Flash cart only collection?

[kai123]

I am thinking of turning my collection into a flash cart collection. I love playing on the original hardware and considering how well done a lot of the flash carts are these days it seems like a good investment of time vs hoping I can afford certain games or even being able to find it all. I can fill out the rest of my collection with carts that are not working on flash carts fairly easily. I feel like I spend more time looking for games vs playing them. I would love to buy Little Samson but that is a ton of money for one game. Thoughts?

[ProjectCamaro]

It's not a terrible way to go and I can understand your reasons.

Personally I prefer the original games, there's nothing like having a friend over and watching them go through all the carts looking for what they want to play. They always have a goofy smile on their face as they do it.

[bb_hood]

Ive got a pretty big collection of original games and I also have a flash cart collection that I play. No reason you cant have both. In my opinion flash carts are a good investment, you will get alot more use out of flash carts over single games.
Little Samson is a fun game but its just not worth the price it goes for.

[kai123]

It's not a terrible way to go and I can understand your reasons.

Personally I prefer the original games, there's nothing like having a friend over and watching them go through all the carts looking for what they want to play. They always have a goofy smile on their face as they do it.

Yea, I understand that completely. I do love the feeling of having the original cart and I wouldn't get rid of too many of the games I already have. I just can't afford the insane prices for some of the classics I didn't get to play when I was younger and it is just getting worse as time goes by.

[Rickstilwell1]

I basically just want to get back the cartridges of games I grew up with or used to have and really liked. For stuff new to me I just want to play on flash carts and buy the games I actually beat. For me beating a game is proof to me that I liked it enough to display it as part of my collection.

[theclaw]

It's alright for general titles. You will want to pay attention to games with specific issues.
Stuff like Pokemon transfers is designed for original copies.

[Rickstilwell1]

It's alright for general titles. You will want to pay attention to games with specific issues.
Stuff like Pokemon transfers is designed for original copies.

Pokémon transfers will still work with the smart card if you make it so it is the only title on that side of the memory partition and if the other partition doesn't currently have any games that use save batteries. It will act like an original cart and even load the border in Super Game Boy.

[Tron 2.0]

Flash cart are fine for saving money on expensive games beside how convenient they are to use.Flash Carts,are also a simple way to play games that have fan translations.

[jperryss]

I am thinking of turning my collection into a flash cart collection. I love playing on the original hardware and considering how well done a lot of the flash carts are these days it seems like a good investment of time vs hoping I can afford certain games or even being able to find it all. I can fill out the rest of my collection with carts that are not working on flash carts fairly easily. I feel like I spend more time looking for games vs playing them. I would love to buy Little Samson but that is a ton of money for one game. Thoughts?

This is what I did. For each system I held onto a small number of carts that either don't play nice on flash carts or had special meaning to me, and sold the rest. No regrets.

[kai123]

This is what I did. For each system I held onto a small number of carts that either don't play nice on flash carts or had special meaning to me, and sold the rest. No regrets.

That is exactly what I want to do.

[Tanooki]

Sometimes I keep going back into thinking I should get some everdrives, but then I remember how many I've had before between gameboy systems and the NES and how I'd use the a few weeks and they'd collect dust. The GBA one lasted the longest as I'd plop a lot of NES/GB-C emulator games on those to have fun with out of my collection. Outside of that I'd get all ADHD about stuff and could never focus on a game because all the freebies were a click away and I hated never finishing anything.

Maybe I'll do it at some point again, but as it is with games I've skimmed off so much in the last couple of years since moving back here I've hit this wall of uncomfortableness where if I take much more from the selection left I'd feel bad about it. I'm more inclined to start buying cheap ($1-20) SNES and GBA games at this rate to use and re-use than a flash cart, yet clearly if it were NES the amount you'd save not buying into the asinine pricing on Little Samson alone would save you a bundle.

[kai123]

My main reason for buying a flash cart is just for the expensive games. It is just out of hand on some of them. I want to play them not show how much money I can spend on a 20 year old game. Collecting has turned into more of a show than about the actual games.

[Zthun]

I am thinking of turning my collection into a flash cart collection. I love playing on the original hardware and considering how well done a lot of the flash carts are these days it seems like a good investment of time vs hoping I can afford certain games or even being able to find it all. I can fill out the rest of my collection with carts that are not working on flash carts fairly easily. I feel like I spend more time looking for games vs playing them. I would love to buy Little Samson but that is a ton of money for one game. Thoughts?

Honestly, I prefer the flash carts to the original carts. The original carts require maintenance or replacement after 10+ years. I've had some carts where the battery goes out, the pins get weak, etc, etc.

With a flash cart, all your save games are stored on the SD card and flashed into memory. If the flash cart dies, your games are still preserved and you can just buy another flash cart and transfer the SD card. The only reason I can think of not to have them is as follows:

1. You are a collector and you get butt hurt when you see things that possibly devalue your collection. Can't help you with this one.
2. You can't afford the 100-150 price tag. For this I would say it's way more expensive to buy the individual carts. If you look over time on how much you spend, you'll most likely find that the flash cart is way cheaper in the long run.
3. Some of the games don't run on the flash cart. Yes, this is true. And yes, some of those games are worthwhile. The best alternative is to have the actual cart for these, or you can look into the alternatives. For example, the Super Everdrive does not play Mega Man X2 or X3, but you can get a copy of Mega Man X Collection for PS2 for $13-$15 on eBay. I see this as a worthy sacrifice.

Overall, I love flash carts. I will purchase these over the original carts any day for the preservation of classic games, and I will always pick these over emulation for maximum compatibility while playing on original hardware.

[jperryss]

3. Some of the games don't run on the flash cart. Yes, this is true. And yes, some of those games are worthwhile. The best alternative is to have the actual cart for these, or you can look into the alternatives. For example, the Super Everdrive does not play Mega Man X2 or X3, but you can get a copy of Mega Man X Collection for PS2 for $13-$15 on eBay. I see this as a worthy sacrifice.

For those, you can also pick up the Japanese SFC versions for quite a bit cheaper than their US counterparts (though last I checked, prices were climbing on those also).

[celerystalker]

I may buy a flash cart at some point, but my mind isn't made up yet. It's very important to me to legally own my games, even though I know there's lots of grey area. I own most of the expensive stuff I want, but a flash cart just seems really convenient for transporting games. I can't see myself downloading games I don't own, because I really enjoy leafing through manuals and looking at boxes. It's just some vestigial nostalgic part of game culture for me. It'd be a lot cheaper than buying repro carts for fan translations of games I already paid for in Japanese...

[Tanooki]

It's very handy to transporting games. Like I said in my last post I've had a few handheld kits (1 GB/C one, 2 for GBA) over time and the one that always got the most was the GBA kit, the first got so much use as a way to transport games that weren't portable. I'd keep the contents up to date with the games I had carts for on the NES and GB/C and I could then take that thing wherever and play those games. I had either the SP or the GM MIcro and that's vastly smaller than the whole setup for either the GB/C and games and definitely the NES+TV and all those carts too. It has a nice gray area handy side to it.

There's only two honestly good reasons to download old games you don't have. You're trying before buying on actual hardware which I did for over a decade with stuff after I got out of hoarding roms a long time ago. The other would be the slimy tactics that drive up some games to such high prices that it's just far more economical and rational. Look what Little Samson goes for and realize you could cover a rent or mortgage payment on that, buy a laptop or a computer, and so many more far more regularly useful things with that.

[kai123]

I have been hunting for a Little Samson for a long while and I thought it was expensive years ago but now it is insane. It is like you said, I could buy something I would use everyday for the prices it goes for. I think I am going to bite the bullet and get the NES everdrive. I already have a lot of the core games I was looking for it is just those few really expensive ones that I just can't fathom paying that much for. This is the part where I wish Nintendo could just release a ton of these games on the Virtual Console. I know there would be licensing issues but it beats not making any money off of these old games that people are willing to pay hundreds for. Hell I could take a decent vacation for the price Little Samson goes for sometimes.

[Tanooki]

I'm strongly considering some everdrive options myself including the upcoming GBA version. Even when Samson had hit $400 like 3-4 years ago that was too much for me to tolerate so I wrote it off. The most I technically put out was about that much for Bonk but it was all tradebait, no cash involved and even that still sickens me I did it and I like that game a lot. I'd love to have a real copy of Samson and Panic Restaurant but the price has jumped the shark too much to justify the price when I'm on a tight budget. I've been pushing off my game collection over the last many months to get up to around the 2K mark for a gaming level do it yourself laptop that'll last me for years so to think I'd put almost half that into Samson is straight up retarded. More and more NES and SNES games are jumping into that over $100, closing into the $500-1000 level stuff now that's total insane collector pricing, not something for someone who is sane or on a budget. If you just want to play it, get lucky, trade some junk, or get a flash cart, or get someone to make a nice *ahem* 'repro' that fits with the collection.

Another option I'm considering for those 2 games are either Famicom releases or buying the infiniteneslives writer and boards and making my own Samson and others and using an excellent printer to make a solid copy label so it fits with things. I'm not entirely set on going into a flash kit again, I tend to get adhd with those things and nothing gets played or finished.

[Gentlegamer]

I'm not entirely set on going into a flash kit again, I tend to get adhd with those things and nothing gets played or finished.

Just put one game at a time on it.

[Tanooki]

Yeah no doubt. That was kind of my fault with the powerpak. Two things turned me off to that. The annoying as hell way save/loading works on it for battery games along with the crusty menu, but the big one is that I found an old CD I had of every legit release from the US market on there along with unique JP, JP-FDS, and PAL titles. That CF card was loaded and then some.