arnpoly

The caveat here is my "set" is licensed NES without Stadium Events as I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to afford one. The last game I got was Stack-Up. I got down to about 25 games left and Stack-Up was the cheapest one remaining. I was actively searching for one the whole time and it just didn't pan out until the very end. Turns out since then I picked up two more copies of the game. One was loose for a good price and the other was CIB. Toward the end I had a pretty big gulf in value between Stack-Up and the cheaper games left on my list. The last two "cheap" games I got were Castle of Dragon and Klashball. I ended up buying both of them at the same time from a seller. A couple common games that eluded me were Batman and Top Gun. I'm pretty sure I had over 500 NES carts before I got either one, including multiple copies of Top Gun: The Second Mission.

Sorry to hear this happened. This kind of stuff, while rare, happens on eBay too. I picked up an NES lot a few years ago on auction with a Bucky O'Hare in it for a good price. I knew things weren't going to go well when the seller messaged me disappointed in the ending price. He ended up shipping the lot to me and of course left out Bucky and a couple of other decent games. I won my claim easily but had to send everything back. Ended up a wash but was a big waste of time. Not long after the seller was no longer on eBay. These things just happen though when you collect games. Just gotta shrug and move on no matter how annoying it feels.

153,190 Throwing my hat into the ring

I've completed over 100 puzzles so far and I'm currently in the 8th world. I think I've had to look up the solutions for just a small handful of puzzles, and hints for a larger handful. I can give each puzzle a good hour or more before needing a little hint at least. The ones with a lot of rules tend to be created to prevent a specific solution. Like "if this rule weren't here I have this puzzle figured out," that sort of thing. It's probably the hardest puzzle game I've ever played, but I feel like a genius when I figure one out and that keeps me going. Plus, the game keeps doling out new concepts all the time. By this point I figure I've seen everything they could some up with and then here's some new element to tinker with.

I've been chipping away at Baba is You for awhile now. I love puzzle games and it is one of the best I've played in some time. It also means I end up staring at my Switch for long stretches searching for that ah-ha moment of a solution for that tough puzzle.

I think yours was way more thought out than mine. It is exactly the kind of thing I wish I thought of back then.

This is kind of a dumb story. Last year I guy I worked with was retiring. He lives a few hours away but was going to be in town so another co-worker and I met him for dinner after work. I take the train into work so my co-worker drove the both of us right after work to go eat. Afterward, he dropped me off at a train station, but it was one closer to the restaurant that I never go to. It just so happens one of the local news stations was set up there for a story about train security, so they stopped me and ended up interviewing me. It was at night and I still had my work stuff with me, including my computer bag, lunch box, and a couple of Python programming books the guy gave me as a parting gift. My wife and I watched for the segment on the news that night, and they ended up spelling my name wrong. I'm not sure this counts for fame if my name is incorrect. I just remembered I have another really dumb story, waaay dumber than the first one. In high school, I was in a number of math competitions and was really good so I won lots of awards for them. At state competition one year, I was heading up to the stage for I think my third award. It was for a two-person competition so my teammate was coming up with me. On the way up I told him I decided I was going to "slip and fall" on stage. There's no reason this was a good idea, just some dorky thing I thought would get people to laugh. So I did it, and yeah people laughed. Anyway, later on during my first week of college I was talking to one of my classmates and she said "hey weren't you the guy that fell at State one year?" I had no idea I made that kind of impression!

Looks like a very exciting contest tournament final! Congrats to all for participating and having a good time. It was nice to be watching you folks have all the fun and good smack talk!

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! I played maybe 2-3 hours this week and ended up with this score. I was far and away the winner and scored $20!

My Take On The NES Library project is meant to be a slow burn, very slow in fact! I like to celebrate the milestones along the way. Therefore, I've made it a yearly tradition to celebrate my project anniversary with a post highlighting the past year of playing and beating NES games. I usually go into some basic project metrics, but this year I took a deeper dive into the year-over-year data along with some findings from Year 4 of my project. Certainly this is a very nerdy look at what I'm doing, but I had fun looking at this stuff. You can read about all the details here: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/misc/happy-4th-anniversary/

This happens to me all the time. Doesn't help that my name is Aaron, even considering the spelling people still think I'm an Erin. I've just learned to roll with it, it's not a big deal to me anymore. I'll say it is kind of funny when this happens in the drive-thru and I end up getting a look from the cashier, who has to confirm what I ordered just to make sure they have the right person. Yeah it's me, girly-voice guy.

To put into context, Stadium Events is the only licensed cart I'm missing. I'd also pick up the expensive unlicensed carts that are otherwise out of reach.

*puts nerd hat on* To the people mentioning Famicom games, those are neither NES nor non-NTSC. Japan is NTSC-J *takes hat off* @ThePhleo's list above is rock-solid, all good games!

I would definitely convince my wife to let me buy Stadium Events.

I've been playing Bases Loaded II for my project, which normally would be awesome for this thread but it has already been done.

I am going to try and compete in this. Thanks for the list in advance, looks like I have a few carts to pick up!

This is funny, I'm also playing Balloon Fight this week. My local FB retro group is running a contest on Balloon Trip this week with a cash price. (BTW, I just figured out that money is a motivator to keep me competing, go figure!) I got 110K last night but it looks like I've got a ways to go to catch Mr. Sampson!

There are several NES strategy simulation games developed by Koei. For the uninitiated, these games are huge, complex simulations with enough options available to melt your brain. I'm of course describing myself here! These games have always been intimidating and ones I thought I might not ever play. But here's another one! This is the second Koei game I've beaten so far for this project. I had some lessons learned throughout my time spent with Genghis Khan that I hope will carry over to future games. Just a warning, since there's a lot of cover about Genghis Khan, this review is very long, my longest yet if I'm not mistaken. Grab a cup of coffee before this one! Full Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/134-genghis-khan/

Double that and maybe I can do it

The only con I've been to is MOGameCon but this has been my experience exactly. It's fun to browse and see what's there, but a lot of stuff is overpriced and good luck finding a deal. But chatting to people has ended up being my favorite part of my time there, hands down.

It's been awhile since I've played Excitebike, but I know I haven't been able to clear Track 5. Yet. Good luck everyone!

I prefer to start decorating after Thanksgiving and take everything down about a week into January. That said this year we've already had the tree up for a few days... If local radio is any indication, the Christmas season this year is from Nov 15 - Dec 25.

Swooping in at near the last minute ... but I have my list sent!

Casino Kid is a game where you walk around a casino challenging people to either blackjack or poker. Then you play those same games over and over ad nauseam until you win a bunch of money and beat the game. Honestly, it's not as bad as it sounds, as the simulations of blackjack and power are quite good. You just have to spend some time at it. Pretty much par for the course when beating many NES games anyway. Full Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/133-casino-kid/