Even more Tetris games… XD

I update my blog on a regular basis, that doesn’t always mean a new blog post though. I have so many collections and pages where I constantly scan and upload more games as I get them, but this time I thought I’d also make a new post announcing all the new things ^_^

I have had a bit of a Tetris obsession lately (as you may have noticed XD) and I’m now up to a whooping 86 video games with Tetris and 5 board games! Apart from that I have Tetris earrings, Tetris nailart, Tetris badges, Tetris leggings etc XD Hahaha ^_^ (it’s getting out of hand O_o)

Anyway, I’ve continued acquiring Tetris games like a maniac. Someone on Instagram told me about Tetris for the Tandy CPC. I of course had to get it, since it’s Tetris! Even though I don’t even own a Tandy CPC, let alone know what the heck it is XD I’m thinking it’s some old computer.. I’m just hoping I’ll bump into one eventually.. maybe on this falls Retro Gathering ^_^ It’s a funky looking game package though! I like it :)

I also found some really cheap Tetris knockoffs from China on eBay, I couldn’t resist since they were so cheap! They have 9999 games in 1, but it’s basically just falling blocks in different arranges, and they count the different speeds and levels as a “new game” XD I tried a few versions that were interesting though, like having the Tetris blocks fall from below and upwards instead, and having the board move one step to the side after you have placed a block. Total mindfuck! XD But a fun challenge :) The controls are surprisingly good on these “Brick Games”, but they’re super light and therefore feel kind of cheap, until you put batteries in them which basically makes it more than twice as heavy XD

I also got a PSP lookalike called POP Station! Haha! It just contains the same game as the Brick Games above though. No colour, just 9999 different versions of Tetris! It feels way shittier than the Brick Games, way more plastic and the buttons are not nice at all.. :/

My most appreciated new Tetris game is my Nintendo Tetris Game Watch that I got for my birthday ^_^ Such a beauty!!! I wear it everyday :) It both tells the time AND you can play Tetris on it :D The Tetris game is kind of hard since the board is much narrower than usual, so it builds up fast, it’s not easy waiting around for that long piece, you usually end up dying before it shows up XD

I found this PC game on eBay and I just thought the cover looked funky :) I don’t really play PC games, first of all I don’t even have a PC, I have a Mac XD And I certainly don’t have a PC containing Windows 98 so I can play these old CD ROMS, but I’m seriously considering getting one! (I also want to be able to re-visit Toon Struck) Just look at all those awesome Tetris clones that seem to be on this Tetris CD III game!! 1993TRIS, BALLTRIS, FINTRIS, HEXRIS, INFINITRIS, MACTRIS, PACTRIS, PCTRIS, PICTRIS, POLYTRIS, PSYCHTRIS, QUATRIS II, SIDETRIS, SITRIS, TEAMTRIS, TRISTIX, ULTRIS, UPTRIS, ZENTRIS, FOURTRIS 2, TETRIX, YATETRIS and… GELULES?!? and many more.. omg.. so much imagination in coming up with names for “Tetris” without infringing on the copyright XD hahaha! I wonder what they will be like…..

And then there’s some other various Tetris games for various systems that I’ve recently acquired, such as Tetris for Wonderswan, Magical Tetris Challenge for Game Boy Color, another copy of Welltris but for ZX Spectrum, Magical Tetris Challenge for PS1, Tetris Plus for PS1, THE Tetris (great name haha XD) for PS1, Sega Ages 2500 Tetris Collection on PS2, Tetris Worlds on PS2 and Tetris Ultimate for Playstation Vita.

I bet there’s still Tetris games out there that I’m lacking.. I am always keeping my eyes out for them ;D If you know of any Tetris games (hard copies, not digital games) that I don’t have in my Tetris collection, then please let me know ^_^

The Tetris Collection

I’ve amassed quite an extensive Tetris collection by now. I always buy a Tetris game if I don’t already have it, and man! There’s a lot of Tetris games out there! Tetris is such a fun game, you never get tired of it, and I think it’s so exciting to try different versions :) So here they are! You can click the pictures to view them larger if you for example want to see the screenshots on the back of the box ^_^ I right now have 136 different video game versions (including 3 arcade games) of Tetris and 5 board games :) These picture below are already outdated and missing around 40+ games from the collection XD

Atari Tetris Arcade

My most proudest Tetris game is definitely my dedicated Atari Tetris Arcade from 1988. It’s so much fun to play against friends ^_^ And it has the unique gameplay where you have objectives instead of just endless mode with increasing difficulty. You can read more about this one in my blog post about the Atari Tetris Arcade >>

Sega Tetris Arcade

My most recent Arcade pickup is the Sega Tetris PCB. This is not a Jamma standard, but fortunately I got an adaptor with it so I can play it on my Blast City cabinet :) It has these photorealistic pictures in the background, so awkward XD And when you die this disappointed monkey is disappointed in you… haha XD

Tetris Plus 2 Arcade

I also recently got a PCB of Sega Tetris that I can use with my Blast City arcade ^_^

C64 Tetris

I have three different editions of the Tetris game on C64. The gameplay is the same, it looks like on the back of the big box one (it’s almost all in black and white), the screenshots on the back of the smaller one are taken from a different system. I also have the game on a floppy disk version instead of cassette :) This one is a bit more rare to find.

ZX Spectrum Tetris

I recently got the ZX Spectrum version of Tetris on cassette tape as well. The packaging looks exactly the same as the C64 version, but the graphics are quite different because of the hardware. I recently found a Spanish version of Tetris for ZX Spectrum. I’ve also bought a copy of Welltris for ZX Spectrum. Since the colors are so different on this system I can’t wait to see what it looks like compare to the Atari ST version :D

Tandy CPC Tetris

Someone on Instagram showed me that there was a version of Tetris for the Tandy CPC, I don’t even know what that is!?! But I found a complete version of Tetris for it on eBay XD So now I have a Tandy game, but nothing to play it on >_< I’m hoping I’ll eventually bump into one.. I think it’s some old type of computer..

Amiga Tetris

I’ve begun finding Tetris games on Amiga as well ^_^ So far I have three versions of Tetris, Tetris and Super Tetris that were released by Spectrum HoloByte (I love the box art on the first one :D) and one released by Infogrames. The Infogrames one I bought from an eBay seller in Australia, but I don’t think it’s an Australian copy, unless it was exported there since they are also a PAL region. Infogrames is French, and on the back of the game it has German, French and English language. I’ve never seen this box art before though. The last one is an Amiga cover disk with the game Tettrix on it! This was gifted to me from a friend :)

Atari ST Tetris

I recently got myself an Atari ST 1040, an so far I only have like 5 or 6 games for it, one of them is of course a Tetris game ^_^ This one is called Welltris and it’s like playing Tetris in a well :D Read my review of this game here >>

X68000 Tetris

I haven’t got a Sharp X68000 computer/system yet, but I’ve so far gotten two games for the system, mainly for my two most collected game series: Tetris and Castlevania. It’s annoying not being able to play them, but hopefully I’ll find a Sharp X68000 one day…

MSX Tetris

I actually have an MSX, I’m not sure wether it’s an MSX 1 or 2 though.. but I don’t have a disk drive or a tape deck for it.. so I can only play cartridge games on it so far.. unfortunately the red Tetris game is on floppy disk, the rare Korean one is however on cartridge :) It’s for the Korean version of MSX called Zemmix.

CDI Tetris

I also have a Tetris version for Philips CDi. Just bought myself a CDI last week, so I’ll be able to try it out now ^_^

Famicom Tetris

Moving on to 8-bit Tetris we have a couple for the Famicom :D The BPS Tetris is by far my favorite, mainly because of the fucked up controls XD A fun challenge, and the Technotetris soundtrack is awesome! ^_^

NES Tetris

I also have the NES versions that I’m aware of. Here my favorite is by far Tengen’s Tetris, since they have this awesome co-op mode that is incredibly fun! You either work really well together with a friend, or it’s a train wreck, or you start fighting about the score and try to work against each other XD The most recent addition is Dushlan, not an official Tetris game but a game very much “Tetris-like” by Mega Cat Studios.

Game Boy Tetris

Then there’s the handhelds! Tetris for Game Boy was a classic ^_^ But even more versions were released! I’m still missing Tetris 2 >_< But I’ll get it eventually! A recent addition is Tetris Attack which I didn’t know existed on Game Boy as well, it’s not really Tetris in my opinion, but since it’s called Tetris I’ll let it slip…

Game Boy Color Tetris

For Game Boy Color there was Tetris DX! This I accidentally bought for both PAL and JP region, usually I’m content with having the game from just one of the regions.. as long as I can play it and it’s the same game then I don’t really care for which region I have it :) I also have a version of Disney’s Magical Tetris Challenge for Game Boy Color, this game was released on many systems, like PS1 and N64 as well :)

Game Boy Advance Tetris

I also have one for Game Boy Advance :)

Pokémon Mini Tetris

Continuing on handhelds I also have Pokémon Tetris for the Pokémon Mini. Unfortunately I don’t have a Pokémon Mini console to play it on :(

Wonderswan Tetris

I found that there was a Tetris game released for Wonderswan Color as well, so of course I had to get it ^_^ It’s merely called “Tetris”

Tetris Jr.

I also have this tiny little Tetris Jr. handheld keychain ^_^

The first one is distributed by Bergsala in Sweden, I also have a second one that is still sealed, published by Squaresoft.

Super Famicom Tetris

On Super Famicom loads of various Tetris versions were released, like for example Tetris Battle Gaiden which brings RPG elements into it. In Super Tetris 3 you can play up to 4 people versus each other, I usually bring this one forth during the finals of my Retro Rumble competitions ^_^

SNES Tetris

On Super Nintendo we didn’t get as many Tetris versions. I don’t really want to add Tetris Attack to this collection, but I will, just because people always mention it when talking about Tetris on the SNES. I don’t think it’s a Tetris game though, in that case I would have to add every other puzzle game I have into this category. Tetris Attack is just Panel de Pon where they added Super Mario characters and called it Tetris because it’s a puzzle game, but it’s nothing like Tetris.

Sega Mega Drive Tetris

Nintendo was the company that acquired the license for Tetris back in the 80’s, therefore Sega was not allowed to release Tetris games, they created their Columns instead, which wasn’t as popular. They did however make a Tetris game for Sega Mega Drive, but they got sued and it got pulled out of production immediately. However a couple of copies made it out. There’s less than a handful known copies which sell for ridiculous amounts of money when they go up for sale. I do however have a bootleg/repro of this Sega Mega Drive Tetris game, just so I could play it and see what it was like for myself :) It’s a Chinese copy so it’s not very pretty, and doesn’t look like the original, but the game plays well ^_^

Sega Mark III / Gam-Boy Tetris

Another rare Tetris game that I just got, and which marks my 100th Tetris game (counting the board games ^_^) is the Korean Tetris game on Sega Master System (Sega Mark III), or Gam-Boy which it was called over in Korea :)

Nintendo 64 Tetris

Moving on to N64, there were a couple there as well.

Virtual Boy Tetris

Nintendo’s Virtual Boy didn’t get a lot of games (like maybe 15 in total), but two of them were Tetris! In North America they got 3D Tetris and in Japan they got V Tetris. The two are completely different games ^_^

Sega Saturn Tetris

Sega Saturn was popular in Japan, and so was Tetris. I guess Nintendo lost the exclusive license for Tetris by then O_o  I have a few Tetris games for Sega Saturn, not sure if I’m missing any..

Dreamcast Tetris

For Dreamcast there were quite a lot of Tetris games as well. I don’t know if I’ve found them all yet, but I have 3 different ones so far :)

Playstation Tetris

Some of the ones released for Dreamcast also came for Playstation. I have The Next Tetris on PS as well, but also a Deluxe version :D Then there’s Tetris X, both in normal and “Playstation best” edition and I also recently found out from a Facebook friend about this Japanese Tetris game called Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura Eternal Heart XD Quite different :) I have just picked up a lot of 3 Japanese Playstation Tetris games I didn’t have, even though I had a few of them for different systems I still felt like I needed them ^_^ These were The Tetris, Tetris Plus and Magical Tetris Challenge. All three were in excellent condition and even had the spine cards ^_^

Playstation 2 Tetris

I’ve finally gotten a few Tetris games for the PS2 as well ^_^ These are Tetris Worlds, which has also been released for various other systems, Sega Ages 2500 Tetris Collection and Super Lite 2000 Tetris Kiwamemichi :) The last two are Japanese.

PS Vita Tetris

I’ve finally gotten around to getting the Tetris game for PS Vita as well. It’s Tetris Ultimate, basically the same as on the 3DS and on Xbox One (where I have it digitally).

Wii Tetris

The Wii got a Tetris game called Tetris Party Deluxe. In this one they also have a co-op mode (just like in Tengen Tetris for NES)! So much fun! Two pieces on the board simultaneously ^_^

Nintendo DS & 3DS Tetris

Then there’s Tetris on DS. I’ve now found most of the Tetris games on DS and 3DS. Do you know of any other ones I’m missing on these systems?

Xbox & Xbox 360 Tetris

Tetris Worlds and Tetris Evolution got released on multiple platforms, I choose to get them on Xbox and Xbox 360 since that’s what I’ve mainly been playing on when it comes to the newer generation consoles. I recently found out about the Arcade Tetris game called Grand Master Tetris, never tried it, but I did find that it was also released for Xbox 360 in Japan, so I got it ^_^ Unfortunately the game is region locked and I don’t have a Japanese Xbox 360 to play it on :( yet… Meanwhile I’m also on the look out for the Arcade version!!!

Xbox One Tetris

The latest release of Tetris I imported from Japan for the Xbox One. It’s Puyo Puyo Tetris! You can choose to play either pure Puyo Puyo or pure Tetris, or you can play Puyo Puyo Tetris where they have merged the two! :D It’s awesome ^_^

PC Tetris

I’m not really a PC player, I’ve always preferred a controller to mouse and keyboard. But when I stumble upon really cheap PC games with TETRIS on them I just can’t resist XD I’m gonna have to get myself an old computer with Windows ’98 so I can play them hahaha! XD Especially since I found Tetris CD III!! Look at all the different versions of Tetris that it contains!! Some of the names on the back are: 1993TRIS, FINTRIS, HEXRIS, BALLTRIS, PRYCHTRIS, TEAMTRIS, INFINITRIS and many many more! I really wish I could try these out RIGHT NOW!!!!

Tetris Consoles & Handhelds

The Master Brick 80 plus 5 is a really cool looking vintage Tetris handheld in minty condition that my friend the Toy Villain found for me :) But he also found an even cooler Tetris handheld called the Brick Boy for me! The Brick Boy has an integrated cassette tape player :D Totally rad!

Magic Cube is another Tetris-clone handheld. It has quite an interesting way of play though, and it’s quite odd looking XD

This Block Game is from Spain, I found on eBay and just thought it had a cool design :)

One of the best handheld Tetris games I’ve ever played is the newly released Arduboy Tetris Microcard. The buttons are so responsive and it has everything you want in a Tetris game, but still keeping the design clean and simple.

A friend in Hong Kong helped me score a full set of small keychain Tetris-games that were released as Gachapons in Japan. I wanted one in each colour because it was impossible to pick just one XD They’re totally adorable! The series that have a more square look is called Game Pocket Pro (ゲームポケプロ), they all came with a tiny screwdriver so you can open and exchange the battery :) The other set is called Game Box Mini and comes in 2 different color schemes, one set is transparent. These came in little gachapon balls :D

I’ve bought a couple of Tetris clone systems from China XD I just had to try them out. They supposedly had 9999 versions of Tetris in one! Hahaha! Basically what they count as various versions is if you start the game on various speed levels from 0 – 9, and then multiply that by a couple of different version and multiply it by the various amount of lines at the bottom that you can start with, then I don’t know.. maybe you reach 9999. The first time I tried it out though I managed to find a version where you were playing Tetris upside down, the block was falling from below instead of above, and as soon as you put it down the blocks at the top moved a step to the right and came out on the other side. This made it quite difficult to plan ahead XD An interesting version indeed ^_^ These were really cheap so I bought several in the hope of getting them in a couple of different colors, they ended up also being in a few different editions. Two were a bit smaller, and there’s other differences as well, like some have a super mouse logo and some have a smiley face making peace signs XD There’s even two different versions of the box. They feel extremely cheap but it’s still interesting to try out the various types of Tetris that you don’t really see in any official releases. The controls are surprisingly responsive and good :)

I have since gotten a few more Chinese clone systems in different designs, like these Wisdom Games. They are so incredibly cheap looking! I also got some more Brick games 9999 hoping to score a black game, and eventually I got it! :D

I also got a Tetris clone handheld called the POP Station value pack. It’s so cheap and barely weighs anything XD It’s supposed to look like a PSP I guess, but it only contains that same program which the Brick Game with 9999 versions of Tetris in 1 has XD I would even say that the controls and buttons feel better on the Brick Games.. I also found a mini mini version of this that came in pink and blue which also plays Tetris.

A handheld for your handheld! XD There’s now iPhone cases which you can play Tetris on! From Wanle you can get them in many different colours, looking retro like the classic Nintendo Game Boy and they’re battery driven. I had to get it of course ^_^

Tetris Game Watch by Nintendo

The best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten was this Tetris Game Watch! Still sealed in new condition :D I’m using it every day ^_^ It tells the time AND you can play Tetris on it! :D

2 years after getting this watch as a birthday gift I came across another sealed one that I couldn’t pass up, so now I have a sealed and an opened one :) In case it ever breaks I have a backup XD The new sealed one is in excellent condition! I’m just a bit worried that the battery inside might leak.. but hopefully it won’t.. They had slightly different packaging, the first one is from France, the second one from Italy.

I have also found a weird variant of the Tetris Game Watch on eBay from a New York seller. It looks a lot different than the original common Tetris Game Watch by Nelsonic. Nobody seems to know anything about this version which also has and output for earplugs. I have sent a question to the company who produced it and I’m awaiting answers. I read up a bit on the history and Nelsonic was the company who made the initial Game Watches, licensed by Nintendo, who in turn had a Tetris license from Elorg (a Russian state owned company who owned Tetris initially). Nelsonic had a company called Zeon produce the watches for the European market, so the two that I have are French and Italian and carry the Zeon brand on the back. Nelsonic was later purchased by M.Z. Berger, so this variant which reads M.Z. Berger Co. Inc. on the back must be later than the original Nelsonic Game Watches I assume. Wikipedia states that the Tetris watch was released by Nelsonic in 1990 in 4 different colours in North America, none of which looks like this one (this site shows the 4 different colours variants of the original Nelsonic Tetris Game Watch released in North America), I’ve never seen any of those colours variants show up anywhere though. Also the Zeon version in Europe wasn’t released until 1992. It reads 1990 on the back of the M.Z. Berger one. If anyone knows anything about this version please inform me :)

Plug & Play Tetris

I found this plug & play Tetris game called Arcade Legends Tetris. It has 5 Tetris games in one, one is called Garbage Tetris XD It’s basically just Tetris but starting off with a few blocks in the bottom.. The controls look really nice with a Tetris theme, but they are AWFUL! You steer left, right and down with the red square in the middle, but you ALSO turn the pieces with the same button by turning it clockwise or counter clockwise! Which means you almost ALWAYS turn a piece right before you put it down, unintentionally >_< Not a recommended purchase…

Tetris Board Games

And here’s my board games. It’s Tetris by Tomy, Jenga Tetris and a Nintendo licensed Milton Bradley Tetris! :D

Tetris Guide Books & Manuals

I don’t really collect anything other than games, I rarely buy merchandise and such since I find that I could have spent that money on games that I can play instead XD But sometimes I can’t help myself, like when I find these cool Japanese Tetris manuals and guide book :D

Miscellanious

Here’s a shitty Tetris soundtrack that I found from eBay Japan XD All the songs were kind of 90s-techno-remixed.. one was decent, the rest were quite sucky >_<

Now if you know about any Tetris video game that I don’t have yet then feel free to give me some advice on what to look for next ^_^ Meanwhile, try out some Not Tetris 2, I blogged about it some years ago and it’s still hilarious ;D

Retro Gathering VCE – The Loot!

It has taken some time to sort, clean and photograph all of the 138 games I bought at Retro Gathering Vintage Computer Edition last weekend, but finally, here they are! :D I will go through them system by system ^_^

Retro Gathering VCE 2016 loot

Atari ST

The first thing I bought at the convention was an Atari 1040 ST, I already had one game for it back home, and it was in nice condition, and cheap, so I couldn’t refuse ^_^ I also picked up a few games for it. I have never played on an Atari ST before, so I’m looking forward to trying it out! :D If anyone has any suggestions of exclusive games for the system that are a must have, then please let me know :) So far I only have 5 games for it, the ones I found this weekend were Deathbringer, Gauntlet III, Future Dreams and Captive.

Atari Lynx

To continue on the Atari trail, I also found a few additions to my Atari Lynx collection from Spel & Sånt :D Not particularly exciting titles, but they were in pretty nice condition :) I do however enjoy the game of Shanghai, and it’s gonna be interesting to see what the Slime World port on Lynx looks like! :D

Atari 2600

I’m always on the lookout for Atari 2600 games as well, but this year there were hardly any :/ I found one guy who had like 5 cartridges, crappy games in shitty condition, but he still wanted a lot for them! I bargained a bit and bought one, just to come home with at least one 2600 game >_> I got Super-Ferrari…

Atari 2600 Super-Ferrari

Commodore 64 – 5 1/4 Floppy disk games

Moving on to Commodore, I’ve had a 5 1/4 floppy disk game for the C64 for a while, and nothing to play it on :( But this weekend I found a new in box Ocean floppy disk drive for the C64! :D It was a bit pricey.. but I really needed one since I also bought even more floppy disk games this weekend ^__^ I got the classic text-based adventures of Zork 1-3, and at the very end of the day I got a good deal on a pretty cool adventure game called Infidel. The cool thing about it is the packaging and contents! Inside are handwritten letters and maps and stuff, it’s really well made ^_^ I have a friend that I think will really enjoy trying this game out ;D Apart from that I had bought a whole moving box full of old Amiga and Commodore games from my friend Likilato beforehand and I picked it up on this weekend since he was going to Retro Gathering too :) In this package were quite a lot of C64 floppy disk games as well ^_^ Some games that I’m quite happy with are T2 Terminator Judgement Day, Robocop, Space Harrier II and Weird Dreams, they all look pretty cool ^_^ Then there were also a few less fun games, I’m not quite sure what Operation Market Garden is, but it doesn’t sound fun, and the last three: Europe Ablaze, Russia The Great War in the East and Halls of Montezuma I’m pretty sure are some kind of edutainment games for learning history >_<

Commodore 64 – Cassette games

I found a few cassette games for the C64 as well. I got Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker from Japon, and Slap Fight for the ZX Spectrum. Pontus from Japon also tried to sell Last Ninja 2 to me, fortunately I didn’t buy it!! Because inside the big cardboard box of things I had bought from Likilato earlier contained not one but TWO copies of that exact game XD I had bought the package weeks before and didn’t remember everything that was in it.. but I’m just happy I’m not possessing three copies right now at least ;D The other C64 cassette games from Likilato were Last Ninja 3, Superman the Game, Ghostbusters II, Mr. Heli, Platoon, Speedball, Silent Service, Starglider and The Hunt for Red October.

Commodore VIC 20

Going back in time a bit we have the Commodore VIC 20, I got one of these last year and I’m still trying to expand my library of games for the system. I found a few VIC 20 cassettes on Retro Gathering this time on Mikael Holm’s table (he always has the coolest stuff!) ^_^ I know there’s two copies of Panic for VIC 20, but I couldn’t choose which one to go for, since they are DIFFERENT! It’s weird, since they are released by the same company, but one has a black spine, and the cassettes inside are different colors as well! O_o These were all dirt cheap though so I just picked them all up :) Except the two games called Vicolumn and Blue Star, these two were new releases for the system and cost a bit more, but it’s always interesting to see what people develop now for these old systems! Doodle Bug, Space Scramble, Cosmiads and Alpha Blaster all sound cool!

Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX81

Before moving on to consoles we have pickups from yet another old computer ^_^ I bought a few games for the ZX Spectrum, Pssst, Jet Pac and Cookie had such cool matching covers! Had to get them :) Then I also got Jet Pac with a different cover and 3D Starstrike, Split personalities, Pedro, Ghosts n’ Goblins and a program that came with the system called Horizons. I also found a Sinzlair ZX Interface 2 so I can play cartridge games on my 48k :D Now I just need to find some cartridge games >_> I also bought a ZX81 :D I’ve only known about this one for a little while, when I was looking for 3D Monster Maze and found out that it only came out on the ZX81. Now I have one! So now I just need to find 3D Monster Maze again >_< I missed out on the one eBay auction I’ve ever seen… >_<

Nintendo NES (+ Game & Watch and FDS)

I bought some NTSC NES games from Gaminggrannar and from some other sellers. I also got a Game & Watch Lifeboat from Söders Spel & Skivhandel and a random Famicom Disk System game with cats from Sven666 and another FDS game from my friend MXS :)

Sega Mega Drive

From my friend Karl I got a good deal and bought the sought after Japanese Sega Mega Drive shmup V-V (V five), I also got to buy most of his other Japanese Mega Drive titles since he wanted to get rid of them, it was mostly RPGs or strategy games, but I got such a good price that I couldn’t pass them up ^_^ I also found some PAL Mega Drive titles from other sellers, mainly sports games XD which I don’t particularly enjoy, but they were cheap! And some day me and Becki will have to have another Golf tournament ;D

Sega Master System

I also got a lot of Sega Master System games from various sellers. Mainly sports here as well, but I didn’t have them, and they were cheap ^_^

Sega Saturn & Playstation 2

Japon also managed to convince to bring home these two huge boxed Sega Saturn Arcade Racer controllers XD One PAL and one Japanese.. they told me that the controller was region free, so I sure hope they will both work with one console ;D In that case I might have another game to use in the next Retro Rumble competition for the finals ;D I also got two PS2 games with Megaman at a fair price from Anders :) They’re sealed.. but I might open them so I can play them!! ^_^

Amiga 500 / 1200

Now onto the biggest category of the day… Amiga! The big lot of games I had bought from Likilato contained A LOT of Amiga games :) I was happy to find Banshee in there, since MXS had recently told me it was a good game, it’s for the 1200 though so I have to find a place to plug that system in as well.. They’re so big and space-consuming! Loom has a beautiful cover, and I’ve seen it before, not quite sure what kind of game it is though, but I will find out :) There were a lot of other games that looked cool like Harlequin, Codename Hellfire, Wonderland, Super Stardust, Galdregons Domain etc. It’s gonna be fun to try them all out :D I wonder what kind of game Leather Goddesses of Phobos will turn out to be XD

That was all the loot for this time, now I have some gaming to do ^____^

Retrospelsfestivalen 2015 – the loot!!!

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

Retrospelsfestivalen 2015 loot

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..)

Karnov's Revenge - Neo Geo MVS

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

Gokuraku Chuka Taisen - PC Engine

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 :)

Rock n' Roll Racing - Super Nintendo

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

Hysteria & Saboteur! - C64

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..

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! ^_^

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.

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!

Professor Sakamoto - Solar Soldier

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 :)

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 ^_^

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

 

 

Retro Gathering 2015!

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 ^_^

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

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!

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

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K

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 :)

Super Famicom games

Famicom pirate

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 ^_^

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!!

Atari 2600 games

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…

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 :/

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 :)

The Virtual Boy turns 20 years old!

20 years ago, on July 21st 1995, the Virtual Boy became available in stores in Japan. Less than a month later, August 14th, it released in North America as well. We never got to see a release here in Europe but it was advertised and many people were excited to see it, but disappointed that it never came out. Unfortunately the console got discontinued not even half a year later! On December 22nd 1995 the Virtual Boy was discontinued in Japan, and 3 months later on March 2nd 1996 it discontinued in North America.

Virtual Boy Screenshot start

The Virtual Boy only sold a mere 770,000 units, it’s Nintendo’s lowest selling console ever!  The launch price of a Virtual Boy was $180, and it was supposed to be a considered “handheld” system. Compared to the Game Boy which initially cost $89.99 the Virtual Boy wasn’t attractive enough to justify the price tag. The portability was questioned, since it was on a stand and there was no way of equipping it on your head like a “real” VR headset. It only had one color, red on black, it was less powerful than home consoles, and even though it was 3D it wasn’t interesting enough to beat the other handhelds on the market which had more colors. Finally the health issues were on all the parents’ minds, the Virtual Boy even had a built in function to turn itself off after 15-30 minutes of gameplay so that the player could take a break before any injuries occurred to their eyes! That and the warnings that use of the Virtual Boy might cause epileptic attacks, nausea and headaches probably made parents hesitate on buying one for their kids. Still today many people who have tried gaming on a Virtual Boy states that they experience nausea when playing, I thankfully don’t! ;D

Apart from all this, at launch Nintendo partnered up with Blockbuster, having 3000 stores to rent out the Virtual Boy console for $10, once returned they got a $10 coupon for when purchasing their own Virtual Boy. This proved damaging to the system though, since everybody got to see what the system actually was (or was not!) capable of instead of being lured in by the advertisements. The console was rented out to 750,000 people in total during the campaign.

Virtual-Boy-below

When I started collecting games some 12 years ago I bumped into the Virtual Boy for the first time on eBay, I got super intrigued and had to find out what it was! After getting my first Virtual Boy I became obsessed with the obscurity of the system and started collecting everything I could find related to it! Today I have 3 Virtual Boys (had a 4th which I gave to a friend) and almost all the games released for it. My latest purchase was Space Invaders which was only released in Japan. I am now only missing some obscure Gundam game and Virtual Lab I think.

Virtual-Boy-Collection-all

I prefer the box art on the Japanese games, they’re usually prettier, but the US ones do carry a certain nostalgic charm to them as well :) Here’s all my Virtual Boy games with some screenshots I tried taking with my camera through the lenses on the VB, it was hard to get good focus ;D

Vertical Force is probably my favorite Virtual Boy game :) It’s a shmup with an awesome soundtrack! :D It’s kind of cools since you can switch between two different levels of depth in the stage, but it also makes it much more difficult than a “flat” shmup.

Space Invaders is also pretty cool, there’s both a classic 2D mode and a new 3D mode. It’s not that different from regular space invaders though.

Insmouse no Yakatta (インスマウスの館) is a dungeon crawling horror game, you walk through corridors and encounter creepy monsters. It was only released in Japan.

Jack Bros  (ジャック・ブラザースの迷路でヒーホー!) is also a fun game. You can choose between three different characters, and the game is sort of a top-down platformer where you collect keys and enter new levels and encounter bosses. There’s a time limit on each stage which is kind of annoyingly short..

V-Tetris (V・テトリス) is just like normal Tetris. There’s just some flying spots in the background (maybe it’s supposed to resemble space and stars?) that are sort of 3D. I really like Tetris though, and it’s got good music ^_^

3D Tetris is different though! This is much like Blockout on Sega Mega Drive, but harder, since the platform keeps moving around like a 3D model.

Waterworld is based on a horrible movie with Kevin Costner, the game wasn’t all that bad though.. it’s not good, but it’s not awful. It’s a shooter where you’re some kind of boat shooting at people on jet skis hahaha ^__^

Nester’s Funky Bowling is quite a rare one out of the US releases, it’s a bowling game.. and I’m not that into that :/

Panic Bomber (とびだせ!ぱにボン) was only released in Japan. Just like in V-Tetris it’s not really using the 3D effects much, but Panic Bomber is fun anyway :) Not as good as Tetris though ;D

Space Squash (スペース スカッシュ) is the only game I own that I haven’t played.. because I only have one copy of it, and it’s still sealed >_< I need to find an opened one, but so far this is the only copy I’ve ever encountered.. This game was also only released in Japan.

Galactic Pinball (ギャラクティック・ピンボール) is just what it sounds like, a pinball game. I’ve never quite gotten into those… This was released both in the US and Japan.

Teleroboxer (テレロボクサー) is a first-person boxing game, which was released in both regions. This is one of the few exceptions where I think the US boxart is actually better than the Japanese ;D

Warioland (ワリオランド) is a nice platformer, just like the old school super mario games :) It’s quite challenging as well! Was released in both regions and the box art is really similar…

Red Alarm (レッドアラーム) is a rail shooter which basically just looks like lines that haven’t been finished drawn.. quite annoying, especially with all the explosions and tiny sticks flying around >_< I prefer the Japanese box art on this one, what do you think? :)

Mario Clash (マリオクラッシュ) is what you would have hoped to be the platforming classic Mario game, but it’s not. Instead you’re stuck on one screen where you move through tunnels to the front or back and try to hit enemies that are on the opposite side by throwing other enemies at them.. gets boring after a while..

Golf (or Virtual Golf in Japanese バーチャル ゴルフ) is a golf game. I hate sports games >_< On this one though I also kind of appreciate the US boxart more, but they’re both hideous ;D

Mario’s Tennis (マリオズテニス) was released in both regions, and this is a game that uses the 3D effects well. I still don’t like sports games very much so I rarely play this one. I bet it would have been cool if they would have released a link cable so you could battle a friend on another Virtual Boy though, but that never happened :/

Last and definitely least in my book is Virtual League Baseball (called Pro Yakyuu ’95 バーチャルブロ野球’95 in Japan). I just don’t enjoy sports…

There’s a whole homebrew scene for the system today though, I haven’t gotten into that yet, but I am considering getting myself a Flashboy so I can get to see all the games that were never released and also some of the new games that has been made for the system, since the original library only contains about 22 games or so.

 

Anyway, I would like to celebrate this old 32-bit system’s birthday by running down to the super market and buying a big package of batteries, plugging in 6 of them in the Virtual Boy controller and then play some Vertical Force, followed by V Tetris and maybe some Space Invaders ^_^

Virtual Boy Screenshot - Game Over