SEVEN-DAY SCORE CARD:
HARDCORE HANDHELD HARDWARE HAVOC AND THE GREAT RETRO GAMBLE
Week of 4 May to 10 May 2014
No big blustery fanfare this week; let's just get right down to it.
Sunday 4 May & Monday 5 May: I started the week with a meal-break run to my workplace Goodwill, which yielded a crimson DS Lite with charger along with
Mario Kart 8, Pokemon SoulSilver, New Super Mario Bros., Nintendogs Lab & Friends, Lego Star Wars, and
Lego Batman, for $19.99 all told.
More handheld hardware fell into my... um, hands the following day as I hit the local Savers and grabbed a loose PSP with
Lumines UMD for $19.99, along with a Mattel Hockey handheld for $2.99. Also found was a CIB
Metroid Prime 3 for $2.99.
But if you think the first two days had impressive handheld hardware scores, just you wait...
Tuesday 6 May:: This was the day for $1.99 CIB PC game pickups, as I grabbed
Giants: Citizen Kabuto,
KKND X-Treme, and a sealed LucasArts Archives release of
Star Wars Force Commander. The latter pickup was especially odd, seeing as how I just got the original version at the same Savers the week before...
I also discovered a sealed
Wheel of Fortune TV Games plug-and-play dealie for $3.99. Then there were the four books for $10: strats for
Mass Effect 3, Halo Wars, and a limited-edition
Final Fantasy XII, along with
The Making of DOOM 3.
Wednesday 7 May & Thursday 8 May: After taking a breather on Wednesday, I resumed the hunt and discovered a Special Edition copy of
Perfect Dark Zero for $3.95,
CIB Borderlands 2 for $1.99, CIB
Thunder Strike: Operation Phoenix for $3.99, and a Sega Genesis Super Pad for $4.99.
Friday 9 May: A lunch break trip to my fave Goodwill yielded a black 3DS with charger for $69.99, and a Korean Onyx DS Lite for $13.49. Also included with each handheld was a flash drive card and Micro SD card.
Saturday 10 May: It was back to my fave Goodwill, where I took a big risk on this grab that I teased on Small Scores a few days ago:
At a penny under $70 and non-returnable, it's the biggest thrifting gamble I've made this year.
And now, the full reveal...
...a compact junior-sized Atari 2600 with three joysticks, AV cord, and twelve game carts.
While I felt the asking price was fairly high, I'd just gotten my state tax refund check the day before, and I figured why not treat myself. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all twelve games in the bundle were not in my collection previously, not even
Centipede,
Dig Dug, or
Ms. Pac-Man. I coulda sworn I had
Pole Position, but after checking my collection page before updating it... um, nope. So if nothing else, at least I significantly expanded my personal library of 2600 carts.
Now you probably noticed that this bundle of retro madness was held together with packing tape... which kinda sucked. The tape was so sticky that my initial attempts to remove it from the paper labels on the console and cartridge end labels didn't go over too well:
So I decided to quit before I did more damage, grabbed an X-Acto blade, and carefully cut around the edges of the labels that got taped.
BTW does anybody know if the plastic covering the rainbow part of the console is lamination, or just a protective plastic film to be removed by the user? 'Cuz I've got some major bubbling action goin' on, and it's not very attractive:
And now the million-dollar question minus $999,930.01: does it actually work?
You'll find out soon enough...
NON-VIDYA BONANZA: It's the usual suspects again; I just hope Mr. Nupoile can practice some self-control this week...
Hawt.
- TI-82, TI-83, and TI-83 Plus graphing calculators, $9.00 for all
- HDMI cable, $2.99
- Electronic talking pokedex thingy, $2.49
Well, that's about it for now. But before I go, please note that there will be no
Seven-Day Score Card blog next week. Instead, a tribute to one of the greatest masterpieces in cinematic history-- and some of the video games it inspired-- will be presented. Be sure to check it out, and I'll see you again in two weeks with a double-sized episode of
Seven Fourteen-Day Score Card, only on the RFG Network!
Byee
