Together... Once again

[Slate]

On August 6th 2004* I was in a Goodwill and I then bought approximately 68 Nintendo NES games and 3 SNES games. In this lot was a copy of Dr. Mario.

*Edited. It was 2004, not 2005.





As you can see, This particular copy has a tan on its back. I thought perhaps it was stored on a shelf underneath something at the time.

So fast forward to early 2005 or 2006. I was in a Salvation Army almost 50 miles away from the previously mentioned Goodwill and I found a Nintendo NES Top Loader system.





Its a nice system for the low price. Not in the best condition but who's complaining? So fast forward to about a month ago. As I was going through NES games, Testing them and listing them I noticed something...



The suntanned game matches the discoloration on the system! Look at this other picture.



The dust cover for the game slot as well as the plastic in front of it isn't discolored. This very same copy of Dr Mario was in this very same system for years, Probably stored on top of a TV near a window or stored in an attic or something. Either way, Its funny that I ended up buying both of them fifty miles apart from one another and months apart. Wouldn't most people sell the games in one lot? I'd imagine so. And why were all those 68 games sent to the same goodwill? Isn't it likely that the same person donated all 68? I thought about this and I thought perhaps there was a collector of video games who eventually donated, gave away or sold his collection which is why the system was so far away from the game. There were games I bought with the top loader too so I think maybe the collector gave away the system and a few games to a friend or relative who then donated the system to Salvation Army. That may not be what happened but its a thought. So have you ever had this sort of thing happen to you while collecting?

Austin

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I had a game that I originally purchased as a kid with a name and phone number written on it in permanent marker at a flea market in Palm Beach, FL.

Fast forward 15 years or so and a move of 200 miles to northern Orlando, FL, and I ended up finding 3 more games with the same name and phone number on them at a Play-N-Trade. I already owned the games, but I had to pick them up to reunite them with their long-lost friend.

[Astrocade]

Back around 1988 or 1989 or so I gave my old Intellivision to the kids up the street. I felt bad because they didn't have a lot of money and they didn't own any consoles, so I gave them the system that I never played anymore. I didn't care, I spent all day and night on the NES at that time.

So flash forward to 2005. I was visiting my parents, and it turns out that the woman whose kids I gave the INTV had passed away, and her kids were in town cleaning out the house and getting ready to put it on the market. I hadn't seen those people in about ten years so I went to pay my respects to them.

The boys were in the process of cleaning out the garage, and lo and behold there sat my old Intellivision at the top of a pile. It still had B-17 Bomber jutting out of the side. After we caught up and talked for awhile, I pointed at the INTV and asked them if they remembered where it came from. It took them a few seconds but they both remembered that I gave it to them way back when, and they asked me if I wanted it back.

So my old Intellivision, purchased in 1982 for my brother, handed down to me, and donated to a family in the neighborhood, finally made its way back to me after almost twenty years. Everything still works except for the voice modulator.

[Arkhan]

i bought some nintendo powers from a garage sale.

10 years later, the place I work at , I work with the lady whos son sold the magazines. I know this cause of address label.


lol.

[todesengel]

Before I started collecting I bought a used Turbografx sometime around January/February 2000 and sold it off about a year later to the same used store I bought it from. A couple of years later when I was in college and starting to collect games I went to the same used game shop and saw a Turbografx there and bought it, ended up being the same one I had traded in there a few years earlier. Funny thing was that TG16 was sold not a day after I traded it in, the person that bought it must have traded it back in as well sometime later.

[Game Freak]

This isn't as impressive as most people's stories here, but my dad made a midi of a hair band song back in 2000ish and uploaded it to the internet. Lo and behold, when he was looking online for a midi of it (he had forgotten ever notating it) he found a copy of his own MIDI, with his name in the IDs and all! XD

[guitargary75]

Cool story!

[megasdkirby]

Many years ago, circa 1991 or so, a local video rental store had opened up and I rented E-Swat for the SMS. I loved the game and hate returning it back.

Around 1996 or so (during the summer), my brother went back to the same rental stores as they were liquidating all of their old stock, including SMS games. When he got home, he had purchased the same copy of Eswat that I had rented years earlier! It was the same game, as they only had one copy of the game,

It felt great having the same game I had great memories of.

[Nesmaster]

Amazing story. I've got a similar one about a few nintendo games. When I first got into collecting around the year 1999 or 2000 I found a Megaman 2 cartridge at a fleamarket for $10, with DIENO written on it. Years later at a Salvation Army I found The Three Stooges with the very same writing on it for $3. Neat huh? I don't have them anymore but memories like that never truly do leave you, but thanks for sparking it for me!!

[Smashed Brother]

In the early 90's, a good friend of mine lived in this small town (way before I knew him) and he, along with his brother, would rent games from the local mom-and-pop video/laundromat place. They really liked one game in particular, E.V.O. for SNES, and they would always rent it.

So, in 2004, my buddy and I are roommates in Milwaukee. One day we go back to his hometown and discover that this rental place that he frequented in his youth is closing down and liquidating their stock. We start picking through everything that's left, and sure enough, there's E.V.O.! My buddy gets all nostalgic about it, but he's not sure if it's the same one. Later on, he puts the game in to try it out, and he sees that the game still has his and his brother's save on it! In fact, their save was the only one on it!

While this is not my story, it does pertain to me only because..........now, I have that very same E.V.O. in my collection!

[rbudrick]

Not as awesomely coincidental as the stories above, but I do cherish the 3 rental cases for 3 SNES games (they are actually NES cases with SNES games in them) from the awesomest rental store ever, mainly because they let me rent for free because I'd beat the games in a day or two and report back on them so they knew what to sell. They pretty much let me work there for free rentals whenever I felt like showing up (and I spent a good amount of at least one or two summers there when I was 13 and 14). They wanted to get me legal and paid, but I was under the working age of the state.

Anyway, I found three cases (those clear bookfold snap cases) at various flea market events with the games still in them and the address labels on the outside. They aren't really games i like, but it's nice to have a piece of Computer Junction (later Game Junction because their computers didn't sell for shit).

I was really sad when they went out of business in 1997 or so. I really loved that store.

-Rob

[tomaitheous]

"Together... Once again". Your butt cheeks? Sorry... that was a terrible joke :P

[chrissylas]

When I first started getting into serious collecting I bought out a ton of games from a Rhino that was closing down. Once I got home and started looking through my finds I noticed that one of the titles had a friend of mine's name and number written on the back. I hadn't moved to the area until 1999 so that game had left his hands long before I found it. I wish I knew what that cart had been through in the period of time after he sold it and I found it

[PentiumMMX]

Some of these stories sound like the story with the copy of Kirby 64 I rented at the local Movie Gallery.

It all began in late 2000; Kirby 64 had been out for a few months, and for a combination of factors (Kirby was one of my faovirte characters in Super Smash Bros., and my mom always tried to get me to try something new each time I rented), I rented it and began playing it. I was hooked; it was easily one of the best 2D platform games I had played on the system (Of course, the other was Yoshi's Story, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either). After that, I knew I had to get a copy...

Fast-forward to December 2002. Disappointed that I wouldn't be getting a Gamecube for Christmas, like the Christmas before, I continued playing with my N64; although, interest in it was fading fast, because I had beaten every game I owned for it 100%. After getting my gifts from my mom's side of the family early (Some money; a total of about $40), I decided to go look at Movie Gallery again; hoping to maybe finally get to rent Mario Party 3. However, when I got there, I found they where clearing out all N64 games at rock-bottom prices with a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on all of them. I hunted through, and bought myself Pokémon Puzzle League for $10 (One I rented and though was pretty good. Unfortunately, it didn't work), Bust-A-Move '99 for $10 (My sister and I played this to death, and had been wanting to get a copy. Unfortunately, it didn't work either) and chose Kirby 64 as the free game (It not only being the very same copy I had played 2 years prior, but the only one out of the 3 that worked). Thankfully, even though the two games I actually paid for in the deal had to be returned, they let me keep Kirby 64.

I still own that very same copy of it; the front being slightly yellowed except where the Movie Gallery security stickers where. Like my original copy of Diddy Kong Racing, I have no intentions on replacing it with a copy in better shape, because of the memories tied to that preticular copy.

[BetaWolf47]

Closest thing I have to that is finding a copy of Guerrilla War for NES with a last name of someone I went to school with on it. No idea if it is the same person, though.

Well, my copy of Iggy's Reckin' Balls for N64 might be the same one I rented from a Blockbuster years ago.