Goodwill Hunting - Pitfall 3D and Game & Watch Gallery

Eh, why not?

Planted firmly in the "it was on sale, so why not?" territory are these two pickups from 2 days ago.  Pitfall 3D was half off at around $1.50, Game & Watch Gallery at it's regular price of $4. Neither have very much value, so this isn't a pickup for the record books.

In other news, It looks like I'll be needing a bit more time on my current game review, so I'll be bumping up the review of the PowerPak to this week.  Look for it soonish!

I Do Still Hunt, I Swear.

Guess what?  I'm still here.

Let's start off by repeating what was already said in the video - Fami-complex is a year old as of yesterday!  It's hard to believe it has already been a year.  So much has happened in so little time!

I'm sorry about the lack of content lately, aside from the regular review episodes.  I haven't had access to my car regularly, which means I haven't been taking my regular thrifting trips.  As a result, of course, I have less pickups and less new acquisitions to talk about.

But, I will, of course, update when I'm able to make it out.

Today's trip was a fairly successful one - I picked up Resident Evil 2 for the Playstation and Pro Wrestling for the NES at just under $5.  I overpaid for Pro Wrestling (which is at around $1), but Resident Evil 2 was a pretty good deal (at around $7).

The best deal, however, came from last weekend, when I hit up a new and unfamiliar Value Village, finding a Sega Saturn backup cartridge for just $2!  The official cartridge generally sells for around $50, so this is a steal.

Oddly enough, I'm most excited about Pro Wrestling, common and cheap as it is.  It's one of those games I played a ton as a kid and haven't touched since.  I always played as Starman.

Real men wear pink leotards.

I mean, just look at him.  So calm.  So mysterious.  Is he from Mexico?  What is his date of birth?  Did he accidentally throw his white costume in the washer with his red towels?  The world will never know.

Goodwill Hunting and a Value Village Pillage - NES, Playstation Games and Genesis cleaning kit

W.ho keeps the box for their cleaning kit?

Yesterday was a very, very good thrifting day.  Value Village makes it's first appearance on this blog in style, with a fantastic deal.  As pictured above, The Legend of Zelda II, Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5.  Also, a Sega Genesis official cleaning kit, which is in the original box.  Why would you keep the box?  I'm not complaining, but that seems like an odd box to hang on to.

Anyway, the total cost was $17.96.  Mega Man 5 alone sells for around $25, so I'm pretty happy with the result.  The Zelda II cart, however, is damaged in such a way that the connector inside retreats into the case when you try to insert it.  I'll take a shot at fixing it once I get a gamebit to open the thing up.

Hell yeah, Bushido Blade.

The Goodwill finds are significantly less impressive, but far more... bladey.  A Greatest Hits copy of Soul Blade and Bushido Blade for the Playstation.  This was purchased along with an original model Playstation 2 - which is outside of the scope of this blog - for $19.97.  With a $15 store credit, I paid $4.98 out of pocket and couldn't pass it up.

All in all, a very, very good trip.

The Cutting Edge of The Past - Sony's 1995 E3 Keynote

I haven't been around much lately.  Why?  Among other things, it's E3 time.

Yes, I do play modern video games as well.

Anyway, with all the E3 excitement, why not take a look at the very first?  Here's the background - Sega is still relevant, Nintendo still cares about the gamer and Sony is the newcomer with a lot to prove.  Here's the full Sony keynote speech from 1995.  Enjoy!

Sorry about the owner of the video spamming his URL every 5 seconds.  This is the best complete video I was able to find.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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!

Playstation RPGs - A Collection In Progress

Oh, the hours these games have eaten.

My wife and I don't always see eye-to-eye on this classic gaming stuff, but the one thing we can agree on is this: PlayStation-era RPGs had it right.  These were the glory days of Squaresoft, but they weren't alone - Japanese companies were churning out hit after hit, and some of the best role-playing games ever made landed here.

Our (that's right, 'our') meager collection of RPGs barely scratches the surface of what's out there, but isn't that what this blog is all about?

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a holdover from my original collection, one of the games I couldn't bear to part with.  Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Anthology, Final Fantasy Chronicles and Chrono Cross are games I married into (score!).

I once had a copy of Xenogears, but my young, naive self loaned it to a friend of a friend - not one of my brighter decisions.  Of course, I never saw it again.

This copy was purchased at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year for $35.  The Final Fantasy VII was purchased there, too... at only $30.

Oh, and it's the black label misprint version, too.

No, you can't borrow it.