A Killer Craigslist Score

There hasn't been much movement in my collection lately - but, a couple of days ago, I bought a pretty fantastic grab bag of video games on Craigslist, all for $40.  Here goes:

That's two NES systems, one apparently a repair project.

First off, two NES systems, both of which seem to have been serviced.  Sadly, though, they seem to have been serviced by someone without the slightest clue what they were doing.  One had a faulty latch in the cartridge tray which he 'fixed' by removing the springs so the cartridge just drops.  Ugh.  The other... I'm not really sure what he was trying to do.

Regardless, one reconditioned cartridge connector later, one of them is in perfect working order.  The other will be in working order once I replace the defective cartridge tray.

Games included were Star Wars, Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.  Also included but not pictured was a grey Zapper - no controllers or AC adapters included.

Woo, PSOne with LCD!

The stars here are the Playstation One with LCD, and another black label misprinted Final Fantasy VII.  This one is in far better shape than the copy I had, so this one goes in the collection while the old one goes to ebay to recoup my costs.  Also included was a Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, in a Crash Bandicoot Warped case for some reason.

The original model Playstation pictured here is an enigma.  Consider this:

...huh?

You can see in the picture above that our previous owner installed a chip.  Vertically.  Since the case wouldn't fit back on with this vertical chip in place, he cut a hole in the case and wrapped the edges in electrical tape.

So, okay.  People make mistakes where soldering irons are involved.  It's ugly, but it works, right?

Yes, this is a real thing I own, thanks to an old friend who knows me very well.

Well, no, not really.  I popped in my copy of 'Minimoni Shakka To Tambourine Da Pyon!' and got the familiar "Please insert a PlayStation format disc' screen.  I also tried a burned disc, which also did nothing.  My copy of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete booted right up, though, faster and smoother than my old Playstation.

So, the question remains - is it installed badly, or does it just not do anything?  I don't care enough to dig in and find out - this thing has no resell value and will be relegated to the parts pile.

As a side note, the PSOne LCD's backlight doesn't work, and something seems to have come loose internally and is just flopping around inside.  The PSOne has also been opened; the warranty seal has been breached.  I'm terrified to open it up - who knows what manner of badly installed devices I'll find in there?  The LCD repair, however, will be a topic for another blog entry some time later.

Also, Sega stuff.

Lastly, this grab bag of stuff also included Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (AKA Puyo Puyo), Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Bust-a-Move 4 for the Dreamcast.  I already own Sonic 2, and it has little value, I'll be hanging on to it in case I need something to give away with a later Genesis repair and resell.

Also of note, there was also some great PS2 stuff, but that's a little too new for our tastes.  Next generation I'll come back to it.

Had a great Craigslist experience?  Tell us about it in the comments!