Current Collection

The Journey So Far...
While I don't feel it necessary to give myself a label of a collector, the fact is I do collect games much like most of you do. I imagine if you have gone to the effort of reading this this humble blog, you must have at least a keen interest in retro gaming and/or collecting or perhaps looking to get acquainted with this wonderful and nostalgic past time.

If the former is true, chances are you will have amassed a greater catalogued than I hold but for those curious, allow me to provide an up-to-date list of what sits pride and place on my shelves. Quick note beforehand, I will only count what I want to focus this blog around which is NES, SNES, SEGA And Game Boy. I have games for older platforms which I never knew existed when I was younger and some slightly newer but, for now, this is the focus.

SEGA Mega Drive

1. Alien Storm
2. Altered Beast
3. Ballz
4. Chuck Rock
5. Greendog
6. James Pond Robocod
7. Kid Chameleon
8. Mega Games 1
9. Mega Games 2
10. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Genesis)
11. Mutant League Football
12. NHLPA Hockey '93
13. Side Pocket
14. Skitchin'
15. Sonic 1
16. Sonic 2
17. Sonic 3
18. Speedball 2
19. Splatterhouse 2
20. Sub Terrania
21. Taz-Mania
22. The Haunting Starring Polterguy
23. Theme Park
24. Urban Strike

So nothing particularly flashy or outrageously pricey. I have mentioned a few times during past posts that I collect to play so I tend to shy away from the expensive, hell even some of the above I regret buying (looking at you Ballz!... actually that sounded less weird in my head).

NES

1. Batman
2. CastleVania
3. Double Dragon
4. Kabuki Quantum Fighter
5. Probotector
6. Shadow Warriors
7. Star Wars
8. Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
9. The Legend of Zelda

Although relatively small, my NES games are my most beloved. You might notice a theme of side scrollers/platformers, I think as time has passed, I realised that this probably is my favourite genre. I consider none of these games a weak link and look forward to discussing all of them in a little more depth. Some of you may be aware of my very first review was CastleVania last year.

SNES

1. Another World
2. Fire Fighting (Super Famicom)
3. Mickey Mania
4. Super Adventure Island (Super Famicom)
5. Super Mario All-Stars
6. Super Mario Kart
7. Super Mario World
8. Super Star Wars

During my hiatus over the last few months, it seems that the SNES was left the most in the dark (something that may need to be addressed post-wedding!). A couple of cornerstones for the console in there but definitely room for improvement.

Game Boy

1. Donkey Kong Land 2
2. Mario Land 1
3. Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
4. Micro Machines
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ages (GBC)
6. The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
7. Wario Land (Mario Land 3)
8. Wave Race

Most of these games haven't left my side since my younger days, DKL2 I still remember buying brand new. I think Wave Race is there through default, I think it stayed in the same drawer for about 25 years!

Looking through all the Nintendo games it looks like I stuck to the Mario and Zelda franchises but to be honest, I was never a huge fan of them. I enjoyed them well enough but I didn't connect with them as much as a lot of people did.

So there you have it anyway, the collection thus far a mixture of originals from the good old days and some brought into a new home, fixed up and back to previous glory. It's not the biggest collection, or the most expensive, or the rarest and perhaps to some people not even the most fun... but it is mine :)

If any of you lot out there want to share you thoughts and opinions, please don't be afraid to comment or get in touch. It is always genuinely great hearing from you.

All the best,

Richard

NERG 2016

A big event in the North East for retro gamers is the North East Retro Gaming event held each year in Gateshead. Spanning the weekend, this years event was held on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of July at the Gateshead Leisure Centre (not the International Stadium, more on that in a moment!).

This year I was once again joined by my brother Mark, and his friend Stuart (most notably of "Ashens" fame on YouTube, if you haven't seen his videos, check them out). A new addition called Robbo also joined us, indeed our party is ever-growing.

We scoured the stalls and picked up a couple of bargains but the general murmurs from around the hall seemed to be about the cliche, the hike in price of retro games since the boom in popularity.

A Quick Note About Retro Popularity and Prices
Myself included, the first 10 minutes were awash with negativity on my end on how people think it acceptable to charge certain prices for games that would have been half that a few years ago (I genuinely saw a Sonic The Hedgehog 1 on Mega Drive going for £10, though this was an extreme). 
Then it hit me (an idea, not the game), we can't really complain too much about some of our favourite titles increasing like they have. Yes, some are priced way beyond expectation and as such you should feel compelled to haggle the price. You then get the little niggle in the back of your mind that this stems from said "boom". The fact is though without this increase in popularity, we wouldn't have these events, these stalls and these machines. We pay a markup begrudgingly but if we didn't and the love of this hobby died down, where would we be? Surely back to drudging through car boot sales hoping this "this week it will be different".
While on this topic, keep in mind if the value of a game does go up, it is more likely to be looked after and well maintained. There are certain extremes as, of course there are but for the sake of a couple of quid, I am just happy these places exist.

The Event
So we set off from Mark's house and "Uber"ed over to the venue, not a particularly long journey, about 15 minutes. The strange thing was when we got there we noticed a unpleasant decrease in popularity this year, a real shame given last year seemed to have been really popular. Our worries were set at ease as we noticed not only were there fewer people, there were no people there at all! We got the wrong venue this year. It moved!
So we hollered another Uber and went to the correct venue, which ironically would have only been a 5 minute walk from the house. Undeterred, we cracked on.

There are pro's and con's about going to these sort of events with Stu, the pluses are in abundance, great guy, really funny and knows a lot about retro games. The only real negative is after his great YouTube series, a movie and a book, you come to a stark realization that you have done nothing with your life! It was nice to see fans of his come over though, they looked genuinely pleased to see him.

What We Done And Did
A couple of pickups I have been after for a while, Super Star Wars on SNES and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles on NES, haggled down to a good price. Unfortunately, with a wedding upcoming, I had to be rather specific in what I wanted to acquire this year. A little out of scope was a pretty trippy Japanese Super Famicom game called Fire Fighting. After some research I found it was called The Firemen in Europe and  Ignition Factor, I believe, in North America. I noticed there was a translation patch so gave it a go. Sadly the patch didn't work but the gameplay is still there, could be picked up pretty quickly.
Mark picked up Fire Pro Wrestling 1, 2 and 3 for Super Famicom as well as a couple of other Japanese carts. Stu got a little of everything!
After scouring the stalls, we tired a few machines, completed teh Simpsons Arcade game and myself and Robbo had a battle on one of the old Pong machines before we all went our seperate ways trying out other bits and pieces. I got my a**e handed to me playing Defender!

All in all, it was a cracking day out. NERG hasn't disappointed me yet and although the venue was slightly smaller this year, it was well laid out and the staff all appeared friendly.


Going forward, I am hoping to post where things are at the moment in terms of collection and get more reviews out shortly. I am also working on developing a Retro Game catalogue application just to keep things organised a bit.
With house moving, weddings, new jobs etc. the latter part of 2015 and the first half of 2016 have been insane and it is sitting on the couch with a controller in my hand that has kept me sane, all the more reason to push on and get something reviewed sooner much more rather than later!


All the best,
Richard