Groovy Kid Stuff

We’ve stumbled across some amazing deals at garage sales and Goodwill over the past month. As a result our classic video game collection has increased significantly. I’ll break it down into three parts instead of one super long post. First up, our NES acquisitions.

While in Michigan Helen and I ventured out alone to scope out the local garage sales. Crazy, huh? It’s extremely rare that we do anything without the kids so naturally we spent such an occasion combing through other people’s junk. As we walked up the driveway at our first stop, I complained about how uncomfortable I felt gawking at stuff while the owners looked on. I had hardly finished my thought when I saw an NES motherload- a box with about twenty games inside!

The problem was that another guy was looking at them. Now Helen will tell you that I elbowed him out of the way to get to those games. It wasn’t quite that extreme but I was pretty aggressive. I got in his personal space and asked if he was going to buy them. He mumbled something about not being sure which system his kids had and slinked away so I could pounce. Clearly I meant business. Turns out a lot of it was garbage like Home Alone but for two bucks each I grabbed:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Mario Is Missing- a geography adventure game w/ Mario
• Dr. Mario- Tetris like puzzle game that I used to have
• Bases Loaded II
• Skate Or Die- pre Tony Hawk skateboard game
• The Simpsons: Bart Vs. World

Each was in pristine condition and came with directions. These people really took care of their stuff. Looking back I’m kicking myself for not buying their NES system they were asking ten bucks for. I figured I already had a working system but I should have grabbed it anyway. It even had a case for it! Helen went back the next day but it was gone. The one that got away or something.

Then a week and a half ago a sizable lot of games turned up at one of our two local Goodwills. Helen saw it while I was at work down the street. At the time my computer/email was out of commission and I stupidly had my cell phone turned off. Ended up making a special trip back later that evening instead of waiting until after work the next day. I bought a handful, wrote down the names of the ones I wasn’t familiar with, and have gone back twice to buy more after doing research. Some absolute classics in this batch, all at three dollars apiece:

• Ice Hockey- so much fun! I played tons of this back in the day
• Contra- up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start
• Ninja Gaiden- only familiar with it by reputation
• NES Open- golf with Mario and his pals
• Tecmo Bowl- football
• Rush’n Attack- killing Russians, cold war style
• Excitebike- motocross racing
• Adventures of Lolo- puzzle adventure
• Zoda’s Revenge
• Superspike V’ball / Nintendo World Cup- volleyball and soccer twofer
• Low G Man
• Renegade- beat ‘em up

I just picked up those last six and haven’t played them yet. They need to be cleaned before they will work. I should be getting the Nintendo 3.8mm Gamebit Security Tool I ordered in the mail tomorrow, which will make that process much, much easier.

Also, at Goodwill yesterday I snagged a Game Genie. I was pretty excited, even more so later when I got it to work. It’s a cheating device that allows you to enter codes to alter games, giving you unlimited lives for example. Some of those old games gave you a code after you finished a level so you could pick up where you left off. A few even had a battery. But most of them you had to start over after you turned the console off. Unless you had a lot of time and mad gaming skills, you might never get through to the end. It will definitely come in handy.

To top it all off, Helen’s friend gave me two NES consoles along with copies of Dr. Mario and Super Mario Bros. that were stored away somewhere at her extended family’s home. Both power up but neither will play games. I’m sure it’s only a matter of restoring or replacing the pin connectors. They don’t have controllers or A/V cords either so I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with them. I might try my hand at some mods or fix them up and give them away.