Armageddon Potato

On 2/15/2023 at 8:10 AM, darkchylde28 said:

Out of curiosity, where are you getting the fact and figures to support your belief/claim that Stadium Events didn't get a "full" release?  Beyond the fact that we all know that Stadium Events got bought out by Nintendo and then re-sold as World Class Track Meet when they also converted the Family Fun Fitness Pad to the Power Pad, there's as much hard, factual evidence that Stadium Events released less than Nintendo's MOQ for games, was recalled, etc., as there is that Flintstones Surprise at Dinosaur Peak was a Blockbuster exclusive.  Namely, none.  Believe what you will, but without hard facts, figures, and proof, that sort of idea has no place in any sort of formal/official database.

As a collector, as much as it would benefit me to write off Stadium Events as simply a "variant" or a "non-release," there's simply no actual proof of any such things happening to be able to do so.

I actually just realized someone responded to this, lol. Sorry for being so late on this.

Knowing what I now know today, I honestly don't see enough evidence that Stadium Events got a full release other than just the same repeated stories about it online. I also find it odd we would just default to "no evidence of the otherwise means it automatically did get a full release... even though there's an unusually extremely limited amount around which would usually be correlated with a limited form of release." (Occum's Razor if you will.) Even more bizarre is that in other regions none of this was an issue! I was always curious about this and I did a lot of digging back then when NA was around and I discovered a lot of "common knowledge" stuff about video games were mostly somewhat inaccurate(looking at you old PC games!) A lot of it was as harmless as a fake cheat code or non-existent secret level myth, etc. (That "impossible jump" in Dennis the Menace on computer comes to mind! It was actually the sewer level the jump was made impossible to make, and it was the demo of the game used to show the game off!) Nowadays though a lot of them have morphed into these almost Greek myth / urban legend style stories.

Over the years I've managed to do some digging at game conventions, and other places online. I also spoke with people who worked at Nintendo and Bandai and what I've been told is Bandai would have likely treated the extra games much like they would of with their toys. (Shipping them off for storage or disposal.) As well as Nintendo wouldn't likely want them selling their version of it after they bought the rights to it. This could of also excluded the MOQ since Nintendo could of made an exception since it was their deal. It doesn't make sense that Nintendo would force them to make 10K copies just so they could compete with them. Nothing here is 100% certain, but I believe the most likely thing is that Bandai disposed of them(or they are still in a storage somewhere! Tim Atwoods find of 3 unopened shipping boxes of 18 sealed copies for example.)

Flintstones was not a Blockbuster exclusive as far as I know as there are Toy R Us game slips and footage showing it was for sale. Now most people probably remember seeing it for rent at Blockbuster and that's most likely how they first encountered it. It's likely the fact it was a late release, and at that time game rental was the way to go for a lot of us. These kinds of memories are what makes people remember and accidentally morph those experiences into the stories we see today.

The real problem down the road was that it's rarity and mythos has made it super valuable and prestigious. There was definitely going to be an old guard preventing anyone from saying anything other than you have to own it(like them) to have a full set. I could see that if it was actually fully released even if it was still super rare and/or expensive(Magical Chase for example), but imagine people who own Cheetah Men II where what actually happened to it was unclear saying you have to own that to have a full set(like they do.) Another example of this is I got to speak with an old PS1 dev and EA employee who traded me a NCAA Elite 11. I wouldn't require anyone else to have to own a game like that. I even got to speak to Tim KIitzrow who said he was supposed to do his usual announcer voice in the game. He said it was originally a NBA Jam game that got renamed a few times until it landed up as NCAA Elite 11 and then cancelled last minute. I actually got him to do some voices for me too, lol.

Also Pat the NES Punk actually did a very solid video many, many years ago about why Stadium Events is so rare. Worth checking out if you'd like to dig further into some of it's history!

Anyone know why my retrode isn't picking up the controller ports on it? I'd like to play some games with my girlfriend using SNES controllers since this laptop only has 2 USB ports. The retrode would be perfect for being able to use two SNES controllers for games, but they just will not be recognized. Anyone have any ideas?

On 11/14/2023 at 3:27 AM, Sumez said:

Does this have anything to do with that one-of-a-kind Konami prototype that just surfaced on YAJ?

No, but that is really cool! I've never even heard of Battle Choice until now!

It had that sticker on the chip when I opened it. So far the one response I got on AtariAge is that it might be an Atari employee made in-house copy since all the board dates and everything seem to check out.

31 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

You got a machine to test it out?

Yup, it's Donkey Kong. Maybe I should of mentioned I tested it, haha!

Found a weird lookin' label-less Atari 2600 Donkey Kong cartridge in a huge lot of Atari 2600 games that recently came in. It seems... odd. The tape label on it says, "D·K·" and what appears to be an illegible looking date? What is this?

Some of us are still out there preserving stuff! I'd keep an eye on HiddenPalace.org this X-mas!

I'm not sure where to get a replacement Turbo Duo power supply. I did some searching, but a lot of places are sold out and others look sketchy. I wanna make sure I don't use the wrong one and blow my unit up! Any recommendations? Also maybe would be interested in purchasing an original(if possible?)

Looking to make a library of these, but I just need the front and back cover arts (NTSC). The Cover Project is nice, but they don't have everything and I have to crop each one to make a front and a separate back. Mobygames is ok, but it has a lot of PAL, and often times lacks NTSC version. Anyone know where I can get these all in one go? I need PS1 to Xbox 360 basically.

On 10/27/2023 at 8:37 AM, 3rdStrongestMole said:

I have had an item for sale on ebay for a month or so, and it's probably overpriced by a hundred or two, so I have a "best offer" available.

Anyways, someone paid outright for it without making an offer. Also they have zero feedback. Also they made their account yesterday.

It says they paid, but I'm really leery about sending this thing off. I'm thinking something is going to "go wrong" with the transaction on their end.

Surely there are many ways they could be trying to pull one over on me.

What recourse do I have here?

Edit: I mean I guess I can just cancel it, but has anyone experienced this before? Surely.

This kind of scenario happens somewhat often to me, and a lot of times it's just someone who google searched your item and came to see it and wanted to purchase it without thinking too much about it. Just ship it with tracking+insurance and you won't get scammed. If you need help PM me, I get a few scammers online per day minimum, but I know how to handle them easily.

It's very hard to get a fake passed someone with experience. The craziest thing I've ever seen was at a convention there was a fake Hagane box where the only clue was the UPC. The box was a washed Scooby-Doo box and was painstakingly reprinted onto it. The owner had no idea he had been had(assuming he didn't make it, but that seemed unlikely.)

A friend of mine just found this in the wild and was curious what it was worth?

1 hour ago, RH said:

Don't give up! If you look, you'll find stuff! Even in the dreaded SF area where SMB/DH was minimum $20 I managed to find some hidden gems in the places I managed to look! It was crazy how expensive everything was, and that was like 6 years ago! Most of the game shops there have closed down since then(at least the ones I tried visiting.)

On 7/17/2023 at 6:04 AM, RH said:

If you don't mind me asking, where do you live and where did you find this?

On the East Coast, especially in more rural areas like where I live, I'd never find anything like this.   I'm always curious where people find these insane lots from, I assume, the estates of former game developers.  Obviously, these don't pop up often, but I can't imagine ever finding anything like this in the foothills of NC.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.  I always find this stuff completely fascinating.

I'm in Sacramento CA. Honestly there's TOO much video game stuff here! There's more than one flea market around here EVERY DAY of the week! There's just a ton of game stuff in general around here. I do actively hunt it down since that's part of the fun for me!

Many years ago I actually spoke with both Ebay and Nintendo at one point regarding this. When I was speaking with Nintendo I asked them to navigate to Ebay and do a search for "Pokemon" in the Gameboy Advance category. I asked them how they felt about the first 700+ pages of results at 100 items a page were all fake Pokemon games, and if Nintendo found this totally ok? Their response? They linked me to their anti-piracy page which had a document buried somewhere in their awful website design that basically was 100+ pages explaining how they planned on asking China nicely to stop doing that. It was one of the most laughable things I've ever read. They've since completely taken down their anti-piracy page. Nintendo 100% doesn't care unless for some reason you're some unlucky randomly chosen person hosting roms somewhere and some random dude who works there is in a bad mood that day. Ebay doesn't care at all since they make a ton of money off of fake stuff, and that's part of their game. Why spend money policing something that is actively making you more money?

Just to add to this story a friend of mine is the brother of a guy who bots the crap out of a ton of online games for profit. At one point he was one of the biggest reseller of Diablo II items online. I remember one day he was talking about not liking Diablo 3 and that botting the game wasn't really worth it compared to Diablo II and other games at the time. He also used the same kind of software used to bot Ebay and sell fake stuff from China. Apparently there's a place to buy that kind of stuff, and it ain't cheap but it is insanely effective.

The moral of this story is three things are certain: Death, Taxes, and Bots.

1 hour ago, Code Monkey said:

How would one person have so many prototypes from different companies?

The story is some ex-employee had these in their basement in a box and just wanted a Super Nintendo and some games for it all. He almost turned them away not knowing what they were, but his buddy told him to get them. Good thing he got them in the end!

I recently uncovered over 100 PSP prototypes and 20+ PS2 prototypes in a huge local find! I also picked up from the same source a very weird Hwang Shinwei cartridge, although I am unsure if it's just a typical Hwang Shinwei bootleg cartridge or a prototype. While I am backing up as we speak all the PSP and PS2 protos, I am unsure how to back up the Hwang Shinwei cartridge? Anyone know how I could that?

There's some cool stuff in here including what appears to be an early Dead Head Fred consumer demo! Also Rogue Galaxy on the PS2 looks like it could be possibly early development? I'll have a curated list soon in the prototype corner on VGS!

I will be selling off a large chunk of these to help fund more prototype dumpings!

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

We had discussions here on whether items that were not sealed and never played / used but had been opened were considered brand new or not, and the major consensus was "no". I'd personally disagree (living in Asia where so many things weren't played but we're sold as new), but yeah that was the consensus. So I'm just applying it across regions, if it was opened, it can't be brand new, at least by many on here.

Hmmm, for me for stuff like this the console itself would had to have been turned on and used at least once for me to consider it "used". If someone just peeked inside the box at the brand new contents I'd still consider it new since it hasn't actually been used. Personally I don't think observing something is "using" it which is what makes anything "used". Plus there's not really a way to prove someone has previously observed the contents of the box before without actually looking at the contents of the box for signs of actual use!

Does anyone know the value of these items? Mainly the SNES console bundle?

On 7/7/2023 at 9:29 AM, fcgamer said:

Well as the pics show, the SNES has been opened by now so I personally wouldn't count that as "brand new". 

I don't think they were ever sealed though?

Finally got some pictures! Took a while for him to pick them up. Also there were some sealed games included!

16 hours ago, Jfreakofkorn said:

Gotcha, lemme see if I can ask him for pics!

A friend of mine is going to pick up a "brand new" Super Nintendo console bundle that came with Super Mario All-Stars. There is also a sealed Secret of Mana and two more games. What is something like that console if it is indeed brand new worth?

Ok, so I managed to get a little time to myself now that taxes and all that fun stuff are out of the way. I managed to dump that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith GBA prototype. It oddly has a Fever8 sticker on it in Japanese I was told. The data in HxD shows it's different. I'll be adding this to TCRF/HiddenPalace. I also have The Lone Ranger(NES) and Jungle Strike(SNES) that are about to be shipped to be hopefully repaired/dumped. The next game I'd like to comb over would be The Addam's Family on NES. The data appears to be slightly different, but how different I'm unsure. I'll see if I can add the Star Wars game, and if anyone wants to take a crack at documenting it, let me know!

Also I found this which has the same kind of stickers that the Star Wars GBA prototype had, but it doesn't seem to be a prototype?

I'm in the same boat. I have a bunch of old 3.5 and 5 1/4 floppies that I don't think are backed up online yet.