Help the newbie! Questions for the hardcore gamers...

[Mac-Abre]

Okay... I considered myself a hardcore gamer until I joined up here, so I have some questions for you guys. These are in no particular order.

• How much time a week do you spend looking for games?
  Besides EBay, where do you find you have the most luck finding the good stuff? (i.e. non common games)
  Excluding turn based RPGs (Final Fantasy) and dating sims, what are import games that I ABSOLUTELY should look for?

[briskbc]

If I had my way I'd spend about 4 hours a week looking for games. Right now I would say about 1 hour. Tops.

For modern rarities (PSX, Saturn games) I would hit the pawn shops and, to a lesser extent, video stores. For older games you should just try the usual spots. Garage sales, flea markets ets.

I like to watch for puzzle games and ports of old arcade games. That incudes the museum and anthology games. After that, just keep an eye out for what you like.

[Ze_ro]

I often consider thrifting an excuse to get out of the house and do something... so I often make take longer than it really needs to. Even though it's like, -35C around here lately, I still walk to Value Village to check out what they have. I only go 2 or 3 times a week, so I'm guess I spend about 1-2 hours looking for games per week. I don't find much.

The majority of my good stuff is found at Value Village... it's just dumb luck when I actually find worthwhile stuff though.

As for imports, it really depends on what systems you have and what genre's you like... the Saturn got some excellent fighters in Japan that never made it over here, and there's always Radiant Silvergun of course... if you have a Dreamcast, I'd recommend Vampire Chronicles, Shenmue II, and Rez (unless you have a PS2, in which case there's no need to import).

--Zero

[Achika]

• How much time a week do you spend looking for games?
  Besides EBay, where do you find you have the most luck finding the good stuff? (i.e. non common games)
  Excluding turn based RPGs (Final Fantasy) and dating sims, what are import games that I ABSOLUTELY should look for?

1. Maybe 4-6 hours. But that includes driving etc. It's usually a block of time on one day going to the "usually haunts" ....which leads into #2....
2. EB, Gamestop, TRU, Thrift Stores, Flea Markets (special trip for me), plus second hand book/game/music stores I have near me. Sometimes this is just based on luck; being in the right place at the right time or perhaps in the right region of the US.
3. I'm with BriskBC on this. I usually grab the puzzle games when I import. Other categories you should look out for are fighters and shooters. If you have a console that can emulate PAL easily, that opens a whole world of games that can be played in English (Evil Twin, Doshin)

Shenmue II can be found on Xbox in the US.

[Red Warrior]

If you're a North American citizen and you're looking for imports, might I suggest the Sega Master System. There were tons of great SMS games released in Europe , Brazil, and Australia that never made it to our shores. I've been having a blast with Sonic the Hedgehog, Aladdin, Lion King, and Ninja Gaiden lately. There are others as well, and you can read about them as well as imports for other consoles here: http://www.geocities.com/opcfg/importreview.html

That site belongs to a forum member here... whose name escapes me at the moment. But, anyway, check it out. I learned alot from that website.

[sisko]

In the winter, I don't make rounds as much due to the lack of garage sales and flea markets. Howerever I do have a route that I hit up 3 times a week which usually takes about an hour and a half to complete. About once a month I'll hit up some stores that are quite a while away taking up sometimes 12 hours on a Saturday.

Finding good stuff is hard because there are a lot of DPers that live right around the block from me, but if I find something decent, it would usually be at flea markets.

As for imports...fighters, puzzlers and shmups are usually a safe bet, Check the import-mania forum, they recommended the top games for each system there

[hu6800]

Okay... I considered myself a hardcore gamer until I joined up here, so I have some questions for you guys. These are in no particular order.

• How much time a week do you spend looking for games?
  Besides EBay, where do you find you have the most luck finding the good stuff? (i.e. non common games)
  Excluding turn based RPGs (Final Fantasy) and dating sims, what are import games that I ABSOLUTELY should look for?

well according to GEELW im supposed to be a hardcore gamer haha.
nah but really.

I dont look for games, unless im looking to rent one. I happen apon them.

The best luck i have finding games is when i tell friends that travel alot
to call me if they find a game store and tell me what they have.

SHOOTERS ,, screw RPG's and the sims.I mean its bad enough FFXX2 sucks in english, but with shooters, who peed alittle when they got IKARUGA for the DC?

[MarioAllStar2600]

I am at stores looking for games 1 hour a week (if im lucky) no car kills me. Im on ebay looking at games at least 2 hours a day.

[hydr0x]

in the wild: 1 hour per week on average because we have so few stores and fleas

on ebay: 1 hour a day, it's amazing to see what sweet deals you can make on ebay (new gc games for 5? incl. shipping and such stuff)

[hydr0x]

in the wild: 1 hour per week on average because we have so few stores and fleas

on ebay: 1 hour a day, it's amazing to see what sweet deals you can make on ebay (new gc games for 5? incl. shipping and such stuff)