Diary of a Retro Noob

Alrighty then...an introduction...

So, if you’ll excuse the self-indulgent nature of this thread, I figured that my experiences/addictions/imminent relationship breakdown would make half decent reading for anyone considering getting into retrogaming/collecting from the perspective of a fellow newbie to the whole thing.

I’ve played video games my entire life (I’m now 28), and, through the years, was lucky enough to own a handful of video game formats. Though, of course, being an idiot child, I decided to sell these on through the years to allow me to buy the ‘latest and greatest’ hardware and, in hindsight, this upsets me.

So, through the years, the following consoles/computers have come into, and left my possession (in some sort of order)…Spectrum ZX, Atari 2600, Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo 64, PS1, Gameboy Advance, PS2…Fun fact : I won my Mega Drive in the McVities Penguin biscuit/James Pond 2 promotion. And only because I was being a little brat and eating chocolate at 7am on a Saturday morning, whilst watching Sharky and George, before my Mum woke up. And I guarantee you have the Sharky and George theme tune in your head now

Anyway, current generation gaming has left me a little cold (bar some exceptions to the rule : Mass Effect 2, I salute you. Mass Effect 3, I do not) and now I’m allegedly a grown up with money in my pockets, I want to go about repurchasing the consoles I did own, and ones I’d played but never owned, as well as games I could either never afford or wouldn’t have looked at twice when I was a Sonic-obsessed child. I owned a Sonic sweatsuit. Boom.

So, yes, read the highs, the lows, and join me…first purchase this evening...

[Jay-Z] So, off we go, let the trumpets blow, hold on because this retrogamer is far from a pro [/Jay-Z]…my first shopping expedition, blow-by-blow:

What I bought : 25 – 31 July 2013

Venue/Website: Cash Converters
Where: Talbot Street, Dublin 1

This is a pretty new shop (only been open a couple of weeks, I believe) and I was lured in by the three OG Nintendo Game Boy’s sitting in the window, taunting me. I decided to head in and take a look around, mildly excited by what I’d find inside. And what did I find : a bunch of Nintendo DS, a heap of dog-eared DVDs and not much else, bar approximately 15 PS2 games of tosh quality. Fifa 07? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I’d rather poke myself in the eye.

Venue/Website: Game Xchange
Where : Talbot Street, Dublin 1

By my estimations, I’ve walked by this shop over 2,500 times in my lifetime, but never paid much attention to it, even the huge, unquestionably copyright infringing, Microsoft Xbox ‘X’ logo that forms part of it’s sign. Anyway, clearly my spidey sense was tuned in today as, walking past the place AGAIN, a SNES and Gamecube in the window caught the corner of my eye. So in I wandered. Now, don’t get me wrong, the selection there isn’t huge, and some of the games they do have, especially the Sega Dreamcast games, aren’t in great nick, but there were a handful of games that were definitely worth purchasing. From what I can remember, they had a lot of PS2 and Xbox games, a good few Gamecube and PS1 games, a row of Dreamcast games, and about 20 Mega Drive games. Anyway, they have a nice promotion on PS2, PS1 and Xbox games where you can buy any three games for twenty quid, suddenly turning overpriced games into a bit of a bargain. Therefore, I helped myself (wait, that makes me sound like a thief – I paid, honest guv) to Kingdom Heart, MGS2 and God of War. That ‘3-for-20’ promotion saved me 17 quid, as Kingdom Hearts was priced as €15, MGS2 as €10 (I know the cover isn’t in great nick, but still) and God Of War as €12. A 20 for the lot? Ah, go on then. Oh, and I’d never played God of War and MGS2 before…altogether, in unison, now: NOOOOOOOOOOOB. (That’s meant to read ‘noob’ rather than a long (matron!), drawn out nob, but whatever).



See a problem with the above photo? This is where feck up #1 of this experience takes place, in the second shop I ever walk into…you know I said I bought Kingdom Hearts and God Of War? Yeah, look at the photo again, I didn’t. Only when I got home did I look at the boxes and realise I’d bought the sequel of each.So now I have to buy said originals before playing the sequels. Baaaaaalls.

Venue/Website : The R.A.G.E
Where : Fade Street, Dublin 2

If you’re even at the start of your retro journey (as I am) and haven’t heard of this place on Fade Street you’ve been living in a little cave (Sidenote : If they featured it in the TV show of the same name, I would’ve been approximately eight trillion times more likely to have actually watched it, rather than deal with a very, very, poor mans The Hills, Made In Chelsea etc with the unlikeliest couple in the world.)



She is kinda attractive. He kinda drinks Dutch.

I can’t think of any other shop that I’ve heard mentioned that has the collection The R.A.G.E (why the full stops?! It’s getting annoying to type) has, and the boxed consoles sitting high out the way of my 6’2” reach reduced my mental age by 20 years. There’s an arcade cab, a ton of different formats, random peripherals, and so on. Bad news : It’s pricey. Preeeeetty pricey. 20 quid for Aladdin on the Mega Drive? In the words of the immortal Hall & Oates, I can’t go for that.

Anyway, I went there with my mind already made up as to what I wanted (this, as it turns out, is a horribly dangerous mentality to be in) : A Game Boy Advance/SP with a copy of Zelda : A Link To The Past. There is, at least, a little bit of logic here – my girlfriend is travel-induced narcolepsy afflicted (fine, I totally made up that diagnoses up, but she falls asleep in any moving vehicle), and seeing as the next two weeks will result in two two-and-a-half hour coach trips, two flights of four hours each and a train journey of three-and-a-half hours, well, that’s a whole lot of me time. Read as : GAAAAAMES! (Second sidenote : My girlfriend, for whatever reason, seems to deem my new found retro obsession ‘cute’. She went to get her hair cut, I went to The R.A.G.E. I feel like an overgrown child. BUT, as I only discovered last weekend when she caught me playing Sonic 2 on an emulator, she only bloody owned a Mega Drive as a kid and proceeded to play as Tails. Be still my beating heart.).

But, of course, things couldn’t possibly go straight forward for me…because I bought this…



Feck up #2a : Buying a pink GBA SP (It was the only one they had, I had a trip to Galway ahead of me).
It is pink. Enough said.

Feck up #2b : Not testing it before leaving the store.
So, I arrived home, charged up the SP, waited, then loaded up Zelda. Wait…why are there three scratches on the screen. This isn’t good. Turned off the SP two minutes later, and sent a Facebook message to Rage explaining the situation. To be fair to them, they apologised and said that I could go in and exchange it for another one. Except, when I got there, they had no SPs in stock. No biggie…I’ll help myself to the below in exhange:



Venue/Website : Adverts.ie
Where : N/A

So, having learnt from the R.A.G.E/Pink GBA SP debacle, I scoured Adverts.ie for a GBA SP in a colour that didn’t either make people question my sexuality or assume I’d robbed a 10 year old girl. (This is all on the premise that R.A.G.E, when I eventually get there, will at the very least give me store credit in return for the dodgy pink jobby). Turns out I was in luck. I found a BLUE GBA SP for €20, admittedly without a charger, but they’re cheap enough. Better yet, the pictures appeared to indicate that it was in good nick too. So, I made an offer which was accepted, met up with the guy, and next thing you know, 20 quid has disappeared from my pocket and been replaced with said GBA in very good condition. Great success.



Don’t stop me now, must keep buying!

Venue/Website : A&R Marketplace
Where : N/A
What actually kicked off this ‘blowing money fast’ attitude, was me placing a ‘Wanted’ ad in the Arcade & Retro forum’s Marketplace, here on Boards. I’d had a higher level of comfort using this, despite having never used it before, purely by ghosting the forum and seeing how successful it was. Anyway, my advert stated I was looking for ‘a Console’ (I’m a literary genius), and user Los Lobos came in and offered me both a Mega Drive + 3 games for €30 or a Dreamcast and about a dozen games for €40. As tempted as I was by the Dreamcast (I’m fairly sure that will be my next purchase), nostalgia led me to the Mega Drive. So the Mega Drive, two Quickshot controllers and three games cost me €40, including postage. Bargain.

This immaculate package (ooh-er) arrived yesterday:



And contained these:





Oh, and these to play on it:



Aaaaaand relax. Next purchases will definitely be an RGB scart for the Mega Drive (I’ve only an RF adapter) and a much-needed charger for the GBA SP. Any tips on what to buy next are greatly appreciated.

Shopping trip #1
Bought : Gameboy Advance SP (Blue), Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past (GBA – PAL), God of War (PS2 – PAL), Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2 – PAL), Kingdom Hearts (PS2 – PAL), Sega Mega Drive I + Ecco The Dolphin, Aladdin & Alisia Dragoon (MD - PAL), Rocket Knight Adventures (MD - PAL), Sonic 3 (MD - PAL)
Money spent: €135
Money spent to date (I’m going to regret this section in six months time): €135

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

Is it an actual Cash Converters? I ain't seeing anything online for it. I used to love the ones in Parnell Mall and Thomas St; they'd have a stock of great PS2 titles for pennies, and the occasional Wii and PS3 bargains in tow.

Truth be told, I'm not sure if it's a legit 'Cash Converters' (the branding is yellow and black - not sure if that helps). Like I said, it's pretty new so maybe/hopefully their stock might improve.

Do not fret, there's an August 'update' coming but, in the mean time, let me ask you all this:

What's the best starting point with the pokemon series?

What I did in August…

I figured that I’d move to a monthly ‘diary entry’ and post everything I blew money on in one go, rather than post as and when I buy a single game.

After a holiday to Italy that turned out to be slightly pricey (with an absolute b*stard behind the eyes on the flight home) , my retro funding took a little bit of a hit. Therefore, instead of just splurging money, like I did last month, I switched tact and went into full-blown David Dickinson mode, which can only mean one thing (besides horrendous fake tans) : I mainly trawled charity shops and eBay. Though I do prefer the Macklemore/Thrift Shop comparison more because, damn, I’m a cold ass honkey.

Venue : Multiple, so many charity shops
Where: Rathmines and Camden Street

Immediately, upon embarking upon the charity shop stroll, I felt more excited than I had about any of the retro adventures I’d had to date. There’s something inherently more fun about digging through 12 copies of a PC magazine demo DVD, priced at 50 cent, for something, anything, that’s borderline playable, than walking into somewhere like The R.A.G.E and dropping 20 quid on an overpriced game. Sure, specialist shops have the collection, but it’s nowhere near as fun.

By my recollection, I think I went into approximately four different charity shops in Rathmines and a similar number on Camden Street (I may have walked a good distance). Some had no retro games whatsoever, some had approximately eight thousand copies of every instalment of Fifa/Pro Evo Soccer, and some had one or two games that were worth more than a glance.



So, through the eight charity shops, I picked up the above for the princely sum of €7.50. All games were a whole one euro, apart from the unopened Final Fantasy XII which was a rather expensive €2.50. Now, I realise that in this bunch, there’s not a huge amount of killer games, but for fleshing out the collection a little bit, €7.50 is pretty good going.

Venue : CEX and a place I can’t remember a couple doors down
Where : Tottenham Court Road, London, UK

Now, anyone who is familiar with London at all realises that Tottenham Court Road is the place to go should you wish to pick up electronics. I didn’t have much time (just a Monday morning after a weekend, again, with an absolute b*stard behind the eyes) and didn’t even know if there were any second hand game stores there, but took a punt on it.

First, was the familiar red sight of CEX and thought, ‘This is London, should be a good collection here’. Wrong. Well, kinda wrong anyway. The collection was half decent but, like London itself, overpriced (Seriously, £4.80 for a pint? Behave.). Thus, I left, grumpy. And still hungover.

Next, a couple doors down I found a place (the name of which I still can’t remember), peered inside the door and saw mainly second hand consoles and electronics but thought I’d chance my arm. By my recollection, there were only maybe a dozen games there, but I managed to pick up the below, the only two games that I looked twice at.



Yes, I’m delighted I got Okami for £6.

Venue : CEX
Where: Castlepoint, Bournemouth, UK

Have you sensed I’ve done a lot of travelling this month? Anyway, having taken the trip to my home county and in desperate need of a new suit, I saw the familiar red-ness of a CEX at the entrance to the Castle Point shopping complex. I made a mental note to visit it when done completing the hateful task of clothes shopping, and was delighted I didn’t forget.

I spent an hour shopping for clothes. I spent the same amount of time in CEX. The selection there is absolutely HUGE. Taking into account funds were, at this point, very low, I had to temper the urge to just buy the keys to the store and just purchase the below.



That’s right. £10 for all the above. Boom!

Venue : eBay
Where : N/A



I’m a dirty eBay sniper. I’m not ashamed as the result was the above for about €5 a pop including delivery. Take that internet ethics. Though someone needs to get my newfound addiction under control.

Venue : A&R Marketplace
Where : N/A



So following my successful Mega Drive purchase from the A&R marketplace last month, I went back to it again to pick up the below from WayneOTT for €20 including delivery. (Playing OutRun made me an incredibly happy man-child).

Venue : Online – retrogamingcables.co.uk
Where : N/A



And finally, after being told, nay, demanded, to purchase a RGB scart cable for the aforementioned Mega Drive, I did just that. And, boy, am I happy about that. The difference, even on my plasma TV, is HUGE. If you’re not using RGB scart, to quote a popular internet meme, you’re doing it wrong. Next stop, region/60Hz mod.


Shopping trip #2
Bought : God of War (PS2 – PAL), Bully (PS2 – PAL), Onimusha (PS2 – PAL), GTA: Vice Vity (PS2 – PAL), Silent Hill 4 (PS2 – PAL), Burnout: Revenge (PS2 – PAL), Prince of Persia : Sands of Time (PS2 – PAL), Devil May Cry (PS2 – PAL), Max Payne (PS2 – PAL), SSX Tricky (PS2 – PAL), Max Payne 2 (PS2 – PAL), Okami (PS2 – PAL), NFL Street 2 (PS2 – PAL), Final Fantasy XII (PS2 – PAL), Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (PS2 – PAL), Half Life (PS2 – PAL), Tomb Raider : Legend (PS2 – PAL), Lego Star Wars II (PS2 – PAL), OutRun (Mega Drive – PAL), Mega Bomberman (Mega Drive – PAL)
Money spent: €85 (approx. FX rates)
Money spent to date (Still regretting this): €220
What I’m playing : MGS2 (PS2) – I’m still awful. Zelda : Link To The Past (GBA) – Still can’t work out how to beat the worm things that jump out the ground. Aladdin (MD) – Still an absolutely amazing platformer.