Gaming as a kid today:

I couldn't help but think about how much gaming has changed today. My nephews are up visiting with some other family for a couple of weeks. They each brought a DS and seem to play them just fine. With the exception of when they wanted to try my Guitar Hero on the DS! But then they started looking at al my PS3 360 and wii games. They have a wii at home so they pretty much get the basics of using it.

But when they saw the great games on the PS3 and 360 they instantly wanted to play. It was then that I realized just how much more difficult it is for them to pick up and play. First of all you have fragile discs that have to be handled way more carefully than the cartridges of the past that we once were familiar with. Then you have the sometimes complex operating system of the console. For a 6 -7 year old kid it can actually be a bit odd to figure out how to get the game going once you are booted up if auto play is disabled!

Then once the game is finally up and running the menu structure and asking about saves and all the other prompts can confuse them even more. More times than not I have to get them started to prevent them from becoming lost in the menus. Why is the industry trying to dumb down gameplay so much?! Getting casual players involved needs alot more than some dumbed down game play! Make the games easier to get started! There are tons of places the industry can look to improve casual gamer experiences!

What is your take? Remember how easy it was for us? Pull a cart off the shelf and give it a good blow and jam it in! Then select one or two players from the menu screen!

Recent score for the Genesis :)

Ok, so normally I can head down to my local Play n Trade and pick up some retro games for decent prices. They normally are the exact same price as what I would pay for the same thing with shipping on ebay. Some times they have some harder to find games for decent prices. While there yesterday they had a mint coy of Double Dragon 2 for nes in the mint box but I didn't ask the price. Maybe next time!

In the mean time I was looking to pickup some Genesis games and I prefer these to be in the box since the boxes are usually in great shape with them being plastic. Unlike the freaking cardboard boxes of other systems! I really wanted Rocket Knight Adventures boxed but on ebya it was around $15 -$20 bucks. Well I got lucky and it had just been traded in so I got it with box and manual mint for $2.99! Awesome deal! Been wanting to play the original since playing the demo of the XBLA release!

Also got Sonic 1 bundled version with case and no manual in great shape for only 99 cents! And I love how old fighting games still play well today. So I picked up a copy of Super Street Fighter 2 with a mint case for only $4.99 :) It was a really great day! They have a couple other things like Road Rash 2 that I will probably go back and pick up later! But for less than a ten dollar bill this was a great score I think!

What recent finds did you guys make?!?

Do I open it and play it or keep it sealed?!?!

UGH! The first 32x game I buy for my new system and it's sealed! Keep in mind dI bought the 32x and model 2 Genesis in my last post with no games and I am dying to play the 32x when it gets here!

Some people say this game is really fun, but I hate to open and old game that's still sealed! I opened my copy of Perfect Dark for n64 and then hardly played it and I still regret it!

Should I play this or not? I am not sure if it's even something worthy of keeping sealed. It shouldn't be something of much value I would think. What are your opinions?!

Bought a Genesis and a 32X!!!!!

More goodies coming! I couldn't pass this deal up! The same friend that had the Virtual Boy growing up in one of my earlier posts actually had a Sega CD and 32x after they marked them way down. Had so much fun playing Star Wars Arcade!

The main driver to buy this stuff was I got it on eBay for a BIN of just 39.99! I figure getting a 32x with all the RIGHT cables was worth it alone. Not to mention the fact that they all came in original boxes! I can't wait to post reviews!

Rare Pioneer Laseractive with PCEngine and Sega CD modules!

eBay Auction Pretty sure this is very rare. And judging by the bidding I would say I'm right lol. This would be so cool to have in the old game room! It's your old school laser disc player but it also has modules that plug in to allow you to play Sega CD games as well as PCEngine CD games!

As if the JVC console CDX and the normal Sega CD weren't enough! I am guessing the production numbers for these units are very low and should be extremely hard to find! Who ever get's this is very lucky!

Conker's Bad Fur Day on N64

Ok, when you think of Rare, you most likely think of Collect-a-thon games like Banjo right? If so you have not gotten your hands on CBFD! This is a platformer like no other! Released late in the N64 life cycle there are not a lot of copies out there really. Add in the fact that it was plastered with warnings that it was a mature game only didn't help it to sell a lot of copies either.

But if you can get your hands on this game you need to play it! The dialogue is insanely humorous and the game play is addictive. The controls even work really well as does the camera system. You are basically a squirrel that goes out and gets drunk one night only to wake up lost and far from home with a hangover! Bet you don't find that anywhere else?! You complete some pretty funny missions along the way and will always get a good laugh or have a WTF moment!

The cartoony graphics work extremely well with the settings. It's hard to believe when you have finished playing that you have just played such an insanely entertaining and dirty game on a Nintendo console! It's an experience unlike any other. Get on Ebay now and did up a copy of this classic! You can also get the remake on the original Xbox but I have heard it's got some changes and it would be best to play the original first!

Rare Unopened Gameboy listed on eBay for $500 USD!

Facotry sealed original Gameboy!

Who knows if this will actually sell. But wouldn't it be pretty cool to own an unopened 20+ year old Gameboy?! The Warranty stick is still attached to the back as well. This is the car retailers removed upon sale to register that sold unit with Nintendo. Years later the stores just scan a bar code serial number from a window in the box.

I would like to have seen this as an auction to see what type of activity it would have had. There isn't even a page view counter. I don't think it will sell however. It seems most of the time the portable console market on eBay just isn't very big versus the home console market. You can easily buy a game boy or game gear for less than 10 bucks before shipping. I am sure however with time that the value of this item will make it a keeper!

Play free reboots of Classic games!

While roaming Google, I stumbled across a pretty neat site. Classic Retro Games.It's pretty cool in that it offers lots of classic games from consoles, arcade and even computers. Bt instead of being the same old game they are remakes of the games that are slightly updated. I haven't had a chance to play alot of games yet on here but it looks nice!

Why do you guys collect?

So what makes you collect? I sometimes have a hard time explaining to my beautiful wife why I am such a nerd and collect old gaming stuff. Perhaps it's a throw back to the old days when times were easy as a kid. Times when the summer vacation was a gaming marathon with you and your close friends. I still remember the Christmas that I got my NES action set! Man the sleep I lost!

Perhaps alot of the urge to collect is because like most kids you were often limited to only one new system every so often. You rented games alot more than you actually bought them. I remember having to try and decide between the N64 Sega Saturn or PlayStation one Christmas. I ended up going with the PSX, but I can't tell you how curious I was every time I would see a commercial for another system.

And now I can finally cure that curiosity! Most systems and games can be had second hand for little to nothing! With the exception of course rare titles or systems.But then you find your self with the urge to buy a particular game or system with all its original packing. I recently bought Super Mario 1, 2 and 3 for the NEW with original boxes and stuff. I overpaid slightly for a copy of Rad Racer at a pawn shop simply because I wanted the cool looking grey box!

So what makes you collect? What do you really look for when roaming Ebay? How do you feel when you pull out that old NES cart and blow out the connector ( just out of habit because you replaced your 72 pin lol) and slide it into that NES. You push the cart down and flip the lid closed hitting the power button to be greeted by the opening them to The Legend of Zelda. Pic up that square u not so ergonomic controller and flash back to the glory days? There are some thing emulation just can't touch!

We review the Dingo A320! You want this!

I can't tell you how awesome it is to have an entire collection of classic games in your pocket for only $99! Of course you can also find it cheaper. This thing is very fun and can even be plugged into your TV! It's a great alternative to always playing roms on my hacked Wii! Let me know what you think of the review. Sorry but I can't find my charger for my video cam so I had to shoot this in 720p with my Iphone 4 :)

Power for my Virtual Boy

So I got to thinking about how my friends Virtual boy always hogged the 6 AA batteries in no time. So I hopped on ebay in search of an A/C Adapter. You have the one from Japan that uses the NES AC adapter. You buy the tap from japan and it allows you to plug in a AC adapter from a NES into the controller. They were around 30-40 bucks for just that tap and almost all located in Japan. They were mostly new sealed in the Japanese boxes.

Then you have the USDM version which uses the SNES AC adapter. The plugs are different size between the NES and SNES. The US version included both the actual SNES adapter and the controller TAP but was usually hard to find. Well I found a auction that was actually located in my town here in Alaska that had the USDM version brand new sealed in the box :) I hate to open it but it's one of those things That's hard not to do. If it were a rare game I would keep it sealed but going to open her up and play when the VB gets here!

Virtual Boy flash cart!

So I have kind of gotten on a Virtual Boy kick lately. Knowing there were very few games produced and sold, I knew it would be hard to come across some at an affordable price (water world). Well now there is a chance to experience them with the home made flash cart from PlanetVB.com you can load one ROM at a time into the cart to play on the virtual boy.

One possible problem however is that they are currently out. They build them from older common games by hand and should have some by late summer. Kind of sad however that it's one less copy of Mario Tennis or something on ebay that you can get your hands on. I would say the ration of Mario Tennis carts to Virtual Boys is probably close to 1:1 since the system included the game and I don't think it was available separately. Any ways, the price is also kind of high as well, coming in at 90 EUR or about $140 bucks our money depending on economics. But if you are interested be sure and keep a watch there!

I do and don't agree with digital downloads....

Let's be honest here. Sometimes the best part of buying a game is the experience of buying it. Sometimes it is waiting in line for hours on end just to pick up a game you pre-ordered months ago and have been anxiously awaiting. Sometimes the game you want isn't really hard to find but you still make special plans to run out early and grab it before work knowing you can't play it for another 8-10 hours. What's not very exciting is sitting down and skimming the PSN or Xbox live or even Wii store trying to figure out what to download. Or even if you have read a great review about a game you still will usually be faced (XBL) with trying to figure out just how much hard earned money the damn points system translates into. Or you have 300 points but need 800 so you have to purchase a minimum of 1000 points. Which leaves you with yet again unused points.

What about 10-15 years from now. If you are here reading my blog you obviously are a retro gamer at heart. Or maybe even just a collector. When my PS3 dies in 15 years what happens to my downloaded game or content that I decide I want to play again some day? If my HDD crashes in my console or something I can't just hop on eBay and buy another copy anymore. The original service the game was purchased from either no longer exists or no longer supports that platform. And that means true gems like Flower on PSN wouldn't be experienced by future gamers that missed out the first time.......

Pause that Atari 2600!!!

I still need to get myself another Atari 2600 soon. However, I now know the first mod it will get when I do! Can you imagine being in the middle of the game and the phone rings and you can't pause it?! Well looks like someone has finally made a self installed kit to add the pause function to your classic console and ANY game! Check it out!

Newest Purchase: Virtual Boy!

Ok, so I remember my friend calling me to come over after school one day to see his new game. When I got there I saw the Nintendo Virtual Boy just chilling on his table! It had only been like a couple months since the launch and KB Toys had already drastically cut the price. So he got one for almost free and a handful of games! Despite it's quirks it was actually very fun to play! We played Wario Land for hours on end!

So after watching some Angry Video Game Nerd videos I decided to hit up eBay in search of a Virtual Boy after coming up empty handed in my local area. Some systems were pricey and included games. Some were cheap but had broke or missing stands. I finally found one and got it shipped and all for about $66. It does have a small crack in the stand so if you have one laying around let me know and maybe we can work out a deal!

I have yet to get it in the mail but I honestly can't wait! It came with no games so I bought a copy of Wario land for about $20 for the cartridge only. I also was very interested in the Vertical Force SHMUP type game. It seems more hard to find in a US version so I ended up buying a complete Japanese copy for less than $27 shipped. The Virtual Boy is region free (yay!). Can't wait to post some stuff up about my purchase!

NES Replacement controller review:

Sorry it has been so long since any updates. I have been crazy busy getting ready to go to my next base. So things may be a little far and few between for a while. But anyways! So I stopped in at my local Play n Trade looking to see what NES games they had in stock. I was looking at the used consoles and such and saw they had replacement NES controllers.

These were in an aftermarket box and the picture looked like a perfect replica minus missing the Nintendo logo on front. I am usually EXTREMELY picky about not using 3rd party controllers! But for the low price of $4.99 I couldn't resist. I had at least one bad controller and another that seemed to have a short. So I picked one up.

The first thing I noticed when I got it home is that the cord is ALOT longer than the original controller! Thats a plus for sure. The connector that goes into the NES is almost identical in look as the original with a slightly different material and it fits VERY snug in the port. The cord was thinner and more flexible than the original but seems to be better quality.

The controller casing seems to be made from the exact same mold as the originals. It has the box on the back for the model number and such but the box is empty. Every little notch and everything is perfectly replicated. The front face is also identical in design minus the Nintendo logo. Even the Start and Select buttons have the exact same texture and feel as the original!

The buttons all feel very responsive and even the D-pad feels perfectly replicated! You could pretty much swap these internals into your old controller and nobody would ever notice. That's how much it feels like the original! I give this item a 5 star rating in my book!