At the end of last year, I tallied up my game collecting score and had
some really impressive results. Now, I'm going to do the same thing for 2019. I have been keeping track of things all year, starting with a few small purchases on January 2nd all the way through New Year's Eve. Much of it was either digital titles for the Switch that were on sale or a few accessories, replacement parts and gaming-related home decor items. However, there were some really awesome acquisitions towards the end of the year.
2 January 2019
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| Starting small, just like last year. |
Went to Wal-Mart today to pick up several items. Stopped by the electronics department to see if they lowered the prices on those Arcade1up cabinets that they started selling around Christmas time. They hadn't. I didn't really want to get one, I was checking on them. I had heard that a lot of places were reducing the price to get rid of them quick. Anyway, I picked up this wired controller for my Switch and a cable extension that works with several Nintendo systems. Those systems are the Wii, WiiU, NES Classic & Super NES Classic Editions. That extra 10 feet of cable will be a Godsend for all of those systems, especially the Classic Editions.
24 February 2019
Went to GameStop today, since it was within walking distance of the Verizon store. (I had to make a warranty claim on my phone.) Anyway, I got the eShop card I have been wanting and a few titles that have been on the want list for years. Pic below.
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| Not bad for about $41... |
Also, I have acquired two digital titles, one on the Switch & one on Steam since the last entry in January. They include the following:
Redneck Rampage (Steam)
Robonauts (Switch Downloads)
Things are moving a little slow this year, but I am sure it will pick up in time. I haven't been able to get that friend of mine that hooked me up with a few estate sales on the phone as of late. I'm wondering if I should be worried about her...
8 April 2019
Picked up a few more things since the last entry in February. All the physical copies of games were loose discs/cards/et al. picked up cheap from the local GameStop.
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| Occasionally, you can find some interesting things in the bargain bins at the local GameStop... |
PS3
Burnout Paradise
Nintendo DS
Trackmania DS
Nintendo Wii
Alien Syndrome
Cruis'n
Dream Pinball 3D
Nintendo Switch (Digital Downloads)
Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong 3
Atari Flashback Classics
Octahedron: Transfixed Edition
The Pinball game on the Wii was decent. The other two Wii titles were a disappointment. Good thing they were only 3 or 4 bucks each... I haven't formed any opinion on the lone DS game yet. The PS3 title is quite a blast, as one would expect from a Burnout title. All of the digital downloads on the Switch have been spectacular.
10 April 2019
Picked up 2 more digital games on the Switch. One was ultra cheap and the other is one of those 'Freemium' titles.
Pinball FX3
The Next Penelope
The Pinball title was obviously the 'Freemium' game. The company expects to make money from me paying to download tables as DLC. Who knows if that will actually happen or not...
5 May 2019
Bought a cheap racing game for my Switch from the Nintendo eShop a few days ago, called
VSR: Void Space Racing on a lark. My interest in it is moderate, but I couldn't pass up a sale where the game was only 49 cents.
17 May 2019
More digital purchases from the eShop today, all of them games that you can't get on physical media at all, except for one. And that title was originally a homebrew for the
SEGA Genesis.
Here's what I bought, all for about $30 since they were on sale...
Coffee Crisis (This is the Genesis homebrew.)
Dragon Pinball (This one has cool effects and a good Metal soundtrack. \m/ )
Stern Pinball Arcade: Limited Edition Add-On Pack 1 & 2
Xeodrifter
Lots of Pinball in this particular haul, but that's a good thing since I love Pinball so much. That's also where about $20 of the $30 was spent. Even in digital form, Pinball machines are still ridiculously expensive.
25 May 2019
Another weekend, another eShop sale. This time though, The total expenditure was no more than $13. Games acquired include the following:
Hyperide
Mercury Race
Tachyon Project
16 June 2019
Finally managed to get one of those 3rd party replacement spinner knobs for my Atari 12-in-1 cabinet from Arcade1up. Now,
Tempest and
Major Havoc play the way they are supposed to, rather than being crippled by that awful plastic knob. What was Arcade1up thinking when they put in that awful plastic knob at the factory?
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These things are made in small numbers and sell out quick.
You'll also need a special interface circuit board for the 6-in-1 and 12-in-1 cabinets. |
There are several different colors of knobs that you can buy separately for this spinner. I got the black knob so it would almost perfectly match my cabinet's control deck.
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It may not look much different from the original, but it sure plays different...
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I put the silver knob that came with the spinner next to the black one that's installed, just to show the differences.
Both would look good, but I like the black one better. |
19 July 2019
My game collecting through the summer has been pretty minimal. However, I have picked up a number of cheap titles. On June 29th, I bought the SEGA AGES re-release of Sonic The Hedgehog on the Nintendo Switch. It was cheap and I knew it would make a great time waster. After all, I've played that game on one platform or another for nearly 30 years now...
On July 17th, I picked up two used games from a Goodwill store that just happened to be next to an auto parts store where I acquired a lawnmower part. They were the first HALO game for the original XBOX (which was complete with manual and in great shape) and a PS3 title called
The Darkness II Limited Edition. The HALO title will just end up being part of the inventory for the retro game store that I will open some day. Not sure about the PS3 game yet. However, it is just another 1st person shooter. How many dozens of those do I already own?
On July 18th, I got a package in the mail from Amazon with one of my Prime Day purchases,
Namco Museum Arcade Pac for the Nintendo Switch. It contains both the Switch version of
Namco Museum and
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. I already had a digital copy of Namco Museum, but the Pac-Man game was on my list for a while. Being able to get a physical copy for the same price as the digital copy was an opportunity I was not going to pass up. Also, it's nice to have a physical copy of Namco Museum as well. Those classics MUST be preserved.
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| Not a bad haul for just under $30 combined. |
On July 19th, I got 3 indie games on the Switch for less than half of a dollar, including taxes. How? Two of them were on sale at DEEP discounts. The other was free because I purchased one of the other games that were on a special list of other digital titles in the eShop. Anyway, here's the titles I'm talking about, with the prices paid in parentheses afterward...
Ding Dong XL (19¢)
Grid Mania (9¢)
Transcripted (Acquired for free because I previously purchased The Next Penelope.)
23 July 2019
Noticed that a few things were on sale and picked up 2 cheap games from my want list. Both of them cost me less than $10 combined.
Adrenaline Rush: Miami Drive
Immortal Redneck
All of these recent acquisitions for the Switch bring my number of titles for the system up to 46. The actual number of games is 232 because some of those titles are greatest hits collections.
Atari Flashback Classics has 150 games alone. Still, this makes the Switch the (semi) portable with the most games in my collection.
26 July 2019
Just came across a YouTube video advertising the fact that
the first 3 DOOM games are available today for Nintendo Switch, PS4 & XB1. I just purchased them all for $20+tax from the eShop on my Switch. The first 2 have finished downloading already by the time I started writing this entry.
DOOM 3 will take a while because it's a 8.8GB file. The Switch version of Doom 2016 was only 8.3GB. That's strange... However, this copy of Doom 3 does have both of the expansion packs that were made for the game. That may account for why a game originally released in 2004 on 3 or 4 CD-ROMs would have such a large file size. Maybe...
The Switch ports for Doom and Doom 2 are both 353MB and 350MB, respectively, which I find strange. Both of those games originally released on a set of no more than 5 1.44MB 3.5" floppy disks back in 1993 and 1994. Why are they so huge in size now? Does it really take up that much space for whatever emulator program is running the original game's code?
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| Collage of the cover art/posters for these 3 classic games... |
Anyway, the Switch game count is at 49 titles and 235 actual games. Damn... This is probably the fastest that any software library for any system in my collection has ever grown. The actual number of games here is putting the Switch library up there with my collections for the Atari 2600 & PC. That is rather impressive to me.
26 September 2019
Recently picked up a few more digital titles for the Switch that were on sale and very cheap.
Riptide GP Renegade ($5.08, including tax)
SEGA AGES: OutRun (About $6, including tax)
Horizon Chase Turbo - Summer Vibes DLC ($1.99, no tax. Paid for with gold coins in the eShop.)
Total Switch library now consists of 51 titles and 237 actual games. The DLC for
Horizon Chase Turbo doesn't count as a new game, just extra features/levels for that fantastic racing game.
Also recently went to Wal-Mart for a few things today and, as usual, cruised by the game section. They still have most of the same Arcade1up cabinets that they had when I last went there months ago, except the Mortal Kombat cabinet. No surprises there. However, I did get some more wall art for the game room, all Pac-Man related. They were on clearance for $3.50 each. The game room already has a LOT of wall art, including 2 related to Pac-Man. However, I can still use this stuff in the retro game store that I plan to open someday. It will go great with that piece of art that I have from the Zelda franchise.
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| Not a bad haul for less than $10 before taxes... |
7 October 2019
Another month, another of the indie titles on my Nintendo Switch eShop want list going on sale for a DEEP discount. In this case, it was 90% off, reducing the price from $9.99 to only 99
¢. This time, it's an Arcade-style First-Person Shooter using vector graphics called Vektor Wars.
It's like a combination of
Doom, an obscure
Atari Jaguar game called
I-War (which I own) and the 1982 movie
Tron. I am happy that I bought this title. :) The game is also available on PC via Steam, MacOS, Linux and
even the Nintendo WiiU, according to GameFaqs. I didn't realize the game was that old...
26 October 2019
I ordered a few things from Amazon recently, including the
SEGA Genesis Mini. The price had reduced by one whole dollar down to $79, before taxes. (Lolz...) I figured I better get it now and avoid a Christmas rush. I don't know what some of these YouTube videos are complaining about because I am not seeing any graphical or audio glitches. My only complaint is that it's difficult to get everything back in the box. I had the same problem with the Mini consoles based on the NES & SNES.
I'd also got some more HDMI cables that I needed and a few Christmas ornaments. One of them is of the arcade cabinet for
Defender, complete with lights and sounds from the original game. It's pretty awesome. The other two are Star Trek-related. Pics below...
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| Taken on 26 Oct 2019 |
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That all-metal 2018 ornament of the TOS Enterprise won't hang on
any old branch of my fake Christmas tree,
but only a strong branch towards the bottom. It's rather heavy... |
30 November 2019
The Nintendo eShop was having a sale and I had some store credit to use. So, I picked up 2 Konami classics collections that were both $10 each. I'll be getting more as soon as I get more points cards for the eShop. There's a number of games on sale right now that I have been meaning to collect.
Those titles are...
Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection
Contra Anniversary Collection
1 December 2019
Took advantage of the eShop sale again to pick up a few more titles. They are...
Broforce
Castlevania Anniversary Collection
SEGA AGES - Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar (AKA Thunder Force IV)
Slender: The Arrival
The VideoKid (Bought solely through gold coins in the eShop while on sale for $1.49.)
...And the items that I ordered from Wal-Mart for Black Friday will be arriving soon. Those are MUCH bigger items. That's also likely where my Christmas Shopping will end. (Well, until the inevitable post-Christmas clearance sales everywhere...)
18 December 2019
The Black Friday items arrived earlier than the expected December 3rd delivery date. However, I didn't do much with them at first because I was in the middle of college exams. Their assembly and use had to wait until I was done with the exams by December 10th. Those two items are the Galaga and Mortal Kombat cabinets from Arcade1Up, as shown in the pic below.
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| I need to get risers for these cabinets... |
The Mortal Kombat cabinet is flawless. The Galaga machine is using the original PCB (v1.0.4) that the manufacturer sent out with these machines around Christmas time last year. That's significant because the original PCB had a version of Galaxian that occasionally froze up and had incorrect colors for enemy and player character ships. However, I have the new board (v1.0.6) already and will install it soon.
Both of these machines were on sale at Wal-Mart, with some DEEP discounts for Black Friday. Mortal Kombat was reduced from $300 to $220. Galaga's price was cut in half from $300 down to $150. I guess Wal-Mart got a few too many of these machines last year when the Galaga cabinet was originally a Wal-Mart exclusive. Either way, I was able to buy both of these online for a few cents short of $415, including taxes. Wal-Mart even delivered them for free. With prices that low, I could get 2 cabinets instead of the 1 that I planned to buy (Galaga) and still afford new tires for my car. Awesome! :) I hope there's a sale next year that offers a deep discount on the new Atari Star Wars cabinet that Arcade1Up released for Christmas 2019. $500 for just one of these cabinets is way too much for me to spend right now. It will probably be too much next year too.
I know in last year's game collecting report/blog post/whatever I said that I would review the Atari 12-in-1 cabinet that I got from Arcade1Up. I never did get around to that, for some reason. However, it will happen. In fact, I may combine a review for all 3 of these cabinets into one post. Or, I may separate them, just so I can have more material to post for this poor, neglected blog. Either way, this blog will be getting more attention in 2020. I'm done with all the unusually involving and/or difficult classes in college (i.e. Math & Foreign Languages) and
should have more time.
25 December 2019
Another Christmas has come and gone. I knew I was going to get one Switch game this year, but was surprised with two:
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker &
Mortal Kombat 11.
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| Awful lot of yellow in this picture... |
Those two games and the Lip Balm pictured were the only presents I got today. However, there may be more in the next few days when more of my relatives come into town. There's also bound to be a LOT of end-of-year sales at every brick-and-mortar retailer's stores and websites, along with Steam and the Nintendo eShop. My game collecting for 2019 is not quite over yet...
28 December 2019
Now that all of my younger siblings have made it into town for the holidays (the first time in years that this has happened), I now have gotten all the Christmas gifts I'm going to get. Some of it was random knickknacks and at least one hilarious gag gift. Some of it is actually game-related and is pictured below.
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| I'm wondering where I'm going to put that sign... |
I think that Tiny Arcade cabinet of Ms. Pac-Man is supposed to be a key chain. However, it's a bit large for that purpose. It also plays the actual game. The controls are a little bit unresponsive, but we are talking about a really tiny handheld device here.
Also, you have to see the gag gift I got from my younger sister this year. It's a toilet brush where the bristles are President Trump's hair. I had a very good laugh at this one and, regardless of who you're voting for next year, so should all of you.
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| Make your shithole great again!!! |
29 December 2019
Bought 2 digital games on my Switch from the eShop while they were being deeply discounted for the annual end-of-year sales that all retail outlets have. I picked up
#RaceDieRun and
Ikaruga for a combined amount of less than 15 bucks.
31 December 2019
I downloaded
Super Kirby Clash from the Nintendo eShop on the Switch today, just because it was free and I do like Kirby. And that ends my game collecting for 2019. It has been quite an interesting year.
Recap of 2019
- 2 new Arcade machines...
- Upgrade/replacement parts for 2 of my 3 arcade machines...
- 1 Plug'N'Play in the form of the SEGA Genesis Mini
- At least 3 physical titles for the Switch...
- Some random loose discs for DS, Wii, XBOX and PS3...
- LOTS of digital titles from the Nintendo eShop...
- A few more digital titles from Steam
- Lots of tchotchkes to add to the overall decor of the game room, including more wall signs than I can use, keychains, a Christmas ornament, etc.
Not a bad year at all. However, it does point towards a disturbing trend: more and more games being digital instead of on some kind of physical media. Most of this year's acquisitions were not even on some kind of physical media. However, at least those digital games were really cheap. I got some of them for literally a few pennies, if not absolutely free. That being said, when physical media is available, I usually go with that method. After all, you gotta have
something to show off on the shelf.
Also, who would have thought that I'd find as many interesting items from Wal-Mart as I did this year? Everything from decor items to controllers to whole arcade cabinets. Amazing... I normally avoid that store like the plague because of the LONG lines at checkout... Not to mention the often
low-class clientele...
Bring on 2020.
- Lord Publius
