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!

 

1-800-How's my Gaming?

I can sit and watch my 11 year old play Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for hours and it never ceases to amaze me how proficient he has become.  Clearly it didn't always come this easy to him, and that makes me think back to my younger years.  Whereas now companies like Brady Games put out catalogues giving players the in-depth scoop on EVERY aspect of the games and YouTube-rs post video walkthroughs (virtual spoilers if you will) that tell you step-by-step how to beat a game, gamers from MY generation were forced to spend hours trying to figure out the puzzles by ourselves.  In effect, Nintendo and other such companies raised an army of Beta testers.  It was the gamers of the 70s and 80s who exposed every glitch, bug and weakness of the game designs.

When we didn't have time to beat our heads against the wall trying over and over to figure out the obscure puzzles that each game presented (think Castlevania) we had 2 choices:

1)  we had to subscribe to Nintendo Power magazine and hope that they articled our exact dilemma between their pages (or be one of those lucky enough to have this magazine in their supermarket or bookstore so you could peruse its contents on the newsstand).  This would suffice temporarily until the owner caught you "sneaking a peek" and then you might as well have had a men's magazine in your hands for the ire it brought.

OR....

2) as a last ditch effort we called the Nintendo Game Counselor Hotline.  The adverts would always require you to get a parent's permission before calling, but once I placed the call I don't ever remember them asking to speak to my mom before I was connected to one of their "Gurus". It wasn't as though I would call for every little problem I encountered in a game, but I remember all too well the expression on my mom's face when the phone bill arrived...  I could have made a long distance call to Guam during peak hours for less than it cost to defeat the last few palaces of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.  Don't get my wrong, despite the invoice amount at the bottom of our phone bill you really couldn't put a price on being able to forge ahead in your game (not to mention the bragging rights you had for being the first person on your block to get that far -- even if you needed help).

Looking back on it now I realize the value these challenges had in terms of making us better problem solvers.  For those that didn't have the option of calling a Hotline they became stronger through trial and error (employing EVERY item in their inventory for EVERY possible purpose regardless of how ludicrous it seemed) and for those who did end up making a call (or several) we became experts at shorthand (furiously jotting game codes, cheats, and secrets into our spiral notebooks like crib notes for an exam) and experienced negotiators when it came time to repaying the debts incurred trying to advance further in our games.

... The New Batch (NES Update: April - July, 2013)

Wow... my last entry was way back in March.  Guess this is why I'll never make a living as a blogger.  Let's see... when we last checked in my collection had grown to 326 carts.

Unfortunately I got caught up in my Arcade cabinet software installations and didn't keep better records of where and when I got my last couple bunches of games, but  as of today my collection now stands at:  366!

My favorites from this last batch of games are the 2 American video carts:  Puzzle and Pyramid, my 2 new black box games:  Gumshoe and Ice Climber and my arcade ports:  Joe and Mac, Xenophobe, Mappy and 1943.  In addition I added Yoshie's Cookie, Gremlins 2, another Camerica Gold cart in Quattro Arcade, and of course a few of the Tengen games: Klax and especially Pacmania!

According to my collection analysis I still have a LONG way to go in obtaining a copy of each game released, but I have collected 44.74% of the complete series thus far.  I thank my luck stars that not only does my wife allow me to house this collection in our dining room but that she picks up games for me when she sees them too and is responsible for a lot of the titles I have managed to procure over the years. Along with the games I picked up a couple of new manuals: Tetris, Breakthru, Tag Team Wrestling, Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout, and Deadly Towers.  I have now gathered 38 unique and complete instruction manuals.  Not all that impressive, but it's nice to get them every now and then without having to fork over money that I'd rather put towards rounding out the cart collection.  Looking forward to the next big milestone which will be reaching the 400 mark.  Any predictions as to when that might happen?  Leave your guesses in the comments below.

Back in the saddle

Wow!  It's really been awhile.  My foray into the arcade cabinet building world behind me now, and the winter months firmly in my rear-view mirror, I can get back to collecting my NES carts.

This past Sunday I returned to the flea market only to find that one of my regular go-to guys for nes games had re-filled his coffers and stocked his table with a bunch of new games that I didn't have.  If money were no object I probably would have slapped down a lot more than I did, but instead I exercised some restraint and only parted with a few bills.  In the end I still think I got a great haul.  Combined with a few games I got here and there since my last collection update I sit currently at:   326 carts

My personal favorite acquisitions from the past little while would be:
The Lone Ranger, Supercars, and Bill & Ted's Excellent adventure.

A couple of quick plugs, I use the app:  Nes Collector to organize my game collection.  It's an easy-to-use app for maintain quick lists of the games you have, the games you want and even allows you to export lists via email.   For more info check out their homepage:

PureGaming.org

and to view my game collection online go to:

8bitbobby's nes collection on puregaming.org

Fade to Black

Now this $h!t gets real!

I was never big on shopping as a kid and avoid the mall at all costs (even to this day), but there was something about the prospect of picking up the paint and brushes that really made me excited. My wife and I picked the kids up from school and headed to Home Depot to get the paint.  The sales guy was very helpful and even though I went in there with a plan in mind to buy primer (tinted grey as the plans prescribed), in the end he steered me towards a beautiful primer and paint in one.  Once we chose the finish we wanted we poured over swatches in various shades of dark grey and black until we found THE one.

Paint and brushes in hand we headed home.  It was at this point we decided on which graphic we would use for the marquee. The machine was going to be black there really was no other choice for me, but it is nicely set off by the light and bold marquee that Missy suggested we use.  The two I had printed were polar opposites.  The first was a stark black image with MAME in the standard font surrounded by characters from the various games, but the image below just said so much more in its simplicity.  We both loved the font that was used in it and it maintains a retro-feel through it's use of the Galaxian colors and font style.

All day long I was pacing like a lost puppy -- threatening to paint this cabinet before the day was through.  When in the early afternoon my wife said to me: "What is the reason why you want to paint it?  Is it because you want to have done the whole thing yourself?"  I thought for a moment and replied that no, it wasn't that.  Instead it was just that I wanted to do it right then and there; even though we had so many other things around the house that needed doing.  It was at that moment that Missy offered to paint the whole thing for me if I could put the kids to bed.  And she did.  In all she must have spent 6 hours painting it.  I felt like Miyagi in the Karate kid watching her technique and bellowing encouragement.  I kept the kids at bay and put them to sleep as promised and kept her coffee mug topped up and in return she took this chunk of wood (or several I guess) and transformed them into a living, breathing thing that surpassed my wildest hopes for this project when I started.

The early evening consisted of setting out drop cloths and painting the remaining pieces that were not yet attached to the cabinet:  the speaker grill, the front panel and the rear panel. While these dried Missy proceeded to paint the entire cabinet top to bottom, inside and out and despite the fact that I told her that some parts that were getting paint didn't need it, as they would be covered up by other pieces anyway, she insisted that every nook and cranny be painted.  It was at this point that I shut my big mouth and let the master work.

When the loose pieces had got a 2nd coat and dried I proceeded to affix the speakers to the grill piece.  I took some cloth from an old pair of black dress pants and stretched it over each grill and stapled them in place.  Once the squares of fabric were tacked down I screwed one end of an L bracket into the speaker and the other end into the wood.

Next I started to install the remaining pieces and then step back and look at my handiwork and Missy's Sistene Chapel.  Wow!  I could not believe how much difference the paint made. I couldn't help but snap a bunch of pictures of the process including a before/after shot of one side.  

Once I was satisfied the paint had dried I test fit the controller again and then put the tower and monitor back in place and fired it up for another software preview. The system stayed this way for about another week before the final few steps were undertaken. But that... is a blog for another time.

My wife worked diligently on this project until the wee hours of the morning and I think when she took a step back and looked at her paint job I think she fell in love with the project too.  The fact that she is going to let it reside in our dining room until it finds a permanent home out in my workshop speaks volumes on how much she believes in what we created and how cool she is.  Thank you!

The final push before painting

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity (despite the fact my blog hasn`t been updated in awhile). Between entries I have been studying the cabinet design plans and tweaking the software. In the last few weeks I received the coin-box I ordered from X-gaming.com, got the marquee printed at work and  finished the cuts on the remaining pieces.

Last Wednesday I had high hopes of painting but as is the case with first-time DIY projects I had to fix a few oversights as well as finish building the keyboard drawer, cutting and fitting the coin-box and cutting the grill for the speakers.

The cabinet plans called for a drawer about 20x16 inches deep, but I simplified this a little bit because I happened to find a pair of drawer sliders in the garage that would work fine.  In the end, the keyboard drawer is about 9 inches deep and when pulled out I have access to a standard sized keyboard and that is good enough for my use.  I forgot to take pictures of this process but it was a little bit tedious to get the measurements just so.  You want the keyboard drawer (when recessed) to be flush with the strip that resides under the controller and so you need to eyeball where the sliders that attach to the inside of the cabinet should be screwed in place to achieve this.  It took some time but the end result is well worth it.

The coin-box actually went alot smoother than I thought.  The outside edge has a lip around it that hides jigsaw cuts that suffer from too much caffeine.  I had a good look at cabinets online for placement and improvised a bit.  The model of coin-box I purchased was a single slot variety so I decided the best thing to do was to center it into the bottom front panel of my machine.  I also at this time decided I wouldn`t put the piano hinge on the front.  The coin-box is made of cast iron and quite heavy and so I wanted a solid plane to install it to.

So once I got my placement I proceeded to cut the 10x7inch hole for the coin-box.  I sanded out the rough spots and did a couple of test fitments.  I wanted a very snug fit for the coin-box so I was a little frugal with the blade.  In the picture below you can see both the fitment of the coin-box as well as the keyboard drawer in place.

Next I took my cut of wood for the speaker area and measured equal distance from the top and sides and traced two CD-sized circles into the wood.  I then lightly measured a grid across each and colored in the grill    
(rounding the edges of each cut I was going to make).   After both sides were traced into the wood I drilled a hole with a half inch bit into the end of each cut I was going to make and used the jigsaw for the rest.  If you are like me you`ll find that it can be very difficult to get the cuts straight in such a confined area, but once sanded and painted the inconsistencies tend to disappear.

After I had all the pieces cut to spec I could prepare for Thursday`s painting extravaganza. To so do, Melissa and I wrestled this beast into the house.  Since I forgot to take pictures of the speaker grill cuts I offer a few more shots below from in the house with all the hardware installed. (It stayed like this until the next evening when the painting began -- the kids got a sneak peek of the games they will hopefully enjoy playing in the future).

P.S.  My daughter was really taken with Frogger....

Baby got back!

Maybe it's just human nature to allow our excitement and emotion to get the best of us.  After a week away from the project I was able to refocus on it these past few days and step back and look at it with a more critical eye. What became glaringly obvious was that I rushed a few parts and, as a result,  the base of the cabinet was crooked. Thankfully this was a somewhat easy fix that just required detaching the base from one side and reattaching it after I had ensured both ends were equal distance from the bottom of the plywood.  I left about a 1.5"gap on all sides just in case I decide to use casters on the bottom.

Once I was happy with where the base was I was able to move on.  I deviated a little bit from the plans at this point cut a few pieces of plywood to the 20" width that is (or at least should be if my measurements and design to this point are correct) the interior width of the cabinet.  These cut pieces will form the back of the cabinet.  In total there are 3 pieces for this part.  The first piece is the angled top piece, the second extends down about half of the back of the cabinet and the third piece is the bottom back piece.  The bottom piece will be on a piano hinge and allow access to the interior of the cabinet.   The uppermost pieces I concentrated on first as they required a bevel to be cut into them so they would fit together and carry the angle created by the sides.  The plans called for a table saw to cut the bevels, but I had to make do with my circular saw.  The angle piece required a 35 degree bevel at one end and a 25 degree bevel at the other.  The second piece required a 25 degree bevel (to meet up with the 35 on the first cut piece) and the last piece could be cut straight at both ends.  Since the first two pieces were a little more critical and cutting off the last piece to fit snug is a lot easier I chose this route.

After all three pieces were cut I held them in place while my beautiful wife took some pictures with my Ipod.    This would be a perfect opportunity to thank her for the yummy snacks and hot beverages she always comes to the rescue with, the countless interruptions when I've had to call her out to help me hold a piece in place so I could secure it, stand the cabinet up, lay the cabinet down, etc. -- and apologize for the constant trail of sawdust footprints I leave in the entry way and on my clothing.

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

At this point I can almost picture it finished with a nice high-gloss back paint.  I can see that my bevels were not perfect but I'm confident with a little bit of filler and some touch up paint none would be the wiser. I removed the pieces one at a time marking the placement of each underneath with pencil.

 

The cabinet plans call for only the uppermost piece to be secured in place while the other two are set aside until after painting.  So I laid the cabinet (gently) on it's side and marked on that piece where I would sink my screws and started them all beforehand.   After I had attached it and I was happy with the placement I put the machine back up on it's feet and put the other two cut pieces in place just to make sure everything was still a snug fit.

I took a screwdriver and went around my cabinet countersinking as many of the screws as I could.  Some could not be countersunk and so there will be little bumps here and there.  Next I took wood filler and proceeded to fill all holes. Unfortunately this is where I had to pack it in while I waited filler to cure.

>>>   Next week... we paint the town (Black).