Nes Pickups - June 8th, 2015

Today I received a package in the mail from Etsy!  This box was the culmination of 2 months worth of correspondence with the seller.  I started off by inquiring about a game she had listed back on April 6th.  After I got a quote for shipping to Canada the seller mentioned that she had some other games that she hadn't listed yet.  She sent several pictures and I ended up getting 3 games in the lot.  It took a little bit of coaxing to get the item shipped off, but it finally arrived today and I couldn't be more excited.  She had mentioned she would throw in a nintendo related item for my patience, but I had no idea she was going to put in all of the extra trimmings she did.  The box contained:  the 3 games I ordered, an extra game (Super Mario/Duck Hunt), 2 sticker packs, a Yoshi Pez dispenser, a Pacman Keychain and a "10-doh" collectible figurine.

One set of stickers says they are from 1992.  The other set look to be from Donkey Kong Country for the SNES and come from Yugoslavia!  The 10-doh figurine is a Lootcrate Exclusive called:  1point 21 jiggawatts and is a clear take on the Back to the Future movies.  The Pez dispenser is Yoshi from the Super Mario series.  This one is very cool because it also adds to my wife's amazing Pez collection nicely! I'm rambling on and on and this is just the throw-ins. But they are very nice to say the least!

The etsy lot added 3 new games to my collection:  Tiny Toons Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland, Where's Waldo and Arkanoid.  Of the 3 I think Arkanoid is my favorite.  It represents another port from the Arcade world and unseeded one of my games on the rarity list (according to my game collection app). Even though the lot took a little while to reach me, the meticulous care she took in shipping and all of the extras she sent more than made up for the delay!  Etsy, though a haven primarily designed for Crafters and Artists, is a great place to find deals on retro games.

Nes Carts:  506

Licensed games:  467/687

NES Pickups - June 3rd, 2015

I can't say enough about the integrity and helpfulness of the retrogaming community.  I've mentioned in past entries that I have recently been networking through social media both locally and afar with other like-minded collectors and game enthusiasts.  This has been equally invaluable to gaining knowledge and acquiring new games.  A friend of mine has made it a wonderful habit to comment me on any posts she sees that are nintendo-related on Facebook.  This has given me a leg up on other eager game collectors in my town and resulted in several new additions to my shelves.

The pickups this week are the end result of a full-circle trade that began several weeks ago.  One of my newest contacts has traded with me more than a few times and because he doesn't want to sell me the games he sets a trade value on them and takes doubles of mine in trade.  The last such trade resulted in me getting a less common game and in return he just took 3 of my doubles.  He said he would hold them as collateral for such a time that I might have something he was interested in.

Well recently he decided he didn't want to collect nintendo games anymore and listed several of his games.  Thanks to the heads up from my friend I was able to write him within an hour of them being listed.  He worked out a deal with me for the only trade-bait that I had of interest (a fairly uncommon double).  I valued the game at about $45-50 and instead of giving me the 3 I originally asked for in trade he ended up giving me a total of 7 games.  This is the integrity I alluded to at the outset of this post.

He knew that the 3 games I asked for only equaled about half what the game I was going to give him was worth so he gave me an extra game plus the three collateral doubles I had given him a few weeks prior. In his words: "You were also interested in Life Force so I'd do all 4. I could also return your 3 games I kept for collateral from our last trade and that should make it pretty close to being even". I was taken aback by his generosity and thanked him for the deal!

 

Highlights are likely not what you might expect; I actually was most excited to replace my extremely shabby copy of Mappy Land as I've always been partial to arcade ports and this is one that I am glad to have a nice fresh new label of.  It took better than 2 years to find a suitable replacement but it was worth the wait.  Obviously a close second would be the two new titles I added to the collection:  Battle of Olympus and M.C. Kids. From what I can see watching the reviews of these two games they are somewhat under appreciated titles in the NES library.

Nes Carts:  503

Licensed games:  464/687

Nes Pickup - May 21st, 2015

Today I picked up Raid on Bungeling Bay with the box from Shayne.  He had this one set aside for me for awhile but was working out of town until yesterday.  I don't think it's destined to unseat any of my favorite console mainstays but I'm still happy to add it to my collection.

It looks like it was once a rental game but what is fascinating is the fact that it still bears an indexing barcode and a red and silver sticker with the name and address of the Video store. I like to imagine how it came to be in my hands when at least at one point in its life it was approximately 4,500 kms or 2,800 miles away.  How did it cross borders and how many owners did it have before me? These are the thoughts that keep 8bitbobby awake at night.

Thanks Shayne for the great deal once again!

Nes carts:  501

Licensed games:  462/687

Unlicensed games:  39/90

Boxes:  54

Manuals: 80

NES Pickups - May 14-17th, 2015

During my recent father/son trip to Kamloops I picked up a Retron 1 top loading NES console and a new game.  On our way back to Kelowna we stopped in at All-A-Board-Games and picked up the aforementioned console as well as the game Exodus. The guy at the store chuckled a little under his breath and said, well I guess you're all set to play your Bible Game.  Besides a few imported multi-carts this was the only game I didn't have.

On Saturday after work I picked up a Nintendo Advantage controller (as well as an Atari2600 system and some games -- blog entry about this later) from one of my regular traders and then today I went back to his house and traded him an old system of mine I had no interest in keeping for my 500th NES title, Toki, as well as a mint copy of Dragon Warrior III.  

Highlights of this week are everything!  A top loading system so that I can actually play and test my NES games, the NES Advantage controller, and reaching my milestone 500th title with an awesome game in Toki!  Toki is a title I've been trying to get for awhile and so I was very excited to pick this one up. Picking up an uncommon double in Dragon Warrior III was a nice consolation too!

Nes Carts:  500

Bob & Ashton's Excellent Adventure

On Wednesday May 13th I picked up my son, Ashton, from school and we drove a few cities over to Kamloops, BC for a father/son getaway for his birthday.  We had thought about doing a birthday party, but in the end he just wanted to spend some time with me.  I rented us a room at the Maverick Motor Inn and for the next day and a half we played video games, watched raunchy cartoons and ate junkfood!

The Maverick is a cool place with wall to wall VHS movies lining the first 20 or so feet of the ground floor hallway. It was almost like being transported back into a mom and pop video rental store in the 80s.  In addition to the plethora of entertainment they have an indoor waterslide, pool and hot tub.  We checked in after a couple hour drive at around 6pm and then had a swim.  After the swim we dried off, ordered some Papa John's and watched the 3rd period/OT of the game 7 series between the Capitals and the Rangers.

I had hoped to get one of my various NES machines working consistently enough that I could bring our favorite carts with us but in the end we brought my laptop, two USB controllers and my emulators.  This decision meant we were able to play NES and SNES games!  We played through a bit of Zelda 2, some Megaman 2, River City Ransom, and even threw in some Earthbound for good measure.  I honestly thought I'd be teaching my boy the finer points of retro gaming, but it was he that schooled me (on Earthbound).  He showed me his "walk-thru-walls" hack and a speed up hack that made the game move at breakneck speeds.

We chuckled and chowed down.  It was nice to be without distractions, but by 11pm we were both zonked.  Our pact to stay up 'ALL NIGHT' and play video games was short-lived and we crashed early.  I will say that we made up for it though because we got up about 6am the next morning and enjoyed a cup of coffee together before playing some more games and watching several episodes of Family Guy!

We got in another swim before the 11am checkout time and then packed up and went for lunch.  On the way back home we stopped at four retro game and collectibles stores and even managed to pick up a few game-related treats! Back home the girls weren't quite ready with the decorations and preparations ahead of our return so I took Ashton to Scandia Golf & Games and we played a round of Jungle Golf.   I hope it was as rewarding a trip for Ashton as it was for me.  Getting to spend quality time with him was awesome and it felt like it was MY birthday.  We pulled into our driveway around suppertime on Thursday (his actual birthday) and he was showered with hugs, gifts and a gluten-free, homemade cake.

The 5 or so hours we had spent travelling there and back and hanging at the hotel gave way to a lot of fun conversation and more than a few spontaneous Bon Jovi and Metallica karaoke sessions. There were times when he was in the pool that his enthusiasm to show me his underwater skills "watch this dad, watch me dad" transported me back to a time when he was much younger.  I am so glad we took this trip before he gets a little older and doesn't want to hang out with his old man anymore.

NES Pickup - May 10th, 2015

Another quick update to the blog... today after work I took the recently acquired "accidental" double of Adventure Island 2 back to one of my traders and he traded me back that one for a cart I didn't have.  I came home today with Arkista's Ring!  This is a great little adventure game with a bow slinging female main character.  Another of the hidden gems in the NES Library that I missed the first time around and plan to play through and maybe review at a later time.  

Its is amazing how the disappointment I had last entry in getting a game I already had could so quickly be changed by a text on Friday asking if I wanted to trade AI2 back for an even more valuable game that I don't have. 

This is just another example of how awesome and helpful this retro gaming community is.  I was obviously not 'on my game' so to speak when I made the trade last week and ended up with a double and the guy allowed me a do-over. Thank you Nintendo gods!

Nes Carts: 498

Licensed games:  460/687

Misadventure Island

Well I was hoping to have a more exciting post to make today, but alas it was not meant to be.  Even though I picked up 2 games from 2 different sources they were much less satisfying than I had hoped.  Today, direct from eBay, I got a package in the mail with Casino Kid in it.  This is the highlight of the two games and even though the game arrived as described I blame my disappointment on not reading the item description more closely.  The label of the game is clean and intact but the game shell itself is cracked down the right hand side pretty noticeably.  I guess I shouldn't complain though, the buyer shipped it from the US at no charge (and it only cost $4 US to begin with).

The second game I got today was the result of a deal I brokered with one of my contacts.  He had said he had Adventure Island 3.  After some discussion he agreed to trade it to me for 3 of my doubles.  I was still ecstatic as this game is worth much more than those 3 games combined.  Unfortunately when I went to pick the game up after work it was the 2nd installment of the franchise and NOT the highly sought after 3rd. game.  Not sure whether he had read the label wrong or typed 3 instead of 2. Whatever the reason for the mix up it was a little bit of a letdown as I'd really had hoped to get my hands on this one. Perhaps one day I will finish off this very cool but illusive trilogy. On the bright side what I ended up with replaced a slightly flawed version of my Adventure Island II cart so I guess that's all in a day's work, right? As for Casino Kid... slight damage aside it's still a welcome addition to my collection.

Nes Carts:  497

Licensed games:  459/687