Silverfleet

Centipede - Atari 2600 Galaxian - Atari 2600 Chrono Trigger - SNES

I'll be following this thread. I have a very small game room, and it's getting overcrowded with stuff and needs an overhaul.

Ha, that's awesome! I had the pleasure of seeing King Diamond last fall perform Abigail front to back on tour. A buddy of mine got free tickets through his work, and we sat about 5 rows back from the stage. Absolutely incredible. They were sold out of the album by that stop on the tour, so I was happy to snag this one for the collection. And I don't consider Accept or King Diamond to be "Hair Metal" in any way. The others though... well, judge for yourselves:

I haven't contributed to this thread in a while. I had last Friday through yesterday off, and I went out hunting a few times for games and vinyl. I've been striking out for the past 6 months whenever I go looking, but this time I actually found some stuff! First, the records: I have a thing for 80's Hair Metal records, and I picked up a few from a couple different shops. The Steely Dan record was a nice snag too, because it has a lot of their good stuff on there. And a Dr. Demento record? I had to buy that! The King Diamond one was not cheap, but it's a limited reproduction in blue 180 gram vinyl, and it's tough to find. Yesterday, I hit up a junk shop that's in my rotation of stops, as well as a Salvation Army I never find anything at. Both stops were kind to me. I got all this: The games are as follows: Xbox: Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Star Wars: The Clone Wars/Tetris Worlds Splinter Cell Wii: Astro Boy PS2: Spy Hunter Sky Odyssey Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows Bully PS1: Rayman Genesis: Sonic Spinball Atari 2600: Shark Attack (not pictured) Kangaroo w/instructions SNES: (not pictured) Extra Innings Misc: ST: DS9 Chief O'Brien CIB ST:TNG Enterprise D Schematic Mug Super Mario Super Show DVD Sherwood RX-4109 Digital Receiver I'm especially pumped about the receiver. My old early 80's Technics that I have for my turntable rig was giving me trouble, and the speakers were constantly cutting in and out. I've been on the hunt for a decent replacement, and this Sherwood was a $20 gamble from the Salvation Army. I am running a pair of 80's Mirage bookshelf speakers through it and an old-school Gemini DJQ1200 turntable, and it sounds AWESOME. The thing absolutely cranks!!!

Yeah, it's a good one for sure. I also picked up a few games from the Playstation Store over the weekend during the Flash Sale. It wasn't one of the games on sale, but I picked up Shovel Knight after hearing a million people talk about how great it is. And IT IS AWESOME!!! They nailed the retro vibe with this game, and it's so much fun to play. Really enjoying this one.

I watched the video over the weekend. What a find!!! I remember reading about the DD and wanting one after all the 90's gaming magazines were talking about a new/expanded Zelda game coming out for it. Back then, I had actually bought a N64 just because of Ocarina of Time, so seeing previews of Ura Zelda on the DD had me wanting to pick one up. And then, it never came out. I was bummed. Hopefully someone can figure out what is on that game disk!

I'll play! In order of purchase/acquisition, to the best of my memory: Colecovision NES Game Boy Genesis SNES Saturn N64 Playstation Game Boy Advance Atari 2600 Turbografx 16 Game Boy Color Playstation 2 Dreamcast Sega Nomad Xbox Game Gear Intellivision 3DO Nintendo DS Lite PSP Xbox 360 Sega Master System Neo Geo Pocket Color Wii Vectrex Atari Jaguar Atari 5200 Sony Xperia Play (Playstation Smartphone) PS3 Famicom I still have all of my original consoles from my childhood! The Colecovision was technically my older sister's that she got on Christmas of '82, but I played it too before I got my NES. When she became disinterested in video games, I saved it from getting tossed, an I still have it today! Over the years, I did pick up a lot of multiples and variants. As far as those go: Colecovision: My OG console! Also have Expansion Module #1. Atari 2600: 1 Telegames light sixer and 1 Atari woodgrain 4-switch NES: 5 or 6 "toasters", 1 CIB Action Set, one CIB basic set Genesis: 2 "High Definition Graphics" Model 1 consoles, and a Power Base Converter SNES: CIB basic set, and it's not yellow! N64: CIB Atomic Purple Controller edition Playstation: 4-5 consoles total, 2 early ones with the composite out, 1 CIB later one without the serial I/O port (not a PSOne) Playstation 2: 3 "Fat" consoles, 1 CIB Slim, 2 CIB "Fats" Game Boy: original "brick" model, not working too well and needs a screen replacement Game Boy Advance: one white original, one CIB glacier blue transparent, and one ice blue AGS-101 SP (whatever the one with the good screen is) GBC: Atomic Purple console Xbox: 2 CIB consoles and one loose, one is soft modded Xbox 360: 1 original CIB "Table Tennis" set (it RRoD'ed), 1 HDMI white 360, and 1 slim model PS3: one CIB "The Last Of Us/Batman Arkham Origins" super slim console Sega Master System: original style model Game Gear: 3 of them that don't work, all need to be recapped, LCD modded, etc Neo Geo Pocket Color: blue Urban Camo model Atari 5200: 4-port model Intellivision: 2 original consoles, both boxed but not complete 3DO: Goldstar model Wii: 2 white consoles, both modded, one CIB Famicom: A/V-modded original model PSP: PSP-3000 in silver, CIB "Daxter" edition Dreamcast: 3 of them, one launch system, and one CIB (had a Sega Sports one but someone stole it) NDS Lite: CIB I think that's everything. The only thing I used to have that I wish I still had was my family's Apple IIe. My uncle worked as a programmer for Apple and created some printer interface plugin or something like that and retired early. He gave us a brand new IIe back around 1985, and I loved that thing. My mom gave it to her friend when we bought our Gateway 2000 with the Pentium MMX chip because it was "some old, useless computer". I was not happy. I kinda wish I still had that Gateway too.

Nintendo Power started it with me, but I lost interest once I bought a Genesis in '91, so I started buying GamePro and then EGM. I also got Sega Visions for a while when it was around. Mid-90's EGM was AWESOME and was my go-to mag for a long time. Loved the Bizarre Letter of the Month. Captain Calzone FTW! I started reading Game Informer around 2000-01 along with Official US Playstation Magazine. I got suckered into a GI subscription at GameStop, but I actually liked the magazine. Always loved the retro section in the back of the mag!

Started playing Dragon's Crown over the weekend, and I'm loving it! It brings back memories of Guardian Heroes on the Saturn or one of the AD&D side scrolling beat-em-ups that Capcom made in the 90's. If you don't have it, I'd pick it up now before prices go up. It's an Atlus game, and they have been trending upwards lately.

I still like going to flea markets, yard sales, and junk shops trying to find a good deal on something. I'm no completionist, but I like picking up games for cheap. I've scored big time in the past on stuff, but I don't see many deals like I used to anymore. For instance, about 6 years ago, I went to a few yard sales and spent $55 on two Telegames 6-switch consoles (one with instructions), about 15-20 boxed games (most were sealed!) joysticks, paddles, an Atari hardshell briefcase, a N64 with 10 games, and a PS2 game with a strategy guide. That would cost about $400 here now. But sometimes the deals are still out there, and it's fun to hunt. At least for me it is! I just know now not to always expect to come home with stuff. On emulation... I've been doing it since the mid 1990's. I still have floppies with Atari roms on them somewhere! I love using my softmodded Wii to play all sorts of retro consoles. It probably gets the most use out of any console in my house right now. Sometimes, there's nothing like playing on the original consoles though.

I went to a retro store recently that was selling Jack Nicklaus Golf for $10 loose. Out of the 100+ NES games they had, that was the cheapest. Most of the "common" games that you could get anywhere, like Bases Loaded, SMB/Duck Hunt, etc. were $15-20 and up!!! Hell, they had Combat for the 2600, one of the cheapest, most common games in existence for anything, for $8. I walked right out of that place laughing!

I might be alone, but I actually like my "toaster" better than the top loader. I disabled the 10NES, did a new 72-pin, and just clean my games. Works pretty well! One thing I've never tried is bending the pins on an original 72-pin connector. I have a few spare systems kicking around, so I should try that.

I don't know if I'll ever really be done, but I have definitely slowed down. Three big reasons for this: Cost. Prices have skyrocketed in the past few years, and I don't want to drop $500+ on a game cart when I can just play the thing on an emulator for cheap/free. I used to love picking up big lots of games from people looking to unload them cheap, but that never happens around here anymore. Everyone in my area thinks anything old is worth $$$$$, so deals are few and far between. I have other hobbies (cars and playing music) that are justifiably expensive, and owning/running a house isn't exactly cheap, but there's no way I'm paying a ton of cash for just one game even if I had millions of dollars. Plus, the thrill is in the hunt anyway! Space. I live in a small house. I have one very small room dedicated to my collection, and that also houses my record collection and my wife's book collection. The modern systems are in the living room, and the biggest closet in the house holds even more gaming items. And then there's the overflow: that's in the basement. I don't know how much more I can fit without going on an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive! Plus, it's not fair to the wife. She is a saint for putting up with it! I do want to find a better way to organize it all though. I would love to have everything on display instead of boxed up all over the house. Time. Back about 10-15 years ago when I started seriously collecting, I would go out and buy big lots of games. When brick and mortar stores (like FYE, Circuit City and others) would go out of business, I'd be there snagging cheap deals on then-current stuff. I amassed a lot of stuff before the prices got out of control. I figured that when I bought my own house, I'd have all the time in the world to kick back and play everything! Yeah right! Owning a house means upkeep, yard work, cleaning, etc. Then, there's all the other "being an adult" stuff, like working, going to this place and that place, etc. And when there's down time, I usually spend it with my wife and dog doing other stuff. I usually get a couple hours a week to play games right now. In the winter, when going outside hurts, I usually get a little more time. All that said, I still tend to pick up a couple games a month. The days of getting a huge box of 2600 games for $25 at a yard sale are behind me, at least around here, so you have to get what you can get. Lately, it's been the last-gen systems. I'll be out shopping and I'll pick up a couple cheap used games at Gamestop or a big box store bargain bin. Just last night, I snagged Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remastered and Super Mario Galaxy at a local Target for under $30 new, which is not terrible. Still haven't played Galaxy, so I'm excited about that. And my wife actually will play a Mario game every once in a while, so that might be fun.

Nice score for $20! Now's the best time to collect for the PS3, because games are at the bottom of the market. You can still go into Gamestop and snag A+ titles for dirt cheap. Also, I've been hitting up the bargain bins at the big box stores for deals. I recently snagged the first three Uncharted games, the first two Resistance games, Enslaved: Journey to the West, Metal Gear Solid 4, Singularity, and more for right around $20 total. 99% of them were CIB, too.

After some digging around, it looks like the HD CRT setup will NOT play light gun games. Something about the refresh rates being different and affecting the response of the gun. That's too bad.

This thread is relevant to my interests.... I was thinking lately about upgrading the TV in my small game room. Right now, I have a 25" Samsung CRT, and it's not great. I bought it in the late 90's, and it only has front and rear composite AV (the yellow video and the two sound channels) and RF. The tube has been discoloring lately, and I was thinking about upgrading. I am well versed in the world of Sony Trinitrons (and WEGA's), as I grew up with a couple of them, and they are awesome. Anyone ever run one of those early 2000's CRT HDTV's? Right now, my game room has everything from the PS2 back to the 2600, but I was thinking of adding my 360 to the setup, and I don't want to use that crappy TV I currently have. If I upgrade to a modern LCD HDTV, that opens up another can of worms, including lack of light gun support and possibly the need for one of those frame skip box things for the older stuff. I do have a smaller 13" CRT that I could use when I want to play light gun games, but space is really limited in my room. I'm thinking that a CRT HDTV might be the best of both worlds.

Here's that "Junkyard" Vectrex now, up on a shelf with some other retro goodness. I have a story about another game sitting on that shelf: Years ago, I was having a conversation with my wife about the earliest video game memories we had. The first game she ever played was at her dentist's office on a little black and white TV. It was a driving game, and she used to like crashing the car into the light poles on the side of the road. She had no idea what the game was, but she thought it was on the 2600. When I showed her a bunch of different games like Night Driver, Pole Position, and Enduro, none of them were the game. Fast forward to when I brought my Vectrex home. She looked at me and said that it was the same as the little TV in her dentist's office! Her dentist had a VECTREX. I immediately started looking up all the racing games for the system, and determined that she was playing Hyperchase. I put that in the back of my mind, and kept my eye out for one at a decent price. Last Xmas, I decided that it was finally time to get her that game, so I ordered it on eBay. When it showed up, Clean Sweep was in the box instead. After contacting the seller, he said I could keep Clean Sweep if I sent him a bit more more to ship out Hyperchase, so I agreed. The look on her face as she played it was well worth it! Clean Sweep is pretty good as well!

This is definitely an interesting subject for sure. I was born in 1982. I have an older sister who is 7 years older than I am, and on Christmas of 1982, she got a Colecovision. My older cousins who we were really close with got a 2600. I had early exposure with both consoles, sitting down as a toddler watching them play. I also remember playing both consoles at a very young age. My family moved to a new house in '85, and I remember playing Cosmic Avenger on our old console TV in the old house with my sister. I also remember sneaking in games of Asteroids and Air-Sea Battle on my cousin's Atari when they weren't looking. My first console that I could call my own was the NES, which I got for Christmas in 1987. By then, I was 5, and already had experience playing video games. I didn't shun the older systems, but since that NES was mine, I played it more than anything else. We also had an Apple IIe in the house, and I played some games on that. My most played games on that were Gorgon (Defender clone), Sneakers (sorta like Moon Cresta), and Orbitron. While I was gaming at a very young age, I had no knowledge of the other pre-crash systems until later on at age 12-13. I have always been a student of history, and I know this may sound weird, but my uncle had a huge library of National Geographic magazines at his house dating back to the 1930's, and I used to love looking at the ads in the magazines. I am also big into cars, so seeing the old car ads was really cool. Then, I found the magazine ads in the early 80's were featuring weird game consoles and computers I never heard of before, like this one: And this one: After that, I made it my mission to find these consoles! And the rest was history. I really got into collecting after that. I eventually bought my own Intellivision, 2600, 5200, and I resurrected the family Colecovision. I also took an interest in old arcade games after a chance trip to Funspot in NH around that time. I found the older stuff, like the black and white Atari games, fascinating for some reason. Now, let's talk about the upcoming generation. I have two nephews: aged 18 and 13, and they are both into gaming. They are aware of the pre-crash stuff to some extent, basically because I've played my Colecovision and 2600 with them. Their oldest console was the Playstation 2, which I bought them when they were really small. To them, those games are classic. They are nostalgic for Guitar Hero and Star Wars Battlefront on the PS2, which they used to play all the time. I've tried to expose them to the older games as much as possible, even giving the younger one a hacked Wii with tons of older games loaded on an SD card. They rarely play it, because they would rather play GTA or Destiny online with their friends. They have no idea what a Bally Astrocade or an Odyssey II is, but they know all about the 2600 and Colecovision from the direct exposure they had from playing them at my house. I would consider them more informed than your average current-generation gamer. So, will these lesser known pre-crash consoles eventually be forgotten? Forgotten by most, yes. You won't see a Fairchild Channel F plug-and-play at the local Dollar General anytime soon. But the more popular ones, like the Atari consoles, the Coleco, an INTV, will live on as game conventions, retro stores, and YouTube personalities continue to exist and make the current and upcoming generations aware of their existence. And for every 10 kids that catch the gaming bug, at least a couple of them might want to know more of what else was around during that time. I think there will always be people that want to play the games on their original hardware, much like vinyl music enthusiasts lookin for an "authentic" listening experience. But that said... as console platforms and proprietary physical formats move by the wayside in the upcoming years, look for emulation of these old consoles to grow even larger than ever.

Zombie Thread Bump! 1) My Colecovision This was the first console my family had, technically bought for my older sister, but when she moved out I cleaned it up and got it working again. It still works to this day! I have all my childhood games for it too, and then some. 2) My NES While I don't have the exact console I started with back on the Christmas of 1987, I still have R.O.B. and 99% of my games. It's still my #1 console to collect for, and I have a few "heavy hitter" games for it, including... 3) NES Mega Man Complete Set I love the original six NES Mega Man games. I have all six, and 2 and 5 are CIB. I paid $19.99 each for 2 and 5 out of the bargain bin at BJ's Wholesale Club around 1997 when they were clearing out all their NES games. I miss those days! 4) My Vectrex I've told the story on here before, but I'll tell it again: About 10 years ago, I went with some friends to a car junkyard (I'm a total gearhead) and while we were investigating a mid-1960's Rambler American sedan, my friend says, "whoa, what's this weird little TV doing back here?" and pulls out a freakin' Vectrex!!! I told him what it was, and how long I had been hunting for one, and he hands it to me and says it's all mine. I bring it to the counter up front and they told me to keep it, because it costs money for them to recycle TV's, and I'm saving them money. SCORE!!! Only thing wrong with it is that the metal topper for the joystick is missing. Other than that, it works great. 5) Chrono Trigger on the SNES Chrono Trigger is probably my favorite game of all time. I have it for the PSone, the DS, and the SNES. I didn't get a copy of the original SNES cartridge until after I picked up the PSone and DS versions, but I did play through the game back around 1998 when a friend let me borrow it. At that time, I picked up the Nintendo Power strategy guide to help me get through the game, which I still have. I don't own the game CIB on the SNES, but having that strategy guide to go with it is pretty cool. Honorable Mentions: -My Galaga/Galaxian cocktail cabinet: It's a Galaga board inside a Galaxian cocktail cab. It's also sitting in my basement non-working. I really need to fix it; I think the power supply is gone. -My Genesis collection: I have a lot of great games, including Gunstar Heroes CIB and Crusader of Centy. Love the Genesis and all things Sega! -My modded Famicom: A recent addition to the collection, and I'm loving it so far. -My Atari 2600 collection (of course, this is AtariAge, after all!) I have over 100 games, a Telegames 6 switch, and a 4-switch woodgrain model. I also have a cool Atari hardshell carrying case which just rules. Love collecting for the 2600; it's amazing that stuff that old still works!

That's a decent list right there. I have played more than a few of them through emulation (like Joy Mech Fight, Holy Diver, Kid Dracula, etc.) and they are really great games. I actually have Kickle Cubicle on the NES, so that's covered. I'm interested in picking up the Ninja Kun games because they are still cheap and look like fun. I'm really interested in picking up a pirated copy of SMB2, since I don't own a FDS yet. I just haven't seen one out there yet.

Another game that I picked up on the cheap off of eBay finally showed up from Japan: Major League. Yes, as in the movie Major League. It's a typical RBI Baseball-style baseball game that was released in 1989, with good presentation and decent controls. Other than a few screens at the beginning, this game has very little to do with the movie itself. But whatever... for $4 shipped, it's not bad at all! I played the crap out of it over the weekend. Some more terrible pics: The real question is why this game was never released in the US??? Seriously, it's an American movie about Baseball. It would have done great here, and it's a lot better than some of its peers (I'm looking at you, Bases Loaded!) so it would have sold just fine even without any real connection to the film. The Japanese seemed to have way more Baseball games than we did, and some of them are quite good. Count Major League among them.

I have both the NES and SMS versions. I've always loved the NES version, even with all it's weird glitches and departures from the arcade version. I thought the "leveling up" mechanic was pretty cool back in the day too, and something you rarely see in the genre. For me, I like it even better than the arcade version. That said, the SMS port was a lot more faithful to the arcade game, and it's no slouch. I also found that it was the easiest of all versions I've played; I made my way through the game on my 1st playthrough. The 2-player simultaneous play is cool, too. One thing I could never stand about the Genesis and even the Arcade versions is the collision detection. It always felt off to me.

Thanks for the tips and the translation on the name, guys! I've rarely seen Famiclones that look exactly like a real one. The ones that are close usually have subtle differences. Usually, the colors are off, the front label says something that's not Family Computer, etc. Here's one by a Chinese company called Chin Laser (best name ever): Most of the clones have detachable controllers and don't work with the Famicom Disk Drive. Here's a good resource for Famiclones: http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones.htm Before I bought the console I ended up buying, I nearly bought a clone that had 60 and 72 pin slots. This one wasn't a Yobo, which are common here. It was something older, and looked similar to the Famicom, except with two slots. I passed on it because I want to have the option to pick up a Famicom Disk Drive down the road.

After years of wanting one, I bit the bullet last week and clicked Buy It Now on an auction for an A/V-modded Nintendo Famicom. The one I bought came bundled with Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, and a modded US Zapper that plugs into the Famicom's front expansion port. I also ordered up a small selection of cheap games: Star Soldier, Tag Team Wrestling, F1 Race, Route 16 Turbo, Baseball, Ninja Hattori-kun, and Major League (apparently based on the movie, why didn't the US get that?). I've been scouring eBay in search of more cheap goodness. I know of many of the heavy hitters for the Famicom (Cocoron, Holy Diver, Splatterhouse, etc.) but those are a bit out of my budget right now. I've been really interested in some of the earlier titles and arcade ports that never had a release in the US, like Route 16 Turbo, for instance (love that game, BTW). Since I can't read Japanese, I'll leave the RPG/text adventures out of the picture. Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? Here's a terrible pic of the console I bought: Someone modded the controller wires to exit toward the front on the sides, and added A/V ports where the old ports were. The picture does exhibit jail bars a little, but it's not too bad and it doesn't really bother me. It looks better than the RF would, that's for sure! It's amazing how much smaller the Famicom 60 pin carts are compared to the 72 pin NES carts. And I like the fact that they fit in cassette tape holders! I wall mounted a few in my game room for my SMS and Genesis carts, so I will have to mount more to hold my Famicom carts. Apparently Japanese kids wrote on their carts like US kids did! Anyone know what that translates to?

Watched that Game Sack parody last night. Effing hilarious.