2018 Yearly Finds

[Slate]

Steve W, how often do we find imports in the wild? I can think of two instances for me, once being in this thread with the NGPC games; the other time is when I found a Virtual Boy, the stand, controller (with hard buttons from someone spilling soda into it; probably the reason why it was donated but it was easily fixed) and one baseball import for $3 at a Goodwill back in 2005 or 2006. Then again, I'm in rural Pennsylvania over 50 miles from Pittsburgh.

I haven't found anything game related lately, it's all just a bunch of PS2 or PS3 generation games in the stores so I'm keeping my eye open for various games from those generations. My Atari generation coaxial cable adapter arrived from eBay, however, and Father's finding non-gaming items to resell.



I'm surprised I never bought one of these 12 years ago.

- Austin

[Steve W]

Honestly, back in the late "aughts" I used to find imports all the freakin' time in the wild. Seriously, I've come across a couple Japanese Mega CD games (no discs in the case and the flea market vendor didn't speak English so I couldn't get any info where the discs went to), a Japanese Dreamcast (only realized that later because there was a blank cover instead of a modem), many European games for all sorts of consoles, and those are just the ones I've passed on. Nowadays I rarely ever go looking in the wild since there's no point but in the recent past I have bought a bunch of imports just because I know it's something I can't find normally (and especially if it's cheap). The Super Famicom games I bought down in Lafayette, Louisiana at a flea market but I generally find imports around Dallas. I'm always amazed when I come across any of these things. How did a boxed mouse for the Japanese NEC PC-88 line of computers end up in a flea market in Texas? It's only $4? I'll take it, just in case I come across a use for it. These things just seem to flow into this area, and I have no idea why. Do I need a PS1 that's UK only and has a SCART output? No, but it's pretty cool to own it and the games that were donated with it. Especially if they're being sold cheap. I did have to visit all four locations of this local thrift store chain just to find all the games and pieces of the system.

A lot of stores around Dallas have imports, too. Most of the retro game stores have at least a few of them. When the PSP and Nintendo DS hit the market, a chain called Fry's Electronics fluffed out their shelves with Japanese imports for them. That was cool. It's shocklingly easy to come across imports in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

[Slate]

Huh. I suppose you have many more people interested in imports in your part of Texas than I do here. The second time I found imports, I only got them off a fellow from Arkansas who was moving out of his apartment.

Today, I just found:

1 Slim PS2 (no controllers, memory cards or wires; )
1 Wired 360 Controller (Translucent, missing second part of cable; )
1 Wireless 360 controller (Black, missing battery pack.)

Paid $7 from a small thrift store.

- Austin

[Slate]

Nothing spectacular; everything here's loose.

Atari 2600:

Keystone Kapers - $1

Colecovision:

Mouse Trap - $1
Venture - $1

NES:

Super Glove Ball - $3

Plus tax. I bought these from The Exchange in Monroeville. Not really good enough to be considered a "find," IMHO; they're low priced commons. At least I have something that can use the power glove now, however.

As a footnote, this is the first day I've seen CDI Games in person; I also saw a 3DO game, a Turbpografx-16, Lynx games and four different NES Power Sets all within 2 miles of each other. Nothing, however, was "in the wild."

Edit / Update: I'm heading to a flea market tomorrow, the 25th. Maybe I'll find something at least lower than eBay pricing.

- Austin

[Gameguy]

I saw the discussion of Goodwills and Salvation Army stores in the last page. I can't speak for what it's like lately outside my little part of Pennsylvania, we all know 2003-2006 or so was a golden time in yard sales (and I had a good finds in both stores then) but I'll keep the subject in mind for future replies.

- Austin

I could go on a bit more for the Salvation Army when it first opened in the new location. Before it opened it needed to be full of merchandise for sale on opening day, but because it wasn't open yet it couldn't accept donations. To fill the store they got the merchandise from another location further north, specifically it was extra donations that were stored in that location's basement for many years. As everything was donated many years earlier, it was better stuff. The first few days after it opened were really good, I found a really good game on opening day which I'm quite happy with.

Steve W, how often do we find imports in the wild?

I used to come across import stuff pretty regularly years back, there's a large Asian population around my area(being near Toronto) and being a heavily populated region in general also helped quite a bit. Platforms include Famicom, Super Famicom, Mega Drive, Master System, Gameboy, Game Gear, PC Engine, Playstation, Dreamcast, etc. Even UK releases, not just Asian imports. I found plenty years back, including Virtual Boy as Japanese games were sold locally in Electronics Boutique back when the system was being cleared out. It's mostly died off though as finding anything game related is becoming difficult, but it still occasionally happens.


I also managed to find some games recently so I thought I'd take pictures. First from the local Salvation Army on the 23rd, they're complete and were priced $3.99 each but I was able to use a $10 off coupon so it cost $13.94 total. I don't find games worth buying here too often so it was a nice surprise.




And here's some stuff I found earlier from Value Village on the 21st. It's really rare to find any game stuff this old there, I'm especially happy with the hint book and that puzzle. I don't know if I have the hint book already or not, I know I have the game boxed with instructions but can't remember about the guide. For those who can't tell from the picture what that puzzle is, it's the Nintendo Challenge Dice originally from 1969. Really surprised to find it, but sadly the case is cracked and two of the pins are missing the coloured discs so it's not perfect. Interestingly, the instructions with it are in English and call it the Challenge Dice, this was mostly known as the Chaotic Cube outside Japan so it appears to be a rarer release(or at least the instructions are). I really wish the original box was included as it could be different from what's currently known to exist.

More info;
http://blog.beforemario.com/2011/08/...dice-1969.html
http://blog.beforemario.com/2012/01/...e-western.html

[Steve W]

Wow, that Challenge Dice puzzle is a seriously cool find. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but now I'm pretty impressed that you found one and that the only things wrong with it are that two color stickers fell off and the plastic case got brittle and cracked during its nearly 50 years of existence. People generally don't treat things like that very well, let alone hang on to them for half a century instead of just chucking them in the trash. I'm totally jealous right now. Are there modern reproductions of those things? I really want to play with one now.

[Slate]

Is anyone on here in the Columbus, Ohio area? I saw this on Craigslist; a very yellow SNES, a Genesis and PS2 all in unknown working order + a bunch of PS2 games for $30 but I'm not gonna go 250 miles just to pick it up:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/vgm/...681909902.html

There's also a Genesis 2 and Sega CD 2 with no wires or controllers for $40 in the same area; that's an easy way to disguise non working systems, however:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/vgm/...671205573.html

Whensoever I look on CL in my area lately (though I expect it to change) I see mostly nothing but the same old stuff at eBay pricing (and, occasionally, ridiculously higher) that just sits, sits, sits, sits, sits, sits and sits. If I just buy a SNES or some lot like the $30 lot I'll be pleased with it.

Oh and my finds lately? Not much although I am grateful that I got anything:

Atari 2600 Light 6er (Paper inside says "August 1980")
2 Joysticks
Paddle Controllers
Asteroids
Pac-Man

The system needed me to spray contact cleaner through the reset switch. It's OK now.

$20

Game Boy: Bass Fishing
SMS: Hang On/Safari Hunt

$2.12

I just wanted something to test systems with in event I find anything. I picked up these last two at The Exchange on 2973 W Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh where I (unusually) saw a few more common Jaguar CD games for the first time. There was also a $10 CDI title.

- Austin

[Niku-Sama]

still bubkis...

I did order some thing on ebay but that's not really a "find"

[Gameguy]

Wow, that Challenge Dice puzzle is a seriously cool find. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but now I'm pretty impressed that you found one and that the only things wrong with it are that two color stickers fell off and the plastic case got brittle and cracked during its nearly 50 years of existence. People generally don't treat things like that very well, let alone hang on to them for half a century instead of just chucking them in the trash. I'm totally jealous right now. Are there modern reproductions of those things? I really want to play with one now.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with finding it too. I'm not sure if there's a modern release of the puzzle, I do believe Nintendo re-released their Ten Billion Barrel puzzle somewhat recently as a Club Nintendo item. I'd just like to point out that the coloured pieces aren't stickers, they seem to be metal discs glued to the pins. Honestly I think it was dropped at some point which cracked the case and knocked the discs loose from the glue that held them. It might have just happened in the thrift store but I couldn't find the pieces anywhere and I did search for them as best I could.


Also I decided to check out the Salvation Army again earlier today just to see if anything new turned up, no worthwhile games but I did end up getting some DVDs. The Rurouni Kenshin Premium Box sets 1-3 being the most notable. I remember watching the OVAs and a few episodes years ago so I felt picking up the sets were worthwhile. I should mention, the packaging for these sets are incredibly cheap and the discs are in stiff sleeves which tend to scratch the discs, I just wish it was better quality. Everything pictured cost me $30.95 total after using a couple coupons. I also remember watching that Myths and Logic documentary ages ago and liking it, so now I have a legit DVD of it.

[Slate]

Goodwill's still only at 1% in "Interesting" and Salvation Army's not much better around here lately. I went to a St. Vincent De Paul (another thrift store) in Kittanning and found nothing there the other week but I was not early. I know I only recently got back into looking for games but so far it's been pretty sparse. I know I might have been spoiled with finds from 2003 - 2006 and even back then I often didn't find anything for some time. I'm still glad I got anything.

Today:

DS Cases & Manuals:

History: Great Empires: Rome
My Dress-Up
New Super Mario Bros.
Petz Nursery 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Super Mario 64 DS

- 37 Cents For All

Missed 2 DS Systems and a variety of games yesterday from that yard sale for $50. I probably would have picked those up.

Saw but Passed On:

NES with Grey Zapper, 2 Controllers and 8 (give or take) Games - Wasn't in a yard sale, I wasn't even going to that town at first; someone saw the station wagon then saw speakers Father had picked up in the back and eventually we got to talking, I drove over to his house and after some talking about speakers and guitars I mentioned I was looking for old video games (or computers) and he showed me this NES. I'm not sure if I'm going to get it or not, it did have some somewhat decent (for resale) titles with it like Mario Bros. Arcade and SMB 2.

Later:

Bought:

C64 Power Supply
T.I. 99/4A Power Supply

25 cents each. Bought from the same place that had the Atari 600XL and TI99/4A I got last year. At least now I know the TI99/4A turns on.

This isn't a great way to spend gas money though, I'm not the one paying for this fuel but in the classic Mercury (18 MPG) it cost about 10 gallons of gas. I'm in for the fun of it all.

EDIT:

Sunday: Went to a flea market that was sparsely populated with vendors (unlike how it was a few years back.) Saw an Atari 7800 for $60, a bunch of 2600 and 7800 games at various prices. There was a copy of H.E.R.O. at his table for $25 with a faded label, I passed even though I was looking for a copy. Why did I get up so late?

- Austin

[jb143]

Ran across Pac-Man for Neo Geo Pocket Color today and decided to pick it up because I never see anything for NGPC anywhere ever and my collection for it is so small. But man, that game is hard to play without the control stick rings.

[Steve W]

Ran across Pac-Man for Neo Geo Pocket Color today and decided to pick it up because I never see anything for NGPC anywhere ever and my collection for it is so small. But man, that game is hard to play without the control stick rings.

I really wanted to like the Neo•Geo Pocket Color, I really did. I was never a Nintendo fan, so I was excited there was competition in the handheld market from a company with a good pedigree. But I never found anything I could tolerate playing on that annoying controller nub. The games never sparked my interest enough to tolerate the bad controls (much like the N64). But as bad as the control pad is on the NGPC, it doesn't hold a candle to the awfulness of the Tapwave Zodiac's analog controller. I dare you to make it through Duke Nukem 3D on the Zodiac. It's practically impossible with the crappy controls. I want to turn slightly to shoot a bad guy... no, I've turned around 180 degrees and I'm getting shot in the back, and looks like I'm dead. Again. So pointless.

Also, I now know that Pac-Man on the Neo•Geo Pocket Color came with control stick rings. I bought my copy of the game in one of those 4-and-6 packs that the company that bought SNK slapped together to get rid of old stock, so I never had the chance to play it properly. Damn.