Summer Project

Posted on June 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

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Currently in the planning stages. I am looking to combine all of these things into one over the summer.

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Posted in Projects, Video Games

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Garage Sale Mystery Box

Posted on September 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

At the garage sale I talked about previously, I asked if they had any video game related stuff besides a couple of Nintendo controllers I found in a box. They said they had but it was still in storage and they would bring it there over the course of the weekend. I was going away for the weekend, so I didn’t get back there until Monday. The people who hosted the garage sale were extremely nice and held this large Tupperware container that made up most of their stored old gaming stuff. I took an ancillary glimpse inside and asked how much they wanted. They said ten dollars and after looking in, I was expecting to pay more. Instead of asking for change I paid twenty dollars for the container based on the glimpse I got of it.

The container itself wouldn’t fit in the trunk of my car and since it is a two door, I couldn’t get the front sear down far enough fo put in the back so the container rode shotgun back home and I lugged it back up to my apartment.

Time to actually look and see what I bought. I knew I saw some NES, SNES and N64 games along with a Super NES system at the garage sale. In the box along with the useable contents shown below was a lot of empty boxes and manuals for games that weren’t in there which I had no real use for. There was some other random electronics in there as well like a Game Gear external battery that wouldn’t take a charge, etc. The real meat and potatoes of the container was all sorted and put into these Google Docs spreadsheets I have made for my different games by system.

Final Breakdown is

  • 1 Xbox 360 – potentially red ringed as it looks like it has been opened and it requires a power brick that I don’t have.
  • 1 Super Nintendo – No video out cable or power cable.
  • 1 Dreamcast – 1 controller, 1 fishing rod, and VMU no video cable or power cable.
  • 1 Sony Playstation – with the serial port on the back and a Pro Action Replay.
  • 1 Nintendo 64 – 4 Controllers, one is a 3rd party, memory card, no video cable or power cable
  • 30 Nintendo Games
  • 13 Super Nintendo Games
  • 2 Nintendo 64 Games
  • 4 Gameboy Games
  • 3 Dreamcast Games
  • 2 Game Gear Games
  • 11 Genesis Games
  • 2 Playstation Games

With this acquisition I am going to take a temporary break from large gaming purchases for a bit while I find a place to put the things I have just acquired. My storage bins are currently at capacity so it may be time to talk expansion. But to keep myself entertained, I recently acquired a PS3 suffering from the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD) which I will be attempting to fix as I did previously with my old PS3 before replacing it with a PS3 Slim. Stay tuned for that repair process coming soon. It very well may end in failure!

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Posted in Game Collecting, Garage Sales, Video Games

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(broken) Laserdisc Player Acquired

Posted on September 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Went to a garage sale last weekend and came across an actual Sony Laserdisc player (Model: Sony MDP-333). For those following along at home, I bought 6 Laserdiscs at the Salvation Army but had no way of actually watching them. Ok so they were porno movies and musical performances on Laserdisc, but still it would be interesting to see right?

Anyway, I bought the Laserdisc player for 5 dollars and then had the task of having to get this home in one piece since I was on my bike. So I swerved down the street back to my apartment doing my best not to rattle the player. I think I did a fairly good job. I got home and dug up some RCA cables and tried to see if this thing would work.

Sure enough, it doesn’t. When you hit the open button, the motor whirs but you have to physically tug the tray for the gear to catch and it opens. Once the disc is inserted, the tray can go in on its own, but that’s where it all ends. The disc doesn’t spin up but the laser tries to focus on the disc a few times before it gives up. Once and while, the OSD will flash between blue and green like some type of crash. I am going to see if there is anything I can learn from the Service Manual (low res version here, let me know if you need higher res), but I am not holding my breath. Worst case scenario is I am out 5 bucks.

In the end, I wound up getting something even better from that garage sale later on (which I show in a separate post).

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Posted in Garage Sales

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More Stuff: May – June 2012

Posted on June 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Been busy at work and on the weekends. Haven’t really had a chance to go out to my normal sources trying to find some new games. Hoping to make up for it in July. Most of the stuff I have here is from between roughly the beginning of May and now. Now being the end of June in case you are reading this after June 30, 2012. There is a very good chance that will be the case.

Most of the GameCube games are coming from a lot I picked up at a Goodwill in New York. There were some Harry Potter games also available but since I am going more for games I enjoyed or interesting titles over complete collection shit I opted to leave them there. They are still at the store after all this time too. Luigi’s Mansion and the NES games I picked up altogether for $30 at a flea market in Ladson, South Carolina while I was down there a week or so ago. I think most of them I got while doing the Tour De Flea in the Poconos with the chief proprietor and owner of the Hodge Podge Garage and Audio Collector, Tyler.

Also, I have recently started indexing my collection better than just trying to memorize what I have vs. what I don’t have. Too much to remember now. I have been using Google Docs to make spreadsheets of all the systems and breaking down the games with sub information. Ideally I should be using a searchable database, but I wanted to have offline mobile access that is easy to update as well for this list because some of the places I go to don’t have cell phone reception. That’s why I went with Google Docs and on my iPhone, I am using the excellent GoDocs from Light Room Software. The combination works great for me at this moment. Hopefully I can have a much nicer system down the road but I am good for now. I can post some screenshots of it in use later on.

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Posted in Flea Marketing, Game Collecting

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Not Every Find Is A Good One

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Went to a Pocono flea market this pass week with a friend. The initial intention was to get a new stash of pickles and just see what’s around. I am still sorting through the stuff I have gotten over the last few weeks so I am not trying to add more to the pile unless it is really necessary. I am also currently making spreadsheets of all my systems and games to lower my chance of duplicates.

But anyway I was looking through a stack of old CD’s and boxed set CD’s and tapes when I came across an actual copy of Howard Stern’s “Crucified By The FCC.” As a long time Stern fan, I remember as a kid hearing callers to the show talking about it and how hard it was to find. This was back when I was like 11 or 12 around 1992 when my dad first allowed me to listen to the show. The quality of box wasn’t the best but it was still good. The price wasn’t wrong either. I checked the box and the insert was there as were two tapes. I figured everything was good so I paid my $5.00 and was on my way. That’s right… 5 bucks.

With my new Stern collectible in hand, I wasn’t able to find anything else worthy of buying that day besides some pickles. It was time to go home and approach my first challenge: Find a tape deck to play this in. You see, the year is currently 2012. Nobody uses cassette tapes anymore or own modern equipment that plays it. Before I could figure out a way to find a suitable way to play this audio, I figured I would check out the full package now that I didn’t have some seller trying to pack up his shit breathing down my back like at the flea market.
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