Various Atari 2600 carts & other Atari l00t from Retro Gathering VCE 2017

This is part 1 of my Retro Gathering l00t :) I will go through everything bit by bit once I’m done sorting and cleaning stuff ^_^ As you might have seen on my Instagram it was quite a large haul XD So let’s start off with all my Atari related pickups! I found quite a few Atari 2600 games thanks to my friend nesfrk who pointed out to me the big box of Atari carts that was hiding under a table that I had missed! I ended up buying 22 Atari 2600 games in total, and many of them were in different shapes and sizes. I haven’t really read up a lot about these, but it started fascinating me after I found out about the Atari V-carts that I recently bought from a friend, and now I kind of wanna know what the rest of the weird looks of the Atari 2600 carts are about XD

Some of them are a bit more obvious, they were released by a certain company that just made their own style of cartridges and labels, such as Parker Brothers or ActiVision. Parker Brothers’ Atari 2600 carts have a really cool shape in my opinion, and the labels are silver. I don’t know if there were other variants, but all the ones I own which read Parker Brothers on the back all have silver labels. And the ActiVision ones are a bit more dull, just black and white but with the ActiVision logo printed in the plastic on the back, just like the Parker Brothers logo. ActiVision does have other labels as well, more colourful, I own a few of those as well, but I think these black and white ones might be region specific.

These are the common Atari carts that I’m used to seeing. Either with a silver label, a black label with a colourful name on the side or the black with silver frame labels. Also there’s the full color ones, that have one bright background colour and same colour on the end label.

I found some odd carts with 2 games in 1 called 2 Pak Special. I’ve never seen these before. The seller told me they were Australian (if I’m not mistaken). Kind of ugly, but still charming in a way XD

I also got Hero by Imagineering, from 1990 (!!), and I just read that they didn’t discontinue the Atari 2600 until 1992! 25 years later!! this blew my mind XD Then there was a Telegames game called Armor Ambush with a silver label and finally three unidentifiable games. Two of them have the same cartridge case, it has S.S imprinted on the back, but other than that it only reads the game name and no publisher, so I’m thinking they might be bootlegs? They’re German at least I can tell from the names XD Funny names! Super-Cowboy beim Rodeo and Vom Himmel durch die Hölle (From heaven to hell). The last one called Lilly Adventure has a similar cartridge case but it’s a little bit shorter and doesn’t have anything printed on the plastic..

So many variations right! :D That’s probably far from all of them as well XD I also found two joysticks for the Atari 2600. The Driving paddle controller :) It was apparently needed for the Indy 500 game, so I ran and picked them up from the place at the convention where I had seen them earlier that day, by Butik Mackapär ^_^

I also picked up a few Atari 400 games. I bought an Atari 400 not too long ago, haven’t got it up and running yet, but I will make another attempt soon. Meanwhile I found these game cartridges for it :)

And I also got one Atari ST game ^_^ It was cheap, in nice condition and I liked the cover art :)

More posts are coming with the rest of the loot from Retro Gathering soon ^_^

Retro Gathering 2016 was awesome!!!

Last Friday I drove up to Västerås to attend Retro Gathering on Saturday, my favorite Retro Game convention in Sweden ^_^ Retrospelsmässan is also really nice, but as a retro game buyer there’s just more variation at Retro Gathering :) You can find everything from vintage computers, Atari and Commodore to newer PS2 and 3DS games. There have been more newer games lately compared to the first couple of years that I started attending, I hope they don’t take over though, because I love that there’s a place I can go to find these old obscure computers and consoles! I mainly focus on old cartridges and cassettes when I’m at Retro Gathering. Nintendo and Sega I can find at all the other retro game conventions in Sweden anyway.

So this year I was also asked to host an exhibit of my Castlevania collection, so I was there an hour earlier to set it up. People seemed to like it, but there were also a lot of visitors that asked me where it was. My cabinet had been hidden behind a roll-up behind the scene where they hosted the competitions, which was a shame… but people who looked found it anyway :) For those that missed it, this is what it looked like:

The first thing I spotted was a boxed Colecovision that Japon was selling. I snagged it right away, with a bunch of games and a steering wheel controller ^_^ Pontus and Jan at Japon are really nice and gave me a good deal on it :)

I love visiting Zeela’s table, it’s always filled with obscure and colorful things :) He also had a really fun rarity, Softporn Adventure by On-Line systems! On-Line systems later became Sierra, and on the picture of the “sexy” cover are executives and writers from the company, to the right is Roberta Williams, famous video game designer, writer and co-founder of Sierra On-Line who created for example the King’s Quest series :) This is the game that later became Leisure Suit Larry. Such a cool piece of history! I would have bought it if it wasn’t so expensive XD Also I’m not that into text-based adventures… ;D

Apart from this he showed me the TRS-80, a computer that I had bought from him a while back that I got delivered here ^_^ I needed one to play my Tandy Tetris game! It’s apparently some kind of Tandy computer.. It was in really nice condition though ^_^ Original box, and I got both a boxed joystick and a big box full of games with it! :D

He also had a bunch of other cool stuff ^_^ Like Strip Poker and Centrefold Squares for Atari ST, I bought these for a friend who had been looking all over the place for Atari ST games XD He AND his girlfriend were thrilled and couldn’t wait to play it!! Haha!

There were so many games for sale, and retro game related stuff ^_^ Spel & Sånt had brought some Virtual Boy rarities, they had the three games that I am missing! But they were darn expensive >_< Another seller had setup Zelda on CDi for whoever wanted to try it out XD The creators of Alwa’s Awakening were also there displaying their game which is almost done now, it will be released on Steam :)

My friends Nathalie and Andreas from up north were also there, and they were selling some of their games. Nathalie tried to sell me a weird DS game, and Andreas wanted me to upgrade my version of Tetris 2 to a mint copy XD I did end up buying Paperboy 2 from them though ^_^ Andreas is a pixel-perfectionist and he had some upscaler connected on display with Super Mario Bro 3, I don’t like when the picture is perfect and the scanlines are too obvious ;P I prefer it the original way with an old CRT and a bit of a glitchy pic XD

I finally got around to buying the game Photon that has been under development and on display for years at these conventions ^_^ It’s still not finished, but I bought an early version of it :) I also got to talk a bit to the man behind it who told me a bit about the Sord and the community around it :) Apparently there was a club back in the day that released a magazine here in Sweden called “Sordisen”, he had a few issues for sale. He also showed me a few different versions of the system. I almost went and bought one from Zeela, but then again, I don’t have any games for it yet.. so I think it’ll have to wait.

I competed in the yearly Swedish Championships of Pong this year as well :) I won the first take out but lost to my second opponent.. I haven’t been practicing enough, or rather, I haven’t been practicing at all XD I need to get my husband to start playing it with me!! The champion can be seen in the video below, damn that’s an intense Pong game!

As usual they also had a bunch of games and systems set up so people could try them out :) I saw an Intellivision there which reminded me that a seller had promised me from the previous Retro Gathering to bring me one, when I found him though he had already sold it to someone else :((( Hopefully he can set me up with another one.. I have so many Intellivison games and no Intellivisions to play them on XD

They also had some other exhibitors, one collection of Sonic games and one of Handic for the VIC 20 :)

One of the best things about going to retro game conventions though is all the people! I met so many old and new friends, and people are so friendly :D

After the convention we went out and met up with a bunch of retro gamers, and we found Kralleman and PingeAhlin there who had missed the convention, but had been off on more exciting business! They had scored a bunch of old arcades and other rarities from a connection they had. I was lucky enough to get to go check out their loot :D They had gotten rare prototypes for the Videopac, old minty posters with ads for the Luxor computer, boxed Vectrexes, a Taito Space Invaders arcade cab and a Super Bug arcade with super mint manuals, a really old wooden arcade and an original Break Out arcade. The Break Out arcade had only been played on 64 times, which means it’s hardly been used more than factory testing. That’s pretty rad XD

As you can probably figure, Retro Gathering has outdone themselves again and it was an awesome convention! I’ll go through my loot in a later post when I’ve gone through it all ;D

Traded me some Atari ST games :D

A guy named Fredrik approached me on instagram and asked if I was interested in two complete Atari ST games. I don’t really have a lot of games for the system yet (only 5 or 6) so I thought why not ^_^ We made a good deal where he got a double I had on Sega Master System, a game called Rastan, and some cash in between and he sent me this amazing package that made me really happy :D

Atari ST trade

Not only did I get an extra game, but I also got a beautiful joystick and the FirST BASIC program for the Atari ST :D I’m not really that into sports games, but this is a great way to get my fiancée to play some Atari ST with me ;D Hockey is basically the only game I can get him to play… XD

All the games were complete and in really pretty condition :) It’s gonna be interesting to try them out :D

Fredrik suggested in his letter that if I didn’t like these games I could always learn to program my own games XD I really wish I knew how to do that! Maybe I should give Basic a go ^__^

Atari ST Joystick and First Basic

Thanks a bunch for the trade Fredrik! :D I hope you’re happy too ^_^

You Should Seriously Play: Welltris (Atari ST)

I’ve been collecting Tetris games for a while now, and I recently stumbled upon this game called Welltris on Atari ST. Since I was quite new to the Atari ST and only had around 4 or 5 games for it I thought why not! So I picked it up from eBay :) I wasn’t quite sure whether or not to include it in my Tetris Collection since it’s not called “Tetris”, and it’s not the typical 2D-type falling blocks that Tetris is all about. Because I don’t want to have to include games like Block Out that is completely 3D and not called Tetris or Panel de Pon which have different shapes and functions than Tetris, you just switch places of blocks of the same color to try and match them and it builds up from below. If I would add these then I could basically add ANY puzzle game out there, like Tsuyoshi Shikari Shinasai which is one of my favorites, that works kind of like Puyo Puyo, but these games are NOT Tetris. They are puzzle games, and they are perhaps INSPIRED by Tetris, but it’s not Tetris.

Welltris however got to have a place in the Tetris Collection for two reasons.
1.  It’s not like Block Out, you just build on one layer, the only difference from regular Tetris is that you can build from 4 different directions of the board instead of just from above.
2. It is actually kind of like a sequel to Tetris, made by the same creator! Alexey Pajitnov! :D Therefore it does deserve a place in the Tetris Collection ^_^

I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got the game playing, it was the first game I’ve tried out on my Atari 1040ST :) I first had issues using the original Atari screen, because it was monochrome and apparently not able to display the games I attempted to load, once I switched to a regular CRT it worked perfectly though ^_^ I was sure Welltris would be like Block Out though so I was happy to see that it wasn’t. Here when a block falls down you can rotate around the four walls, kind of like in Tempest. Wherever it touches the ground floor it will then start falling continuously in that direction until it hits another block or the opposite wall. So you can build from all four directions and try to fit the blocks into place.

If you place a shape that doesn’t quite make it onto the board, where a piece of it is still hanging onto the wall it came from, then that wall turns red and you won’t be able to move shapes over that wall anymore. You die when all 4 walls are red. Basically it’s like hitting the top of the tower in regular Tetris, but here you have 4 chances. The main board is much smaller though so it’s easy to accidentally misplace a shape. Also when a wall is blocked it increases the difficulty since you can’t place anything from that direction anymore. The red walls do go away after a while though, I don’t know if it’s after a certain amount of blocks have been placed or if you have to delete a few rows first.

There’s also an increase in speed the higher the level you reach. There’s a total of 5 difficulty stages, each stage has a different environment picture to the right and an increase in speed. The last one on stage five is quite funny! It’s a programmer with a beard, with a computer screen containing the same image in the same image in the same image and so forth XD
I wonder if it’s meant to be Alexey??

You can also choose three various difficulty levels. The first one has regular Tetris blocks, and a few that only consists of two squares that are easy to place. The third one has really difficult pieces like stairs and plus-shapes. See examples of the pieces in the Stage 1 picture..

There’s also two various movement modes. One makes the movement of the block go all around 360° with just holding the left or right buttons on the keyboard, the other mode forces you to switch between up and down buttons on the left and right wall and left and right buttons on the upper and lower walls.. this is difficult, I prefer having it go all the way around with the push of just one button..

Anyway, here’s a video to give you an idea of what the gameplay looks like ^_^ I’m not sure if this game has been ported on other systems or if any similar games have been made. Please do let me know if you know of something that is like this one (and not BlockOut! ;)).

You should seriously play Welltris if you’re into puzzle games :D

The Tetris Collection

I’ve amassed quite an extensive Tetris collection by now. I always buy a Tetris game if I don’t already have it, and man! There’s a lot of Tetris games out there! Tetris is such a fun game, you never get tired of it, and I think it’s so exciting to try different versions :) So here they are! You can click the pictures to view them larger if you for example want to see the screenshots on the back of the box ^_^ I right now have 136 different video game versions (including 3 arcade games) of Tetris and 5 board games :) These picture below are already outdated and missing around 40+ games from the collection XD

Atari Tetris Arcade

My most proudest Tetris game is definitely my dedicated Atari Tetris Arcade from 1988. It’s so much fun to play against friends ^_^ And it has the unique gameplay where you have objectives instead of just endless mode with increasing difficulty. You can read more about this one in my blog post about the Atari Tetris Arcade >>

Sega Tetris Arcade

My most recent Arcade pickup is the Sega Tetris PCB. This is not a Jamma standard, but fortunately I got an adaptor with it so I can play it on my Blast City cabinet :) It has these photorealistic pictures in the background, so awkward XD And when you die this disappointed monkey is disappointed in you… haha XD

Tetris Plus 2 Arcade

I also recently got a PCB of Sega Tetris that I can use with my Blast City arcade ^_^

C64 Tetris

I have three different editions of the Tetris game on C64. The gameplay is the same, it looks like on the back of the big box one (it’s almost all in black and white), the screenshots on the back of the smaller one are taken from a different system. I also have the game on a floppy disk version instead of cassette :) This one is a bit more rare to find.

ZX Spectrum Tetris

I recently got the ZX Spectrum version of Tetris on cassette tape as well. The packaging looks exactly the same as the C64 version, but the graphics are quite different because of the hardware. I recently found a Spanish version of Tetris for ZX Spectrum. I’ve also bought a copy of Welltris for ZX Spectrum. Since the colors are so different on this system I can’t wait to see what it looks like compare to the Atari ST version :D

Tandy CPC Tetris

Someone on Instagram showed me that there was a version of Tetris for the Tandy CPC, I don’t even know what that is!?! But I found a complete version of Tetris for it on eBay XD So now I have a Tandy game, but nothing to play it on >_< I’m hoping I’ll eventually bump into one.. I think it’s some old type of computer..

Amiga Tetris

I’ve begun finding Tetris games on Amiga as well ^_^ So far I have three versions of Tetris, Tetris and Super Tetris that were released by Spectrum HoloByte (I love the box art on the first one :D) and one released by Infogrames. The Infogrames one I bought from an eBay seller in Australia, but I don’t think it’s an Australian copy, unless it was exported there since they are also a PAL region. Infogrames is French, and on the back of the game it has German, French and English language. I’ve never seen this box art before though. The last one is an Amiga cover disk with the game Tettrix on it! This was gifted to me from a friend :)

Atari ST Tetris

I recently got myself an Atari ST 1040, an so far I only have like 5 or 6 games for it, one of them is of course a Tetris game ^_^ This one is called Welltris and it’s like playing Tetris in a well :D Read my review of this game here >>

X68000 Tetris

I haven’t got a Sharp X68000 computer/system yet, but I’ve so far gotten two games for the system, mainly for my two most collected game series: Tetris and Castlevania. It’s annoying not being able to play them, but hopefully I’ll find a Sharp X68000 one day…

MSX Tetris

I actually have an MSX, I’m not sure wether it’s an MSX 1 or 2 though.. but I don’t have a disk drive or a tape deck for it.. so I can only play cartridge games on it so far.. unfortunately the red Tetris game is on floppy disk, the rare Korean one is however on cartridge :) It’s for the Korean version of MSX called Zemmix.

CDI Tetris

I also have a Tetris version for Philips CDi. Just bought myself a CDI last week, so I’ll be able to try it out now ^_^

Famicom Tetris

Moving on to 8-bit Tetris we have a couple for the Famicom :D The BPS Tetris is by far my favorite, mainly because of the fucked up controls XD A fun challenge, and the Technotetris soundtrack is awesome! ^_^

NES Tetris

I also have the NES versions that I’m aware of. Here my favorite is by far Tengen’s Tetris, since they have this awesome co-op mode that is incredibly fun! You either work really well together with a friend, or it’s a train wreck, or you start fighting about the score and try to work against each other XD The most recent addition is Dushlan, not an official Tetris game but a game very much “Tetris-like” by Mega Cat Studios.

Game Boy Tetris

Then there’s the handhelds! Tetris for Game Boy was a classic ^_^ But even more versions were released! I’m still missing Tetris 2 >_< But I’ll get it eventually! A recent addition is Tetris Attack which I didn’t know existed on Game Boy as well, it’s not really Tetris in my opinion, but since it’s called Tetris I’ll let it slip…

Game Boy Color Tetris

For Game Boy Color there was Tetris DX! This I accidentally bought for both PAL and JP region, usually I’m content with having the game from just one of the regions.. as long as I can play it and it’s the same game then I don’t really care for which region I have it :) I also have a version of Disney’s Magical Tetris Challenge for Game Boy Color, this game was released on many systems, like PS1 and N64 as well :)

Game Boy Advance Tetris

I also have one for Game Boy Advance :)

Pokémon Mini Tetris

Continuing on handhelds I also have Pokémon Tetris for the Pokémon Mini. Unfortunately I don’t have a Pokémon Mini console to play it on :(

Wonderswan Tetris

I found that there was a Tetris game released for Wonderswan Color as well, so of course I had to get it ^_^ It’s merely called “Tetris”

Tetris Jr.

I also have this tiny little Tetris Jr. handheld keychain ^_^

The first one is distributed by Bergsala in Sweden, I also have a second one that is still sealed, published by Squaresoft.

Super Famicom Tetris

On Super Famicom loads of various Tetris versions were released, like for example Tetris Battle Gaiden which brings RPG elements into it. In Super Tetris 3 you can play up to 4 people versus each other, I usually bring this one forth during the finals of my Retro Rumble competitions ^_^

SNES Tetris

On Super Nintendo we didn’t get as many Tetris versions. I don’t really want to add Tetris Attack to this collection, but I will, just because people always mention it when talking about Tetris on the SNES. I don’t think it’s a Tetris game though, in that case I would have to add every other puzzle game I have into this category. Tetris Attack is just Panel de Pon where they added Super Mario characters and called it Tetris because it’s a puzzle game, but it’s nothing like Tetris.

Sega Mega Drive Tetris

Nintendo was the company that acquired the license for Tetris back in the 80’s, therefore Sega was not allowed to release Tetris games, they created their Columns instead, which wasn’t as popular. They did however make a Tetris game for Sega Mega Drive, but they got sued and it got pulled out of production immediately. However a couple of copies made it out. There’s less than a handful known copies which sell for ridiculous amounts of money when they go up for sale. I do however have a bootleg/repro of this Sega Mega Drive Tetris game, just so I could play it and see what it was like for myself :) It’s a Chinese copy so it’s not very pretty, and doesn’t look like the original, but the game plays well ^_^

Sega Mark III / Gam-Boy Tetris

Another rare Tetris game that I just got, and which marks my 100th Tetris game (counting the board games ^_^) is the Korean Tetris game on Sega Master System (Sega Mark III), or Gam-Boy which it was called over in Korea :)

Nintendo 64 Tetris

Moving on to N64, there were a couple there as well.

Virtual Boy Tetris

Nintendo’s Virtual Boy didn’t get a lot of games (like maybe 15 in total), but two of them were Tetris! In North America they got 3D Tetris and in Japan they got V Tetris. The two are completely different games ^_^

Sega Saturn Tetris

Sega Saturn was popular in Japan, and so was Tetris. I guess Nintendo lost the exclusive license for Tetris by then O_o  I have a few Tetris games for Sega Saturn, not sure if I’m missing any..

Dreamcast Tetris

For Dreamcast there were quite a lot of Tetris games as well. I don’t know if I’ve found them all yet, but I have 3 different ones so far :)

Playstation Tetris

Some of the ones released for Dreamcast also came for Playstation. I have The Next Tetris on PS as well, but also a Deluxe version :D Then there’s Tetris X, both in normal and “Playstation best” edition and I also recently found out from a Facebook friend about this Japanese Tetris game called Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura Eternal Heart XD Quite different :) I have just picked up a lot of 3 Japanese Playstation Tetris games I didn’t have, even though I had a few of them for different systems I still felt like I needed them ^_^ These were The Tetris, Tetris Plus and Magical Tetris Challenge. All three were in excellent condition and even had the spine cards ^_^

Playstation 2 Tetris

I’ve finally gotten a few Tetris games for the PS2 as well ^_^ These are Tetris Worlds, which has also been released for various other systems, Sega Ages 2500 Tetris Collection and Super Lite 2000 Tetris Kiwamemichi :) The last two are Japanese.

PS Vita Tetris

I’ve finally gotten around to getting the Tetris game for PS Vita as well. It’s Tetris Ultimate, basically the same as on the 3DS and on Xbox One (where I have it digitally).

Wii Tetris

The Wii got a Tetris game called Tetris Party Deluxe. In this one they also have a co-op mode (just like in Tengen Tetris for NES)! So much fun! Two pieces on the board simultaneously ^_^

Nintendo DS & 3DS Tetris

Then there’s Tetris on DS. I’ve now found most of the Tetris games on DS and 3DS. Do you know of any other ones I’m missing on these systems?

Xbox & Xbox 360 Tetris

Tetris Worlds and Tetris Evolution got released on multiple platforms, I choose to get them on Xbox and Xbox 360 since that’s what I’ve mainly been playing on when it comes to the newer generation consoles. I recently found out about the Arcade Tetris game called Grand Master Tetris, never tried it, but I did find that it was also released for Xbox 360 in Japan, so I got it ^_^ Unfortunately the game is region locked and I don’t have a Japanese Xbox 360 to play it on :( yet… Meanwhile I’m also on the look out for the Arcade version!!!

Xbox One Tetris

The latest release of Tetris I imported from Japan for the Xbox One. It’s Puyo Puyo Tetris! You can choose to play either pure Puyo Puyo or pure Tetris, or you can play Puyo Puyo Tetris where they have merged the two! :D It’s awesome ^_^

PC Tetris

I’m not really a PC player, I’ve always preferred a controller to mouse and keyboard. But when I stumble upon really cheap PC games with TETRIS on them I just can’t resist XD I’m gonna have to get myself an old computer with Windows ’98 so I can play them hahaha! XD Especially since I found Tetris CD III!! Look at all the different versions of Tetris that it contains!! Some of the names on the back are: 1993TRIS, FINTRIS, HEXRIS, BALLTRIS, PRYCHTRIS, TEAMTRIS, INFINITRIS and many many more! I really wish I could try these out RIGHT NOW!!!!

Tetris Consoles & Handhelds

The Master Brick 80 plus 5 is a really cool looking vintage Tetris handheld in minty condition that my friend the Toy Villain found for me :) But he also found an even cooler Tetris handheld called the Brick Boy for me! The Brick Boy has an integrated cassette tape player :D Totally rad!

Magic Cube is another Tetris-clone handheld. It has quite an interesting way of play though, and it’s quite odd looking XD

This Block Game is from Spain, I found on eBay and just thought it had a cool design :)

One of the best handheld Tetris games I’ve ever played is the newly released Arduboy Tetris Microcard. The buttons are so responsive and it has everything you want in a Tetris game, but still keeping the design clean and simple.

A friend in Hong Kong helped me score a full set of small keychain Tetris-games that were released as Gachapons in Japan. I wanted one in each colour because it was impossible to pick just one XD They’re totally adorable! The series that have a more square look is called Game Pocket Pro (ゲームポケプロ), they all came with a tiny screwdriver so you can open and exchange the battery :) The other set is called Game Box Mini and comes in 2 different color schemes, one set is transparent. These came in little gachapon balls :D

I’ve bought a couple of Tetris clone systems from China XD I just had to try them out. They supposedly had 9999 versions of Tetris in one! Hahaha! Basically what they count as various versions is if you start the game on various speed levels from 0 – 9, and then multiply that by a couple of different version and multiply it by the various amount of lines at the bottom that you can start with, then I don’t know.. maybe you reach 9999. The first time I tried it out though I managed to find a version where you were playing Tetris upside down, the block was falling from below instead of above, and as soon as you put it down the blocks at the top moved a step to the right and came out on the other side. This made it quite difficult to plan ahead XD An interesting version indeed ^_^ These were really cheap so I bought several in the hope of getting them in a couple of different colors, they ended up also being in a few different editions. Two were a bit smaller, and there’s other differences as well, like some have a super mouse logo and some have a smiley face making peace signs XD There’s even two different versions of the box. They feel extremely cheap but it’s still interesting to try out the various types of Tetris that you don’t really see in any official releases. The controls are surprisingly responsive and good :)

I have since gotten a few more Chinese clone systems in different designs, like these Wisdom Games. They are so incredibly cheap looking! I also got some more Brick games 9999 hoping to score a black game, and eventually I got it! :D

I also got a Tetris clone handheld called the POP Station value pack. It’s so cheap and barely weighs anything XD It’s supposed to look like a PSP I guess, but it only contains that same program which the Brick Game with 9999 versions of Tetris in 1 has XD I would even say that the controls and buttons feel better on the Brick Games.. I also found a mini mini version of this that came in pink and blue which also plays Tetris.

A handheld for your handheld! XD There’s now iPhone cases which you can play Tetris on! From Wanle you can get them in many different colours, looking retro like the classic Nintendo Game Boy and they’re battery driven. I had to get it of course ^_^

Tetris Game Watch by Nintendo

The best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten was this Tetris Game Watch! Still sealed in new condition :D I’m using it every day ^_^ It tells the time AND you can play Tetris on it! :D

2 years after getting this watch as a birthday gift I came across another sealed one that I couldn’t pass up, so now I have a sealed and an opened one :) In case it ever breaks I have a backup XD The new sealed one is in excellent condition! I’m just a bit worried that the battery inside might leak.. but hopefully it won’t.. They had slightly different packaging, the first one is from France, the second one from Italy.

I have also found a weird variant of the Tetris Game Watch on eBay from a New York seller. It looks a lot different than the original common Tetris Game Watch by Nelsonic. Nobody seems to know anything about this version which also has and output for earplugs. I have sent a question to the company who produced it and I’m awaiting answers. I read up a bit on the history and Nelsonic was the company who made the initial Game Watches, licensed by Nintendo, who in turn had a Tetris license from Elorg (a Russian state owned company who owned Tetris initially). Nelsonic had a company called Zeon produce the watches for the European market, so the two that I have are French and Italian and carry the Zeon brand on the back. Nelsonic was later purchased by M.Z. Berger, so this variant which reads M.Z. Berger Co. Inc. on the back must be later than the original Nelsonic Game Watches I assume. Wikipedia states that the Tetris watch was released by Nelsonic in 1990 in 4 different colours in North America, none of which looks like this one (this site shows the 4 different colours variants of the original Nelsonic Tetris Game Watch released in North America), I’ve never seen any of those colours variants show up anywhere though. Also the Zeon version in Europe wasn’t released until 1992. It reads 1990 on the back of the M.Z. Berger one. If anyone knows anything about this version please inform me :)

Plug & Play Tetris

I found this plug & play Tetris game called Arcade Legends Tetris. It has 5 Tetris games in one, one is called Garbage Tetris XD It’s basically just Tetris but starting off with a few blocks in the bottom.. The controls look really nice with a Tetris theme, but they are AWFUL! You steer left, right and down with the red square in the middle, but you ALSO turn the pieces with the same button by turning it clockwise or counter clockwise! Which means you almost ALWAYS turn a piece right before you put it down, unintentionally >_< Not a recommended purchase…

Tetris Board Games

And here’s my board games. It’s Tetris by Tomy, Jenga Tetris and a Nintendo licensed Milton Bradley Tetris! :D

Tetris Guide Books & Manuals

I don’t really collect anything other than games, I rarely buy merchandise and such since I find that I could have spent that money on games that I can play instead XD But sometimes I can’t help myself, like when I find these cool Japanese Tetris manuals and guide book :D

Miscellanious

Here’s a shitty Tetris soundtrack that I found from eBay Japan XD All the songs were kind of 90s-techno-remixed.. one was decent, the rest were quite sucky >_<

Now if you know about any Tetris video game that I don’t have yet then feel free to give me some advice on what to look for next ^_^ Meanwhile, try out some Not Tetris 2, I blogged about it some years ago and it’s still hilarious ;D

Retro Gathering VCE – The Loot!

It has taken some time to sort, clean and photograph all of the 138 games I bought at Retro Gathering Vintage Computer Edition last weekend, but finally, here they are! :D I will go through them system by system ^_^

Retro Gathering VCE 2016 loot

Atari ST

The first thing I bought at the convention was an Atari 1040 ST, I already had one game for it back home, and it was in nice condition, and cheap, so I couldn’t refuse ^_^ I also picked up a few games for it. I have never played on an Atari ST before, so I’m looking forward to trying it out! :D If anyone has any suggestions of exclusive games for the system that are a must have, then please let me know :) So far I only have 5 games for it, the ones I found this weekend were Deathbringer, Gauntlet III, Future Dreams and Captive.

Atari Lynx

To continue on the Atari trail, I also found a few additions to my Atari Lynx collection from Spel & Sånt :D Not particularly exciting titles, but they were in pretty nice condition :) I do however enjoy the game of Shanghai, and it’s gonna be interesting to see what the Slime World port on Lynx looks like! :D

Atari 2600

I’m always on the lookout for Atari 2600 games as well, but this year there were hardly any :/ I found one guy who had like 5 cartridges, crappy games in shitty condition, but he still wanted a lot for them! I bargained a bit and bought one, just to come home with at least one 2600 game >_> I got Super-Ferrari…

Atari 2600 Super-Ferrari

Commodore 64 – 5 1/4 Floppy disk games

Moving on to Commodore, I’ve had a 5 1/4 floppy disk game for the C64 for a while, and nothing to play it on :( But this weekend I found a new in box Ocean floppy disk drive for the C64! :D It was a bit pricey.. but I really needed one since I also bought even more floppy disk games this weekend ^__^ I got the classic text-based adventures of Zork 1-3, and at the very end of the day I got a good deal on a pretty cool adventure game called Infidel. The cool thing about it is the packaging and contents! Inside are handwritten letters and maps and stuff, it’s really well made ^_^ I have a friend that I think will really enjoy trying this game out ;D Apart from that I had bought a whole moving box full of old Amiga and Commodore games from my friend Likilato beforehand and I picked it up on this weekend since he was going to Retro Gathering too :) In this package were quite a lot of C64 floppy disk games as well ^_^ Some games that I’m quite happy with are T2 Terminator Judgement Day, Robocop, Space Harrier II and Weird Dreams, they all look pretty cool ^_^ Then there were also a few less fun games, I’m not quite sure what Operation Market Garden is, but it doesn’t sound fun, and the last three: Europe Ablaze, Russia The Great War in the East and Halls of Montezuma I’m pretty sure are some kind of edutainment games for learning history >_<

Commodore 64 – Cassette games

I found a few cassette games for the C64 as well. I got Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker from Japon, and Slap Fight for the ZX Spectrum. Pontus from Japon also tried to sell Last Ninja 2 to me, fortunately I didn’t buy it!! Because inside the big cardboard box of things I had bought from Likilato earlier contained not one but TWO copies of that exact game XD I had bought the package weeks before and didn’t remember everything that was in it.. but I’m just happy I’m not possessing three copies right now at least ;D The other C64 cassette games from Likilato were Last Ninja 3, Superman the Game, Ghostbusters II, Mr. Heli, Platoon, Speedball, Silent Service, Starglider and The Hunt for Red October.

Commodore VIC 20

Going back in time a bit we have the Commodore VIC 20, I got one of these last year and I’m still trying to expand my library of games for the system. I found a few VIC 20 cassettes on Retro Gathering this time on Mikael Holm’s table (he always has the coolest stuff!) ^_^ I know there’s two copies of Panic for VIC 20, but I couldn’t choose which one to go for, since they are DIFFERENT! It’s weird, since they are released by the same company, but one has a black spine, and the cassettes inside are different colors as well! O_o These were all dirt cheap though so I just picked them all up :) Except the two games called Vicolumn and Blue Star, these two were new releases for the system and cost a bit more, but it’s always interesting to see what people develop now for these old systems! Doodle Bug, Space Scramble, Cosmiads and Alpha Blaster all sound cool!

Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX81

Before moving on to consoles we have pickups from yet another old computer ^_^ I bought a few games for the ZX Spectrum, Pssst, Jet Pac and Cookie had such cool matching covers! Had to get them :) Then I also got Jet Pac with a different cover and 3D Starstrike, Split personalities, Pedro, Ghosts n’ Goblins and a program that came with the system called Horizons. I also found a Sinzlair ZX Interface 2 so I can play cartridge games on my 48k :D Now I just need to find some cartridge games >_> I also bought a ZX81 :D I’ve only known about this one for a little while, when I was looking for 3D Monster Maze and found out that it only came out on the ZX81. Now I have one! So now I just need to find 3D Monster Maze again >_< I missed out on the one eBay auction I’ve ever seen… >_<

Nintendo NES (+ Game & Watch and FDS)

I bought some NTSC NES games from Gaminggrannar and from some other sellers. I also got a Game & Watch Lifeboat from Söders Spel & Skivhandel and a random Famicom Disk System game with cats from Sven666 and another FDS game from my friend MXS :)

Sega Mega Drive

From my friend Karl I got a good deal and bought the sought after Japanese Sega Mega Drive shmup V-V (V five), I also got to buy most of his other Japanese Mega Drive titles since he wanted to get rid of them, it was mostly RPGs or strategy games, but I got such a good price that I couldn’t pass them up ^_^ I also found some PAL Mega Drive titles from other sellers, mainly sports games XD which I don’t particularly enjoy, but they were cheap! And some day me and Becki will have to have another Golf tournament ;D

Sega Master System

I also got a lot of Sega Master System games from various sellers. Mainly sports here as well, but I didn’t have them, and they were cheap ^_^

Sega Saturn & Playstation 2

Japon also managed to convince to bring home these two huge boxed Sega Saturn Arcade Racer controllers XD One PAL and one Japanese.. they told me that the controller was region free, so I sure hope they will both work with one console ;D In that case I might have another game to use in the next Retro Rumble competition for the finals ;D I also got two PS2 games with Megaman at a fair price from Anders :) They’re sealed.. but I might open them so I can play them!! ^_^

Amiga 500 / 1200

Now onto the biggest category of the day… Amiga! The big lot of games I had bought from Likilato contained A LOT of Amiga games :) I was happy to find Banshee in there, since MXS had recently told me it was a good game, it’s for the 1200 though so I have to find a place to plug that system in as well.. They’re so big and space-consuming! Loom has a beautiful cover, and I’ve seen it before, not quite sure what kind of game it is though, but I will find out :) There were a lot of other games that looked cool like Harlequin, Codename Hellfire, Wonderland, Super Stardust, Galdregons Domain etc. It’s gonna be fun to try them all out :D I wonder what kind of game Leather Goddesses of Phobos will turn out to be XD

That was all the loot for this time, now I have some gaming to do ^____^