Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2011 Pickups!

This list of pickups is so big, I decided to do a video as requested!

I babbled on for over a half hour - though I managed to cut it down to just under four minutes.  Put together quickly and unscripted, you'll notice my kittens yelling, microphone gain drops and more fun.  I promise, the next video will be of better quality.  Enjoy!

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!

Sega Genesis Model 2 w/ SegaCD Model 2

Acquired at last year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo, this set ran me $40, and came with two controllers, both A/C adapters and (eww) an RF adapter.  It'll need some cleaning, but otherwise it's great.

Upon trying to start it up, I learned a very important lesson about an untested SegaCD: always test it with a CD-R first.  On first attempt, the drive would not recognize a game disc and cranked out this hideous, holy-shit-I-broke-it kind of scraping noise.  I tried again, same result.  Pulling it out, I was greeted by a deep, circular scratch cut into the surface of the disc.

As it turns out, the spindle is prone to alignment issues - the spindle is actually spinning the disc right into the plastic.

The Genesis sometimes refuses to power up, but if you wiggle the AC plug around in the jack, it'll usually start.  After years of disuse, the solder joints from the jack to the PCB may weaken and break; this is a common issue with the Model 2 Genesis.

More on this set later - I'll document any repairs here.