November 2012 Finds

[markusman64ds]

My dad was at Salvation Army and got me these:



PC-DOS 6.1 - Complete and barely used - $2
Dotso by Soleau Software - $1
Getting Started with Windows 98 book w/ Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia '99 - Sealed - $1
Microsoft Works - manual and box only - $2

[xelement5x]

Akai Katana CIB $10. One of those games GS converted from "new" to used in their system.

Thanks for the tip on this, I'll probably try and grab a copy tonight

[theclaw]

Been a while since I've seen Mario / Duck Hunt carts, passed on all of those. I let someone else take SMB3.

Small profit potential in the two extra TMNT's here (already own it).

$2 each:
Dr. Mario NES
TMNT 2 NES
TMNT 2 NES
DDR Mario Mix GC pad

[Kitsune Sniper]

From Monday & Tuesday:


The New Leviathan Oriental Fox Trot Orchestra / Burning Sands - $1
Various Artists / Avenue Q The Musical - $2 (the seller was a douche, he wanted $6 for four CDs but I could only afford two; I asked if he'd take $3, he said discs were $2 each. So I only took this one.)
Mecano / Entre el cielo y el sueño - $1
Atlantis al rescate, Mente fugitiva (Fugitive Mind), Los ocupantes (The Borrowers) - 42 US cents each

I went to a supermarket in my hometown to see what kind of cheapy DVDs they had. They had a bin filled with legit DVDs for less than 10 pesos each, but they were on sale, so each one cost me about five pesos - around 42 cents each. I found a bunch of titles that I wanted but most were pretty beat up. I did find Kazaam with Shaq! But it was dubbed to Spanish. These are shrinkwrapped discs in cardboard sleeves so they're super cheapy. :P


Today:


Croc 2 - $1
Blue Stinger (Import, no obi) - $1


The Shy Guys / Breaking up is hard to do (new) - $1
For Science / Way Out of Control - $1
The Chipmunks / A Very Merry Chipmunk - $1

Not pictured: Microsoft Visual Basic 6 pro with MSDN and other stuff - $3
Warcraft III Expansion - $1
Lite-On DVD-RW drive (IDE) - $4

[Tokimemofan]

Tuesday got me Twisted Metal III for 3.99
Wednesday got me Dragon Warrior for 5.99

[orangest]

$5.99 each at Goodwill.




Free from a giveaway box at the school where I work.

[Tokimemofan]

Got a Final Fantasy VII Demo Disc for $5 and a NES Top Loader with the dog bone controller for $20

[The Adventurer]

Wandering into the local Goodwill not really expecting anything... walked away with...



Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN) $9 - Probably will try to resell this as I already have a copy. CIB
Super Mario Kart Double Dash (GCN) $9 - Needed a copy. Never played it before. CIB
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GCN) $4 - Never heard of this. One of the few GCN RPGs apparently. No manual.
Legendary Wings (NES) $4
Cobra Triangle (NES) $4
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (NES) $4 - Probably over paid on all these NES games, but I didn't have any of them. Good for the collection.
Warcraft - Instruction Manual $2
Master of Orion 2 - Instruction Manual $2 - These manuals were unpriced when I found them, wasn't pleased when they got slapped with $2 price tags. Was LESS then pleased when they literally slapped price tags right on the covers as I was standing there wanting to buy them. Was that really necessary Goodwill? Fortunately they came right off.

[real_18aka]

picked these up in the last 2 weeks

star wars board game 3$

nes
stinger-c 5$
shadow gate-CIB 5$
flight of the intruder-CIB 5$
ultima-warriors of destiny-CIB 5$

genesis
mighty morphan power rangers-ci 1$
dragon the bruce lee story-CIB 1$

n64
tarzan-CIB 10$
Perfect Dark-cb 10$
Monopoly-c 5$

gamecube
pikmin 2-CIB 8$

colleco vision system 20$

the 3 CIB nes games were found at a local indoor flea market, just as im leaving i see a little pile of games at a vendor who sells everything but games, i ask if i could go behind his counter to see his games to which he replied which games? i asked the price without even looking at the games he said 5 bucks each i said sold then i looked at the games, i would have bought any complete nes game for 5 bucks luckily i didnt have any of them, and apparently ultima was definately a good purchase, it's been a good day

[Tokimemofan]

picked these up in the last 2 weeks

star wars board game 3$

nes
stinger-c 5$
shadow gate-CIB 5$
flight of the intruder-CIB 5$
ultima-warriors of destiny-CIB 5$

genesis
mighty morphan power rangers-ci 1$
dragon the bruce lee story-CIB 1$

n64
tarzan-CIB 10$
Perfect Dark-cb 10$
Monopoly-c 5$

gamecube
pikmin 2-CIB 8$

colleco vision system 20$

the 3 CIB nes games were found at a local indoor flea market, just as im leaving i see a little pile of games at a vendor who sells everything but games, i ask if i could go behind his counter to see his games to which he replied which games? i asked the price without even looking at the games he said 5 bucks each i said sold then i looked at the games, i would have bought any complete nes game for 5 bucks luckily i didnt have any of them, and apparently ultima was definately a good purchase, it's been a good day

Great find on Ultima, that is the one that is worth good money. It is worth about $60

[Dreadstar]

Been out more but finding less lately. Hmm. Anyway, recent random stuff from goodwills across the area:

Sega Marine Fishing and a Japanese copy of F355 (DC)
Adventure (Sears), Capture (Sears), Canyon Bomber, Sky Diver, Video Pinball (Atari)
Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection (PS2)
Some horse game that I gave to a friend for her kids (DS)

Didn't pay more than 2.99 for any item. Also caught a nice amazon gold box deal on Alien Anthology Bluray set.

[cyberfluxor]

F.Y.E. had a $1 bin of DVDs, so I took a look. After shifting through many duplicates of low budget movies I found a cluster of animation shows that had been dumped in there! I ended up with Planetes volumes 1 & 2 special edition, The Big O II vol. 4, Mobile Suite Gundam Seed: The Far Away Dawn, and Stratos 4: Return to Base. Cheap anime, all still sealed and new is good when it's typically expensive at retail stores.

A few days ago I found for $3 each Super Godzilla and The Great Circus Mystery on the SNES, loose carts.

I also picked up the other week for $3 total at a Good Will, Sorcerer's Maze (PS) and World Cup Golf Hyatt Dorado Beach (CD-i).

Also at another thrift store in North Carolina while down there a few Nintendo64 games for $1.25 each:
Super Man, Elmo's Letter Adventure, Pokemon Snap, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and Star Fox 64

[Tokimemofan]

Got a GameCube with 2 Wavebirds for $30.
Got Reboot (PS1) for $5
Got Kileak The DNA Imperative, Nightmare Creatures, Steel Harbinger, TempestX3, Tigershark, Tiny Tank (all PS1)$2 each
Got Battle Arena Toshinden 2 for $7
Got Deathtrap Dungeon for $3
Got Tenchu Stealth Assassins for $1
Got Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Xbox) for $3
Got Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures for $10
Got The Pirates of Dark Water (SNES) for $3

I probably over spent of ALL of the PS1 games except for Tenchu (which was cheap and is easy to sell) and Reboot (Which I knew was worth money). Lesson learned, if it sounds like a What The F*** type of game it is screaming DON'T BUY ME!!!!!

[xelement5x]

Got a GameCube with 2 Wavebirds for $30.
Got Reboot (PS1) for $5
Got Kileak The DNA Imperative, Nightmare Creatures, Steel Harbinger, TempestX3, Tigershark, Tiny Tank (all PS1)$2 each
Got Battle Arena Toshinden 2 for $7
Got Deathtrap Dungeon for $3
Got Tenchu Stealth Assassins for $1
Got Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Xbox) for $3
Got Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures for $10
Got The Pirates of Dark Water (SNES) for $3

I probably over spent of ALL of the PS1 games except for Tenchu (which was cheap and is easy to sell) and Reboot (Which I knew was worth money). Lesson learned, if it sounds like a What The F*** type of game it is screaming DON'T BUY ME!!!!!

TinyTanx is supposed to be good I thought (or was that BattleTanx?). There's a copy near me for $5 I've been lazing around picking up for $5 until Black Friday

I didn't get much this weekend:

Henry Hatsworth $5
Resident Evil Survivor $5
DragonBall GT Final Bout $5
Nuby Virtual Gun for PSX/SAT with cool options and light up LEDs on the side $5

[Kitsune Sniper]

I got Frequency (PS2, damaged case) and Pro-Pinball for the Saturn (complete) for $5 total.

[plaidbrad3141]

From the last few days.
Mr. Driller (Dreamcast) cib $10
Rogue Warrior (360) cib $5
Bit Trip Complete (Wii) cib $15
Battle Cars (SNES) no instructions & beat up box $2
Gun Force (SNES) no instructions & beat up box $4
Body Harvest (N64) loose cart $3 free w/ trade credit
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (N64) cib $10 free w/ trade credit. Its more like Indiana Jones and the Infernal Block Buster stickers. I got em all cleaned off tho. The cart only had sticker on back & that came off pretty clean.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Sunday Flea Market.
My family was sick with a virus,late Saturday I got better..I rushed out late Sunday to a local town flea market to meet up quick as my wife wanted to watch the Football game coming on a 4pm..
I had no plans to buy anything but to pick up things my friend dug out of his garage priced on ebay and gave me to sell as he doesn’t have the time..

I didn’t get a chance to go through he isles of stuff,I was rushing,it was after 3pm already,I get in the market and spot a strategy guide,
4 pils of mixed magazine ,strategy guides for $1.00 a pile..

I buy all four piles ..(he come the lookers-UGH They've been out there all Day!!!





From the same vendor I buy this new sealed stuff for $1.00 each..picked up a toy for my Son,other knick knck.spent $12.00 in total
I don't know if it's worth anything..



Another friend shows up..UGH..I have no time to chit chat..

This is he stuff my friend pulled out of his Garage..Systems are broke..

[InsaneDavid]

:sigh: I hope I don't spoil some Christmas presents with this post. THAT MEANS YOU - DON'T KEEP READING.

Anyway..........

































I've been picking up a lot of Coleco tabletops lately just because I've been able to find some really good deals, purchasing lots, repairing and trading / selling extras. I do full a teardown and cleaning as well as preventive maintenance and restoration on these whenever I come across them. That goes for all the "tabletop" handhelds from other manufacturers as well.



Frogger, Frogger, Galaxian, Ms. Pac-Man are what I picked up over the past couple weeks. The first Frogger and Ms. Pac-Man were a package deal. The Frogger is missing the top sticker and battery door but Ms. Pac-Man is complete. Neither game had functioning sound but it turned out to be a detached piezo buzzer in both. Frogger looks as if it had been "repaired" by someone in the past as one of the screws doesn't match (although still close enough as far as size and threading) and the little plastic speaker cone was missing. Looks like they cut it out to get to the buzzer rather than twisting it off of the housing. Then they tried to tape the connections back onto the buzzer. In place of the speaker cone there was part of an envelope shoved in there to act as a substitute cone. After repairing the sound I made a new cone out of a file folder and everything works fine - not as ear-piercing loud as the plastic cone but pretty close. Honestly I'm surprised they didn't screw something else up while they were in there. Both games now work 100% with responsive controls and sound. The control panel sticker coating on Frogger is also cracked on the upper left, over the screw for the hood. Nothing can be done for that but it doesn't look terrible or anything.

The second Frogger was from a vintage store and ended up being free more or less. I specifically asked them if the battery compartment had any battery damage or corrosion to which I was told it was clean. After I paid for it I was contacted again and told the game wasn't always turning on. Before I could get back to them they contacted me again and said they think it's because of the battery door being loose, which I told them is common with the Coleco tabletops. I finally told them as long as the game was working at one point, has the door, and no damage in the battery compartment, then I will still take the game. When it arrived it not only were the battery leads caked with corrosion (that's why the battery connection is haphazard you morons) the whole thing had a very strong, very recent cigarette smell. I contacted them back and the owner got in touch with me. He said the employee who was answering my questions and that packed up the game has screwed up like that before and they're not going to be allowed to handle their online storefront anymore. (I don't care) On top of that he offered to refund my payment minus the shipping charge and allow me to keep the game. (That I do care about) After removing the battery leads, neutralizing the corrosion and giving them a good scrub everything is fine. I also was able to pull away most of the cigarette smell (usual cleaning, venting, dryer sheets). Has battery door, all the stickers, and honestly the joystick feels like the game was barely played.

Galaxian was off eBay and was very poorly listed. Got it for like $12.00 all said and done. This one was in very rough condition but I expected that on the way in. All the stickers are present although the marquee sticker was peeling. That glued back down nicely over the course of a couple days, unfolding and gluing it down little by little. The stickers have the usual Coleco glue bleed but honestly I'd say this has some of the nicer condition stickers of the Galaxian tabletops I've come across. A little glue marbled and dark around the edges but they cleaned up very nice. The control panel is a little dingy around the joystick and fire button holes and at the bottom from moisture getting underneath but it's still solid and the coating is good. An issue I didn't spot was cracks in the bezel at the top. Looks like someone worked on this game before and didn't know what they were doing as the bezel screws were applied too tightly at one point and their mounts cracked out. The bezel itself remained intact except for the upper right which did have a corner crack off but was still with the game. I ended up removing the broken standoffs and gluing the bezel down. No battery door here but I used a spare Pac-Man battery door in its place.



The first Frogger will be for sale if anyone here is interested, condition as described above. The second Frogger is for my girlfriend for Christmas (should explain the start of this post). Galaxian is for me. Ms. Pac-Man is for my girlfriend for Christmas as well.

This is from eBay as well, about $7.00 all said and done. A little generic cocktail table. I think it's a piece of doll furniture, at least that's the best explanation that both the seller and myself could figure.



It has a Pac-Man knockoff on the screen with little swirls. It's marked MGA but I don't remember them making any doll furniture like this since the size is all wrong for their respective toy lines. The seller said it was marked Epoch but it isn't, so I have no idea where they got that from. When I saw it while searching for some other stuff I had a Ryo Hazuki moment and had to have it.

Pac-Man... One hundred yen per game... Guess I'll try it.

Hey, you're pretty good! Here's your prize!

Lastly, another tabletop, this time the Parker Bros Q*bert - a favorite of collectors. This one will actually be for sale as I have another on the way. Condition is very acceptable as far as these go. It was missing the left side sticker while the top sticker was included but a complete lost cause. In fact the right sticker shown in the picture is pretty much a lost cause as well. Control panel sticker is worn but nice as these go and the bezel sticker, while not great, is far from worn enough to require replacement. The game itself functions perfectly and if you haven't played this one you're missing out. This did come with the battery door which I will be migrating to the other one that is on the way. I intend to print replacement artwork for the top and sides on this one and then sell it without the battery door. The outer plastics are currently drying out after being torn down and given a good soak and cleaning (the inside bottom was pretty dirty on this one although the electronics were clean). I should have it all relabeled and buttoned up by next week so if you're interested in this one too, go ahead and let me know to get a jump before I formally post them in Buying & Selling.



With all the buying and selling and rebuilding on these I should end up back at even money once the first Frogger and this Q*bert are sold. Time to lay off the mini arcades for awhile though. Oh, I'm also up for trade for a Coleco Donkey Kong or a Zaxxon. Honestly right now I'm having Q*bert withdrawals while the plastics dry.

[Balloon Fight]

:sigh: I hope I don't spoil some Christmas presents with this post. THAT MEANS YOU - DON'T KEEP READING.
Coleco Tabletops

Thank you for posting that post. I now know what I'm going to focus on after finishing up my NES set. I've been meaning to get more of these tabletops in my collection (I only have 1 atm, Donkey Kong) for years now.

[InsaneDavid]

Thank you for posting that post. I now know what I'm going to focus on after finishing up my NES set. I've been meaning to get more of these tabletops in my collection (I only have 1 atm, Donkey Kong) for years now.

Collecting VFD tabletops can become extremely addicting. As far as the Coleco games go I'd say Frogger has the most accurate and addictive gameplay with a beautiful display. Then I'd call it a three way tie between Donkey Kong, Galaxian, and Ms. Pac-Man with maybe a slight edge to Ms. Pac-Man due to the changing mazes and moving bonus fruit. Pac-Man brings up the rear. It's far from terrible but man the sound effects are abrasive. I put Zaxxon down there too as while it's a technical achievement it just doesn't play very well. Donkey Kong Jr. doesn't count in my mind as one of the Coleco series since it's just a Game & Watch variant, although a VERY nice looking rework. Truth be told I enjoy the "Midway's Attackers" mode of Galaxian, which is essentially Space Invaders, more than the Galaxian mode.

As I've said, Parker Bros Q*bert is an excellent conversion of the arcade game and fits in well with the Coleco games. Great responsive joystick, really good sound, and a nice big screen to show off the superb display with vibrant colors. Also has a silent option which isn't really an issue with Q*bert but would have been nice on the Coleco games.

However even with all the great VFD tabletops out there, my favorite is still Caveman, released by Tomy as well as Radio Shack under the Tandy name. I can't explain why I enjoy it so much but I could play it for hours.