l00t from Retrospelsfestivalen 2017!

September 16, 2017 by stopXwhispering

Even though I just spent a few hours at the retro game convention Retrospelsfestivalen this year, I still managed to pick up a couple of games for various systems ^_^

First of all, I’m super happy to have such good friends in the retro community that thinks of me when they find an unusual edition of Tetris :D Thanks Andreas for finding it for me ^_^ Retro Bit Bros had this Swedish Yapon rental edition of Tetris for the NES for sale and they put it aside for me :) It’s a beauty! A great addition to my Tetris collection ^_^

Tetris – NES Yapon rental case

Tetris – NES Yapon rental case back

At their table I also found two Sachen games that I’ve never encountered in the wild before. I had to get Little Red Hood and try it for myself. I’ve only seen a brief video of it from AVGN back in the day. It was even worse than I had expected XD Horrible game mechanics and I couldn’t even get past the first stage. I collected cash enough to buy all the things in the store but none of them did anything useful or permanent, and I found a key in one instance but I didn’t find anything to open with it.. so eventually I just gave up!

Little Red Hood – NES Sachen

Little Red Hood NES

Little Red Hood

Lucky Bingo was supposed to have some half-naked ladies in it I was told, but I couldn’t find any.. :( instead it was the most boring gameplay I’ve ever encountered! It’s basically just a digital slot machine, put in money, pull the lever, and push again to stop. Completely boring >_< Unfortunately I couldn’t get it running on my Retron 5 so I couldn’t record any gameplay..

NES Sachen games

Lucky Bingo – NES Sachen

Retro Bit Bros also had a few Atari 2600 games, and I had to get these two! Such amazing artwork on the covers :D Frostbite wasn’t very exciting, you just jumped back and forth over what I think was supposed to be ice-blocks in a river. Plaque Attack however was way better! You’re a toothpaste tube inside a mouth shooting at food and candy that try to attack the teeth! A fun shooter where you fight off hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, ice cream and lots of other tooth-enemies XD

Frostbite – Atari 2600

Plaque Attack – Atari 2600

I picked up a newly made Game Boy game by a small Swedish developer crew called Team Lamp Oil. It’s a puzzle game with falling blocks containing rope and bombs which you have to get to match so that you can clear the board when the fire block appears :) It was fun!

Rope & Bombs – Game Boy

At the convention I found two Super Famicom games that looked like fun. I thought that Super Chinese World was a platformer because it looked like it on the back, but it had a lot of RPG-elements that I really despise >_< The actual battles though were platforming action, but it was soooo slooooow and the hit detection was really awful, so I do not recommend this title..

Super Chinese World – Super Famicom

Super Chinese World Super Famicom

Super Chinese World

The other Super Famicom game was Astro Go! Go! This was a racing game, kind of like F-Zero. I tried out two different characters and different tracks, but it was a bit difficult, and it probably would have been a lot more fun if it had a 2-player VS mode. Otherwise the graphics were nice, and the controls were sharp :)

Astro Go! Go! – Super Famicom

Astro Go! Go!

Astro Go! Go! – Super Famicom

I found a Sega Mega Drive game as well which has a really badass cover! Bloodshot is a first-person shooter kind of like Wolfenstein 3D but more futuristic. Compared to Wolfenstein on Super Famicom it’s a bit more difficult to steer since you don’t have the L and R buttons to sidestep on the Sega controller. But it works, and it’s ok in single player. It has a 2-player VS mode though that I’m eager to try out with a friend :)

Bloodshot – Sega Mega Drive

Bloodshot Sega Mega Drive

I got a boxing game called Heavyweight Champ for the Sega Master System. It was cheap and it was lame XD I’m probably gonna use it for the finals sometime on Retro Rumble though! It’s probably more fun in 2-player mode than versus the AI…

Heavyweight Champ – Sega Master System

Darius Plus for PC Engine was another purchase, I love the PC Engine and shmups ^_^ This wasn’t the best one in the series though.. but it was decent :) The thing I didn’t like was the power up system and that it was a bit slow for my taste.

Last but not least was Kokotoni Wilf, such a weird name! And an obscure cover.. I tried to get it running on my C64, but it didn’t want to finish loading.. I will give it another try some day, sometimes the old computer just doesn’t wanna play with you XD

Darius Plus – PC Engine

Kokotoni Wilf – C64

RSM loot – Gleylancer and other Mega Drive beauties :)

July 1, 2017 by stopXwhispering

This year at Retrospelsmässan I actually had a table shared with my friend Cleareyes where I spent half the time selling some of my doubles. I also spent time on the Tetris competition that I was hosting, so I didn’t get much time to shop around. There were LOADS of games for sale this year! I wish I had more time to scour through everything! But I did manage to find a few cool things :)

NES games

Atari 2600 games

ZX Spectrum games

More games

He-man!

Retro games for sale

First up are some really nice Japanese Sega Mega Drive games! The Swedish Pong champion, Barkis, was selling off his personal collection. I managed to score Gleylancer, Splatterhouse Part 3 and Awesome Possum! I also got Rastan Saga II and Shijou Saidai no Soukoban which I had no clue what they were but I was hoping they were playable XD

Gleylancer – Sega Mega Drive

Awesome Possum – Sega Mega Drive

Shijou Saidai no Soukoban – Sega Mega Drive

Splatterhouse Part 3 – Sega Mega Drive

Rastan Saga II – Sega Mega Drive

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer is an awesome shoot-em-up. It’s quite pricey and I didn’t think I would ever find a copy that I’d be willing to pay the price for. But together with these other games I made a good deal :) It’s a pretty good shmup! It has nice graphics, varied stages, power-ups and various settings for your side-guns. It was fairly easy, but once you die you loose your power-ups and side-guns which make it a bit more challenging.

Gleylancer Sega Mega Drive

Side-guns in Gleylancer

Gleylancer intro

Gleylancer ship

Gleylancer Stage 1

Gleylancer Stage 1 Boss

Gleylancer Stage 2 Boss

Gleylancer Stage 3 lasers

Awesome Possum is a classic platformer, unfortunately not as awesome as I had hoped >_< You could basically just jump around, and Mr. Possum was very difficult to control. It didn’t feel like you could steer him to where you wanted to go. And the story was a bit lame.. you have to run around the rain forest and collect trash to save the environment, and stop robots from cutting down the trees.. in between stages you got a quiz, felt like you were back in elementary school XD A poorly produced game if you ask me..

Awesome Possum Sega Mega Drive

Awesome Possum save the rainforest!

Awesome Possum trees

Awesome Possum tree-killing robots

Mid-term Quiz in Awesome Possum

I have a few games in the Splatterhouse series, the second one for Sega Mega Drive, the one for PC Engine and Wanpaku Grafitti for the Famicom (although that one can hardly be counted as the same XD) and now I also got Splatterhouse Part 3 which I think was better than what I remember from both the 2nd one for Mega Drive and the PC Engine version. The controls were a bit smoother, it was more fluent. It wasn’t just a regular brainless beat ’em up where you can just button mash the attack button and get away with it. Even though Rick only had one attack button you still had to use timing and strategy to outsmart the enemies. You had to be on your toes a bit more than in usual beat ’em ups. I liked that about it :) But some rooms were ridiculous, like the flying hands or the books/objects’ room where stuff just came flying at you constantly, pushing you backwards with no way of you being able to attack them back.. super annoying.. I also ran out of time on the third stage, but nothing happened, I could just continue to look for the boss room until I found it and beat it o_O

Splatterhouse Part 3 Sega Mega Drive

Upper cut!

Groin punch!

Monster toss!

Jennifer smells of rot…

Bat smack!

Bear punch!

Disgusting annoying hands! >_<

Stages of face decomposition XD

This guy… >_<

Shijou Saidai no Soukoban was a puzzle game where you pushed blocks around to get them to the marked spots to clear a stage. The graphics/colour and overall look of it was kind of boring. I played a couple of stages but eventually got stuck and I don’t have patience for these kind of puzzle games. I prefer Tetris ^_^

Shijou Saidai no Soukoban Sega Mega Drive

Shijou Saidai no Soukoban stage 1

Shijou Saidai no Soukoban boxes

The final Japanese Mega Drive game I got was Rastan Saga II. Everybody has told me it’s the shittiest game ever. And sure, the character was a bit stiff, he looked silly and was badly animated, but I liked the colourful graphics, it was definitely not as bad as Sword of Sodan XD But yeah, after reaching the second stage boss I agree, it’s definitely not a good game. I wasn’t able to get a hit on Medusa without her hitting me like three times first >_<

Rastan Saga II Sega Mega Drive

Rastan Saga II Jump attack!

Rastan Saga II Swinging

Rastan Saga II First boss

Rastan Saga II Stage 2

Rastan Saga II Second boss

I picked up an original grey Nintendo Game Boy as well, mainly because it came in this funky carry case. I already have this carry case, but it’s my favourite, so now I have two :) I also got two games with it, Tetris and Motocross Maniacs, and it was a good deal.

Apart from that I picked up a few Game Boy titles: Star Saver, Migraine, Booby Boys, Volleyfire and Sanrio Carnival.

Nintendo Game boy with carry case

Nintendo Game Boy with case and games

Star Saver & Migraine – Game Boy

Booby Boys, Volleyfire, Sanrio Carnival – Game Boy

Migraine is a typ of puzzle game where you turn levers to steer a laser that pops bubbles. It was extremely boring and frustrating. The controls were slow and the stages had an annoying time limit..

Migraine Game Boy

Migraine stage 1

Migraine stage 2

The Adventures of Star Saver on the other hand is a great platforming shooter :) And the music is awesome!! I recommend trying this one out :D

The Adventures of Star Saver intro

The Adventures of Star Saver

The Adventures of Star Saver powerup

The Adventures of Star Saver boss

I thought Volleyfire would be a shmup as well, but not really. You’re only on one screen, facing an opponent and you have to shoot down his health by getting your shot in between the moving obstacles in the middle. It’s kind of like the old school Outlaw on Atari 2600, but with space ships.. boring.

Volleyfire Game Boy

Volleyfire stage 1

Volleyfire stage 2

Booby Boys is a top down platformer where your objective is to collect all items on a stage, find the key and enter the next stage. Your weapon is that you make traps for the enemies, dig a hole and they fall down, push it again to kill them when they’re stuck. It was so-so..

Booby Boys Game Boy

Booby Boys Stage 1

Booby Boys screenshot

Sanrio Carnival was just like Columns! Except with the heads of Sanrio characters instead of gems XD You make matches of three horizontally, vertically and even diagonally. It was ok :) There’s a hard mode where the blocks just stick mid-air when you destroy a row, that was different O_o

Sanrio Carnival Game Boy

Sanrio Carnival screenshot

Sanrio Carnival difficult stage

I also found some PC Engine titles that I had been looking for, and some that I didn’t know I wanted XD I found Winds of Thunder which I have been looking for for quite some time, and PC Genjin 3 which is a great platforming series. Then I also bumped into a game called Lady Sword.. I had no clue what it was but it looked absurd so I had to get it XD

Winds of Thunder – PC Engine

PC Genjin 3 – PC Engine

Lady Sword – PC Engine

I got convinced to buy a boxed Super Famicom as well XD I already have 3.. but none of them are boxed and two of them are in really shitty condition. One is extremely yellowed, and the other one has been spray painted in silver, a really bad paint job at that.. So it was mainly because of the content that I picked it up. The console is complete and in really minty condition :) And it was a fair price.

Super Famicom boxed

Super Famicom controllers

Minty Super Famicom

The first and last thing I bought at the convention were Atari 2600 carts! I just love these, especially when they’re some weird bootlegs and stuff XD A lot of them are German and have some pretty funny names, like Raumroboter :) Spider Fighter is not in very pretty condition, but I recently bought a bootleg of it and realised it’s an amazing game so I wanted to try the original cartridge :) Phantompanzer I bought together with an Amiga CD32 game called Gloom. It’s been suggested to me before, I think it’s supposed to be an FPS game kind of like Doom…

Weltuntergang, My Way & Raumroboter – Atari 2600

Bobby Geht Heim & Phantompanzer – Atari 2600

Dschungel Boy & Pygmy – Atari 2600

Tele-games 14 & 5 – Atari 2600

Alien Force, Hoppy & Spider Fighter – Atari 2600

Gloom – Amiga CD32

At the end of the day I picked up some odd things over at Butik Mackapär. Markus always has some weird things and lots of Japanese goodies ^_^ I found a newly produced game for the Sega Dreamcast, it looked cute :) I also got a bunch of odd third party controllers. And some of the Atari 2600 games above were from him as well. He threw in an odd cartridge for the Sega Mega Drive, an Interceptor Specify Card.. I have no clue what it does XD

Alice’s Mom’s Rescue – Dreamcast

Interceptor Specify Card – Mega Drive

Third party controllers

Well this turned out to be a pretty long post XD There’s even a few more games I forgot to mention that I got at RSM, but this will have to do for now ^_^

Sci-Fi World pickups!

March 6, 2017 by stopXwhispering

I visited sci-fi world in Malmö this weekend with my Geeky Gals, it was a blast as usual :) We got to see a life size Jabba the Hut and have our picture taken with him XD

Apart from all the sci-fi and cosplay there were loads of retro games at this years convention, more than usual! Most of it was fairly over priced though.. :/ But I managed to get a good deal with Quartex ^_^

I got two Super Nintendo games, Super Punch-Out and Disney’s the Jungle Book. Super Punch-Out was NTSC, but I have an NTSC SNES now so that’s fine :)

Super Punch Out – SNES

Disney’s the Jungle Book – SNES

I also got a few Game Boy games. Three Game Boy Color games: The Land Before Time which is a movie I used to looooove as a kid, Catz (because I love cats) and Woody. And then Bamse for Game Boy, I think this is a Scandinavian exclusive, a lot of people here seem to value it highly, I’ve never encountered it before so now that I did I took the opportunity to see what it’s like ^_^

Game Boy Color Games

Bamse – Game Boy

I found some Amiga CD32 games, I don’t see these very often so I picked up two that I thought were fairly priced :) It was Superfrog which a friend on Instagram has been nagging about ;D and Trolls, because Trolls XD

Superfrog – Amiga CD32

Trolls – Amiga CD32

Last but not least I found a Game Boy link cable and a C64 game that I just really liked the cover art on ^_^

X Out – C64

I still have a lot of pickups to go through from Retro Gathering XD But I’m working on it!!

Mailday – Super Methane Bros and other Amiga CD32 games

February 8, 2017 by stopXwhispering

I usually get games in the mail on a weekly basis, but I rarely feel like I have the time to make a full scale blog post about them, but I thought I might make some shorter posts as well just showing what has arrived ^_^ The collecting is constant! Haha :D But I have quite a pile of games to go through that I haven’t had the time to try out yet.. :/ Mainly because I’ve been super busy with work.. but I’ll get through them eventually ^_^

Today I had a parcel in the mail with some Amiga CD32 games that I bought from eBay. I’ve told myself not to buy a bunch of CD games and focus on cartridges, mainly because I don’t enjoy the loading times and I also have a hard time with the early 3D graphics, but I got a pretty good deal on these :) So I couldn’t pass it up!

I don’t really know what any of them are except for Chuck Rock which I also have for a few other systems. I’m fairly certain that Ultimate Body Blows is some kind of fighting game XD

Chuck Rock II Son of Chuck – Amiga CD32

Ultimate Body Blows – Amiga CD32

Super Methane Bros is the one I fell for, the name suggests it’s kind of a grown up version of Super Mario Bros, but I could be completely wrong XD I’m hoping it’s a 2D platformer, but it’s probably not >_< Alien Breed Tower Assault sounds like a strategy type tower defence game? I’m just guessing! Haha ^_^

Super Methane Bros – Amiga CD32

Alien Breed Tower Assault – Amiga CD32

Super Stardust is probably a shmup, I’m just hoping it’s not too much 3D.. but it looks like it from the screenshots on the back :( Diggers & Oscar are two games in one I think :) Don’t know the genre but I’m thinking Diggers is some kind of Dig Dug/Mr. Driller clone..

Super Stardust – Amiga CD32

Diggers & Oscar – Amiga CD32

Anyway, I’ll be back soon with my pickups from Retro Gathering VCE 2017, it’s just A LOT to go through XD

Retro Gathering VCE 2017!

February 7, 2017 by stopXwhispering

This weekend I visited Retro Gathering VCE (Vintage Computer Edition) in Västerås with my friend Gabriella. This years focus was Commodore PET that celebrated 40 years, Apple II and adventure games which is right up my friend Gabbi’s alley ^_^ It was as awesome as always! A bit fewer people visiting the convention this time, but that just meant less people crowding around the tables where I wanna buy stuff XD But I understand that it might be frustrating for the sellers to get fewer customers :/ But it’s usually a bit fewer people at the Vintage Computer Edition of Retro Gathering in spring time, compared to the regular Retro Gathering they host each fall. Probably because less people are into old computers and more people are into Nintendo and newer consoles … unfortunately :( Well, another thing that might also have been the cause of less visitors is that Nintendo at Bergsala in Gothenburg hosted a launch party for the Nintendo Switch during the same weekend. I know a lot of people who went there instead.. But I had a great time at Retro Gathering VCE! Met and chatted with so many friends that I’ve gotten to know through these last couple of years, I just love the retro gaming community here in Sweden! :D

There were still a lot of things to look at and to buy. My biggest mistake was not to snag an Atari Jaguar CD unit, boxed and WORKING! I waited and they were gone within the hour.. >_< But I bought lots of other cool stuff ^_^ I’ll make another post when I’ve gone through it all XD

Vintage Computers for sale

Commodore PET 700

Michael and his calculators ^_^

COMX 35 The Clever Computer

Sinclair ZX Spectrum games

TAC-2 joystick

Sinclair QL

TAC-2 joysticks

Boxed Atari Jaguar CD unit

Minty Atari Jaguar games and accessories for sale

Atari games

Retro Gathering VCE 2017

Atari 130XE

Atari Light Pen

Mega Drive games

Sven666 from Retrospelsmässan

Games

Retro Gathering VCE 2017

Japanspel selling Japanese games

Söders at Retro Gathering

Boxed NES games

Nintendo games for sale

Nintendo games

NES games

Zapper and Game Boys

Retro games for sale

Sega games

Retro gaming artist

Pikachu Pixelart

Xbox and playstation – retro?

Sales at Retro Gathering

Super Famicom games

Neo Geo games!

Billy Mitchell XD

Oliver Frey Artwork

Oliver Frey book

ZX Spectrum games

Retro gaming friends ^_^

There was a big showcase of some old computer stuff, I don’t really know much about this kind of stuff, but some things were from the 70s and quite unique. The coolest thing was a guy who had put together Spacewar for people to try out, the very first video game from 1961! :D Both me and Gabriella tried it out ^_^

Music on old computers

Gabriella trying out Spacewar

Spacewar from 1961

Homebuilt controllers for spacewar

Spacewar

Computer exhibition

Old computers

Apart from all the awesome people that were there, visiting or selling, there were also loads of computers on demonstration that you could try out :) I kind of fell in love with the Microbee and the game Hopper! I got the highscore, until Magnus had to go beat me by 100 points XD I need to get me one of these computers so I can practice some more ;) Seriously though, if anyone has a Microbee lying around I am more than interested! :D There was also a competition held on a Commodore PET to play the game Car race by Satoru Iwata. This reminded me a lot of Race on Philips Videopac, but it was a bit more difficult, especially because of the slippery stages XD But I managed to get a decent score on there as well :) I’ll have to wait and see until they upload the scores on the Retro Gathering homepage to see where I ranked ^_^

Amstrad

Making music on vintage computers ^_^

ABC 80

Luxor computer

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k

Atari 800

Alice with Flappy Bird

Vintage Computers

Sord M5 CGL Home Computer

Commodore 64

Luxor, I think.. XD

Sinclair PC 200

Gaming on vintage computers

Kids playing old computer games

Sega SC3000

Texas Instruments TI-99

Commodore VIC 20

Sega SC3000 Personal Computer

Family Computer with breakout

Family Computer

Hopper game on Microbee

Macintosh Plus computer

Apple mouse

Macintosh IIci

Macintosh IIci

Macintosh Plus computer

Microbee playing Hopper

Microbee computer

Playing hopper on Microbee

Famicom Family Computer

Family Basic for Famicom

Vintage Computers on Retro Gathering

Microbee – Hopper

I’m already looking forward to Retro Gathering this fall! Meanwhile I’ll also be attending Retrospelsmässan in Gothenburg in April ^_^ I’m happy they’re back!

Retro Rumble 2016 ~ Winter Edition ~

January 1, 2017 by stopXwhispering

I managed to squeeze in another Retro Rumble before the year ended, on December 27th. This time was an all-time high in the amount of visitors! We were over 30 people! At least 21 of these were competing in the Retro Rumble competition ^_^ It was great, and a bit crowded XD A lot of old friends who I haven’t seen for a while came this time, and also a bunch of new friends who had never visited my game room before! :D My godson Benjamin is now the youngest Retro Rumble visitor ever XD

Benjamin intrigued at Retro Rumble

Robert and Julie at Retro Rumble

Retrospelsfestivalen represents at Retro Rumble

Casandra playing Super Mario Bros 3 at Retro Rumble

Benjamin and Mona at Retro Rumble

R.O.B the Robot

Tobias playing Twinkle Tales on Sega Mega Drive

Tobias at Retro Rumble

Crowded at Retro Rumble

People at Retro Rumble

Trying to get R.O.B to work

Tobias gaming

Happy kitcheners Andreas and David at Retro Rumble

Karl-Henrik at Retro Rumble

Intense Dr. Mario gaming at Retro Rumble

Blast City

The competition consisted of 5 games that everyone had to play. These were:
1. Race on Philips Videopac 7200, one try, 2 minutes, get the highest score.
2. Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time on VIC-20. One life, get the highest score.
3. Spaceman Splorf on C64. One life, get the highest score.
4. Cycho Rider on PC Engine CD. One try, 2 minutes, get the highest score.
5. Katochyan & Kenchyan on PC Engine. One life, one stage, get the highest score.

Competition going on at Retro Rumble

Competing in Cycho Rider on PC Engine at Retro Rumble

Spaceman Splorf on C64

Competing in Race on Philips VideoPac G7200 at Retro Rumble

Katochyan & Kenchyan on PC Engine

Competing in Spaceman Splorf on C64 at Retro Rumble

Race on Philips Videopac G7200

Everybody competes individually but they’re also divided into teams, there’s a winning team score as well as an individual score :) The winning team was team “Spökplumpen” with Mattias, Matte and Leigh! :D The individual scores were really close this time, so we had to have an extra match to see who would make it into the semi-finals. This stood between Christian and Klas. They got to play The Kick Boxing on Sega Mega Drive and Christian came out victorious! :)

The victorious team at Retro Rumble

Christian and Klas competing for the 4th place to enter the semi-finals at Retro Rumble

Who’s going to the semi finals?

The Kick Boxing for Sega Mega Drive

Christian and Klas battling it out in The Kick Boxing on Sega Mega Drive

In the semi-finals the 4 highest scoring individuals battled in 3 different games on Super Famicom. I usually have these games or similar ones, because it’s so convenient using the Super Famicom multitap, and there’s just so many games on the system which has 4 player compatibility. The games they competed in were VS Collection, Sugoi Hebereke and Super Bomberman 2.

Semi-finals at Retro Rumble

Semi-finals in VS Collection on Super Famicom at Retro Rumble

Cristian being serious in the Semi-finals at Retro Rumble

Semi-finals at Retro Rumble

The two highest scores from the semi-finals were Matte and Christian. They went on to play in the finals which started of with Freeway on Atari 2600 :D Christian won this one, and the second game was Air Sea Battle on Philips Videopac G7200. They couldn’t seem to win over eachother in this one, after two rounds it was a draw XD So it ended with a game of Combat on Atari 2600 and Christian came out victorious! Congrats! :D