Retro Market at Pixel K.A.F.E!

March 29, 2015 by stopXwhispering

Yesterday was the second time I visited Pixel K.A.F.E. in Malmö! This time it twas mainly because they were hosting a Retro Market there, selling off games and consoles and other nerdy things! Unfortunately it’s not going too well for Pixel, but I hope the contributions and sales today will have some effect and make it turn around! Because it’s an awesome place! :)

There were so many things for sale! Both Nintendo and Sega games, both PAL, NTSC and Japanese! Even Neo Geo games!!! Both AES and MVS, right next to the My Little Ponys ^__^ There were Vintage Toys, consoles, even arcades! And also something I really wanted, but it was too heavy for me to carry home on the train >_< Namely a custom built arcade controller for the Playstation 2 to be used with Pop ‘n Music!! So pretty ^__^

Apart from this, the owner showed me around arcade town! I even got to see the insides of a Blast City cabinet! :D So cool! The key to the cabinet had “SEGA” written on it ^_^ It’s all about the details ;D

So this is what i scored! First up is a bunch of Neo Geo MVS cartridges!! :D :D I’m totally excited about these! And NONE OF THEM are fighting games :D I’ve bought a converter for my AES so that it can play MVS cartridges as well. This is mainly because the collecting will become more feasible and cheaper! I will buy shockboxes for these carts, then they will blend in with the rest of the AES games on the shelf ^_^ The games I got was Spin Master, which is a really cool platforming game, Puzzle Bobble, Puzzle de Pon and League Bowling ^__^ I’m eagerly awaiting my converter to arrive so I can play these!!!

One of the cartridges is transparent, the others are black.

Apart from this I also found some Sega Mega Drive games. These were The Tennis Tournament Grand Slam, RoboCop 3 and NHL 95. The last two lacked a manual, but Grand Slam was complete.

I also found some Super Nintendo games and a Super Famicom game. Even though this NTSC version of Final Fight was in pretty bad shape and lacked a manual I still had to get it, because that boxart is amazing!! I fell in love with it ^_^ I also found Final Fight for SFC, so I got that one too. It’s really fun to just see the differences in the artwork between the North American version and the Japanese :D Apart from these two I also found a really nice version of Tetris Attack!! I didn’t have Tetris Attack previously, but I have Panel de Pon, which is basically the same game, they just switched out the characters ^_^

I couldn’t help but look at all those amazing vintage toys that were there as well ^_^ They are just so charming! :D I ended up buying four figures for Pepparkaksninja that he wanted. He collects vintage toys, takes cool pictures of them and makes even cooler videos (check out his amazing collection here!). I also got a little something for myself that I think will fit perfectly in the game room! :D

When you move his arm the ghosts appear in his mouth!! :D Pac-Man <3

Star Fox for Super Famicom

March 28, 2015 by stopXwhispering

I’ve actually never played this game before, since I didn’t grow up having games of my own I just never encountered it. I’ve heard a lot of people through the years praising it though so I finally went ahead and bought it! Star Fox is what it’s called in Japan. This popular series has also gone by the name of Starwing and Lylat Wars, mainly in Europe.

A lot of people are probably gonna hate me now, but I don’t really care, everyone is entitled to their own opinion! ;D

I didn’t like it.. It might be because I don’t have any nostalgic memories when playing it. I bet it was all amazing and such when it came out, but it hasn’t’ aged well in that case. The controls were a bit stiff and I found it hard to aim and hit the targets.. I did give it a good hour or so before quitting.

I also tried several different routes you could choose from, and reached a couple of different bosses, all but one of which I couldn’t beat..

I have to admit that the graphics are unique for the SNES and the polygon shapes are somewhat charming, but this type of shooter (rail shooter) just isn’t my type of shmup. I prefer sidescrolling shooters, horizontal or vertical or fixed shooters like space invaders :) Bullet hell shooters are also quite fun ^_^

I will put this in my shelf, to await that nostalgic friend that will visit me and ask for it. Then I will gladly pull it out, let them play it for all the hours they want while I watch and in my mind being glad that I don’t have to play it again ;D

Sharp’s Twin Famicom and the Twin Famicom Turbo!

March 7, 2015 by stopXwhispering

The japanese Famicom is the equivalent of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), they later released a Disk System to go with the Famicom, and after that Sharp produced this Twin Famicom which had the Disk System integrated with the console so you didn’t have to have two power adaptors. It was first released in 1986 :)

I recently bought three more Twin Famicoms! Don’t ask me why I need to have four Twin Famicoms, but they are just all so pretty! And I really love the Famicom so I just figured I’d collect the hardware as well ^_^ The Twin Famicom is definitely my favorite Famicom system :) Then again, I don’t have the toploader to compare with yet.. I think I’m only missing one Twin Famicom now though :)

Two of the consoles are Twin Famicom Turbo systems :D This means that the controllers have built in Turbo buttons. One of them is pale orange, I thought it was sunfaded but was told it comes in this color! The one I had before is brighter red. They also have different colours on the controllers. You can see the difference here, the right one is my old one, the left one is the new Twin Famicom Turbo:

I will call it orange from here on. The orange Twin Famicom Turbo from Sharp has a darker red eject-button and beige / blue-grey elements. This one is called Sharp Twin Famicom AN-505.

Another system I got was the darker version of the Twin Famicom Turbo. This one is black with green and grey-purple elements. This one has the same name as the orange one, Sharp Twin Famicom AN-505.

The third one I got a bit earlier is a regular Twin Famicom without Turbo buttons on the controllers. This one has a matt finish in dark grey with pale red and green details. This one has the same “Famicom” text on the top as my old red one. I like the design of this text better than the straight one on the Turbo’s. This one is called Sharp Twin Famicom AN-500B. The name differs from my first red one which is called AN-500R, but I’m not sure what the technical differences are.

What’s interesting is that all the Twin Famicoms have led lights in the power button, except for my red Twin Famicom. Here’s the various fronts of the consoles:
Edit: The dark grey Twin Famicom is supposed to have a red power button without the light, it’s been modded ;)

And here’s some more pictures to compare the versions:

Now I just need to find some space for all these beauties in my game room ;D Also if you wanna see some more pictures of my red Twin Famicom that I got a long time ago you can find them here >>

So which one is your favorite? :D

Pickups from SciFiWorld! Games & Star Wars crap :D

March 1, 2015 by stopXwhispering

So here comes my pickups from yesterday’s Sci-Fi convention Sci-Fi World in Malmö :D I bought quite a few games for various systems, mainly Sega this time! But let’s start off with some odd stuff that I just felt compelled to get!! Like these Star Wars Bend-Ems figures from 1993 with bonus trading cards! The poses of these figures are ridiculous! :D Look at that Stormtrooper!! ^___^

Then there’s this awesome Samus Aran fuse bead lamp made by Pappas Pärlor ^_^ It looks great in my game room! I also got a pair of Game Boy earrings from him! Thank’s Johan! :D

This figure of Sepiroth was not possible to pass out on! So cheap, and so cool ^___^

I also got some stuff from Webhallen :) Mario, yoshi and toad PEZ dispensers, a Mega Man energy drink and a mushroom ^_^

After this it was all games! :D Let’s start of with Sega! I got four Sega Master System games, Monopoly, Golfmania, Prince of Persia and G-Loc. Prince of Persia had such an awesome cover! He looks like a scared Luke Skywalker! :D

Then I also got G-Loc for the Sega Mega Drive, and Super Hang On, Normy’s Beach Babe-O-Rama and Mario Lemieux Hockey. Probably not the best games, but I didn’t previously have them, and my fiance only plays hockey for the Sega systems ;D And I got Strider II which I hope is as awesome as the first one! ^_^

I also got a Sega Mega CD game that had two games in one, on one side there’s Cobra Command and on the other side there’s Sol-Feace.

Let’s move over to Nintendo. Here I got three NES games, R.C. Pro Am (which I was sure I had before, but I couldn’t find it in my list, so I guess I was wrong..), Mad Max (probably extremely shitty since games based on movies usually are ;D) and Defender of the Crown.

I also got three SNES games, first up was Kirby’s Ghost Trap. This one is interesting since I had never heard of it before, but in the morning before the convention I was at my friend’s house and she had it, I got curious since it looked just like puyo puyo so I needed it, then I looked it up on eBay and considered buying it, but didn’t. Then when I came to the convention I saw it again! So I bargained with the guy and got it! I’m super excited to try it out now! :D Then I also got Q-Bert 3 and Dragon’s Lair, I’m wondering whether it’s as hard as the NES version ;D

I found some cheap Super Famicom games as well, but they’re hardly worth mentioning ;D Soccer, Baseball and racing Z_Z boring..

That’s everything I got at the convention! I also popped by the GAME store afterwards, and got some more stuff ;D But I’ll make another post of that later ^_^

Japanese Nintendo 64 (N64) games

February 2, 2015 by stopXwhispering

I’ve never really liked the Nintendo 64. I’ve always found for example 16-bit graphics to be much more appealing than the awkward 3D graphics of the N64. I also never liked the controller, the stick is so “wriggly” and loose and there’s way too may buttons on the controller! haha ^_^ And the three handles?! How are you supposed to hold it?? ;D

Then again, I never played a lot of games on the system. The only memories I have are from loosing continuously against my boyfriends little brother in Golden Eye 007 back when it was new, and that was extremely annoying >_< We also played a bit of Diddy Kong Racing back then which was fun though. I recently started giving it a little more attention, mainly since I found that there are also a few 2D games and puzzle games on the system ^_^ It started with the Pokémon Puzzle League game that my friend Gabriella showed me, it was so much fun! Then I also started looking up the japanese scene for the N64 and here are the games I have gotten so far:

Rakuga Kids, a 2D fighting game with the quirkiest characters and cute animations ^_^ This one is quite entertaining even though it’s not as advanced as the regular fighting games like street fighter :) Here’s the back so you can see what it kind of looks like ^_^

Uchannanchan no Honoo no Challenger – Denryu Iraira Bou, the longest name of a game that I have ever encountered ;D It’s a type of puzzle-like game where you have to steer a ball through a maze, it’s also 2D, and gets quite challenging :D The cover is mainly what drew me to it in the first place though ;D Hysterical!

Magical Tetris featuring Mickey Mouse :D It’s basically like Tetris with a few extras thrown in ^_^

I’ve also gotten a few Tennis games. They were quite fun in 2-player VS mode, and didn’t look too horrible on the N64 ;D Also my niece is really into Tennis so I thought it would be fun to play some with her :) I also had to get Mario Tennis 64 of course ^^

Hoshi no Kirby is another classic series, I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m hoping that the N64 graphics won’t ruin it ;D

I also got some Star Wars games, because STAR WARS! ;D (the top one is Rogue Squadron)

Ganbare Goemon (known as Mystical Ninja over here) is a series that sometimes can be quite enjoyable, I haven’t really tried this one out yet though. Judging from the back it’s unfortunately awkward 3D worlds :/

Then I got some Sumo games, mainly because they were cheap and I liked the cover art :D

Last but not least I picked up a copy of Diddy Kong Racing, I already have it for my PAL N64, I mainly wanted to see if there are any differences in the game ^^ I haven’t really had time to compare the two yet though.

So all my new Japanese Nintendo 64 games got their own little corner in my game room, if I get any more I’m gonna have to get more shelves ;D

I also have 20-something games for my PAL N64, but I haven’t really worked on that collection in the last decade or so.. If anyone has any suggestions of GREAT GAMES for the N64 then please feel free to give me some suggestions ^_^ I have all the regulars like Super Mario 64, Golden Eye (even though I dislike it much), Pokémon Snap and the Castlevania games among others.. but if you know any hidden gems for this system then please let me know :D

My Game Room and Collection 2014!

December 19, 2014 by stopXwhispering

I’ve been so busy with work and playing games with friends online lately that I haven’t gotten around to finishing my own video tour of my new Game Room. Thankfully my friends over at GamingGrannar paid me a visit and filmed it for me! :D They have now released all 5 episodes of my retro video game collection.

The first episode covers my Virtual Boy collection and Super Famicom. Unfortunately for all you non-Swedish people all the episodes are in Swedish, but you can still see all the games and stuff, you just might not understand what we’re saying about them ;D Here’s the first episode:

The second episode is covering my PC Engine collection, Dave gets to try out some PC Engine shooters like Cocoron and Download, and we play Katochan & Kenchan:

The third episode is about Famicom and we play some Crisis Force and other games:

The fourth episode is basically a tour of the game room and the setup and Dave gets to play some Vectrex :)

And in the fifth and final episode we go through my Castlevania collection and some Sega Mega Drive games:

There’s still a lot of things that GamingGrannar did not cover, but I’ll continue to post about all my games here on my blog ^_^

Hopefully I’ll get around to finishing my own video tour soon, meanwhile here’s some recent pictures I took of the game room (things haven even changed since they were here this summer) ^_^