Previous years
2018
2019
At the end of the game-collecting blog for 2019, I finished it by saying 'Bring on 2020.' For many reasons, including the most obvious one, I really shouldn't have said that... 2020 has sucked on virtually EVERY level imaginable. Yet, I came away from it with less debt, more money and a few interesting items for the game collection. Funny how all that works out...
The sad trend of most games acquired during the year being digital has continued. However, the items that I could get on physical media have been pretty damned good.
2 January 2020
Got yet another eShop gift card, like I seem to do in the first week of every year. Is this becoming a new tradition?
28 January 2020
Bought a digital title of the Switch from the eShop called Apocryph: an old-school shooter. It's supposed to be a tribute to 1990's era first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Unreal, Heretic, Hexen, etc.
9 February 2020
Acquired Hyperide Vector Raid from the Nintendo eShop on my Switch for 9 cents' worth of gold points. It was on sale at a DEEP discount. It's supposed to be inspired by River Raid. However, it was a 3D title and felt more like S.T.U.N. Runner, Jeff Minter's Polybius and a few other 3D shooters with the player's view being behind the ship. Not a bad game, just nothing like River Raid. Perhaps the ads for it should say that the programmer felt inspired after playing that classic title from 1982?
27 February 2020
Decided to spend some of the store credit that I had saved up on the Nintendo eShop. Got R-Type Dimensions EX, the SEGA AGES re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and yet another pinball game called Titans Pinball.
Titans Pinball was acquired for a mere 87 cents through a sale & using gold points.
The R-Type title is actually a compilation of the first 2 arcade titles in the series, with the ability to switch between the classic graphics and some nice updated ones on the fly. That's a really nice feature.
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| Screenshot from R-Type Dimensions EX in the enhanced graphics mode. |
This latest re-release of Sonic 2 has the Split-screen 2 player mode from the original SEGA Genesis release restored (since many of the previous re-releases cut it out for some reason) and Knuckles as a playable character.
In all, I probably spent about $25 for 4 games. That's the most I have spent on games (so far) this year. And there's still enough left in the account right now to purchase the pending re-release of Doom 64 on March 20th. That title is only going to be five bucks!
20 March 2020
Got that re-release of Doom 64 for the Switch. So far, all the old codes from the N64 original still work. It's also fairly easy to adjust the screen brightness, which is a good thing since this game is really dark. I'm amazed at how good the game still is after all these years. Bethesda even did a good job with the controls. :)
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| Doom 64 logo |
3 April 2020
Found out there was a sale on the Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store today. Picked up a few things for my Switch since COVID-19 has made sure that I don't have much else to do right now. Those titles (and their prices) are as follows:
Arcade Archives: Elevator Action ($7.99. Wasn't on sale, but I do love arcade classics.)
Axiom Verge ($9.99)
Cosmonauta (9 cents)
Music Racer ($6.89)
I have also just noticed that I have only acquired 10 new games so far this year, all of them digital titles for the Switch. No thanks to COVID-19 and various other factors, I don't know when/if that is going to change. Also, all but one of today's purchases are platformers. That's an unexpected coincidence.
18 April 2020
I'm still stuck at home for this damned pandemic. However, that doesn't mean that game collecting has to come to a complete stop. Besides the digital games being downloaded from the Nintendo eShop and Steam, I can still get physical titles from Amazon, Wal-Mart and those other retailers that are still open.
So, I went through my want lists on Amazon and grabbed an old Atari Plug'N'Play that I didn't yet have for my collection and another gaming-related keychain. Pics and details below...
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| The last of the Flashback consoles that Atari made themselves. All future installments in the series were made by AT Games. |
The Flashback 2+ hardware is identical to the Flashback 2 in every way but one: Atari removed the mounting points on the motherboard for a cartridge connector. The Flashback 1 and 2 were made by a brilliant hardware engineer named Curt Vendel. In addition to cloning the original Atari 2600 hardware for the Flashback 2, he also included the mounting points on the motherboard for a cartridge input. He knew that there would be hackers that would want to add a port to play cartridges of 2600 titles that weren't included. However, Atari didn't like people messing with the hardware (and voiding warranties in the process) so, the Flashback 2+ model was released to stop that practice. Fortunately, I have 2 of that original Flashback 2 model and don't mind hacking one of them some day.
The included games are mostly the same ones. However, Pitfall!, River Raid, Wizard, Caverns of Mars, and Atari Climber (AKA Climber 5) have been removed. In exchange, a sports section was added that included the games Realsports Boxing, Realsports Soccer, Super Baseball, Super Football, and Double Dunk. I personally would have preferred to keep Pitfall!, River Raid and those 3 previously unreleased titles instead of some sports games that did NOT age well.
There are also now 3 hidden games on the Flashback 2+, as opposed to just the 2 that were on the Flashback 2 model. The third hidden game, Circus Atari, was added to the hidden menu that features the paddle-controller only games Warlords and Super Breakout. Neither the Flashback 2 or Flashback 2+ come with paddle controllers. So, these games can't be played unless the user has an original set of Atari 2600 paddle controllers. Thankfully, I have several working pairs of them. :)
To access the hidden paddle game menu, the user must press up on the joystick 1 time, pull down 9 times, push up 7 times, and pull down 2 times (this represents the year 1972, which is when Pong was first released). The code must be entered steadily and without pauses. Enter it too quickly and it won't work.
To access the hidden paddle game menu, the user must press up on the joystick 1 time, pull down 9 times, push up 7 times, and pull down 2 times (this represents the year 1972, which is when Pong was first released). The code must be entered steadily and without pauses. Enter it too quickly and it won't work.
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| It lights up when you push the button... :) |
I was a bit annoyed that the CR2032 that came with this keychain was dead on arrival, but it's not exactly hard to get more of them. That's probably the most common button cell battery on Earth. It's used for everything from PC Motherboards to old game cartridges to remote controls for my stereo and the HDMI switcher in my game room. The other keychains are mentioned/pictured in the game collecting blog post for 2018 on November 21st for that year. There's one of the Atari 2600, controller from the NES, PS1 & PS2. Those keychains will end up getting used for display cases in the retro game store.
22 April 2020
Got a book on the Atari Flashback delivered from Amazon today. Seems to be for the Flashback 8 series. I say 'series' because there's at least 3 different versions of that console. Different tiers/packages with different controllers, more or less games depending on the model, etc. It's kinda like buying a car instead of a game console. No wonder I stopped buying the Flashback after version 5. :P
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| List price is about $20. I got it for just under $7 before taxes & shipping costs. |
STILL trapped at home because of the Cantonese Coof. Picked up 3 games from the Nintendo eShop for next to nothing while they were on sale. They are as follows:
Arcade Archives: Double Dragon ($3.99)
Flashback: 25th Anniversary (99 cents)
Space Ribbon (49 cents)
I went to Steam to see what's on sale, but nothing on my list was currently for sale. Guess I'll hang on to the $27.53 in my account for now. I'll check back next week after my exams and the end of this current college semester.
Also, I beat Double Dragon on this same night. If I were pumping quarters into a machine, I probably would have spent at least 3 or 4 Dollars. That game was pretty tough.
9 May 2020
Got a game called Moto Rush GT, because it looked like a good racing game and was 90% off in an eShop sale. I bought it solely through using gold coins. Not bad, heh? Fortunately, it really is as fun as it looked. :)
While I was on the eShop, I got rid of a lot of things in my want list. There's no reason for me to get some of the old arcade classics that were in there when I already have various versions of these games on other systems. For example, an old 1984 Nintendo arcade title called Clu Clu Land. It's a puzzle title. I have the NES port on the eReader for the Game Boy Advance (Remember that thing?) and the NES port is so close to perfect that I can't tell the difference.
Also, I got a $50 eShop points card. So, I am now sitting at $92.49 for my account, including gold coins. I could go on a spending spree in the eShop right now, but I am feeling a bit hesitant. I have 31.4 GB left on the 128GB card that I installed into my Switch for file storage. Looks like I'll have to upgrade that MicroSD card yet again... Sure hope the prices have come down on them since I last bought one...
10 June 2020
Picked up 6 new digital games from the Switch eShop in the last 4 days, including 2 this morning. Less than $30 was spent for all of them. The two arcade archives releases were regular price, but the rest were all on sale and together were less than 10 bucks. They are as follows:
Arcade Archives: Double Dragon II - The Revenge
Arcade Archives: Excitebike
Biolab Wars
Missile Command: Recharged
Pinball Lockdown
They came from the Sky
Now down to $66.04 in cash and 254 gold coins for eShop funds. These digital titles are all pretty cheap, but I do miss getting physical media on a regular basis.
Also made room on my MicroSD card by moving all the old arcade and console classics to the internal memory of the Switch. Free space on the 128GB card has now gone up from 31.4GB to 44.6GB. I am still wondering why all these ports of classic arcade titles that were originally just a few dozen kilobytes are now all a minimum of 70MB in size. Did the software engineers have to incorporate an emulator into the game's code to get it to work with the modern Switch hardware?
13 June 2020
I was helping my brother to clean out an old storage container that belonged to our father today. Much to our surprise, there was a video game in there. It was a copy of Assassin's Creed for the PS3. It's complete with manual and the disc was flawless after I cleaned it off. The plastic in the case is a little cracked, but that's easily replaced. This will probably end up being a game that I re-sell in the retro game store that I plan to open someday. It's not worth a great deal of money, but SOMETHING has to fill up the shelves. :P.
I am kinda wondering why my Dad had a random PS3 game sitting in a brief case in that storage container, though...
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| My future store's common shelf for PS3 isn't going to fill itself... |
Recently ordered several game-related items from Amazon, just because I can. I got some of those 1-Up cards that are supposed to help clean cartridges. We'll see if they work as well as advertised. If they do, they'll probably end up saving me a small fortune in Q-Tips over time.
I got Wipeout Pure not just because it was on my want list, but because it was still factory sealed and selling for $1.50 w/ $4.50 Shipping & Handling. Considering that that my game price aggregator site says a still sealed copy normally goes for $10, I think I did well.
Also, I found a decent used-but-complete copy of Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions for the 3DS for only 4 bucks more than a loose card would cost. I've had some trouble trying to find that game out in the wild for the last 2 or 3 years and there's no digital version in the eShop. I'm actually amazed that I could still find a copy for a decent price. This game seems to be highly sought after and expensive. It also first released on 26 July 2011, when the 3DS was still new. This game is also the last one that was on my list for the 3DS as a physical release. I looked over the digital titles that were still on the list a few days ago and decided that they weren't worth my while. So, for now at least, it looks like my collecting for the 3DS is finished. It's pretty rare that I ever manage to do that with any system, let alone one that's so recent.
Also, I'd just like to say that it's great to be getting my hands on some physical media again. :)
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| Physical Media, FTW. |
16 August 2020
Bought a few things from the Switch eShop. 2 classic arcade titles from the Arcade Archives series and 2 new tables for some of my Pinball games, which were on sale. They are as follows...
Digital Download games
Add-on DLC
The summer was pretty dry as far as acquiring new games are concerned. Blame that on the pandemic, if you want. I'm expecting the same for the rest of this year. Black Friday and Christmas might bring about a few new interesting additions. However, it will be hard to top last year with the 2 arcade cabinets that I bought.
7 September 2020
Bought two games on sale from the Nintendo Switch eShop.
I don't remember what I paid for them now, because this entry was written about 2 weeks after the fact. School has re-started and that is keeping me busy. However, I can say that both of these two titles were less than $20 combined.
22 September 2020
Helped my mother pick up a piece of furniture from a thrift/estate sale store today. I went through their media section and found a few items of interest, all for $5 total. The PS3 game is worth about that much right now. I can't find a price for the Need for Speed game (so far) and I'm not sure about the price for the Diablo game, either. The price I found seems to be for the big box version of this PC game, which is currently worth $24.46 when complete. Pic below...
Win9x PC
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| Not bad for $5 at a thrift store... |
2 October 2020
Bought some protective cases for my NES Classic Edition, SNES Classic Edition & SEGA Genesis Mini. Now, I can play them whenever I want without trying to fit them back in their original boxes, which tends to be a real pain. Pic below...
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| All of this was about $75, including shipping & taxes from Amazon. |
19 October 2020
Found out that SEGA was having a 60th anniversary celebration where they were giving away free games on Steam. I got Sonic 2 for free and paid the sale price of $1.35 (including tax) for Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I picked up Sonic 3 & Knuckles just because it's so hard to find a copy of that title on ANY platform as part of any collection these days. For whatever reason, SEGA just doesn't include them in any of their numerous home console retro compilations. I suspect it has something to do with the music royalties that would have to be paid out to several artists since their work was used/sampled in the soundtrack to Sonic 3, including the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. Yes, he was involved at one point.
Both play through a larger program that's supposed to play about 50 old Genesis games called SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics. It's kinda like the Atari Vault program that I also have on Steam, except I have the option of picking and choosing which Genesis titles I want. I could have gotten them all for less than $10 through this sale, but I knew I wouldn't play them all. I generally don't like sports or RPG titles.
9 November 2020
Bought the new Super Mario 3D All-Stars, just to guarantee free shipping from Amazon while buying my nephew's Christmas present. It's nice to have a portable version of these 3 classic Mario games.
Also got Hotshot Racing from the eShop for the Switch, because I love racing games and it was on sale for $13.99.
17 November 2020
Got the new Game & Watch Nintendo released to honor the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. being released in 1985. As of November 25th, I am at World 8-4 with a fire flower. I have rarely ever done that before. Nice to know that my skills have not atrophied. This device also has the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 as well. That game is insanely hard, but I am up to World 3-1 in that game. That's the farthest I have ever gotten in that game.
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| So much joy (and frustration) in such a small package... |
25 November 2020
Just spent several hundred Dollars on Christmas shopping for both myself and my family members. Half was spent on them, the other half on me. Most of the expenditures on me were on 4 different Switch games that I got from Wal-Mart for $30 or less per title. They are (with pics below) as follows:
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| There would have been 2 more if not for them being sold out... |
Also realized that I forgot to mention the 2 different Nintendo-themed Christmas ornaments that I bought last month. Pic below.
The NES console has sound effects from the first Super Mario Bros. game. So far, it's been a big hit with my relatives. The Zelda cart is also pretty heavy. I hope at least one of the branches on my fake plastic tree can handle it...
2 December 2020
All of those Switch games that I ordered from Wal-Mart's Black Friday sale have arrived.
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| The game with a big sticker on the front is Super Mario Maker 2. Good thing that sticker in on the cellophane wrapping instead of the actual case. |
Here's what the shelf for the Switch games looks like now. It has expanded past its little slot next to my WiiU games in what I'm guessing is an old desk organizer. I am not sure what I am going to do to fix that slight annoyance, but I will think of something...
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| The way this looks is seriously triggering my Asperger's... |
And finally, we have some slim cases originally made for Mini-Discs, which I am using for loose GameCube discs.
I bought them not just for storing these loose discs in a new way. It was also a way to get over the $35 minimum needed to get free Amazon Prime shipping on the order. The cases that aren't being used now will just get added to the inventory for the retro game store that I really hope to open someday. I have a lot of empty cases that can be used for loose games of all kinds on numerous platforms. These cases are for GameCube, GameBoy, GameBoyAdvance, GameGear, slim jewel cases for standard-sized CD & DVD discs, PS2, SEGA Genesis, etc.
11 December 2020
I found a small work of art/display sign of the Atari Fuji logo on eBay a few weeks ago and ordered it ASAP. It arrived today and looks quite good sitting on top of the shelf for loose Atari 2600 cartridges in my game room. Pics below...
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| I put my copy of Alien vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar behind the sign, just to give you an idea of its size. |
Also, I did reorganize that shelf with the Switch & WiiU games in a way that does NOT trigger my Asperger's...
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| I am running out of room for more Switch games here. Not good. |
26 December 2020
This Christmas was mostly movies and TV shows on DVD or Blu-Ray, at my request. I bought my own games during this year's Black Friday sales. There was only one gaming-related item for Christmas this year: a 3rd party joy-con grip for my Switch. I had a lot of trouble finding a listing for this device and any pictures. I did eventually find a listing on eBay, which is where I snagged this picture.
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| Would not have imagined my mother finding something like this at a glorified dollar store... |
I have never heard of this brand before. The box says it was distributed by a company called 1616 Holdings, Inc. That's the parent company for Five Below. I thought their primary demographic was teenagers. However, that would not necessarily stop my mother from looking around in a new dollar store. She's always hunting for bargains and always tells me when she finds good ones. You'd be surprised how little we end up spending on things like household cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, et al. just by going to Dollar Tree.
Anyway, The eBay listing was trying to sell this same item for $19.99, plus shipping and handling costs. Mom picked it up for $10. Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment purchase that became a stocking stuffer.
Anyway, The eBay listing was trying to sell this same item for $19.99, plus shipping and handling costs. Mom picked it up for $10. Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment purchase that became a stocking stuffer.
31 December 2020
Logged into Steam to see what, if anything, from my wishlist is on sale. Well, there was a lot. So much so that I am going to have to go get some more points cards to buy more games before the Winter Sale ends on January 5th. Today's purchases (and the last game purchases this year) were both Doom games. Specifically, Doom 64 and Doom Eternal. How fitting that a year that was nothing but doom and gloom would be finished off by Doom games that combined cost me around 26 bucks. Both are downloading as I write this entry in the blog post.
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| Doom 64 logo |
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| Doom Eternal logo |
And there you have it, folks. The end of a truly terrible year for all Mankind. I will not even say that I hope 2021 is going to be better. I am not expecting it to get better that quickly for a lot of reasons. Come what may, I still take solace in two important facts:
1.) The Lord is Sovereign.
2.) I am very well trained.
Best of luck to you all in the future. I hope that we have another of these game collecting misadventures posts for 2021.
- Lord Publius
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