We recently visited The Pixel Bunker in Milton Keynes. Despite its name is it actually in room upstairs in the Sci-Fi and Film Museum which is due to open in the coming months. I will be writing a more detailed piece on The Pixel Bunker itself, but I wanted first to write about what I thought was the most interesting cabinet in the exhibit; Atari’s 1978 Video Pinball.
We’ve recently moved home and as always happens we had a few casualties, we had a broken plate, our Logitech USB desktop microphone (which I always 
thought looked like a triffid) finally broke in transit. It was the third time it moved with me & every time I unpacked it the stalk had snapped, previously it could be repaired with a bit of superglue but not this time.
The third item was an Xbox360 USB receiver, when plugged in the green LED on top didn’t illuminate which was a shame as it worked before I boxed it up.
We were given 2 Playstation 4 controllers with faulty joysticks. They weren’t drifting, but tilting them in a direction would cause movement to be intermittent. These were first party Sony controllers and less than a year old. Continue reading “Intermittent controller input”
As you can imagine, during lockdown we had very little in the way of new games and absolutely zero game hunting expeditions. So with the COVID restrictions starting to lift we were rather excited (if a little tentative) to venture out and look for something to new add to our collection. For our first trip we decided to keep it relatively local and braved a nearby town centre. Their branch of CEX yielded nothing (as it often does), however we were rather pleased to see a selection of Gameboy Advanced Pokemon titles sitting neatly in little protective cases on a shelf in Cash Generator! Continue reading “Beware the Fakes!”
Saturday 2nd May 2020
Exciting news today! Wait for it……
We have a NEW RESIDENT moving into Delfino! We’ve had a plot available for some time now and finally, an exciting new neighbour is moving in! Louie is our sixth resident and our little island is flourishing! I’m sure players of Animal Crossing will understand how exciting it is when things like this happen. Finding out about the new character; their likes, dislikes, personality. And I imagine that people who don’t play Animal Crossing will think this is very strange indeed… Incidently, if you don’t play Animal Crossing (but do have a Nintendo Switch) I very much think you should buy a copy (or download it, but give me physical media over virtual any day!) and start your very own island getaway package today!
A few months ago I posted a (very interesting!) entry detailing our retro cleaning kit and how we use it to restore and mantain our game collection (you can read it here!). Well, I have some exciting news for everyone…we have recently had a new addition to the kit in the form of a broken child’s paintbrush (OK, this might not sound very exciting, but bear with me).
Back in 2015, when we made the decision to start collecting seriously, we soon realised that cleaning and cataloguing the games was just as important (and as much fun!) as finding them out in the wild. Some of the games are over 20 years old so it is not uncommon for them to be a bit grubby, or sticky from years of use. We regularly come across game which need some tlc and as long as the cartridge labels, box sleeves and manuals are intact we are happy to add them to our collection.
Continue reading “A Clean Game Collection is a Happy Game Collection!”
The Nintendo 10 Billion Barrel is a barrel made by Nintendo. This barrel isn’t full of beer or “Donkey Kongs”. It is full of puzzle. Infuriating, yet addictive puzzle. Here is a short history…
Our new year’s games collecting got off to a good start with two N64 games, two WiiU games (the Gamecube game is a bit of a cheat as it was a Christmas present) and a Nintendo 10 Billion Barrel.
When we’re not retro game collecting or playing, we can often be found watching gaming related videos on YouTube. About six months ago on one such occasion, we stumbled across a channel called Let’s Talk Retro and their video series The Retro Gamer Show. This series takes a look at various retro games and systems, current reboots and gaming events. At the end of each episode the hosts give details of various retro gaming events which are happening across the UK and this is where we found out about the Bristol Gaming Market. Continue reading “Bristol Gaming Market 2019”
So if took me almost four years, but I am finally writing my second blog post. Before I talk about our first month of collecting (which was promised back in 2015!), I am going to make a couple of amendments to my previous post. We have now amassed 82% of the N64 games we wanted (which is double what we had back then), including all the first party titles i.e. all the titles published directly by Nintendo. We have also discovered that of the 242 games, two titles – Starcraft 64 and Major League Baseball ft. Ken Griffey Jr. – are actually Australian PAL releases which could make them a little trickier to source. Finally, the 242 is now in fact 243 thanks to a Kickstarter campaign which saw the release of 40 winks for the N64 in 2018. This game was shelved back in 1998 for the N64, only seeing a release on the original PlayStation. Continue reading “The much anticipated second blog…”
So we’ve completed Super Mario RPG. It took us a few months & I’d place it here in my list of best Mario RPG games:
It’s interesting that Super Paper Mario is above Super Mario RPG as the SNES game is closer to the gameplay of the games in positions 1 & 2. I think there are a few reasons for this. First of all, we found the platforming in the N64 game a bit awkward due to the digital controls & isometric view. Continue reading “Currently completed: Super Mario RPG (SNES mini)”
We’ve completed the following Mario RPG games:
We wanted to complete Super Mario RPG on the SNES too, but it wasn’t released in the UK. That changed on 29th September 2017 when Nintendo released the SNES mini. The Mini came with 21 games including the previously unreleased anywhere Starfox 2 & more importantly to us, Super Mario RPG.
Continue reading “Currently playing: Super Mario RPG (SNES mini)”
Some of our N64 cartridges had discoloured around the edges. This happens because the cartridges were made of ABS plastic, which is combustable. To prevent your gamecollection burning down your house, fire retardant chemicals including Bromine were added to the mix.
When Bromine is exposed to UV light it oxideses, which causes discolouration to the cartridges. It was irritating to have a few cartridges with discoloured edges, but we recently purchased Mario Party 3 which was severely affected. We decided to look at a solution to the problem, that solution was possibly Retr0bright.
So we’re finally here, blogging for you, if you know the words you can join in too!
And if you can name that rap you get a banana medal…not really, but if you have fond memories of the Nintendo 64 and its games; or are curious about restoring and preserving games and consoles; then this blog might be of interest to you.
As I write this we have 41% of the total games released in Europe for the N64, along with nicely developing collections for the GameCube, Wii, Wii U, DS and 3DS. But before we go into those details let’s rewind just over a year, to the beginning of October 2015, and set the scene. Continue reading “Start!”