RSM loot part III – TEH Games!!

May 31, 2015 by stopXwhispering

So here’s the final part of my RSM loot! All the games!! :D Apart from the Atari Lynx games that I mentioned in the first post..

I got quite a lot of C64 games since these were cheap ^_^ Scramble Spirits, Pac-Mania and Cosmic Causeway were really pretty big boxes ^_^ Scramble is always fun! Pac-Mania looked like a cool 3D version of Pac-Man, I’m sure I have it for other systems already but it’s always fun to try out various ports ^_^ Never heard of Cosmic Causeway but I love the artwork! On the screenshots it kind of looks like some kind of Space Harrier game ^_^

I also found these 4 big boxes, I’m hoping this C64 JAWS is better than the NES version ;D Killer Ring looks to be some kind of shooter, Terry’s Adventure was just cheap and I loved the tacky James Bond montage on the 007 License to Kill cover ^_^

These C64 boxes were a bit different! Frost Byte and Kong Strikes Back were in soft plastic, the screenshots and artwork intrigued me ^_^ Creatures had a really pretty cover! It’s a paper box, and it looks like an amazing side-scrolling platform adventure ^_^

I also got Wibstars, Chuckie Egg (a classic that I actually didn’t have before), Herobotix and a Christmas Collection containing 6 games. Herobotix had such a cool name and an awesome robot on the cover! :D Had to get it ^_^ The Christmas Collection contained a game I’ve been wanting to try out for a long time now! I bought Exolon on Amiga 500 a while back and it never worked, the seller kept sending me new floppy disks but none would load :( So hopefully this cassette will and I’ll at least get to see what type of game it is! :D

I got a few PC Engine titles as well. There weren’t a lot of PC Engine stuff at RSM, but I did find these three titles that I didn’t previously have, pretty cheap ^_^ Master of Monsters, Ballistix and Babel.

I bought an expensive N64 title, Paper Mario! I have never played any of the Paper Mario games and everyone tells me they’re good. I’ve recently found out that they’re kind of RPG games as well.. which I don’t like >_< So I have no clue what I will think of it.. I guess I’ll just have to try it out and see for myself ^^

There were more japanese stuff at RSM, and I found some Sega Saturn games :D Pretty nice titles I think as well :) Vampire Hunter, Bubble Symphony & Saturn Bomberman Fight :D

Another system I got a few games for was Playstation 1. Both Puchi Carat and Parappa the Rapper were cheap :) I’ve actually never played Parappa the Rapper, I have a Playstation 2 version, but it was Japanese so I didn’t have a system to play it on until recently when I got a modded one. Haven’t gotten around to trying it yet though.. Now I will though ^_^

I’m extremely happy to have found a Neo Geo AES game that was affordable and NOT a fighting game!! :D I found this game called Puzzled ^_^ It’s quite fun and very challenging! It’s falling Tetris pieces that you need to put in place to remove the obstacles that is keeping your ship captured at the bottom. Once the ship is freed you clear the stage. I love puzzle game like this! :D It’s also in really nice condition ^_^

I also found some NES games, there were LOADS of NES games for sale at RSM, but I didn’t dig too deep into all the piles. I found these two that I didn’t previously own and was curious to try out ^_^ Tom & Jerry and… Barbie! haha

Tom & Jerry was a fun platformer, kind of hard though. You could only take three hits and there were so many things that would hurt you >_<

Barbie had extremely stiff controls and animations. It was extremely simple and stupid haha ^_^ And it got difficult only because of the stiff controls..

I also got a really cool looking NES game called Defenders of Dynatron City! I had never encountered this one before! :D And I got a pretty good deal from KCL to by this minty complete game ^_^ The cover art is amazing!! The game was also pretty cool, but the hit detection was extremely off, which made it frustrating in the long run >_<

You can choose from 3 various main characters, and while in game you can change between another three companions. There’s 6 characters in total, Jet Headstrong, Radium Dog and Ms. Megawatt are the three main ones, out of these I prefer Ms. Megawatt ’cause she has the best and fastest attack ^_^ The three other characters you can always choose from in game are Toolbox, Monkey Kid and Buzzsaw girl. It’s got a pretty cool setup, you have to clear all the streets of the map from robot enemies, once you’ve cleared a stage the shops open up, they’re also filled with enemies, but once killed you can get an item. The item is either a clue, money, food for health or some item you can use. Once all streets are clear you’ll find a boss, when killed he takes you to the next stage, which is inside a mall where you can use the money to buy more items ^_^ It’s got a lot of depth and nice graphics with a lot of various locations but falls short on the horrible hit-detection..

I only found one Famicom game that I didn’t already have. There wasn’t a lot of Famicom at RSM though. The one I found was Sanrio Carnival 2 with Hello Kitty ^_^ My friend Mattias also brought a Pachiottokun game for me which I didn’t have :) Thanks!

I found only one Sega Mega Drive game.. Granada, which is a japanese release. This was a cool tank shooter ^_^ I reached the first boss but he killed me >_<

And I got some Game Boy games, all japanese ones ^_^

Apart from all these games I got a few other goodies from various people or from the Asteroids competition I came in second place in ^_^

I’m extremely happy with this years RSM! Had a great time! Met loads of nice people, bought massive amounts of cool retro gaming stuff and had a blast! :D

RSM loot part I – Atari Lynx!

May 24, 2015 by stopXwhispering

At this years RSM (Retrospelsmässan) I came home with a bigger haul than any previous year ;D In total it was 6 consoles and 60 games o_O That’s the main reason why I’m dividing the loot into several posts, since I’ve only had time to go through and photograph parts of it so far ;D

First up, I came to RSM with the ambition to find an Atari Lynx and a ZX Spectrum. I’ve wanted an Atari Lynx for a long time since I’ve had a few games for it but no way to play them >_< After going through the vendors I didn’t seem to find one though, until I spoke to Martin who claimed to have seen it at a table behind him. This is where I found the first Atari Lynx console, a bit worn on the backside and dirty, but it cleaned up nice and it was cheap ^__^ Somebody else had snagged an Atari Lynx from the same seller just minutes earlier, one in better condition >_< But I’m happy with finding it ^_^

A couple of hours later I showed my Atari Lynx to likilato, and he told me he had seen another Atari Lynx, boxed! So he showed me to the table where I had missed this beauty! This one was the Atari Lynx 2, in box, with power adaptor and a bunch of loose games with it! I couldn’t help myself, had to get this one too!

They’re quite different and both have their pro’s and cons. I’ve spent some time this week trying them out ^_^ The first edition of the Atari Lynx has much louder and way better sound (in my opinion) but the second one has a better screen. The first one is heavier and lies well in your hands, the second one feels lighter and bit cheaper, I like the design better of the second one though ^_^

I already had some of the games that came in the boxed Atari Lynx package though, and I had already bought a few at RSM before I found it as well! There were a few ones I didn’t have though, like Gauntlet, Warbirds, Blue Lightning, Batman Returns, California Games, Electropop, Viking Child and Checkered flag (however this one came in doubles >_<) It kind of bugs me that they’re not boxed though.. since the rest of the ones I have are…

Here’s some of the other Atari Lynx games I picked up at RSM! :D I really enjoyed Gates of Zendocon and Zarlor Mercenaries ^__^ Out of the cartridges I also liked Gauntled (Gauntles is always awesome!), Xenophobe, Batman Returns and Electropop. Electropop had a really cool 3D depth in it! It was a sidescrolling platformer where you could also move forward and backwards into the screen to enter various rooms ^_^

Kung Food – Atari Lynx

Zarlor Mercenary – Atari Lynx

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – Atari Lynx

Gates of Zendocon – Atari Lynx

Robo Squash – Atari Lynx

S.T.U.N. Runner – Atari Lynx

Steel Talons – Atari Lynx

I’m very happy with my new Atari Lynx collection which I can finally play!!! I didn’t find a ZX Spectrum though :( But I found a BUNCH of other cool things! :D I will make another post soon with the rest ;D

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!

May the 4th be with you – Star Wars retro games

May 4, 2015 by stopXwhispering

In celebration of May the 4th (Star Wars day!) I thought I’d share some of my beloved Star Wars retro games! ^__^

First up is the weirdest Star Wars game I have, Star Wars on Famicom:

This is a really interesting game! I think it’s a fun platformer, but it gets very challenging after a while. It’s got some really weird things in it, like Darth Vader magically transforming into a scorpion or crab-like creature or Luke Skywalker having black hair in game but yellow in the cutscenes haha ^^ It’s definitely an interesting game though that I urge any Star Wars fan or 8-bit platforming action game fan to try out! It’s also a great addition to any collection with it’s sparkly silver cartridge :D So pretty ^__^

Next up is the Super Star Wars thrilogy on Super Famicom:

These three are amazingly well done and really fun ^_^ Sometimes a bit challenging, for example, I got stuck on the Empire Strikes Back and couldn’t get past one of the later levels because there was a jump that was nearly impossible to make! Otherwise they’re well rounded and stay fairly true to the movies :) I also have the first one on Super Famicom, I have been considering getting the other two as well, but it’s not really necessary since I already have the games ;D I do enjoy the Super Famicom artwork a bit more though…

Next up are some Nintendo 64 games with Star Wars. These I haven’t played a lot, basically just started them to make sure they worked. I’m not really a fan of the N64 :/

One Star Wars game I have that I haven’t even been able to play is the Star Wars Arcade for the Sega 32X. I don’t have the 32X expansion for my Sega Mega Drive yet :( The artwork looks amazing though!

I also have Star Wars games for several other platforms, but I chose to picture the ones that are nice and complete ^_^ There is another one that I find really charming though, The Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600 :D So I pictures it here with my awesome Darth Vader lunchbox! :D

I hope you have enjoyed some retro gaming Star Wars love! On our Geeky Gals instagram account we’ve also shared loads of various geeky pictures related to Star Wars today! Go check it out here >>

May the Fourth be with you!! ^____^

Retro game pickups in Skellefteå

May 1, 2015 by stopXwhispering

After visiting the GAME store and Café på Bit in Skellefteå I came home with 19 games! I’m really happy with my pickups ^_^ All decently priced!

Let’s start with what I found at GAME: shitloads of Game Boy games! :D Mainly for Game Boy Advance, but also a few for Color and one for the first Game Boy. DK King of Swing, Gradius Galaxies, Bust-A-Move Millenium and GTA 2 were all brand new and still sealed! :) I’ve already opened up two of them though.. so now they’re “used” lol..

I really enjoyed Gradius Galaxies! At first I thought it was a compilation game with all the previous ones in it, but when I realized it was its own game I was thrilled :D Just as fun as the original Gradius on the NES ^^ They kept all the good parts :)

When I was younger and didn’t have any console games I downloaded GTA 2 on my PC, had hours of fun with that game ^_^ I was glad to see a Game Boy Color port of it! Now I’m excited to revisit it :D

I also got these four games for Game Boy Advance: Batman Begins, American Dragon Jake Long (surprisingly fun!), Alex Rider Stormbreaker (like an updated version of Crackdown on the Mega Drive) and a compilation of Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure and Rayman 3 (Rayman is always awesome! Especially the older 2D games ^_^)

For the Game Boy I found a really pretty copy of Double Dragon! Love the artwork! :D The gameplay was far from as good as it is on other consoles though… probably the worst port I’ve played of that game so far :/ And then I also got Blade for Game Boy Color, since it looked like a cool platforming action game :) Haven’t tried it out yet though..

Apart from all these handheld games I also found an interesting game for the Super Nintendo, Harley’s Humongous Adventure! Never heard of it before.. it was one of the first things I tried out when I got home! And it was fun! The gameplay and controls were fluent, the sprites were pretty and it was most of all fun!

The story is about a smart inventor guy that has accidentally shrunken himself and has to fight off all the bugs to regain all the parts to his machine so he can re-size himself haha ^_^ Best part is that you get to ride a TANK!! :D

The final game I found at this store was Raiden for Atari Jaguar :) It was in really nice condition and to a decent price ^^

Now on to the interesting things I found at Café på Bit! :D You can’t begin to imagine the excitement I experienced when I realized that half of the games in their giant wall-covering shelf had price tags on them!! ^___^ hahaha

I only found one NES game I didn’t already have: McDonaldland

This game was OK.. I wouldn’t recommend it though. It’s a platformer, when you start the game the intro states the name of the game as Mc Kids instead of McDonaldland which it says on the cartridge. What’s also annoying is that this one is apparently a french version.. >_<

You have to run around and collect M’s and find the hard-to-reach M-boxes to unlock the face of Ronald McDonald on the map screen.. I gave up after having tried all the stages..

I found a bunch of Sega Mega Drive games that I’m super excited about though! Haven’t had time to try them out yet, but I’m really curious about Dahna, Turrican and Super Fantazy Zone ^_^ I’m also interested to see what Probotector is like and to see if I already have the same game for Super Famicom or not.. (Probotector is the European name for the Contra series)..

Apart from these I also got Ariel the Little Mermaid, it’s in super nice condition and I didn’t have it before :) I remember playing it when I was young, at my friends place, and I recall it being fun. I hope it still holds up today ^_^

I also got Dynamite Duke and Krusty’s Fun House, cause they were cheap ;D

That’s it for this weekends pickups, got some things in the mail that I’ll write about soon ;D Meanwhile, I’m preparing myself for Sweden’s yearly retro game exhibition in Gothenburg that is coming up in just around 2 weeks :D

Café på Bit & Retro Gaming in Skellefteå

April 29, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This weekend I visited a dear friend way up north in Sweden :) I brought an NES so we could try out some adventure games and also play my latest Tetris acquisition, Tengen Tetris, since my friend loves Tetris! ^_^ We had loads of fun with the co-op mode of Tengen Tetris, and also played a bunch of other games, like Xexyz!

Xexyz is an awesome adventure game that merges platforming action with sidescrolling shooting ^_^ It’s also really pretty and colorful, and you get to see fairies in bath tubs! haha ^_^

Another game that we played was Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth which is also really cool :) It is also a merge of platformer/shmup, but it also has a strategic boss battle element :) This dinosaur was really annoying >_<

We also played Zen: intergalactic ninja! This game is hard!! But I love how they’re making it all about environmental friendliness haha ^_^ Every stage is about fighting pollution in some way, and in the bonus stages you recycle trash! LOL! I’ve never encountered such an environmentally aware Ninja ;D

Last game we played was Karnov, and we got stuck on the 5th stage with the dinosaur boss that appears a second time >_< The game was a bit glitchy, we got stuck sometimes inside walls and had to wait for the timer to run out and kill us, lol…

On Saturday we went into town and visited the GAME store. They had quite a lot of retro games, apart from three big glass cabinets by the entrance they also had more shelves around the counter :D I picked up quite a lot of games here ;D

At the end of they day we visited a really awesome place called Café på Bit! It’s a café/arcade! Mainly focusing on console gaming but they also had some pinball machines and an arcade machine with Pixelbot Arena (a game produced by a local talent) :)

Apart from all the setups, CRT’s and consoles, they also had a whole wall of games you could choose to play! :D They had the entire NES library that was released in Scandinavia ^_^ And some games were even for sale! I picked up a few great ones ;D I’ll tell you all about them in my next post ^_^

We spent 4 hours there, all three of us were playing the same game, the only game I was interested in playing since I knew I couldn’t play it at home: Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril! I’ve seen the game maybe once before, and I know it’s a new game released for the NES (in 2006 I think) made by one guy. It was extremely difficult! You just had to memorize every step! We were competing on who would finish it first, after four hours none of us were even close to finishing it haha ^_^ I made it the furthest though, to boss no. 2…

Café på Bit was really cosy, too bad it’s so far away from me :( Probably around a 15 hour drive! I recommend anyone visiting the north of Sweden to check it out though! ^___^

I’ll get right on writing my next post about my pickups! I came home with almost 20 games! :D