Cowlitz Gamers For Kids 2012 Pickups!

Today, I visited the 3rd annual Cowlitz Gamers For Kids show. It's like a miniature Retro Game Expo put on for a good cause. Admission comes in the form of a donation of your choice to the Childrens Justice and Advocacy Center, devoted to children who are victims of sexual or physical abuse. The recommended donation is five dollars; I gave ten. I mean, look at what it's for. I can't just give the minimum.

I'd wanted to give a full report on the event with pictures and videos, but I just didn't have time. It's my brother-in-law's birthday.

But, there were arcade machines and a free-play console game setup just like the one at the Retro Game Expo, as well as a DJ spinning some hilarious and awesome mashups. Also, there was an R.C. Pro Am tournament - again, there was no time to participate.

I walked in with $200 (well, $190 after the donation) and after some serious thought, I decided this time I'd go for rarity/quality over quantity. I picked up some smaller items, mostly for haggle fodder, but it's all good stuff. My collection's getting big enough that there's no reason not to jump on the big games when I've got the chance, so here we go.

Finally, I can review Game Boy Color games.

First, I picked up a Game Boy Player for the Gamecube. While neither the Gamecube or the Game Boy Advance are particularly retro in my opinion, this device is the only way for me to record footage of Game Boy Color games, so yeah, it was important for me to track one down.

These two things have little to do with one another.

Next, Conker's Bad Fur Day and an NES Max controller, I've been needing one. It was dirt cheap anyway. Conker, however, was not dirt cheap.

Woot!

More Nintendo stuff - Famicom games! Dracula-kun, Mother (Earthbound Zero), Dragon Buster and Macross.

More SMS games!

Master System stuff - Double Dragon and Shinobi. No manual in Shinobi, but Double Dragon is complete.

Ooooh.

Lastly, what may well be my favorite of these pickups, Splatterhouse and Raiden for the Turbografx 16!

I'm stoked to pop some of this stuff in and give it a shot. It may not look like much when laid out like this, but many of these aren't exactly the kind of games you'd find in a Goodwill hunt, unless you're really, really lucky. Happy hunting!

Can't Win Em All - Today's Thrift Run

Today's haul is not great.  Not at all.  But, I really wanted to grab some new games, so here we are.

Harvest Moon!

First stop was Salvation Army, which is always hit or miss where retro games are concerned.  Today was a pretty big hit.  Nine Game Boy games in a plastic bag, marked at $10.99 for the lot.  I'd have passed, but then I saw that Mary-Kate and Ashley game...

...actually, it was the Harvest Moon that pushed me over the edge.

The games are Sports Illustrated Golf Classic (valued at about $1), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command ($1), Harvest Moon GBC ($9), The New Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley ($1), Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers ($4), Centipede ($1), Top Rank Tennis ($1), Ultra Golf ($2), and Space Invaders ($4).  So at around $24, this set is the star, regardless of quality. But hey, I love Harvest Moon games.

And the "meh" collection.

Next, a Goodwill.  Sometimes you're out at a store and just think, "Y'know what? Damnit, I need some N64 games."  Then you grab them all up and overpay like crazy.

Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, the games are WCW vs NWO World Tour ($1), Hey You, Pikachu ($2) and Rayman 2 ($6).  I paid almost $13.  Yes, yes, I'm ashamed, but you know what?  I don't care at all abut pro wrestling, and normally dislike pro wrestling games as a result.  Wrestling games developed by AKI, though, are in a class of their own.  I don't mind overpaying for that.

Besides, I'm still up around $10 in final value.  So there!

Another Trip, More Goodies

I figured that, since I've still got my car this weekend, I'd take a trip to Salem for another tour of the numerous thrift stores down there.

As with most of my long thrifting day trips, I wasn't disappointed.

That's some serious hardware.

At the very first Goodwill I checked on the way down, I ran into this: A boxed Super Scope 6.  The box was hiding under a stack of other random boxes next to the register - seriously, guys, check every inch of your thrift stores, you really never know.

All parts for the gun are included as well as the sensor, but the Super Scope 6 cartridge isn't... but I've actually seen people giving the cartridge away, so it shouldn't be hard to track one down.  $24.99, and they go for around $30-40.  Also purchased here but not pictured: a new N64 memory card (or controller pak) for $4.99.  Off to a good start!

Can never have too many of these.  Why?  Bomberman, that's why.

At a Value Village, I picked up another Sega Saturn controller for $2.99.  This is a version one controller, and you can usually pick these up for $10 or so.

Where do these keep coming from?

Lastly, at the same Goodwill where I bought a bunch of 2600 games a few months ago, I found yet another stack.  Where are these coming from?  Is there an infinitely renewing fountain of Atari 2600 games nearby?  If so, where can I find this fountain?

The games are Space Invaders, Cosmic Ark, Demons to Diamonds, Warlords (finally!), Breakaway IV, and Riddle of the Sphinx.  These were $2.99 each, so yes, I grossly overpaid for almost all of them.  Breakaway IV, however, is worth around $5, so there was one decent deal.  I have no problem overpaying for a stack of 2600 games when, on the same trip, I massively underpaid for something else.  It all balances out, you see.

As it turns out, I already had a copy of Space Invaders.  I love overpaying for something I already own.  I can't wait until my Verizon service contract ends so I can activate this Virgin Mobile smartphone.  It'd be so nice to have access to my RF Generation collection list on the go.  There is actually an app for that.

Also, in this same trip, I picked up a Gamecube for $9.99... but that's a discussion for a few years in the future.  Happy hunting, everyone!

Finally, a good hunt.

It was bound to happen eventually, right?  Today I finally took the chance to go out and hit up my favorite thrifting haunts, and while it's not all top-shelf stuff, I feel pretty good getting back in the game.

Too expensive?  Yep.  Do I care?  Nope.

First off, two complete Genesis games, NBA Jam and Eternal Champions for $2.99 each.  I overpaid by quite a lot on both of these super-common titles, but y'know what?  That's fine, sometimes.  Especially when you've been out of the game for a while.

My N64 collection's starting to get somewhere.

Next, three N64 titles at $2.99 each - Blast Corps, Star Fox 64 and Mario Party.  Blast Corps is worth just slightly more than I paid, but with Star Fox 64 worth around $10 and Mario Party at around $19, they really made this trip.  See that Mario Party label, though?  It's covered by the single most vile, horrible and evil thing ever conceived by man - Blockbuster's security stickers.

These stickers are designed so that if you try to remove them, they will literally rip the game's label right off the cartridge.  There's no way to remove them without destroying the label, and this one's got permanent marker all over it.   It just had to be on the biggest prize of the day, didn't it?

There's one of these on my Pokemon Puzzle League, too.  If I ever meet the person who invented these, I'll... have strong words for him.

I'm unashamed to say I love these old Capcom Disney games.

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers for the NES, $4.99 at Value Village.  This one's also just under the estimated value, but that's okay.  It's Chip 'n Dale.

If you're not excited by this, you're clearly not a part of my generation.

Another good, cheap-ish game.

Vectorman 2 for the Genesis for $1.99 at my local Goodwill.  It's worth about what I paid for it, but if I remember correctly, these were pretty good games.  Now I just need to find the first.

There is no way to look cool in 3D glasses.

So, where have I been?  Aside from the the fact that I don't have access to my car as often as I'd like, I've also dropped around $1300 on building a new killer gaming PC, with a Playstation 3D Display as the monitor.  It's a thing of great beauty, and has kept me occupied for a few days now.

Yeah, the real-world Jerry does play modern games.  Not that guy in the videos, though.  He's been stuck in a time loop since 1999.

Talk to him about the Playstation 3, and he'll tell you, "Yeah, I DO have three Playstations."

Goodwill Hunting - More Atari 2600 Finds!

What's cooler than a console with a wood grain sticker on it?

A box for your games with a wood grain sticker on it!

Today's Goodwill finds actually come from of Goodwill's auction site, http://www.shopgoodwill.com.    Goodwill's auctions can be another great source for bulk retro items - but there are a few caveats.  First, it's become quite well known, so don't expect a super-rare game to go for a low price.  Second, the shipping tends to be atrocious, so watch it carefully.  The best course of action, in my opinion, is to watch for local auctions, because that means you can pick it up locally for a much smaller handling fee.

This is an Atari Game Center, a wood grained thing of beauty designed to store your Atari cartridges and peripherals, with a set of grooves on top which snugly fit your console.  Included with the game center are all of the cartridges you see inside, as well as a stack of manuals and inserts!

I love this stuff.

The games are Battlezone, Air-Sea Battle, Ms. Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Asteroids, E.T., Combat, Pole Position, Yar's Revenge, Space Invaders, Vanguard, Jungle Hunt, Surround, 2 copies of Missile Command, 2 copies of Pac-Man, and 3 copies of Berzerk.  There are manuals for most of the games... as well as a few manuals for games that aren't here.  Odd, but cool.  Oh, and there's a comic book for Yar's Revenge!  ...maybe it'll help that game make some sense.  This whole set was only $11, which was a really great deal for everything included.

The pickup location for this was the Goodwill Outlet in Hillsboro, so I stopped in to take a look.  The Goodwill Outlet is affectionately known as "The Bins" because, well, that's exactly what it is.  It's a large store that's simply filled with huge plastic bins.  Your role is to tear through all of the junk (and really, a lot of it is junk) in order to find a gem or two to take home.

The great part about The Bins is that they don't charge per item, they charge per pound.  It's the end of the line for this stuff, so they're less interested in profiting off the items themselves and more interested in getting rid of the bulk that the stores couldn't move.  You will have to dig, but you're almost guaranteed to find something half decent, and at a per-pound price, there's never any reason to leave anything behind.

Bad joke in 3... 2... 1...

I found a copy of Steroids for the Atari 2600.  I thought that game was banned?

"Bins" pickups.

For $1.59, I picked up the notoriously awful Dark Castle for the Sega Genesis, a N64 controller in much better shape than the last few I picked up there, and... oh, it's a copy of Asteroids.  That makes much more sense.

Again, at that price, why leave anything behind?  Of course, I hadn't realized there was a copy of Asteroids in the lot I'd just picked up, but oh well.  Still a great day for deals.

Yard sale season is winding down, so hit those local thrifts, before someone else beats you to it.  And, most of all, have fun!

Yard Sale Adventures: Nintendo 64 stuff, 19 Inch TV

New N64 stuff.

Today's adventure comes from a yard sale rather than a store.  For $40, I picked up another N64 (which will be put up on eBay shortly), a Rumble Pak, a memory card, a memory expansion and six games: Quake II, Goldeneye 007, Duke Nukem 64, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and NFL Quarterback Club 99 (which will likely be sold with the N64).  Looking at files on the memory card shows that the previous owner also had Perfect Dark at some point - too bad that wasn't included.

Two of these things are not like the others.

Also included in the $40 price, a 19-inch tube TV.  It isn't great - there's a zone in the lower right where the color is completely wrong and it buzzes a bit, but it is good enough to give me a start on my new classic game room.

The Famicomplex Museum of Video Game History welcomes you.

Well, technically, my wife keeps reminding me that it's actually the guest bedroom, not my game room.  I say, 'potato potahto'.

OH MY GOD - NINTENDO 64!!!1!

The glaring missing piece in my Nintendo collection, mine at last.

By the time the Nintendo 64 released, I had completely switched focus from Nintendo consoles to Sony, so I missed out on some of the best titles of the era.  The Playstation was loaded with triple-A titles, to be sure, but you'll always pine for the ones you missed out on - hence my recent obsession with Sega's consoles.

This one - though the price tag says otherwise - was purchased at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo for $10.  Something to remember - if you ever find yourself at an expo, convention or trade show and want something relatively common, wait until the last 5 minutes and make a very low offer.  They may haggle the price back up, but they'll almost always agree to knock the price down.  By that point, they're less concerned with the profits and more concerned with hauling all of their merchandise back home.  If it's super-rare and you want it, you're better off snapping it up early before someone else does.

On another note, I haven't been posting much as of late - my wife and I are in the process of moving, but I do have additional finds to talk about/brag about.  Stay tuned!