A Small Pedrogames.Com Spending Spree

I purchased a couple games from pedrogames.com tonight.  My budget has been cramped recently so I had to be pretty selective.

The first game I bought was WWF: Steel Cage Challenge.  I've always had an interest in wrestling games and have posted about them before (http://www.salzmafia.com/labels/wrestling.php).  But two things occured that started to make me jones for this game.  The first is I finally got to watch "The Wrestler" and it was an incredibly cool movie.  I don't particularly like movies with alot of action and no dialog, but this movie was perfect.  If you haven't seen it yet, there is a popular scene in the movie where the main character "The Ram" returns home (to a trailer) from the hospital after recovering from a heart attack.  He now needs to take it easy and he's bored.  Looking down below his TV he sees his Nintendo and invites a neighborhood kid over to play Wrestle Jam.

Wrestle Jam is a fictious game.  It doesn't actually exist as a rom or cart that I know of and from what I read it was specifically programmed for the movie.  Here are a few screen shots:

"The Ram" and a neighborhood kid talk about "Call of Duty 4" while playing Nintendo.

The title screen to Wrestle Jam.  "The Ram VS. The Ayatollah"

The match begins!

Anyways The Ram beats the kid to a pulp, and the kid, bored, wants to go home.  Well in reading comments on other blogs about this same story (which is two years old as of this posting) much of the comments compared the game to other wrestling titles on Nintendo.  Wrestlemania is probably the closest:

So, I started looking at videos of all of the different wrestling games and I stumbled upon WWF: Steel Cage Challenge.  The animations in this game really caught my attention which is the second reason why I wanted it.  It was released in 1992, near the end of the life of the NES, so it's no surprise that it looks as good as it does:

We'll find out in less than a week if WWF: Steel Cage Challenge is worth it or not.

The next purchase is going to remain a secret for now.  But I'll give a hint.  If Elevator Action and Shinobi had a child together it would be this game.

A Data East Collection

I had mentioned in an earlier post about a recent PedroGames.Com spending spree.  This was mostly specific to Data East games.  Data East was an incredible publisher.  Burgertime doesn't require any further explaination (http://www.salzmafia.com/labels/burgertime.php)  But what about the other gems?  There are plenty, and these are three I received:

The first was Heavy Barrel which I already spoke about here.  There are similiarities between it and Shock Troopers for sure, but my interest in Heavy Barrel actually stems from an entirely different game: Time Soldiers by SNK.  Time Soldiers had a neat plot:  Your comrades were sent back to time, so you need to go back and rescue them.  The problem is you warp right into a battle field of the respective era.  WW2, Ancient Rome, even some weird caveman battle with spears.  Neat stuff.  It's kinda like Ikari Warriors meets Time Pilot.

Time Soldiers allowed you to administer Vigilante Justice on a dinosaur

Next was Side Pocket.  Billiards video games are cool for one very specific reason:  They are timeless.  Think about it... has Pool changed much in say the last 10 years?  25 years?  50 years?  It's still the same game!  So a Pool video game manufactured in the mid-80's is going to be just as relevant as the same game manufactured to day.  Perhaps the fancy pants processor in the PS3 or X-Box can render a cueball to look --OMG- so REAL!

Kinda hard to improve perfection...

Last but not least, Ring King.  There wasn't many boxing games for the NES, and most people will either remember PunchOut!! or Ring King.  Ring King is something that just has to be experienced.  The between round perversion was awesome, and for Data East (or perhaps Namco) to spit in the eye of Nintendo and release such a spectacle is pretty cool (Don't know what I'm talking about?  Look it up!).  But what I think is neat about this game is the audience and the announcers.  Most sports games from this era had terrible sterile audiences where it was the same head over and over.  In this game there is some variety to it.  And the announcers are extremely animated between rounds (probably outraged over the perversion hinted at above.)

PedroGames.Com And 72-pin Edge Connectors for NES

Those ten Nintendo games I won from eBay from pedrogames.com arrived yesterday.  I ordered them on Thursday evening, received the Invoice and paid for them Friday morning, and received them yesterday on Monday.  I'm not sure if pedrogames.com is in cahoots with the Postal Service, or if the Postal Service is just suddenly efficient because I also received Hook for Nintendo from another seller as well, with the same circumstance.  Though his game came from Missouri and not North Carolina.  In either case, it was a reasonable turn around time for both.  (I also have Licensed Gauntlet (in the grey cart) on it's way as well.)

I should also be receiving the Nintendo 72-pin edge connectors soon (I am not receiving them from Pedrogames.com as the title of this post might lead one to believe).  I've a handful of NES's that could desperately use them and the method to fix them is pretty well known on the web so I'm not going to post instructions or anything about that here.  I do want to point out that one of the systems I'll be fixing with the edge connector came from a thirft store for $5.  The NES itself looks like junk.  It's filthy and there is an ugly "chip" on one of the corners in the front.  But, a new 72-pin edge connector, and some Windex should clean it up nicely.

I also have plans to restore an NES controller that has been abused by years of cigarette smoke back to it's original grey color.  I was at a thrift store recently where I saw alot of controllers where the buttons were tight and felt great, but the controller itself was deplorable.  The scratches were pretty bad but the yellowing... SHESH..  Anyways, if I can restore one (and I do have a plan for this) then I might start buying messed up controllers to see how many can be restored to a reasonable condition.  Funny... the thrift store that had these wanted $2.99 a piece, yet about two years ago I bought a BRAND NEW Nintendo controller from there for 25 cents.

Pedrogames.Com Spending Spree

This past Friday was celebrated with another pedrogames.com spending spree.  There were a handful a games with this purchase including Terminator 2, Total Recall, Spelunker, Tiger Heli, Mickey Mousecapade, Volley Ball, Mad Max, Spy Hunter, Dig Dug 2, and Touchdown Fever.

With the purchase of Touchdown Fever, there will be only two games left for me to complete the SNK collection: Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf and Little League Baseball.  Little League wasn't appearing on the video game price guides site, but I fixed it, along with a bunch of other issues effecting the Nintendo list as I had mentioned in a previous post (plus the addition of the Tengen games).

Rygar and Wrecking Crew: Another Pedro Games Spending Spree

I just bought Rygar, Wrecking Crew and a few other games from http://www.pedrogames.com/.  5 games = $10 shipping, which isn't that bad since most sellers (including Pedro on single games) will charge $3 - $4.

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 SEGA Master System version (which I never knew existed) kinda looks like an evil pumpkin:

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!

Pedro! Games PedroGames.Com

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.

While we wait for IRON TANK to arrive check out his listings at http://www.pedrogames.com/

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.

Renegade Nintendo

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?

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.

Another eBay Spending Spree

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.

More Pedro! Games

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.

Journey To Silius

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!

Pedro! Games

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