What's new in your collection/Pick-up Thread !!!

[avatar! | 1,842]

2 hours ago, PII said:

Is it actually not stamped with a number/letter designation, or did you obscure it for the photo?

Obscured for the photo, it is hand-numbered

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 3/20/2023 at 7:29 PM, avatar! said:

Thrilled to have found this at an affordable (far from cheap, but very fair) price!! Who's a fan?

 

 

 

Very cool! I think I actually prefer the movie, but I enjoyed reading it for the first time last year.

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

I have this one (obscure) anniversary coming up. Which tends to mean that anything I have done since January 1st does not work for me, I have to change gears before that event arrives. Especially since I cannot really do this again until my birthday comes up.

This time around I ended up thinking about something @Tanooki said in regards to both anime and manga. And that had me remember that I have tried to be a Naruto fan since 2004, but never had to motivation or drive to be one. Even in both 2016 and 2017 the official Ichiraku ramen I had at J-WORLD Tokyo (R.I.P.) only helped a little.

As you can see, Teuchi was a little bit 2D to ask if I needed anything else. Even though both this ramen (tonkotsu), and the other flavor I had tried (shio), were good that year. As well the fact that I got to do things there, such as be part of the Fourth Shinobi War (which included an official English dub as an option). But still nothing.

(Except for those nights where I wake up in a cold sweat, still hearing my stomach growl because I wanted ramen. And instead I was doing an S-Rank mission because the Fifth Hokage requested that I do it. The horror. The horror of it all.)

In all cases I found myself bored when it comes to collecting video games. Yes, again. So I followed @tidaldreams example and once again looked for any Naruto card game cards sold on eBay. This began with Anko Mitarashi (pre-Boruto version), which had me hit dead ends. Then I found one that just arrived today.

Between ordering that and waiting for it (with worries because I had a bad situation with Pitney Bowes in the past), I ended up ordering these on Mandarake. With me thinking they'd be bigger (but still cool to own)!

Both are part of a "JUMP Fair '21 in Animate" event, with many more being done for other Weekly Jump series. With the logo on the shoe box showing how small they really are! But even then I am glad to get these. With the following day having me get the one thing I was anticipating!

I will admit that being a perfectionist has me wish the lighting was better today. But again, this is the most interesting purchase I have ever made. And not just on eBay! It is an officially licensed Naruto CCG/TCG made by a Chinese card game company called Kayou. And was graded by a UK grading company called GetGraded.

 

Here is the back of the card. And I should note that since I do inspect everything I either buy graded, or have graded, I check for any QC related issues. The case, and everything inside it, is approved by me. The inner bag had some minor debris, but that only has me wonder if it traveled over Wata's old HQ. <-(Joke.)

With that said... I am wondering if I should now make any necessary sacrifices just to spend a portion of my birthday at Fuji Q Highland. Mostly for the 'Naruto x Boruto' stuff, the ramen, and anything else that catches my interest. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

New additions!  The memory card came yesterday, and the SD2SP2 finally arrived today.

I learned about being able to do various homebrew/jailbreak things with the GameCube through a couple of random videos that got suggested to me and autoplayed while I was watching YouTube last year.  The first thing that intrigued me was the idea of using Game Boy Interface to run the Game Boy Player and avoiding the hassle of paying $200+ for a disc that only booted up the hardware and did a worse job of it than the homebrew did.  Then I learned about Swiss, a homebrew utility that basically acts like a combination file and settings manager and decided that I was all in if/when my kids wanted to start playing with the old system.  Well, my son started asking about it, I pointed out that I had one, and sometime last week I managed to figure out where I'd stored my GameCube and get it back into service.  Then, a couple of days later, I found the cache of GameCube games, controllers, and Wii component cables that a coworker friend had given me some years back when her kids had gotten tired of their Wii and she'd sold it.

Tuesday I put in the order for a memory card and SD2SP2 for the system, then went to a local game store and picked up a couple of spare memory cards and a game that could be exploited (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) that I knew for certain would boot up.  I discovered that the shop had a machine that could reliably resurface GameCube games without ruining them, so when I got home, I went through the effort of testing all the super scratched up discs my friend had given me, determining that only Pokemon Colosseium, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and Super Smash Bros didn't work.  So, I went back out the place and had them polish up each one.  Sonic actually tried to start up, would show the opening animation, then lock up when you started to play.  Pokemon started up normally and played for 10-15 minutes of testing without issue.  Smash Bros now booted, would play through the opening animation, and get to the menus, but lock up when you tried to start up the game proper.  I suppose the guy felt bad for me, and charged me $1 a disc for the resurfacing instead of the normal $2 I'd been quoted that morning.  I was thrilled, though, as the most valuable game now worked, and the other pricey one would make a fantastic exploit booter if it would go far enough into the menu system.

So, I went home, hooked up my Wii, and proceeded to put the relevant game exploits, Swiss, and Game Cube Interface onto my two memory cards via GameCube Memory Manager.  Then, I unhooked everything, hooked up the GameCube, threw in my first memory card and Pandora Tomorrow and hoped.  I laughed as it came up, as the save game I'd loaded had been named "Exploit" by the creator and showed up that way in the in-game menus.  Upon loading the save game, the system immediately seized, and then I was left looking at Swiss!  Success!  From there I threw Smash Bros into the system and swapped memory cards to see if it would work properly.  I discovered that while the opening animation would play all the way through, if I let it, then hit start to go to the menu, the game would throw a disc error message.  So, I rebooted the system, then pounded start the moment HAL Laboratory logo showed up, and hit start again just as quickly to get into the menu.  Select Vs. Mode.  Jump down to Name Entry and hit A...and the system locked.  Then, the Game Boy Interface showed up!  Success!  Knowing that both exploits worked reliably, I copied each one to the other memory card so that I'd have the option for either program (the exploits will only boot a single program upon crashing their respective game), then went back to playing with the Game Boy Player since I didn't have anything else to do with it yet.

This morning, I ended up thinking about the package and looking up the tracking just as Amazon's site showed the driver next to my house and opened the front door just as they were reaching it, so I was actually handed my package.  I'd done some backups via the Wii the day prior, so I went ahead and loaded those onto the memory card, installed it in the SD2SP2, then installed the little board in the bottom of my GameCube before locking the Game Cube Player back down.  Smash Bros continued to boot like a champ, then crash back to Swiss without issue.  I didn't realize it when I'd loaded it to my memory card, but the newest version automatically goes to the SD2SP2 if there's one installed, so as soon as Swiss booted, I was looking at the folders for the games and applications I'd loaded to the SD card.  It took some Googling to determine why I couldn't save my Swiss settings (it will only save to an SD card and had defaulted to the memory card which it booted from), but after I did, I went through and customized a couple of things--defaulting gameplay output to 240p (making the upscaled composite from my RAD2X cable sharper) and adding a button combo to allow rebooting the system from within any backup.

I tested out the backups, and they work beautifully!  They run just as fast, if not faster, than they would via the disc drive, and all without putting wear and tear on either it or the discs.  Apparently Swiss does some sort of patching before the image loads so that everything points back to the SD card, enabling even multi-disc games, should you have any.  The reboot function works fantastic as well, actually allowing me to see the full GameCube startup animation (the RAD2X only manages to kick in by the time the full logo is there and solid), then Smash Bros launch for the ~10 seconds it takes me to launch the exploit and get back into Swiss.

For anyone interested, the SD2SP2 cards can be had for $5-10 shipped on Amazon, depending on the manufacturer and style.  There was another type I considered for $10 that had the SD card on a board shaped just like the Serial Port 2 slot and attached perpendicular to the main board, allowing you to access the SD from the side of the GameCube while the Game Boy Player is still attached, but I decided I preferred not having to keep track of another plastic insert from the bottom of the system.  As it is, I'm thrilled at how cheap it was to essentially add an Everdrive to my GameCube and prevent my kids from beating the crap out of what were once common but are now fairly expensive little discs.  There are apparently a bunch of emulators for other consoles for the system, so I may have to pull my SD card back out and try some of those later.  The idea of running Neo Geo or Colecovision games from a GameCube does put a bit of a smirk on my face.

[drxandy | 3,245]

Heck ya! the sd2sp2 is great, and gb interface  rules compared to stock software.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

12 hours ago, drxandy said:

Heck ya! the sd2sp2 is great, and gb interface  rules compared to stock software.

I knew what I was getting into, but was knocked out by it anyway.  The disc image dumper being available for the GameCube as well as the Wii really surprised and tickled me, as did the discovery that there's a plethora of emulators for other systems available (NES, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo, Colecovision, etc.).  To tell the truth, I'm still tickled every time the Smash Bros exploit boots the system simply due to how clever a hack it is and how unexpected it was to me after thinking of the GameCube as just a game console for decades.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

And here's another new addition!  This showed up this past Wednesday, but I didn't want to say anything about it until I actually did something with it.

For those that aren't familiar, that tiny board is a simple RGB mod designed for the N64.  You solder it in place to the bottom side of the multi-out, then run 3 wires from the red, green, and blue signals over to it, then a separate 4th wire for csync, then button it back up.  I'll be posting in the details of this chip's adventure in the mod/repair board.

[Laseki | 128]

Pickups from a toy show today, first time I've EVER seen any copy of The Bee Game, and it's complete thankfully

[RpgCollector | 912]

Last two weeks homebrew gets

[Tanooki | 4,958]

I've got the numbered boxed Super Famicom release of Neko Tako and it's a wonderful game, shorter yes, but really worth the time to enjoy it.  If anything it's an asset as it doesn't overstay the welcome and is easily replayed for fun.

[TriHart | 88]

We had a local collectors and gaming sale here, got a few pieces I was looking for. Pretty pleased. 

Edited March 27, 2023 by TriHart
Typo's

[Nugfish | 653]

Been loving these XBOX 360 buys. 

All 3 with peripherals and Sealed

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

Last new pick-up I will probably post here for a while. Mostly because I am both bored and at a crossroads. Again. So much that I never asked who had abducted @avatar! after his last complaint against Nintendo. All I know is that the van was from a business called "Not In North Toronto Events Never Deliver Offers Games".

In all cases what is not shown is the "Icha Icha Tactics" notebook that is available via Hot Topics. This is because it's more of a project than anything else. With hopes of filling it with notes from those I meet in Japan, autographs, and more. Which is where I will (finally) be this September. With me shaving out the Square Enix stuff in hopes of doing something interesting for my birthday. (Sega's Joypolis in Odaiba was the last fun birthday I had.)

In all cases...

On the left is one of those rare cases where I wanted one of the "E" prizes. Which is the Mangekyou Sharingan (lower left). With some point, I think I'll also aim to find the Rinnegan. But it is something fun to have since I am not that big on coasters (rubber in this case).

And on the right is a Weekly Shonen Jump 50th anniversary event exclusive. The other card/sticker (not shown) is the item I wanted, which was Naruto's debut cover (with info tied to the event surrounding it). With this one being a fun bonus since I did like Shippuden.

With that said... I need to figure out which system I am willing to collect when it comes to this franchise! 

[Renmauzo | 1,205]

I had another round of things accumulate at my Japanese box, so it was really nice to get this brought home

I'm still fleshing out the J-Saturn collection, and this time, I was able to get both Bulk Slash and Variable Geo Advanced (special edition w/puzzle) for really good deals, while Parodius, Strikers 1945 and Thunder Force Gold Pack vol. 1 are nice additions that presented themselves while I was waiting on other things.

The big score this time around, however, has been this complete Hello Kitty Dreamcast console. I've wanted to get the blue version for decades when I first started importing through NCSX, but the opportunity never presented itself. As I get to the end of my game collecting journey, I'm getting some of these things that I've 'back-burnered'. I managed to get the system for about a fifth off the going rate for fully complete (w/baggies, no yellowing, etc.) and this console is going to get set up with the VGA adapter for some sweet, sweet looking import gaming

I'll be shipping out another box in a few days, so there are a bunch more dope games that'll be on the way shortly!

Good luck to all on the hunt  

[jrmrbcax | 63]

First post here… was very frequent on Nintendoage then it disappeared. Had a full cib N64 set back then but unfortunately sold it a couple years after finishing it.. still collect a bit when I’m not busy with other hobbies

 

Picked this up last week for a killer deal.. notice any thing?

[Mega Tank | 981]

17 minutes ago, jrmrbcax said:

First post here… was very frequent on Nintendoage then it disappeared. Had a full cib N64 set back then but unfortunately sold it a couple years after finishing it.. still collect a bit when I’m not busy with other hobbies

 

Picked this up last week for a killer deal.. notice any thing?

Not for resale? Former N64 rental cart from GA?

[jrmrbcax | 63]

16 minutes ago, Mega Tank said:

Not for resale? Former N64 rental cart from GA?

Yeah, NFR Demo cart from the snap kiosks.. couldn’t believe it when I saw it for sale

[Quaze | 345]

Got a few nice new display items this past month or two

 

[Quaze | 345]

2/4

[Quaze | 345]

3/4

[Quaze | 345]

4/4

[RH | 5,012]

44 minutes ago, Quaze said:

3/4

Wow!

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 hours ago, Quaze said:

4/4

That looks like a pricey pickup. Amazing though

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,021]

2 hours ago, Quaze said:

4/4

Damn from target?? How??

[avatar! | 1,842]

3 hours ago, Quaze said:

4/4

When can I come visit the museum? WOW WOW WOW!!