Last weekend, I went out on a mission to find as many things on my wishlist for classic games as I could. I had some decent results. They are as follows...
Thursday, 14 Nov 2013
I went to a place here in Frederick called Play Raven on a lark, as I often did when they were ope n and I was not at work. An old Highschool friend of the owner comes in with 3 large boxes of stuff to sell. One box was filled with old Atari stuff. that was more interesting to me than the other boxes filled with NES and Genesis stuff that I already had or just didn't want.
When I reached into the bottom of the box, I felt something that was too large to be a cartridge or controller of any kind. However, it felt familiar. I recognized immediately what it was just by touch and became quite excited. I pulled out the item to confirm my fervent hopes.
When it was free from the box, I could see what it was and my dreams had come true. It was a little banged up and had plenty scratches on it's chrome but, it was a console that I wanted. One of those consoles I had once and (perhaps foolishly) sold when I needed money about 10 years ago: An Atari 7800 ProSystem. My eyes had lit up like a kid on Christmas Morning, practically screaming 'DO WANT!!!' And, after a quick trip to Radio Shack for a RF Cable-to-Coax adapter to test it, the console was mine. I was very happy. :)
Additions made on 14 Nov 2013
Cost: About $130
Hardware
Atari 2600 Joystick (Missing plastic sheath for Joystick. Given away for free.)
Atari 2600 Paddle Controllers
Atari 7800 Console
Atari 7800 Controllers (2)
Atari 7800 AC Adapter
Atari 7800 RF Cable (had to buy Phono-to-Coax adaptor from Radio Shack)
Games
Atari 2600
Arcade Pinball (SEARS Tele-Games release of Video Pinball)
Astroblast
Cosmic Creeps
Dark Cavern
Donkey Kong
Journey Escape
Laser Blast
Missile Command
Ms. Pac-Man (2 Copies)
Othello
Phoenix
Space Invaders (2 Copies)
Vanguard
Atari 7800
Galaga
Ms. Pac-Man
Pole Position II (w/ Manual)
Robotron: 2084
Super Huey UH-IX
Xevious (w/ Manual)
NES
Millipede (Atari arcade port)
N64
F-1 World Grand Prix
Glover
SEGA Saturn
Sonic 3D Blast
Sony PS1 (Both are green label 'Greatest Hits' editions)
Doom
Syphon Filter
Friday, 15 Nov 2013
Another day, another trip to Play Raven. This time, to check on that lot that the owner said he was about to buy from eBay or something of that nature. The boxes contained all kinds of interesting items, including a lot of old VHS and music cassette tapes. The owner also tells me about the lot he got that morning from some local via eBay or Craigslist. He mentioned one of the magic words to my ears: Jaguar. My heart skipped a beat until I realized that he only had an RF Cable and AC Adapter for that system, not the actual console and its games. WTF, Victor? Why would you get my hopes up like that, mang?! That was cruel! :P
Anyway, I did pick up a 'Jungle Green' N64 with 8MB Expansion Pak and matching controller before he listed it on eBay. (I've done that a lot in this man's store...) Also acquired boxed copies of Mortal Kombat II & Zombies Ate My Neighbors on SEGA Genesis that the owner set aside for me. I've been looking forward to getting my hands on those games again.
His young employee/assistant also got a nice lot of things to sell in the store from a friend of his sometime earlier. He also held a certain game out of that lot because he remembered it was something on my list: KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child for SEGA Dreamcast. Thank you very much, young man. You are a Gentleman and a Scholar. :)
Also picked up a number of game guides, including what turned out to be an extra copy of the official Nintendo player's guide for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. (That book covers both the Wii and rare GCN version.) Still, it is nice to have extra copies. For the first time, I had also brought in a few trade items to him: 2 steering wheel controllers for the N64 & PS1/PS2 respectively, the N64 one came with pedals and a box. I took a bunch of old Atari 2600 cartridges (and at least 1 for the Colecovision and N64) in trade. Not bad for 2 steering wheels that cost me a combined $16.
Before I left that night, the owner and I somehow got into discussing my plans to drive up to New Jersey the next day to check out a well-established game store called 'Digital Press.' He asked me to bring back info on them and any ideas he might be able to use to make his new fledging operation a raging success. I am doing that via this blog post.
Additions made on 15 Nov 2013
Cost: About $150
Hardware
'Jungle Green' N64 with 8MB expansion pack and matching controller
Dualshock 3 Controller for PS3 (Amazon order)
Game Guides
Halo 2 (XBOX)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN)
Atari 2600
Centipede
Millipede
Othello* (Atari Picture Label)
Pitfall!
Venture
CVIS
Turbo (Port of SEGA Racing game)
TI-99/4A
Addition and Subtraction
Alien Addition (w/Manual)
Blasto
Car Wars (2 Copies)
Hunt the Wumpus
M*A*S*H
Munch Man (2 Copies) <-------- Pac-Man clone
Multiplication 1
Music Maker
Number Magic
Personal Record Keeping (w/Manual) <----Most likely a Spreadsheet or accounting program.
Reading Fun
Super Demon Attack
TI Invaders (Space Invaders clone. 2 Copies.)
Touch Typing Tutor
ZeroZap
PS1
Final Doom
N64
Top Gear Rally
SEGA Dreamcast
KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child
Saturday, 16 Nov 2013
I made a day trip of going to New Jersey and back to visit an internet legend: Digital Press. The owner of Play Raven asked me to let him know what that place was like, so that he could get ideas for his store. I discovered that both stores were doing a lot of the same things. I'm not surprised. Digital Press seems to me to be what Play Raven could be in a few years from now.
The store location for Digital Press is also a lot larger than what I expected from all the pics and video on their Facebook page. While Digital Press does have a lot more stuff than Play Raven (especially down in their 'Island of Lost Toys' of a basement), Play Raven has one advantage: TV Sets with consoles attached so you can play test games. Some game stores have that and some don't.
Digital Press had a display kiosk of the Jaguar (and, amazingly enough, the Jaguar CD) that was turned off. There's also their vintage Atari 2600 display kiosk that the owner acquired a few months ago. It was unassembled and in storage for all these decades. They put it together, stocked it with boxed 2600 games and installed an old TV and console. (A 'Heavy Sixer' model.) It wasn't turned on either but, that was still really cool to see. I'd love to have something like that for my future man cave/game room.
The owner of Play Raven also asked me to check their prices on certain popular, yet common items. You can relax, Victor. They are too far away to be a competitive threat and they get their prices from the same place as you: Amazon, eBay and/or http://videogames.pricecharting.com/.
Anyway, I had an interesting time looking around at Digital Press Videogames... and spent around $200 on a few old gems for various consoles too. Speaking of which, they didn't have any Atari 5200, 7800 or Jaguar consoles. I wasn't seriously expecting them to have any in stock. They are rare and highly prized by classic gamers and Atari fans alike. Still, they did somehow have the boxes on display in these glass cases that they treated as mini-museums. What a tease! I guess I'll have to start using eBay, GameGavel, AtariAge and *shudders* Craigslist to find those machines. (Maybe not Craigslist...)
However, one of those cases did have a Vectrex console for just under $225. They also had stacks of games, both loose carts and boxed, for that console too. I might just make a return trip for that alone. That thing is not only rare, it's also the only console to ever have it's own built-in monitor and use strictly vector-based games. That would be a wonderful addition to my collection. \m/
There are plenty of games you can buy out of those cases but, there was little that struck my fancy. The stuff that did interest me, a few reproduction cartridges filled with homebrew games for Atari 2600/5200/7800, were too much for me to buy at the time. $50 a pop for cartridges made for Atari 2600, 5200 or 7800 is a bit much for me right now. That's too bad because they did have a some really good ones like the prototype console port of Tempest on the 5200 and the Atari 2600 version of Halo. Yes, you read that right. It was programmed by one of Microsoft's head gaming gurus a few years ago as a show of love for HALO and the 2600. Guess I'll have to get them from the AtariAge store sometime in the future...
Speaking of old Atari stuff, I had come close to buying an old Atari 8-Bit computer (namely, an 800XL) but, refrained. I think that might have been a bad call on my part. I could have easily afforded to add it to my ever-growing collection. It was priced at $60. They had stacks of game cartridges for that old computer (even if many of them were duplicates) and all of them were $5 or less. It didn't come with any instructions on how to use the machine. With a console, that is not an issue. Those devices are very straightforward. An old computer first released when I was an infant is not quite the same animal. As I write about it now, I find myself wishing that I bought that computer and the Vectrex. How often am I going to come across such devices? There was also a complete-in-box Commodore 64 there but, I just don't have a use for one of those. I have yet to see a single program of any kind, let alone games, for that system in the wild. I'm not even sure if I saw any there at Digital Press.
There were a LOT of old Atari games in their inventory that I wanted. I ended up putting a few back on the shelf, including 2 boxed copies of Battlezone for Atari 2600. I figured that, since I had one already, it would be unfair to deprive other gamers of such cool items. Besides, I did clean them out on the 3 loose cartridge copies that they had of the game. 4 copies of what is my favorite Atari 2600 game ought to be enough for now. (I get duplicates of old Atari cartridges when I can because some of them don't work after a while. After all, many of them are more than 30 years old now.) I'm starting to regret that decision too. I have the cash. I should buy all these old games and machines!
Finally, I tore through their entire PS1 collection and the bargain bin looking for one old PS1 title: Tempest X3. I didn't have any luck. I did find a few Atari collections on that system, though. I wanted Tempest X3 because it was a port/sequel of Tempest 2000 from the Atari Jaguar. Funny thing though, while they didn't have Tempest X3 or Jaguar consoles, they did have a loose copy of Tempest 2000 for $18 in one of the 'museum' cases. Naturally, I snagged that bad boy. \m/
My brother and his girlfriend drove down from NYC and met me at Digital Press. I spent the afternoon with them. We strolled around the store reminiscing about some of the old games we had as kids. (And that I still have in my collection today.) I had also talked with this middle-aged looking gentleman while we were all there about various Atari stuff. He didn't give me any info on the Atari 5200 (and its often easily broken controllers) that I didn't know but, I don't mind talking to people. Aspies need all the socialization practice we can get.
After that, my brother's girlfriend looked up good restaurants in the area. We chose a little place in Clifton called 'Matthew's Italian Restaurant.' We figured that a place with online reviews using phrases like 'so good you'll cream in your pants' was something worth a try. It was quite excellent. That Penne in Tomato Suace with added Meatballs was the best meal I've had in months. After lunch, I drove back to Frederick, added the new additions to my manifests and then went to sleep.
Additions made on 16 Nov 2013
Cost: $203.89, including 10% military discount
Atari 2600
Battlezone (3 Copies)
Reactor (Complete in Box)
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
Atari 7800
Asteroids (2 Copies, both Complete in Box.)
Ballblazer
Galaga
Atari Jaguar
Tempest (Cartridge Only)
NES
Cobra Triangle
Vindicators (Tengen game)
Wizards & Warriors
N64
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs
PC
Star Trek Starship Creator
Star Trek Starship Creator Warp II (Disc only)
PS1
A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600 (aka Activision Classics)
Atari Anniversary Edition Redux
Galaga: Destination Earth
Iron Soldier 3
Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1
And here's a picture compilation video that I made of all the purchases from last weekend...
This is going to be the last planned post about video games for a while. I've noticed that too many of my posts in the last 2 months have been about video games, Linux or some other nerdy topic that the general public doesn't care about at all. The next two posts I have planned will be more scientific and philosophical.
- Lord Publius
No comments:
Post a Comment