Tag Archive for 'Shopping'

We interrupt your regularly scheduled crafty postings. . .

Published by Helen on December 15, 2007 in Crafts and Shopping. 2 Comments

To bring you this Goodwill score-

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12 embroidered linen napkins - no stains and they are all hand hemmed and it looks like hand- stitched too. And I have a project in mind for them!

I actually saw these yesterday but they were kinda on the pricey side for Goodwill (about .75 each!) so I walked around with them in my cart for a while and put them back. Last night I got an idea of what I could do with them so today we went back and they were still there. This proves that I was meant to have them if you are a follower of Goodwill karmic energy theory. (Scott and I are devotees.)

Goodwill + eBay = Quick Profit

Published by Scott on December 15, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 3 Comments

super-mario.jpgOn my usual after work trip to Goodwill the other day I was thrilled to find a copy of Super Mario All-Stars for Super Nintendo. It’s an awesome compilation of the first three Super Mario Bros. games for the NES plus the so-called “Lost Levels” (the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2) all spruced up with improved graphics for the SNES. I’d browsed around before on Amazon and half.com and knew it went for at least twenty dollars. I snatched it up for a measly three bucks and added it to add to my box o’ xmas games.

Today at the other Goodwill we frequent on our Saturday library runs, I found Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World. This was another compilation for the Super Nintendo that included, as the name implies, all of the games on Super Mario All-Stars plus the SNES sequel for the franchise, Super Mario World. We already have that game for both the SNES and Gameboy Advance. Since I knew the going rate for All-Stars, I figured this one had to be at least worth that much. Why not try to make a little money to offset my many retro game purchases?

I looked up the recent completed auctions for the game when we came home and saw that all of the “Buy It Now” sales went for around $25. Nice! Cleaned up the cartridge, tested it out to make sure it worked, took a picture, and finally listed it for $23.99. Believe it or not, someone snatched it up within the first hour. Talk about a quick turn around! I’m feeling very savvy right now. And did I mention that I love Goodwill?

Helen’s Big Score

Published by Scott on December 10, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments
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Helen called me from the local Goodwill while out shopping yesterday. Seems they were having a little sale. Every now and then they’ll pull out a table from the back and cram it full of a particular item or a group of things that fit a theme. I’ve seen mini-sales for phones, rollerblades and sandals, coffee makers, vcr tapes, and books among other things. This time it was video game consoles and controllers! Controllers were $2.02 a piece and consoles, sans power cords or connector cables, only $8.08. She described to me everything they had and I had her pounce on:

  • NES controllers- There were five of these, which was perfect. We only have one official one plus a pair of crappy third party knockoffs. I have two extra NES consoles that I plan to refurbish some day with no controllers. That little problem is now solved.
  • Sega Dreamcast consoles- I’ve already written about the one I bought myself for Christmas. They’re versatile machines and I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a couple of spares for that price. Helen grabbed two of the three they had for sale. I plan on having mine hooked up to my computer monitor so I’ll give one to the boys. Unfortunately the other is in need of repair. It’ll boot up fine but I think the controller port is blown. I guess that’s a common problem in Dreamcasts and a simple matter of replacing a resistor. Sounds like a fun rainy day project to me. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with it after I get it going again. I may give it as a gift to a certain soon-to-be family member who would appreciate the NES emulation.
  • Dreamcast controllers- Duh. Needed these to go with the consoles. Helen bought the four they had.
  • Gamecube controller- We already have four in fine working order so we’ll either keep it as insurance or give it to one of the boys’ friends.

Helen also picked up four SNES games, but I’ll tell about those in a future post describing our obscene Christmas game haul. All in all, it was a pretty awesome day for a retro game fan down to the Goodwills. Thanks Helen!

Retro Game Explosion Part Five: Sega Dreamcast

Published by Scott on October 28, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 4 Comments

Just before we took our trip to South Carolina, the local Goodwill got in a stack of Sega Dreamcast games and put them for sale at three bucks a pop. The only thing I really knew about the system was that it was beloved by longtime gamers. Went home and did some reading at Racketboy, a simply amazing retro game resource, and decided I should probably pick up a few in case I ever came across a Dreamcast. I put together a list of recommendations from that site and bought:

  • Crazy Taxi
  • Tennis 2K2
  • SoulCaliber
  • The House of the Dead 2
  • Resident Evil Code: Veronica
  • Sega Rally 2
  • Cannon Spike

After a couple of weeks of monitoring Dreamcast auctions on eBay, I saw what looked like an awesome deal. For $41 including shipping I got a Dreamcast, two controllers, one VMU memory card, two rumble packs, and three games: Quake III Arena, Silver, and Shadow Man. All of this stuff plus the initial games I purchased are my Christmas present. I figure we’d gone a little crazy with the retro systems since June and another one now would be a bit much. Plus it gives me something to look forward to.

I have been sneaking it out after the kids go to bed however. Again thanks to Racketboy and this article, I have discovered the seedy underworld of emulation and ROMS. The Dreamcast will read CD-R discs without any chip modifications, making it possible to play NES games on it. Pretty darn cool. I’ve tracked down all of the necessary software and figured out how to burn a self-booting disc consisting of an amazing collection of NES games.

There’s also a homebrew scene in which people have developed their own Dreamcast games. DCEvolution has free collections of these games where you simply have to download an image file and burn it to a disc. As recent as last year there were commercial releases of homebrew games. Kind of crazy, considering the Dreamcast came out in 2000 and has been out of production since 2001.

And if great commercial games, emulation, and homebrew weren’t enough, techno smarties have long since figure out how to rip backup Dreamcast games. I found a little group that shares torrents of impossible to find or prohibitively expensive games like Ikaruga and REZ. No, it’s not even close to legal but I’m not losing sleep over it. Instead I’m counting down the days until Christmas when I can break this awesome system out permanently!

This Week’s Retro Game Treasures

Published by Scott on September 23, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments

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Compulsive Goodwill stalking turned up these items:

NES Advantage Controllers
We went to the one of our local Goodwills yesterday and they had an unmarked pair of these out on the shelves. I asked the cashier how much they were and she didn’t know. They’re not supposed to sell stuff that’s not priced so she sent them to the back and said they’d be out on the floor the next day.

We returned today and they were nowhere to be found. I got a woman from behind the scenes to poke around. She found them and surreptitiously slipped them back into the electronics section. They’re not supposed to bring stuff out to customers so that was her workaround. I appreciated it, all the more so because they were only $3.54 each. I expected to pay a lot more.

I didn’t even know there was such an accessory. Basically NES Advantage is the joystick version of the regular controller plus some speed manipulating features. I don’t know if I like it better yet but it’s a cool option to have. They’re definitely solid and responsive.

Hazel and Ray are in the picture above trying them out in a game of Super Dodge Ball.

Spider-Man (2000, Playstation)
They had this a couple of weeks ago but when I looked in the case, it wasn’t the right disc. This time everything checked out so I snatched it up. It’s really fun to play as Spider-Man, swinging on webs and crawling up the sides of buildings. Lots of heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe too. The kids especially like Venom. A nice bonus is the “Kid Mode,” which is the complete game on a very easy setting along with a slightly modified control scheme to make Spidey’s abilities a little less complicated.

Metal Gear Solid (1998, Playstation)
I only knew this game by reputation so I’m glad to have a chance to play it. Great story with a very cinematic feel. I’ve played a couple of Splinter Cell titles and can see how influential it was on that series. It’s rated “M” so I have to wait for the kids to go to bed before I can see what Solid Snake is up to next.

ActRaiser 2 (1993, Super Nintendo)
I’d never heard of this one but grabbed it anyway because I saw it was published by Enix. They have a reputation for putting out good games. You play as some sort of mythical winged hero with a sword and shield. Looks great but it’s really hard. Haven’t quite got the hang of it yet.

Retro Game Explosion Part Four: Nintendo 64

Published by Scott on September 15, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments

A while back I stopped at Goodwill and saw they had Mario 64 for Nintendo 64. We didn’t have a N64 but I thought sooner or later we might come across one for cheap. It was only three bucks so I grabbed it. Just in case, you know?

Sure enough, about a week later they had a Nintendo 64 system with two controllers for twenty-five bucks. One of the workers insisted that he set it up to make sure it was fully functional. It was and I pounced. There were also a bunch of N64 games for sale so I picked up Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the classic 007 FPS Goldeneye, and Pilotwings 64.

One of the controllers had a rumble pack attached to the bottom of it. Must have been a pretty novel accessory at the time. Nowadays of course that function is built into the controller’s innards. I thought this N64 one was especially funny because it’s HUGE and sticks out really far underneath. It’s totally awkward. Not only that, it requires batteries! I can definitely live without so I just took it off.

A short time after that Helen came across a batch of N64 games at the Covington Goodwill for ten dollars. The keepers included Wave Race 64, Mission: Impossible, Automobili Lamborghini, and the most awesome football game I have ever played, NFL Blitz. That game is so fun! I read a review somewhere that accurately described it as a football game that even a non football fan can enjoy. Seven players a side, thirty yards for a first down, and over-the-top arcade action.

The other games in that bunch were Madden 64, NFL Quarterback Club 98, and NFL Quarterback Club 99. NFL Blitz is truly the only football game I need so I’m hoping to get maybe four bucks for those as a lot on eBay.

I also picked up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 during one of my compulsive visits to the Conyers Goodwill. It’s right around the corner from where I work and you just never know what treasures will be there! I’ll admit I’ve become quite the bargain shopping junkie.

To be honest, we haven’t really played all that much of our newest system. We’re awash in games right now and haven’t given any of the above titles much more than a cursory glance. Well, except for NFL Blitz. Did I mention how fun that game is? Still, we’ll eventually get around to them. Nintendo 64 seems like a solid system and I’m looking to getting the boys (and me) a few more games for Christmas, including Star Fox 64, Pokemon Snap, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Donkey Kong 64.

Retro Game Explosion Part Three: SNES

Published by Scott on August 27, 2007 in Video Games. 0 Comments

Man, I love the Goodwills! A few weeks ago we made our regular visit to the Covington store after the library. That’s our usual big Saturday day on the town. The kids and I were looking at books when the manager announced 25% off all electronics for the next ten minutes. I thought I’d mosey over to check out the speakers since I could use one more pair for my current setup. On the way to that section I reconnected with Helen who had found a Super Nintendo system. She’s been an amazing good luck charm for our recent retro game renaissance.

The SNES with one controller was only $12, minus a quarter off. They had one SNES game there, Madden ‘94, that the cashier sold to me for two bucks. It didn’t have a price on it so she just made that up, which was fine by me. Took it home, plugged it in, and it worked great. I never owned a Super Nintendo when it was a current system so I was really excited.
The following week we went to Goodwill again after the library and there was a stack of seven SNES games taped together for all of $10. Score! The games were:

  • Super Mario World- Another Mario classic. We have the port of this for the GBA but it’s extra cool to play on TV.
  • Tetris Attack- Wow! Not a whole lot like Tetris but an equally awesome puzzle game. We absolutely love it, even non-gamer Helen who has become quite a junkie.
  • Street Fighter II: The World Warrior- Great fighting game.
  • Aladdin- A movie game that’s actually a very good platformer. From what I’ve gathered it’s pretty well regarded. This was the boys’ favorite of the batch.
  • The Lion King- Another movie tie-in, again not horrible. It’s actually pretty hard.
  • Pro Quarterback- Ho hum, more football.
  • Dirt Trax FX- Dirt bike racing. It’s okay.

The next week, Helen took a solo trip while I stayed with the kids. She came home with a dozen SNES games for the low, low price of just fifteen dollars. There were actually some sucky games in this batch that we’ll try to sell on eBay, including Wing Commander, Boxing Legends of the Ring, George Foreman’s KO Boxing, NHL Stanley Cup, and another copy of Madden ‘94. The keepers:

  • F-Zero - Excellent futuristic racing game. We’ve got other titles in the series for GBA and Gamecube.
  • Cybernator- A sidescroller from Konami in which you pilot a giant 100 ton robot set loose in an alien stronghold.
  • Mechwarrior 3050- Similar to Cybernator only in primitive 3-D.
  • Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball- Fun baseball game with kind of a funky soundtrack.
  • Bill Walsh’s College Football- Exact same game engine as Madden for SNES, but college teams instead of pro.
  • Captain America and the Avengers- Beat’em up with superheroes. I don’t care for it but the boys think it’s cool.
  • Cliffhanger- Another beat’em, this one based on the ‘93 Sylvester Stallone movie of the same name. No, I’m not kidding. Again, Dashiell and Ray like it but I’m less than impressed. They laugh their heads off stabbing the bad guys (no blood!) so I guess it’s worth it.

I also bought a copy of Super Metroid from eBay. Haven’t really taken the time to dive into it yet but I can’t wait. We love Metroid and that title is by all accounts one of the best in the series.

I’ve been swinging by the Goodwill next to my school almost daily after work but haven’t come up with any more SNES games. Kind of a dry spell, unless you count the Nintendo 64 system and handful of games I picked up. I’ll write about that next in Part Four…

Retro Game Explosion Part Two: PS1

Published by Scott on August 7, 2007 in Games and Video Games. 2 Comments

While I was tipping over wheelchairs and shoving old ladies out of the way to get to the NES games at the garage sale I mentioned the other day, Helen was on the other side of the driveway scoring a Sony PlayStation. I had actually won a lot of Lightspan games on eBay earlier in the week and we were planning to buy a PS2 to play them on. It never occurred to me to seek out a PS1 for which the Lightspan games were designed. Duh. It was perfect timing stumbling across this one. For thirty bucks we got the PlayStation with one controller, five PS1 games, and 6 NES games. Pretty sweet deal, especially considering all this stuff was in mint condition. Helen also found a second controller for a buck at another garage sale too.

One of the games we bought was WWF Smackdown. I’m not a wrestling fan but there were four of us thirty something dudes at the in-laws and we were looking forward to some ridiculous fighting action. I set everything up and then discovered the case was empty. Bummer. Not-quite-Uncle Dan brought his Gamecube though so we had a Tiger Woods golf smackdown instead. The PS1 games that were in their cases, plus one we found at Goodwill the other day, include:

  • Crash Bandicoot: Warped- a fun 3-D platformer
  • N2O Nitrous Oxide- like a 3-D version of the arcade classic Tempest
  • Lego Racers- racing game, Lego style
  • A Bug’s Life- lame movie tie in game
  • Pandemonium!- we haven’t checked this out yet

I mentioned that we won a Lightspan auction, which consisted of 32 PlayStation educational games. The boys haven’t really looked too closely at them yet. I had to track down a memory card first, again via eBay, so they could save their progress.

I must say I’m a little disappointed by what I’ve seen so far. I guess I expected them to be a lot better than the computer games my school uses. I was led to believe by what I read that they were more like “real” games than digital worksheets. They seem to be on par with the current Math/Reading Blaster series. Perhaps they were superior to the educational software available at the time of their original release. Then again we’ve only explored a couple of titles so maybe some of the other ones are better. Not that they’re bad or anything. They’re just not what I had hoped for. I will say that Dashiell and Ray were engaged and enjoyed playing them. That’s really the whole point of our Lightspan experiment.

And now we’ve added a PlayStation to our growing video games collection. I’ve never owned or even really played any Sony consoles before. I found this awesome source for classic game recommendations and will be looking out for more PS1 goodness on future Goodwill runs. Maybe Helen will run across some at garage sales too. I’d better stay away though or I might hurt someone.

Retro Game Explosion Part One: NES

Published by Scott on August 5, 2007 in Games and Video Games. 1 Comment

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.

Video Game Bargains

Published by Scott on June 26, 2007 in Video Games. 1 Comment

We picked up a bunch of games while out and about yesterday:

Rampage (Gamecube)
Dashiell and Ray have been dying to get this. We found a used copy at Gamestop for $10, which is the cheapest I’ve seen it. Basically you play as giant monsters and destroy famous cities. Looks repetitious but they’re nuts about it. I like how the campaign mode is multiplayer co-op so they can play at the same time.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Xbox)
Project Gotham Racing (Xbox)
My friend Steve lent me these titles when he first gave us his old XBox, so I’ve played them both extensively. I finished Splinter Cell before but would love to play through it again, especially now that I know what to do for each mission. They’re both really good games and for $2.99 each, again at Gamestop, I couldn’t pass them up.

Balloon Fight (NES)
Blades of Steel (NES)
NES Play Action Football (NES)
T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (NES)
Xenophobe (NES)
Helen mentioned in her last post that we actually went back to Goodwill to pick these up. I hesitated on our first visit but later figured that $3 each wasn’t much of a gamble. Even if we only play each a couple of times we pretty much get our money’s worth. Cheap thrills. I really wanted Blades of Steel, which is a hockey game I remember playing back in the day. We already had Balloon Fight through the Gamecube game Animal Crossing. The boys really like it and having the actual cartridge is kind of cool. Football looked okay from the few downs I played. Xenophobe, not so good. Killing aliens is always pretty fun but it turns out the game is laughably basic and dated. The “Wood” part of Wood & Water Rage is an entertaining skateboarding game while the surfing game “Water” is almost unplayable.