I love new old stock

If developers are going to continue to try to shove clunky dual analog controls and Call of Duty clones down my throat, then screw them, I won't buy any new shooters.  Instead, I'll buy old ones, like this!

There's nothing like getting a brand new old game.  It's wonderful.  Only $40 too!  You can't really tell from that picture, but the logo is actually embossed.

Back when this game came out Nintendo Power ran a review in which they said it was a real shame that the game would undoubtedly get overshadowed by Perfect Dark.  Unfortunately, they were right.

Well, I can rectify that problem for myself by playing this for the first time.  I hope to get some four-player action going.

More shooters

I decided to pick up some more old school shooters.

Operation Wolf and Operation Thunderbolt were arcade games that were ported to the NES and SNES.  Both games have light gun support (since the arcade cabinets had positional guns), so that's why I picked them up.  Operation Thunderbolt is one of only two SNES games that supported both the Super Scope and Mouse simultaneously (T2: The Arcade Game was the other one).  Expect an upload in the near future.

I tried a little bit of Quake II so far.  I really like the graphics, especially with the Expansion Pak.  This one looks to actually be more fun than the first Quake, which I still need to finish.  Oh how I missed out on N64 shooters back in the day.  Stupid me, I thought Perfect Dark was all I needed.

Even more new purchases

After a long time I finally decided to pick up an SNES Mouse, as well as a few old school FPS games.

The Mouse wasn't sold by itself in America (it apparently was in Europe though), so I had to buy a copy of Mario Paint if I wanted to get a Mouse brand new.  That box may look a little beaten up, but the contents inside were untouched and still wrapped in their plastic bags.  Oh, and it has its original price tag as well. 

I had thought about picking up Doom 64 for quite a while, but after Keet picked up his own copy, I knew I had to get one too.  There are a lot of classic FPS ports that I never paid attention to as a kid.  My only real console FPS experience during the N64 era was Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and a little bit of Turok.  Aside from that I didn't real bother with other shooters, and that's a real shame.  But I can certainly catch up now.  I'll be picking up more shooters for sure.

Wolfenstein was a game I never noticed or thought about getting on the SNES.  I never even knew there was an SNES port.  But when I went looking for games that support the Super NES Mouse, I saw Wolfenstein on the list and decided instantly that I had to get the game.  It turns out the Mouse works great with it.  I'll have a playthrough uploaded soon enough.

With all these new SNES and N64 games, I've been running out of space in my game storage drawers that I showed before.  So I decided to pick up another one of the drawers, except this time it's the larger 24-game model.  I got the box too.  That was helpful since I use these larger boxes to store all my games boxes and keep them safe.

I forgot to take a picture of this before, but I picked up another DVD tower for when my current one gets full (it's really close).  I found the same model dirt cheap at K-Mart and decided to pick it up just in case it gets discontinued.  I really like these things because they swivel and you can put your controllers on top of them.  Of course I'll have to assemble it when the time comes, but I actually enjoy that.

One of my Youtube subscribers asked about the CRT TV and the new Toshiba DVD Recorder that I'm using to upconvert old consoles for use on the Hauppauge HD PVR.  Here they are stuck in the corner to the left of the HDTV.

More New Purchases

I love all sorts of different controllers, but one type that I never had growing up was a steering wheel.  I remember seeing Interact's V3 steering wheel for the Nintendo 64 back in the day, but I never really had any interest in buying one... until now.

This thing is pretty cool.  You can configure just about everything on the steering wheel, including sensitivity and button assignment, and it will remember those settings even if you turn the system off.

It's a little difficult to use because it's essentially adapting an analog stick to be used as a steering wheel, but I don't care, it's still fun!  So far I've tried World Driver Championship (really difficult with the V3, but only because the game is itself incredibly difficult) and Hydro Thunder (really fun, makes it's feel more like the arcade), as well as this game:

I played Off Road Challenge several times in the arcade (it seems like the arcade machine is everywhere) and I think I even rented it once.  It's a decent arcade game, but nothing to write home about.  However, I like off road racing, and arcade games are a perfect fit for the V3 (since arcade racing games are designed to use steering wheels), so I'll be uploading a full playthrough of this game on my Youtube channel using the V3 some time in the near future.  But from what I've played so far, it's a lot of fun using the wheel.

Some versions of the V3 apparently had built-in rumble, and while mine has a rumble light on it, I can't figure out how to get the rumble to work (the manual doesn't say anything about it).  If anyone knows how to turn the rumble on, I'd love to hear how.

New Purchases

I've done a little shopping since Christmas, so I might as well post that stuff here.

I felt my N64 needed another shooter, so I picked up a brand new copy of Quake.  I'm still playing through this one, but it's tough:

I've been meaning to complete my Wario Land collection (with the main entries anyway), so I finally picked up a brand new copy of Wario Land 4.

I also added a couple new NES games to my collection.  Super Glove Ball was picked up brand new for only around $40, and Gotcha! was picked up used, but in excellent condition, for about $25.

But Super Glove Ball isn't much fun without its trademark controller: The Power Glove, so I bought one of those as well.

I have to say, the glove works great with Super Glove Ball!  In fact, I've already uploaded a complete playthrough of the game on my Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/watchmeplaynintendo).  I couldn't believe that I found a brand new Power Glove for only $85.  That's a steal if you ask me.  I'll be having fun with this thing for sure.  Mike Tyson's Punch Out is fun with the glove, but it doesn't dodge left and right very well.  The other movements work fine though.  I'll be trying other games for sure.

In other controller-related news, I purchased a brand new Sharkpad Pro 64:

This one is unusual because the packaging is different.  My prior two Sharkpads came in a fully enclosed box, unlike this one.  You can see the difference by scrolling down and looking at my N64 collection.

I'm not sure why Interact had two different types of packaging for this thing, but I love this controller!  I picked up my first one back in 1997 or so, and it broke after only a few years.  So for a while there I had to switch to the sucky, bat-shaped Sharkpad Pro 64 2 (the revised version that I always hated), but then I found a used, original-model Sharkpad on eBay around 2010 or so.  So I sold the bat-shaped one.  However, my used replacement controller was cracked inside, so that bothered me.  I saved an eBay search to notify me if a new one of these appeared, and lo and behold, this thing appeared.  I love new old stock.  Shopping for old games is more fun than shopping for new ones.

Continuing on to accessories, I decided to finally pick up a new Four Player Adapter for the Game Boy:

I've had a used one without the box for several years now (I bought it from FuncoLand back in 1999 or so), but I felt I needed a box to add to my collection.  These things are dirt cheap anyway, so it's not hard to justify the purchase.

Now here's the real kicker.  The Four Player Adapter features the large, old-style connector that only works with an original model Game Boy.  So to use this thing, you need to have at least one original Game Boy, because every Game Boy model after this (Pocket, Light, Color, Advance) only featured the smaller connector... right?  Wrong.

While it's true that the later Game Boy models only supported the smaller link cable made for the Game Boy Pocket, I did some research, and it turns out there was this adapter released only in Japan called a Henkan Connector.  I ordered one brand new from a website called Arcade-Gear.com, and they had to ship it to me all the way from Japan:

What does a Henkan Connector do?  It shrinks the old, large-style link cable down to the smaller, Game Boy Pocket/Color link cable size, like so:

So what does all of this mean?  This means that I can now connect a Game Boy Four Player Adapter straight to my GameCube's Game Boy Player and capture four player footage with the Hauppauge HD PVR... in progressive scan mode (because I have GameCube component cables).  I'm excited about that.  Hopefully I can get my friends to help me with that and I'll get some footage posted on Youtube.  I'll need to buy additional copies of some four player games though.

My portable system collection

Well, here's my collection of Nintendo handhelds.  I'm notably missing the Virtual Boy, but that system gives me a headache, so I have little interest in owning it.

These are all the carrying cases I use for my systems.  The smallest case holds some extra Game Boy games:

I received an original model Game Boy back in Christmas of 1990 (along with my brother), but when the Game Boy Color came out in 1998, I sold my original Game Boy to some kid at my high school and got a Game Boy Color.  I keep the Game Boy Color stored in this carrying case that you could only order from Nintendo Power's Super Power Supplies Catalog.  I suppose this type of carrying case is hard to find now.  I have a Four Player Adapter, but sadly, I've never used it.

Here all the boxes for the Game Boy/Game Boy Color games.  There are several games that I used to own but sold somewhere along the line (like Baseball and Snoopy's Magic Show).

Here's my Arctic color Game Boy Advance that I got on the Game Boy Advance's launch date in 2001.  I originally picked up the system with Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Super Mario Advance.  That was a fun launch, especially since the system only cost about $80 (don't you just miss the old low prices?  I sure do).

Here are all the boxes.  I could use some more GBA games, but most of the good games on the system are just ports of games I already own.

I keep my Nintendo DS Lite in this carrying case:

The 3DS is stored in this Pull and Go case.  I really like this thing:

So that's everything.  The 3DS is a work in progress, but I'll have to wait and see what good games come out for that.