Retrospelsfestivalen 2015 – the loot!!!

October 13, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This year’s retro gaming convention in Malmö (Retrospelsfestivalen) was awseome! I didn’t have much time to buy stuff though since me and my Geeky Gals spent most time hosting competitions and stuff on stage. It was a lot of fun though ^_^ And we got to meet so many cool people :D I did however get half an hour off at the end of the day where I did some speed-shopping for retro games! haha :D

So here’s what I found ^_^ Not bad for 30 minutes huh? ;D

I’m thrilled to have found a Neo Geo game I didn’t already have! Less thrilled to find out that it’s a fighting game (like every other game on that system >_<) instead of a platform game, like the previous Karnov games on NES for example.. but I got a fair price so I’m happy :) I have a lot of friends who enjoy fighting games, so I’ll pop it in my new cab ;D (I’ll tell you more about that in a later post..)

I was also happy to stumble upon some PC Engine games, they’re quite unheard of here in Sweden. But Japon carried a few titles ^_^ I got Gokurake Chuka Taisen on HU card :) I love the other games in this series so I hope this one will be as good, if not better ;D

Apparently Rock n’ Roll Racing for SNES is supposed to be rad, haven’t tried it yet, but I’m looking forward to it ^_^ It’s NTSC, but now I have an NTSC SNES so I feel comfortable buying this region as well :)

I found these C64 carts that I jus thad to have, since they had such amazing artwork haha ^_^ I love how the guy on the cover of Saboteur is both jumping, kicking and shooting a gun at the same time, with such precision! hahaha :D

I also got some games for the Nokia N-Gage, a few weeks ago I bought two N-Gage systems so now I also have games for them ;D It’s Sonic and Crash Bandicoot, so hopefully they haven’t screwed that up..

Sonic N – Nokia N-Gage

Crash Nitrokart – Nokia N-Gage

Nokia N-Gage

From MXS I bought two handheld Game & Watch clones, one was called Hungry Elephant and the other one Sky Invaders. Unfortunately Sky Invaders didn’t have a hatch over the battery slot, and it didn’t seem to work when I held batteries in there :/ But I got them really cheap so I’m happy one of them worked :) I also bought a Tetris Jr. from Pixel, so cute! ^_^

Hungry Elephant handheld game

Sky Invaders handheld game

Tetris Jr keychain game

I also found a Famicom pirate called Mechanized Attack II, I liked the cover and was curious of what was on it :) And I found a Game Boy game from Japanspel, I mainly bought this one for the ridiculous cover XD It’s called Tasmania Monogatari. Apart from this I found a cheap Sega Master System game I didn’t previously have.

Tasmania Monogatari – Game Boy

Tennis Ace – Sega Master System

I got some gifts from friends, like the Famicom matchbox from Pappas Pärlor and the mushroom and Sonic pin från Pixel K.A.F.E :) Thank you!! And I bought an amazing album that I have been listening to all week on Soundcloud from Professor Sakamoto! :D He performed at the festival and also at the after party ^_^ So talented and an amazing composer of chiptunes! At the bottom here I’ve embedded a few videos I filmed from his performances :) Go check him out!

Apart from all this my friend David showed up with all the ZX Spectrum games and other stuff I had bought from him earlier :) So I came home with 42 new Speccy games! (which I’m pretty sure is more than I paid for ;D) Thanks David! Apart from the Spectrum games I had bought a perfect case for storing Atari 2600 cartridges, or Famicom games :D But preferrably Atari 2600.. and a Neo Geo MVS game, Super Sidekicks 2. It’s football >_< but it was cheap :)

Hunchback II, Devils of the Deep, Wally Kong, Don’t Buy This – ZX Spectrum 48k

Tapper, Wanted Gunfright, Mikie – ZX Spectrum games

Atari 2600 cassette case

ZX Spectrum games

Super Sidekicks 2 – Neo Geo MVS

This year at Retrospelsfestivalen I also had a table where I sold off some doubles, I’m happy with how my table turned out ^_^ First time ever selling games!! It’s hard since I’m a hoarder by nature ;D hahaha! I set up a PC Engine with Coryoon so people could try out this awesome game ^_^ Unfortunately I didn’t sell too many of the japanese games, a lot of people don’t have the consoles for it here. Most people are into PAL NES and SNES.. :/ Also my fiancé was taking care of the table all day, and he is completely clueless when it comes to games! LOL! I appreciate his support though, and people told me he was friendly ^_^

Coryoon for PC Engine

My table at Retrospelsfestivalen 2015

Mike the clueless Beyoncée ;D

Here’s the videos from Professor Sakamoto’s performance at Retrospelsfestivalen 2015! Check them out! So much awesome!! :D

Retro Gathering 2015!

October 3, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This weekend I visited Retro Gathering in Västerås (Sweden), I was there for the first time last year, but this convention has been running yearly since 2006! I came home with quite a lot of loot last year, and this year wasn’t far behind ^_^

Retro Gathering 2015

I bought 62 games, and traded another 400+ games with friends! So I came home with lots of games.. most of the traded ones were newer games though so I’ll just cover my retro acquisitions on here ;D First up is the Philips Videopac Computer G7000 with 8 games that I traded with Anton for a bunch of Famicom doubles I brought for him :) I also found one Videopac game at the convention, this one was a newly made homebrew game for the system, the packaging was just splendid though, fits right in with the originals ^_^ Can you spot which one it is? ;D

Philips Videopac Computer G7000 with games

Philips Videopac Computer G7000 games

Philips Videopac Computer G7000 keyboard

Philips Videopac Computer G7000

Videopac Computer G7000

Philips Videopac Computer G7000 Joystick

Philips Videopac Computer G7000

Another system that I bought at the convention was an Arcadia 2001, or at least one of it’s clones. Never heard of this one before, but it didn’t last very long, it was discontinued after only 18 months. The reason I bought it was that it came with almost all the games released for the system! :D The games come in paper boxes, which were surprisingly well kept! Inside there’s a manual and overlays for the controllers and the game cartridge is latched in a whole in the box. This is extremely frustrating since the cartridge tends to move around underneath the opening so it’s hard to get it out of there without ripping the paper around it >_< This makes me even more surprised though that the previous owners haven’t already torn the boxes apart! XD

BTW I think it’s hilarious when companies back in the day lacked the licenses for certain popular titles and had to come up with “alternative” names for clones ;D Nibblemen!!! Hahaha!

Arcadia 2001 with games

Arcadia 2001 joystick

Arcadia 2001

Arcadia 2001 games

Arcadia 2001 clone Video Computer Game by Soundic

Arcadia 2001 games

Arcadia 2001 game cartridge

Arcadia 2001 games

Nibblemen for Arcadia 2001

Combat for Arcadia 2001

Space Raider for Arcadia 2001

I also got my second Sinclair ZX Spectrum that I had bought previously, but got delivered on the convention ^_^ The 48k model is so cute!!!!!!!! :D

There were more japanese games popping up at this convention than what I have seen before in recent years here in Sweden. I think it’s nice that people are becoming aware of all the amazing things you can find from over there ^_^ Unfortunately when demand rises the prices also go up >_< There were no Famicom games that I didn’t already have though, but I did find 5 Super Famicom games and a Famicom pirate that was just cheap :)

It’s always nice to pick up some C64 games as well, they are usually pretty cheap and the artworks on these old cassettes are just amazing! :D I always buy games that look fun, have a funny title or just incredible or funny artwork ^_^

Commodore 64 games

C64 games – Tetris etc

C64 games – Mutants

C64 games – The Legend of the Amazon Women

I also found some Atari 2600 games, two turned out to be unopened and I’m torn whether to break them open or not >_< I wanna play them!!

Apart from all this I found a few other titles for various systems, like Batman Forever on Sega Mega Drive, Wolfenstein 3D for the Atari Jaguar and two Amiga 500 games, Pinkie and Capone ^_^ These last two looked like fun games when looking at the screenshots on the back :) Unfortunately my Amiga 500 has gotten a green screen so I can’t try them out right now :/ Have to get it fixed or find a new one first…

Batman Forever for Sega Mega Drive

Wolfenstein 3D for Atari Jaguar

Pinkie & Capone for Amiga 500

Capone for Amiga backside

Pinkie for Amiga backside

This year on Retro Gathering there were even more sellers than last year and loads of old systems setup to play ^_^ They held competitions in Super Bomberman 2 for the SNES, Super Skidmarks on the Amiga and Car Race ][ for Commodore PET. This last one in honor of the late CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, who programmed that game back in the day. They also hosted the annual Swedish Championships of Pong, and I participated this year as well! I made it one step further than last year, so just a few more years and I might win! ;D hahaha or not.. I’ve began searching for an Atari Pong console so I can do some serious practicing though ^_^ They’re unfortunately hard to come by :/

Gaming at Retro Gathering

Geeky Gal Eleth playing Pong at Retro Gathering

Kids gaming at Retro Gathering

Lots of games for sale at Retro Gathering

Retro computers for sale at Retro Gathering

Telstar Combat retro console at Retro Gathering

This is one of my favorite retro gaming conventions in Sweden, the atmosphere is just so friendly and you can find so much more than just Nintendo and Sega stuff! ^_^ It’s just a shame it’s so far away from where I live :/ I will still come back next year though ;D

For more pictures from Retro Gathering, check out Geeky Gals :)

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

Sci-Fi World 2015 – Malmö

March 1, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This saturday I went to Malmö to visit the Sci-Fi World convention! It felt a bit bigger than the last Sci-Fi World i attended in Helsingborg. The place was a lot bigger and they had vendors selling game and movie merchandise, cosplayers, celebrities signing autographs and doing Q&A, games setup to play, retro game retailers, fan-art and fiction and much more! Here’s some pictures from the day of things I found interesting ^_^

First up is a bunch of different cosplayers. There was a lot of Star Wars, all kinds of troopers, Stormtroopers, Scout troopers, Sandtroopers and also Jawas, Darth Maul, Vader, the Emperor and much more :) There was also some comic book character cosplay, and game characters. The last image of cosplayers here I’m not quite sure what characters they are, but they looked really cool ^__^

There was so much awesome stuff for sale, everything from movies, anime, manga, games, clothing, toys, action figures and other merchandise. Here’s some pics of some of the cool stuff for sale :)

This cap was my favorite! Too bad I don’t wear caps, otherwise I would have bought it and probably been rockin’ it right now! :D

I think these old vintage toy figures are adorable and some are right out hilarious! Like this Tarzan figure! What’s that pose?! hahaha ^_^ It’s always really nice and nostalgic to walk around conventions like this, you get reminded of so many things, like Alf! Completely forgot about him ^^

This Star Trek poster was 35 years old, and it says on the post-it note that it’s in “excellent condition” haha ^_^ Do you agree?

One of my favorite vendors was of course Pappas Pärlor! He makes some really awesome bead art! I love the lamps and the paintings with fuse bead sprites in them ^_^ So well placed! I adore the Peach/Contra mash-up! The bear punch is hilarious :D And yes, I got that pretty Samus Aran lamp ;D It will fit nicely into my retro game room! ^_^ Go check out Johan on instagram @pappasparlor :)

Apart from merchandise and art there was also some retro games for sale!! :D Retro Play and Pixel K.A.F.E had stands with only retro video games ^_^ And there were some other vendors that had a bunch of Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox games :) I bought some retro games at Sci-Fi World, I will make another post soon with all my pickups! But here’s some pics of some of the stuff that was up for sale :D

You could also play games at Sci-Fi world! They had TV’s setup with everything from the NES to Wii U ^_^ They even had an NES Power Pad with Athletic World that you could try out :D

No sci-fi convention is complete without props from actual sci-fi movies ;D Here’s the Alien hand from the Alien movie, the gun from Terminator 2 and Ewok hands! :D There was lots more, but these were things that I cared for ^_^

I also attended 2 Q&A’s for the first time! It was with Ray Park who played Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode One, he was really funny ^_^ The other guy was someone from Games of Thrones (which I’ve never seen..) so it wasn’t as special to me.. but I got a good shot, so maybe someone recognizes him ;D I’m really sad I missed the Q&A with Danny Glover :( But that took place the day after >_<