Video Game Collecting

I’ve been thinking about re-tiling my bathroom with the sunset from Rygar… it just looks so cool:

The NES version kinda looks like a pink football…

The arcade one looks the best!  But it would probably take thousands of tiles, and I’m lazy, and I’ll probably mess it up some how.  So maybe Rygar wouldn’t be the best way to decorate a bathroom… because….

The Japanese art for the game speaks for itself!

I’ve mentioned Pedro! Games frequently here and with good reason: this is currently the only eBay seller I can truly recommend.  My first experience was with Iron Tank, which ended up being a penny auction.  It was a purchase made on a whim, but it was worth it.  The game was in perfect condition, and it was delivered promptly.  Even if it came from North Carolina, all the way to Las Vegas.

But Iron Tank wasn’t the only excellent purchase I’ve made through Pedro!.  Thus far I’ve purchased 11 titles, and all of them have come in perfect condition.  This says alot since many of these titles are around two and a half decades old.

I found PedroGames.Com originally through the site I created (http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/), and although I do occasionally purchase from other sellers I know I can do no wrong with Pedro!

Anyways, with a major change coming to http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ I did not want this feedback about Pedro! Games to be forgotten, therefore I’ve included to original reviews below.

Pedro! Games

VideoGamePriceGuides.Com not only provides you, the user, with game prices, but we also use the guides ourselves. Recently we purchased IRON TANK for the NES from frequent power seller Pedro! on eBay.com.

Anyone who has searched for games on eBay will have no doubt noticed that Pedro! sells tons of games. Not only does he sell vast quantities of games he also seems to always have some fairly rare games as well.

In this instance we bought IRON TANK. It was an auction and it ended for a penny. That’s right, one-cent. The game isn’t really popular at all, and for a penny with $3.95 shipping we figured it would be an easy purchase to get an idea of Pedro!’s service. The way a seller treats a cheap sell is a good indication of how they treat everyone. Anyways the auction ended on Thursday May 28th. Within minutes of the close of the auction we received the invoice.

It’s All Yours! Now Just Send Us A Payment…

It doesn’t get much more direct then that does it? There wasn’t any delivery confirmation or tracking purchased along with IRON TANK so we can’t verify a direct date of shipping, however we did receive an email from Pedro! within an hour of making the payment indicating that 1. positive feedback was left for the buyer, and 2. you should expect to receive your game soon.

Now We Wait…

I have confidence in Pedro! As of writing this he has a score of 18852 with a rating of 100%. My only concern at this point is that Pedro! shows screenshots of the game (with a Pedro! watermark) and not a picture of the actual cartridge. I thought of emailing and asking Pedro! for the condition but with that 18000+ track record I have a hard time bringing myself to believe that the cart will be in deplorable condition.

Pedro! Games Part 2

Well for an auction that ended Thursday May 28th, and paid for on May 29th, we were amazed that our one cent copy of IRON TANK arrived on Monday June 1st.

The game arrived First-Class in a well protected envelope complete with the Pedro! Games logo on it.

But what about the IRON TANK cartridge? We professed a minor legitimate concern with the first part of this seller review that Pedro! Games shows screenshots of the games rather than the actual cartridge itself. So what was the condition like? Although not 100% mint perfect, the cartridge itself was acceptable. Very acceptable. There was a negligent amount of wear on the label, but not bad considered the cartridge is around two decades old. The pins were shiny and appeared new.

So what criticisms if any did we have? Actually none. This isn’t to say we should judge a seller on the basis of one good sale, but in this case we were very pleased, and as an advocate for video game collectors www.videogamepriceguides.com was impressed by this transaction.

I mentioned earlier that PedroGames.Com delivers and he sure does. He is certainly my favorite ebay seller. One of the games I got recently was Renegade. This isn’t a rare game by any stretch of the imagination but it would have become an necessary purchase eventually if my ultimate goal is to collect every licensed Nintendo game.

This game translated sorta well from the arcade version. About as well as Double Dragon translated to the NES. But I have this facinating obsession with videogame box art and Renegade for Nintendo is an interesting gem. In the actual game you look like a greaser taking on other greasers- sorta like a a deleted scene from the movie Grease. But this box art depicts a calamity that the game just doesn’t deliver.

For starters it says something like “the subway is no place to be at 2:00am”, well duh, why state the obvious? And I’m assuming the punk in white is supposed to be you, the hero. This guy is clearly a loser. At least the other thugs have weapons. They could have at least have penciled in a knife or a gun! What kind of badass picks fights in a subway at 2am but carries no weapon?

Also the title makes no sense. Isn’t a renegade like a rebel? Someone who fights “the establishment”? Is he rebelling against a street gang? Or is he rebelling against society by disturbing the peace?

One last thing that disturbs me is that huge drop off to where the subway tracks are. Someone should post a “watch your step” sign… or something.

There was an old TV show called Renegade with Lorenzo Llamas (which someone compares Billy Mitchell to in the documentary Chasing Ghosts) but this clown on the cover is certainly no Lorenzo.

I know I know… you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but in the case of Renegade for Nintendo, it’s too damn fun!

Does PedroGames.Com deliver?  He sure does.  I just received Track & Field 1 & 2, Bart Meets Radioactiveman, Street Fighter 2010, and Cobra Command.  All in excellent shape though Cobra Comand and Bart both had pieces rattling around inside which I fixed.  No big deal.

Money was a little bit loose this week so I splurged on a few titles from my favorite seller Pedro! (read my review of PedroGames.Com at http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/).

The last time I played Street Fighter 2010 I was in the 9th grade… 18 years ago! At the time Street Fighter 2 was popular but this game is nothing like SF2- its just a typical platform game with good music.

I only discovered Cobra Command a few months ago… I guess it will be the closest thing to Choplifter for the NES outside of the atrocious Famicom version. Nice music and scenery- you can smell the jungle mist.

Renegade. Not as good as the arcade version which was a blast. I believe this was a precursor to River City Ransom.

Radioactive Man. Never played it, but if it’s like the other Simpson games I’ll probably be disappointed. Perhaps it will be worth trading for a Balloon Fight or a…???

That last auction shown in the photo was a surprise to me. If you’re interested you’ll just have to search the item number.

So with those six games plus Karnov and Breakthru hopefully in the mail I have 8 games to look forward to.

I received my latest round of Pedro! Games today. I’ve mentioned it a million times but you can read my review at http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/ This go-round I received Robocop, Lode Runner, Platoon and Alpha Mission. All in great shape but Lode Runner did have a gash.

And I’m still waiting on that “Mike” guy to send the 8 games. After three emails he claims he had a family emergency. I suspect its another BS eBay excuse. I’ve spoken about that type of crap in earlier posts. eBay must be directly responsible for a 3rd of the world’s family disasters.

It’s arrived! And it’s a new record. Pedro! Games is fast. Real fast! This is my 3rd transaction with them. You can read my original review about Pedro! at http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/. But get this… I won and paid for this auction late in the evening on June 30th. The next day on July 1st I received an email from Pedro! saying the game shipped. Here we are on July 3rd and it was in my P.O. Box but here is the amazing part… this Nintendo game came from North Carolina, and I am in Las Vegas! Unbelievable! Anyways this game rocks. I’ve read elsewhere that Sunsoft originally had the license to publish a Terminator game, but things fell apart so they changed it to this. It’s truly an incredible game, perfectly programmed with a decent story beautiful music and awesome box art. Typically movie games are garbage but I’m confident this would have turned out beautifully. It’s a shame we will never know. One last thing, this was a BuyItNow for $2 and its in out of the box condition!

Well Athena and Urban Champion arrived today. In perfect condition, which is exactly what I expected from Pedro! Read my complete review of previous experiences with Pedro! at http://www.videogamepriceguides.com/. Not only were both in great condition, the Urban Champion looked liked it had never been used.

So I got to Urban Champion today for the very first time and I must say that the game is overtly simple, but not terrible. It would definately make a great drinking game. I finally got to see the cop car drive around and the two bum fighters look around like they were innocent. This game is in desperate need for a remake.

Anyways Arkanoid is the last title I still have outstanding. I have an opportunity to get a mint Operation Wolf for $4.00, but I’m torn if I really want it for that price