Tanooki

Ahh no that counts and you did it justice too. You merged the modern and vintage perfectly. The failed poor thin plastic lens and finished off screen gone with solid replacements while still basically housing all the original other components. That's a hell of a restoration, rustoration? I've done a few, and HHL has the best standards I found when sourcing parts, even if they may come from similar factories they seem to try and sort the good from the less nice from the various ones I've picked up to rehab before the lame pandemic. Costs though on handhelds went up, kits slightly, where it's just not profitable at all now so I stopped as I enjoyed fixing them for others but money would end up tied up for weeks, over a month. At this rate the only thing I could do now is my NGPC and I just am not motivated. Currently since I got FFL3 in my hands yesterday finally I've been using my similarly worked up GBC. I had an all stock GBC Atomic purple and popped in the IPS panel for that and it's stunning.

Yeah that's largely a bit of my issue which I keep pressing the comments on what to do, not to do, and who or what to avoid at this rate. I saw the start of the bone picking dickery on facebook. That's why I wrote him and directed him specifically to sign up here letting him know people here are not predatory assholes to get a fair opinion and valuation of options what to do with the game. The scum came out of the woodwork fast, a mix of lying, manipulation, arguing he didn't find it or for what price, you name it.

It's rare anymore I hit a good thing to happen in a week let alone twice in a week, magnify the rarity then when it's a big spread of stuff but it did happen. I felt both the need to get out a bit today to look around, but I went to the one game exchange in town near by the further half price and thankfully I stuck my trade box in the trunk too. I offloaded maybe 1/2 the stuff in my box, largely not the expensive stuff, and in the end I came out with $95 in credit which was into beyond expectation. What got me to grab the box was this paper brick, a brick like 6 inches thick tightly store shrink wrapped of Gameboy manuals and I could see a tall Zelda and Final Fantasy Legend III map sticking out the top! For $10 more than over that risk. But then I went to the case and boom, reality hit, they decided to dump all their manuals and maps and not keep them with the games (boo policy, yay me.) I've wanted to get FFL3 back for over 5 years but the price for it, the manual, and the map are crap. Ultimately what you see I grabbed all that, and it was $70 out of pocket, that's it. Now if you're wondering why on Pokemon Platinum? I forget where I got it, it was free, but I've had the case between 5-10 years with the manual and all inserts pristine, so I bought it loose ($55 of the $70) more than worth it! I added to existing games manuals for DK, DK Land1, Kirbys Block Ball and pinball land, and the cleaning kit. A few others have games in the image to match the manuals, a few others I condition upgraded as well. That bundle had some real gems in there such as that Bubble Bobble Part 2. I probably will part/trade with some manuals if anyone sees something they want. A few I will retain if I do come across the game (like BB2.) FFL3 and DKL2 had dead batteries, I already did the surgery so they're good to go.

I'm using a decade old civic, if it gets to fumes I put 11gallons in so I mean I was like doing 22-25 a tank, now I'm over 40 and that is infuriating. Thankfully the old pig edge melted down over a year ago that would be hell, the new outback on that is 50% larger tank than mine but it sips fuel compared thankfully. Problem is large parts of the US, some specific metro areas aside due to well done buses but usually rail, you don't need a car. But a lot of places, here too, you do, and it's a bitch an utter life sucking drain because of clown policies and that presintator putin pulling his bs for a 1-2 punch and it sucks.

Ugh, yeah I'd agree with that. It does sound vaguely familiar that they hand do this, which is fine when you're more of a smaller operation say like handheldlegend does for gameboy parts and even they in the last year got business enough to get a setup going now with a few people to handle all the logistics and times improved. This probably is the entire issue, inventory intake, outtake, and processing which LRG seems to be an epic failure at. I'm right on the edge with that. I've been NOT ordering stuff from them because of this for some months now. I only changed my tune with the Valis Collection because the copy of it out of the asia region didn't have an english language option which was uniquely different and strange as they almost always do so. In that case aggravatingly I bit my tongue and clicked buy assuming those twits won't have it shipped until probably between summer and christmas because they just don't care to fix their mess but make it worse. That's why I called out the NGPC one, that was ordered in May of 2021 and delayed twice. August is Quake which is delayed since that was Q4. October was Strife, that got delayed as well.

Hah it's still funny though, and while not exactly contributing, it's not wrong either. Read what he said people were doing already about his game, as if none of those ass clowns weren't wanting to find a sucker to get something cheap to grade then profit off of. About as easy as a toddlers box of crayons and a connect the dots book to figure out what was going on there with that mess.

@Toyhunter1 Stick around, enough people here play little anymore anyway to those who do daily I'm sure this place would be a nice fit outside of toxic trolling social media. You should go silent on anyone poking a vested interest stick at it. You likely won't get a fair answer, or at least one that won't make you suspicious given everything and the high pressure of everyone wanting to be the one. Maybe since you found that NES and game stack, start a journey like an 80s kid and see how it works, then write something about that.

You know time for a vent because I honestly don't understand what the hell their problem is in this specific case. Did anyone here get the NGPC collection from LRG? They've so far still not shipped it, and delayed it twice. The reason I'm asking I was thinking maybe it's related to the mid-grade sized one I did because I wanted Jeremy Parish's Neo Geo MVS/NGPC book that was only getting one run for this and that's it. Well back last year I wrote him about it, and he had already finished the book and they had it good to go. Now we're into March, and PIX N LOVE has got their game out and with a big heap of extras too, both that and the stand alone are in peoples hands from the mail. So what's the goddamn excuse?! Why are they so terrible at making dates when the materials are already together? Are they just consistently biting off more than they can handle with multiple games a week then all the layer of added mid-week etc merch they're peddling too in masse? Do they maybe need to check themselves and perhaps lay off the preorders and other bs ever other week or maybe for a month to catch up? I mean something has to give because their dates are widening more and more from when I started buying their stuff before the dumb virus. Anything I have in the queue from them now (Valis aside) has been delayed once...didn't have the delays before hand.

Thanks for that comparative story and warning there from @fcgamer as he's right, and he got screwed by some punk ass selfish sorts spooking even the dodgy sharks at that grading company of all things, because they only know known knowns, not known unknowns. Yeah that's hard to read, but makes sense. He has no stake other than maybe some gain on that Madden for sure, just as I would on my piddly Pokemon Red Version game, but both of us largely don't give a damn in sealed nor have a vested greater interest in shitting the bed for those who really want to drive those values for their own gains. People like us, you, we're bad, we can pop another number out there that'll screw with someones personal sense of value so they'll get nasty, cheap, sneaky, defensive, passive aggressive...whatever. @RH I think may be onto it. You have some nice shots of your game, but because of the goofy wrap around the real seal maybe it distorted things enough. Maybe you nuke your images you posted about and hope no depraved selfish turd saved them, just burn it down. Wait maybe minimally fall/winter of his year, and then remove that shrink off, one time take some really clean personal super high quality shots, and then slide it carefully into one of those protective clear cases you can buy for games sealed (or complete) you buy online. From there, then submit that thing for grading if that's your choice, or not, and sell it as it stands. Let the market drive the value. Either way is a gamble, you can play it for a wata full value and see where it lands after they grade then auctioning it off...or you sell it non-graded and let someone else have the long wait and fear of it having another decimal point higher (9.4 to a 9.5) which will add another maybe 1k or 25k to it. That'll be their hell to live through and you're free of it.

@avatar!Kind of have to agree with you on that, and I forgot about that too. I've always been love/hate with Worms. It's nice, but playing alone gets old fairly quick and they didn't radically change it much over time so it's nearly like play one play them all. Having an evercade I'd be better off grabbing that for $20-25 too. I forgot the UK even had this on 16bit consoles too, just remembered the odd GB/GBC and then n64 ones along with PC.

Wow that's a deal breaker. Are you really basically pay wall locked from doing this game because you need to basically pay up or like repeat a lot of stuff over and over to coin up to get to where you need to? This sounds like a classic pay wall whale pit tactic of mobile games with energy meters and various in game currencies needed to keep competitive. I get they want to grease people more, but come on, with a racing game, it should just be intact. If you want to add an aside to it after, like MK8D did recently with its pass and a set of tracks that's optionally awesome. But this??

@RH Normally I'd agree, but in this case honestly I'd leave the wrap there. It's 100% not by Nintendo, but look what it has done for the 36-37 year old game. That retailer wrap on there has kept dust, scratches, scrapes, scuffs, rub marks and the rest off that shiny black box outer layer completely. Until he or someone else figured out what to do with it exactly it should remain as a barrier. And @Toyhunter1 yeah I knew it was coming, just put it out there so you don't get taken to the cleaners while getting pounded by entitled scum making stupid comments how it's fake, you're fake, you lied, etc. Whatever... fine, screw the story, doesn't change the reality of the pictures still. Get some real opinions, facts, similar sales history and go from there. You will probably be in a situation where depending on the liability involved you'll want to sell to someone who will pay as much as they're comfortable with because they'll either leave it alone, or they'll pay up a bit more thinking they'll get a high grade from those charlatans at WATA increasing the value exponentially. Or maybe you'll do that process, eat the bullet for the process, and get more out of it as I doubt you care to retain something like that if you're fishing for info already. The liability thing is real and a concern to enough people, myself included. I've got a sealed game that I grabbed for $100 like 4 years back now, and it's worth thousands too. Between the wankers out there, then now the second hand sales tax abuse, I've been considering for months just slicing the damn thing open and doing something with it.

@RH The water balloon thing I can relate to. When we moved in 1988 our new house was delayed, ended up in a couple apartments for a bit over a year. One of them had a 3 story setup, and along with a couple kids we'd go to the top, fill a balloon about as big as you said, and roll it over the railing and when it blew it was epic.

The old Nintendo turtle games and genesis are my go to still even now when I want to walk along and pound targets into the dirt they're done so well. As I was saying on the phone earlier to a friend, yeah I got Sparkster and had it in my Nomad I pulled back out, but i also pulled Turtles too and played it. TMNT is just a nice chill game.

@RH I told him the same online elsewhere. This is an original black box release 1985 or 86 when they didn't shrink, the hang tab was part of the box, and they used a circle matte sticker as seen here. This thing is cherry, the only question I'd have is the age of the shrink, but I'd lean towards it being period too. Some retailer wanted to seal it, then rip the box up to hang it or get it banged around either so it's nice for the customer. That thing is in amazing shape saved by ravages of time in that home baked cellophane store wrap. He didn't pay $50k he paid $20 and it was in a box of other picked up old games and a system if i remember the post entirely on facebook. I directed him here to get some more on the nose types to critique it harder than I can, and so he can get a fair assessment of it. I think he may want to trade/sell it, but doesn't want to rip someone off or get ripped off by some clown who will give him a pittance and then WATA troll the thing either.

Nice, but depressing story I can very very relate to. Shame the old man died like that and his rotten kid has driven it into the ground with a lack of care, rudeness to customers who don't kiss the ring, and asking more than stuff is worth whether it works or not. And if you were talking about the coleco tabletop that's not worth $200 USD or CAD, you're better off. I know I told the story of my old haunt of the 90s before that I quit cold turkey when I was back out in Cali for 3 years when I popped up on NintendoAge over a decade ago. He used to be the same as the old man, put stuff to the side, cheap prices, took pride in stuff working, would even clean it in front of you before you paid, wasn't some online price shark, and the price was for game or a complete all the same. But once prices started to foul in 2011-12 that place went bad. Everything was minimally at ebay higher price, sometimes 2-4x higher (yay for $20 Top Gun when it was $5.) Rude nasty to people, got mean if you chose not to buy, banned people from the store if they didn't buy and disagreed(nicely, not rudely) on price, and would kick people out if he felt they were talking bad about his place online. All that money that came in toward the end he laughed about because he was fleecing boot camp marines who get stuck on base and moms with screaming kids to quiet them (very nice right?) I never went back, even when visiting town, and thankfully a few years before the virus locals caught on and drove him out of business going elsewhere and spreading the word. Hopefully your simpsons comicbook guy owner of that game shop has the same fate if that's how he operates.

It's pandering It's entirely unnecessary and it's just catering to soft touch overly sensitive types and the internet shaming police before they even get a chance. There's little to no parallel between what's going on, and what's gaming there to the point you'd need some predisposed need to complain, have a guilt complex over(what?), and any other excuse to draw a parallel to just complain. Simply put my stance is this: I have the first one already on GBA still, never played the second and was hoping to just do this instead. Nintendo decided to cave and coddle, and in response a game I was 100% buying I'm 100% not giving them any money for now or down the road for at all. BUY TINY METAL RUMBLE for the Switch instead. That's the appropriate response, the same game and mechanics from another developer that already exists because the hole Nintendo left, now just dug deeper. Give Tiny Metal your money, not Nintendo for their game.

Dropping water balloons off a balcony... bombs away Sports card+clip+bike spoke = cool

Ahh it's fine, a little turtle wax and a pad, that'll buff right out.

@Toyhunter1 Hey nice to see these images again, hope you get the answers you need.

Cowabunga! Indeed. This is the Castlvania Collection style spread here and very appreciated. It's great they poked a stick at Konami and was able to work out al lthe licensing traps and pitfalls with mirage, them, nick to pop this gem out. I'm definitely getting 2 copies of this I feel. Steam for longevity, but since it said physical release and digital, I'll grab a portable copy for the Switch too. I did this for Castlevania Collection as well. I can't wait to touch those arcade games again as it has been decades, and the Japanese stuff should have interesting changes. Also been wanting that NES fighter again, that's a cost savings. Very very curious to see how deep they dig into the box art, manuals, character art, new old art never seen, etc with the bonus space.

4.25 yesterday just around a 1/4mi from here in either direction. It was 4 a couple days before that. A little perspective. When Biden started in January around here the average in town was around 2.35/gal. A year later it went up to 3.10/gal on average due to the energy policies closing down that crude independence we had, and then we were at 3.30 2 weeks ago, and now it's 4.25. Rather disgusting when you think about it. Almost a $2/gal price increase on the whole, but Putin bs aside, it still was up a dollar already but fairly consistent there too to be fair.

Why yes, yes it is a rip off, two in fact, exactly... that and the price too.

Not bad, but you know you should try and get the EURO version of the Pokemon Keyboard game. The entire thing is just solely in english. I used to own it, they had been quietly selling for real cheap just before the pandemic on amazon of all places (US broker too) probably long gone by now since everyone is out for a buck or hundred.