*** Classic Gaming Year In Review - 2002 ***

[ClubNinja]

Ok, here it is guys! The place to reminisce about your finds, achievements, and other gaming goodness from this past year. Feel free to tackle this any way you'd like, but please make sure you add something...

List your best finds in the wild, completed collections, or even exceptional trades.

Brag about finally completing the game that's been haunting you since 1987.

Maybe you attended a gaming gathering for the very first time?

Whatever it may be, go ahead and share it with the gang. Make a top ten list, or even a chronological listing, if you'd like. Just make sure you give it some time. Don't go posting right now without thinking about it - we've still got a few weeks left in the year, anyway. This thread will be stickified shortly, and probably go into the archives, so make sure you capture everything important that went down. I'll be posting my own in a few days, too. Have some fun - we look forward to reliving the magic with you...

[Chunky]

this year i have bought and nes/tg16/jag/10's of ataris.

met many, many people.

made the outstanding purchase that i have been waiting 10 years on.....Neo-Geo.

Best find was a TG-16 for $15....30+ different games for $1.31 each.

Watched Sega fall.

decided i will never support anything microsoft puts out as far as a gaming console.

won a ton of money on a horse named "Squirtle Squirt"

made ground level purchases twords building a MAME stand up.

wished my fish spoke like Leonard Nemoy.

[Raedon]

best finds of the year:

nothing super rare.. just a lot of great games.. best thing that happened in 2002 was getting into SMS collecting.

Memerable finds:

free SMS w/20 boxed games

Phatasy Star complete $5.00

two (count em!) 2 Chrono Triggers at the same pawn shop for $3.50 each lol.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/snes1.JPG

a nice R.O.B. for $15

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/rob.jpg

the TG-16 w/Military Madnass, Baseball, 2x controllers, and multitap for $15.00 has been a fun item for sure. It's not mint, but sooo much fun.

along with 3x FF1's 1xdw3 and 1xlolo1x2, 2 for $1.50 each. I could go on and on about great NES and SNES deals made through 2002..


My Fav games of the year (made in 2002)

Mario Sunshine
UT:2k3
Morrowind
EQ:planes of power
Metroid Prime
GTAIII:vice
FF-X
I would add PSO-GC but without the keyboard I get frustraded and not play.

2002 was the year I became a professional VGC. Before 2002 It was just a game here and there.. Not $100 a week..

[Sothy]

I ate some corn chips that had pig diarrhea medication on them.

[nesman85]

i still haven't completed any of my collections, but i'm workin' on it.
i got into prototype collecting and i have purchased 15 protos this year.
i didn't make any good finds in the wild, but i found a few commons here and there for cheap.
i still haven't attended a gaming gathering, but i hope to sometime.
my favorite game this year was eternal darkness for gamecube, mario sunshing and starfox adventures are up there too.

[kainemaxwell]

I think this year my best things were aquring a PS2 from a friend and his game collections and getting the Dreamcast from DP Survivor and starting to learn what a great system the DC really is.

Thanks to friends here, I've started to collect moreso along with buying games to play, and learned more of collecting and made new friends here who've helped me out, and made trades with.

[newcoleco]

This year, 2002? err...

I programmed Bejeweled for ColecoVision with Mahieu P.

I also released this year a few roms and tools.

My newest project ColecoVision Gamepack was done in october and sold out in one day. More Gamepack cartridges in 2003.

I was unable to go to the PhillyClassic in person... but maybe next year.

I found in a flea market a few genesis with games, four game & watch and a little air hockey with flippers.

[digitalpress]

This year I met Punkoffgirl, Atar1g1rl, and Queen of the Felines! I think I'm the first one to do that.

In February, I completed my US Dreamcast collection.

In April, I completed my US Odyssey2 collection. The last game I needed was Power Lords, won it on eBay for $65.

I went to E3 in May, was overjoyed to see ATARI in the spotlight after so many years, and finally saw games that prompted me to buy an Xbox.

In May, I completed my Sega Master System collection. The last game I needed was Super Tennis! No kidding.

I drove to Las Vegas from NY in August with a UHaul truck full of gaming merchandise. Scott "superstonic" Stilphen shares this one with me.

I co-organized Classic Gaming Expo in August. At the event, I think I convinced Steve Woita to do a new classic game. I presented David Crane with an award at our Friday dinner. I met several of the forum members and bought them alcohol.

In August, I quit smoking and have been smoke-free since. This has nothing to do with classic gaming but it was the year's greatest personaly accomplishment.

I published a classic video game collector's guide.

I published a classic video game music CD. Thanks, Mr. Fox!

In September, I became the owner of an Atari 2600 boxed Video Life, now the pride of my collection.

All in all a good year, gaming wise!

[sniperCCJVQ]

I didn't find anything spectacular in the wild this year but i did score some good thing ( Ti99 PE BOX, 2 Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, some mid-rare Atari 2600, Tomytronic Tron, Remco Ghostbuster, PB Qbert, Alf and Ace of Aces for SMS, Donkey Kong for the GB for 5$ at Philly. I recently did a 20+ items trade with Ianoid.

I did lot of trading, my NES collection grew up for almost 100 unique carts. Biggest score of the year: NES Menace Beach and the NES Service Center Joystick Test Box.

I meet Jaime and Wberdan for the first time (the two came in our CCJVQ meeting in march, it was cold at this time of the year)

I saw cool people for my second Phillyclassics show this years with SLYDC and Sarah (Joe (which i only said "hi" at PC2), Christian Scott, Cafeman, and a Matt totaly stunned on the bar at 2am hahaha!)

I will always remember our way back home to Canada, we miss the exit for I-87 on the NJ Turnpike and drive and extra (and long) two hours on the I-81 until we get Binghamton and take the I-88 to get back on the I-87 ARGH! :o When we arrived at the custom, we are looking like zombie. I will also remember that good old guy in is 60's when we stopped in Albany to get gas at 4 AM.

We did the CCJVQ meeting of the summer at SLYDC house in Blainville with his pool :D

In november i lend a Nintendo Action Set boxed to a TV show who did a "80's special". It always make something special when you saw your name on the generics.

That's it !

I really love the Phillyclassic 3 this year, well organized by David Newman and we haved space to breath, many more arcade (sitdown Star Wars !!!) :-D

Funniest thing i saw was at PC3, wberdan put a Vectrex on the auction, sold for 100$, take the cash, go to the DP table, buy a Cheetahmen 2 sealed for 80$, talk about quick business here, everything was did in 5 minutes LOL

[christianscott27]

sometimes my internal clock is a bit fuzzy but i belive all of this happened in the past year...

made it out to the philly classic, met many a gamer and made some nice trades. i'm planning on coming back next year with a whole crew of NECG people.

hosted not one, no two but 3 of the most succesful trademeets this side of the jersey turnpike. worked with clubninja to get our website up and entertaining, spreading the joy that is New England Classic Gaming. i think thats the area i'm most proud of, our group and the good times and games that have come out of it. digital press people, get thee to the next meet- feb. 8th!

systems aquired- PS2, gamecube, turbo express, RCA studio 2. many back up and trade systems including a vectrex i paid for in beer. my best find just may have been the PC engine GT which i sold off to DP.

well over 500 new carts this year...on all systems. NES, SMS collections 80% complete. found phantasy star, tengen tetris.
________
FORD MTX TRANSMISSION SPECIFICATIONS (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Ford_MTX_transmission)

[Cafeman]

2002. I attended my 2nd Philly Classic and it was truly one of the highlights of my gaming year. Got to meet in person tons of folks such as PunkoffGirl, Sly, Al y, NoahsMyBro, Curt V, Cassidy Nolan, Lady Jaye, Carl Forhan, and many others. It was nice to see Joe, John, Sean, Tempest, Old Guru (who sadly is not older than me!) and others I had already met.

In May I also got a console which really had an impact on me. A console I used to own but had written off. But when I got my Darth Vader 2600 in May and played the first night, I was hooked all over again! Thanks to Christian (Moycon) whom I traded for a Koffi package! I had forgotten how fun games like Enduro, Kaboom!, and others were. Even Pac Man was enjoyed as I reminisced, imagining the radio to be playing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Sweet Dreams (are made of this).

Speaking of Koffi, I spent a lot of 2002 learning and coding the game, finally finishing the code in October 2002. (Not to mention all the administration of ordering parts, and taking orders and answering questions and all that jazz). Since then I have been creating carts, burning Eproms and soldering and getting high with Goo Gone. ;) Sadly, my beloved original 5200 was fried a month ago. I hope to fix it some day. :(

Also in October I attended the CinciClassic! Met Stan Jr, Pitfall Aimee (you know, them AA guys) , Snider-Man and Michael from GDG, Fred H, and lots others. Picked up some great imports there, got to see the Infamous "Stan Jr VS Snider-Man Entombed DEATHMATCH" which was very funny. Oh yeah, ScooterB was there too.

Got a Cube in November and I'm knee deep in Monkey balls and MEtroids now. 2002 was a good gaming yr for me!

I never forget when somebody gives me something for nothing. Joe gave me a complimentary Collectors Guide for a Lore I wrote, plus SOR3 Genesis for a reviews contest. I recall that John Hardie bought us all a drink at the bar at Philly, plus he supplied the Pac-Man carts at a very cheap rate that became Castle Blasts and Koffi's; I recall that Snider-Man bought be a needed cup of coffee at Cinci. Thanks guys. :)

[scooterb23]

I finished my personal Atari 2600 collection...I don't have all the games, but I finally got Air Raiders and Artillery Duel, which I have been looking for forever. I now do not have an Atari 2600 want list!!

My NES collection went from 150 to 300 this year X_x

Met all those great people at Cinciclassic, (I was actually there last year, but I was too shy to say hi to anybody...) that was such a great time, I'm going to try to hit a couple more shows this year.

Probably though, my favorite moment was when I opened a box and found a Colecovision inside!! It has been my silent holy grail since the early 80s...I finally got one, and I swore at that time that I would not want another console (I've since gotten a 2nd Master System, an XBox, a CDX, my 3rd NES, 3rd Genny, Sega CD (broken)) but that's not important right now...I may be in the market for another Colecovision, as I am concerned my joystick port is failing...unless that is an easy thing to replace.

So 2002 was a year with a lot of good milestones for me, I see 2003 as a slower year...just filling in some key blanks, and having a lot more fun just playing my games...

[ClubNinja]

Ok, here goes mine. I'm sure you're all thrilled...

Winter/Early 2002:

- Witnessed the turnout of our NECG meets increase exponentially, from four in Oct 01 to ten or elevenish in Feb 02.
- Made the Giant Box Find, which led to several great trades. I wish my digital camera didn't eat the shot of all the boxes stacked in the hallway... scary image
- Decided to limit full-scale collecting to only a few select systems, and discontinue collecting for machines that did nothing for me. This was probably the best decision of the year - my Colecovision collection is all gone now, and pulled in several nice items for me. My 250 title NES collection is now down to 130, which provided many more nice trades. I expect that this will drop below 100 by time I'm down to the games I'll actually *want*.
- Very first flea trip of the year produced a boxed Supercharger with the first eight game cassettes, Title Match Wrestling and London Blitz 2600 carts, my first Vectrex cart ever (Ripoff), a few Arcadia 2001 carts for my then-brand new Arcadia collection, and a few other games for modern systems all for $15.

Spring:

- Brought the official NECG web site into the world
- Got back into the Intellivision after abandoning it two years earlier. This has since become one of the four consoles that I very actively collect for (along with the 2600, SMS, and Arcadia.)
- Got my super cool Sonic Adventure 2, 5-foot tall standup
- Bumped into another collector at a local flea who was trying to get out the hobby. He invited me over to his place, where I proceeded to fill up an entire box of stuff for a *very* low fee. Besides many decent carts (including a complete Phantasy Star), I also got my first Virtual Boy and Neo Geo Pocket in the deal.
- Began collecting old LED and VFD tabletops

Summer:

- NECG got pretty big, really. Our June meet was fabulous, and spawned my photo coverage on the web site.
- Finally picked up a Vectrex... sexy little devil!
- Decided to put a temporary hold on collecting tabletops as room began to run out *quite* quickly
- Won a Sega Nomad in the DP Game Review Contest
- Was given an Amiga 2000 setup... super cool
- Finally became one of the cool kids when I preordered the DP7 guide
- Made several excellent trades, and brought in some real nice 2600 carts, including Crazy Climber and Qbert's Qubes

Fall:

- October NECG meet was super-fantastic, of course!
- Got a Japanese Saturn in a very cool trade
- Found a TurboExpress with since-traded TV Tuner unit. Probably my best non-boxes find of the year ; )
- More great trades, got an Atari Video Cube
- Continued lusting for obscure stuff (like the Arcadia and relatives I'd followed throughout the year) and took an interest in Brazilian 2600 carts
- Won a DP T-shirt and Intellivision Lives disc right here

I'm quite happy with all of my luck this year in making finds and trades. The best perk of the abundant trading is probably the mess of people I've contacted, kept in touch with, and traded numerous times with since. I hope that in the next year, I'll finally complete a collection (likely either SMS or Arcadia.) I'm also glad to see NECG becoming something pretty respectable. I still remember the first time we did this a couple of years ago, and besides myself, Chris, and Joe Grand, there really wasn't that much support. Now, we've got something *really* big planned for June. Stay tuned!

Fun fun...

[Goodwill Hunter]

January: Bought out a local collector for $500…the haul fills my minivan. Highlights include: (all complete) 32x Spiderman, Snatcher,a Nomad, jag/jagcd like new w/30 games, mini SNES w/ Chrono Trigger, FF2 & 3, Virtual boy with 8 games, 3DO with 36 games, TG-16 w/ CD unit in hardcase. Plus dozens of systems, pongs and handhelds (including 2 very nice tabletops - Qbert & Scramble) and hundreds of 2600, coleco, INTV, NES and other games loose and boxed. It made my year when my 2002 was only 3 days old!

February: Find this at a flea for $95.
http://members.aol.com/a54br9/test/find.jpg
A Sears 2600 vcs pop demo console. PCB has individual ROMs for 47 games including all of the Sears exclusives. I figure it’s my best single find for the year as Sean, John and Joe state that they have never seen one before (see September).

March: Get the okay from the wife to gut the closet in my game room. Take out the sliding doors, shelf and hanger rod. Install 6 - 5’ x 2’ shelves floor to ceiling, giving me game storage on 3 sides and lots of room for tabletops and Mcfarlane figures in the middle. Also discover the DP website and upload my game room photos.

April: Honored to have Joe want to use my game room photos for the Room of Doom segment of his Collector’s Closet pages in Tips & Tricks. My room shows up in the May 2002 edition and I become a minor celebrity at my local Funcoland (talk about king of the geeks!). Find GTA III at Goodwill for $10, and start joking with the wife that I now have to get a PS2 (I rarely buy anything new gaming-wise).

May: Wife shocks the hell out of me by getting me a complete PS2 setup (including game, DVD remote and memory card) for my birthday. Better yet, she buys it just shy of 30 days before the $199 price drop, allowing for the $100 price adjustment at TRU! GTA III promptly takes over my gaming time.

June: Attend Midwest Classic here in Milwaukee. Get my first homebrew game (Warring Worms, very good!) and play and love Radiant Silvergun, which starts my quest to get one in a trade (too cheap to shell out $150 for one game!). Find a neon clock at a rummage for $4 and get an idea for a game room clock that ends up in this (the neon adds the scared ghosts effect!)
http://members.aol.com/a54br9/test/GAMETIME.jpg

July: Build 2 more custom shelving units for my expanding NES and 2600 collections. Pretty much wipe out the last free wall space in my game room ( I need to update my room pics). Start eyeing the spaces above my door and window…hmmm.

August: Find Bank Heist for the 2600 in a rummage box of a console and 40 games for $10 total. First 2600 game I found in the wild that I didn’t already have for 2002. A rather dry rummage season all around this year. Thrifts continue to be my primary source of finds.

September: Attend the tradefest in Sean Kelly’s back yard. After a brief prayer in his garage (if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean), I set up the orange beast from Februrary and get the idea from the assembled gaming luminaries that it is rather unique (nice to have at least one thing that the big boys don’t!). Execute a nice trade with Joe that nets a sealed Cheetahmen II and a 2600 Mines of Minos. Lots of other good trading plus I get my first CGE exclusive, Pick Up, which still makes me laugh. Nice to meet a number of the DP regulars there.

October: Wrangle a trade for Radiant Silvergun! Have to sacrifice a couple of rare Saturn and SegaCD titles, but no cash is required!

November: A number of nice trades plus some thrift and used store scores push me past a few milestones; 2600: 430, NES: 700, PSX: 200, DC: 150, Saturn: 200, SMS: 100. KB discount card gets me Vice City for $40 and my game time is consumed by Rockstar again.

December: Taking a few weeks off at the end of the year to relax, play some games with my daughters (Ms. PacMan for GBC was high on their Xmas list, and they won’t be disappointed!) and maybe head down to the wood shop for awhile. I think the free space above my door and window may not see 2003.

Here’s to a bountiful 2003!
Rich

[batmanlivesatmyhouse]

I'm new to hardcore gaming, so I don't know how I can add up to everyone else, but I have about a hundred games for the DC, only two bootlegs (because Guilty Gear X and Capcom Vs SNK 2 didn't come out on the Dreamcast here on the states, and how can I play Street Fighter without a six button joypad? I will not cramp my hands on the PS controllers for my Street Fighter!). Found a Sega Genesis/Sega CD/32 X at EB for 40 bucks. Not retro, but bought a PS2 (for DDR Max, almost only) and the Xbox. A lot more, but no real "finds".

[le geek]

Let see...
Some of my big collecting this year:
Music Machine
Quadrun with Manual
Crazy Climber with manual
Tengen Tetris complete (including poster)

Game playing:
Beating Sonic Adventure, Silent Hill, and Pac-Man World

Other things:
Setting up my Amiga 2000 in my room of doom
Not getting around to taking pictures of said room of doom yet. Heh.
Not updating my Le Geek site nearly as much as I'd like
Taking a stab at illustrating Pick Up
Putting together the catalog for Hozer Video
Sad to see Hozer go
Finally meeting some of the other atari "enthusiasts" form the atlanta area.

Happy Holidays,
le geek

[kevincure]

2002:
I started collecting because the Dreamcast games were dirt cheap and my bud back home collects NES (about 250 carts and he's 18, not too bad). Since I'm in a college dorm, the collection isn't all too big, but my miniscule collection grew to:

34 DC games
NES w/ 9 or 10 games
Master System
64
PS2 w/ 15 games
2600 w/ 12 games
Genesis w/ a few games

I didn't really pick up anything too rare, but I nabbed Intelligent Qube complete for 25, Mars Matrix for 14, Metal Gear NES for a buck. Hopefully next year, I'll start building a *real* collection. I have a big list of the games I want - I think I'm interested in a boxed NES complete collection sometime and a complete DC, but other than that, I have a list of games I want for each system (mainly post-Atari). Should be fun.

[boatofcar]

2002, what a good year!

Gaming Highlights:
Finally picked up a 4 swtich 2600 and some games (thanks Keir).

Got a Super 8 which revitalized my NES collection, which had been gathering dust for awhile.

Realized that you shouldn't pull as hard as you can to take NES games out of the Super 8 when I pulled the board out of my SMB/DH cart. I then proceeded to thank God that I wasn't playing Dragon Warrior IV at the time :)

Got both Activision and Namco collections for PS2, which my girlfriend and I play constantly.

Finished Dragon Warrior VII in just under 133 hours!

Personal Highlights:
Found a girl I think I'm going to settle down with once I finish up my undergrad degree in the spring. When we get married and buy a house, official groundbreaking of room of doom will ensue :D

I'm finally graduating from college, and in 4 years, which I thought was an impossibility. Still got grad school though... :/

Apart from that, just the usual stuff I'm always thankful for as the years go by...my family is great, I've still got my health, and ...oh yeah, did I mention I finally beat Dragon Warrior VII? :)

[Lady Jaye]

This was a memorable year for me, as far as videogames are concerned.

First, I spent the first six months of the year as a paid videogame columnist. Alas, the magazine folded after only three issues. But I can still say that I saw my writings in print.

In February or March, I was contacted by SlyDC regarding the Quebec Videogame collectors' group. I attended my first meeting shortly after. I also went to PhillyClassic for the first time. Got to meet some of the Digital Press gang, as well as the Atari Age and Retrogaming Times gangs. I also got to interview Bob Polaro (programmer of Defender 2600) for Atari Age.

2002 also saw a shift in my life from emulation to console play. A year ago, all I had was a Gameboy Color, a Gameboy Advance and a SNES. I got since then a second SNES (I fried mine while plugging it with a third-party DC connector), an Atari 2600 Jr., a SMS, a Genesis model 2, 2 NESs (with extra connectors), a PSOne and a GameCube.

[DDCecil]

- I got to attend CGE2K2, which was great fun!
- I found a Channel F system for 2.50, probably my only good find of the year.
- Finally got Dracula X (PC Engine) and Keio Yugekitai (Saturn) back after 3 years of not owning them.
- Bought Pick Up, Koffi: Yellow Kopter, and Bug Blasters/Star Strike
- Found out I can beat Ninja Gaiden 2 in under 20 minutes on average, every time I play it
- July 7th marked the 5th anniversary of the first game I ever made, Doomsday Dream Legend 1.

[udisi]

Where to start....well the crown of the year was aquiring my NWC Gold Cartridge for an semi-reasonable amount....

I got into prototypes, though I only have 3, one is an unrealeased SNES prototype

Being a nintedo kid growing up, This past year I discoved that sega made some damn good games and consoles too, and bought every sega console from master system to dreamcast. not to mention some of the best games for each of these systems.

oh, and I discovered that being a video game addict costs about as much as being a crack addict

[GENESISNES]

I made some new systems:

NES-3
SNES-1
Genesis-2
Playstation 2-1
Gamecube-1
2600-2
Pico-1

I got about a few hundred games.

Had some GREAT find thanks to my mom and the people she knows at work:

2 NES, 1 SNES, 1 Genesis, (1 NES was complete) and about 6 NES games for free.

This was a great year for me collecting-wise and fun-wise.

I look foreward to 2003, not knowing what will be in store for me.