Tanooki

Well if you ever get just a little less lazy where motivation kicks in I'd be curious. I thought Tusk was still at it. He had a nice little thing going where he'd make boxes and (key thing) manuals usually for prototypes, bootlegs, english translated Japanese stuff like with Virtual Boy and all that. His stuff when I was going nuts on VB back in 2019 would come in and out of stock damn near instantly. That's one thing the ali peddlers largely still won't touch, maybe the engrish is too complicated! (HAH) but they do really fantastic cardboard boxes, plastic sega snap cases(or their cardboard) with the slip art for the plastic cases and it's still super cheap like $20 or less for the game+box/case shipped. The thing they don't bother with are booklets, really not sure why there's got to be a huge market for those types of goods.

Lately I've been thinking a bit more about this and seeing some interesting stuff that comes along. Most people I find tend to just look at the whole Sega vs Nintendo 16bit wars and go into who got the better copy and it's overly debated, argued, and just played out over 30 years. But there are these games you don't always realize in a lot of cases that popped up from like MSDOS or maybe a Japanese only release on a console or one of their computers that made it to the US shores on a console in that period too more or less. An example would be PC Engine having good games vs the endless mistakes of the US office, so you'll end up with like Dragon's Fury on Genesis which is Devils Crush on PCE/TG16, or the non-localized PCE game Bomberman 94 did come over, again, on the Sega Genesis as Mega Bomberman. I never have really seen any site or person bother to really create a list of these gems (or junk) that go transported over, and if they were badly done, as good, or even better for someone looking to try something new or revisit it in another way. Sega Genesis seemingly at first look appears to have picked up a bit more of the slack when it came to PC DOS stuff and some Japanese favored consoles but Nintendo had some solid stuff they didn't get as well. Like from the PC side Genesis got a fantastic version of Star Control and also Dune II while SNES had a really (dumb password save aside) noble done efforts with Wing Commander and a 2nd cart for its 2 chapters of special operations too. Maybe we should try and knock out a list, or at least maybe point out some stuff that would be worth checking out or avoiding someone may not realize made it. And even in some cases both systems got supposedly the same game but were grossly done differently in some way (visuals here) they're almost not the same like Test Drive II the Duel.

Gameboy labels have traditionally in a vast majority of cases a double digit code(or it can be number number letter usually an A) pressed hard into the label, stamped, dented into the label. Fakes 99/100 times don't bother doing something so mindlessly easy to increase the quality of their copies.

Piqued my interest, what have you got? Or should I say, could you patch into english and produce?

Again Castlevania, what's the deal seeing that knocked twice in like 24hours now. Is there like some obvious problems or censoring issues with like the 5screw early run vs the 3 screw standard longer run version of the game?

@phart010 nah that's high. The stuff I've picked up the little there is has been in the $7 shipped average in price on a single 16bit game cart, paid the few extra over that for aerofighters since it externally is accurate. Multicarts though are about twice that price. They fall into the middle ground of the single game and then the china clone cheapo copy of an everdrive.

^ Ooooh that could be seen as sexual harassment. Seriously though, first, second, 10th...as long as it isn't re-done, cheapened up, and otherwise penny pinched for mass market push I could not care less. And by that I mean the annoying gold medals of Nintendo Player's choice with cheap stickers and colorless manuals, the green eyesore border and ghetto print quality disc ink/manuals of PS1, etc...you get the idea.

Oh it's China, at least largely so that. There are also the cases that some people will just do stuff on demand because now you can buy those same boards shells and 1:1 quality stickers(or at least a high quality custom one too) for very little along with a chip writer and you're set. They've over saturated the market with amazing copies of stuff, original or original but translated to enjoy. With aliexpress recently taking paypal I've started to use their services to get what you're talking about and been looking at other stuff largely out of curiosity. I've got Genesis(MD) copies of horribly expensive titles like BattleMania 2, Panorama Cotton, and Mega Man Wily Wars coming in a bundle from one seller that look correct for $20 shipped. I also knowing I'm not utterly reckless and stupid with money did some poking around for Aerofighters SNES on there too, a lot had some pretty close and some not even close copies of the cart, but one solitary seller has a 1:1 copy of it down to the fine details of that sticker and it was just over $12 shipped...vs $1500...tough call right? This was after doing a test on 2 other previous single pack orders one of a Famicom multi and one of Genesis to pop in my nomad. In previous years I could have got those Gen games translated in the NA period had someone done them, it would have been in the $50+ range depending on the extras involved. Those very games up on ali you can pay more, and it's still less than that range and get them at the least with a cloned Sega case and art, some even do manuals too. So it's like, unless you're nuts, very deep pocketed, and just have to have a true complete set, that's really the way to go avoiding sharks and going broke. And because those production qualities are so high yet so cheap, it makes it too hard to compete with such cheap suppliers making stuff like Timewalk and others did a decade ago.

Guy probably should have dropped a tab of something beyond drinking, just that little edge would have suddenly made that taste all the same as a real one, depending on the dollar tree quality peddler of random cheap treats.

Whether collectors like it or not, given your truly unique location, perspective, literal museum of systems+games+paper pieces, you're like the authority on some stuff when it comes to sachen, taiwanese releases, pirate/clone stuff. I think the salt thrown at you for over a decade now is largely people who get pissed off having bought up over time a collection to get told, sorry, it actually isn't complete, doesn't sit well.

I'm hot and I haven't been left in peace until now today... so I really don't want to do pictures, as if you've never seen any of it before. A game delayed in the mail in Missouri (SFC game) for 9 days lost until people complained(seller) it amazingly moved next day to here, Ranma 1/2 Chougi Ranbu Hen which is the SF2 clone style fighter the series had. And then due to my friend I found Joe and Mac for 10 off the usual price for Genesis that came in the mail early as I saw Monday but it appeared. Then locally I dug up for like (combined value) for 1/2 the rate Test Drive 2 Genesis and Biker Mice and Firepower for SNES and all the stuff other than the cheap Gen title are in excellent shape. Nice what you can find in your own county if you dig enough, and I may have a potential package deal on some SNES games too if the guy writes me back.

If that's not photoshopped, gamestop just earned a little bit of respect with that one.

Oooh sweet an old PlayCo sticker, haven't seen one of those since they went bankrupt out in California back in the mid 1990s. I remember when they started folding up stores all over, I took advantage of the video game price cut sales. Why buy FF3 for $60 (or $70-80 at that store) due to their nerdy square tax, when you can get it for like $40-45. I waited for those signs to go up. And yes PlayCo @Justin they did that with their stickers. I think it was both for immediate accounting, but also because they did run second tier stores in early outlet strip malls (like KayBee did too) to take their old stock and slice a good chunk off the cost to get rid of it. That is a game that was bought when it came out as the release date on wikipedia shows Sept 9th, 1994 (your sticker is the 8th) which means they priced it likely after closing and put it out that evening to be ready when the doors opened the next. Also note the price, it didn't retail for it. A large reason why they and KayBee failed was they'd charge like $10-20 MORE than big box stores did, like it was something special where you get to pay more buying it from a toy specialty store. I never bought from them outside of sales or usually their outlet/clearance areas as a kid on a budget isn't going to waste the price or most the price of a new gameboy game on inflated prices.

Was it though? Seriously though, there never will be a solid answer. The NES was an open ended dumpster fire of unlicensed goods once people figured it out back in the era, so even if you did exclude the homebrew, pet projects, or wish it were official release quality stuff you see now, it's still a blur. No one will ever agree on it, the NES is ultimately a system you can never truly 100% collect every cart for, as no one is solidly sure just how many there were before the 21st century gave us cheap rom hacks and personal creations.

No, not at multiple levels no. It's a terrible idea. It's terrible because it would cost them millions of dollars just to start in lost sales alone of repackaged goods to even those just renting what's thrown as the 'freebie' on the NES/SNES/N64 online switch services for 20 or more(n64/gen) a month. It's also terrible as it would in a way water down the financial value of all their IP as well because it basically calls it disposable and cheap. At face value that makes less sense until you see what whoring out your library has done to the Sega Genesis where people value a lot of the games outside of cart collectors to what Steam throws them up in sale for, which is around a dollar each, if that, and they're great titles. You ruin the value of the games, the IP, and viability for future use. So ...no big NO.

Been a stretch as I don't own it but that does seem to look right, never was a quality look to that one. It would help if it was of quite a bit higher resolution, but more so, not fuzzy but sharp. The reseller dkoldies has a nice clean image of the game cart sticker, you could compare it to that.

He's on a 12 hours difference and keeps sometimes strange hours, give it time. That thing is truly strange. I mean it is dead, or just functionally crippled. It could just be a bad trace, cold solder joint somewhere (maybe even to the power adapter port.) Odds are it's fairly easily fixed if you know how solder and test the lines. It would come down it being worth sending it to someone first before overseas mail to get it going, or just leave it be.

Largely that's where I went without just throwing the 90s classic comment of speed over style, one trick pony over the ability to do much. Mario showed how that format worked better as the generations rolled on, and into then into 3D. Then you see Sonic it plateaued early, and then with 3D did they try, but after a couple adventures it was a big decline because again they wanted to make it all originally about snark attitude and speed over well investigation and discovery making them almost optional. When they tried to correct that in 3D or even the GBA/DS stuff largely the games got more and more panned for dumb ideas, half baked ideas, you remember the reviews...it just didn't work, Sonic basically pigeonholed itself into a stereotype of itself it never could escape. Sonic Team did great, but even they bailed out after not too terribly long.

I feel oddly compelled to own this, but I think it suits @fcgamer maybe just a bit more.

It's not garbage, but it is overrated as a shooter quite a lot. You can do far better, but because it's Square, it gets kind of a pass I think which is a shame. I've owned it a couple times over the years, and each time I had to let the playstation go, it wasn't one I clung onto until the end, and the last time I've owned or will own a PS1 I didn't bother at all as that price given what is there is utterly unjustified.

For better or worse the high point of the main line franchise really which is a shame being so early on from 2D into 3D too. It hit this great balance of stage design, while not having an over-reliance on speed to the point of funking out the exploration to make it really worth the ride. A solid balance of enemy placement, challenge, and bosses too. One could also give credit for that solid split screen with Tails as well, a nice touch. Sonic 3 was almost as nice as was S&K but while maybe obviously a little more colorful/detailed and audio a bit nicer too, but the rest, just a notch below, shoot I prefer Sonic Pocket Adventure(NGPC) more. Sadly in the end Sonic as a mascot was more of a one trick pony that overly relied on speed and not rocking the boat much, really little at all. The only time they really got into trying more variety was in 3D and well we know how that went downhill really fast. This isn't be burning on it, because one could argue as a come back Mario was too, but at least the stage varieties, suits/costumes, and the rest varied far more even if it was just another save the princess run yet again so it felt fresher even when it wasn't. Sonic just felt like one long run on sentence in mascot gaming, but it was Sega, so it had more behind it than many third party mistakes, misfires, or even good but overlooked due to the washout of so many at one time it blurred.

A few days ago I found for $4 the Rovin orange book for How to Win at SNES games. I used to have a couple of the NES ones and it's like night and day on quality. A real difference a couple years made as the writing in this one isn't utterly immature and to the point of humor bad, and the actual material matches the game and is put in a very well written way about it all. I've only skimmed a few games so far and the coverage is fantastic with solid depth of detail, then at the end you get like a few categories with a letter grade assigned and another little bit under each why it got that. I'm looking to grab the same era Genesis(has a few TG games) one too as I think it would be a fun bit of discovery and perhaps the Game Boy one would be too.

Ahh nice Silent Scope, don't see that often on either side of the pond. For what it is it was done very well given you don't get to use a light gun (or stylus if it were on DS) which is kind of surprising. On thursday I did a weekly check of a store/two when my kid has her long day at sports thing I can't stay at the whole time, got lucky. Dropped $15 got World of Illusion for Genesis, another store then for $10/ea got Metropolis(Tezuka) bluray and Ecco the Dolphin. My genesis library is steadily growing largely from local luck, but I think until more pushes up from the wild I've cleaned out the usual spaces for now.

I've got the whole series of the regular 8 in excellent shape (cards too) just don't have the 2 big ones, baseball is a rare one to find and mega man I just didn't bother. The step down from laughable ot junior is a bit much trying to read it, kind of painfully bad.

I have the NES, SNES and Gameboy books they did, very high quality stuff with a nice healthy selection of games with a good box art if not a gameplay image or two along with a decent writeup for the page dedicated to it. There are a few other random sections too to break it up with other history or good facts to dig around.