New Old Stock

There's nothing quite like getting a brand new old game.  I picked up a new copy of Gauntlet Legends for the Nintendo 64, which I haven't played in a very long time.  The price wasn't too bad either.

I remember playing this game in the arcades when it came out, and I also played the N64 version as well.  I can't remember if my friend owned a copy of the game or if I just rented it, but I know I played the N64 version.  However, I never beat it.  It was a huge game and really confusing.  But I'm looking forward to beating it now, hopefully with four people.

I picked up the strategy guide as well to help me do that.

One of my GameCube controllers has been acting up recently (ironically, it's the newer of the two that I own) by not properly detecting the neutral position on the analog stick when I start up the system.  The stick itself looks and feels fine, but when I go to play a game, the system always has the neutral position set to up or something like that.  I don't know how to fix the problem, so I said screw it and just bought a brand new controller. 

I tried a third-party knock off controller before, and it was terrible.  It just felt cheaply constructed and not at all like an official controller.  So I had to go official for reasons aside from collecting.

I've already tried it out and the controller feels great.  It's amazing how much controllers change over time.  The sticks (including the rubber grips) wear out and the plastic starts becoming smooth.  Plus they get filled with grime.  New is the only way to go!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - Complete

And with this I now own all four major Ninja Turtles games that were released on Nintendo's home consoles back in the 8-bit and 16-bit era:

Just like with TMNT IV, I had to acquire the inserts separately from the box, manual and game.  But it wasn't too difficult to do.  I never knew about this game as a kid even though I had played TMNT II on the NES and TMNT IV on the SNES.  I'll enjoy playing this game for the first time.  I hope to get a two-player playthrough posted on Youtube.

Here are some more shots of the awesome box.

Contra III: The Alien Wars - 100% Complete

I picked up my prior copy of Contra III for the SNES back in 2012, but the condition wasn't quite what I wanted, and it was missing some inserts.  I found a deal that I just couldn't pass up, so here's my new copy.

This copy is incredible.  It has everything - even the plastic bag for the cartridge.  Just look at that box.

But that's not all.  It includes the original receipt and price tag from 1992. 

How can I possibly top that?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time - Complete

Keet has reminded me that I still need two Turtles games for my Nintendo systems (III and IV, respectively), so I finally got around to picking up Turtles in Time for the SNES.

This game was not cheap.  It cost me $130 just to get the box, manual and cartridge with no inserts whatsoever - not even the inner tray.  And even at that price I got lucky.

I then had to assemble the remaining inserts from various auctions to create a complete copy.  But the effort was worth it.

I now possess a 100% complete copy of this amazing game (well, minus the plastic bag which I could still easily acquire).  This is probably the second or third most valuable game in my collection right now across all systems.  Based on current ebay prices (as in, what people are actually paying), this copy has a value of more than $200.  Retro game prices are getting out of control, but I knew I had to get the game before it gets any more ridiculous.

I played this game at least once as a kid.  I think my brother and I rented it, and as I recall, we beat it.  It's not a very challenging game, but it is fun!  I look forward to uploading a two-player playthrough this year.

Recent game purchases

I've gone on a bit of a retro shopping binge recently, so I have some nice new additions to my collection.  This means more potential Youtube uploads.

First, I decided on some new light gun games.  To the Earth for the NES looked interesting, so I decided to pick up a copy.  Lucky me, I found a sealed copy for only $24.  Other people may not care about these games, but I love them!  That just just means less competition on Ebay.

I haven't tried the game yet, but expect an upload this year, probably within the next few months.  I hear it's a tough Zapper game, but it probably can't be any harder than Operation Wolf (which was really hard).

I also decided that I needed some more two-player cooperative games, so I picked up Shadow of the Ninja and Life Force for the NES.  Two-player cooperative games are my favorite type of games, so I couldn't resist. 

I don't think I've played Life Force before, but it's a two-player sequel to Gradius.  Drew and I played it a little bit and it's a lot of fun, but very challenging.  I'll need to practice quite a bit to memorize the patterns.  It will be tough to do a two-player playthrough, but I'll work on it.

I heard about Shadow of the Ninja in a Nintendo Power retro feature from a few years ago.  I have a vague memory of playing a two-player ninja game as a kid, so that might have been this game.  In any event, the game has some similarities to Shatterhand, and it has two-player simultaneous gameplay.  Too cool!  I definitely want to upload this one.  The game wasn't cheap though.  It set me back $100 for a complete copy.  I think it's worth it.

I also picked up a couple more SNES games.  I said above that I picked up more light gun "games" (i.e., more than one), and the second one is for the SNES. 

It's Bazooka Blitzkrieg, a somewhat rare Super Scope game.  It looks interesting and I can't wait to upload it.

Also, after too many years I have finally picked up Super Punch-Out!! complete in box.  I never knew anyone who owned this game back in the day and I never played it before now.  For whatever reason, I just never paid attention to the game despite my love for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!  I've tried the game a little and so far it feels easier than its NES counterpart.  But it's fun.  I'll need to upload that for sure.

I also picked up some other gaming-related items, but I'll get to those things in another post.

DVD/Game Cabinet

While I was at Target I spotted a DVD cabinet that looked really cool.  My prior swiveling DVD tower was nice, but it got dusty all the time, and some of the game cases were getting faded by the sun.  It's not a huge deal, but I'd rather avoid those two nuisances.

So I decided a newer, enclosed storage option was in order.  It took all afternoon to put together, but I'm really liking the look and functionality of the new cabinet.  This does an excellent job of keeping my games from getting dusty and sun bleached:

There's still plenty of storage space too, so I hope to fill this thing with a lot more Wii U and 3DS games:

Here's a better picture of my modern game collection (from the GameCube generation forward):

Up next I'll be posting some of my recent retro game purchases.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 100% complete in box

Starting a couple of years ago I began completing my game collection by obtaining boxes and manuals for various games I owned.  I was missing most of the boxes for my NES games and several for my SNES games.

As I said in the description for my Link to the Past playthrough on Youtube, I received the game for Christmas of 1992 with my brand new Super Nintendo.  However, sadly, my family must have thrown away the boxes almost immediately because I can't remember ever having the game box (or even the system box) except for that single Christmas morning.  The only thing we managed to keep was the cartridge and the manual (which is pretty worn out).  That cartridge is in good shape though.


In early 2012 I managed to pick up an excellent condition box, manual and some inserts for A Link to the Past (without the cartridge, since I didn't need it) off ebay for only $28.  Can you believe that?  I got lucky.  A few of the inserts were missing (the Nintendo Power flyer and the Master Sword poster), but I was happy enough to have the box and a better manual.

Starting this year Keet got me to pay more attention to the little inserts that came in various games, so I began obtaining those missing parts.  Well, once again luck was on my side, and I found the two remaining parts to a Link to the Past.

What you are looking at below is a 100% complete copy of A Link to the Past.  Even the plastic bag for the cartridge is there:

From what I have seen, there were some variations on these inserts though (before the Player's Choice version was released).  The "I Brought Light to the Dark World" insert is hard to find and appears to be unique to this game (based on the SNS-ZL-USA code printed on it), but some copies of A Link to the Past seem to have come with "I Turned into Bowser's Worst Nightmare" instead.  Also, some copies may have come with a more generic poster with square pictures of various SNES games instead of the Super Scope/Master Sword poster.  But I prefer the inserts I have here since they go with Zelda.

This is definitely a huge treasure in my collection.  A Link to the Past is probably the hardest standard Zelda game to obtain 100% complete because of all the inserts and the skyrocketing resale prices.  I'm not counting special edition releases, of course.

Anyway, I thought people might like to see that, especially if they try to obtain a complete copy themselves.

Oh, here's my old, original manual in all its beat-up glory:

Nintendo Power

Did I mention that I own every issue of Nintendo Power?  I guess I forgot to mention that.

I was a continuous subscriber since Volume 52 (the Super Mario All-Stars issue), although my subscription temporarily lapsed around 2009 for some reason.  I think Future US forgot to inform me to renew or something.  But oh boy did I love that magazine.

Although I had seen Nintendo Power in the late '80s/early '90s, I never asked my parents to get it for me.  Then I came home from school one day to find the Super Mario All-Stars issue sitting on a table.  I was told I could read it once I finished my homework.  I quickly became addicted to the magazine and eagerly awaited each new issue.  Magazines were just plain fun to read and Nintendo Power was how I got my gaming news for the longest time.

You could actually back order the old Nintendo Power issues in huge batches for several years (there was an order form in the back of the magazine), but sometime in the '90s Nintendo ran of stock of their old issues, so I wasn't able to take advantage of that in time (kids don't have a lot of money, of course).

Around 2000 or so I acquired all the remaining issues (1-51) off ebay in some massive batches.  They were dirt cheap back then (it was amazing that they had no resale value) and in excellent condition.  I had to buy issues 1 and 2 separate though. 

I managed to pick up an excellent condition first issue for maybe $20 at most - with the poster and all the inserts intact.  Issue 2 was much cheaper.  Those days are now long gone and the prices have spiked due to increased game collecting and Nintendo Power ceasing publication.

All of my issues have their posters intact, and many still have the detachable inserts.  My earlier original issues (around volume 52 or so) had the posters cut out so I had to replace those.  But my issues from about Volume 60 forward are originally mine.

Anyway, I keep all the magazines stored in the closet in two huge boxes.  This one holds the earlier issues and a bunch of Player's Guides:

This other, smaller box holds that last bunch of issues and some more recent guides from Prima:

Here is just one stack of magazines from the large box (spread out into smaller stacks):

Here's a neat photo.  The first and last issues, side by side:

And the backsides:

For those aren't too familiar with the magazine, Nintendo included fold-out posters in the earlier issues, but they didn't detach easily at all.  They were part of the magazine itself and had to be cut out (which sucked).

This is the fold-out poster for the first issue:

Nintendo Power printed regular pages on the other side of the poster, so if you cut them out, you literally ripped out standard pages with guides/maps on them.  Not good.

Here's the backside of the first issue's poster:

Earlier issues also had neat contests that you could enter.  Nintendo would enter you in that issue's sweepstakes if you mailed in the accompanying postcard voting for your favorite games and whatnot (that's how the magazine gathered votes for the monthly Player's Poll games charts).

Here's the intact postcard from the first issue:

Here's the intact subscription card from the first issue (Nintendo gave away the first issue to get people to subscribe):

Here are some of the other early issues (Volumes 2 and 3 pictured here):

And here are Volumes 4, 5 and 6:

I won't post every issue since that would take too long, but I figured I should at least show off some of the earlier ones.

I also own several Player's Guides, so I may get around to posting those as well.

Super Double Dragon

I own quite a few video game posters (since they were included with so many 8-bit and 16-bit games), but somehow I forgot to post my favorite poster from my collection. 

This one managed to slip my mind.  It's sitting in my closet, stored safely in a cheap (but handy) frame.

I got this Super Double Dragon poster off ebay back around 2000.  I probably paid $20 at most.  This thing is huge.  Too big, in fact, to fit into a standard SNES game box.  So I have no idea where this poster originated.

There's also some printing on the backside.

If anyone knows where this poster came from, I'd love to hear about it.

New Desk

Everyone needs a good desk.  My old one was nice, but the PC wouldn't fit in the designated spot (since it's a larger, custom-built computer, unlike my prior HP).  So I had to put the computer directly on the carpet, which I didn't like.

I finally found a new desk that could get the computer off the floor and provide a similar style to the last desk.  This one is darker too (almost black), so it fits my black motif much better.  It took me three hours to assemble, but I enjoy doing that stuff.

Cables are everything

For a little while I had noticed that some of my SNES captures would have clearly visible diagonal lines running through them.  Others didn't.  I thought that perhaps it was an interlacing issue (capture cards pick up 240p signals as 480i, even if you're recording directly from the console), but it turns out I was wrong.

The problem was the cables.  I was using cheap third-party cables that I had picked up off eBay.  So I did a quick search and found the official S-video cable from Nintendo for the SNES/N64/GameCube.  It wasn't cheap.  I had to fork over $50 to a seller in Japan, but I got the box and a pristine set of cables.

Unlike the cheap third-party cables I was using, the official cables don't have a composite plug on them.  It's S-video only, and I hear that's higher quality than having a cable with both composite and S-video connectors.

These cables were apparently only sold in Japan.  However, I recall seeing an order form in the Super Nintendo instruction manual where you could order these cables straight from Nintendo.  So Nintendo must have sold these directly to consumers in the U.S. and not to retailers.

I've already run some tests and the quality is incredible.  No more diagonal lines.  All of my future SNES and N64 uploads will use these cables and I'll be uploading new playthroughs of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid.  I also wouldn't mind redoing the Super Scope 6 footage.

Oh, somehow I forgot to post this.  I got these games some time last year (I think toward the beginning/middle of the year):

I'd love to do some two-player playthroughs, but considering their difficulty, I don't know if that will be possible.  We'll see though.