A new challenger has appeared! Retrospelmarknad in Vetlanda

Last weekend I took a roadtrip to Vetlanda with my friend Matt, because we had heard that they were arranging a retro game market! I actually didn’t have too high expectations in sellers and visitors attending, both because of the lesser known town of Vetlanda, but also the amount of retro gaming conventions that had been taking place in the recent couple of weeks. I still needed to check it out though!

I was pleasantly surprised that it first of all was indoors (it said Retro Game Market in the Park, so I was afraid it would be outside in the cold of Swedish November XD) but also what a big number of sellers that were there! We first found a small room with only one seller who had set up 8 tables filled with games from the NES to PS2.. but we later discovered there was a whole other giant room filled with loads more! And there were lots of people that I’ve gotten to know from previous conventions ^_^

It was a lot of fun just talking to everybody, but I also ended up finding and buying way more than I had expected XD My biggest find was a boxed Japanese Virtual Boy! I now have 4 Virtual Boys XD But only one is boxed and it’s American. I’ve always liked the Japanese box design, but didn’t think I would find one at a decent price. This time I couldn’t pass it up though :D I also found a cute little arcade thing, the screen is smaller than a Game Boy Advance, but it carries similar graphics and has 108 games in 1! One of them is “Falling Blocks” which I also have on another system, it’s the most frustrating Tetris-like game XD The blocks are ridiulously shaped!

I also found loads of games for various systems. A few 16-bit games for Super Famicom and the Sega Mega Drive. I’m sorry about the upside-down photo of Raiden Densetsu, I just keep wanting to see it the opposite way! Haha! And I couldn’t be bothered re-shooting.. I don’t really like RPGs as many of you know, but I couldn’t resist price-worthy Final Fantasy games, it’s the only RPG series I’ve at least played a few games from.. and the box arts are so pretty ^_^ Super Family Circuit looked kind of like micro machines :) And the two Mega Drive games were in really nice condition and I didn’t have them before, platformers are always fun ^_^

I also got some Famicom and Famicom Disk System games that I didn’t have :) Fun to run into Tom & Jerry in the wild like this, you don’t see it every day ^_^ I have Baseball, but not he pulseline version. It’s hard not to pick up Famicom games when it’s something I don’t have XD

I also got a bunch of Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Advance games, and found an Amiga CD32 game called The Chaos Engine. I vaguely remember somebody telling me about it once.. saying it was good.. I guess we’ll see ^_^ I also bumped into a Tetris game I didn’t have! I didn’t even know Tetris Attack existed on Game Boy! It’s not really a “Tetris” game in my oppinion, but I can’t argue with the name XD

I’m really happy to see that so many Japanese Nintendo games have made it to the Swedish market! But the prices of them are also increasing.. The only negative thing for me with this Swedish market, just like a majority of the Swedish retro game events and conventions, was the giant focus on Nintendo.. I would like to see more varied things, like Atari, PC Engine, Commodore, and other more obscure systems, but I guess the interest in those things is just smaller :/

Other than that it was a pleasant surprise to see such a niched event pop up further south and I hope it will continue! They said they were looking at having another retro market already in spring next year :D

Retro Rumble – Bachelor party edition XD

Two weeks ago I threw a Retro Rumble game night for a friend of a friends bachelor party XD

11 guys competed in various retro games, starting off with Soldier Blade for PC Engine. What’s really funny is that each and every new contestant beat the previous highscore XD Talk about competition!

After that we went old school and they got to compete in some Race on Philips Videopac G7200 ^_^ This was much harder for the guys, but a few of them managed to get some decent scores :)

They also got to compete in Kato-chan & Ken-chan on PC Engine, original Tetris on NES and Super Monaco GP on Sega Mega Drive :)

Meanwhile the entire retro game room was open for business, I had games on on every single TV. The guys really enjoyed Chou Aniki on Sega Saturn, such an absurd game! I just want everyone to experience it XD They also played some Neo Geo AES, some Atari 2600, Virtual Boy, Mr. Gimmick on Famicom and lots of other games and systems when they were not competing ^_^

After this it was time for the semi-finals where 4 competitors got to battle it out in a few different Super Famicom games. These games were VS Collection, Harapeko Bakka and Sugoi Hebereke ^_^

Retro Rumble - Semi-finals VS Collection

Vibben, who they threw the bachelor party for, luckily made it onto the finals as well :) Here they got to play Combat on Atari 2600, Choco Vader Contactee on arcade (really absurd japanese mini-games) and finally competing in highest score on co-op Tetris on NES, the Tengen version ^_^

And the winner was… Vibben! :D

Retro Rumble - Winner!

I love throwing game nights so this was a blast ^_^

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

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

Space Invaders for Virtual Boy!

I finally got one step closer to completing my Virtual Boy collection! :D Nintendo’s Virtual Boy was one of the first things I started collecting for, since it was never released here in Europe I got very intrigued by the system :) I have three Virtual Boy systems and all the US released Virtual Boy games, now that I recently found Water World at Retro Gathering! :D

Through the years though I’ve found out about games that was released in Japan that I didn’t know about. At one time I thought I had them all, when I got Jack Bros and Innsmouth no Yakata, but then I found out about the three that I was lacking.. These were Space Invaders (which always had a ridiculous price tag of 1.400 USD on eBay), Virtual Lab and SD Gundam Dimension War which are even more expensive and hardly ever found for sale.. now I’ve finally got one down though! :D Space Invaders! (Which is probably the most fun one out of the three I just mentioned). I found it on eBay and it wasn’t cheap.. I got it for 500 USD. A few years ago I never thought I would ever be able to pay this much for a single game, but now that I’ve almost bought every “cheap” game that is out there, the only ones left are the rare and expensive ones >_< I’m still very happy to have this one though, and I doubt that it will loose it’s value any time soon :)

Space Invaders Virtual Boy

The one I found is complete and in excellent condition! So minty ^__^
Space Invaders Virtual Boy Complete

Space Invaders Virtual Boy Complete back

Now I’ve only got 2 more to go ^_^ Wish me luck!

Virtual Boy with Space Invaders

Is anybody else collecting for the Virtual Boy? :)

Retrogathering pickups!

I bought so many games at Retrogahtering 2014 that it has taken some time to organize it all. It was a great place to shop for games though, they had a lot of great sellers, like Spel & Sånt whom I bought loads of stuff from ;D

The most expensive game I bought was Separation Anxiety (PAL) for the SNES. It’s the sequel to Maximum Carnage. The day after my friends over at Gaminggrannar showed me a cool little shop called Ploppsi in Örebro, here I also found this action figure of Venom which I basically got for free after buying some games there as well ;D It made for a great photo opportunity ^__^
Separation Anxiety_4
Separation Anxiety_5
Separation Anxiety_1

Here are some other SNES games I picked up. The Lost Vikings, Robocop 3, Lost Dimension, Judge Dredd, Push-Over, Rival Turf! and Space MegaForce. When I tried Space Megaforce out I realised I already had it for the Super Famicom, it’s Super Aleste…
SNES games

I also got some really nice Sega Mega Drive games, like Ristar and Contra Hard corps for the Japanese Mega Drive, and also Captain America and the Avengers, Galaxy Force II, Robocop vs Terminator, California Games, Sword of Vermillion, Alien 3 and a bunch of NHL and sports games that I didn’t previously own. 
Sega Mega Drive Ristar and Contra Hard Corps
Sega Mega Drive games Captain America and Galaxy Force II
Sega Mega Drive Games Robocop vs Terminator and California games
Sega Mega Drive Games NHL etc

I found a weird game that Borka at Spel&Sånt persuaded me to get. It’s called Caution Seaman and it’s for the Sega Dreamcast. Apparently you have some sort of seaman in an aquarium which you speak to through a microphone that comes with the game. It just sounded so weird that I had to get it! :D
Sega Dreamcast Caution Seaman

The Swedish GAME store was also represented at Retrogathering and I got some complete Sega Game Gear games from there :) Halley Wars, Aerial Assault and Super Space Invaders!
Sega Game Gear games

I also got a bunch of Sega Master System from Super Motaro at Retrogathering. These included Kung Fu Kid, Rambo III, Great Golf, Fantazy Zone II, Rocky, Crash Dummies, California Games, Basketball Nightmare, The Lucky Dime Caper, Wimbledon and Wimbledon II. I also found Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker the day after at Ploppsi ^_^
Sega Master System games
Sega Master System - Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

I found something that I wasn’t expecting as well! When I started collecting a bit over 10 years ago I fell in love with the Nintendo Virtual Boy and bought every game I came across for it. After a while I had most of them, I was only lacking Water World out of the US releases, and I found it this weekend! :D I also got Warioland and Mario Clash for the Japanese Virtual Boy, I only had these in US releases previously, and I found a complete copy of Nester’s Funky Bowling (I previously only had the loose cartridge). This got me so excited that I went on eBay when I got home and found something else ;D I’ll let you know what once it arrives in the mail! :D After that I am only lacking two of the Japanese releases to have a complete Virtual Boy Collection! :D
Virtual Boy Games 2
Virtual Boy Games 1

I also got about 20 Atari 2600 games, a multi-game tap for the Atari 2600, 12 games for the Commodore 64 some pirate NES and Famicom carts, 3 complete N64 games and a bunch of other stuff ^_^ Now I’m gonna prepare my next entry about Retrospelsfestivalen which was this last weekend!