Sam’s Scores 11
Personally I feel as though Sam’s Scores has hit a crossroad. I want to continue bringing you cool finds, yet I rarely hunt anywhere other than the Goodwill outlet store. Although I do find a lot of cool stuff there, I feel a bit strange marking prices as per pound. I’ll do my best to keep the series going, but hunting anywhere other than the Goodwill Outlet store usually leaves me empty handed. Please bear with me in my continuation with the series and please let me know what you think. Enjoy!
4) N64 Gameshark
I was out at a normal Goodwill store when a glistening N64 Gameshark caught my eye. I picked it up and checked the price, it was oddly cheap so I decided to buy it. After doing some research online, promptly after walking out of the store, I learned that version 3.3 Gamesharks, which this one is, commonly brick and become unusable. I hoped that wasn’t the case and indeed, it wasn’t! The Gameshark worked flawlessly, until I bricked it myself changing the keycode. No worries, apparently this can easily be resolved by plugging in the correct game that corresponds to the keycode I changed it to. At least I hope! Either way it was cheap enough to keep even if its shot.
3) Nintendo Gameboy
I’ve been collecting for a few years now and I’ve never run across an original Gameboy that I wanted to buy. They were all trashed beyond repair and overpriced! After finding tons of stuff at the Goodwill Outlet, I decided I could hold out, in hopes of finding one there. I prevailed in doing just that, although the system was extremely dirty, missing the battery cover and the contrast adjustment is broken. I still feel that it was worth holding out to find one, because it cleaned up really nice!
2) Nintendo Gameboy
No, this isn’t an error, this is yet another Gameboy that I happened to find in a flea market. If you examine the pics closely, you’ll notice some discoloration in the screen protector for this one, as if it were super glued back into place. It was cheap enough that I figured I could use the guts and battery cover to repair my other one, if needed. This one however worked perfectly, with the exception of missing columns which is common for these original Gameboys, after time. Now I feel as though I can repair both Gameboys and have 2 for way cheaper than any of the ones I had seen before.
1) Nintendo Gameboy Pocket
Another Gameboy, but this one fits in my pocket! Yes, the Gameboy Pocket! I already own the silver one without a power LED, so when I saw this one I needed to own it as well. I’ll be honest, this and the previous Gameboy came together in a bag, so for half the price I’ve seen them bashed up in thrift stores or flea markets, I now have 2 decent Gameboys. This one works perfectly, but having a GBA SP and the Gamecube Gameboy Player, I’ll probably pick those over pulling this thing out.
How to clean a nylon carrying case.
For the past decade I’ve had an obsessive compulsion to organize everything, and my video game collection is no exception. Luckily for me video game companies had both the foresight and the marketing prowess to have video game organizers made. Not only do I use them to keep my video games organized, but I also collect them even if I have no immediate use for them.
The most common video game organizers that I happen to find are carrying cases made of a nylon material, and although the material is strong and rugged, it can hold on to dirt and other markings pretty tightly. That becomes an issue when I find most of mine at thrift stores, where they’re either super filthy or marked up with markers. While markers are extremely difficult to remove, if not impossible, dirt will wash off with a little bit of work.
GBC and Gameboy nylon carrying cases found at the Goodwill Outlet store. They're both very dirty, but that is about to change.
Above are two carrying cases that I picked up from the Goodwill Outlet store and they were extremely dirty, as you can see. I have quite a few cases for different Gameboy systems like the one on the right, but I’ve never found one that holds the system, like the one for the Gameboy Color, and I’ve always wanted one. To be honest, when I first picked up the one for the Gameboy Color I almost put it back down, but I figured as cheap as it was a run through the wash couldn’t hurt.
Back and front were pretty dirty.
After a simple run through the washing machine with the Gameboy bag, as well as one for the Sega Game Gear, all three came out fairly clean. I always allow them to air dry as I don’t know what a dryer would do to the nylon material, so I decide to err on the side of caution. If needed I will use multiple wash cycles as well as spin cycles to help pull out extra water.
So much cleaner!
As you can see above the case came out significantly cleaner, although I may never get it perfectly clean it still looks largely better than it did when I first bought it, making me extremely glad I decided not to throw it back into the bin. This took a couple of runs through the washing cycle and I did have to do some manual scrubbing with a rag on both the outside and the clear sections inside. Also notice how dirty the logo was for the Gameboy Color bag, but since it is made of what I assume to be rubber it is very easy to scrub off with a rag or a pencil eraser works well also, it just leaves eraser dust.
Not always the case, but more often than not, with a couple of runs through the washing machine, just the same as you do your laundry, and a little elbow grease can give your nylon carrying cases a fresher look. I’ve yet to find a good enough way to remove markers or ink, but sometimes they do become lighter once they’ve been run through the washer. It may look new, but you’ll always know who owned it if they’ve marked their name on it.
There are also risks such as straps or zippers getting caught inside the washing machine, or sometimes even the nylon itself will become frayed from being put inside the washer, although I find it rare that any damage occurs in the washer. You take your own risks when you’re trying this with your own items, but I haven’t had any issues yet. But if everything goes according to plan its well worth the risk to give your games a nice clean place to rest.
Sam’s Scores: Gameboy Edition!
Today’s Sam’s Scores is yet another special edition. I had enough to do a special Gameboy Sam’s Scores, enjoy!
8) – Turn and Burn
Turn and Burn is much like Top Gun for the NES, to a point. It isn’t bad, but its far from great. I picked it up at a Goodwill just because it was cheap and it was a video game.
7) – Rechargeable Gameboy Battery
Sifting through bric-a-brac sometimes yields interesting results, and this is one such case. The Gameboy logo is worn off, but its pretty clear what this is. I’ve actually had this for a long time, avoiding adding it to a scores article because I don’t even know if it works. Even so, its a pretty cool little piece.
6) – Gameboy/GBC AC Adapter
Another thing that I find myself doing quite a bit in thrift stores is sifting through the cables and power adapters. Sometimes I come out a winner, like this time, but mostly I find myself trying to untangle a rat’s nest of stuff to come up empty handed. This thing works with both GBC and Gameboy, with a switch on the unit to get the right power to which device you need to power. Although the case is broken, it still works and with a little super glue it will be good as used.
5) – Castlevania: The Adventure
I found this one at Half Price Books, during a strange mark it at a single price and sell it period. This game, to be honest, sucks! I like Castlevania, but Konami really screwed up a good thing with this one.
4) – Pokemon Red
Way back when this game originally came out, I bought it. I loved playing this game because of it’s RPG style gameplay. I ended up loaning this game, and sadly the box and manual, to someone and never saw it again. I had always kept my eyes open for a loose copy of it and never found one less than $7, until Half Price Books got one in.
3) – Pokemon Silver
Yet another tag it and sell it score, brought to you by Half Price Books! The Pokemon Red above was exactly a week before I bought this one, so prices went down. Sadly the battery inside this one doesn’t work, but I did swap the battery in the Pokemon Gold I had, which will become a tutorial at some point.
2) – Zelda 1 and 2 for the GBA
I personally don’t think the Gameboy Advance is a vintage system, but these games certainly are. Even though they’re remakes for the system, they’re still vintage gaming classics. I must note that I bought these with another Gameboy Game (Dr. Mario, not pictured) at a Goodwill and had to wait 15 minutes for someone to go unlock the case!
1) – Green Gameboy Color
In a previous Sam’s Scores I showed you a Green GBC that I picked up off Craigslist for $10, so when I saw how cheap this one was I didn’t care whether it worked or not. I figured at the very least it would give me a matching green battery cover for my other one. When I took it home it didn’t want to work, but after shaking it, it sprang to life! The screen was scratched and it only works on batteries, later I decided to buy a new case and swap it out, so its no longer green.
Sam’s Scores VI
4) – Yellow N64 controller
Sadly this isn’t the DK edition controller, but the yellow sure is bright. When I found it, it needed a lot of cleaning, but that is something I do to all my scores anyway. The joystick is pretty loose on this one but its overall completely functional.
3) – Gameboy Color w/ games
Over a year ago now, I passed up a Gameboy color in a thrift store because I didn’t know whether or not it worked, and to this day I wish I had bought it. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for another one at a reasonable price when I saw a Craigslist posting. The ad was a few weeks old but I took the chance. 2 days later I became the owner of a lime green GBC with Galaga/Galaxian and Yoshi’s Cookie, beside the atomic purple battery cover (at least it had one!) everything was in great shape!
2) – Beeshu Zinger
Every once in a while I will come across something so wild, I have to buy it and this is such an occasion. I own a Beeshu Zipper, so I have a little background with Beeshu’s products. I was checking out a Goodwill I had never been to before when the box (and the bright colors!) caught my eye. I picked it up and checked inside, everything but the instruction manual, if there even was one, was inside the box. This thing is a bright pink with a white cable, very strange for an NES joystick, but everything works and its just a fun piece to own.
1) – Casino Kid 2
If you’re an NES game collector, you may know Casino Kid 2 is one of the harder to find games. I’ve only seen 2 of them and this is 50% of that equation, the other was $20 or $30 at a local Disc Replay store. This particular copy had been sitting in a bin at a flea market, I knew the game was harder to find and I knew it might get snatched up at the $5 they were wanting for it. Week after week the game was still there, so I decided to take a chance and buy it, but when I got to the cash register they had a surprise for me..
NES sized Gameboy game cases?
In the years prior to my hardcore vintage collecting addiction, I paid most of my attention to my Xbox. Within the last year and a half I’ve bought quite a few games for the NES, and when the games started to pile up I went searching for cases to put them in. All my NES games prior to this were in their own cases, whether it be a clear case with a big red Nintendo logo or a yellow, pink, purple or blue case that said Gameboy on it.
Wait, did I just say NES games in a Gameboy case? Yes, yes I did! Somewhere among my childhood I had acquired four Gameboy cases that were the same size as the NES (clam shell) cases.
Size comparison
I forget exactly where I got them and with all the local NES games that were floating around back then I could have gotten them from anywhere, but the fact is that I still have them. It came to me one night that I had a collection of game manuals stashed away inside one of them, so I started ripping through boxes to find out where they were. After I found them a whole new level of amazement dawned on me, which for some reason never dawned on me before, that I had never seen these things before and haven’t seen any since.
What I find remarkable is that these things are the exact same size and color as their NES counterparts, but emblazoned on the front is a black Gameboy logo, instead of Nintendo. Inside the case were 4 tiny corners, clearly cut out to fit a Gameboy game cartridge. I’m going to make a bold assumption that these were produced to accommodate the Gameboy players who wanted to keep the manuals with their games, as the manuals fit better in these cases than they would the smaller ones, obviously!
Sadly NES games wouldn’t fit inside these cases without a little modification, which I eventually did. Looking back I wish I hadn’t, but I needed more NES cases because I had plenty of the tiny Gameboy clam shells. You can still see the remnants of the corners that held the Gameboy game, but NES games and their manuals fit perfectly, although they do slide around a bit (sans the protection the Nintendo version afforded).
Remnants of the four corners that held the Gameboy games.
I can’t find information on these cases anywhere, so I have no clue how many were made and how many different colors were available. To my knowledge there may only be 4 different colors because I have been fooled by VHS cases that are the exact same colors as these, while gaming hunting, but I’ve never seen anymore for the Gameboy. I would love to own a full set of these (unmodified!), although I probably won’t use them for Gameboy games, I just want to own them because I find them fascinating.
College Slam
In 1996, Acclaim decided to go back to school and released College Slam for all major home and handheld systems. College Slam seems to be a more polished, albeit college themed, version of Acclaim’s smash hit NBA Jam. With NBA Jam you will probably remember shooting three pointers from just about anywhere and slam dunking from half court, all of which is still here in College Slam, as well as a few added features to increase the longevity of the game. Sadly, it seems since this game didn’t have the big names that it’s predecessor did, it didn’t translate with the audience as well as Acclaim may have hoped.
College Slam’s game play is identical to NBA Jam. You still have turbo to boost your player around the court for a short period of time before needing to recharge it, you can still shoot the ball from anywhere, steal the ball, push the other players over, elbow them and even catch fire. But unlike NBA Jam, you can call a time out at any point you possess the ball and substitute for 1 or 2 fresh players. College Slam also borrows from NBA Jam Tournament Edition with it’s more fluid movement and of course the tournament mode, as well as offering a more upbeat announcer who has more dialog than he did in NBA Jam. As you would expect, College Slam follows the college rule of 2 halves instead of four quarters.
To get started, you pick your team from a list of over 40 colleges, then select any 2 of 5 positions, as opposed to NBA Jam’s strictly 2 players per team. With College Slam there are no names, simply different stats for each position, which I like to think of as an advantage for re-playability. No matter when you play this game, you can just imagine you’re controlling your favorite college player (even if they weren’t even born when this game was released!) instead of being stuck with outdated rosters. From there you go to the Tonight’s Match-Up screen, where you can enter codes as the announcer tells you which 2 teams are playing and you prepare for the opening tip off.
Some people may prefer NBA to college, but in my opinion this game shined it’s whole career, but never made it to the draft. I own a complete in box set of this game as well as another cartridge strictly used for playing the game. Certainly this game will never become rare or highly valuable, but its a secret treasure for me to own a complete set of the game because I enjoy it that much! Still to this day I enjoy (win or lose) firing three pointers from the other team’s goal just to see whether I can get them to fall or not. NBA Jam has all the big names, but College Slam has the perpetual starry-eyed heart and determination it takes to make it to the big time.
Sam’s Scores III
Welcome to the third edition of Sam’s scores! I believe I’m finally getting things in order as I’m going to start weeding out the average everyday scores from the unique or harder to find items. I’ve literally found hundreds of games, systems and other classic gaming related items, obviously they are all scores to me, but not all of them are unique in the scope of collecting. I will also be cutting back from 8 to only 4 items per edition for a more streamline look and feel.
4) – A Bug’s Life N64 w/case
You may be wondering why on Earth this would be a score, well it isn’t much but it came with a case. Some of you may find out if a classic video game comes with a case, for some reason the store thinks the value is quadruple what it really should be! Now I bought it for 3 reasons, the case, the fact that I didn’t own one beforehand and the fact that it was only….
3) – Gameboy Pocket AC Adapter
After acquiring my Gameboy Pocket, I’ve fallen in love with it’s outdated dot matrix screen and vintage Gameboy charm in a smaller case. Sadly, with the technology of it’s time, the system eats batteries like the Cookie Monster eats cookies! You either pumped more batteries in or bought the power adapter! I happened to find the wall adapter, in really good shape, at a 50% off sale in a thrift store recently….
2) – NAMCO NeGcon
If you’re not familiar with the name, don’t worry I wasn’t either! I found this at a thrift store during the New Year’s 50% off sale, yes that long ago! I had no clue what it was and I didn’t purchase it on my first trip, I went back a month later and it was still there. The item had no price tag and I wasn’t sure what it was, to me it was rare. After some research I found they sold poorly in the US and only later did they become popular. Want to know why or even what it does? You’ll have to wait for a future series! Until then….
1) – 6x NES Controllers
Yes, you read that correctly, six NES controllers! Why do I need so many? I don’t! They had been sitting in my favorite thrift store for quite some time and to make room for new merchandise I got a really good deal on them. Naturally they all needed cleaned (2 are a really cool nicotine yellow — yuck!) and a few needed some internal cleaning and pad replacement, but overall they’re worth the price.
