The Official "Thrift finds" Thread

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

Rogue Galaxy is a good one! It's a RPG with a "Space Opera"-style story. I really need to finish that one someday.

[When did game consoles reach their peak for you?]

Holy necro-bump!

 

I'm going with the early 2000's during the PS2/Xbox/GC/Dreamcast era. It was a great time for gaming, and it was the last console generation before everything needed to download a patch to run correctly. Nothing kills the buzz of bringing home a top-tier game and having to wait a half hour for the game to download extra content and updates. I still love this era today.

On top of that, retro collecting was still cheap and easy. I stocked up on tons of older games during this time from a number of different places like Gamestop, Play and Trade, and local pawn shops and flea markets. I really started collecting in earnest during this time, buying in bulk for dirt cheap! Nothing like being able to grab a box of 100 Atari games, all with manuals, and a working console with a ton of accessories for $30, a N64 with a pile of great games for $15, or a Dreamcast out of the clearance bin at Gamestop for $20. Miss those days! 

[FINALLY- SNES games on Nintendo Switch Online!]

I have been enjoying the hell out of the SNES titles since this dropped last week. There are a few on here I've never given much attention to that I'm really enjoying, like Breath of Fire, Joe & Mac 2, and Demon's Crest. I've been playing with my Hori D-Pad Joycon in portable mode, and Super Mario World plays as well as it did on my SNES. Still haven't tried it docked with my SN30 Pro on my old Panasonic plasma in the game room, which I'll do soon (game room is being gutted and re-organized right now).

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

More evidence that my area has completely dried up: There's a local fall festival that happens every year the weekend after Labor Day, and the surrounding area is yard sale central. I've scored a ton of deals here in the past, so I perused about 15 different yard sales looking for games. Other than a couple terrible PS2 titles no one wants, I found an Atari 600XL that looks like it was found buried in the woods during an archaeological dig, complete with missing keys, case cracks, and zero cables/accessories and they wouldn't budge off of $20 because "it's vintage". Even though I want an old 8-bit (don't have one yet), I walked away from this one.

 

Blah.

[Popeye NES]

I love me some Popeye! I grew up on the Colecovision port, so that one will always be my favorite, but I also had extended play time with the 2600 version as a kid, which is surprisingly good. I didn't get the NES version until much later when Gamestop was clearing in-store NES inventory back in the early-00's. Since it was such an early game, they did leave out some things here and there, and I'd love to see an enhanced homebrew NES port at some point.

[Borderlands 3]

100% in on Borderlands 3, as soon as I finish playing 2 and start playing the Pre-Sequel. 😄 They are great games, and a ton of fun.

[Games Beaten In 2019!]

The Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle was on sale last week on the Switch, so I snagged it and ran through a few of the titles. It's sorta cheating, since the games are set up for Free Play, but I still had fun with them.

Captain Commando (Switch):

 

I've played this one a few times before, but I never bothered to finish it. It's a ton of fun! The characters are really great in this one, and I especially had fun with the ninja Ginzu.

 

King of Dragons (Switch):

 

Like Captain Commando, I've played this one in the past but never ran all the way through it. It's basically a cross between magic Sword and Golden Axe, but with RPG elements. You level up and get better weapons as you progress, and each of the character classes has their own strength and weaknesses. There are not nearly enough games like this! The only other two that come to mind right now are Guardian Heroes and Dragon's Crown, which reminds me, I should play more Dragon's Crown.

 

I also ran through Final Fight, but I do that on a regular basis, so I didn't bother to take pics. I will say that Capcom did a great job with the emulation, and they added some cool artwork and extras for each game. They should think about re-releasing their Classics Collection compilations, as it would be perfect for the Switch.

[Games Beaten In 2019!]

Just wrapped up another one...

 

Steamworld Dig (Switch):

 

This one was short but sweet. I clocked in at just under 5hrs of play time, and I was taking my time with it. It's like a mix between Boulder Dash, Metroid, and Borderlands. It's a lot of fun, and highly recommended (and addictive). After I finish Ritual of the Night and Hollow Knight, I'll pick up the sequel, which I've heard is even better.

[First recap job on a Game Gear (or anything for that matter)]

I really need to give this a try. I have 3 broken Game Gears that I've acquired over the years in various states of disrepair. I'm not the greatest with a soldering iron, but my guitar fixing hobby has helped with that in recent years.

[scarcity fetishists]

As a collector and historian, I like seeing sealed, mint stuff still being found out there. I mean, it's pretty awesome to see these old games, still brand new in their shrink wrap, being unearthed and cherished. The absurd amount of money being paid for those games, the grading, and all that is pure insanity. As dumb as it is to many of us, it's almost entertaining to see how much someone will overpay for games like these. If some guy wants to drop $9,000 on a copy of Kid Icarus, that's their problem! 😂

 

That said, I have a bunch of sealed games in my collection that started out as backlog games that are becoming collector's items, some of them being on the rare side, mostly PS2/GC/Xbox stuff. I almost want to just leave them sealed at this point as conversation pieces. I can always get a cheap loose copy of said game to play if I ever get the urge to play them.

[Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night]

Installed the latest patch last night and the game seems to run smoother, which is nice.

And yeah, the Aegis Plate thing is annoying. Even generally knowing where it was from people talking about it online, it still took me about 20 minutes to find the damn thing. 

And yeah, The Carpenter is a PITA! That thing kicked my butt!

[Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night]

...And the game crashed yesterday wiping out about a half hour of playing time because I stopped to read a book. Ugh.

 

And yet, despite the terrible frame rate and overall glitchiness of the game, I'm still playing it every free chance I have. What the hell... 😄

[Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night]

Just started playing this a few nights ago on the Switch via my physical copy. I'm about 5 hours in so far. There have definitely been more than a few instances of the game chugging along, especially in the 2.5D sections like the tower on the right side of the map. I didn't think a game like this would be taxing on the Switch; it really shouldn't be. It hasn't crashed yet, but it's come close.

 

Overall, it's still fun enough to keep me hooked. It's a decent mix of a lot of the good elements from previous games, and the music sounds like a B-side to SOTN's soundtrack.  I'll keep playing.

[What's the best port of an arcade game (that's not emulation) on a home console?]

I always loved Ladybug on the Colecovision. It was a damn good port of the arcade game, especially for the time.

Arcade:


Colecovision:

 

[Any classic games with Jumpscares? 16bit era or older?]

Mansion of Hidden Souls on the Sega CD got me good when I was a kid. There's a part in the game where you fall down a shaft in the house and end up in the basement. I turned around, and there was a mummy/zombie thing that immediately killed me while making some weird noises. I shut the damn game off and never put it back in. Done.

[Games Beaten In 2019!]

I have been seriously lagging this year on finishing games. I did beat one recently that I really enjoyed.

Broforce (Switch):

This game is so much fun and I was laughing most of the time at all the ridiculous over-the-top insanity. If you are not familiar with it, imagine just about every 80's-00's action hero in one game where you blow up EVERYTHING, like a mix between Contra, Metal Slug, and maybe Dig Dug since you can tunnel through the levels to reach other areas. Rambo, about 5 different Arnolds, Robocop, Ellen Ripley, Indiana Jones, MacGyver, John Mclaine and so many more are in this game (with "Bro" somewhere in their name). All of them play slightly different, and it's so much damn fun. This is a game I've been waiting for someone to make since I was a kid, and it did not disappoint. Highly recommended.

 

[New HD genesis cable]

I may be in on one of these. At $30, it's worth a shot and a hell of a lot cheaper than the Mega SG.

[Game Boy Turns 30 Years Old]

Found a better picture of my Game Boy with all my original Game Boy games!

 

There are a few gems in there, namely Samurai Showdown and Castlevania Legends. Two of my childhood games, Metroid II and Operation C, were lost years ago and I miss them dearly. My favorite, however, is Link's Awakening. That game is incredible! Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is an underrated gem and probably the best game in the series.

[Game Boy Turns 30 Years Old]

Oh man, I feel so old now.

 

I remember playing the Game Boy for the first time at a friend's house. He had just gotten it, and only had Tetris. I remember my dad came to pick me up and I didn't want to leave because I was "Tetrisized".

 

I got my own Game Boy pretty early. I think I got mine in 1990 around my birthday in January. For a while, I only had Tetris, and that was perfectly fine. Right after picking it up, I remember bringing it to a birthday party for one of my cousins, and my hotshot lawyer uncle was there. He asked if he could give Tetris a try. On his "first try" he got about 150 lines! Turns out he had one too, which he brought with him on planes when he traveled. Other than one time catching my dad play Rad Racer on my NES in the middle of the night (that's another story altogether), this was probably the first time I saw an adult play a video game. I knew that this thing was different; it had universal appeal for all ages.

 

I still have my original Game Boy. I actually repaired the screen last year, and it still works perfectly.

 

 

And yes, I still use that sweet fanny pack to store my games! It came in a bundle from Boston area electronics retailer Lechmere along with F1 Race, Super RC Pro Am, and the link unit that allowed for multiplayer games.

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

 

Oooo! Door mat or area rug! Door mat or area rug!

 

Or, or- cut open the top part around each number, add in a fabric pocket, and it's a 12-day advent calendar! OR- mount it to a slanted board, attach some short cardboard or plastic tubes over/around the numbers, and it's a cornhole game!

 

Sorry, my crafty side is coming out... I got a busted Vader when I was 13, and if I'd had access to a Dremel then, I'd probably have an Atari desk organizer right now.

 

The possibilities are truly endless!

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

Yesterday, I was out and about with the wife, and coming off the highway on the off-ramp, I saw something completely random and out of place, but I wasn't quite sure what it was until after we were past it. After we went to the store we were going to, I ended up having to get back on the highway, and I spotted the object again. This time I stopped super quick, hopped out, grabbed it. Yes, I'm nuts.

 

 

 

Yeah, it was a Nintendo Power Pad! How the hell did this end up on the side of the highway?

 

The cord is severed at the connector end, and I already have a good working one, so this will become wall art, a cape, or something else. Maybe I'll fly it like a flag on the back of my pickup truck like all the Truck Bros do with various flags. Maybe that's how it ended up on the side of the road in the first place.

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

I have been firmly in the "maintenance" phase of collecting, with buying large lots of games firmly behind me. But every once in a while, the games find me!

 

I was over a buddy's place last night picking up something car related from him (I'm big time into the old car hobby, as are most of my friends), and he had asked if I had any interest in some games he had kicking around. He tossed out a price of "$25 and a loaded baked potato". While I gave him the $25, I gave him an I.O.U. on the potato.

 

Here's the haul:

 

 

Genesis Stuff:

-Sega Genesis Model 1 non-High Definition Graphics, with power adapter

-Sega 6-button controller

-Performance 6-button controller

-Mortal Kombat CIB

-Barkley Shut Up And Jam 2

-NHL 95

-MLBPA Baseball

-Sonic 2 "Not for resale" variant

-Paperboy

-California Games

-Toy Story

-Sonic The Hedgehog "Not for resale" variant

-The Lion King

-Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

-X Men

-Sega 6-Pak

-Aladdin

-Spider Man & X-Men in Arcade's Revenge

 

PS2 Stuff:

-PS2 Slim CIB (manuals and everything) with two black controllers

-Gravity Games Bike: Street-Dirt-Vert

-MVP Baseball 2003

-ATV Offroad Fury 2 "Not for resale" variant

-Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time

-GTA: San Andreas

-All Star Baseball 2003

-Airblade

-World Series of Poker

-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005

-Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

-Frogger (PS1)

-Call of Duty 3

 

All in all, nothing crazy rare, but there were quite a few titles that I didn't have. My PS2 Slim has been on the fritz lately, so this one will probably take its place. All of the PS2 games were CIB, save for the two loosies at the bottom of the pic. I need to clean it all up (it was sitting in his garage for years), add what I didn't have to the collection, and probably use the rest for trade-in fodder at my local store.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

 

On the way there, I stopped by Walmart to pick up a fire extinguisher for my new-to-me 1979 Dodge Power Wagon, as it's leaking oil and I don't want it too self immolate. I nearly always find deals at this particular store, and scooped this up for $10:

 

I missed out on Starfox 64 back when it was released, so this has been on my list since I got my 3DS. They had a bunch of other games on clearance, but I was in a hurry so I just grabbed this and left.

[Zelda Breath of the Wild - Advice/Help thread]

FINALLY beat Thunderblight Ganon after getting the Master Sword and leveling up the Rubber Armor Set. Made things a lot easier! As an added bonus, I finished off all the Divine Beasts over the weekend. Still a lot more to do in the game, but I'm glad that's over!

[Konami collections announced]

I don't know if I trust the Konami we have today to put the games people want in that Castlevania Collection. The three they have announced already should definitely be there, and I think the other three should at least have Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night in the mix. We'll probably get the 1st Castlevania Adventure on the GB (NOT Rebirth), an even worse translated version of II on the NES, and emulation of the Tiger LCD handheld version of II.

[Zelda Breath of the Wild - Advice/Help thread]

You need at least 13 heart containers for the Master Sword, otherwise it kills you when you pull it from the ground. I have about 10 right now, so I'm still going around doing shrine quests along the way to finding the better armor.

I just went near Hyrule Castle to cut through to Ridgeland Tower for the final piece of the Rubber Armor set. I was getting my butt kicked big time, but then I found a really complex shrine to save my game. There was also a bunch of loot in the shrine, like some high-grade weapons that should help until I get the Master Sword. Reminds me of playing the original game and going up on the top left part of the map where the 8th dungeon is, but with the normal sword, no rings, and little shield!