Tag Archive for 'SNES'

Santa’s Bag o’ Video Games Part 1: SNES and N64

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

Fall 07 217

I’ve been stockpiling games for about three months now and have to admit the Christmas haul is ridiculously large. We’ll have enough “new” retro titles to occupy us for a long, long time. Here are the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games that will be under the tree and some brief thoughts about each:

SNES

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Yoshi’s Island
We have both of these fantastic games for the Gameboy Advance. It will be fun to play them on the big screen.

Super Mario All-Stars - I talked about this one in a recent post.

Super Star Wars
Spider-man & Venom: Maximum Carnage
These are both supposed to be difficult but very good.

Street Fighter II: Turbo
Mortal Kombat II
Final Fight
I have been a Street Fighter II: The World Warrior junkie for the past couple of weeks. I’d never been a fan of fighting games before but all of a sudden I’ve developed an appreciation for the genre.

Shadowrun - A highly regard role playing adventure.

Donkey Kong Country - Platformer with everyone’s favorite oversized video game gorilla.

Starfox - I’m curious to see how this series began. I know they put in an extra chip for this game to push the graphics of the SNES to the limit.

Uniracers
Stunt Race FX
These arcade trick/racing games look fun. There’s a good review for Uniracer at racketboy.

Mega Man X - I have never played any of the Mega Man titles so I’m looking forward to checking one out.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time - From what I’ve read this is a good co-op beat ‘em up. Ray especially likes those kinds of games.

Super Game Boy - Not a game but an adapter cartridge that allows you to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on TV through the Super Nintendo. We only have a few of those games but I thought it’d be worth checking out.

N64

Starfox 64 - I was really excited to find this at Goodwill. I was seriously considering buying it online before it magically turned up last Saturday. It’s an on-the-rails flying space shooter, just like the best parts of the two Starfox games we have for the Gamecube. Unlike in those games though, he stays in his ship the whole time.

Pokemon Stadium - We have Pokemon Colosseum for Gamecube and I expect this is probably pretty similar. It wasn’t well received during its release but I couldn’t pass it up. We love Pokemon!

Diddy Kong Racing - Gamespot describes it as “a cross between Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.” They don’t score it very well but it sounds promising. I’m sure it’s at least three dollars worth of entertainment.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer - The pod racing sequence was kind of lame in the movie but I’ll bet it’s fun as a game.

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?

This Week’s Retro Game Treasures

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

Picture 718

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.

Gamegirls and Other Retro Treasures

Published by Scott on September 16, 2007 in Shopping and Video Games. 2 Comments

I stopped by Goodwill one day after work (as usual) and looked in the locked glass case where they usually keep the games. Didn’t see anything new but as I stepped away to leave I noticed a purplish bag out of the corner of my eye. It was on the top shelf hiding in plain sight. I asked to see it and discovered it was full of Gameboy accessories, an original Gameboy Advance, and several games with their directions. Except for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, which I was really excited about, the games were crappy. Still, after much hemming and hawing, I bought the bag of goodies.

Eighteen bucks felt pretty steep for one good game and a bunch of stuff I didn’t need but then I figured Hazel could have her very own Gameboy since she always wants to play Dashiell and Ray’s GBA SP’s and my very off-limits Gameboy Micro. (Hey, it’s fragile! I’m not being mean.) She’s pretty thrilled about it and likes me to link another Gameboy with hers so that we can fight each other in Godzilla Domination! “I’m really mad now,” she likes to say as she’s kicking my butt.

A couple of days before that purchase we found a pair of SNES controllers at the other Goodwill. I had actually been checking out prices for controllers that very week. We only had one and were looking to play some head-to-head Tetris Attack, Street Fighter II, and Ken Griffey Baseball. It’s funny because the two controllers actually cost a dollar more than we paid for the SNES system and one controller. Oh well. They’re actual SNES controllers and in decent shape. All of the ones on eBay are of the third party variety.

Later in the week Helen took the kids to the Twins Club sale for another score. The members of the local Mothers of Multiples club hold what amounts to a giant garage sale at a local church twice a year. Helen always finds a lot of good clothes for the kids there but this time she also found a white Gameboy Advance with a pristine screen. (The one I got Hazel has a few light scratches.) It came with four Gameboy/Gameboy Color games: Pokemon Red, Dr. Mario, Disney’s Tarzan, and Bugs Bunny 2: The Crazy Castle. The last two are garbage but the others were nice pickups.

When Helen paid for her stuff the woman looked at the kids and asked who the GBA was for, expecting one of them to want to carry it. Helen had to sheepishly explain it was for her. I thought she was kidding when she told me about the incident but sure enough she’s been playing lots of Dr. Mario ever since. I’m still pretty shocked by this turn of events but can’t say I’m not pleased. My wife is turning to the Dark Side! I’m going to have to pick her up a copy of Tetris Attack to really push her over the edge. And now we each have our own Gameboy, crazily enough.

Finally, yesterday we bought a NES Zapper at the Covington Goodwill. They saw it after the Twins Club sale the other day and for some reason didn’t jump on it. Fortunately it was still there as well as one of the seventeen titles that use the light gun peripheral, To the Earth. It’s a very difficult game, with space ships zipping across the screen launching missiles at such a rate it’s practically impossible to shoot everything. Much easier and a lot more fun is Duck Hunt, which we already had on a split cartridge with Super Mario Bros.

All in all, an awesome week of bargains for our newfound family hobby.

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…