Retrospelsmässan 2014 (Sweden’s retro gaming exhibition)

May 4, 2014 by stopXwhispering

So I just got back from Tokyo 3 days ago and I’m still a bit jet lagged, and also very sick >.< But I refused to miss out on 2014’s RSM (Retrospelsmässan), Sweden’s yearly retro gaming exhibition in Gothenburg. So I drove there yesterday to see what they had to offer.

The setup was similar to last year, the biggest improvement though was that they had more registers at the entrance (6 instead of 1 or 2 last year) so the massive queues went a lot faster (but they were still there). Last year I waited almost 4 hours before I could get in, this year it took a little more than one hour.

The last 1/5 part of the queuing

There were as usual loads of cosplayers running around. It’s always nice to see ^_^ Here’s a few of the characters I managed to capture on camera:

It’s a me! Mario!

Street Fighter and Kingdom Hearts cosplay

My personal favorite: Wheatley from Portal ^_^ Brilliant!

Zelda & Link cosplay

At the fair there were loads of things to do. They had competitions, hundreds of systems, arcades and pinball machines setup to be played, artwork being made and sold, speedruns, street fighter tournaments, traders selling retro games and stuff and lots more.

And Charles Martinet was there (the voice of Mario & friends) and you could get his signature…

…which I did ^_^ He was very friendly and funny :)

I came in quite late since I had to drive for 2 hours to get there, so I didn’t have time to browse around a lot through the games. I also think that most of the good stuff had already been picked out, but I did manage to find a few things :) I found Sunset Riders for Sega Mega Drive, Wolfchild and Prince of Persia for Sega Mega CD. I’ve been curious about the Mega CD version of Wolfchild ever since I made the review for Wolfchild on Master System. I found it disturbing that the game lacked music, then someone told me that the Mega CD version had music, so I had to hear it ^_^ Sunset Riders has also been on my radar for some time but it has always been so pricey on eBay. I got it for approximately 40 GBP (or 69 USD).

I also found a mysterious Famicom pirate game which had no name, just an image of Tetris and airplanes?! So I had to buy it to see what it would be like ^_^

It turned out to be just Tetris, but I haven’t seen a Tetris that looks exactly like this one before. It had loads of gameplay options like 1 player, 2 player, cooperative, versus etc.

It also had loads of russian songs to choose from ^_^ Troika is my favorite :D

That’s it for now, soon i’ll make a big post about all my pickups in Japan, and also a small guide of Akihabara’s great assortment of retro game shops ^_^ But first I will have to sort out this mess on my desk of over 100 games that I bought during my 2 weeks there… o_O

If you wanna know more about Retrospelsmässan check out their webpage, you can also read about my visit to last year’s RSM here >>

Sega Mega Jet!

October 29, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Since it’s the 25th anniversary for the release of Sega Mega Drive in Japan today (29th of October 1988) I thought I would make a post about one of the variations of the Sega Mega Drive that’s a little bit less known, namely the Sega Mega Jet! Which I have just recently acquired ^_^

The Sega Mega Jet was only released in Japan and it’s basically a semi-portable Mega Drive. It’s small enough to bring along and works as a controller, but it also requires an AC adaptor and an external screen to work, so it’s not really that portable like the pictures on the back suggest:

He forgot to put the big fat AC adaptor and the other cords in
his purple man-purse!

Oh yeah, and if you’re friend is gonna play with you don’t forget to bring an extra controller with your portable console!

Later you can just store it with your diary in the drawer, unless you can’t fit your diary there because of the fat AC adaptor!!

Yeah.. well looking at the back of the box explains it all:

But I’m still happy to have one ^___^

The Sega Mega Jet was originally used for in-flight entertainment on Japanese Airlines. Later a consumer version was released in Japan as well, in 1994. The Mega Jet began the technology behind the Sega Nomad, which was only released in North America.

I found a fun fact on the Sega Wiki: The July 2006 issue (issue 27) of the British publication Retro Gamer stated that the majority of Mega Jets that are owned by private collectors come from an initial shipment hijacked by Indonesian sea-pirates. However, as no supporting information is available, this statement could potentially be an urban myth.

How cool wouldn’t it be if the one I have in my possession was stolen by sea-pirates?! :D I wish to believe it was so ^___^

Sweet Sega Stuff from the Segadude!!

September 24, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Last week I received an amazingly kind gift from the Segadude! He sent me a few of his doubles that I didn’t previously have for the Sega Master System! They were all so pretty!! ^_^

The games were Missile Defense 3-D, Teddy Boy, Blade Eagle 3-D, Quartet, Golvellius,
Zaxxon 3-D and Wanted!

I was also thrilled to find that they all worked on my PAL Master System even though they came all the way from Canada ^_^ I’m not sure if this means that Canada has PAL region too or if the Master System just doesn’t have a region lock for NTSC… still I’m thrilled!! :D
Here’s some screenshots I took with my iPhone while trying them all out ^_^

Both Blade Eagle, Zaxxon and Missile Defense were 3-D games, before I had none now I have three! :D Now I just need to get myself a pair of Sega 3-D glasses so I can see what’s actually going on!! ;D

Yay boots!!! ^___^ Thanks!

Golvellius seemed like a fun game ^_^ I will give it a longer try ones I have a bit more time :)

Both Quartet and Teddy Boy were fun platformers ^_^

And last but not least Wanted, this game would probably have been much easier if I had plugged in the Lightphaser… heh ^_^

A big thanks to the SegaDude for these great games! If you haven’t checked out his site you totally should!! ^_^ What are you waiting for?? GO CHECK IT OUT >>>

Old Sega Mega Drive and Atari ads!

August 4, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Today I went to a flea market where I sometimes go on Sundays. This place is mainly filled with antiques, porcelain, books and interior decorations. I’ve never seen any games or electronics there, it’s more vintage stuff, but I like that too ^_^ However today I found something gaming related! I saw a stand filled with old comic books from the early 90’s, like the Phantom and Modesty Blaise (which in Swedish is Agent X9) and I thought of my friend Gabriella who likes Modesty ^_^ I picked one up and saw an old ad for Sega on the back!I thought this was so cool that I had to go through the backs of every magazine they had to see if there were more! And there was!!! I ended up buying 10 magazines with gaming ads on the back and I thought I would share them here. Even if they are in Swedish I hope you all can enjoy it, I will translate the ridiculous slogans they had ;D

First of all here are the magazines I bought, Modesty Blaise sure does look cool ^_^

Sonic says: I hate all environmental criminals!

“I hate all environmental criminals!” Sonic promoting Global gladiators..

“He is almost as cool as I am” Sonic promoting Cool Spot

"Cooooooool summer games"... they almost got it right, if they would have removed the Tournament Golf >_<

“Cooooooool summer games”... they almost got it right, I don’t care much for the Tournament Golf >_<

"Flipper, the ocean is not big enough for both of you".. yeah... cause Flipper the dolphin was a big thing back then too ^^

“Flipper, the ocean is not big enough for the both of you”.. yeah, I get it… cause Flipper the dolphin was a big thing back then too ^^

“LYNX – a new portable computer-game in color!” and in the key selling points they are listing: pause button, power adaptor and built in joypad.. isn’t that kind of … obvious things??

“No other 16-bit video game has as many… 80 strong games.” 4 new games per month! wow.. that’s a bit less.. than today ;D

"The worlds fastest video game characters is returning in a neck-breaking game for Mega Drive - SONIC 2!" I really hope the kids didn't actually break their necks...

“The worlds fastest video game character is returning in a neck-breaking game for Mega Drive – SONIC 2!!” I really hope the kids didn’t actually break their necks though…

“Now there’s over 100 16-bit games for the Mega Drive! No other system has more!”

“This is where the adventure starts”

GAME COLLECTION: My Retro Room re-visited

July 9, 2013 by stopXwhispering

2015-08-24
Edit: My room has been updated since this post. Check out my latest collection pics here >>

Recently I got interviewed by Ant Harper from Retro Games Collector :D So for this feature I needed to take some more recent pictures of my Retro Room containing my game collection :) It was quite a while ago since I last shared pictures of my game room, from when I upgraded to a bigger room, so I thought I would share the new ones here as well so you can all see what it looks like today!

So this is more or less what it looks like today! :D

This is the lighting of the room, it’s very cosy and warm with mainly red lights ^_^

Here’s my desk, where I’m sitting right now and blogging ^_^ haha!

A close-up of the shelf over the desk. There’s mainly boxed Super Famicom games (There’s more of them now, it’s basically full so I can’t fit any more in there >_< but there’s still sooo many SFC games I want!!) And there’s boxed Famicom games, in the two middle shelves and the bottom right. I haven’t really collected boxed Famicom games that much, I have over 600 loose carts. On the bottom left are my Atari 2600 games, I have a few more doubles stacked away somewhere and a few boxed ones elsewhere. BTW I loooove my Pacman neon signt ^_^

Behind the desk are 4 shelves, the two to the left are filled with Famicom cartridges, neatly organized by colour and by type! :D The top 5 rows are only platformers arranged by colour, below is one row with the few carts that have end labels (also platformers mainly), and below that is three rows with only shooters and then a row with puzzle games and lastly sports and other playable stuff that I don’t really care for. I have 4 boxes stacked away underneath the desk with all the RPG’s and various other text-heavy games that you can’t really play unless you’re fluent in japanese (also I don’t really care for RPG’s…..). The two right shelves contain all my boxed GB, GBC and GBA games and on the bottom 2 rows with boxed NES games.

Facing my desk is a cool couch I got from my grand parents, it folds into a matress if you put the back on the floors facing it ^^ It’s like a puzzle :D

On the couch is also one of my three Virtual Boys, a Pacman Pinky porcelain piggybank and an official Nintendo wooden box where you can put a Zapper, two controlllers and a bunch of games inside ^_^ I put some of my favorites in there :D

I also have a really cosy gaming chair that holds my Famicom pillow and temporarily also this Amiga 500. I have found a better place for it now underneath one of the TV’s.. ;D

In this corner I have my PAL NES, with some Zappers on the wall ^_^

Above that there’s some PAL SNES games and N64 games, also some of my Virtual Boy games on the bottom shelf (I have a bunch of doubles stacked away in a drawer as well, I’m only displaying the playable ones that are opened). There’s also some video game related board games like Centipede, Pac-man and Donkey Kong and various other games like boxed Atari 2600 games and games for the Intellivision that I can’t play since I don’t have that system yet :(

On this shelf I have my Famicom Disk System games, some boxed Atari’s and in the left corner all my Star Wars related stuff and games ^^

Underneath that shelf I have my favorite painting that my friend Arri made for me ^_^ It has all my favorite game characters! :D

Here’s the mess.. the main TV that has almost all the consoles you see below connected to it! lol I did this using scart splitters (one outtake turning into 4) and also composite cable splitters for some systems that have the red, yellow and white cables. It’s not optimal, I’m gonna work on making it prettier so that you won’t see all the chords as much, but I’m still quite happy that I was able to connect all of these: NTSC NES, PAL SNES, Twin Famicom, PAL Sega Mega Drive, PAL Sega Dreamcast, PAL PS2, PAL Sega Saturn, PAL N64, Super Famicom, and a japanese Sega Master System ^_^

This is the third TV, and here I have my japanese Sega Mega Drive and all the 30-40 something games I have for it, and my PC Engine Duo and the Atari 2600 Junior ^_^

Here’s a small shelf I painted and decorated and it holds all my Famicom Konami games, and two Game Gears and the Wonderswan color ^_^ I also love my Nintendo neon sign :D

On the floor here are some of my PC Engine games.. I’ve re-organized these now onto a smarter CD stand with double sides that stands on my desk, looks much better! :D

On top of this shelf are more PC Engine games.. this collection has been growing really fast since I discovered this awesome system :D

Here’s an overview of this wooden shelf that contains a bunch of stuff. Below you’ll see some close-ups. In the bottom are magazines, like Retro Gamer, Nintendo Power etc. And my Sega Saturn games.

Here are my Castlevania games, this collection is now taking up two full shelves ^_^ You can see all my Castlevania games in my Castlevania Collection post, where I scanned them all :)

Below the Castlevania games are some other random stuff. Like Chrono Trigger, a factory sealed SNES Zelda, Mario Bros for Atari 2600, factory sealed Doom for Atari Jaguar, Darius Twin for SFC, Super Mario RPG, Life Force for NES, Rockman X, Donkey Kong II Game & Watch, Ninja Baseball Batman ;D and much much more..

Here’s the Sega Saturn games, and a few Atari Jaguar games.

Various bead art and my Sega Mega Drive collection ^^ I basically can’t get much more games for this system cause I’m running out of shelf-space! LOL

On the top right are my NTSC NES games, all the way down to the half row with Dreamcast games, below those are PAL NES games. Then PS2 in the bottom. In the left shelf are PS1 games, then some of my favorite Famicom games and all my Sega Master System games (I have finally gotten around to fixing shelves now for those poor games stacked on top of each other) ;D

Here’s a closeup of the Famicom games, mainly puzzle, platformers and shooters ^_^

Last but not least I have my Commodore 64 on a small table with a fourth TV on a bureau next to my desk ^_^ There’s also a boxed PAL SNES, another Super Famicom and a black Atari 2600 underneath it :)

I have a lot more games stacked away in various places.. I have 73 game consoles in total (counting a few doubles, over 50 are different systems though) and just got over 3000 games, and I’m seriously running out of space again and probably need to take over our living room for my retro game collection soon! Just gotta run it past the boyfriend first ;D

All my Sega Master System games scanned!

July 2, 2013 by stopXwhispering

The last two evenings I’ve kept myself busy scanning all my Sega Master System games! This mainly because I’ve only uploaded libraries of Nintendo and PC Engine games so far and thought it was Sega’s turn, and Sega Master System suits well now that Retro Gamer magazine has just had that system as their main headline in their latest issue ^^ And also since I know it would make theSegaDude happy ;D

I only have a few japanese Sega Master System games, maybe like 5 or so, the others are all PAL. So I just included the Japanese ones in the same collection list ^_^

So here’s a little collage where you can see all the games easily, and if you wanna read more info about each game then please visit the uploaded Sega Master System Library that always can be found in the left menu :D