Friday 1 June 2012

Rate My Collection




What's better than having a cool collection of stuff?  Getting recognition of it.  If you have any sort of collection (doesn't just have to be video games like me) you should go to www.ratemycollection.com

It's a really cool site where people go, upload pictures of the stuff they collect then everyone can view it and even rate it based to a bunch of different categories like item diversity, historical significance. condition and rarity.  Plus the really awesome this is when you meet the requirements you will be considered a founding member and you get a certificate and pin too!  Which also gets you free admission to their events :)

This is on display in my game room now :D  Check out my collection here and give it a rating!  Plus make sure when you start your collection you post the link here so we can check it out!

Have an awesome weekend everyone!
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Check out my site at retrogamergirl.com and follow me on twitter @retrogamergirls



Friday 25 May 2012



It's Friday so it's Alana here :)  As you probably don't know I am a huge art fan, especially game art.  I love painting and designing stuff that feels like retro Nintendo so this was totally up my alley.  If you aren't familiar with Famicase you are really missing out!  Artists use Famicom game cases as their canvas by designing game labels for fake games and displaying them on game carts as if it were real.  When it first started in 2005, 23 artists displayed work.  Now over 100 artists from all over the world submit game labels to be displayed.
Artists submit their designs and the show founder Sakagami prints them off and applies them to the carts to be sure they are all uniform the he displays them in his shop on pegboards.  Check out http://famicase.com/12/index.html to see this years entries.
Here are some of my favorite entries over the last few years
Does this sound super cool to you? Want to design your own labels, well here's your chance. Nathan from Video Games Are Rad and I are teaming up to put on our own art show called Famicart Exhibition.  Anyone from around the world can enter and your entries will be placed on the online gallery and displayed on carts for a local art show, once we find a venue :)
We will be using Famicom and NES carts in our show so you can pick whichever you like.  We would also like if the artists make their own logo and short description to go with the game to be displayed with the carts.  It doesn't matter if you are a pro artist or designer, or you don't think you are good at drawing.

It doesn't need to be complicated, there have been entries like this too, just simple and not much to them :)
Very simple but looks cool :)
So anyone can make a design to use, there is no excuse :)  If you are interested just leave a note here or email me at alana@retrogamergirl.com  Even if you don't want to make a label but have some ideas you think would be cool you can definitely leave some suggestions for me :)

Friday 18 May 2012


Hi there!  Alana here J  It’s finally Friday so time for my new post.  This one isn’t very long but I’m trying to get my game collection in order and I’ve having a couple issues so I thought I would get your opinion on it.

Today I am going to talk about a problem I’m sure a lot of game collectors have, how to organize your games.  The biggest problem I am having is with my NES and Famicom games.


NES games seem like they should be really simple, they have the nice end labels with the name clearly displayed.  They are all totally flat and are easily stackable.  The issues arise when you are trying to put them in order.  If you try alphabetical it’s fine until you get to the letter T.  There are so many games starting with the word The, so do you include it as the first word in the title or do you ignore it and use the rest of the title? ie. The Last Ninja vs Last Ninja.

What if you have multiple titles in the same series of games.  An example that comes to mind is Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link, for me I would put them together but it kind of messes up the alphabetical order.   Plus if you include the Wisdom Tree games or the Tengen games then you don’t have end labels.




Now working with Famicom games you have a different problem.  Not all of the games have end labels so when you stack them you don’t know which game they are, plus you don’t have just play grey carts you have a multitude of colors, so do you group them according to color or just randomly stack them? Maybe I should make my own end labels for the games that don’t have any.  Plus a few of the companies have different shaped cartridges so that makes a bit of a mess too.

Not that this is super essential but it’s a problem that’s been bugging me as I’m trying to display everything in the “correct” way.  How do you guys do it?  Have any suggestions?

Friday 11 May 2012

Retro Gaming Television


Happy Friday!  It’s been a long week but we have finally made it:)


Today I figured I would talk about my favorite television show.  I know this sounds really lame but I promise it is retro game related J  4 years ago I stumbled across an awesome show online called Game Center CX.


The star of the show is Shinya Arino.  On the show he is known as the Kacho which means Section Chief and depending on how good he does at his challenges he can either get promoted or demoted.  Arino is a comedian and child at heart who will be 40 this year, and has 2 little kids at home.  He played Famicom and Super Famicom games back in the day, but he isn’t a professional gamer by any stretch of the imagination.  He makes up with this with his perseverance; this guy is very determined and won’t give up easily.  He will do whatever he can to entertain the audience and not disappoint them.  


To help him on his quest are his Assistant Directors.  An AD is someone that will help Arino through a tricky part on a level, give him hints, or a strategy guide when he gets stuck.  The AD’s usually play through the game right before filming so if necessary they can help him out.  I almost forgot to mention the awesome narrator; he not only narrates but makes funny comments about what the Kachou is doing throughout the show.  He definitely helps guide the episode along.




Every episode Arino is given a game (usually Famicom or Super Famicom) that he is required to beat in a certain time limit, or complete a certain challenge.  So Arino sits in his room with his white board behind him, and his table full of snacks to give him energy throughout the day.  One of Arino’s signature items is his cooling head pads that are commonly used to help headaches.  When he gets really frustrated or tired he slaps one of these on his head to refresh himself and give him a burst of energy.  On a side note I’ve tried these and they work great if you are having a long gaming session.



The show is an hour long is mixed with footage of Arino sitting there playing the game, his great reactions, and in game footage of him playing.  Throughout the show there are different segments that are tossed in.  Some like You Should Visit this Game Center Sometime where he takes trips to arcades and game centers that viewers suggest he goes to or Moshi Moshi where Arino is playing a difficult game and calls viewers for their help.  Mix this with short Game Collection segments that show a collection of Famicom games that came out in a specific year (ie. 1985) and it never gets dull.  Plus I’m kind of evil and I enjoy watching other people play games and get frustrated sometimes.  It’s nice when you see other people have trouble with games you had trouble with too. It may sound like a boring concept, but this show has a great mix of comedy, drama and extremely tense moments so it’s totally worth watching.




This show is so popular that it is on its 15th season in Japan.  So far Arino has challenged 135 different games.  Some games he plays are Famicom exclusive but a lot of the games are ones we are familiar with.  I’ve actually figured out Famicom games to get or avoid based on this show :p There are a few groups out there that have taken it upon themselves to translate and subtitle episodes like Something Awful and TV-Nihon just to name a few.  If you do some searching it won’t be hard to find.  Kotaku even had the rights to air a few episodes on their site last year, but they subbed over the narrator parts which got pretty annoying.  I highly recommend they subtitled ones.  The cool thing is a lot of the episodes are up on youtube they have some if you want to get a taste of the show. Here’s the episode for Mega Man 2, it's one of my favorite games so I thought it would be a good one to choose. I can’t wait until they subtitle the Battletoads episode, that game is evil!




If you like the show be sure to check out Retro Game Challenge for the DS which is based on this show.  You won’t be disappointed!  And like Arino the Game Master says, be sure to game for at least 12 hours a day!



Friday 4 May 2012

Girls who Game


Happy Friday!  Before you think someone has hijacked the site I figured I should introduce myself.  My name is Alana and I run http://retrogamergirl.com. OldAssGamer asked me if I would like to do a weekly article on his page and I jumped at the opportunity, so I'll be seeing you every Friday!  Make sure you leave comments and check out my site!

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What’s the difference between a “girl gamer” and a “gamer girl”?  I’ve been doing some research on this recently and all the other articles I have seen focused on current generation games and playing multiplayer online.  I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment on this part since I don’t really play any online games so I’ll be looking at this more from a retro game perspective. 

Figuring out the difference between the types of female gamers has the same problem as when you try to classify casual gamers and hardcore gamers; it’s really hard to pinpoint an exact definition.  In my mind girls like the ones that I know who play older games, tend to stick with a particular series and they are usually the more cutesy ones like Kirby, Tiny Toons or Mario.  They usually won’t go out of their way toplay a game on their own time.  If youwere to ask them, they may play a few rounds, especially if there were guys around to get some extra attention.  Theyare girls first and gamers second, it’s more of a social event for them.  You aren’t going to find them staying up allnight trying to level up their characters in Final Fantasy 6, or spending moneyon games to play.  So I would classify them as “girl gamers.”

Now a “gamer girl” is someone who loves playing games and won’t pass up the chance to do so whether they are playing with other girls, guys or by themselves, it doesn’t matter as long as they get to play games.  The games don’t have to be easy or cutesy.  They can love difficult games like Ninja Gaiden or Mega Man, sports games like Ice Hockey and games like Kirby.  From my experience they tend to enjoy a larger range of games, whether they are on North American systems likethe NES or Japanese systems like the Famicom.  In the end they are gamers who just happen to be female. 

I think there is also an extreme version of the gamer girl.  This is where I fit in the spectrum.  I love all retro Nintendo games; I have a huge collection of NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom etc. games.  I have tons of Nintendo memorabilia, from t-shirts to toys, and DVD’s.  I spend all of my free time thinking about games, playing games, looking up information on games,buying games, writing about games etc. Plus if that wasn’t enough I have tattoos, both Nintendo themed. 

Nostalgia plays a huge part in gaming for me.  The first thing I did when I got my NES wasto collect all the games I had when I was a kid.  It brought back memories of hanging out with my dad and brother when I was young and things were easier.  Back then I didn’t have to work or worry about bills, we could just sit and game all day if we wanted.  Now it has become a way to escape the crazy stress filled lives that we live every day and just sit down and have fun. 

Why does it seem so hard to find gamer girls?  I’ve often wondered this myself, when I was a kid everyone played Nintendo games. Didn’t matter if you were a girl or a boy it’s just what everyone did.  Then as I got older the amount of girls I knew that played games kept getting smaller and smaller until it was just me.  What changed that caused this to happen?  I personally think that asyou get older, games are seen more as a guy thing and that people who play games are more immature.  Whenever someone I know finds out I’m a huge gamer, if they are older than me and particularly a woman, instantly start judging and make comments about how gamesare for kids or for guys.  Women seem tobe expected to be cooking, taking care of the kids, shopping for clothes andall that fun stuff, not spending money on games and spending time sitting infront of the TV playing games.  I think a lot of girls who do like playing games may not say anything in fear of being judged. 

I don’t think gaming should be viewed any differently than someone who reads, watches TV or has any other kind of hobby.  I’ve finally gotten over this and I don’t care what other people think anymore, I think being a gamer makes me a better mom and I’m sure my little guy will appreciate the huge collection of games he will be able to play when he gets a bit older. I have a Mega Man tattoo on my forearm for everyone to see and to remind myself that I am who am I because of my gaming history.  If I wasn’t a gamer I never would have went to the symphony, I never would have met such awesome people on sites likeTwitter or Famicom World and I wouldn’t have the desire to learn Japanese and go to Japan.  Gaming does not make me immature; it keeps me young at heart. 

Let me know what you think. Come visit my site at http://retrogamergirl.comor follow me on twitter at @retrogamergirls

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Do u think your Elite

Like myself, a lot of us think we're Elite at a certain game or games. I thought this about my high score on Gradius. Then I found TwinGalaxies.com ! All of a sudden, my 194,200, didn't seem so Elite anymore :( The guy that holds the world record, has 8,000,000 ? Mind blowing, isn't it ? I had to dust off my game genie and see this for myself !
When I finished the game, I had 2.5 million. So, this means the guy beat the game four times in a row ? When I started playing the game a second time ,I quickly figured out that it gets harder every time and I didn't waste my time trying to get the 8 million ! If u ever wanna give yourself a good reason to bust out that game or games, head over to TwinGalaxies.com And see what ya got ?

Monday 30 April 2012

Gradius 3 8.8

I know there is going to be some people, who disagree with me that I rated this better than Gradius & Life Force. The only thing that I didn't like about Gradius 3, was the feel. Vic Viper doesn't fly as smooth as he once did ! With that being said, this is the only Gradius, in the series, to have a pseudo-3D level ! Some more big additions were, edit mode and the ability to change the difficulty setting.

Graphics:8
Sound:8
Gameplay:9.5
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9.5

Overall:8.8

Sunday 29 April 2012

DuckTales 8.5

Another classic platformer from Capcom and from the same guys that made Mega Man ! It really feels like MM but a bit different. A lot of the charters from the show, make an appearance and the music and sound are amazing ! If you have never played this game, Do it !

Graphics:8.5
Sound:8.5
Gameplay:8.5
Replay Value/Game Length:8.5
Vs/Final:8.5

Overall:8.5

Friday 27 April 2012

PAC-MAN Tengen 7.6

An arcade game made in 1980 and is considered a land mark in video game history ! 1 of only 3 games on display at the Smithsonian and one of the longest running games in the golden era of video games !

Graphics:5.5
Sound:5.5
Gameplay:9
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9

Overall:7.6

Guerrilla War 7.9

As far as I can remember, this was one of the best Run & Gun NES games ! Super fast gameplay and smooth controls ! Pretty easy but insanely fun. SNK did well with this release but the Arcade version was amazing :)

Graphics:6
Sound:6
Gameplay:9.5
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9

Overall:7.9

Monday 16 April 2012

Life Force 8.7

This is the best of the best ! I remember this being one of my fav games and now I know why. When I started replaying Gradius, I had though, how can a shmup get any better ? This is how ! Not much else I can say. Go play Life Force !

Graphics:7.5
Sound:8
Gameplay:9.5
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9.5

Overall:8.7

Alpha Mission 7

Pretty much the worst shmup game I have played yet ! When I was a kid, I had Gradius and Life Force. Then my cousin had Alpha Mission and even then I hated it ! I played it for maybe 15 mins and couldn't take it anymore ! Maybe if I hadn't replayed Gradius & Life Force first, this game would have gotten more of a shot but...

Graphics:6.5
Sound:7.5
Gameplay:7
Replay Value/Game Length:7
Vs/Final:7

Overall:7

Sunday 15 April 2012

Gradius 8.5

Gradius is by far the greatest scrolling shooter series ever ! I have tried a few others like Alpha Mission and Gradius is far better than all of them ! Originally released as an arcade game in 1985, and later ported to other platforms. Such as the Commodore 64 and the NES. In 1990 Gradius was released for Game Boy, under the name Nemesis. Then in 1998 It was released for the Game Boy Color, as Gradius again.It was included on the Konami Game Boy Collection Vol.1

Graphics:7.5
Sound:8
Gameplay:9
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9

Overall:8.5

Friday 13 April 2012

Pinball 7.6

I really love Pinball games and I am really picky with them. This is Pinball, Nintendo style. I think they did a good job with this game, considering that it came out in 1985 as 1 of 18 NES
Launch titles. Pinball was originally a Nintendo Arcade game in 1984 and was also a unlockable mini game in Doubutsu No Mari(N64) & Animal Crossing(Game Cube) All in all I think this was a great game for its time and from what I hear (ausretrogamer) It's the best Pinball game for NES ! I also love how they slipped Mario into the game ;)

Graphics:5.5
Sound:5.5
Gameplay:9
Replay Value/Game Length:9
Vs/Final:9

Overall:7.6

Thursday 12 April 2012

Final Fantasy 8.2

This Is The Game That Started Console RPG's ! It is also one of my favorite NES games !! I had the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide and this game was still super hard, to a ten year old gamer, in 1990. I'm pretty much half way through the game and I can't believe how much I have missed this. Even when I was a kid, I couldn't beat it. I had to go to my cousin Yackers house and he drew me maps on my Nintendo Power maps and I finally figured it out and beat it ! Thxs Yacker

Graphics:7.5
Sound:8
Gameplay:8.5
Replay Value/Game Length:8.5
Final:8.5

Overall:8.2

Dragon Warrior 7.4

I can remember playing the hell out of this and loving it. Then came along Final Fantasy and I never touched a Dragon Warrior again ! So, I started trying to replay it and only lasted about
20 mins. I couldn't take it ! For a game that only came out 1 year before FF, this sucks ! I am gonna buy the other Dragon Warriors, to see if they got any better ? When I was at the Flea Market, everyone was selling this for $20. I'm really glad that I found it for $5 I understand that DW is the game that started console RPG's and I respect that but it was FF that's started all RPG's for me ! I really hope this series gets better, which I'm sure it will :) I think there is another 3 titles on NES.

Graphics:7
Sound:7.5
Gameplay:7.5
Replay Value/Game Length:7.4
Final:7.5

Overall:7.4

Coffee Table Doubles As Functional NES Controller

The world needs more luxurious gaming furniture and less of those gaudy leather gamer chairs with built-in speakers.

Gaming decor goes to the next level with this coffee table that actually works as a fully functional Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controller. Talented woodworker Charles Lushear sells the massive controller table on Etsy for $3,500 (plus shipping). The exotic item's 42 inches long, 18.25 inches wide, and 18 inches high, and you might want to seek permission from your significant other before purchasing it.I truly admire how accurate the table appears compared with the original NES controller. Lushear assembled the coffee table with "maple, mahogany, and walnut with dovetail joinery and mid-century modern legs," according to the description. The glass top removes easily for gameplay, and it features a retractable cord so nobody trips up after a marathon Mario session.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Mike Tysons Punch Out & Pac-Man(Tengen)

Yesterday I got a call from a friend and he told me he knew a girl that had some games. Last night I received a call from here. She named all the games she had and there was only two that I wanted. She said she wanted $20 for both games. I see Punch Out go for as much as $40 and Pac-Man for $25.
I'm also not sure why this Tengen game is gray ? I thought they were all black ? Can someone help me out here ? So, another good way to score cheap
Games, word of mouth !

Monday 9 April 2012

Retro Week-End Warriors

I am putting together a NES gaming week-end, every week-end ! There will be a list of games that we play and will expand with time. All names and scores will be kept on the blog. Anyone that is interested E mail me @ willsweetin69@me.com or Get at me on Twitter BULLY_DOGG

The Game List Is:

PAC-MAN
Bubble Bobble
Life Force/Salamander
Tetris
Dr.Mario
Gradius
BurgerTime
Pinball
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Rad Racer

A Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Video Game High Score Crushed

It stood for 28 years and took 58 hours and one quarter to beat. Seattle locksmith John McAllister toppled the 1982 world record for Asteroids, racking up an amazing 41,338,740 points on the 1979 Atari classic arcade machine. He tapped in the letters E L F next to his score before calling it a night.

Once confirmed, McAllister, 41, will be the new world record holder for Asteroids' high score. The previous high score was set back in 1982, just three years after the game's release, by Scott Safran with a score of 41,336,440.

McAllister now has to submit the video recording of his marathon gaming session to Twin Galaxies, keepers of arcade and video game high scores, to have it verified and, hopefully, entered into their office score book.

The score was considered by many to be unbreakable.

"It's basically considered a Holy Grail..." McAllister told the media. "It was a title that a lot of people would want, and I wanted it."

Sunday 8 April 2012

Big Day At The Flea Markets

Before we started the day, we thought we had three Flea Markets in our city.
When we woke up this morning, we quickly found out, we only had two :(
So, we headed to the largest one first.
I was a bit scared that I wasn't gonna
Find anything, because I have never
Done any game shopping at a Flea Market before. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't
think I was gonna find any thing :( As soon as we stepped in the place, the first thing I see is a Video Game booth.
I head on over, for further inspection and find out they are asking more fore games, than the Retro Game Shops.
It took a lot for me to walk away from this boot but I knew I could always come back. We started walking around the market and within two minutes, we found two more booths but way larger :) Prices at the first booth were similar
to the earlier booth we checked out, maybe a bit better. Tons of stuff and rare games but way too expensive.
We Proceed to move on to the next booth and the first thing I notice, is how cheap his prices are :) The game I always look for to base prices on is Duck Tales 2 & Chip n Dale 2. He had both for $65 each. The cheapest I have seen them in stores is for $80 each. As I start to realize how cheap his prices
are, I wonder if my heckling skills are up for the challenge ? The man who ran the booth, came on over and I could tell he was a super nice dude.
We got talking and I told him that I'm after the 670. The man proceeds to tell me he's got the 670 three times ? Two
For his personal collection and one that
He sells and restocks. He also said he's got a stupid amount of SNES games. Stock for years I guess ? I start
Ripping through games seeing some really good stuff, when Tyler comes charging over, pretty much red in the face :) And says that he found Tengen
Tetris. My mind started racing, thinking about how cheap I might be able to score this for. I thought with his really good prices, that he would want around $30. Pull out the game from the stack and see a $20 tag on it :) A game that I had been seeing everywhere, for a crazy price was Dragon Warrior. All the
Booths were asking $20. I got it and Rad Racer and Utopia SNES for $20.
Then I got Mega Man 5, which he had market for $40 for $25. Both Tengen Tetris and Mega Man 5 were $40 ? WTF :) I also picked up Life Force, Pinball and Alpha Mission for $20. I also grabbed two NES MAX controllers,
which I had never seen before ? He also gave me 15 NES & 15 SNES dust
protectors. I see them things go for at least $1 each on E Bay. I guess for $75
I did pretty good :)

Tetris Tengen 7.5

As some of u may know, I'm the biggest Tetris fan ! I thought this was gonna be a sick game but....It's got really cool game modes, vs ect... I found the graphics, gameplay and sound, not as good as the regular version ! I'm gonna give it another try but.... I'm pretty disappointed !

Graphics:5.5
Sound:7.5
Gameplay:7.5
Replay Value/Game Length:8
Vs/Final:9

Overall:7.6

Saturday 7 April 2012

Mega Man 2 8.4

As far as I can remember, this was the best game of the series, for NES. It wasn't the hardest game but fun as hell. Heat Man was the only difficult lvl for me. I was gonna wait until I had the complete series before I started but....
I can't wait to move on to part 3 & 4 and need to find part 1 , 5 , 6. This is deff a top game for me and I rated it higher than Mario.

Graphics:8
Sound:8
Gameplay:9
Replay Value/Game Length:8.5
Vs/Final:8.5

Overall:8.4

Wednesday 4 April 2012

NES Collection Fetching Thousands On eBay

What's the price of nostalgia? Well, it runs to the tune of over ten thousand dollars and largely resembles a pile of 670 NES cartridges. eBay Canada user, sonyabscott, is auctioning off an instant NES collection consisting of the system itself, all the known accessories and every single licensed, North American NES game (despite the auction's claim of "every game ever made"). At the time of writing, the auction has 82 bids and stands at $15,300.

Purchasing 670 games on the Wii's Virtual Console service would amount to $3350, though that would likely be accompanied by years of waiting and a strange desire by Nintendo to release the likes of Casino Kid and Fisher Price: I Can Remember. If you want to empty your lungs into physical NES cartridges (especially 670 of them), you'd best smash open that piggy bank and start bidding.

IndianJones and the Last Crusade [Ubisoft] [Taito]

What was with Indiana Jones and the NES? It seems that he had two games for each of his movies with an identical name. There is a Taito version of Last Crusade also which is more common. Truthfully, we're not sure if this is just a different publishing company name on the game or not, as these two even look alike... but if you want the rare one, this is the one to get! The Ubisoft
copy will run u for $35ish and the Taito
Copy is about $12. The Ubisoft game is almost worth three times as much ?