Monday, February 27, 2012

Game Collecting: A Small Nintendo Find


This post will be a brief one, because it's about an individual game I happened upon this week. What game you ask? Well, it's an action-adventure title from the good ol' NES that follows protagonist Mike Jones as he journeys across a tropical island to find his missing archaeologist father. If you haven't picked up on it by now here you go - StarTropics!


I had actually encountered this cartridge about a half dozen times over the past month or so. What kept me from picking it up sooner? The first three I found were at a swap meet and were in terrible condition. I try to avoid damaged games altogether, be they functionally damaged or cosmetically damaged. I don't have a ton to spend on retro games so I am pretty discerning about the condition of my carts. I then found two more at the same swap meet, in fantastic condition, but priced absurdly high ($40 for one, $50 for the other). Early this week I found one on craigslist locally, but it was for $20 and still way more than I wanted to pay for it.

A trip to a local thrift store this weekend led me to it once again. And for a mere five dollars, no less! So at last this old favorite of mine is added to my collection. The battery even still works, by some strange witchcraft. Expect to see a full review of this title in the near future.

6 comments:

  1. You said the magic word "archaeologist." Two different friends this weekend advised me to get the new Kinect game system that has a bunch of workout and dance games. I'd be curious what your take is on this system.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kinect is actually an add-on for the Xbox 360, so you have to have the Xbox 360 first to get it. You can have ours if you want to get a connect, we really only play the PS3 anymore.

      Delete
  2. There is a 'retro' shop in a mall in Southern Utah that specializes in games like this. I picked up about 20 NES games for $5 apiece, and then an original Zelda, new in box, for $40. I felt like I was robbing the place...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome! For $5 per game I'm more than happy to pick up NES titles that I like. Generally they're pretty affordable. Only thing that bums me out is that all my favorite SNES and PS1 RPGs cost a fortune.

      Delete