1981: A Gaming Odyssey - I - Back Again
-David, webmaster DVGI

I write for gaming publications, repair neglected video game hardware, restore long forgotten classic games, and travel to exotic locations looking for hidden clusters of video game history.  Join me.

Welcome to the first entry in the column that I hope will replace the long running "Sales Yard Finds" editorials.  Taking a cue from my blog that I rarely update with anything worthwhile, I've decided to combine my running finds, game collecting adventures, and general industry commentary into this new (hopefully) regular editorial.  As I've said many times to friends, after years of being a poor man's Dave Attell, I now think I'm more like the video game industry's version of Anthony Bourdain.  That's the inspiration behind the introduction to this column.  That and over the past week I've received three separate totally unrelated e-mails that concern things I've written as editorials.  This tells me that the 6.0 rework of the site means it's being crawled by the search engines far better and more importantly that people actually read these columns.  So this is for you guys and gals, thanks for pulling me back in!  As for the title, obviously inspired a little by 2001, but as I was born in 1981 that's when this odyssey truly began.

I find a lot of stuff, a lot of really interesting stuff.  Most of the things I find on a daily / weekly / monthly basis are quietly listed at the Digital Press video game forums under the monthly finds thread.  I do this to keep track of items when it comes time to update my lists both offline and online here.  There are very few finds that I toot my own horn about, most of the time I post a picture and a little information on how the items were obtained.  A more solid archive of my finds is starting to become important to me.  So a big part of this column is going to be that every now and then I'll go back through my finds and fill it out with stories and information about the items.  I also come across a lot of things that I don't necessarily buy or things that are industry related that I happen to witness.  All that will end up here as well; you're going along with me for the adventure.  Lastly I've wanted to have a general theme to write editorials under that concern gaming how I see it, experience it, and remember it.  Written from more of a personal perspective but not a stand-alone column or feature, more of a running chronicle of my thoughts.  All that will be featured here.

I'm going to keep things for this first column regulated to this year, going back to February 13th 2010 and my usual bi-weekly peek into one of the local GameStop locations.  With the PS2 entering it's twilight years (the last game slated to be released on the platform will be Smackdown vs Raw 2011 - thrilling, right?) and used stock already dwindling, this is getting to be the last chance to pick up quality PS2 games at a retail store.  On this visit I ended up buying a copy of Lunar Legend for the GBA and a couple PS2 titles, one of which was Steambot Chronicles.  The game seemed interesting to me back when the pre-order campaign was first launched but I didn't pick up a copy then.  Once starting the game up I was instantly smitten by it.  Yes, there are some long load times and occasional slowdown, but the whole game runs at a relaxed pace.  Due to the pacing, me - the king of whining about collision detection, slowdown and loading - absolutely loved every moment of the game.  The world seems alive but in the 16 bit adventure game style.  The whole game felt very old and familiar to me which is probably why I had such a great time.  Thinking more about it, I felt the same way when I played Megaman Legends for the first time.  While there was always lots to do, I never felt pressured to rush through the game and exploration was done at whatever pace I wanted.  The game also did a very good job at making you seem like a small character in a large, interconnected world.  It has its flaws, don't get me wrong, however Steambot Chronicles is well worth taking a look at.

Jumping ahead exactly one month to March 13th, 2010 took me to the Electronics Flea Market at De Anza College in Cupertino.  Held the second Saturday of every month during the warmer parts of the year, the Electronics Flea Market carries with it an atmosphere of the engineering might that created Silicon Valley.  Of course a half-assed engineer like myself is really there just to poke around and check out all the old technology.  I usually pick up a couple books, any old computer part I may need (usually used in my MAME setups), and of course video games.  In addition to some common gaming items I returned with on this day, I also picked up a LaserDisc of everyone's favorite two hour Nintendo commercial, The Wizard.  Now, I have terrible luck with LaserDisc players, I always have, so I don't currently own one.  But there was no way I was going to pass up having a LaserDisc of The Wizard for two bucks.  Corny as the film is, horrible as the film is, I still say it's a very loose (poor) reimagining of The Who's Tommy with video games replacing pinball and divorce replacing organized religion.  Think about that for a moment.

Still reading?  Good.

April 9th 2010 lead to a rare purchase off craigslist.  Not a rare item, but rare is it that I buy things off craigslist because 95% of the purchases I try to set up usually raise a red flag of weirdness before being completed.  This time it was a Sega Dreamcast lot for a very modest price.  System, two controllers, a handful of great games such as Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Virtua Tennis and more.  I met the seller at a restaurant where she was having dinner with friends and the transaction went very smoothly.  Since I have most of the games I really picked up the lot for the titles I didn't have and to resell the rest.  I ended up passing the items I didn't need to Ian and he seems to be getting great use out of it.

Chrono Trigger is a game I've completed many times over the years.  An awesome opus of how to make an RPG flat out fun and engaging from start to finish.  However I don't always own a copy, it's one of those games that I buy and sell and then buy another copy and then sell it and so forth.  Well I really wanted to play it again but didn't want to pay more than $30.00 for a loose copy.  Eventually a copy came up for around that at the Digital Press video game forums and it arrived on May 22nd 2010.  After replacing the save battery (the stock one was fine but it's no big deal to change and a nice precaution) I was right back in and having a great time playing through one of the most engrossing games ever created.  There isn't much that hasn't been said about the title but I do intend on eventually writing a full review but you know how that goes.  On the same day I also received an arcade board of the game Sly Spy, an obscure arcade title that borrows a lot from Rolling Thunder and Shinobi.  It was recently released as part of Data East Arcade Classics on the Wii but I couldn't pass up the chance to have the arcade board for less than $20.00 all said and done.  Heavily inspired by the James Bond franchise, the game was one of my favorites during my teenage years and always a welcome (and unexpected) sight in an arcade.  The board works fine in my Klax cabinet however I need to build a modular control panel to support the standard JAMMA control setup before I can really play it.

Lastly this time, on July 12th 2010 I made a command decision to pick up a piece of video game display signage I couldn't leave behind.  Dragon Quest IX had been released the previous day and promotional display standees had been sent out to many retailers to promote the game.  Well a lot of places that don't usually use standees either tossed them in the cardboard recycling or set them out to get demolished by store patrons.  I wasn't going to let either happen so I took the "trash" cardboard standee, unassembled in its original shipping carton, home.  Sadly I have no space for it so it was carefully packed up and sealed and put into storage.  This thing is massive, I haven't seen a quality floor standee like this in a long time.  It's made of four main panels.  The back panel also makes the base and back support while small bridging supports connect a second panel with the game characters.  The base panel continues the artwork along with a Blue Slime and the Nintendo DS logo and rating information.  In front of the characters a large cutout of the game's title is suspended with foam blocks.  At the top of the back panel two cardboard trays are connected that hold little booklets that promote the game.  Included are also game case inserts used to convert generic DS cases into display cases.  The packet of booklets and case inserts is sealed, it also contains the assembly instructions.  I think I'll keep this one but items like this, in the condition I have them in, are the trade bait I go after above all.  Still, I gotta quit hauling big objects like this home - at least it wasn't an arcade cabinet this time...
 

Written on 07-14-10 by David, insanedavid@classicplastic.net


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