Tuesday 22 December 2015

CGCC Swap Meet Pick-ups (A little overdue)

So I'm finally off school for a few weeks, so I took a some time to put together what I bought at the CGCC Swap Meet in Cambridge back in November. So yeah, this is a little overdue, but better late than never I guess...?


This is everything from CGCC. I never thought I'd own Mario Paint; but it had the mouse and was at a very good price. The game itself is extremely common, but worthless if it doesn't include the mouse needed. If you've never played Mario Paint, it's pretty much MS Paint downsized onto SNES with a Mario theme to it. Kirby's Pinball Land isn't bad. Ranger X is a good mech shoot 'em up, with a high learning curve but boasting incredible graphics and special effects. Fun fact: Croc was originally pitched to Nintendo as a 3-d platformer starring Yoshi, but Nintendo turned down the idea and Argonaut released the game on Playstation instead. You can even see some resemblance between the Croc and Yoshi characters. Jokes on Nintendo, the game went on to sell a couple million copies and earn a sequel. Overall not bad, but I was a bit underwhelmed at the swap, not really a lot of stuff that genuinely interested me.





The day before the swap meet, I went to Milton to drop by Toyratt, a well-known video game dealer in the GTA. Tons of stuff there, definitely check it out if you're in the area. I mostly went there just to browse, see what they have, but something caught my eye: a complete copy of Metroid II on Game Boy. This is in fact, the only Metroid game I don't have complete in box, so of course I'm all over it. The owner of the store let me have it for $60, which in retail is an incredible deal when you consider it goes for around $100. I'm proud to say that I now have a complete Metroid collection!!! It pays off to get to know the employees and strike up conversations. Deals can be had, even in retail environments.

After the swap on Sunday (November 15) I figured I had time to check out a flea market, with a vendor I know who has given me deals in the past. He also sells tons of boxes and manuals for older games, as he bought up a lot of video store stock from when they were being liquidated. Here, I picked up the Sonic and Knuckles box and manual, and the Streets of Rage box. I already have both those games so it's nice to have the boxes for them. I also picked up the Ninja Turtles Hyperstone Heist box, though I didn't even have the game. I figured if I buy the box for $10 and find the cart for a reasonable price, I've landed a sweet deal. So in each of the boxes cost me $10 each, I'm fine with that.

A few days after that weekend, I had remembered something. Back on the Saturday, Toyratt had a copy of Hyperstone Heist, loose. I wondered if they still had it. I called them first, asking if they had the game, in case it saves me the hassle of driving up there and realizing they already sold it. So I drove up there after school and the owner even put it on hold for me, how nice. The game kicks ass, it's become one of my favourites on the Genesis; good gameplay, good graphics, great music, and it's 2-player simultaneous! While I was there, I decided to pick something else, an item that had caught my eye but I wasn't losing sleep over. That would be a complete F-Zero on SNES, a game that I've actually never played. And after playing it, it's become one of my favourites on Super Nintendo.


And one last cool find. I had a job interview on Black Friday morning, and afterwards I was in the area and dropped by the Value Village. As I walked to the showcase display, a clerk had just locked up something, a small purple box. I look in and see this: a complete copy of Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages on GB Color.... for $9.99. From that point that was an easy decision to make. At this time, I was incredibly lucky. I happened to walk in to the store just as this was being put on the shelf. I was at the right place at the right time. The condition on this thing is amazing: the box has some dings, but the manual is crisp, and upon cracking it open it was very fresh and felt like it had never been used. The cart is also mint: upon first booting it up, there was only a single save file on there, with no progress made whatsoever. No rupees, no items, no equipment, no weapons, nothing. The file would actually start from the very beginning of the game. So I'm going to believe that this had literally been played once, and then stored away to be forgotten about. I even started my own save file, and the battery still works fine, which is another plus. On average, a complete copy like this is worth around $60. Like I said, this is an example of when I was at the right place at the right time. 

Later days.

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