Topic: Your latest retro purchase

The thing is that I'd be worried of getting a fake, though.
According to byuu, who became famous a couple years ago when he sold off a NA SNES set with all games and I think all boxes and most manuals, there were only something like 15 copies of Kunio. Hopefully one of those is yours.

(the only legal link I found on google mentioned its value, on rarest SNES games. The article did mention "not valuable yet" games: "Super Turrican 2: $21-$52" Yeah, tell me where, even in 2010 you could find ST2 for $52, let alone $21. Pretty sure it was even then $60+. )

Here's the latest Shpydarhaul from this weekend's visit to the retro shop ...

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (2600) - I used to play this for hours upon hours as a kid.
Black Belt (Master System) - With better collision detection, this game would be great instead of just ok.
Monster Party (NES) - An awesome game that was recommended (wisely so) by everyone's favorite sexy gamer, @ogo79. The label's in horrible condition, but that just meant I got it for real cheap.

Megamania, blue label variant edition, CIB (2600)
Box is mint condition, and now I'm down to needing just 13 more Activision 2600 games.

And these last two pics are of my favorite find of the week:


Video Olympics, CIB (2600)
This is another 1977 launch-game variant version (now I just need 2 more for the complete launch game set), and it's even complete in the original gatefold-style box - after the launch games, Atari switched to the standard style (read: cheaper to produce) boxes. And this box is BEYOND mint. Seriously, despite it being 37 years old, the box still has a glossy shine on it as if it just came out yesterday. I was psyched to find it in such an amazing condition.

At PAX East, I bought Donkey Kong Land and Sonic Advance 3.

More importantly, I bought a model 1 Sega Genesis while I was there! It cost me $40. Of course, I also bought some games for it:

• Aladdin
• Chakan: The Forever Man—with box and manual!
• The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie, because I remembered this site giving it a positive review
• Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse
• Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
• Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

This is the first console I've ever gotten after the end of its lifespan.

The Great Circus Mystery was pretty good. Like other Capcom sequels, its only real flaw is lack of originality over the original. (GCM's significant difference is that it adds Minnie as a playable character to allow co-op play.)
(though I assume you're talking about getting the Genesis version. No problem there. While the first was developed, I'm pretty sure it never came out on Genesis. I assume because they were late in getting a Sega license and Magical Quest would've otherwise been released just months before Circus.)

I just ordered a Strider NES cart. I hadn't been huge on that, but I guess for five bucks it can't be too bad.
As well I ordered Jurassic Park for SNES, cart and instructions. So I hear it's not too bad but it really needed a password feature.

I don't actually have a 2600 (yet), but I got a library going today with Combat, Asteroids, and one of my all-time favorites Warlords. Just need to get myself a 2600 and some paddle controllers!

Well done, my friend.
As Obi-Wan said to Luke, "You've just taken your first step into a larger world."

Game & Watch Gallery 2 for $4.00

$16 for all

Sorry for carts being dirty. Just haven't had time to clean them yet. Wasn't going to get NBA Live 97 or Sonic 2 cause already have them but they were 50 cents each so I had to.

I ordered:
Solar Jetman CIB for $5 and shipping. Sounds fun, but it's made by Rare, so I'm sure at some point you'll want to abandon it in space.
MD shooters: Elemental Master loose, Darius II and Darwin 4081 CIB. EM shot up since Mike Matei reviewed it, and is Darius II really cheaper CIB than Sagaia is loose?

Picked up FIVE Master System games!

• Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
• The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck
• Golden Axe Warrior
• Astérix
• Ninja Gaiden

@Scarhino89 if you were in the states Golden Axe Warrior would be an amazing find. One of the rarest master system games over here. Don't know how it is in Europe.

Golden Axe Warrior and Ninja Gaiden for SMS?
Look over there!
/me runs in and steals carts

(double post cuz I'm awesome)
Another addition to the Activision 2600 collection:

Private Eye (Atari 2600)
One of the more rare Activision games, and I nabbed it for about half the going price. Came in this weird packaging with a poorly Xeroxed copy of the manual — probably originally from a Chinese/pirate store, though I have confirmed that the cart is original, which is all that matters to me.

I pick up Lunar Knights
Dr. Mario game boy version
Lady Sia

Yesterday was good day for me. $17 dollars and I got all this. Actraiser complete only cost me $5.

The Lion King SNES CI (from the pic, shouldn't be the cheapy Majesco print either). I hear my friend tell me SNES Aladdin and this "sucks". Lion King looks like it should be okay and even the creator of SNES Aladdin might think the Genesis version is better but I don't think the SNES version is that bad either. I think he says he just doesn't like Aladdin's apples. (I told I've got a number of truly crappy games he should try, but I don't think so. Even though he's just asking for a Mohawk & Headphone Jack headache! In the cause of nauseating games, I did show him Astro Go! Go! once though.)
Captain Commando. I don't think $56 for a loose cart with rental stickers on is exactly a great deal, but I see the general trend. Next time you look it'll probably be a $100 game.

But that $5 ActRaiser was a steal. I don't think I spent less than that for mine, loose from back when GameStop traded SNES games. Can't even remember what I spend, probably the $15-20 range, still way before the game was high demand.

@KingMike Yea was real steal. Found a local toy shop and all hours games are $5 regardless of what they are. He doesn't have too many of them but there was some gems. I just bought the CIB stuff he had which was that Actraiser and a Game Genie for Game Gear.

So recently I have ordered two Super Famicom carts: Actraiser (the Japanese version of ActRaiser) and SoulBlader (the Japanese version of SoulBlazer). So worth playing these two in Japanese format (especially if you've played the localized versions beforehand; plus there's so much difference between versions of the former and a few notable differences between versions of the latter). I've played and beaten them both, and my verdict is: Actraiser is superior to ActRaiser imo (because unlike the Western version it's actually a bit challenging) and thus far I feel about on par with SoulBlader/SoulBlazer (though I'm certain I might change my mind if I play through both versions again). Fun weekend; can't wait to try the Japanese version of Illusion of Gaia someday.

To each their own.

I'm not certain as it's been awhile since I played SoulBlazer, but I wonder if they made it harder in the west.
I played SoulBlader a couple years ago and it seemed like the bosses were dying a lot easier than I remembered (I know the first boss was modified. In Blader, the middle bridge was solid so you could just walk up and slash away.)

The only difference I noticed that affected the gameplay was the fact that Solid Arm's boss encounter where in the West there was a conveyer belt while in the Japanese original there was none in the middle. It's been months since I've played SoulBlazer, but I still managed to beat the Japanese version (even though it was my first time) in just one life (I almost lost a life during the Deathtoll boss fight, but I made it through a-okay). There were a few cosmetic changes too (like the mermaid queen and the Poseidon boss, if you get my drift), and in King Magridd's castle there are fireball-spewing cannons that had different shapes--in the Western version they looked like hollowed out skulls while in the Japanese version I can barely make out what they look like but they almost look like demonic heads. So, yeah, you could say that SoulBlazer was made harder than the Japanese version, but not by much (as it's essentially the same otherwise).

Now ActRaiser on the other hand: I'm wondering if Quintet had any confidence in American gamers at all, because it was made way too easy compared the Japanese version Actraiser (less enemies, less spikes, less amount of hits it takes to defeat specific enemies, some bosses made easier). The Japanese version is a little harder yes, but not impossible (same for ActRaiser 2, but that's irrelevant). The only thing that was easier in the Japanese version was the town simulation acts, where the cyan dragons and red demons take one hit less to dispose of than the American version (also these segments happen a lot quicker in the Japanese version, with less waiting time). There is also a Special mode, which is like the American version's Professional! mode if it had everything that was in the Japanese version (no magic, no sims, no continues). What I noticed which took me awhile to figure out was that the magic is assigned to different buttons: in the American version it was assigned to one button (A or X, I forget which) while in the Japanese version you had to press up and Y at the same time (like Castlevania). I found that very interesting, and there are so many cosmetic changes that were made for the Western version (most of which I'm okay with, it's the fact that its difficulty was stripped down that gets to me). Still fun, even if overexposed (it's gotten a modified arcade version, a modified pre iPhone version for a phone, and a rerelease for the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console; the fact that it's the only Quintet SFC/SNES game out of six that got a single rerelease really bothers me... does no one have equal demand for the other games, or is Square-Enix (or whoever holds the license) under the impression that the crowd only wants to play this Quintet game in particular? 'cause that is not a good mindset, as the other games are worth trying too).

Before I sign off, I'll express my own opinion on which of these is superior in a simple way:
Actraiser > ActRaiser 2 > ActRaiser

To each their own.