Space Invaders for Virtual Boy!

October 23, 2014 by stopXwhispering

I finally got one step closer to completing my Virtual Boy collection! :D Nintendo’s Virtual Boy was one of the first things I started collecting for, since it was never released here in Europe I got very intrigued by the system :) I have three Virtual Boy systems and all the US released Virtual Boy games, now that I recently found Water World at Retro Gathering! :D

Through the years though I’ve found out about games that was released in Japan that I didn’t know about. At one time I thought I had them all, when I got Jack Bros and Innsmouth no Yakata, but then I found out about the three that I was lacking.. These were Space Invaders (which always had a ridiculous price tag of 1.400 USD on eBay), Virtual Lab and SD Gundam Dimension War which are even more expensive and hardly ever found for sale.. now I’ve finally got one down though! :D Space Invaders! (Which is probably the most fun one out of the three I just mentioned). I found it on eBay and it wasn’t cheap.. I got it for 500 USD. A few years ago I never thought I would ever be able to pay this much for a single game, but now that I’ve almost bought every “cheap” game that is out there, the only ones left are the rare and expensive ones >_< I’m still very happy to have this one though, and I doubt that it will loose it’s value any time soon :)

The one I found is complete and in excellent condition! So minty ^__^

Now I’ve only got 2 more to go ^_^ Wish me luck!

Is anybody else collecting for the Virtual Boy? :)

Retrospelsfestivalen 2014 – and how I got proposed to!!!!!

October 16, 2014 by stopXwhispering

This weekend I went to Retrospelsfestivalen in Malmö. This was the first year they arranged for a retro gaming show in the south of Sweden. I was super excited to go there, and it’s less than an hour from where I live. I had been asking my boyfriend to please join me and keep me company since all of my friends couldn’t make it. He ditched me less than 24 hours before I was going there, made up an excuse that he had to clean his grandmothers attic with his mom… I was pissed and pretty sure he was just dodging it to go fishing instead >_<

I had been speaking to the organizers of Retrospelsfestivalen and they had asked me to help hand out the prizes after the Tetris tournament, I accepted and went up on stage around 3 pm. We handed out the prizes and then they interviewed me about my game collection for a while and after that they asked me to try out a new game. In the below video you can see the game while I’m playing it, and it’s being projected behind me for an audience of around 500 people…

At first I thought the game looked cool, was expecting some kind of action platformer, but after reading the first couple of mushy lines about love I was getting confused and thought the game was kind of lame ;D Until the story-telling stopped and it just said…

…Heidi

Then I certainly thought somebody was just pulling my leg, maybe the organizers had set me up to embarrass me a little bit. Then the question hit the screen:

Do you want to marry me?

Now I thought that some guy in the audience might have some crush on me and decided to try and propose! I never thought my boyfriend would have the imagination to surprise me with something so grand and also fitting to my interests. But indeed, he had a programmer make the game with him and he stepped out from behind the stage with flowers ^_^ I was chocked! …and I said yes :)

It’s not everyday you get proposed to through a video game ^_^ The game only had two options to choose from, play co-op or single player :D Check out the video below to see the whole thing:

After the proposal the organizers gave us a whole bunch of gifts that had been put together by some of the exhibitors and sellers at Retrospelsfestivalen. This was so nice! Thanks to all of the great people that made this day super special ^^ We got the Generation 64 book written by Spelpappan, a Swedish documentary about the NES from Videospelsklubben, a Zelda T-shirt, Tetris mug, Halo mega bloks set and a bunch of other merchandise ^_^

This was of course my highlight of Retrospelsfestivalen 2014 ;D But there were also lots of other great things! I did have time to buy some things before, and talk to people. They had a lot of sellers, but compared to Retrogathering they had a lot more “new” things, like plush toys, T-shirts and other merchandise from games. There were of course a lot of retro games being sold as well, and some people displaying home made retro games they had made. There were also loads of TV’s setup to play various retro consoles and a hallway for Pinball machines and arcade cabinets. On the stage they had competitions in Tetris, Super Mario Kart etc. In the finals of the Tetris competition the competitors had to first make their own controller using the Makey Makey! This was original ^_^ I also met Pappas Pärlor who make amazing bead art! Here’s some pictures from the event!

These last few pictures are from a game called Space Clutter. It’s a homebrew game that only exists in this one homemade little arcade cabinet. The funniest thing is the handwritten note that was displayed next to the game, it reads in Swedish: “Space Clutter, super hard space game! You will NEVER be able to beat it!” so I just had to try it. It was difficult, but fun! :) The plot of the game is written underneath the shoot button and reads “Everybody in space hates you. Use the red button to kill them.”

I will make another post soon with the games I bought at Retrospelsfestivalen :)

Retrogathering pickups!

October 15, 2014 by stopXwhispering

I bought so many games at Retrogahtering 2014 that it has taken some time to organize it all. It was a great place to shop for games though, they had a lot of great sellers, like Spel & Sånt whom I bought loads of stuff from ;D

The most expensive game I bought was Separation Anxiety (PAL) for the SNES. It’s the sequel to Maximum Carnage. The day after my friends over at Gaminggrannar showed me a cool little shop called Ploppsi in Örebro, here I also found this action figure of Venom which I basically got for free after buying some games there as well ;D It made for a great photo opportunity ^__^

Here are some other SNES games I picked up. The Lost Vikings, Robocop 3, Lost Dimension, Judge Dredd, Push-Over, Rival Turf! and Space MegaForce. When I tried Space Megaforce out I realised I already had it for the Super Famicom, it’s Super Aleste…

I also got some really nice Sega Mega Drive games, like Ristar and Contra Hard corps for the Japanese Mega Drive, and also Captain America and the Avengers, Galaxy Force II, Robocop vs Terminator, California Games, Sword of Vermillion, Alien 3 and a bunch of NHL and sports games that I didn’t previously own.

I found a weird game that Borka at Spel&Sånt persuaded me to get. It’s called Caution Seaman and it’s for the Sega Dreamcast. Apparently you have some sort of seaman in an aquarium which you speak to through a microphone that comes with the game. It just sounded so weird that I had to get it! :D

The Swedish GAME store was also represented at Retrogathering and I got some complete Sega Game Gear games from there :) Halley Wars, Aerial Assault and Super Space Invaders!

I also got a bunch of Sega Master System from Super Motaro at Retrogathering. These included Kung Fu Kid, Rambo III, Great Golf, Fantazy Zone II, Rocky, Crash Dummies, California Games, Basketball Nightmare, The Lucky Dime Caper, Wimbledon and Wimbledon II. I also found Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker the day after at Ploppsi ^_^

I found something that I wasn’t expecting as well! When I started collecting a bit over 10 years ago I fell in love with the Nintendo Virtual Boy and bought every game I came across for it. After a while I had most of them, I was only lacking Water World out of the US releases, and I found it this weekend! :D I also got Warioland and Mario Clash for the Japanese Virtual Boy, I only had these in US releases previously, and I found a complete copy of Nester’s Funky Bowling (I previously only had the loose cartridge). This got me so excited that I went on eBay when I got home and found something else ;D I’ll let you know what once it arrives in the mail! :D After that I am only lacking two of the Japanese releases to have a complete Virtual Boy Collection! :D

I also got about 20 Atari 2600 games, a multi-game tap for the Atari 2600, 12 games for the Commodore 64 some pirate NES and Famicom carts, 3 complete N64 games and a bunch of other stuff ^_^ Now I’m gonna prepare my next entry about Retrospelsfestivalen which was this last weekend!

Retrogathering 2014!

October 6, 2014 by stopXwhispering

This year was the first time I visited the Swedish retro gaming gathering called Retrogathering, and it was not a disappointment! :D They had loads of retro games for sale, games to be played, people cosplaying, lectures by people from the industry, competitions and of course the Swedish Pong championships that they host every year! (yes I participated, and no I did not win >_<)

Here’s some pictures to re-cap the event! First off is some of all the trading tables where people and companies sold retro games, consoles and merchandise. Everything from old Atari and computers to Nintendo, Sega, Playstation and Xbox! I personally found loads of fun stuff! Went home with over 70 games!! :D

They also had a huge setup of old systems that could be played. Loads of classics but also some more unknown systems that was very interesting to see :) The last two pictures are of a Swedish version of the Magnavox Odyssey, it’s called “Kanal 34” (Channel 34) and it’s from 1976.

They held two competitions apart from the Pong championships. These were competitions in Tetris for Super Nintendo and Tekken for Playstation 1. My friends over at GamingGrannar participated in the Tetris competition and came in both 2nd and 1st place! Congratulations! :D

The cosplays at Retrogathering were absolutely fantastic! All costumes were home made and stunning! It was so much fun to see them walk around all day and interact with people! There was an Alien (that seriously scared the shit out of me at several occasions!) accompanied by Ripley, a Stormtrooper, Bison from Street Fighter, a Rainbow 6 soldier and even Wheatley from Portal made an appearance again (saw him at Retrospelsmässan as well this year, lovely costume) ^_^

I’ll make another post soon with all my pickups from this weekend once I’ve got them sorted ;D Meanwhile I’m looking forward to what Retrospelsfestivalen has to offer next weekend!

Retro Gaming October

September 28, 2014 by stopXwhispering

I’m sorry for my lack of posts lately, but Destiny happened o_O

This coming October is going to be crazy though! Here in Sweden almost EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND has some kind of Retro Gaming or Gaming related show or convention! And I’m going to all of it ;D

First up is Retro Gathering in Västerås which I am visiting for the first time this year! Retro Gathering is a gathering for retro game enthusiasts and has been going on since 2006. You can buy retro games, play retro games and they are also hosting the Swedish Championships in Pong! I am attending that this year, I have never really played Pong competitively, only against the computer lol! So I’ll probably get my ass handed to me ;D

The second weekend is Retrospelsfestivalen in Malmö. This is the first year they are throwing a festival for retro gaming in the south of Sweden. I really hope this one will get a lot of visitors so that it comes back every year ^_^ Here they will have competitions, workshops and lectures about retro video games :)
During the same weekend, from the 11th-12th of October there is also the Play Expo in Manchester, UK. I wish they didn’t collide because then I would have visited both.. but Malmö is a bit closer for me ;D

On the 25th-26th of October there’s both a retro gaming show and a sci-fi convention on the same weekend. At Retro Games you can buy games and also play pinball, arcades and console games. This one takes place in Stockholm. Sci-Fi World is in Helsingborg and is a sci-fi, game and film convention. I’ve never visited this one before, but I might swing by one of the days :) Freddy Krueger, Jabba the Hut and a bunch of people from Game of Thrones will be there ^_^

Gamex used to be the largest gaming convention in Sweden, they have now joined forces with Comic Con. So there will be a joined Comic Con-Gamex convention in Stockholm between the 30th of October and the 2nd November. I’ll spend two days there ^_^

If anyone knows any other gaming related events taking place that I’ve missed feel free to comment :)

My Sega Saturn collection (PAL)

August 3, 2014 by stopXwhispering

Thanks to @VariXx from Twitter I finally took the time to scan all my PAL Sega Saturn games, I will go for the Japanese ones next :) You can find the entire Saturn Collection here!

I haven’t been that fond of the Sega Saturn games since I got it a couple of years ago, but that’s probably because I have a lot of shitty games for it ;D And also I don’t really like the awkard beginning of 3D games, and the fact that they have to put “virtual” in almost any title ;D This is one of the reasons I only have 29 games for this system so far, but since I got the japanese saturn and tried out a bunch of puzzle games for that one, I’ve become more and more fond of the Saturn ^_^ I have another 25 games for the japanese Sega Saturn.

If anyone has any suggestions of good games (preferably platform, puzzle or 2D shooters ;D) for the Sega Saturn then please let me know! ^_^

Here are a few games that I enjoy from my PAL Saturn collection: