper (with box), Punisher (with box), Battlechess (CIB), Iron Tank (with box), Startropics (box), Karnov (with box).  In addition, she sent several loose carts:  Gauntlet (the black Tengen version), Legends of the Diamond, Double Strike, The Mafat Conspiracy, Jeopardy Jr. Edition, Double Dragon 3, & 1942.

The standouts for me are: Double Dragon 3 (hands down), 1942 (which replaced my infamous masking tape cartridge - see video for more explanation), and Double Strike.   These wonderful games bring my cartridge total to:   432.  Thanks once again Jennie!  I promise to give them a good home.

Here's a link to my fledgling Vlog/thank you: 

8bitbobby Vlog Episode 01 - Youtube

NES update: July 20th, 2014

Another 10 days has gone by since my last post and I'm happy to say I've reached another mini-milestone with my collection.  With the additions from the Sunday Flea Market today, my visit last week, (and a package slated to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday) I have reached 425 game carts!

The box of goodies from Game Gavel dot com will contain the following:  Dance Aerobics, The Last Ninja, Thunderbirds, and the Untouchables.  Last Sunday (July 13th) I picked up 3 new titles from the 'ol F.M. including:   The Little Mermaid, Bad News Baseball, and one of my all-time favorites Rush n' Attack and today I picked up Magic of Scheherazade and another gem:  Willow.

Have I mentioned yet how fortunate I feel to have continued to acquire new games at an alarming rate? That is 9 games in about as many days.  A special shout out to my wife, Missy, for putting up with my 8bit obsession.

NES Pickups - July 10th, 2014

Last night I got an email from a recent contact I made who is a nes collector/seller.  You'll remember me mentioning him in previous posts as the guy who lives right around the corner from me.  Anyway... Shayne emailed me to let me know he had made a huge trade that landed him with 60 new titles and asked if I wanted the first look at them before he posted them for sale.   My eyes were as big as saucers as I replied that I would love to have a look at the games tomorrow.

I made arrangements to go by his place after 5 pm to take a look at his recent findings and brought along a few of my doubles in the event that he might want to trade.  Unfortunately this trip would be a tad bittersweet.  He had a lot of new games to peruse but, after close inspection with both my mental list and my Ipod app, I concluded that I had all but two of them:  Magic Darts, and Infiltrator.   Long story short I traded him for a pair of my doubles straight across (game for game) and so adding those two new titles to my collection cost me nothing out of pocket today!  The additions of Magic Darts and Infiltrator brings my collection total to:  417 games and 50.61% of the overall collection.  With the exception of some label damage on M.D. the games look pretty clean overall.

As sad as it was that he only acquired two new games (out of the 60 new ones he had) that I was lacking, it is somewhat fulfilling to realize that my collection is beginning to reach a stage where finding new games (without the help of Ebay) is becoming more scarce.

NES pickups - July 2nd, 2014

Got a package in the mail today from Game Gavel Dot Com in it was the following:

The package consisted of 3 carts and 2 manuals:   World Games, Muppets Adventure, 8 Eyes, and manuals for The Karate Kid, and Galaga.  As bad as the game is, it was still rewarding to add the Muppets Adventure game to my library. I played through this game a little bit on my M.A.M.E. machine as a preview and came to the conclusion that this is not really a game for playability but rather a game for collectibility. As for the others,  I had not played World games on the NES, but I played it a lot on the Commodore 64. It was always entertaining in the weightlifting competition to watch the facial expressions of the competitors.  The last game, 8 eyes, looks like the spawn of many like-minded games of the time; most notably Castlevania.

This was my first experience buying from Gamegavel.com and I must say it was flawless.  The seller (Dennis) of FND Collectibles was courteous and professional.  It was such wonderful experience compared to the last few auctions I won from Ebay.

A week or so back (against my better judgement) I added the Game Genie in my collector app and that put me at exactly 50% of the collection.  With these 3 additions I am at 50.36% my cartridge total is:  414

Partial Resto on my Cento part I

This will be a short entry in this journey because tonight was all about ridding the machine of antiquated wiring, loose screws, nails, dust bunnies and the like.  I opened up the back of the machine and unbolted what I have to assume is the power supply.  At first glance it looks like a brick or one of those mouse traps for live catch and release of rodents.  It is surprisingly heavy for the size of it.

As you can see, this is the nerve center. Someone had wired a standard orange extension cord into it and it connected to the light bar behind the marquee as well as the speakers.   All of these cords were trimmed away from the walls of the cabinet and discarded.  It was really difficult to crop them and I felt like I was cutting the umbilical cord in a way, but since this machine will have modern components in it (i.e a computer tower, monitor, and desktop speakers) the need for the outdated wiring is zero. 

From here, I took a shop vac to the inside of the cabinet to get rid of 30 years of dust, cobwebs, fallen screws and God knows what else was lurking in the dark recesses of that hull.

After the back was taken care of I turned my attention to the front of the cabinet (namely the marquee/speaker area).  I took the marquee off and removed the housing for the speaker (which is genius in its design), removed the old school speaker and cleaned the marquee (it had glue all the way around).  Last, but not least, I cleaned both sides of the bezel glass and what was once a dusty weathered looking display area was now clean and vibrant looking once more.

I bought a tube light during our travels today that I had hoped would work behind the marquee, but unfortunately it was a little bit too big and as I do not really want to alter the inside of the cabinet (structurally) I think I'll hold out for one the right size.

Some final notes I want to make about this machine before wrapping this up:  while cleaning the inside of the base of the machine I discovered that the coin catcher was still there and the previous owner had left a quarter behind (maybe for good luck... like not giving a wallet as a gift without some money in it?)  Just for authenticity it was from the early '80s.  On the right wall of the cabinet was a typed note that from the tone of it sounded like a checklist for construction on the cabinet or a primer for what things to look for in a defective cabinet.  And the last little bit of awesomeness was that the coin box had two counters still attached and the combined count (if I am doing the math correctly) implies that this machine made someone about $30,000 in quarters (or a sore thumb from adding credits on free play).  Would love, in an alternate universe, to see a montage of all the action this Centipede game saw in its heyday.

  

For the purpose of score keeping and later scrutiny the stats on this project thus far are as follows:

Hours into the project (1)
$$ into this project   ($120)
Cups of coffee consumed during this project thus far  (2)

Retrogaming love is a many legged creature

After searching local ads for NES games and arcade cabinets I happened upon a guy selling a Centipede cabinet as follows:   Arcade Cabinet and Header for Centipede game.
Original arcade cabinet and header for Centipede.  The cabinet does not have a monitor or the
centipede game board. -  $150

So on Monday, June 23rd I met the seller at the storage center where he had this "not so little" gem holed up.

The cab looks very much intact and with the exception of the control panel overlay all the artwork is there.  The side art has a few scratches, carvings, burn marks, etc but definitely workable.  The T-molding is peeling in places and there are dings and chunks of wood missing.  I suppose, though, if the machine was immaculate then doing a resto on it would seem a moot point.  After a little bit of negotiation I managed to talk the seller down from his asking price a bit and got the cabinet for a fair shake.

A quick search on wikipedia reveals that centipedes are Cavernicolous (cave-dwelling).  This little factoid helps to diminish the guilt I have about locking my new machine away in my cold, dark shop.  When my mancave is completed this species will be in its natural habitat.

I am so excited to be embarking on another arcade cabinet project.  This will be my first crack at a partial restoration. I say partial because I plan to keep the artwork more or less intact and preserve the vibe of the original machine, but as it has no arcade monitor, board or guts anymore I plan to convert the interior into a mame machine capable of playing as many of the classic hits from that same golden age of arcade games as possible.  One of the first steps is to try and design a control panel that will obviously play Centipede as it was intended but (without getting too over-the-top) also be capable of games such as:  Donkey Kong, Pacman, Asteroids, and the like.  It should have a clean interface with the original style 1 and 2 player buttons, a trackball, 1x 8way joystick and maybe 2 or 3 buttons.  I realize that some of the games from that era had 4 or 5 buttons (Defender and Asteroids I think are examples), but at least with the case of Asteroids I have managed to play it on my other machine using only a few buttons and it still allows for fun game play.  I think want to go with a Zippy joystick with a white or green colored ball to bring out the colors of the sideart and/or marquee on the machine and led-lit colored buttons to tie the control panel together with the awesome original artwork.

I won't say that Centipede is my favorite game from this era, but certainly the artwork that came on this cabinet is some of the best I have ever seen.

I hope that others out there with similar interests will get something out of this series and, if nothing else, I want to document the choices I make for this project (good and bad) and see how it turns out.

NES happenings June 4th - 18th, 2014

Good thing I had my twitter feed to fall back on or I would have forgotten 3 of the games I had recently acquired.  On June 4th I made my way around to a few pawn shops in town and picked up 3 games at one location:   Blue Marlin, Image Fight, and Golf Power (as if I needed another golf game).  Then just tonight I made a return visit to my new found contact (a fellow NES collector) and traded him some NES and SNES accessories for 9 games.   Most I already had, but I managed to replace some of my damaged label carts with better copies and added 2 new games:  Spy vs. Spy and Golgo 13.

The stand out for me from this lot is Spy vs. Spy.  I have many fond memories of camp-outs as a kid (tenting in the back yard, etc.) and reading Cracked and Mad magazines with friends from the neighborhood.  The Spy vs. Spy comics always cracked us up (no put intended).   Like all good things the written works tend to spawn movies or games and Spy vs. Spy was no exception.  My first introduction to the game was on a friend's commodore 64.  I think what I loved most was the split screen shenanigans and hilarity that came from trying to outwit your opponent with bombs and booby traps.  I have yet to play through the NES version, but I hope it lives up to my memories of it from way back when.

These additions bring my collection perilously close to 50% overall... which is a bittersweet realization.  To have come so far and to, at the same time, realize I have so far to go.  Games are going to become harder to come by and more costly from here on out and as a by product I imagine my entries may become fewer and farther between.

For this reason I am trying to pick up some doubles along the way in the hopes that I might be able to sell, trade or barter my way to some missing titles in the weeks, months and years to come.

NES cartridge total:   411

Nes pickups - June 1st!

In the words of Chris Farley (as Todd O'Conner from Bob Swerski's superfans): "That's a baker's dozen for me".  Never been big on superstitions myself but I'm willing to consider thirteen lucky.  My previous entries have touched on how I've been searching for games a little off the paths less traveled. On two recent trips stateside I came up empty handed and only found a handful of items on my last few car trips.  Never would I have thought that just around the corner from my house (literally four houses around the block) I would find a stockpile of games for sale by a neighbor. 

I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived at the seller's front door because the listing was a guessing game with a lot of the titles difficult to make out in the pictures provided.  The night before (with only the light of my laptop to guide me) I felt like a forensic tech trying to clean up closed circuit images and make viewable the grainy outlines of letters in the ad.  I sharpened the images, resized them checked them against google images as to the guess of the colors vs letter placements and tried not to make too many assumptions as to what the games might be.   I was so anxious to finally see the titles in the cardboard boxes when his garage doors went up that it was difficult to hide my excitement.  I'm not sure if most people can relate to this feeling, but game collectors (or I suppose collectors of anything) know this feeling all to well;  that pure rush of adrenaline that comes from seeing that thing you are looking for right before your eyes.  The titles I got from his lot were as follows:  Dragon's Lair, A Boy and his Blob, Wrecking Crew, Ikari Warriors 2, The Simpsons: Bart vs the World, Disney's Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Bomberman, Castlequest, Rad Racer 2, Flying Warriors, Pinball Quest, Clu Clu Land, and Solomon's Key.

Today holds a few milestones for my collection.  Firstly, these 13 games are (I believe) the largest pickup in one day that I have had since this collection started and secondly this push puts my collection over the 400 mark of total carts!!!  The obvious standouts for me would be the two black box games I added to the collection (Wrecking Crew and Clu Clu Land), Dragon's Lair, Bomberman and A Boy and his Blob.   

This brings the game count to:  406

Next-town Crusader

Having traveled not once, but twice out of country this month: first to Pasadena, then a week later to Anaheim, one might think that the opportunity to find games would readily present itself.  Not so much... on my first trip I searched up used game stores in close proximity to my hotel only to find that Google had not updated in awhile and the store I was looking for had closed down.  I managed to find the Goodwill store nearby, but it was a bust as well.  There was actually more selection in my local thrift shops.

The second trip to the state of California was more structured and time didn't really permit the opportunity to poke around their local second hand stores. I was able, of course, to get my 'game on' though with a stop off at the Starcade in Disneyland.  There I got up close and personal with the Fix-it Felix Jr. game which looks very much like it hitched a ride in the Delorean and came here from 1985.  The paint job looked aged and it screamed retro arcade.

It was actually quite dark in there and my biggest regret was not getting a better picture of the machine before we ran off to the Star Tours fast-pass lineup.  Seems really silly to speak of a whirlwind trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios as in any way lacking, but what it lacked in NES game pickups it more than made up for in feeding my 40 yr. old kid brain.  This gaming opportunity at Starcade was awesome and my kids went around pressing buttons on every cabinet until they came across one that actually played without any tokens being put in.  In here I also got a Wreck-it Ralph souvenir coin and kept a few left over Starcade tokens.   Throughout the 4 days we spent on this trip to Cali I encountered many game-related photo ops so it was a wonderful experience all around!

  I actually thought my 2 weeks vacation was not going to yield any additions to my collection when my friend contacted me saying he'd found 2 games for me down in Vancouver:   Bart Simpson vs. the Space Mutants and Spiderman! If that wasn't enough, today my wife and I took a trip (while the kids were in school) to the next town over and hit every pawn shop, thrift and specialty store we could find.  At the specialty store I found a fairly uncommon game called:  Galactic Crusader and at one of the Pawn shops here they had a very good boxed RBI baseball 3.  This purchase replaced my old cart that had a damaged label.  Despite paying a little more for the Galactic Crusader cart than I wanted to, I was happy to have acquired a game that is less common than most, unlicensed, and a groovy looking aqua blue-green color.  The game itself is a loosely based Galaga clone, but unlike most unlicensed games is somewhat playable. Even though it isn't one of the most popular NES titles I have an affinity for the oddly colored or shaped carts.  I especially like the gold camerica carts, Black Tengen carts and blueish tinged  Color Dreams and Bunch carts.

This brings the collection total to:  393 with the addition of 3 new games, 2 new manuals, and a new game box!  Didn't want to crosspost this with Twitter, but also aquired Dick Tracy a few weeks back... that's why the jump from 389-393 from last post.  

https://twitter.com/8bitbobby/status/460464585326092289

NES pickups April 7th - 17th

This has been a week with more ups and down than the "dash 3" worlds on SMB... visited my local thrift store which shall remain nameless and went from ecstatic that they had some games that I needed, to flabbergasted that they had raised the prices on their games 600%.   I honestly can't remember the last time I paid more than 3.99 for a game at this 'establishment' so imagine my surprise when I visit them and all of a sudden their games are priced at $24.99 each (even the Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt cart that came bundled with EVERY freaking Action Set sold).  Either the person in charge of the sticker gun is entirely out to lunch or just plain greedy.  When I questioned the clerk about the recent price hike they tried to play the "they have always been that price" to which I promptly showed them a picture of my purchase there last week for $2.99.   At this point I tried to remind them that most of the items they sell were donated and that charging higher than Pawn Shop prices is ludicrous.  I was disappointed that I couldn't add to my collection at that stop and realized, at that moment, that I would likely have to boycott the store altogether.

Last Sunday I tried to make myself feel better about things by visiting the flea market and found a new seller!!!  Mostly RPG games and some boxed, but a bit more pricey than my cheapass blood could afford.  However, in light of the aforementioned events, I figured I HAD to spend some money here just to show those 'other guys' that it's about principle.  I bought 2 games from the new vendor:  The Last Starfighter (with the Box) and Shenigan the Ruler.

Today capped off the last week and a half on a high note.  A few days back I was scrolling through the local classifieds and then Kijiji ads when I came across a seller in my city that advertised: NES games for sale TOO MANY TO  LIST.   If that didn't sound promising I don't know what did.   I corresponded with the girl who placed the ad a few times and finally setup a time to go and check out the games.  She was a collector herself, but decided to give up on the NES collection to focus on her Gamecube and PS1 collections.  She had a crapload of games and SOOO many titles I didn't have that I was salivating like a Sheepdog on the beach in August.  Yah I know... my poker face sucks!   Anyway she had the games in separate boxes with prices on the flap of each box.   Many of the best games she obviously new the value of from her own collecting days and so quite a few I had to pass up, but she did have a box in the $5-8 range that had several titles that I thumbed through.  Without wanting to waste alot of her time I gathered up 8 titles and asked if she would give me a deal.  In the end she game me 3 games for free.  I told her that I hoped this would be the first of many transactions down the road as there were alot of games she was selling off that have yet to reach my hands.  Just out of curiousity I checked my trusty NES collection APP and was happy to discover that one of the games I picked out was worth the same price as I paid for the whole lot.   This made the 10 day rollercoaster so worth the ride!!!

The standouts from this lot for me are:  Jimmy Conners Tennis (a little less common than most), Tennis because I have a soft spot for the Black Box games and 720 because I used to love that game in the arcade -- "Skate or Die!"  This update brings the collection total to:   389

Until next level...........

NES pickups - April 6th

It was quite fortuitous that I made it to the flea market this morning.  My daughter has been sick with a cold for the last few nights and since she doesn't like to sleep in her own room at the best of times she was bunking with my wife and I last night.  I woke up about 7am to her poor gravelly breathing instead of the usual dissonance of my alarm clock.  Knowing that I couldn't hit the snooze button on her congestion I wiped her nose, tucked her in all warm and cozy and got up.

Arriving early and beating the rush to the flea market this morning I caught my seller before anyone else had picked over his table and came back with 5 new additions to the collection:   Loopz, Dragon Spirit, Hollywood Squares, Magic Johnson's Fast Break, and Stealth.  Not really any standouts to this lot, and some of the carts have certainly seen better days, but I feel sometimes like these games have become orphaned and it's my responsibility as a lover of that time to welcome them back to an appreciative home.  These new titles bring the total count to 379.   

Today was also made remarkable by the fact that my son (who is on the Autism Spectrum)  is not unlike Liam Neeson in the Taken movies... in that both have a very specific set of skills (I'm paraphrasing of course).  No my son isn't going to break the family away from their captors by snapping people's limbs or pinpointing our location with the use of a pencil and shoelace, but he does possess the ability to take a mental picture of how things are supposed to be and can tell you when one thing is out of place.  For example, the other day my wife knocked a few of her pez dispensers off of the wall where they are displayed and, in a hurry, just put them back without realizing they were no longer in character sections (Gargamel had left the "smurf's village and was now flanked by Bert & Ernie).  Well my son took one look at the wall and stopped dead in his tracks... he proceeded to interrogate Melissa as to why they were not in their correct spots.  Much laughter ensued.   This same gift has rendered my NES collection app useless.   He can take one look at my collection and can tell you which games I have and which I do not.  He even went so far today as to correct a blog post I had made more than a year and a half ago.  I had incorrectly listed a pickup as Megaman 3 when it should have been Megaman 6 and when I questioned the validity of it and he insisted, I cross referenced it with a post I'd made on twitter at about the same time and, sure enough, the boy was right.  Well that was a tangent.  I almost missed my stop.  Bye for now!

Nes pickups 2014 (January-March)

When we last left our intrepid collector Bobby, he was closing in on 400 games... though still not at that mark he has taken a few small steps of late......................

   The temperatures are getting warmer and the itch to get back to the flea-market (did I just use itch and fleas in the same sentence?) is upon me.  This past Sunday I went (for the first time since last year) and was NOT disappointed.  There was a vendor outside that had a few games that I did not have:   Predator, The Punisher, Wayne Gretzky Hockey, King of Kings, and Bump n Jump.   After that I ventured inside and my regular dealer had some new titles but the only one I could really swing for was Star Soldier.  In addition to the games I also picked up a few new manuals.  The week before I went to Value Village and under their display case they had several games (all priced between 20-25 dollars.. for what reason I'll never know)... but one lonely game was priced $1.99 and as luck would have it it was one I did not yet have!   Pretty good week all around!   According to my collection APP, my new game total is:   374

I think of this batch the standouts for me were Punisher and King of Kings.  However, that being said, it was exciting to pick up Little League Champs for 2 bucks only to find out that my app lists the game at 4x that price.  The other 6 games were bought for $25 investment and according to the app are worth approximately $50.  Doubled my money on those as well.  I guess it's a little misleading to say that when 1 or both of 2 circumstances would have to occur for that statement to be true. A) I would have to be willing to sell my collection and B) There would have to be someone willing to pay for the games what the value is listed at.  At any rate it's just fun to see what kinds of deals I can find out there... I try to never pay more than what the listing says (even it's a game I really, really want)   Well... that's it until next adventure!!! Keep collecting!