Regardless of others being scared to pick them up and give them a good home, I am someone who is never afraid to bring something home, especially for 79 cents a pound!, and give it a good repair. Both systems were broken at the hinges, ripping the top screen cable, as well as suffering from blown fuses. After some research it seems the latter of which is a frighteningly common issue with the first two inceptions of the DS line.
The Goodwill outlet store is rife with treasure hunting goodness, digging through bins without care, dangerous glass everywhere that you could easily slice yourself open with, and I have, and just general wonder of what you will uncover next! A few months ago I found a seemingly untouched metal case, once I opened it up I nearly had a nerdagsm. Inside was a fresh looking Palm TX mobile organizer.
I'm in a desperate way in need of finding myself Sega CD games to allow my Sega CD to really do it's job, and to enjoy it. I was willing to use all the thrift stores, and even Disc Replay stores, at my disposal, which turned out to be a major, MAJOR mistake. The Goodwill stores had games I wanted, but the games were fairly cheap and I still decided that I would hold off and wait for this weekend's 50% off sale to see if they're still there, if not no big loss.
But its what happened when I walked into the Salvation Army that shocked me to the point of hypertension and the need to march straight out of the store. They had a Gameboy with a 4 player adapter for, what the chicken scratch deciphered to, $6. Which isn't a bad price at all because it was in great shape, although there was no way to tell if it worked or not.
Next up was a stack of cased Gameboy games ranging in price from $1.99 to $2.99, not bad although I don't see why they put the well known titles at $2.99 and the less known titles at $1.99. This shows the store's desire to wring every cent out of thrifty shoppers. Then there was a stack of Gameboy games, all in cases, taped together so that you couldn't tell what was what, except the top game, for $12 (again chicken scratch so it was probably more!), and again for the maybe 7 to 10 games in the lot it wasn't a bad deal, but I can't see what games were there and I'm NOT going to buy something from them unless it is an absolute steal, because I not longer want to support such an ignorant, money grubbing company.
But until I saw the complete in box Gameboy printer, I was ok with them being complete and utter douchebags, but this was my breaking point. Yes, it was complete, yes it looked like it was in great shape, but they wanted (again chicken scratch!) $20 for it! Ok, NOTHING and I mean NO-THING in a thrift store should be over $9.99, unless its furniture or jewelry.
I'll be honest it shouldn't shock me, the manager or duty was the same asshole who argued with me last year over an SNES that he just couldn't let go for less than the number he pulled out of his ass. This guy is rude, arrogant and his only job is to rape the customer, yet it seems the majority of people who shop at Salvation Army aren't willing to fight for a better price, and most video games go to resellers.
Salvation Army used to give me so many good deals and I wanted to stay loyal to them in favor of the deals I've gotten. Over the matter of 6 months I simply can't stand Salvation Army anymore, and I've grown to despise their employees and their business ethics, or lack there of.
This time last year I would have urged anyone to donate to Salvation Army over Goodwill, but today I have to say if you are going to donate, donate to Goodwill! I see the only people Salvation Army is helping are themself and the resellers who buy up all the over priced shit so they can sell it at even more insane prices. If thrift stores weren't the only option to find things for the retro systems I love, I wouldn't shop at any of them.
I know I've complained about them in the past, but thrift stores have been an integral part of my self-therapy for dealing with anxiety, as they've been a part of my video game hunting pursuits for the past 2 years. But it seems that fate or perhaps even big business has other plans for my recovery, since they can't seem to keep a thrift store in the same format I'm familiar with anymore.
I've seen so many thrift stores, that I've literally spent hours at, simply shut down for seemingly no reason, relocate to inconvenient locations or even stop carrying bric-a-brac entirely! The only place that stays halfway consistent has been Goodwill, and by that I mean consistently overpriced! I will give Goodwill credit for the outlet store, but even there has changed up the switch out order, making it less of an experience and more of a trial in patience to see if you can give a shit long enough to find anything good.
Goodwill stores have had some good deals lately, but I'm sure its just another rare occasion of the person with the pricing gun not knowing what they're doing. One controller that I want is $.99 while another is $3.99 simply because it has more buttons, what sense does that make?
I've even lost Play n Trade, a place I frequented yet rarely, if ever, bought anything at. It was the only place I could go and see consistent pricing on retro games. Disc Replay's pricing is sometimes cheap, but that is mostly the same games everyone already has 3 of, everything else slowly crawls higher and higher the longer it sits on a shelf, it seems.
Since I got my Sega CD I've been on the prowl to find games to use it with, as I really don't like a system just sitting there doing nothing. I've seen them before and I know I'll see them again, but it just frustrates me to no end knowing most of them are overpriced, but people are all too happy to buy them anyway, giving thrift stores the false sense that those prices are totally acceptable.
Its quickly becoming apparent to me that the market I was so comfortable with, to the point I was using it as therapy, is crumbling beneath me. I'm not scared to adventure out from where I'm comfortable, I just don't think it gets any better on the other side. The prices I see other people bragging about are sometimes even higher than what I already think are too high in my local market.
Whether this is a sign to look deeper, look elsewhere or completely move on from where I am, or whether there is a good change upon the horizon, I don't know. All I know is that my price range will not change, no matter what, I'd rather go home empty handed! But the biggest reality shock is knowing as fucked up as I am with my anxiety, the world around me is so much worse off than I am.
I'm booked with trying to come up with articles for the vintage gaming website, and I want to devote anything vintage to that site, so that isn't happening here. I do pick up videos on youtube, and much like this blog I only get accidental views. So I feel as though I should take the highlights of my pick ups and show them here.
I see plenty of blogs that show off their pick ups and I know it isn't original, but it is my blog and I'll change it up however I wish. I also know that a long time ago I posted more modern find here, so it really isn't something new, more of a rebirth of that concept. So that is more than likely what I'll be doing!
If you like the blog, feel free to leave a comment! If you've reached this blog in error, please hit the back button until you're in more familiar territory and enjoy your day. If you view this blog regularly, I'm sorry.
Today I decided that I wanted to head out to the good old places and see what I could find, most of which were either closed or moved to a different location. Over the time that I've been checking thrift stores I've lost nearly half of them. Strangely enough I've seen more thrift stores close than flea markets.
It hurts to see a place close down, knowing the countless hours I've spent walking the aisles and finding the video game stuff that now clutters my room, instead of the thrift store shelves. The Goodwill outlet seems to be my only source of video games and video game stuff anymore. With the economy being the way it is, thrift stores should be booming, but I see their price gouging has backfired and most of them are shutting down due to their greed and ignorance.
Even though I hated their business practices, for the most part, I have to say that it sucks that I'll never be able to walk down those aisles anymore, looking for good deals. Even though I would often come home empty handed and upset that I couldn't find a deal, at least I was enjoying the wasted time. But once those doors are chained and bolted.. there is nowhere left to go.
It took me maybe 5 months to finally get it to where it would play 15 metal songs and then on occasion the current top 10 playlist would creep in, but it wasn't bad because I could skip it. It only gave you so many skips and I reserved all those for the crap that it tossed in on purpose. But eventually the whole service went to hell.
It seems that I woke up one day and I couldn't skip enough songs, all it would play was the music I DIDN'T want to listen to. And only on occasion it would play the songs that I did want to hear. Its sad to see a service like that go so commercial.
I'm sure had it stayed the way it was it would still be very useful today. Technology changes in the blink of an eye, but sometimes we still yearn for how it was yesterday. That is why I'm a vintage gamer.
One night I was cruising the streets of Vice City doing what I would normally do, running people over, collecting my business income and using cheat codes to go on rampage killing sprees, when I received a phone call. Now for some reason I'm not a normal human being, or perhaps I am, in the fact that I simply can not sit still while I'm on the phone, I need to be up and walking around, for whatever reason. Part of my habit of walking around while on the phone was looking out the kitchen window and across the horizon, which had quite a surprise in store for me.
As I looked out from the kitchen window the sky hung heavy over the horizon with lightning and darkness looming eerily in the distance. I had been so enveloped in doing my business in Vice City that I was completely unaware that there was a tornado warning issued for my current area! Normally there are storms that would alert me to any impending alarming weather, but that night there wasn't.
I abruptly ended the phone call and went to switch the TV to the local news stations, which confirmed my fears that the weather was about to become extremely and violently severe. No sooner had I changed the channel to the local news and saw the incoming threat, the power went out. Nothing but the sounds of the wind wishing and washing against the trees and windows outside.
Lightning came closer and closer, followed by deafening crackles of thunder. Soon came the rain, as I collected myself and headed into the central bathroom and listened to a local radio station for further news about the storms. The wind and thunder shook the house and the trees started to bend, it seemed as if the roof was going to come off!
For what seemed like forever, but perhaps only lasted 30 minutes, I huddled in the bathroom hoping for my safety, wishing the storm would go away and leave nothing harmed. When the storm finally subsided I walked into the living room and checked all the windows, to make sure nothing was broken, luckily everything was in tact and ok. But without power the house was quickly heating up inside, so I decided to open a few windows and await the return of electricity.
The electric company came and checked for any down lines, blown transformers and power was finally restored in the early morning hours. Later that day I went to check out any possible damage or evidence that a tornado had come through, and as a matter of fact there had been! Many trees were broken, uprooted and the standard of bare without leaves, but not even a mile south there was a clear path of where a tornado had touched down and carved it's way through some trees, luckily it only went through the trees.
I can't blame GTA Vice City for nearly killing me, it was the storms that would have done the damage. But Vice City was so addictive that I played it so inventively that I wasn't even aware there were storms headed my way. A strange story, but something Vice City and I will always share.
Almost a year ago I decided that my health was becoming an issue and I needed to seek medical attention, I walked out of the ER with what was essentially a painful fart and $1200 in debt (I'm dead serious). For something so trivial to be so expensive, how could you sustain faith within the medical system setup to help sustain your health? I can't, and that further dissolved any faith within the system that holds power above said medical system.
Due to deeply rooted brain washed fears, implemented by my parents, I've lived life on the straight and narrow, I don't smoke, I don't drink on any regular basis and I've never tried drugs. I assumed that would have upheld my health further than say, The Rolling Stones, but perhaps heroine is a preservative. But now as the tingling sensation in my legs and sometimes my hands and arms start to grow more concerning, I can't help but feel unnecessarily shunned by the American system.
I have chest pains and I don't know why, but being an American I can only assume it is heart disease, even at 29. I feel things that I assume are just growing pains, but I'm also socially groomed to be hyper aware of my health and it's importance. At the same time I would never want to live the rest of my life being in debt to a scheme set forth to make a portion of the population rich and the other portion fearfully throw money at the problem.
As an American we are told that we are the best country in the world and as a child I fed into that bullshit ideology, something that some people never seem to grow out of, and I now see it as a country that can't get it's priorities straight, unless it revolves around money. Why do we look down at other countries that obviously have their systems sorted out well beyond our own, while we're told that system would never work, no matter how long it HAS worked? When I tell a friend from another country that I don't feel well, the answer is always so simple for them to say "Go see a Doctor", because in their country, THEY CAN!!!
I'll never forget a PBS documentary about Tanzania, where they were interviewing children miners who work the mines to find their nation's export. What struck me as odd was that these children weren't scummy and filthy like the documentary actually said, in fact the children had some of the straightest and whitest teeth I've ever seen, anywhere! Now why would that matter, you may be asking, if these children were so poorly taken care of, as the documentary was trying to portray, why would these children's teeth be one of their top priorities?
I've lost faith in the system and it dawns on me that I probably wouldn't be accepted anywhere else, or maybe that is just another American scare tactic. As freely as the US is allowing illegals to stay and reap the rewards they unjustly enjoy, I can't survive here, but where could I do the same thing the illegals are doing in the US? Where could I freely move in, claim things as my own, avoid taxes and still get all the benefits of being from your country, or even more benefits than they afford their own citizens?
Within the US I fear for my life, health wise, but it seems I'm walled off from being any better anywhere else. All the places I would love to move I would probably just be looked down upon as being an American, much the way Americans do those places anyway. Even if I could become a citizen of another country that would afford me all the benefits to flourish the way I deserve, the US isn't kind to those who find the system lacking and give up US citizenship in favor of a better life the US refuses to offer them.
With a country that forces you to work to survive, because there are very few programs for the unemployed to gain good health insurance, yet supports companies that force jobs off shores, we can't sustain any means of existence. When a case of only the strong becomes only the wealthy, we really need to step back and take a look at the overall system. My health issues may pass, but the fear and uneasiness knowing that if something serious ever happens to me that I would owe a severely flawed system large sums of money that I could never repay will always be a thorn in my side.
I started playing the FIFA series in late 2009 with a demo of FIFA '10 on my Xbox 360, which I still have. The game was fun and there was an extreme rush of adrenaline when I scored a goal, thus I was hooked. Later I happened upon a FIFA game for the SNES, and even with it's isometric point of view it was still pretty playable.
This lead me to venture out into Nintendo's Soccer for the NES, as well as Technos' World Cup Soccer, both of which I like. Although I don't fall into the whole need to own every FIFA due to the ever changing roster, I will pick them up due to technical enhancements through the aging of the game. But I don't need every football game ever made.
FIFA '04 isn't really that far apart from it's 6 year younger brother FIFA '10, although a great majority of the changes are undoubtedly due to the whole different system in which I'm playing it. The graphics and gameplay are a bit choppy at times, but overall pretty much on par with what I expect of a game from 2003.
My only real complaint is the over saturation of shitty Euro pop music in the sound track. This isn't an issue strictly with FIFA as EA loves to license completely irrelevant music for games that these songs have no business in. Need for Speed Underground 2 is pumped full of easily licensed, yet completely worthless, rap songs, and they don't make turning them off an easy task.
The reason why this review seems to have very little to do with FIFA itself is the simple fact that FIFA 04 is simply good enough to stand on it's own. It has minor flaws, as all games do, but since I don't know much about football I can't really make judgement on anything other than the gameplay I experience, which is thoroughly enjoyable! FIFA '04 was well worth the pick up and perhaps if I find a newer version I'll give it a try as well, I just don't see myself going and paying retail for any FIFA game.
The whole series is plagued with this fatal flaw, the equivalent of asking someone to take a Ford Tempo and do a 30 second lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speeday. It can't be done! Oh yes it can, if you wish it to be! -- Sure Gran Turismo, sure!
Why the licenses are so aneurysm inducing is because it doesn't play by any of the rules that the rest of the game has to follow, and its a good thing too because if the rest of the game were this strict nobody would play it! But why do we need to follow rules that don't apply in the real thing, the license tests are too much like someone suddenly being burdened by a mathematical equation where they first need to figure out the numerical value of L. Oh sure they taught you that in school, but 99% of the active populous NEVER have to use it.
Tests that require me to apex 3 or 4 corners in a few seconds are frustration as they sometimes set the out of bounds exactly where I need to aim, but what really pisses me off are the whole lap tests. If I aim too far on an apex and get sent back to the starting line, I can do it over and over again, frustrating but no big deal. But when I'm 2 minutes into a 2:20 jaunt around a track and I slide into the wall because the severely under powered car you've sent me out in won't pull out of an over steer, well I want to fucking slit your fucking tires and piss in your gas tank.
You start off with shitty clunkers and they set such impossible goals, its as if they had a robotic Ayrton Senna set these times. They're also quite unapologetic about how hard it is to get gold. I'll take bronze all day long, as long as I don't need to repeat a single test all day long, which is almost what happens the higher up you get.
Gran Turismo makers, cut the shit and lighten up on the fucking license tests. We know how to play the game, just stop being unreasonable about the demands for licensing. Prime example of how a great, fresh idea can be taken way too far and turn a game from a great idea into a complete waste of time.
It isn't a new concept, most notably wrestling associations are well known for this, but they are essentially travelling shows and need to promote themselves as much as possible. But even so I don't see the extreme degree of fandom brought on by this than I do from what I'm writing about today. This level of fandom blows my mind!
The second I saw the commercials for the series, before it even hit the air, I knew I wasn't going to watch it, and haven't. The show in question here is Sons of Anarchy, a show about a group of "outlaw" bikers, and as I've never watched the show that is all I know about the series. Throughout many years of having access to the Discovery and History channels I've learned there are large numbers of real motorcycle groups with whom you want nothing at all to do with, but lets face it, a group of highly paid actors isn't going to be anywhere near as rough and tumble as a true group of brothers living what the actors are trying to portray.
Since I've never actually wasted my time enough to watch the show, I'll ease off and get back into the fanatical consumerism that came from this show's birth. Now, it seems, I can't go into any store without some fat, bloated couple with spray tans hopping off their freshly washed Harley dawning a leather vest with a "Sons of Anarchy" patch and local chapter patch adorning the back. I'm going to step out on a limb here and say due to numerous possible lawsuits, death threats and assorted other things, Sons of Anarchy is more than likely a made up name for the television show, rather than a real biker group. So who would be so completely and totally stupid as to pretend they're in a group that doesn't exist!? You're so bad, join a real one!
Another good one is Tapout, a clothing line endorsed by the UFC, or the other way around either way they're affiliated in some way, officially. I used to watch UFC and that isn't my problem here, my problem stems from walking through a store and seeing a fat 10 year old crying to his mother how he wanted more candy, and he was wearing a Tapout shirt. I fear the only ultimate fight for tubby will be his battle with obesity, and I bet he taps out first!
I will support a brand I use, or something I feel strong enough about that deserves the attention, although I believe it needs to be done in the right way. Making sew-on patches for a fake TV biker gang doesn't make you anymore of a biker gang than watching Dr. Quinn makes you a medicine woman. And try as I might, no matter how much I watch Red Green, Kids in the Hall, This Hour has 22 minutes, CBC News, Curling, Hockey and the Trailer Park Boys, I am NOT going to magically become Canadian, eh!?
First and most important on that list would be the NES top loader, it isn't that I NEED an NES top loader, I have a perfectly working NES as well as a modded backup. So it isn't something I absolutely can't live without, its just something that I would go completely and utterly insane to find at a great price. Other things include NES and SNES video games, again things that I don't NEED but they sure would be awesome to own. I know that somewhere out there these things have my name figuratively written on them, its all a matter of when I will find them.
I'm upset to see others obtain things I want, although I do live a vicarious joy through their happiness. But when they act callous toward a bounty sprawled out before them I feel contempt toward their ignorance. I think we should all be so lucky to have things given to us or be so fortunate to be able to obtain such things by all means, and to act as if it were more trouble than it truly was shows me that person shouldn't have gotten those things in the first place.
I spend a large amount of time on youtube, mostly searching through pick up or other video game related videos. Sometimes I come across stories that make me jealous but I'm happy for that person, while other times I watch videos that boil my blood to a vapor. Some of the most spiteful, hateful and ungrateful pricks get the coolest stuff and it just makes no sense as to why a person who leads a simple life and stays to himself gets fucked on a daily basis while people who just couldn't give a shit less are thrown shit at their very feet.
Without pointing fingers directly at anyone I'll give a general, beat around the bush, description of what the video was about. So this person finds a box of video game items sitting outside next to someone's garbage and takes it home, upon opening it the person seems completely ungrateful throughout the rest of the video, scrutinizing everything as they pull it from the box. Mind you everything was FREE to this person, regardless of whether they already had any of this stuff or not, its still free and should be greatly appreciated!
By the end of the video I wanted to crawl through my monitor and just beat the living fucking shit out of this prick, but I can't and it would just be a waste of time even if I could. Like I said I've found some great stuff and I feel extremely lucky to find the things that I've bought, I say bought because I have rarely found anything for free. That isn't to say I haven't found anything for free, I have, its just the fact that I put everything into my collection and end up forgetting what I've paid for anything.
I would love, LOOOOOOOVE to find a box of the things this person found, and I too would make a youtube video in which I didn't sound like an ungrateful prick as I pulled everything out of the box with a sour look on my face. Even if it were all things I already own, every single piece were something I already owned, I would want to pay it forward to those who aren't as fortunate as myself so that they can have cool things as well. Sure I would probably sell things to make a little profit to support the game hunting habit, but I sure wouldn't be ungrateful to have found them.
Lately, however, I've managed to lose the whole lot as I have little to no respect for anywhere anymore. With so many thrift stores closing the only steady place was Salvation Army and no matter how many times I complained about them I still went back, quite often too! Regardless of how unquestionably shitty Salvation Army can be at times, with their unexplainable price spikes and often times completely uncaring/rude staff, I was always in search of the many, and I do mean MANY, scores I had found previously throughout the 4 or 5 stores I frequented.
Salvation Army was always a crap shoot, yet they've completely taken themselves out of the game and put themselves square in my shit sights. Within the last month I've noticed they are moving things around the store and completely doing away with anything of particular value, could this be a sign of Salvation Army auctions? Only time will tell! Electronics are now limited to televisions, microwaves and other miscellaneous things that plug into an outlet, which vaguely categorizes them as electronics.
I do greatly adore the Goodwill Outlet store, which forced me to change my views on Goodwill overall. I just can't see paying the prices of a store when the outlet store only charges $.69 a pound. Sure not a lot of things flow through the outlet store, but I seemingly always walk out of their spending less than $5 for stuff that I'm excited to own. When I go into a Goodwill store and get all geeked out over a retro game I'm almost always quickly upset by the $5.99 price tag on it, knowing full well that Disc Replay wants less and if I wait long enough I may just find it at the outlet store.
Another option around here would be flea markets, and I've already explained how they are. Its hard to find a flea market where the booth owner is actually in the booth, they're all indoor, super flea markets where you take stuff up to an actual cashier, which makes dealing with someone an impossibility. While they're always a source of getting out and walking about, I almost always walk out empty handed.
Finally there is the online connection, where everyone lives in a little world where even the most common video game is apparently worth a small fortune. Sometimes craigslist is ok, if you get to the post on time, otherwise you're not going to get a reply and wonder if your message is trapped inside someone's spam filter as you hope they still have the item you wanted and will get back to you before you die of old age. And ebay can go fuck itself, that is all I have to say about it.
The sad truth is that flea markets and thrift stores alike have become one in the same, as the prices are set by some goober who has internet access and thinks the mass of games listed on ebay for any given price is the socially accepted price. As where the reality is if that were in fact the accepted price they wouldn't still be listed. My only way of collecting the games I want to own and play are to keep searching these places that slowly but surely shrivel and dry up.
I know that you can't judge whether something is truly emulating any given object without being familiar with the original first, and to try and do so is not only unjust to the original but unfair to the item emulating it as well. I don't know Mexico, I've never been but maybe someday I will go, but when I play Total Overdose I get the overwhelming feeling that it was all created by outside observers looking in and making rash judgements to build the product. I can't say this with certainty, but I just don't get the feeling that I do with other games.
GTA San Andreas just feels like you're in the cities and towns that they've obviously emulated, as does Vice City, GTA 3 and 4. Another great one is Just Cause, as it sends you down to South America and leaves you within what almost everyone would consider to be a chain of islands somewhere within South America, with a few minor reality breakers. While I find myself more compelled to play Just Cause, due to it's much better game control and the fact that it still gives that feeling of being in Central America, I'm still compelled to play Total Overdose because it is unquestionably trying to be located in Mexico. Even so I just can't get myself to believe that I am truly walking around anywhere in Mexico.
It isn't a lack of architecture, it isn't a lack of culture and it isn't a lack of the living environment within the game. The failure here seems to stem greatly from the way the city is cut up, and I don't mean how GTA 3 and Vice City were either. The way Total Overdose is chopped up is crude and leaves you (at least it does for me) confused about how you got from point A to point B. As where in GTA you could see what was coming up next, they just simply threw a splash screen in your face for a few seconds before you reached it, in Total Overdose you pseudo-teleport to a different area where you went in and where you come out don't really seem to match.
I wrote a review on Gamespot's website and my review received some negative feedback, but maybe they missed the point. I enjoy the game, but I simply think it doesn't flow as well as the games it was cloning, nor do I think they brought a feel for the environment they were entitled to emulate. The vehicles are almost unusable and I much prefer to walk around the sections of the country unless I absolutely have to use a vehicle. The sections are smaller than I feel they should have been, as well as some of the best areas are only accessible while you're on a mission.
Given all it's downfalls Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico does hold a greater spot in my heart than most of the games that are better than it, but I just can't motivate myself to play it as much as those other games. I heard rumors of a sequel being cancelled, and that is probably for the better. Sure I would have loved to see a sequel, but they would have had to change it so drastically that it wouldn't have been the same game anymore. Nobody likes a sequel that looks and feels absolutely nothing like the original.
