DrLove0378

I'm gonna say "Hooters Road Trip" on the PSone -- it's one of the worst games I've had the displeasure of playing. I bought it new for $10 and traded it in for $1 credit -- I just wanted to be rid of it. I'd sort of understand the crappiness if this was a launch title, but this trainwreck was released in 2002 -- nearly seven years after the PSX debuted. That's just unacceptable!

The most unusual item in my collection (that I can think of) is a Franklin Ace 2100 Apple IIe clone, with its original keyboard and monochrome monitor w/stand. No one I know has one (or even gives a crap about classic computing at all, for that matter.) I found it on the side of the road a few years back, along with a VTech Laser 128 Apple IIc clone.

Ok, so I recently put out an ad on Craigslist, seeking out old computers & video games -- and I got this Commodore VIC-20 haul: Complete system in retail box w/book C2N Datassette recorder w/manual And a bunch of games & programs: Draw Poker, Mole Attack, Home Babysitter, Raid on Fort Knox, Cosmic Cruncher, Pinball Spectacular, Choplifter, Spiders of Mars (FACTORY SEALED!), Jupiter Lander, Money Decisions I, Super Amok (FACTORY SEALED!), The Sky is Falling, VIC Avenger, and Dot Gobbler. All games were boxed w/manual, with the exception of Dot Gobbler (which is probably the rarest of the lot), and a couple of tapes containing random programs. One was marked "VIC Games" -- this oughtta be fun (if it still works after all these years.) I got all this stuff for FREE -- the guy who responded said he wanted it to go to a good home, and he couldn't bring himself to "dumpster-ize" it.

Today I didn't do bad at all... SNES - Donkey Kong Country 3 $5.00 2600 - Congo Bongo, Dragster, Fast Eddie, Grand Prix $3 each NES Four Score adapter $3.00 2 Wico Command Control 2600 joysticks (ball-top with metal shaft) $3.00 each NES - Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight - $3.00 5 Laserdisc and 5 CED movies - $3.00 each He's got some Atari games at his house he wants to get rid of, so I gave him my cell number, and hopefully he'll call when he finds them... Later in the day while on my way to work, I discovered an out-of-the-way thrift shop near my workplace... and this is what I found... PowerJoy Famiclone system w/built-in light gun $6.00 NES - Castlevania II, Kung Fu, Mighty Bomb Jack - $2.50 each Garmin StreetPilot ColorMap GPS, complete in retail box w/power cord, PC cable and instruction manual $6.00 I tried it out in my car immediately afterward, and it works fine and locates the satellites properly, even though it's VERY obsolete (it's from 2000). Since the PC cable is RS-232, I might have to do a big bad wolf impersonation on it to program it on a modern computer.

I bought 3 sets -- one to play and two to leave sealed. Unfortunately my computer won't let me install them -- time to buy a new one anyway (or switch to a Mac!) Even though I can't play them as of yet, I think they're amazing -- I saw all the pictures and videos of the games that have been posted. If Taco Bell was up to it, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a continuation of the series. EDIT: Never mind, just got 'em working. Good stuff!

Yes, I do remember that Toys R Us used to allow returns on opened video games. (After all, how would you have copied a cartridge back then?) We bought Bad Dudes for the NES, and found out it was f***ing HORRIBLE! So we returned it and bought P.O.W. instead. I found out later that it was based on an arcade game of the same name, and the original had simultaneous 2-player gameplay (unlike the NES) -- thereafter, I considered the NES version a bit of a disappointment. But it's at least playable, unlike *cough*Ikari Warriors II*cough*...

A lot of the consoles I own aren't particularly rare, but I do own a few iterations of them that are hardly seen... 16-bit: Intellivision - Radio Shack Tandyvision One Intellivision - Sears Super Video Arcade TurboGrafx-16 Turbo Express, with TurboVision TV tuner Sega Genesis CDX Sega Genesis Nomad 8-bit: Ok, so these are fairly common, but I seriously doubt anyone I know has even heard of them... Magnavox Odyssey², with The Voice Sega Master System Pongs: Since many competitors launched their own forgettable "me-too" Pong systems, I'd consider most of them to be obscure. Radio Shack TV Scoreboard (is this a phone or a Pong device?) Magnavox Odyssey 2000 Unisonic Tournament 2000 (with a light gun that would fail the "point this at a cop" test) Bentley Compu-Vision APF TV Fun And a few that aren't strictly gaming consoles, but whose more common iterations are often used for gaming... Commodore SX-64 Franklin Ace 1200, w/original keyboard and monitor VTech Laser 128 (these two Apple IIe compatibles were in the same roadside find) I've still got boxes and boxes of vintage computer crap to go through... no telling what I'll uncover.

Would we have ended up saying "it's on like Monkey Kong!" ?

I did all right this week... in a trash pile, I found the retail packaging for a PSP 3001 (with the instruction manual and paperwork), in excellent condition. Awesome! The PSP Brite I got for only $50 a while back is now "complete." And today at the thrifts, I found a Commodore VIC-20, complete in retail box (with matching serial number) w/all packaging, hookups and printed materials, for $10. It also had a low serial number (RP 0001725). I'm aware of the multicart that is available for it, but is it a worthy purchase?

Thus far in 2010... -- Gradius III, on PSP (and later on SNES.) That has to be one of the most punishing video games ever. It's a straight-up port of the arcade version, and is every bit as difficult, right down to having no continues -- because of that, they had to add the ability to save and restore. My "victory" at the game most likely doesn't count, as I had to save and restore numerous times just to get through the damn thing. I'll never complain again about the difficulty of the SNES version (which I was able to beat, au naturel, with no continues.) -- U.N. Squadron, on SNES. Beat it on normal difficulty for the first time this week, without using a continue. The next night, I beat it on hard mode -- having used up all my continues, though. I also got a couple of weird glitches to happen -- while I was fighting the boss in the canyon stage, the music for the stage select screen began to play (until I cleared the stage), but the game continued to play normally. It happened again in the last level, but switched to the correct theme when I got to the VTOL bomber. In all the years I had been playing this game, I don't recall this glitch ever having happened before...

Fittingly enough, AVGN showed a package of those in one of his "You Know What's Bullshit" videos...

What's the difference between the el-cheapo HDMI cables and the more expensive ones, anyway? I just bought an HD DVR cable converter box, and went out today looking for a cable to hook it up with. I know Big Lots had some cheap ones at one point, but I couldn't find any there today. I didn't see any cables in the stores for less than $19 (and that particular one was only 3 feet long.) So I got on eBay and got a 6-foot HDMI cable for $2.99 -- which is probably what they cost when they entered this country, anyway. Think I did OK there? I honestly don't know what the difference is.

I love how it says on the back of the package "Requires a television set (not included)." No shit, Sherlock.

Radio Shack did, at one point, sell a gameport-to-USB adapter. A couple years back, I found a couple of these adapters in a less-trafficked location -- since they were discontinued and no longer in the system, the manager just let me have them. I don't know how well it would have worked with a digital gamepad, though, as its packaging stated it was intended for analog steering wheels and joysticks. (Would the adapter know the difference? I seriously doubt it.) I haven't tried it yet -- for the life of me, I can't remember where I put them amongst all my other computer gear. But it wouldn't hurt to look for some at your local Rat Shack and give it a try.

So I went to a couple of electronic parts suppliers yesterday in search of some parts for my modded C64 DTV -- neither one had even heard of a DIN-6 connector, much less having it in stock. (I don't have the cash for the SD card mod right now, so I'm adding an IEC port in the meantime.) I went to a couple of the nearby thrifts yesterday in search of an old keyboard for it (without Windows keys) -- I found a decent one, and a few games that I didn't already have... Genesis - Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, in box w/manual (original release) $2.50 SNES - Final Fight $2.50 PSX - Tomb Raider, in case w/manual (Greatest Hits version) $3.50 NES - Dragon Warrior $2.99 NES - Pin Bot $2.99 NES - Puzznic $2.99 (kind of scarce, judging from eBay prices) Nothing particularly rare, but finding an interesting selection of games I didn't already have, is what I consider a good day at the thrifts.