SEGA Genesis Price Guide

Well I've updated the Video Game Price Guide to include SEGA Genesis games. Although there were plenty of games released for the SEGA Genesis there really wasn't that many games that interested me to the point that I'd want to start collecting them. On the otherhand, SEGA Master System games always interested me as it had a multitude of SEGA Coin-Op conversions. The flipside to that being that many of those conversions sucked. But not all. Besides where else am I gonna get a legal version of Quartet, and a conversion of the arcade version of Choplifter?

On the Nintendo Collecting front, I'm still waiting for Iron Tank, Toki, and Donkey Kong Jr.

Nes Collecting: May 28th Update

Whew! Its been a while since I had an update, but here it is:

This week I won Legend of Kage, Elevator Action, and Donkey Kong Jr. from using my Video Game Price Guide at http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ . Both Legend of Kage and Elevator Action arrived today. Legend of Kage was a steal at $1.25. I also used the guide to win Iron Tank for a penny, and Toki for $5.50 (includes shipping!).

Is there any coincidence that 3 of these are Taito games? Yes. Yes it is. See, as a kid in the arcade Taito made what I feel were some of the greatest arcade games ever. You might even recall my Rastan World Record Event was indeed a Taito game. Although there was never a version of Rastan for NES there was a version for the Sega Master System which appears to be kinda goofy. Anways, the Taito games that were released on the NES were pretty good versions from their arcade counterparts. And its always seemed to me that the original programmers for Taito really enjoyed their craft and it shows in their originality. Having been the original inventor of Space Invaders I suppose it should be expected.

There was also another reason why I bought The Legend of Kage and Elevator Action around the same time. Have you ever looked at the box art? Those two games and Arknoid have a smiliar color style that reminds me of Astro Pops. This is probably just the nerd inside me talking but I do believe that video games do have an effect on brain function in both good and bad ways. I can't quite prove this theory yet but if art is proven to invoke emotions why not video game box art? Too bad Astro Pops are not as fun to eat as it is to play these games. Quite frankly, Astro Pops suck.

Anyways enjoy The Legend of Kage:

Nintendo Price Guide Updated

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later, but the Nintendo Price Guide has now been retired to greener pastures at www.videogamepriceguides.com. I received so much traffic that to host it as part of this blog is insane. So anyways, the legacy guide will remain, but to check out any new features and the like (Plus the addition of SNES games) please visit www.videogamepriceguides.com

Nintendo Videos

I have now added gameplay footage to the Nintendo Price Guide. As a collector of Nintendo games I have often been challenged in recalling what a particular game looks or plays like. Additionally I'll find a cheap game through the price guide and have no idea what the game is about. Well wonder no more!

Please keep in mind that the videos may not always be correct.

In other news I will be moving in a little less than 48 hours. Don't expect many updates or improvements to the price guide for at least a week.

If you like the NES videos and you want to make a suggestion of a feature you'd like to see with the price guide then please leave a comment on this post.

Have a relaxing Memorial Day and God Bless America!

Cobra Command

Cobra Command was the closest thing officially released on the original Nintendo that resembled Choplifter. As a kid I loved Choplifter especially the arcade version by SEGA. Being a fan of Rambo it reminded me a lot of the ending to Rambo 2. I believe Choplifter predates that movie but the idea of rescued hostages in the thick of battle has always appealed to me.

So ever since I "discovered" Cobra Command I have been intrigued. Watching eBay daily I might have finally won a copy. I had submitted a BestOffer on a Cobra Command / Operation Wolf lot. This was 30 minutes before the close of the auction and it ended with no bids. I'm hoping the seller will cave.

Anyways Cobra Command is similar to Choplifter in that you rescue hostages. Instead of blowing up enemy strongholds and landing to retrieve the hostages as in Choplifter, Cobra has you drop a rope and the prisoner climbs up it. The animation is pretty nifty. Cobra also has missles in addition to the similar bullets of Choplifter.

Perhaps the neatest feature of Cobra is how you die. In Choplifter if you wrecked or got hit by a bullet you were done- your only recourse was to slap the buttons in hopes that enough hostages would parachute to safety so you wouldn't have to start the level over. Cobra on the otherhand is hardcore! If you take on a bullet while flying you will still crash however you still have a few seconds of struggling with the controls before you slam into the ground. Take those few seconds and blow the junk out of the enemy! Anyways if I win the lot I'll share further details about it in the mean time check out the changes to the Nintendo Price Guide.

Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. finally arrived at my P.O. Box today. I actually purchased this while watching the new Star Trek movie. That is not to suggest that the movie was boring -in fact quiet the opposite. I enjoyed the original series and enjoyed Next Generation and this movie certainly complimented the original story but the offer available on Mario Bros. was too good to pass up.

This brings me closer to completing the rest of the black labels. I have a few glaring ommisions such as Volleyball, Golf, Soccer, Clu Clu Land, Urban Champion and a few others but I've whittled away what I believe to be the bulk of them.

Receiving Mario Bros. also means I no longer have any games pending. I suppose I need to bring the hammer down on a few good deals such as Dirty Harry and Ghengis Kahn.

Cheap Nintendo Games

Finding cheap Nintendo games has gotten a little bit easier. Thanks to a recommendation from a reader the Nintendo Price Guide has been updated to show if the lowest price is an Auction or a BuyItNow scenario.



Say for example you want a cheap copy of a Nintendo game, for instances Super Mario Bros. 2, the Nintendo Price Guide will show you the current average price for that particular game plus the cost of the lowest available on eBay with shipping! If its BuyItNow you can be pretty certain to get it for that price.



The Nintendo Price Guide isn't perfect however. Occasionally a random Nintendo Instruction Booklet will be captured when searching the auctions for games thus skewing the results. We are currently working on making these false positives as infrequent as possible.



If you have any recommended features for the Nintendo Price Guide or want to comment on Nintendo Collecting please let us know! To view the price guide visit www.salzmafia.com/ebay

Jackal

If your are collecting Nintendo carts then you won't want to overlook Jackal by Konami. The premise is that infrared satellites have identified missing P.O.Ws in "'Nam" and the President has order the "Jeep Squad" to infiltrate and rescue these forgotten soldiers.

Sounds badass but I always thought that Vietnam had thick jungles so the effectiveness of a Jeep being a combat vehicle seems a wee bit far fetched. I was also surprised how the Vietnamese army had advanced technology wise in a mere 15 years. The Jeep Squad will have to face infantry, bombers, choppers, and other modern warfare vehicles.

That's ok though because the Jeep Squad only recruits professionals. Such as a former Indy Car racer as the driver of the Jeep. Don't believe me? Look at this excerpt from the manual (courtesy of http://www.nintendoage.com/):

The four wild jackals:

• Lt. Bob (Gunner)The finest sharp shooter in the history of the Green Berets.
• Sgt. Quint (Driver)Indy car racer turned mercenary.
• Col. Deckar (Gunner)The commander of this operation and Medal of Honor recipient in Vietnam.
• Cpl. Grey (Driver)Winner of six European Grand Prix races, and considered the greatest stuntdriver since Evil Bo Weivel.

The manual also reveals that the Jeep is named "Trigger".

Aside from the crazy plot this is actually a pretty reasonable war game.

Nintendo Price Guide Updates

I've updated the Nintendo Price Guide to include the ability to sort by the following. If you are using the price guide in the wild and you need something that is easier on your mobile phone in bandwidth and page length this should be ideal for you.

Sort By: Title :: Price :: Availability :: Cheaper Then Average Price

Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

NES Collecting: May 14th Progress

In addition to waiting for Mario Bros. which should arrive tomorrow, and Felix the Cat which is heading to my new P.O. box, I picked up a few more games this evening. First I decided to check out some Pawn Shops. I missed the turn to the one I wanted to go to so ended up wandering into another one a few blocks further down the road. They had a crap selection. 1 game. John Elway's Quarterback. They wanted $10.00.

I then went across the street to a thrift store where they had Jackal, Cobra Triangle, and R.C. Pro-Am. But... they also had an original Nintendo, in the box, in MINT condition, with power cord, RFU adaptor, Zapper, 1 controller, and 1 Nes MAX controller. So how much did these finds cost me? $30. Thats it.

Rush 'N Attack

It's a little known fact that the Reagan Administration persuaded Konami to rebrand their arcade game "Green Beret" into Rush 'N Attack. Konami will deny this as well as any former Reagan cabinet member. It's one of many video game conspiracies. But this game is pure 1980's Cold War propoganda. There were so many reasons back then to hate the Russians: the movies Red Dawn, Rocky IV, The Day After, Rambo 2, and Rambo 3 taught me and millions of others that the USSR must be stopped at all costs. And at 25cents a pop any kid in an arcade could start stabbing pinkos and assure their families that their awesome knife and bazooka skills will protect them. It must of worked because the USSR fell apart and their only retort to this awesome piece of software was "Tetris".



As an NES Collector I'm a little ashamed that this port is not as perfect as it could have been. It retains everything the Arcade version had plus a little more but the play mechanics are a little sluggish. The sound effects are close enough although the digitized cries of a communist being stabbed in the eye would have made this game perfect. It still amazes me that we had to have congressional hearings on violence in video games after the release of Mortal Kombat, yet a game which glorified killing the number one enemy of the United States went unnoticed.



Don't get me wrong- buy this game! Rush 'N Attack is badass and essential to all NES collectors.

Ikari Trilogy Has Arrived

Although I felt it took way too long I finally received the Ikari Trilogy in the mail. The games worked perfectly, but there was extensive label defacement. Especially on III. I'm probably going to have to replace the back. There is also a gentle nick on the label near the top which is motivation for me to see how difficult it would be to reproduce a label. But being in the middle of a move I'll have to save that project for later.

I'm still waiting for Mario Bros. and I purchased Felix The Cat last night. Neither of these games are as badass as Ikari, but they are both worth adding to my Nintendo Collection.

Salzmafia Nintendo Price Chart

My video game price guide (for NES) is almost complete. There are a few bugs and other nuances but the list is proving to be pretty solid.

UPDATE: My Nintendo Price Guide is now complete! To try it out visit www.salzmafia.com/ebay Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

My Ikari Warriors trilogy is sitting in Bell California. Its taken 7 days to get there from PA. This seems like a ridiculous amount of time to wait but I blame the USPS.

I also won Mario Bros. (Original not Super) over the weekend. The original bid was on a whim and I got a good deal on it.

I also picked up The Lone Ranger, Gyruss, Puzznic and Shadow of the Ninja. That brings me to about 7 percent complete.

Kiwi Kraze

Kiwi Kraze arrived yesterday. It's an excellent port of The New Zealand Story. The label was in excellent condition.



Ikari Warriors 1, 2 and 3 seem to be... well... lost. I have a tracking number but it hasn't moved since May 4th. I suppose I'll have to call the USPS tomorrow.



Track N Field arrived today, AND the seller refunded the money. I feel guilty about it. But who cares? I waited long enough.



And finally I'm working on a project that will make buying games simpler. More details coming soon but a hint can be found here: www.salzmafia.com/ebay

Operation Wolf

I don't own Operation Wolf- at least not yet. But after looking at the box art I've decided I must have this game, and more importantly the box!

"The time has come for someone to teach terrorists what terror is all about."

This sentence alone will be worth the purchase. But the artwork is deceptive. See the hostages being helped on to the helicopter? Yeah, that uh, never happens in the game. You do however blow up a bunch of choppers. Now that I know they are full of hostages the motivation to destroy them has increased. See the hostages running a marathon? That, um, sorta happens. Wait.. gunning down people running a marathon? Now that would be a badass game.

Speaking of badass. Looking at the guy on the left. He has a bandoleer of bullets, yet its clear his weapon uses a magazine (in the game you collect magazines.) He obviously wears it purely for show. That's pretty badass.

Ever see that movie Swordfish? It was a stupid movie, but this quote from it pretty much sums this game up:

"Anyone who impinges on America's freedom. Terrorist states, Stanley. Someone must bring their war to them. They bomb a church, we bomb ten. They hijack a plane, we take out an airport. They execute American tourists, we tactically nuke an entire city. Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that it becomes unthinkable to attack Americans. "

Here is footage of the Arcade Game...


The audio from this would make the perfect ringtone!


And the Nintendo Version:

Um... the audio from this... probably not good for a ring tone.

If you play both videos at the same time the screen scrolls at exactly the same speed. Although its not an exact port, this is a pretty good version. Almost everything the arcade version has can be found in this game.

Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors is a badass game. SNK had a habit of releasing badass games in the arcade and translating them to the NES. I should be receiving the Ikari trilogy either tomorrow or the day after. But I'm so hyped up about it I wanted to mention a few things about them.


Look at these mofos. They are ready to rip you a new one. Don't even dare look at them cock-eyed. 80's videogames were the best. These guys could have been Spike and Hammer:


That's right. NOT BILLY AND JIMMY! Their street names are Spike and Hammer. See the resemblence? Nevermind lets move on.



The Ikari Warriors are not limited to killing humans. They don't even need guns. That guy with the sword is gonna cut one of those aliens sack's off and feed it to them. They should have just changed them to apes and made this a Planet of the Apes game. Get your hands off me you damn dirty APE! Voice and Morse Code? What the...?



By now the Ikari Warriors are so famous that SNK doesn't need to hire a professional artist for the box art. The Ikari Warriors are so tough now that they don't need guns. They'll just toss you around. Why is the dude in blue standing on the girl's leg who's about to give the evil guy a ******? Nevermind. Come up with your own conclusions.

Seriously though, SNK made some really badass games. Despite the weird boxart, you can tell they really cared about their craft. In the coming weeks I'm going to demonstrate exactly what I mean. Gosh, I can't wait for tomorrow or the next day.

Donkey Kong 3

My Donkey Kong 3 arrived today. It came in pretty good condition. Maybe a little label wear but that was about it. I cleaned it and it worked perfectly but then when I tried it again it stopped working. I had to clean the Nintendo and adjusted the 72 pin connector. I figured that while I was at it I'd try to remove the NES lockout chip. I followed the instructions I found on the internet and it worked fine. I'm still waiting for Ikari Warriors 1 2 and 3 and Kiwi Kraze. They should both arrive no later than Friday.

Changed Layout

I grew bored with the old layout and decided to change it. I don't know if I am entirely sold on a Nintendo Cartridge blog layout but it looks neat nonetheless.

This has been a stressful week and I've had a difficult time focusing on anything much less game collecting. A visit to an antique store and a few thrift stores yielded nothing although the antique store had an old "World of Nintendo" display case filled with antique plates and other useless junk. It looks like the owner desecrated it by painting over all references to Nintendo. Its ironic how an antique dealer would mutilate the one thing that was probably worth more then the junk that was in it.

My Donkey Kong 3 should arrive tomorrow and I still have Ikari Warriors 1, 2 and 3 waiting to ship along with Kiwi Kraze. Track & Field fell through and the guy offered my money back. I have a low ball bid on Mario Bros. which I hope I lose as I doubt I'll be living here still when it ships.

Cheat Codes Are For Chumps

Anyone who has ever tried buying a product from eBay knows that there all sorts of schysters. In this example, this guy sells a 50,000 code CD with a copy of the Nintendo game Crystalis. He had a "Best Offer" option, but he turned it down. Perhaps he got offended by "Codes are for chumps" remark.

NES Collecting: May 1st Progress

This has certainly been a busy week.

First I traded some PS3 games and a PS2 game for Baseball, Excitebike, 10-Yard Fight, Double Dragon II, and Adventure Island. The SEGA Genesis I traded for the gun got traded for Rambo, Gurrilla War, and Gradius. I got P.O.W, Bug's Bunny's Birthday Blowout, Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle, Track & Field II, and Rush 'N Attach from eBay. Then I bought Wild Gunman, Duckhunt, Ninja Kid, and Mach Rider from one local game store, and Slalom from another.

Donkey Kong 3 should arrive tomorrow, I have Track & Field (I) in limbo from a loser on eBay, and I got a good deal on all three Ikari Warriors which I hope to have arrive early next week.