Buyer's Remorse #17 - Light Our Darkest Hour

Hey peoples! 

Super Robot Tyson has returned with another installment of "sneak this crap into the house before my wife sees it" or as we like to call it: Buyer's Remorse!

Tommy was pretty proud of adding Action 52 to his collection, and considering he's more of a NES completionist than me, I was happy for him. However, I think I also forced his hand when he saw what I was picking up from the same seller. There was no way he was going to quell the jealous bile in his throat unless he bought something crazier than me. BEHOLD!

Pray at the PS1 altar to save your game.

I've always wanted some kind of store sign for the game cave, but this is better than I ever imagined. I figured I'd end up with some lame "Fun Zone" fixture from Roger's Video or something equally weak. The sign works great and lights up the room nicely for late night drunken PS1 marathons. Burstrick Wake Boarding is gonna get some hours out of us again!

Also, since Tommy is "enjoying" Action 52 this week, it gives me a chance to show off a cool item I got in the mail from a Kickstarter Campaign I supported.

Teenage Retarded Kung-Fu Furballs? 

There is no doubt that Cheetahmen II is a terrible game, but this was a gaming curiosity I really wanted on the shelf. This is not the first time I've backed a Kickstarter and I think it's a great way to discover new musicians, artists, and game developers. I wish I had ordered that Dreamcast version of Pier Solar. Go check out Shovel Knight on Kickstarter too, for an idea of the kind of projects you can support: Shovel Knight

Me? I'm sending $50,000.00 to this Kickstarter project right away:

Anyways, back to the task at hand. I bought a crapload of other games in the last few weeks and instead of boring you with the details, I'll just throw up the pics and go from there.

Ignignokt says: Observe the digital nads...

C'mon Trevino! Give these people air!

I was happy to finally knock the first No More Heroes game off the want list and I had a moment of pain when I realized that the first Monster Hunter game I bought was the PAL version, but luckily the PSP is region free. Almost everything I bought was 5 bucks or under and came from the pawn shop circuit or from the seller that I grabbed the all-mighty Playstation sign from. One of my favorite memories of this day was when I texted Tommy later and my iPhone autocorrected one of the above games into "Führer Maker". Is it wrong to want to play that game? 

I spent the rest of the week playing some Xbox Live Indie Games and I can highly recommend Cthulhu Saves The World, DLC Quest, and Rad Raygun. For $1.00 each, your really can't go wrong. I also took down a NES game as part of the passive challenge from the first episode of the Two Crude Dudes podcast, but I won't reveal what it is until the next episode! 

Later in the week I beat Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and played about half of Singularity on Xbox 360. Transformers was another big wet dream for fans of the series, but I think I liked the first game "War For Cybertron" a little bit more. Singularity is a Bioshock clone with a silly Cold War theme where evil Russians take over the world and you have to re-write history by time traveling and shooting mutants in the face. Awesome.    

For as much as I rip on EB Games/Gamestop, they have had some crazy prices in their spring cleaning sale. A lot of used Wii and DS games are $0.99 and even some solid new titles are $4.99! Tommy snagged me Kirby's Epic Yarn and Dragon Quest VIII for $4.99 each. I paid him back by buying him a few beers, which is acceptable legal tender in Tommytown. I headed to EB myself today and only stopped at two locations, but ended up with 15 games for about 35-40 bucks.

God, the North American cover art for The Monkey King sucks so bad.

Tenchu's Dark Secret is a 37 on Metacritic.

That's about all for now, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for checking out the blog and the new Two Crude Dudes podcast! There will be lots more to come, including content from our trip to The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo! Maybe Michael Biehn will do a bunch of cocaine with me and crawl through the ducts looking for Terminators and Aliens...

Madmartigan Out!

Buyer's Remorse #16 - Lights...Camera...Action...52?

Welcome to another installment of Buyer's Remorse. If you follow me on Twitter (@rcthitmantommy) you'll know that I claimed that I was taking Friday night off from doing some game hunting. What I didn't realize at the time was that this meant I'd be doing some on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But before I get into that there were a few pickups that I made during the last run with Tyson.

Now that I have MK I have a feeling Tyson will have a challenge for me soon enough.

I'd never heard of Bomberman Fantasy Race but seeing the Atlus logo brought it to my attention. From the back of the case it looks like a quirky racing game which would definitely be something that Tyson and I would play on one of our game nights. The remaining games were a few random pawn shop pick ups from the same night.

After my relaxing evening this past Friday I ended up hitting a couple pawn shops on Saturday. It was sort of spur of the moment, my wife had an appointment to go to in the afternoon so I tagged along and we made a few stops afterward. There were no real big treasures out there but I ended up coming home with a bunch of PS2 and Xbox games. One of the pawn shops that we frequent was blowing out all their PS2/Xbox games for a $1. There was nothing major there just your typical pawn shop bargain bin titles that we see pretty much everywhere. But for a $1 there were several that I was willing to take a chance on but would have never paid the usual $5 that we see them for.

Bargain Bin Fodder

I thought was going to be it for the weekend but on Sunday Tyson texted me about a Kijiji pickup he was going to make. He said this particular seller was getting rid of a large part of his collection and asked if I'd like to tag along. I looked at his listing and saw something particular that caught my eye. After confirming with Tyson that he wasn't interested in this particular item I decided to come along to check it out. While we were there I did grab a few other things that I wanted. Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout was a game I rented a lot as a kid and for whatever reason I've had a huge urge to play it recently. I paired it with the other two games pictured and was given a really good deal on them.

I'm hoping Home Alone isn't as bad as I remember

Before I reveal what the big pickup of Sunday was there is a little story that I need to tell. When I saw that this game was available I almost felt compelled to make sure I brought it home. This was mainly because it is involved in one of the biggest game hunting failures I've ever had. Roughly about 6 years ago I went to a community garage sale with my sister, her husband and my girlfriend (now my wife). After going to what was probably about 50 sales, and I think I only had found a game or two for Genesis, I came across a small plastic bin of loose GBA games. In retrospect I probably should of grabbed some of those too, I remember seeing a few Mega Man Battle Network games there but at the time I wasn't really interested in loose handheld games. I digress as that wasn't the failure I was referring to. At the same garage sale this guy was putting out a pile of about 9 games and a system and he wanted $40. I looked at it but the games that were there I pretty much had them all. I was still working my old job back then and really didn't have an extra $40 to put out for it at the time even though I could have probably traded in all the games that I already had for more than I paid and kept the two I didn't have. But really why would I do that, one of the games that was sitting there wasn't even a grey cartridge, it was some sort of weird clear cartridge. I knew enough at the time that this meant it was an unlicensed title and that it was probably a crappy game. I was right on both accounts but what I didn't know was that despite how bad the game is considered it was still very sought after by collectors and that I would spend the next 6 years reminding myself that I was a moron for not buying the lot. Anyways fast forward to this weekend, I wish I could tell you that I got some crazy deal on the game but that wasn't the case. Nor did I walk away feeling as though I got ripped off as I paid way below Ebay prices for this game. The seller had a price in mind which happened to be roughly what I figured my limit for the game would be and in the end it was a fair deal for both of us. But enough of the suspense and secrecy. Here's the game:

52 Shades of Shitty Games

As if that wasn't big enough for one day Tyson and I also hit a couple stores looking for more games. I picked up a couple things but continued to have a good day when we got to one of the pawn shops. After not finding anything in the current gen games (which is what this particular shop mainly carries) I moved over to the Xbox/PS2 section which is along the ground and kind of a pain to look at, but found 3 more titles that I was interested in picking up for $5 a piece. If you recall Tyson picked up a copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on Xbox for around $6 so it was nice to get a little retrobution for when he caught me sleeping. There was also a Gamecube game that I was looking at buying but I declined when I was informed that they sell Gamecube games for $10. While I respect that these places do need to make money and do have certain margins that they need to keep in order to not take a loss, I find it humorous the thought process that we hear them use some time. After explaining why Gamecube games were worth more than PS2/Xbox I smiled politely and nodded that his reasoning made sense. All I could think to myself was "Whatever man, you just sold me a $30-$40 game for 5 dollars you can keep your $10 GC games."

Romance of Three Kingdoms...That's about having a 4-way with three Princesses, right?

That wrapped up Sunday and seeing as I work this upcoming Saturday, I had the Monday off in lieu of it. My wife is off all week so we took some time to go to a few more places that I didn't have time to hit on the weekend. It ended up being a very productive trip and I made a few purchases while we were out. At our first stop I found a couple boxed NES games, a loose NES game, and a newer 360 game. The boxed NES games were titles that I already had loose, but as I've probably mentioned before if I can add a boxed NES game to my collection for less than $10, I'll probably be interested in doing so.

After that we hit one of the local retail shops and I grabbed a few more loose NES games and a couple more boxed games. The employee commented that she had just put a lot of them out about 10 minutes earlier so it was definitely a case of good timing. I also found a few 3DO titles as well. When it comes to 3DO again $10 is usually my ballpark to add a title to my collection.

Lastly, Tyson was at work on Monday night and he brought a Kijiji ad to my attention. I picked up the following items later that night and it was a great way to end a successful weekend of hunting. I did unfortunately bail really hard on a patch of ice on my way to pick up these games. I spent most of today unable to walk without a lot of pain but at least it happened before I got the games so there was no damage to them. Having a healthy body is overrated anyway.

Couldn't decide which version of P3 to buy....I picked the easiest solution.

That wraps up this round of pickups. I took some time this past week take part in the Nintendoage Challenge and also played a couple games on Xbox Live Indie Arcade but I'll go into further detail at a later time. I wanted to end this entry by posting a link to our Youtube Channel. If you've listed to the podcast I talked about this game a little bit and about how it frustrated me to no end. This was our first foray into posting content on Youtube and while it won't be something that we do to frequently, we hope to make use of it as needed. Until next time, Thanks for reading!

Two Crude Dudes - Episode #1 - The First Level!

The first podcast episode is here! Have a listen and let us know what you think. Send all compliments and Paypal donations to Super Robot Tyson, while all hate mail and stomach-punches are Tommy's department. 

Future episodes will always be available here and at  http://twocrudedudes.podbean.com/, but the best way will be to subscribe and rate the podcast on iTunes! I'm hoping the feed will be available in the next few days. In the meantime, hope you don't mind listening to it on the site or downloading it directly. 

*UPDATE: Two Crude Dudes is now on iTunes! Follow this link and then click "View in iTunes" so that you can subscribe and automatically receive new episodes when they are released.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/two-crude-dudes/id623016132

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Buyer's Remorse #15 - Philips Birthday Blowout!

It's been a busy time for River City Retro as we are getting ready to record the debut episode of the "Two Crude Dudes" podcast! I'm sure Tommy and I will have a lot to say about the world of game collecting, game playing, and other random media tidbits. If you like games, movies, comics, and inappropriate humor, you are not going to want to miss it! I'll get the shameless plug out of the way and say bookmark http://twocrudedudes.podbean.com/ now so that you can always find the latest episode. I should have an iTunes feed rolling not long after the first episode too.

Anyways, back to celebrating my spoils! I picked up some solid stuff on March 10th, including a dirt cheap copy of Dishonored on Xbox 360. I'm a nut for Bioshock type games and I've heard and seen nothing but great things. If you have not watched the "Walkenthrough" video where Christopher Walken is playing Dishonored and creating his own "whore tossing" mini-game, you are missing out. I also grabbed a few compilation discs and a pretty solid boxed copy of Cobra Command on NES.   

I wish there was a game called "Colecovision Dies!" just for continuity's sake...

March 14th was my birthday and I got a birthday surprise when I opened the mailbox. My boxed CDi controller had arrived, and my first issue of Pure Nintendo magazine! I've owned a Philips CDi for a long time now, but had no controller to play it with. The controller cost me more than the whole system and I guarantee that finally being able to play Hotel Mario will fill me with buyer's remorse. It had to be done, though. Philips CDi is notorious for being the worst video game console of all time and I figured that if I was going to subject myself to it's horrors, I should at least have an expensive controller to really hammer home what a pathetic moron I am. 

Pure Nintendo is a new magazine available in print and digital format and it's a beautiful magazine and a great love letter to die-hard Nintendo Fans. Since I won't be holding my breath for a "Pure Sega" magazine anytime soon, I figured I would settle for this. All jokes aside, It's a really great read and perfect for anyone mourning the loss of Nintendo Power. Check them out at http://purenintendo.com/magazine/ and support them with a subscription! 

Playing with a Philips Electric Razor will probably be more fun than CDi.

My birthday was a blast as I gathered with some friends to watch the Winnipeg Jets vs. New York Rangers game at a local sports bar. I won't spoil the story here, as I'm saving it for the podcast, but let's just say that Beer, Ghost Peppers, Shots, and Pulled Pork nearly killed me. Burning out my esophagus, stomach, and anus all in a 24 hour period made it a birthday to remember!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYSON!!!

The following day was a regular Friday game chasing night for us and I scored some nice stuff. Maybe the cheap Mass Effect guide will actually encourage me to beat that damn game. Highlight of the night had to be when I caught Tommy slipping and grabbed myself a copy of Persona on PSP. He said I had some game karma coming to me, but I bet he regrets that it came in the form of me gobbling up an Atlus game right in front of him. Suck it, buddy! There's not many Atlus games I actively want to play, but Persona has been a "Top 5" PSP want of mine for a while now. 

The food I ate on my birthday was known as "Ass Effect".

In closing, I finally bought a great portable heater for the game-cave basement so we won't freeze to death recording the podcast. Minus twenty celcius temperatures in mid March has been a real bummer. However, I'm looking forward to playing more Transformers: Fall of Cybertron on Xbox 360 in the warmth of the second floor. I've also been giving my PSP a lot of love lately and it's been nice to get reacquainted with it. 

That's all for now! Stay tuned for Two Crude Dudes...dude! 

Super Robot Tyson  

Buyer's Remorse #14

The wheels of progress keep turning here at River City Retro. Tyson and I are in the final planning stages of recording our first episode of the “Two Crude Dudes” podcast. But while that has been the most recent focus around here, we of course found some time to go game shopping.

We hit the flea markets on Sunday afternoon and the deals were pretty sparse. I did pick up a boxed copy of Ultimate Air Combat for the NES. I’d never seen this game before and the box was in really nice shape. It was in the range that I’ll pay for lesser known boxed NES games so I picked it up. It helped that it was at least put out by Activision so it can’t be entirely bad, right? The only other thing I grabbed there was a cart only copy of Tomb Raider on GB Color. This was to fill a hole more than anything. I’ve played this game and Lara controls like a car crash victim…..extremely stiff. But it was the last Tomb Raider game I needed to have them all with the exception of the reboot that just got released last week. That will be part of my collection too in good time; I just refuse to pay $60 for it.

That sticker is going to take some work.

Moving along, the pawn shops didn’t have any hidden treasures for me that day so we moved onto the retail shops. Grabbed a couple small PS2 wants but the big pick up on the day was when Tyson walked over to me and handed me Golf Grand Slam boxed and complete for the NES. I already have a cart only copy of this game but with it being an Atlus game Tyson relinquished it to me on the condition that he got whichever cart I didn’t keep. I’ve talked about game buying “karma” before in this blog and Tyson should have some heading his way for this.

I'm going to have all the golf balls in my bag customized with the Atlus logo.

That was it this time around in terms of buying games. As for playing them, it was all about the NES for me. I spent most of my spare time trying to better my Rad Racer score for the Nintendo Age Weekly Challenge. By the end of the week I had done the best I ever have and ended up finishing 14^th out of 34 entrants in the challenge. Although, had it not been for a stupid mistake I made which resulted in a crash right before the end of a course, I could have easily hit the top 10. However, I’m extremely happy that I was able to stay competitive with the other people that entered. Going into this week my goal was just to stay out of last place as these people are pretty hardcore. This week’s challenge is Double Dragon II on the highest difficulty. I don’t anticipate being anywhere near the top but it will be fun to participate again.

What's happening to the enemy about sums up my chances in this challenge.

We’re almost to the middle of March as I write this and Tyson and I are getting geared up for the Calgary Expo on April 26-28. There have been lots of great announcements and each week it keeps getting bigger and bigger. If you’re going to be in the Calgary region at the end of April check out www.calgaryexpo.com for more information. Further to that point if any of you readers are from Alberta or Saskatchewan and you know any places to look for deals on games drop us a line at rivercityretro@gmail.com as we’re hoping to get a little game hunting done while we’re on the road.

That will wrap it up this time around. We should be back soon with some more info regarding the podcast and as per usual Tyson and I will be hitting the shops tomorrow looking for deals. So until next time, it’s not hoarding if you alphabetize your games!

Coming Soon!

Keep watching for the debut of the official podcast of River City Retro!

Here's a teaser to get everyone ready...

Make sure to bookmark http://twocrudedudes.podbean.com/ for now so that you can be first in line to check out the debut of "Two Crude Dudes"! After the first show goes up, don't forget to subscribe via iTunes, or you will also to be able to check out the show right here on River City Retro...

More to come soon!

 
Super Robot Tyson

Maintaining The Game Room

Hello again! I had promised taking some updated pictures of recent changes I’ve made to the game room and I thought instead of just updating that page, why not turn this into a blog entry. This way I can share all the trials, tribulations, and aggravation of reorganizing all of it but also to discuss the gratification of getting things just so. During this blog I’m going to share some rules and tips that hopefully will be helpful to those of you who are just starting your game room, or those who would like one down the road.

When you first start this adventure, knowing the limitations of your space is going to be important. Lots of people only use one room but some devote entire basements or multiple rooms to their love of gaming. In the planning stages, knowing what you’d like to do and knowing what you’re allowed to do are two entirely separate things.

Hitman Tommy’s Game Room Rule #1- Always ask Permission.

Of course if you live alone this rule doesn’t really apply, but for the rest of us, if you’re living with a significant other, don’t assume that it’ll be okay until you ask. The love of a good woman is hard to find….the love of a woman who’s willing to let you fill up an entire room of the house with video games and other bullshit is extremely hard to find. Thankfully in my situation, when we were house shopping my wife and I had an understanding that I was allowed one room in the house to pretty much do as I please with.

The actual setup of the game room I don’t have any specific rules for. You just need to make sure that it works for you. Looking at other game rooms online is fine and you’ll probably find some ideas that you’d like to copy but creating a setup that is unique and "yours" can be very rewarding. I do realize that there is a limitation on how creative one can be with bookshelves and Sonic posters, but my point is that you need to think about the long term when it comes to setting things up. Once you fill the shelves with games, rearranging shelving units can become a real pain in the ass.

However if you’re a reader of this blog you’ve probably figured all this out already, so let's assume you’ve build your game room and filled it with lots of great games. If you’re an active chaser like Tyson and I who usually get out once a week you’ll probably find that you need to readjust things on a frequent basis. I know when playing/collecting games became my number one hobby adding games into my collection was always cumbersome and I’d end up with a stack of games sitting on the floor waiting to be filed. Three bookshelves and a few media racks later, I still run into this on occasion but now it’s just because I need to go buy more shelves.

Hitman Tommy’s Game Room Rule #2- Don’t pack/stack things to the tits.

There’s nothing worse than coming home from a night of chasing, logging your new games online, walking into the game room and realizing that your awesome Sega CD find at the pawn shop doesn’t have room on the shelf. To make matters worse like an idiot you’ve completely packed the shelf above and below it so there’s no chance of just sliding a couple titles down a row. Three hours later you’ve just finished moving 600 fucking games to make room for the one you just bought and you’re left wishing that you had the $3 it cost you back instead.

All of that time and effort could have been avoided if you only planned for future purchases. There are only three constants in life: Death, Taxes, and the knowledge that you’re going to buy more games, so why not leave some space for next time. Sure, this won’t work every time, but it’ll definitely reduce how often you have to go through the Cirque Du Soleil act of rearrangement.

The "Wrong" Way

The "Right" Way

That is probably the biggest issue with game room upkeep is where to put the new stuff. But this sort of ties in with my last "rule" so to speak

Hitman Tommy's Game Room Rule #3- Don't be afraid to get creative.

Let's face it, game collecting is a very rewarding hobby, but is also very expensive. The vast majority of us that spend our time chasing down cheap games do it because we're on a limited budget. Typically we don't live in 3000 sq. ft mansions with unlimited space to display our collections. For those that do......... Fuck those guys! Of course I'm kidding around, that's nothing more than being jealous over the extra income some of these fellow collectors have. Obviously, they've worked hard to have a good career and as a result, being able to buy the really rare items is their reward, but I digress.

My game room is on the main floor of my house and is about 90 sq. feet. Utilizing every last inch to it's fullest capabilities is an absolute must and thankfully I'm able to be creative when needed to be. It's not like I'm creating one of the 7 Wonders of the World, but whenever I create some more shelf space without making things look bad is always a great feeling.

Please keep in mind that while I've made this sound like it's work and not fun at all, I wouldn't change any of it for the world. I love maintaining and tweaking my game room and honestly it will never be exactly how I want it to be, but who knows...maybe someday. But thus far I've been able to provide myself with a comfortable space to enjoy my collection and yes, even play these games from our childhood. You need to be able to make due with what you have and what you can afford. The morning that I wake up and only care about games because they're rare, and don't have fun collecting anymore will be the day I list everything on eBay. Nothing is worth doing unless you enjoy it and have fun doing it.

With that I leave you with some final pictures of the current state of my game sanctuary. Until next time, keep searching for those deals and have fun!

Handhelds and Print Publications. Piece of advice, Don't start collecting Magazines!

Systems and Boxed Games.

NES Collection

A collage that my wife and I put together one weekend.

Sega and Playstation

Wii and Xbox

What game room would be complete without some toys!

River City Retro - The Next Level?

Hey everyone!

While you would normally expect me to be rambling on about the obscene amount of games that I bought on Friday, I thought I would hit the pause button for a moment and let everyone know about some of our plans for the future of River City Retro. Also, the only thing I bought on Friday was a copy of Blades of Steel for original Game Boy and no one needs to see a picture of that.

Recently I signed up for Twitter (@SuperRobotTyson) to connect with more individuals in the retro gaming community and it really opened my eyes to the unreal amount of people out there talking about and collecting video games. I've always followed the exploits of the crew at Retroware TV and I think everyone can admit to loving the Angry Video Game Nerd, but the way social media and the online communities have blown up, everyone can share their content with the world. 

I'm a busy person and I only have so much time to devote to watching and reading things on the internet, so I have to pick and choose what I follow. I've got a full time job, a wife, and way too many video games that I should be playing.   

Me trying to choose what to play next.

It made me think about why we started this blog and what we'd like to do with it in the future. We started this mainly as a way to entertain each other. Tommy and I have been friends for over 15 years and a huge portion of that has been spent driving around in my car, looking for unique things for our collections. While we do enjoy beer, music, sports, and boobs just as much as a regular dude does, nothing is more fun that the "thrill of the hunt" at a garage sale, flea market, or pawn shop. We've had a few collecting diseases over the years (DVDs, Comics, Heroclix, Hockey Cards, Action Figures, etc.) that I'm not always proud of, but the one thing that has always remained constant is our love of video games.

I still recall hooking up my Coleco Gemini in Tommy's parent's basement in 1999 and when the screen flickered to life, I raised my arms slowly, and euphorically chanted "Whooo Whoo Wooo Woooooo!!" like Ric Flair having a seizure. 

We are very experienced game collectors and while our exploits have not been broadcast to the world, this blog is the beginning of us sharing some of our stories. When I watch some online videos of pretty impressive game collections, I'm in awe of the sheer size and uniqueness, until I realize that Tommy's collection is larger and more bizarre. We really need to let more people peek behind the curtain that covers our mental illness of game hoarding... 

So what's next for River City Retro?

1. PODCAST

Tommy and I have hosted a podcast before that actually covered sports and wrestling and we were on the air for 60-80 hours over 27 different episodes. It was a moderate success and we were lucky to interview some amazing people from that industry. I'm very excited about hosting a video game podcast as we have years of stories to tell, collecting tips, immature jokes, and video game passion to share. We will host the show live with both us in "studio" and being in the same room helps capture the tone that we have when we drive around chasing games and ripping on each other.

2. VIDEOS

I'm less experienced in the video department, but in today's day and age, everything is filmed and put on You Tube. Honestly, watching some of these "unboxing" videos from kids that can't use the English language properly and just say "Hurrrrh...Herp....Derp..." while taking the wrapping off a PS3 game makes me think that we can't fail too badly. I don't know if we will actually take a camera on the road while we look for games, but I'm sure that something filmed in the game cave in my house will make it online. I'd really like to capture some of the audio and game footage from the nights we drink a dozen beers each and play a stack of terrible games...

3. COMPETITION 

One of the main things Tommy and I have going is the natural instinct to compete with each other. Honestly, I know it sounds cliche, but "He who dies with the most games, wins!" When I said that we enjoy the thrill of the hunt, I also meant that we love catching the other guy slipping and snagging a rare game out from right under his nose...and then bragging about it all night until all you hear is whispered swearing from the other side of the car. This competition will extend to gaming and I can see us participating in gaming challenges like the ones on the Nintendo Age site, or creating our own that we can talk about on the podcast, or on film. 

4. CANADIAN CONTENT

This seems kind of silly, but out of a lot of the collectors and gamers I follow or interact with online, I can't think of any that are Canadian. There has to be more Canadian collectors and game players that we have not found yet. Finding and contributing to a Canadian community of retro gamers would be awesome and it would even make online trades and gaming challenges more fun. 

I'm tempted to add more things to this list, but looking at how we can procrastinate sometimes, I think this will keep us busy. I'm tempted to mention something about becoming giant internet celebrities and using theoretical internet dollars and influence to attend every retro gaming convention in the world, (without having to pay airfare or hotel) but that might be aiming a little too high. When we do become giant viral internet celebrities, we can address our schedule at a formal press conference, or live webcast. 

 

So I guess I should set some type of goal to help us stay accountable, eh? I think it's realistic to say that hosting our first podcast in March 2013 is a good start. Tommy is also going to put a few irons in the fire on the video front and we are planning to be a little more loose with our blog content. While "Buyer's Remorse" is a fun way to show off our games, it's also kind of a big wank-fest for our own collections and can get boring pretty fast for other readers. Reviews and editorial pieces are crucial, as well as smaller bite size blogs with some news and jokes to help keep the RCR ball in the air and attract new readers. Looking at the "stats" for our blog shows that someone out there is actually checking out our site, but it's hard to say if they are actually reading it or if it's just an army of spam bots trying to sell us Viagra and wrinkle cream. 

So, if you are not a spam bot and you do read the blog, drop us a line, friend us on GameFaqs, follow us on Twitter, or comment on one of our blogs so we know that you are real. I'm pretty confident that most retro game collectors are hilarious and awesome, just like us, so let's be friends! 

Tyson

GameFaqs: espinz
Twitter: @SuperRobotTyson      

Tommy

GameFaqs: hitman_tommy
Twitter: @rcrhitmantommy

Buyer's Remorse #13 - The Postman Cometh

At the time of writing this we are once again on the eve of another day of Tyson and I hitting the pawn circuit so I figured I’d take some time to go over what I found last week. We both worked during the day last Friday so we didn’t get started until early evening and tried to power through our usual stops. The unfortunate part of going to the pawn shops is more often than not the things you find will be current gen games. That’s usually not a problem and as a result Tyson and I have amassed a nice collection of Xbox 360/PS3/Wii games for a fraction of retail price. But when we stumble across something older at these places it’s always a nice surprise.

Naughty Bear aka Reject Care Bears on acid.

We started the night at one of our favourite haunts and got off to an solid start. Naughty Bear is one that I’ve been keeping an eye out for. Even though I haven’t heard great things, it sounded like it would be something I’d enjoy playing. RBI Baseball 2 filled a hole as I already had games 1 and 3 in the series.

We also went to one of the local retail stores and every time we go to this certain place we usually can dig out something that’s in the price range we want to pay. I grabbed a copy of Whacked for under $5. With cartoon graphics and game play that seems like it could have been in the Fusion Frenzy series, I figured it would be worth a spin. Additionally, there was this weird looking duck character on the cover, and if you know me, you know I like ducks, thus the potential of playing this game as a duck put it over the top and on the counter to purchase. I also grabbed Gex 3 on Gameboy Color but before you ask, I don’t have the same obsession with lizards as I do with ducks.

Dick Dastardly will never again be screwed out of winning races by those lousy Do-Gooders.

In between the two previous stops was when Tyson and I came across a mass amount of Gameboy games. Not much to say about these except World Heroes was a no brainer and I snapped that up right away. Wacky Races? I love the cartoon and while I really want the NES version of the game the GBC version will have to do. Plus it was about $80 cheaper than what a NES copy would cost!

That would be it with notable finds for that evening, but after I got dropped off I had a couple of packages waiting for me on the doorstep. After already having a moderately successful chase night this was just icing on the cake. The first package contained a complete copy of Strider 2 on PS1. This was one that I’ve wanted for a while, and I had an opportunity to pick it up a couple of years ago and I didn’t. This time I didn't make the same mistake and got it for a decent price to boot.

The second package had a very mint copy of Super Widget for SNES, which if you recall, I just got a boxed copy of original Widget on NES shortly after Christmas. Anyways, Super Widget was another game needed for my Atlus collection and that item was what drew me to this particular online seller. Once I got looking at the rest of his listings, he also had a copy of Contra III below what they are currently selling for on Ebay. After a few messages back and forth a deal was struck and as a result I got to add both of these to my collection. Contra III was one of those games that it was just stupid that I didn’t own it.

My next pickup Tyson alluded to in his last post. Last Saturday I was a little bummed that I had to work, mainly because the place that had the Gameboy games said they had a bunch of old stuff that they had to price, and told us to come back. Tyson (being off work) would have first crack, and as you saw in his post, it went quite well for him. However, using the mentality that him and I have, before knowing what was in those boxes I was already playing the “what if” game in my mind. As far as I was concerned he was going to go there and find a dozen boxed copies of Secret of Mana for $2. During my lunch hour I spent some time on Kijiji and came across a lot of Sega CD games. I contacted the guy and he came and dropped the games off at my work during my break. The main things that had caught my attention with the lot were Sonic CD and the Sega Classics pack. When it comes to Sega CD and 3DO I don’t mind having to make a custom case so I was looking forward to making a cover for Batman Returns. Also,  when the Kijiji seller handed me the pile he included a copy of Sol-Feace with it for no extra cost.

Blackhole Assault is also one of the side effects of eating 7-11 taquitos.

On Sunday I took a little trip over to the flea market. My wife was working and had the car so it was about a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, a 5 minute bus ride, and 10 more minutes of walking to get there. I really wouldn’t have bothered but the previous weekend I had seen a copy of Crimson Gem Saga on PSP and forgot to grab it before I left. However, it was too little, too late, as someone else bought it before I got there. I looked around for a while not really seeing anything else that caught my eye. To cause me even more pain the first NES game that I saw for a cheap deal that I needed was Deadly Towers, which is considered to be one of the worst games for the system. I knew it was going to end up in my collection eventually, and it seemed fitting that I buy it as a reminder of my Crimson Gem Failure.

Things did get a little better before I left the market as I finally found a good looking copy of Athena for NES. The last three times I`ve seen this game the previous owner had seen fit to go to town with a permanent market on the cartridge. Additionally, with this pickup I only need to get Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue to have all the SNK games on NES. Ebay here I come.

Lastly, I did get one more package in the mail with some Sega Saturn games that I had received a deal on. I was mainly interested in Last Bronx, but bundled it with Tomb Raider and Teleroboxer for Virtual Boy. The seller felt badly that it took him a couple extra days to ship, so he threw in Andretti Racing for free. It really wasn`t necessary as it wasn`t much of a delay, however I appreciate the gesture and he went above and beyond to make sure that my buying experience was the best it could be.

On the game playing front I did get the chance to sink some more time into Mass Effect 2, which I`m hoping to get close to finishing this weekend. I also got to try the demo for Etrian Odyssey (3DS) and once again took part in the Weekly Challenge on Nintendo Age, which was Gradius (NES). I'm in desperate need of updating the photos of my game room, so look for that to be up sometime next week. Thanks for reading, and remember it`s not hoarding if you alphabetize your games!