tsgthesportsgamer

Some of these answers are genuinely sad - I get the feeling some people feel honestly depressed about investing too much of their youth (and early adulthood) into gaming. Anyway, I was kinda a pack rat in my youth and saved many of my NES/SNES/Game Boy boxes perfectly flat in a box. My mom actually did a lot of this storage for me, and I still have these boxes in relatively mint condition to this day. It wasn't really for collecting purposes, just that I liked having them. I also have a pretty large stash of old gaming mags sitting at my parents house (though I'm often reminded by them to take time off and travel back so I can deal with all this stuff - which would cost probably as much money as I could get for selling them) My mother did step in and return a brand new Virtual Boy I bought for $20 when Shopko had them on clearance. I played with it for a bit and she thought it would give me a brain tumor. We both didn't think of the possible value in just storing it, so it was a battle I guess I was more or less willing to lose. Would love to be able to flip that boxed Virtual Boy console nowadays. I also missed on a $20 boxed Genesis III console that sat on the Toys r Us clearance shelf well into the 32-bit era, it must have been there for two years at least. Always thought it was funny sitting there, now that memory is staring right back at me with the last laugh. I have less regret about tossing stuff away, since that was exceedingly rare in my life, than selling something too early for too little or selling something that I now wish I had anyway. I collected 3DS games early in the console's life and had nearly 100 before I decided to sell off the entire thing for $1000. Sometimes I still wish I had that collection since for the first year and a half of the 3DS I was likely the only person out there cataloging all the specifics of the 3DS releases and variations. But it was bleeding my wallet keeping up with it, so it was probably good to let it go.

Well - just an update, I got an AC Adapter I ordered off of ebay (guy is also selling a complete and fully boxed console on there for $110). Plugged the gizmondo (sans battery of course) into the wall and nothing happened. I'm not sure if there might be some special button presses I need to do to "wake it up", but I'm a bit bummed right now. Can't tell what is dead (unit or the adapter), or if the unit I have is possibly one from the UK and the wall charger is a US one (it fits fine though...). Will keep tinkering...

Great to know! Well, I'm ordering the adapter then and hope the console boots just fine. Of all things I collect hockey games, so I'll have to track down a copy of Hockey Rage 2005 if this thing works...

I did see that and am putting it in my back pocket in case I really need to treat this as a "craft" project of sorts... Hoping there might be an easier solution or if the unit just works if plugged in...

Hey all, I inherited a Gizmondo (assuming it is a U.S. unit) without a battery or an AC Adapter/power supply of any sort. I know next to nothing about this console other than the name alone. I've found a couple listings for the Gizmondo power supply but have had nearly no luck tracking down a battery (other than purchasing a full Gizmondo unit on ebay, which I'm not interested in. I guess a couple questions here: Can you run the Gizmondo with its power supply plugged in and no battery installed? I don't really need to take this "on the go" with me. If not, is there an easy replacement battery option. I stumbled onto some old forum posts elsewhere claiming you can "convert" a couple different mobile batteries, but I have no idea what would go into that or if that means you can simply take that battery and plug it right in. Any help/ideas would be appreciated!

My first homebrew purchase as a Jag owner, and needless to say I'm quite impressed. Great, fun, easy gameplay. Great graphics and great tunes as well. What a package. Might be the best game I've played on the Jag so far (I've tackled about 16-17 games). I'm loving it. I'm sure you could easily have this be a top seller on XBLA or PSN, but I'd love if it was just left to us Jag fans too Unfortunately I have a busy work week, but will be trying to play as much as I can. How is the online code input going to work?

pm sent on a few of the games

Ugh, jealous here. Most game stores like that are a bit pricey from what I hear though. Only one I've been to was in Minneapolis. Got a TG16 base console there for $100 before I knew a lot more about the market. We have one in our town here called Trademark Video Games. Tons and tons of NES and PS2 games, and a lot of other fairly mainstream stuff (Genesis, SNES, Dreamcast, PS1, Xbox, Wii, etc...) I asked if they had any TG stuff, he pulled out one CD. I didn't even bother to ask about Jaguar, 3DO, etc... nothing like that in there. Really the most "unique" item I've ever seen in there is an SMS console lol. Honestly, if I ran a game store, I'd try to stock some more unique consoles/games to at least facilitate interest among customers.

Got mine today as well, shipped very fast from Royal Mail (me loves Royal Mail, the few times my orders have necessitated for it). Won't be able to play it until my new Jag CD unit comes in Monday or Tuesday, but looking forward to it!

Got a nice modded SNES for a good price. Thanks man!

I was going to say FMV - but then again, that "trend" lasted only a few years and we're pretty much done with it now (at least the way it was employed then, en masse, with loads of c-movie "talent"). Seriously though, I booted up The Need for Speed the other day, do I really need some Don Johnson wannabe telling me to keep my gaming experiences between me and him after each race? My answer here is going to be music games, esp. anything branded Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Why? Simply overkill and oversaturation. That's generally what killed gaming in the early 80s. Look at the clearance racks, there always the first and last games to get price slashed. Meanwhile overpriced band setups crowd up stores for months on end. Nothing really against the games personally, I had my fill of Guitar Hero (especially II) and toyed with Rock Band for a little. I can't see that genre being anymore than drawn out fad though. 5-10 years down the road, if they are still adding songs to the Rock Band catalog, I'd be quite shocked. I'm also a little worried about the constant stream of Wii shovelware too. Will typical wal-mart minded consumers learn to avoid this stuff, or will eager cash strapped publishers keep knocking these titles out. Same can really be said of Facebook games too. I don't even want to get into the Farmville debate.

I did get back to the seller and have worked out an amicable deal. In the end (after snapping pics of the unit as well) he gifted me $20 (almost half the sale w/shipping) and I keep it all - six games and a flight stick as well as the busted unit (maybe it is fixable? I haven't really looked, I'd have to live with the busted plastic though no matter what I assume - unless someone is selling Goldstar 3DO shells somewhere). Figured that was fair enough, considering the game lot would have cost at least $20 and the flight stick was a hidden bonus really. All that survived the trip fine. From here on out I'm sending sellers a note ahead of time before I bid about their packing procedures though.

Yeah maybe I will grill him, I have still yet to leave feedback. It was packaged with newspaper, lots of newspaper - not the best packaging, but it seemed safe enough. The box looked a bit rag tag, but that can almost be expected from two week USPS Parcel Post journeys. I feel dumb obviously though, because like Tr3vor said, I've gotten stuff before that was shoddily packed and it all managed to arrive safely. So I guess I just took it for granted. I've never been quite sure to blame it on the shipping company (in which case I should have gotten insurance) or shipper in these cases. I guess I may start requesting my packages bubble wrapped or peanuts, etc... even though the sellers can do whatever they like in the end.

A couple days ago I received a Goldstar 3DO unit (purchased in working condition on ebay for $30). I already have a 3DO but figured I'd jump on the lot because it was affordable and had a lot of good games in it. Took about two weeks to get here by parcel post. I opened the box up and what do I hear? rattling everywhere. My first instinct was that the guy sold me a bum console. But upon further review, the casing was cracked and missing pieces everywhere (floating inside the console) - this was not the same shape the console was in from his pictures. Not surprisingly, the console did not work when I booted it up (it only powered on). This is the second time this has happened to me - also happened with a gamecube I ordered awhile back that looked like a corner had been chewed off by a dog. Looking back, I'm not sure the chip on my 2600 wasn't caused by shipping as well. Because of the relative low costs and the fact that I got a good deal of games with each lot, I'm going to take it as a lesson learned. The only question is, how can this really be avoided? I used parcel post on both of those, but using a better service can't necessarily mean someone at the post office isn't going to toss the box around haphazardly (I suppose it does mean it'll get here quicker and through more desirable means of travel). It makes me more afraid to commit to a larger purchase. I suppose I can ask to purchase insurance, but from what I hear it's hard to get the post office to own up to damage. Just wondering what the community recommends here.

Yes, unfortunately I have quite a bit of debt (somewhere around $2,300). It's all dumb choices made about five years ago when I got the itch to spend my entire CC balance. Dumb dumb dumb. It'll be paid off quicker once I finally land a nice f/t gig, right now I'm juggling a couple pt'ers. Haven't used credit in two years or so.

I just picked up an untested FZ-1 unit on ebay for $19.99 (shipping was about the same). It was missing standard A/V cables. I know it's a risky deal with listings like that but the seller listed it as a Panasonic Multiplayer unit, so I just figured they didn't know what it was. Needless to say, it works just fine. Some of the games didn't work well that I ordered, but then discovered they just needed wiping off. I have NFS, Madden, Crash N Burn, Gex, Flying Nightmares, FIFA and a handful of others. I even got the flight stick controller with one of the game lots. Those are apparently hard to find. I'd get Road Rash too, though I have it for the Saturn (and had it/played it when it was new). If you like sports games at all though, FIFA I'd highly recommend. It's funny to play FIFA and Madden and see the advancements at least 2-3 years before they started to make sports titles like that.

I'm the exact same way. Any games that come into my house get thoroughly cleaned. Games, controllers, systems, even cords. Even if I am buying something to sell. Heck, even if I borrow a game from someone I clean it first. Therefore, I would never sell something that was not thoroughly cleaned first. Chrs I'm the same too. One of the first things I do with any system is I take it completely apart, and then I scrub all the plastic parts in the sink. Any games I receive get thoroughly cleaned as well. I may not be as thorough as you guys. I do like to keep those lysol wipes out though and I wipe down every console I get. I'm surprised sellers don't at least do this. I would do it if I'm selling... I also q-tip all the game cartridges I get before I play them. Not worth introducing unnecessary dust and dirt into my consoles.

And I definitely didn't know our beloved Jag became a Dental Imager... http://www.insertcredit.com/news/022004/hotrod.jpg

Not sure if anyone ran across this one yet, posted today... eBay Auction -- Item Number: 110545446518 $6,000 big ones and you can have what you need to make your own Jaguar and Jaguar CD casing. I know it's wishful thinking - as one would need to be able to recreate the motherboard and all the circuitry. It would be pretty cool if someone starting pumping out new Jaguar CD units for an affordable price...

Second that. I'm of the opinion that the ebay "trick" you speak of isn't always a bad deal. Some sellers are just parents clearing out their kids old "junk". Buying a unit from a seller who is misspelling the item or leaving out vital descriptive information (i.e. they actually don't really know what they have or what it's worth), etc usually signals you might be able to nab a working system, you just need to track down the separate parts. I've ordered three units (a CD-i and two 3DO's) without cables In your case though, I'd be somewhat hesitant I guess if it was me. If it's a $10-20 investment, it's not the biggest risk though - if he takes it.

lol, that's classic. That's exactly what I'm thinking. I actually have a pretty sizeable Wii collection (40 titles) and once thought of just making it larger for the heck of it - seeing as in a few years I'd have a big head start on Wii collecting. But there is so much garbage on that console not worth having and I imagine those build-a-bears will be pennies on the dollar down the road. Anyway, don't mean to stray from the topic at hand, shovelware is definitely something to keep in mind when we look back on the Wii in a few years time and also maybe when you look at the NES. I remember crappy games for every console really, but shovelware is a rather new term that's come about with the Wii. Do you decide to hold it against that console...that's the real argument.

Weird to think that. I guess I'm "old" at 28, but I started with the NES - I actually never have had an N64, though I imagine I'll get one for cheap one of these days to round out my modern console collection. I do agree that it is and always was overrated for the time. I wonder how many people 25-50 have "graduated" from game collecting/culture over the past decade or so? I hope I don't ever feel like leaving my gaming passion behind. Oh - and just to add to your shovelware comment, I agree. People talk about current possible rares on the Wii (gotta love the speculators), and so many people talk about how even if some shovelware titles end up being rare down the line, no one would want them anyway. Then you look at some of the rarest NES games, and a lot of it is shovelware crap. That said, I have a hard time believing their will be Wii completists out there...that's just too crazy. Don't mean to offend anyone though, more power to you if you have something like that in mind.

Wow, thats a very thought out list. I guess I can't disagree with it that much, you pretty much nailed it for the most part. I don't think the challenge here is really picking the top 10 as much as ranking them. Per your rules, I'd agree on the ten you picked. I'd probably put the PS2 a bit higher, and higher than the PS1. The PS2 really dominated its era. It launched before both the Xbox and Gamecube and is still ticking 3-4 years after those consoles fizzled out. The PS2 showed us something not seen since the NES - Domination and staying power. I don't think it'll end up eclipsing the 2600's long run, but who knows. The game library is massive, littered with classics. I think the knock for the PS2 these days is it is played out - it's not become a classic system yet because it's hanging on with sports rehashes and kiddie games (though Sakura Wars and the latest Syphon Filter PSP port are worth checking out). To some people it's kind of become a joke with how long it's held up. That and the majority of people who played a PS2 have gone on to the current-gen and are far more wowed with it. I think it's harder for people to play last-gen games as it is to either play current-gen or go back at least a couple generations to some true retro. It might take a few years for people to really look back and see the PS2 for what it was. The only other suggestion is maybe pushing the Dreamcast up a few notches. Somewhat of a failure in a sense, but such an innovator, especially with graphics and online play (as well as some very unique titles). It's also held its own as a true fan system that gamers can appreciate, I think moreso than the Gamecube or Xbox. Just my thoughts. Good read.

I consider myself somewhat of an ebay shark. In the past month or so I found a top-loader NES for $12, a CD-i (without cables, but working just fine) for 0.99, a Sega Genesis for 0.99 (working w/cables) and a few other goodies for well below value (of course, shipping jacked those up a bit, but still well below typical cost shipped for those items in general). You can still find good, even great deals sometimes. That said, I feel your pain sometimes. I hate it when I find a great lot that I want to watch, only to see it sitting at some atrocious price like $1,999 (I think I saw a boxed Sega Master System II going for that, are you kidding me?). The flipside on BIN is that a few will price them a bit low. I've seen a few good deals like that as well in the past month. Best Offer helps too. I was able to get a cart-only copy of NBA Jam: TE for the Jag for $10 (down from $15) with Best Offer. The boxed copy sold for $55 I believe recently. So Best Offer isn't a bad deal either - though I've been rejected too. Key with ebay now is to just be patient. I tend to be a big spender sometimes, relative to my earnings (sometimes too much for my own good I'll admit). Lately I've learned to keep my impulse buying/collecting in check and be patient in waiting for the good deals. I won't hesitate to jump on one when I see one, even if I don't need the item offered - I can always flip it for profit or trade down the road and go after an item I really want. Sellers will try to be greedy, but the prices will generally taper off if enough people hold out. There will always be those types trying to sell you their old 2600s for $150, and in all honesty, they rarely ever get a sale. I've been in the market for a Jag CD for a long time now, there are four listings for one on ebay by the same guy, all overpriced in the $250-300 range. They've been there forever, and they probably will be until he learns to lower the price or pulls them off. Smarter buyers always win in the end.

I just got my Jaguar a few weeks ago and am assembling games as I go... I have found this topic of worst game interesting. A lot of people in the general gaming public would throw every Jag title under the bus. Even solid games and conversions like Rayman, NBA Jam: TE and Doom, which were among the best examples of those games, would get an argument like "well, if thats the best the Jaguar can do, then I can just get that kind of entertainment on the PS1 for much cheaper." So the Jag is always facing an uphill battle if your trying to initiate the stubborn Joe Gamer into our little world here. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. I've played quite a bit of Checkered Flag, it's bad. But it's quirky enough as the oldest of old school polygon racers (heck, polygon games for that matter) that I give it a break. Plus it's generally fun if you can get the controls down somewhat (not as impossible as it seems at first). The AI is ridiculous though. Time Trial makes a bit more sense, just go for low lap scores like you would in any racer. The worst - out of the lot that I've played - is Kasumi Ninja. Just boring for me. I'm sure I'll play worse as I add to my collection (I watched a DDV video and that looked terrible) but in the meantime, I'll be looking to add some of the Jag's better titles first!