RSM loot part I – Atari Lynx!

May 24, 2015 by stopXwhispering

At this years RSM (Retrospelsmässan) I came home with a bigger haul than any previous year ;D In total it was 6 consoles and 60 games o_O That’s the main reason why I’m dividing the loot into several posts, since I’ve only had time to go through and photograph parts of it so far ;D

First up, I came to RSM with the ambition to find an Atari Lynx and a ZX Spectrum. I’ve wanted an Atari Lynx for a long time since I’ve had a few games for it but no way to play them >_< After going through the vendors I didn’t seem to find one though, until I spoke to Martin who claimed to have seen it at a table behind him. This is where I found the first Atari Lynx console, a bit worn on the backside and dirty, but it cleaned up nice and it was cheap ^__^ Somebody else had snagged an Atari Lynx from the same seller just minutes earlier, one in better condition >_< But I’m happy with finding it ^_^

A couple of hours later I showed my Atari Lynx to likilato, and he told me he had seen another Atari Lynx, boxed! So he showed me to the table where I had missed this beauty! This one was the Atari Lynx 2, in box, with power adaptor and a bunch of loose games with it! I couldn’t help myself, had to get this one too!

They’re quite different and both have their pro’s and cons. I’ve spent some time this week trying them out ^_^ The first edition of the Atari Lynx has much louder and way better sound (in my opinion) but the second one has a better screen. The first one is heavier and lies well in your hands, the second one feels lighter and bit cheaper, I like the design better of the second one though ^_^

I already had some of the games that came in the boxed Atari Lynx package though, and I had already bought a few at RSM before I found it as well! There were a few ones I didn’t have though, like Gauntlet, Warbirds, Blue Lightning, Batman Returns, California Games, Electropop, Viking Child and Checkered flag (however this one came in doubles >_<) It kind of bugs me that they’re not boxed though.. since the rest of the ones I have are…

Here’s some of the other Atari Lynx games I picked up at RSM! :D I really enjoyed Gates of Zendocon and Zarlor Mercenaries ^__^ Out of the cartridges I also liked Gauntled (Gauntles is always awesome!), Xenophobe, Batman Returns and Electropop. Electropop had a really cool 3D depth in it! It was a sidescrolling platformer where you could also move forward and backwards into the screen to enter various rooms ^_^

Kung Food – Atari Lynx

Zarlor Mercenary – Atari Lynx

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – Atari Lynx

Gates of Zendocon – Atari Lynx

Robo Squash – Atari Lynx

S.T.U.N. Runner – Atari Lynx

Steel Talons – Atari Lynx

I’m very happy with my new Atari Lynx collection which I can finally play!!! I didn’t find a ZX Spectrum though :( But I found a BUNCH of other cool things! :D I will make another post soon with the rest ;D

Retrospelsmässan 2015

May 19, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This weekend was awesome!! I left on friday with my Geeky Gals to Gothenburg and met up with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances in the retro gaming community :)

On saturday morning we went to Retrospelsmässan! Sweden’s largest yearly retro gaming convention! This year I had a press pass so I could enter beforehand and get some nice pictures of everything they had set up ^_^ They had used a larger portion of the facility this year, more tables with things for sale, a whole corner for indie games, a live podcast being streamed, a bigger area for retro gaming with 60-70 consoles and old computers setup for people to try out and arcades, pinball machines, collections and art on display. There’s just so much going on at RSM! :D

First let’s talk about the gaming experience at RSM! There were a couple of indie developers showcasing their new games. I tried out Alwa’s Awakening which was inspired by the NES. Very cute and the graphics were beautifully made, controlling the character was a bit slow though, I prefer faster platforming games such as mario, this one was slower than Megaman.. They had some nice elements in it though, you could spawn a brick or a bubble to make you reach certain places or get past obstacles. It was just a demo though, I got through it without dying, they promised to make it harder by the time it gets released ;D Hopefully we’ll see it released on Wii U soon, I’m also hoping for an Xbox One release, they would look into that ^_^

I also tried out a game called 1993 Space Machine! This game felt more like a finished product and it was a lot of fun! A horizontal sidescrolling shooter which looked kind of futuristic but still felt old school ^_^ That’s probably because it was actually MADE back in 1993! But isn’t released until now. It was difficult! They also had a keyboardist integrating music live into the game, this was a really cool thing to experience :D I doubt that they’ll ship the game with a dude that plays keyboard with it though ;D haha! They’re looking at releasing the game on Steam and Xbox One! :D So yay!!

There were two other indie games showcasing, I did however not get the chance to try them out. They looked cool though ^_^ They were called The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human (brilliant name ;D) and else.heartbreak.

During the whole day they had retro gaming competitions and speedruns going on at Retrospelsmässan. We we’re so occupied with everything that we completely missed the Bomberman tournament, and when we tried to sign up for Super Mario it was too late >_< I did however compete in Asteroids on Arcade and guess what?!? I came in second place!! :D :D

There were so many consoles and systems to be played all over RSM! It’s almost overwhelming :D Just look at all these beauties!

The first one here I’ve never even seen! Adonbolagen AB is apparently a Swedish company and in the bottom it says Aleph, it’s so retro!! :D

I really want an Amiga CD32 myself!! The controllers are just so cool ^__^

This cabinet is just so cute! Comic Game! haha ^_^

I love how colorful the cartridges are for this Arcadia 2001 console! :D Never heard of this one before either ^_^

This one’s also weird-looking :D It’s called a Bondwell, never even heard of! ^__^

Here’s a display stand for Coleco Vision! So awesomely cool! ^__^

This one looks so futuristic! :D Love it ^__^ Commodore CBM Model 8032

This Pong Hockey machine is the prettiest pong machine I’ve ever seen! Bright red and beautiful! ^__^ WANT!!!

I really want a Mattel Intellivision! I have had games for it almost since I began collecting, but never had the hardware to play it on >_<

I really need an MSX as well, one that can play the only Castlevania game I’m missing, the MSX one ;D

And what the hell is a PCFX?! Apparently it’s made by NEC, the people who made the PC Engine!! :D I’m intrigued ^__^

I don’t know what the hell this one is, but damn it’s cool! I love retro things that are brown, orange or yellow, even better when all the colors are combined ;D haha (edit: I found out that it’s an Atari 400!)

I need this Sega SG-1000 as well! It’s so cute ^__^

I was on the lookout all day for a ZX Spectrum but couldn’t find one, except for this demo one. I really want the black one with a tiny rainbow in the corner, it’s so cuuute ^^

Here’s a Videopac 7200, looks pretty rad huh? ;D The cartridges have handles! So smart ^___^

And here’s the Videopac G7000 ^__^ Now I’ve showed off the systems I found different and cool, they had all the regular ones as well of course, NES, SNES, SMD, SMS, Famicom, Atari etc…

And here’s some of the arcades and pinball machines you could play ^__^

Apart from all the gaming there were also shitloads of games, consoles and merchandise for sale! :D I found so many things that I wanted!! I was mainly on the hunt for an Atari Lynx and a ZX Spectrum though, but it’s really hard not to get sucked into buying everything else that shines in pretty bright colours ;D You could find games from the 70’s up to the early 2000’s. There were of course a lot of NES, SNES and N64, but you could also find Sega Master System and Mega Drive, and loads of old vintage stuff like Commodore and Amiga. Below is a system called Alice! So cute ^__^

Here’s some PC Engine games and Sega Saturn :D Yes, I bought some stuff here ;D

Beautiful old game boxes for Luxor ^_^

So many vintage consoles and still boxed!! :D Spoiler alert!!! I bought two of these ;D Guess which??

I looked at this old system, the handle on the left is to hold the console while steering with the right one, haha, the console IS the controller! :D awesome ^__^

Here’s another colorful old Pong clone ^__^ Japan knows how to make things cute!

This is one out five known copies of a boxed Luxor in Sweden! coooool ^^

Bead art jewelry!

There were even Neo Geo games!! And yes, I came home with one ;D Not pictured though ^^

You could find all kinds of systems boxed and pretty ^__^

One of the developers behind Pier Solar was there to sell some re-printed copies :D

Amazing prints of retro gaming box arts ^^

So many games!!! *drool*

This Samus lamp is puuurdyyy!!! <3

KCL selling off his entire CiB NES collection ;D

And more games… I don’t even feel like I had time to thoroughly check through all the tables! I think I even missed a few :(

Pappas Pärlor was also in the house, selling his awesome retro gaming inspired perler bead artworks! :D

All over the place you could spot cosplayers in amazing costumes inspired by games. Here are just a few of the ones I managed to catch on camera ^_^ You can check out more cosplay over at the Geeky Gals blog ^_^

There were also loads of things to just look at and admire ^__^ Like Love Hultén’s amazing crafts, his R-Kaid-R MAME mini cabinets and a full scale arcade cabinet that you even got to play on ^__^

And also loads of various collections of vintage games ^_^ Like handhelds, Swedish made retro games, Giana Sister, R-Type and lots of other things.

I’ll make a separate post with all my pickups from the convention, however it will take a couple of more days just to go through it all ;D Stay tuned!

One week to RSM 2015!!

May 9, 2015 by stopXwhispering

I’m so excited!! RSM (Retrospelsmässan) is one of Sweden’s largest retro gaming conventions, been running for 6 years now :D I’ve been there every year (except for once when I lived in Japan..). If you wanna see what it’s all about you can check out my posts from RSM 2014 and RSM 2013 here :)

This year I’m having two of my Geeky Gals coming with me :D It’s gonna be so much fun to meet up with people and this year I’m also planning on competing! They’re hosting competitions in Super Mario Bros on NES, Bomberman on Sega Saturn and Asteroids on arcade! I unfortunately only have Asteroids on Atari 2600 o_O Do you think my practice on that will suffice? ;D hahaha

Super Mario Bros on the NES won’t be an issue, however I bet I will screw up in the competition ;D I can run through it usually on one life, but sometimes I get stuck on that stupid 8-3 stage >_< If those stupid hammer bros are in the wrong spot >_<

Last issue is that I don’t have Bomberman on Sega Saturn… I’ve been meaning to pick those Saturn ones up as well, but I haven’t yet >_< I have loads of other Bomberman games though! Here are a few of them:

I also have Bomberman (the first one) on PC Engine as well, just couldn’t find it right now.. Does anyone know which one of these are most similar to the Saturn version in gameplay? ^__^ And please don’t tell me it’s Super Bomberman 3, since that’s the only one I’m lacking in the series ;D hahaha

Anyway wish me luck! I will start practicing now ^_^ And after next weekend you will get to see all my pickups and all the other awesomeness from RSM 2015! :D

Review of the 1 UP Card

May 6, 2015 by stopXwhispering

Adam over at 1 UP Card was kind enough to send me a sample of his product!

The 1 UP Card is supposed to be an alternative to Q-tips for cleaning retro video game cartridges. I have actually grown quite attached to my Q-tips, I’ve found a brand at my local super market (the more expensive brand) that works great! The stick is stiff and doesn’t bend too easily and they do not generate any fuzz, the cotton merely stays on the Q-tip ^__^ I am however open to try new things! :D So here’s what the 1 UP Kit looks like:

There’s a fluid bottle with 1.25oz of 99% isopropyl alcohol. The dispenser is really neat and easy to use, and it doesn’t create as much of a mess as my giant bottle of alcohol that I usually use. However, I’m afraid it won’t last as long ;D

You also get a 1 UP Card with a fluid side and a dry side for rubbing the connections on the cartridges. On the pic below I’ve wet the fluid side ^_^

So I’ve tried this out! First of all I tried an NES game. The pad and the card fit perfectly. Rubbing was smooth and fast. You got a better grip than with a q-tip and could therefore rub faster. Another benefit is that you managed to get the edges of the pins, which is usually a bit of a drag with a q-tip since it easily falls between the gap at the end of the pins before the plastic.

After this I tried out the Game Boy cartrdige! Here the 1 up card did not fit, I managed to force a corner of it in there, but the 1 up card is still wider than the cartridge. So here it’s still more effective with 1-tips.

Next I tried a Famicom cartridge! This worked perfectly! I think it’s got kind of the same dimensions as an NES cartridge in the space between the pin connector and the plastic.

Then I went on to some heavy duty stuff! I just got 5 really really dirty Neo Geo MVS cartridges of Metal Slug 1 – X in the mail today! The 1 up card was smaller than most of the gaps, but on one particular cartridge the last pin towards the plastic had a really thin gap where I couldn’t reach with the card. Apart from that it went well. Here it was much faster working with the 1 up card than with q-tips. I usually spend around 20 q-tips on one Neo Geo cart…

After these games (1 NES, 1 Famicom and 5 REALLY dirty MVS carts) the card looked like this:

What bugs me with this apart from working with q-tips is that you can’t really tell when the game is thoroughly clean. When I use q-tips I pick a new one until they don’t turn dirty anymore, then I know that the cartridge is as clean as can be. Sometimes it’s enough with 2 q-tips, sometimes I have to work through 20! Here, the 1 up card looks dirty after a while and you won’t know if the new cartridge you’re cleaning is clean enough or not…

After this I picked a new 1 up card because I felt the other one was dirty. On Adam’s site he states that it’s ok, because the dirt goes into the pad and stays in the bottom.. but I still felt like it was dirty, and didn’t wanna rub that extreme MVS dirt onto the other less dirty carts ;D So I went on with a new 1 up card on a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) cartridge! It worked, but you had to force it down a bit for it to fit.

After this I tried Sega Master System. In the front there was lots of space for the 1 up card to fit, but in the back I had to force it down even more than on the Mega Drive (Genesis) cartridge. It worked though, with some force ;D

Next up was Super Nintendo! Also very tight to fit the 1 up card. Like the back of the Master System. Had to force it in there, but once in it worked.

Then I tried a Nintendo 64 cartridge. A little bit better than SNES, but still tight.

And finally an Atari 2600 cartridge! :D These are difficult as is, since you have to push down the plastic to reveal the pin connectors, but I would say that it’s easier with the 1 up card since you can keep pressing the card down while cleaning to keep the pins exposed. When using q-tips you will have to hold it down simultaneously with your other hand.

After this the second card I had used looked like the picture below (middle card). These latest games I cleaned though were from the collection, however not used in a while, so they’ve been thoroughly cleaned once before, but of course collect more dirt by just hanging around.

After a final super-rub of the first NES cartridge I tried to rub it with a regular q-tip and the alcohol I usually use just to see how clean it was, and below you can see the result. Barely any dirt left ^_^

Now for the final test! 1 up card also states that it removes permanent marker, stickers, and grime from your games. I brought forth NES cartridges with stickers, gooey residue and permanent marker scribbles :D

First up is the sticker on Caveman games! After some rubbing and scraping with my nails I got it off. I do the same with q-tips which works just as well. The benefit with q-tips is that the rubbing surface is smaller, which makes it easier to avoid the actual label sticker on the cartridge (which you want to keep on there ;D). Apart from that it worked fine.

Then onto the old unidentified sticker residue on the back of NES cartridge. This one did not come off! I rubbed for over 5 minutes and scraped it, and nothing happened. If anything, it got a little bit cleaner ;D haha

Then the permanent markings ^_^ These came half way off, they revealed what was written underneath with an apparently more permanent marker! haha ^^ The sticker residue in the bottom came off nicely though. The pad was completely black after this procedure and while rubbing it on the sticker the surface got black smeared all over it.. so I will not re-use this 1 up card for any pin cleaning..

In my opinion the 1 up card is a good product! It’s faster than q-tips and less messy. It’s definitely a more expensive solutions though. I’ve used maybe 1/10th of the fluid only tonight, compared to my big bottle which lasts FOREVER! ;D The 1 up card kit costs $12.95 with one bottle and 1 card, and $15.95 with 3 cards and a bottle. Refill cards (set of three) costs $9.95. So it’s still not super expensive, for a small collector this is definitely a great and simple solution to cleaning your games! For me though, who get games in the mail almost on a daily basis, it would not be cost effective (especially not with shipping to Sweden) ;D

Something that was nice is that I didn’t have to re-wet the fluid part of the card, it stayed moist for the entire test! This saves time compared to dipping q-tips every 30 seconds…

I really liked the packaging of the product and it works with almost all retro game cartridges, you can tell that it’s based on the NES though, which it fit perfectly in. Unfortunately not with the Game Boy games though, but these are so fast and easily cleaned with a q-tip anyway so it doesn’t really matter.

I will save and continue using my kit for my Neo Geo games! Here the kit was a major time saver and q-tip saver ;D haha ^_^

If you wanna know more about the 1 UP CARD you can check it out here >>

May the 4th be with you – Star Wars retro games

May 4, 2015 by stopXwhispering

In celebration of May the 4th (Star Wars day!) I thought I’d share some of my beloved Star Wars retro games! ^__^

First up is the weirdest Star Wars game I have, Star Wars on Famicom:

This is a really interesting game! I think it’s a fun platformer, but it gets very challenging after a while. It’s got some really weird things in it, like Darth Vader magically transforming into a scorpion or crab-like creature or Luke Skywalker having black hair in game but yellow in the cutscenes haha ^^ It’s definitely an interesting game though that I urge any Star Wars fan or 8-bit platforming action game fan to try out! It’s also a great addition to any collection with it’s sparkly silver cartridge :D So pretty ^__^

Next up is the Super Star Wars thrilogy on Super Famicom:

These three are amazingly well done and really fun ^_^ Sometimes a bit challenging, for example, I got stuck on the Empire Strikes Back and couldn’t get past one of the later levels because there was a jump that was nearly impossible to make! Otherwise they’re well rounded and stay fairly true to the movies :) I also have the first one on Super Famicom, I have been considering getting the other two as well, but it’s not really necessary since I already have the games ;D I do enjoy the Super Famicom artwork a bit more though…

Next up are some Nintendo 64 games with Star Wars. These I haven’t played a lot, basically just started them to make sure they worked. I’m not really a fan of the N64 :/

One Star Wars game I have that I haven’t even been able to play is the Star Wars Arcade for the Sega 32X. I don’t have the 32X expansion for my Sega Mega Drive yet :( The artwork looks amazing though!

I also have Star Wars games for several other platforms, but I chose to picture the ones that are nice and complete ^_^ There is another one that I find really charming though, The Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600 :D So I pictures it here with my awesome Darth Vader lunchbox! :D

I hope you have enjoyed some retro gaming Star Wars love! On our Geeky Gals instagram account we’ve also shared loads of various geeky pictures related to Star Wars today! Go check it out here >>

May the Fourth be with you!! ^____^

Retro game pickups in Skellefteå

May 1, 2015 by stopXwhispering

After visiting the GAME store and Café på Bit in Skellefteå I came home with 19 games! I’m really happy with my pickups ^_^ All decently priced!

Let’s start with what I found at GAME: shitloads of Game Boy games! :D Mainly for Game Boy Advance, but also a few for Color and one for the first Game Boy. DK King of Swing, Gradius Galaxies, Bust-A-Move Millenium and GTA 2 were all brand new and still sealed! :) I’ve already opened up two of them though.. so now they’re “used” lol..

I really enjoyed Gradius Galaxies! At first I thought it was a compilation game with all the previous ones in it, but when I realized it was its own game I was thrilled :D Just as fun as the original Gradius on the NES ^^ They kept all the good parts :)

When I was younger and didn’t have any console games I downloaded GTA 2 on my PC, had hours of fun with that game ^_^ I was glad to see a Game Boy Color port of it! Now I’m excited to revisit it :D

I also got these four games for Game Boy Advance: Batman Begins, American Dragon Jake Long (surprisingly fun!), Alex Rider Stormbreaker (like an updated version of Crackdown on the Mega Drive) and a compilation of Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure and Rayman 3 (Rayman is always awesome! Especially the older 2D games ^_^)

For the Game Boy I found a really pretty copy of Double Dragon! Love the artwork! :D The gameplay was far from as good as it is on other consoles though… probably the worst port I’ve played of that game so far :/ And then I also got Blade for Game Boy Color, since it looked like a cool platforming action game :) Haven’t tried it out yet though..

Apart from all these handheld games I also found an interesting game for the Super Nintendo, Harley’s Humongous Adventure! Never heard of it before.. it was one of the first things I tried out when I got home! And it was fun! The gameplay and controls were fluent, the sprites were pretty and it was most of all fun!

The story is about a smart inventor guy that has accidentally shrunken himself and has to fight off all the bugs to regain all the parts to his machine so he can re-size himself haha ^_^ Best part is that you get to ride a TANK!! :D

The final game I found at this store was Raiden for Atari Jaguar :) It was in really nice condition and to a decent price ^^

Now on to the interesting things I found at Café på Bit! :D You can’t begin to imagine the excitement I experienced when I realized that half of the games in their giant wall-covering shelf had price tags on them!! ^___^ hahaha

I only found one NES game I didn’t already have: McDonaldland

This game was OK.. I wouldn’t recommend it though. It’s a platformer, when you start the game the intro states the name of the game as Mc Kids instead of McDonaldland which it says on the cartridge. What’s also annoying is that this one is apparently a french version.. >_<

You have to run around and collect M’s and find the hard-to-reach M-boxes to unlock the face of Ronald McDonald on the map screen.. I gave up after having tried all the stages..

I found a bunch of Sega Mega Drive games that I’m super excited about though! Haven’t had time to try them out yet, but I’m really curious about Dahna, Turrican and Super Fantazy Zone ^_^ I’m also interested to see what Probotector is like and to see if I already have the same game for Super Famicom or not.. (Probotector is the European name for the Contra series)..

Apart from these I also got Ariel the Little Mermaid, it’s in super nice condition and I didn’t have it before :) I remember playing it when I was young, at my friends place, and I recall it being fun. I hope it still holds up today ^_^

I also got Dynamite Duke and Krusty’s Fun House, cause they were cheap ;D

That’s it for this weekends pickups, got some things in the mail that I’ll write about soon ;D Meanwhile, I’m preparing myself for Sweden’s yearly retro game exhibition in Gothenburg that is coming up in just around 2 weeks :D