Kyh's Finds

As I continue this journey deeper and deeper into retro gaming, I've become more intrigued by game collecting. Sure, it's easy enough to find most stuff on the internet (I certainly do more than my share of trolling through Ebay), but by searching through physical bins in places near you, that's when it becomes really exciting. Before I continue, I have to give most of the credit for my new obsession to The Game Chasers. They do not currently have their own website, but you can find their stuff on RetrowareTV and Blip. They tote themselves as American Pickers for video games. It's great stuff.

I hope to make this a regular column as I find more and more cool stuff. Unfortunately, I live in a tiny community and the nearest town with a Gamestop has no independent video game stores. Thus, I'm forced to resort to the many thrift stores in the area. It's not so bad, just very hit or miss. All of my finds today come from Goodwill.

Sigh. How I love to beat up the pedestrians.

A couple of months ago, I went into my local Goodwill (which happens to be by my dentist) and saw a PS2 behind the counter. I was mesmerized and knew I wanted it. When I asked the price, the lady told me $45. I didn't have the money, so I passed on it (it ended up selling several weeks later, though I did get one more chance to drool over it). It was the set of Xbox games, though that really got my attention. I knew these would be more in my price range.

Among the small stack of mostly sports games, one particular title caught my eye. Grand Theft Auto III. On the Xbox was where I learned to love this series (Vice City, I believe), so right away I wanted it. When I asked the lady how much, she said $2.99. Hey, three bucks ain't too bad. The manual and map are in excellent shape and the disc only had a few tiny scratches. So I bought it. Quite a pleasing game chasing experience.

Aww, childhood memories . . .

Fast forward to a week or two ago, and I'm in the same Goodwill, hoping for another satisfying find. I knew they didn't have anything in their case (this time I did have the cash for a PS2), so I just wandered around their basic electronics section. I'm just hoping for maybe an accessory or extra controller, but lo and behold, I find a PSOne underneath an adding machine. I couldn't believe myself, this was one of the systems I had growing up (well, the earlier version, at least)! I didn't see any of the cables, but I did find the instruction manual and a third party controller. $4.99 for the system, $2.99 for the controller. Not bad, I'll take them.

In my excitement and eagerness to find those dang cables, I continue scouring the shelves. Double jackpot! I found a lone Sega Genesis under some more junk! I couldn't believe that I'd found these systems on the same day in the same store. Sure, they're relatively common consoles, but if you only knew the isolation I live in, you'd understand. $4.99 for this system as well, why not.

Completely new territory for me.

I looked over each system carefully to make sure I wasn't just dumping my money into total crap. The latch for the PS door stuck a little, but nothing too bad, and the laser crystal looked pretty clean. Especially considering the gunk on the rest of it. Nothing a little rubbing alcohol couldn't fix. The Genesis looked to be in even better shape (perhaps surprising considering how much older it is than the PS). I opened the dust cover and it looked clean in there. Clean enough to play an old cartridge, at least.

I took my treasure up to the counter to pay. There were a few people ahead of me, so I glanced behind the glass as usual. Hey! That looks like a Playstation A/V cable! Sure enough, it was. The guy let me have it, and in my excitement, I forgot to ask if I could get some kind of discount for buying both systems. Ah well, $13 for all that isn't bad at all. Another pleasing game chasing time.

A few days later, I did go back to Goodwill to see if I could find the other cables I needed for the consoles but didn't see them. I'm pleading with you readers, if you know where I can find them for cheap (or perhaps, have them laying around your house), please let me know! I know where I can get PS A/V cables $1 apiece . . .

I'd love to hear about your own game chasing experience, if you'd like to share in the comments below.

P.S. - I got the gig at The Punk Effect. Look out for my articles there. Or if you follow me on Twitter, I'll tweet when they go up.

Ideas, Ideas Everywhere . . .

As I delve deeper into my creative wants and needs, I have a strong desire to give more than just my words. I have dreams of videos and podcasts and the like. If I ever moved to the San Francisco area (a future possibility), I would certainly try jumping into the video game journalism niche. Ooh, please, someone, send me to a convention! (cheapass)

My claw-like hand at ready.

I visit far too many video game-related websites and spend far too much time on them, but one good thing that comes of it is I am more aware of contribution opportunities. Right now I know of a website, The Punk Effect, that is looking for both writing and video contributors. There's no word as to whether or not it's paid, but really, for me it's just exciting to think I could be a contributor to a website I enjoy so much (much like for my current freelance job).

I think that having discovered just how much joy I get from my hobby/obsession, I want so badly to put all my creative juices into it. I even have ideas for video game-related crafts! Sadly, the issue is with time. I happen to have a 'real' job, a 'fake' freelance writing job, a husband, a kid, two cats, a dog, etc. aka 'a life'. I'm not saying that people who are able to put the efforts into their hobbies don't have a life, just that I understand that they're more dedicated than perhaps I. But I'm determined to change!

Perhaps one of the biggest problems I face is the simple fact that many of my ideas are too big for myself. In that I mean that what I would like to do would require too much time to put together (effects, desire of quality and whatnot). So much so that it just ends up scaring me away from it. 'Oh, I don't want to start that project cause I know I only have half an hour to work right now. I'll start it later when I have more time.'

Where the magic happens.

I have this weird belief that if I tell someone about what I'm going to do, then I'll actually get it done. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked in the past (I've given up training for a marathon, though I continue to run) and it's hardly pushing me now (I actually have a person lined up and ready to do music for me). Perhaps this post will help me along my desired path. I'll deal with my overly big ideas, and how about you help me with the encouragement? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below or in a private message or however. I know it even if you don't say anything. After all, Blogger tells me every time you visit >:)

The Cost of Doing Pleasure

The more I get into video games, the more I realize how cheap I am (okay, I've always realized this, it's just becoming more prevalent). It is an expensive hobby to have what with the consoles (you can't have just one), games, accessories, memberships, DLC (downloadable content), etc. Honestly, this is how I first got into casual gaming. Why buy games when there are hours of entertainment available for free on the internet? No, I'm not talking about porn. Sure this side-hobby landed me a great and convenient freelance writing job at JayisGames.com (my latest work can be seen here), but it hasn't tempered my desire for 'real' video games.

Literally all the coins out of my wallet.

My main solution to the problem is to just not buy video games. This pretty much sucks as I then feel left in the dust and have to do a lot of internet research and watch gameplay clips to make up for this. It doesn't help because watching someone play something is not nearly as much fun as doing it yourself. If someone says they don't mind watching you while you play, either they don't actually like video games or they're lying to you and indeed do want to participate.

The other solution that I've tended to follow is to lag behind the times. By this I mean to wait awhile (usually 1-2 years) before buying a game so you can get it for a lot cheaper than when it's a new release. I did this with my copy of Diablo II. I got the Battle Chest for $25 on Ebay, about two years after the release. Now, I did get to play this game closer to when it was brand new thanks to my brother borrowing it from a friend, but, of course, I had to own it cause it's just awesome. I plan on doing this same method for Rock Band 3, which on Amazon I'm finding is dropping slowly toward $45, about 1/3 the original cost. It's currently 1 1/2 years old and I've never actually played it (I don't think), but considering how many hours I've put into the first one, I know I'll love this as well. This method suffers from the same issues as the first one, except you eventually get to own the game.

Ooh, I can't wait!

The final solution is the one I hate the most. It's what I like to call 'Just Suck It Up'. This means just buying the game full price right when it's released. It makes me cringe and I hate it, but some games you just have to have. The last game I did this to was Green Day Rock Band since my husband's such a big fan of theirs. And the next game I may buy at release is Diablo III, but I'm still debating it. I'm not saying this way isn't worth the money you spend, it just makes the miser in me holler in pain.

I'm in no way trying to state that I do things the right way nor do I regret indulging my video gaming need the way I have when I have. I just wanted to lay out the way I see this hobby with my frugal eyes. I say your best bet may be to just have friends who enjoy video games as much as you and are generous enough to gift them to you for your birthday. I mean, why else do you have them? Your World of Warcraft guild doesn't count unless they send you real life gifts, then that's cool.

(Systems I own that I paid for: Xbox 360, SNES)
(Systems I own that I didn't pay for: DS, Wii, GameCube, Xbox)
(System I'm currently on the hunt for: PS2)