Super Mario Galaxy Shoes

When Nintendo announced its holiday games lineup about a couple months ago, I didn't see anything interesting... at least as far as video games go.  However, Nintendo interestingly announced a new line of Mario-themed shoes being made by Puma, and I thought that was the coolest thing out of the entire announcement.

I'm not even a shoe collector, but I love Nintendo merchandise, so I decided I'd get some shoes instead of another Mario compilation.  The original version of the Mario shoes were red and blue, similar to Mario's outfit, but those sold out faster than I could place an order, and I was trying to order them the very minute they were released!

I kept trying to get the original shoes for more than a month after that but I was unsuccessful, and then Puma announced even more Mario-themed shoes, including a set of Super Mario Galaxy shoes.  I think those were released on November 26.  I thought the Galaxy shoes looked just as amazing, so I decided to go for those instead (it's not like I had much of an option to get the original red and blue shoes anyway).  I managed to place my order as soon as the website updated at 7 a.m. (Pacific time), but my shoes only arrived just now.

I love the look of these things, but I'm not planning on wearing them until the Super Nintendo World theme park area opens in Universal Studios Florida, which is going to be about 3 years from now.  I plan to wear them around the park when I visit Keet and other friends.  Until then, these are simply a neat collectible.

Wii U Pro Controller

 

I picked up a brand new Wii U Pro Controller off eBay for a much lower price than what most sellers are asking for.  However, these controllers still have a ridiculously high resale price.  It must be related to the console being Nintendo's worst-selling system outside of the Virtual Boy.  Supply must be low.

I didn't buy one of these back in the day because I had no real use for it (the Classic Controller worked fine), but I would like to visit fellow Youtuber Keet next year, and well, let's just say I need all the controllers I can get for some multiplayer recordings.

New purchases

I'm a little late in posting this, but I purchased some new games recently.  Playthroughs of Super Mario Advance 2 and 4 were already posted on my Youtube channel.  I haven't picked up Super Mario Advance 3 (Yoshi's Island) because the game requires a lot of work to complete 100% and I just don't feel like doing that, especially when it's the same game as the SNES version.

After I posted a playthrough of Yoshi's Island DS (the most difficult and frustrating playthrough I've ever recorded), I decided I might as well pick up Yoshi's New Island and post that as well.  I hope to post a playthrough of that game this year.  It seems like it's much easier than Yoshi's Island DS, so I welcome that change.

Power Blade 2 Complete in Box

This one set me back a pretty penny.  After I posted my original Power Blade playthrough on Youtube about 5 years ago I started looking into the sequel, and I quickly discovered that it was both rare and extremely expensive.  I figured I would never be able to get myself a copy of Power Blade 2.

Well, as my Youtube channel started picking up more and more steam, I became more willing to invest in my channel through sometimes expensive game purchases (in addition to satisfying my own appetite for collecting video games).  I spotted a complete copy of Power Blade 2 on eBay that was ironically being sold from a shop in the Netherlands, even though it was a U.S. copy of the game.  The price was ultimately far less than what other sellers were asking for worse copies.  In fact, no other copy on eBay could even come close to this one.  I decided to go for it and picked up what is unequivocally the rarest game in my collection now.  Not even Castlevania: Dracula X or Castlevania Legends can hold a candle to this game's rarity and resale value.

So not only was I able to repatriate a U.S. copy of a rare game, but I will be posting a full playthrough of the game on my channel once I get around to recording more NES footage.

The box is in good condition overall, but the rest of items are near mint.  What a score.

Hauppauge HD PVR 2

Back around late 2012 (not too long after I started my Youtube channel and purchased the original Hauppauge HD PVR) Hauppauge released an upgraded version of its external capture card called the HD PVR 2.  This was around the same time that Elgato entered the capture card market with its Elgato Game Capture HD.  Both of these cards were notable because unlike the original HD PVR, they could record the native 240p signals from retro video game consoles.  This meant that you could record directly from an NES, SNES, N64, etc., with no need for scan converters or other methods to alter the video signal.

I originally did not bother to purchase either of those capture cards back in the day because they had a noticeable flaw as far as I was concerned: they could not record 1080p60, meaning they could not record a 1080 resolution at 60 frames per second.  I waited until Christmas of 2014 and then received the new Elgato Game Capture HD60, which was able to record 1080p60 at a very high bit rate. This gave me high quality recordings from the Wii U and Switch.

As for retro console recordings on my channel, in 2013 I discovered (through forum posts) a rather simple solution after becoming unhappy with my prior Dazzle capture card footage.  I simply plugged my retro consoles into a DVD recorder, and then connected the DVD recorder to the Hauppauge HD PVR.  The DVD recorder inherently altered the 240p signals to a standard NTSC refresh rate, which the Hauppauge could detect and record without problems.  There was no downside to this method, and it suited me quite well for several years.

Approximately last year though, I decided I would like to visit my Youtube friend Keet in Florida once the Super Nintendo World area of Universal Studios opened in Orlando.  So far, Nintendo/Universal Studios estimate that the new park will open in 2023, so I hope to visit that year.

As part of this visit, Keet and I naturally want to record a shit ton of games.  But I quickly realized a problem.  I have too much recording equipment to bring to Florida, especially with the DVD recorder method that I use.  Keet's capture card doesn't record S-video (something I consider absolutely necessary for SNES and N64 footage), so I decided to buy a capture card that could natively record 240p signals over an S-video connection.

While both the Elgato Game Capture HD and the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 were contenders, I discovered that I had to purchase a separate S-video adapter for either capture card directly from the manufacturer (Elgato or Hauppauge).  Unfortunately, Elgato ceased manufacturing its S-video adapter, meaning I could no longer buy the plug off its website.  I also could not find the adapter anywhere on eBay or elsewhere.  Also, I had some issues with my Game Capture HD60 not detecting scan conversions properly when games natively switched between 480i and 480p.  So that concerned me.  This removed the Elgato Game Capture HD from further consideration.

Fortunately, Hauppauge was still selling its S-video adapter on its website, so I quickly purchased one before they could run out of stock and then picked up a new HD PVR 2 off eBay while it was still cheap.  Below is the actual HD PVR 2 that I received from eBay.

I will definitely be running some tests with this new capture card to see how the footage compares to my current HD PVR recordings, but I'm not expecting much difference since they both record at the same maximum bit rate.  Still, it is nice to now have a capture card that can record retro consoles directly.

Once Super Nintendo World opens in Florida, I hope all of you enjoy the flood of video game footage (likely multiplayer) that will be posted afterward.

Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth - Sealed

I had been thinking about picking up a copy of Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth for the Nintendo 64 for quite a while, but I was never really in a rush to do so.  I'm a fan of vertical scrolling shooters, but I prefer the pixel art style from the 8-bit and 16-bit era more than a polygonal 3D style.

As far as I'm aware, this game was the only vertical scrolling shooter to be released on the N64, which isn't surprising since the system went so heavy on 3D games.  It was as if the 2D genre nearly died on home consoles during this time.

Anyway, I managed to find a sealed copy on eBay for basically the same price as a used copy (beat up copies, in fact), so I had to jump on it.  Not a bad find if you ask me.  I hope to get a playthrough posted this year.