X Zone and Joe and Mac

I picked up two new SNES games complete in box.  One is Joe and Mac, a two-player action platformer.  I used to play this game at my uncle's house as a kid.  It was a lot of fun and the two-player was just awesome.  The giant dinosaur boss fights were also great.

X Zone is a Super Scope game that I looked up but haven't played.  I had thought about getting this game for a while now, but I had some trouble finding complete copies.  I eventually found a sealed copy for a really good price, so I just jumped on that.  Interestingly, the box claims that it's the first Super Scope game to provide a cursor on screen.  I hope to upload playthroughs of both games on Youtube this year.

Replacement Nintendo 64 analog sticks

About a couple years ago I purchased a replacement analog stick for one of my Nintendo 64 controllers.  The original analog stick had gotten a bit loose and worn out, so I picked up one of the reproduction units off Ebay.  After I swapped out my old analog stick for the new one, I quickly noticed a difference.  The reproduction just wasn't the same, and I didn't really like it.

Reproduction Nintendo 64 analog sticks have two distinct flaws that immediately give them away.  First, the top of the stick is totally flat whereas an official analog stick is slightly convex.  That means your thumb won't grip the reproduction stick as well as an official one.

Second, reproduction sticks don't have the same amount of resistance when you move them.  There's less resistance.  Anyone who has played hours on end of Nintendo 64 goodness will probably notice some difference using the reproduction sticks.

I finally got tired of it, so I decided to buy a used Nintendo 64 controller off Ebay with a nice and tight analog stick and perform myself a little surgery.  I bought a controller with a damaged cord that no one would really care about, and removed that sweet analog stick from its carcass.

The donor controller is the Atomic Purple one on the left.  My controller (with the shitty reproduction analog stick) is on the right.

With a small enough Phillips-head screwdriver, you can remove the screws on the back of your controller and get access to the circuit board and everything else.  Just don't lose those tiny screws.

Once inside the controller, you can remove the analog stick by undoing three additional screws holding it in place, and unplugging the blue connector (very carefully) from the circuit board.  Then you end up with this:

As you can see here, both the factory original and reproduction analog sticks look the same at first glance, although a reproduction unit has slightly lighter-colored plastic (you probably won't notice unless they're side-by-side:

However, if you take a good look, you can see how the factory original analog stick is slightly convex on top, whereas the reproduction unit is totally flat:

The factory original stick also has serial numbers printed on the back:

After swapping out the analog sticks, I'm happy to say that my controller is back to 100% factory original condition, and it feels great.  I won't be buying any more of these reproduction items as they're just not the same.

And no parts were wasted either.  I'll be selling the donor controller in a fully functioning condition so that it doesn't go to the garbage bin.  Talk about catch and release.

Here are the results of the successful surgery:

New Nunchuck

The rubber grip on one of my Wii's nunchucks has gotten a bit worn out, so I decided to buy a new one.  Wii controllers are still being manufactured and sold in stores, so they're dirt cheap.  If you need new controllers or just want to stockpile for the future, now is the time to do it.

I picked up a launch version nunchuck with the original blister packaging for only $17.

Nintendo changed to a cardboard packaging for the Wii Remotes and nunchucks a few years into the Wii's lifespan, and I noticed that Nintendo also changed the type of plastic in the controllers themselves.  Later model Wii controllers have a rougher plastic that's easier to grip, as well as stiffer buttons.  The earlier versions have a smoother plastic.

The later versions of the controllers aren't bad at all; they're just different.  But I figured I'd replace my nunchuck with the same version.  These are the odd things you notice when you play video games for hours on end.

Shovel Knight

I went and purchased my first stupid amiibo thingy.  In general, I don't like the figurines because I think they're an overpriced form of micro transactions.  Also, they allow Nintendo to generate absurd profits without making proper games themselves, so Nintendo can simply use them to bail out other parts of the company that are making stupid decisions.

Notwithstanding those facts, I love Shovel Knight and wanted to access the two-player mode, which is locked behind this dumb figurine (okay, it does look pretty cool, but the figurines themselves are dumb).  Since the game itself only cost about $10 or so, I didn't mind paying an extra $14 to get the two-player mode and whatever else the figure includes.  I should hopefully post a two-player playthrough soon on Youtube.  That'll be fun.

I doubt I'll be buying any more of these things though.  There will have to be a really good reason for me to do it.

Mike's 2015 Boxed Wii Collection

Following my disappointing experience with the GameCube, I began eagerly looking to Nintendo's next console.  When Nintendo first showed off the "Revolution" in 2005 by holding up the system at E3, I immediately felt a positive vibe.  The hardware itself looked sleek and professional, unlike the GameCube with its cube shape, handle and purple color.  So I was instantly impressed by that.  It felt like Nintendo was trying to appeal to adults specifically, which I rather enjoyed since I was already in my early 20s.

Since I was in college at the time and was focused on that, I didn't pay too much attention to the video game industry in general, but I quickly heard about the Wii's new control scheme shortly after it was shown off later in 2005.  When I first saw the pictures of the Wii Remote, it scared the hell out of me because I didn't understand how I could play games with the simplified controller.  I wondered where all the buttons had gone.

However, when I saw Nintendo's promo video for the Wii Remote and the nunchuck attachment, I instantly got it.  The motion controls suddenly made sense and I began envisioning myself swinging the controller to move Link's sword on screen.  I was incredibly excited at all of the potential new ways I could play games.  It reminded me of the NES era where all sorts of crazy controllers were released such as light guns, headsets, turbo pads, the Power Glove, the U Force, etc.

Because I was able to simply walk into Target back in 2001 and buy a GameCube without a preorder, I made the mistake of trying the same thing with the Wii on its launch date.  Oh what little I knew.  I arrived at Target to find a group of 20 or 30 people all waiting to get the system.  This was my first indication that something crazy was going on with this console.

Target didn't have any consoles available to sell outside of preorders, so I simply picked up a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and continued my search elsewhere.  It took me about two weeks of calling various retailers before I finally contacted Circuit City and was told that they had the console in stock.  I raced down to the store only to have my heart stop when I didn't see any consoles on the Nintendo aisle.  Lucky for me though, when I asked an employee about it, I was told that the consoles were in the back, so the employee grabbed a console for me and I was able to finally get a Wii for myself.

When I hooked up the console and began playing Wii Sports, I was immediately impressed with just how well designed the game was.  It reminded me of the generic sports games on the NES, SNES and Game Boy that I had played as a kid, such as black box Tennis on the NES and Baseball on the Game Boy.  But Wii Sports was even more addicting than those old sports games.  The new controller was also impressive and reminded me of PC gaming because of the cursor it provided.

Twilight Princess was fun and I loved swinging the Wii Remote to control Link's sword, but I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the controls didn't work how I had imagined them.  Unlike Wii Sports, the controls in Twilight Princess simply detected whether you were swinging, and not how you were swinging.  But I nonetheless thought the controls were fun, and I liked having the speaker built into the controller (that was really neat).

That Christmas my friend Drew gave me a copy of Excite Truck, which turned out to be one of the best racing games I've ever played.  So I had three games to play that holiday season.  I was absolutely surprised when nearly everyone in my immediate and extended family demanded that I bring the system out into the living room for Christmas so they could play Wii Sports.  Everyone took turns bowling, playing tennis, etc., and my uncle and I played a ton of Excite Truck.  Even my grandmother played Wii Sports.

I hadn't seen anything like this since the NES era when my mother and her friends would play the Super Mario Bros. titles and various puzzle games.  With the N64 and GameCube, I had felt a bit isolated because usually I could only get people my age to play the systems.  But now, everybody wanted to play the Wii.  I rather enjoyed the additional company.

Nintendo kept releasing different controllers and peripherals for the system, and since I've always been fond of different controllers, I picked up things like the Wii Zapper, the Wii Wheel and Motion Plus add-ons.  I received an original-model Classic Controller for Christmas of 2006, but I only used it for a few games (mostly Monster Hunter Tri).  I only had one Wii Remote initially, but I received two more, plus a second nunchuck, for that same Christmas.  I later bought a fourth Wii Remote via Wii Play and four Motion Plus add-ons (two of the Motion Plus units came as pack-ins with Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel, and the other two were purchased separately).

I picked up the official component cables around 2010.  Before that I had been using a third-party brand that I received for Christmas.  But once I got the official cable, I gave the third-party one to a friend who needed it.

I just recently picked up the Balance Board via Wii Fit Plus.  I also picked up a storage/carrying case for it.  The peripheral is a lot of fun.  I'll be looking into additional games to use with the device.

My Wii actually had to be repaired twice a few years after I got it, which was shocking because I never had a system break on me before.  Technically, I don't even own my original Wii that I bought in 2006.  The first time I sent in my Wii to get repaired, Nintendo couldn't fix the problem, and so they just transferred my data to another system and sent that replacement system to me.  But I only found that out later on when I asked Nintendo to replace my original, thin Wii Remote straps with the thicker ones.  Nintendo said my system's serial number didn't match a unit from 2006, but when they looked further they noticed it was because I was reading the serial number from a replacement unit they had sent me.  In a way, I'm a little annoyed that I don't own my original system.  But at least I have all my original save data.

Because my Wii had to be repaired more than once, I got the official cleaning kit, which I've used a few times now.

Wii Remotes originally came in blister packs, so that's why I don't have separate packaging for them outside of my Wii system box or the large Wii Play box.  I used to have those rechargeable Wii Remote batter packs with rubber grips on the back side, but the batteries eventually died from tons of use.  Now I just use rechargeable AA batteries (Eneloops are my preferred choice).  I don't like the Wii Remote sleeves that Nintendo started releasing in 2007 (or Wii Remote condoms, as I call them), so they're sitting in their original packaging, unused.

As with the GameCube, it was really easy to keep all the packaging for my games because they were released on disc with their own protective cases.  I also kept the giant boxes for my games, like I did with the GameCube.  I'm rather fond of the white packaging for everything.  It really stands out.

Overall, the Wii is my third favorite Nintendo console behind the NES and SNES.  The console as a whole just felt like a return to form for Nintendo.  Back during the NES and SNES eras, Nintendo focused on arcade-like gaming with simple hardware that offered a bunch of control options.  The Wii did the same thing.

The Wii's simple yet versatile controller was tons of fun and helped me to get back into certain genres that I had stopped playing during or after the Nintendo 64 (such as first person shooters and light gun games).  It also made certain types of games more fun, such as sports, racing and action games.

To me, Nintendo's software quality improved drastically from the GameCube era.  Not only were Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess better than Super Mario 64 and Wind Waker, but I enjoyed the triumphant return of a lot of classic games such as Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Country, Punch-Out!!, Excitebike, and Konami's entire Rebirth series.  Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort were also amazing.

One thing that ended up surprising me was that I enjoyed the Wii's multiplayer even more than the Nintendo 64's.  Not only did I play a ton of online multiplayer through games like Mario Kart Wii, Goldeneye and The Conduit series, but I played a bunch of local multiplayer with friends and family via games like Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Donkey Kong Country, and a bunch of other games.

The Virtual Console was also excellent.  Although I didn't typically buy old Nintendo games through the service (since I keep my old games), I did buy various Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 games, including the excellent Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.  This allowed me to play older games that I had missed out on without having to invest in additional hardware.

Like with my other systems, I still play the Wii to this day, and I will probably be adding more Wii games to my collection as time goes on.

Updated Gaming Setup

Here's an updated picture of my gaming setup with the new DVD cabinet.  Also, I got new carpet, which is always great.

New DVD/Game Cabinet

My prior DVD cabinet was starting to fill up and the doors kept wearing on the bottom panel whenever they opened and closed (which was scraping the paint off), so I decided to upgrade and get a larger unit.  This new one is from the same company (Atlantic), has a lot more space, and features sliding glass doors, so I can actually see my movie and game collection even when the cabinet is closed.  I like it quite a bit.