RH

Yeah, if you've played golf games in the past, the mechanics aren't hard. I can't recall what I did, but in my first head-to-head, I murdered the opponent. I was/am hoping it gets a bit more difficult.

bump

This is true, but for a reasonable price you can get a heat gun with a temperature sensor. I have one I think I payed $30 for, shipped from Amazon, that has two temp set points. If you get the temp right, you can find the hottest temp possible without warping the plastic. I forget it because it's been a while since I've used the gun, but I think you can get up to 170-175F. It's pretty hot but has yet to warp a cartridge for me.

I brought this up in the "How to remove Sharpie" thread. Anything abrasive should be illegal.

In. What' the minimum number of players? Last time Gloves tried to get one of these going on NA, it fell through.

This is me and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I've picked it up a second time recently and I still can't get out of the world where your in the giant guardian (or whatever the creatures are called.) It's a fun story, beautiful world, but I just can't get into the gaming mechanic.

I've been gaming since 1984 on the family Atari. Eventually games were made where they had a hard ending, or they'd have an ending story and then start over with a harder mode like Legend of Zelda or the SMB games. However, as a kid I was never really good at most of the games and rarely, if ever, beat most of them. Fast forward into adulthood and even though I've loved MANY games, I've probably finished only 5% of all I've played. In fact, I can probably count all the games I've finished on all my digits and all the games I've 100% (where that's an option) on one hand. So, just how far do you tend to play a game you enjoy?

My first Front Mission was the game on the PS2. I then went and found the one for the PS1, and when I got a DS, I definitely got the one for it. Man, just talking about it is making me want to move FM back to the top of my list. I might hit that after Golf Story.

Karp, I still need 3 more posts!

Just tryina become a Goomba!

I got this bad boy a couple of weeks ago.

Games I enjoy but I've not seen-- Harvest Moon and Front Mission series. Oh my, do I like Front Mission, but it can feel quite technical to some.

Ah, I wasn't aware that the Best Offer values weren't available (if I understand what you're saying.) I knew you couldn't get those details if you went to a SOLD page, if they sold that way, but I assumed their APIs would properly return that information.

There are two reasons why I've not created a new game pricing site. #1, I don't have time. #2, I can't make a site like that without having all of the features I'd want. One of those features I'd add is for any given game, I'd list something like "3 Month Average" and "Projected Value". Instead of posting a straight value, I'd estimate it. These values would use analytics like how much has the general value of a CIB item gone up period over period, and then for the items that are rarely sold, I'd factor that in. Other factors might include metrics that determine how much more to value "rarely sold" titles. For instance, for all titles that haven't sold a game in 2+ years, if they tend to jump 300% in value when sold today, then any game that last sold for $25 in 2017 or earlier would be estimated at $75.

If you start with the scrapper and keep caching those details while you build out the new service API, and then the UI, you could have "good enough" data once it goes live. If you can have 3 months in the can, that's good enough for the modern stuff. Also, since list of games are already public knowledge, you could shortcut your assimilation task by creating a big game list of every game from GVN, and then import that into your new tool. I'd only take the a names/systems, but that'd be it. Also, I don't know if GVN does this, but a better approach to dumping eBay data might be to daily dump info from each category, or do wider searches like "SNES GAME", or something like that. Then, once you dump all of the VG game sales for a given day, you can analyze it on your server. The benefit to this (again, if it is an option) is it will dramatically cut down on the API calls. I think we all remember how long VGN was down because eBay kept giving them the runaround regarding getting their API limit increased. If you can properly structure your queries to return more data, then maybe you can operate within that limit.

VGN looks better but at this point, I use it for tracking my collection (I'll likely need an alternative soon) and I look at the specific sales data, and not just the straight numbers. PC also provides sales history. In that way, it's the same, but it feels "old", and who likes that.

It might be, but considering my religion, I'm using the don't-ask-don't-tell policy. I actually just searched for it because I've also used a tool called Stylish to tweak CSS on sites, but this is an extension that just "dark mode"s everything. I was immediately impressed and it has over 1M users.

This is a fair point, but for me when it comes to cleaning, I do not like using solvents or mechanisms that damage the cart. A lot of people swear by Magic-Eraser. Well, that does work well because it's basically fine-grit "sandpaper". If you have a game with textured plastic, it rubs off the texture, and I'm not cool with that. This is basically true too with toothpaste, brasso or any other fine-grit substances. If someone is fine with stripping off a fine layer of plastic to get rid of the ink, then there are "better" mechanisms than the DOT-3 brake fluid. However, if keeping your cart in good condition is key, then you have to look for solvents and, so far, Brake Fluid has been #1 for me.

While we wait, this is a nice alternative, and works "globally" in the browser. https://darkreader.org

Golf Story, Trials of Mana, and on my mobile phone I'm helping beta test Soda Dungeon 2.

If you have a Virtual Boy in box that works and is in good shape, I could be interested in the whole VB lot. Also, if that Chrono is in Mint shape, I could be interested in that too.

Thanks for posting these details since you are the "Paper King". Have you tried to gauge the rarity of any of these? I'm more curious than anything.

I've very-often wondered that of the many promo materials posted in these games from the NES/SNES era, if you took the time to find the customer support lines for these US companies and asked if they still had any NOS, if you'd find anything. I mean. It's not likely, but not impossible. Between the 10-15 big companies that are still around and the inventory they've had, there's likely a box somewhere with old stuff in it, and if the price books kept getting pushed into new inventory management systems, there's a small chance it wasn't chunked. I've been a database manager for a couple of companies with inventory. When there is shelf space and you don't need the extra room in the warehouse, you'd be surprised how long NOS can set around. The Enix stuff is almost certainly gone since they likely merged with Square and consolidated any warehouses they had with the stuff. Still, I bet there is some of this promotional material still out there, setting on company shelves just waiting for someone to ask for the right item, with the right SKU.

Slimer. Wait, that doesn't count?

I will say that as much as I stand by the brake fluid method, I've found that it seems to only work well/perfectly with "Sharpie" brand. If the marker was a cheap knock-off brand, or a different type of marker, it doesn't work as well. That said, there's something about the DOT-3 oil that breaks down the enzymes in Sharpie ink near-miraculously. It might take a couple of applications, but it gets the ink 100% off. I've never tried the dry-eraser method, and sounds like a good step-two. Regarding cleaning the exterior of carts and the use of isopropyl alcohol, I almost never use it. If there are faint, sticky dust marks or if a glossy label is dirty, I use it for a gentle cleaning with a q-tip. Otherwise, I've found it to not be "harsh" enough on the gunk and I usually have to use a generous amount of elbow-grease to completely clean anything that's excessively dirty and for sticker residue, it's good for smearing that stuff around but not actually lifting it off the cartridge. For me, that stuff is basically a last resort. It does work, but it's often not the best tool for the job.