Games you were stoked about getting.. and they don't work

[retrorussell]

Hey folks.

Kind of a rant and post at once. I went to Game Trader and picked up a Resident Evil Director's Cut Dual Shock for PS1. Hadn't played it since the 90s. Got to enjoy the cheesy dialogue all over again. Anyway, I play through to the dining room (What is it? Look out.. it's a MONSTER! XD) and after I leave and get the lockpick from Barry (because I'm the master of lockpicking) I go back to the hallway where I first met the zombie. I go the other way and open the second to last door... and the game FREEZES. Damn it! Well, I reset the game. I get back there and again, the game freezes in exactly the same spot. This happens right after I leave the "Jill Sandwich" room, too. There are just certain spots the game will freeze at. Damn it, I was so looking forward to this. Now I have to return it. Crap!

 

What are your "won't work" stories?

[Punisher5.0]

I had a messed up version of Metroid Prime for GameCube. The game would lock up on one of the elevators. Tried it several times. I bought it brand new when the game first came out.

[MagitekAngel]

Skyrim on PS3?

[Tr3vor]

Not really a classic game, but MGS4 on the ps3. it died half way through the game...

[BillyHW]

Super Mario Bros. on my brand new NES. It just kept blinking. It took me a while to figure out that you had to press the cartridge down.

[GKC]

Doom for the SNES. I've gotten two copies in the past year or so and both will play the intro music and display the intro background but then won't do anything else. They do this on two different SNES's.

[Rex Dart]

Mousetrap, the board game.

 

Also, a friend of mine got a strangely-damaged copy of one of those 3d Castlevania games for PS2. The wall and floor textures slid around like you'd expect a sky texture to do, you could walk through the same door four times and never wind up in the same room, and the player icon on the map was way, way outside of the drawn map. Took it back for another copy and the new one worked fine.

I kinda liked the scrambled copy.

[TheGameCollector]

Mousetrap, the board game.

 

Also, a friend of mine got a strangely-damaged copy of one of those 3d Castlevania games for PS2. The wall and floor textures slid around like you'd expect a sky texture to do, you could walk through the same door four times and never wind up in the same room, and the player icon on the map was way, way outside of the drawn map. Took it back for another copy and the new one worked fine.

I kinda liked the scrambled copy.

 

Sounds almost like AVGN's glitch gremlin copy of Rocky for PS2.

[Tr3vor]

Mousetrap, the board game.

 

Also, a friend of mine got a strangely-damaged copy of one of those 3d Castlevania games for PS2. The wall and floor textures slid around like you'd expect a sky texture to do, you could walk through the same door four times and never wind up in the same room, and the player icon on the map was way, way outside of the drawn map. Took it back for another copy and the new one worked fine.

I kinda liked the scrambled copy.

 

Sounds almost like AVGN's glitch gremlin copy of Rocky for PS2.

 

Its a Clubberfuck! lol

[TheGameCollector]

Mousetrap, the board game.

 

Also, a friend of mine got a strangely-damaged copy of one of those 3d Castlevania games for PS2. The wall and floor textures slid around like you'd expect a sky texture to do, you could walk through the same door four times and never wind up in the same room, and the player icon on the map was way, way outside of the drawn map. Took it back for another copy and the new one worked fine.

I kinda liked the scrambled copy.

 

Sounds almost like AVGN's glitch gremlin copy of Rocky for PS2.

 

Its a Clubberfuck! lol

 

It really had me wondering if he used an Action Replay disc or if his game disc was literally damaged that badly.

[Tr3vor]

Mousetrap, the board game.

 

Also, a friend of mine got a strangely-damaged copy of one of those 3d Castlevania games for PS2. The wall and floor textures slid around like you'd expect a sky texture to do, you could walk through the same door four times and never wind up in the same room, and the player icon on the map was way, way outside of the drawn map. Took it back for another copy and the new one worked fine.

I kinda liked the scrambled copy.

 

Sounds almost like AVGN's glitch gremlin copy of Rocky for PS2.

 

Its a Clubberfuck! lol

 

It really had me wondering if he used an Action Replay disc or if his game disc was literally damaged that badly.

 

I don't know, but whatever it was, it was hilarious.

[FireStar]

My copy of Pac-man world 2 for PS2 from my Pac-man Power pack refuses to go past the "Playstation 2" screen, which sucks since I have fond memories of playing it on Gamecube, before I traded it away.

[BydoEmpire]

A few weeks ago I picked up Super Sprint and Pinbot for the NES at Game Traders. Can't get either one to start up. I'm sure they need a good cleaning, but I replaced my 72 pin a few years ago and while a lot of games have been touchy, I haven't had much trouble getting them to run. Tempted to take them back, but I'm hoping a cleaning will work (or I'll try them again if I get a NES clone at some point).

[+thegoldenband]

Sounds almost like AVGN's glitch gremlin copy of Rocky for PS2.

Its a Clubberfuck! lol

It really had me wondering if he used an Action Replay disc or if his game disc was literally damaged that badly.

I don't know, but whatever it was, it was hilarious.

 

Yes, that had me laughing convulsively.

 

I think the only game I've ever gotten like this was a copy of Comix Zone for Genesis that didn't work. Of course, the fact that it looked like a dog had taken out its frustrations on the cart may have had something to do with it!

 

Actually, I also bought a used copy of Metroid Prime that kept failing with an unreadable disc error, but one resurfacing + one disc cleaning = a working copy (at least as far as I played it).

 

There were also all the NES games that gave me a miserable time BITD, but that was the console's fault. I remember when I bought Captain Comic off Ebay in 1999 and couldn't get it to work until I did the 10NES mod -- then everything was golden.

[Reaperman]

When it was new, (9/9/'99) I had a helluva time getting a working airforce delta for dreamcast. Seems a whole bunch of them were defective, and after my 3rd copy from the mall shop (software etc?) I had to take my money to the local game shop across the parking lot to get one that would even boot. The nice guys at the mall even let me open one up and try it on their demo box and it wouldn't boot.

 

More recently I ordered a metroid ii for gb, and I must have cleaned it for half an hour. the best I could get out of it was a horizontal line after the successful 'nintendo' post. Tried multiple systems, cleaned it with both alcohol and eraser--game was just dead... I really want to play me some metroid ii.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Reaperman

[DemonoidTentacle]

Years ago I bought Ducktales for the NES off eBay. It didn't work. I looked at the board, and it looked like there was a tiny overload and had an electrical blowout. Thankfully I contacted the guy and sent him photo's and he gave me a refund. It's a cool paperweight though.

[ahuffman]

My first copy of Twilight Princess for the Gamecube froze consistently early on in the game. So frustrating, at least a resurfacing fixed it. I also had a different problem with Guilty Gear XX Accent Core. I was happy to get it for a good price, until I opened it and found another game disk inside (Gowcaiser?). Could not believe that one.

[NE146]

5200 Mr. Do's Castle. I got it from Sears and it came with something loose in the cart. It never worked of course. And I never got to play it at all until the internet age.

[jhd]

Many years ago I purchased a big lot of games for the 2600. I was really excited about playing Dragonfire and that was the one game in the lot that would not work, even after a thorough cleaning. I still don't have a replacement copy.

[mbd30]

This is what sucks most about the shift from cartridges to optical media. Used games are always scratched up. Idiots don't know how to treat discs.

 

Now that we have eg. flash drives that can hold many gigs, it seems like we shouldn't have to rely on optical media anymore. (And I know that the trend is towards all downloadable content, which sucks as well.)

Edited February 27, 2012 by mbd30

[Animan]

Metroid for the NES I bought from a used game store a year or two back. No amount of cleaning solution, cotton swabs, and love taps onto the cartridge and NES would get that game to budge. Ever.

Edited February 27, 2012 by Animan

[CorTat-G]

Last week I bought Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for Gamecube. I had the game when I was younger, and I wanted to play it again. Bought it at Gamestop, And it was too damaged and didn't work! I returned it wanting to exchange it and they didn't have another copy and none of the surrounding stores had one, and they said they will stop carrying Gamecube games in April. So I got a refund and bought it off gamestop's Website(Had to pay extra for Shipping). hope this one works.

 

Since Gamecube games have a smaller disc, Fewer scratches will ruin them then the Average-Sized discs.

[CorTat-G]

UPDATE: I recevied it in the mail today and it works perfectly!

[Crazy Climber]

Guerilla War - Actual arcade machine

I wasn't overly excited about playing it as I've played GW a million times already, just thought it would look sweet next to my other SNK dynamo cabs and give the room some needed ambiance (spellcheck?) anyways, plugged it in and waited for the glow of the monitor and marquee but nothing. Now I had a non working guerilla war that I paid too much for making my arcade look worse....eventually it worked fine but took a lot of troubleshooting/etc which is annoying for a game you were not that excited about in the first place, lol.

[TheGameCollector]

Oh this is the perfect time to talk about the time I got an untested lot of Atari carts. I had this copy of Pac-Man that sat in an attic too close to a copy of Yars' Revenge for years. I heard something rattling in the cart when I shook it and I opened it above the toilet as many dead winged bugs that looked like the bug on the cover of Yars' Revenge fell out. It was the only cart that didn't work.