Sam’s Scores IV
The fourth edition of Sam’s Scores is upon us and there are many more scores to show!
4) – King’s Quest VI & Lamborghini American Challenge
Admittedly, I’m not a PC gamer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them, I am just more of a console person. Usually while searching through CDs for misplaced or mistaken Playstation games, I often find PC games thrown in as well. There aren’t many titles I actively search for, but you never know what you’ll find in a thrift store CD bin. King’s Quest is completely new to me, but I had heard of the name before so I picked it up. Now, I’ve had a fond past with Lamborghini American Challenge release on the Super Nintendo, so I was well aware of what this game was and knew I had to have it, even though I still prefer the SNES version.
Lamborghini American Challenge – $2
3) – Sega Genistick
The Sega Genistick is a joystick controller with integrated A, B and C buttons as well as the Start and a turbo feature, much like the Quickshot joysticks. Oddly enough, this looks almost identical to the Quickshot QS-177 for the Sega Genesis, with gray buttons instead of blue. This sat on the shelf for a week or so before I went in and bought it during a discount week, not a bad price….
2) – Mario Party 2 and WCW Mayhem N64
I’ve been buying any game I can for my N64, I love that thing! Even though some games are pretty lousy, if I get them cheap enough I don’t feel bad adding them to my collection. N64 games don’t pop up all that often at the thrift stores I frequent, but when they do I try to get my hands on them unless I already own them. If I don’t know a title, I’m not afraid to check it out because the price is always pretty inexpensive.
1) – N64 Tremor pak CIB
As always, like above, I’m on the look out for N64 accessories, controllers, memory cards, anything really. Back in the day, Performance was making accessories for anything they could and N64 was a hot ticket. When I came across one of their Tremor Paks (complete in box no less!) I was pretty excited, especially by the price. Sadly, when I brought it home the previous owner had left the batteries inside to corrode and leak, with a little cleaning and coaxing it trembled to life in my controller and everything turned out alright.
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: Sega Editon!!
Welcome to a special edition of Sam’s Scores! All scores featured in this edition are for the Sega Genesis. This is also the first Sam’s Scores of 2011, yet I’m still working with scores from 2010, as I have so many, so stay tuned for more! It may not always be easy to find the things I want, but I always enjoy searching through thrift stores to find something that is valuable to me. I just hope everyone enjoys these finds as much as I do!
8)
Number eight is a Sega Genesis 2 that I found at a local thrift store. It was just the system and 1 controller, with no other hookups. Even though it was just the system and controller, I decided the price was still decent and it was in good cosmetic condition…
System powers on but I have no way to test full functionality.
7)
After purchasing the Genesis above, I knew that both of my Sega Genesis systems needed power supplies and AV cables, so I kept my eyes open. Soon enough I came across two Sega AC adapters in a thrift store. These adapters work for the Genesis 2 and the 32x, the last of which I don’t own, but at least I found own these! I didn’t see a price so I asked a store employee…
Both AC adapters powered up the Genesis above!
6)
Are you being menaced? Get THE MENACER! Do you remember the Sega Menacer? Honestly, me either! I had never in my life seen this until I found it in a local thrift store. The box was crushed but still intact. After inspecting what was inside (everything but the game cartridge) I headed to the cashier…
5)
I am always looking for controllers and now I have quite a few for the Genesis. I bought a High Frequency, which has individual switches for programming turbo or slow motion on each of the 6 buttons. I also bought a Performance brand controller with the same feature, only this time it’s only 1 switch for all 6 buttons. Finally I bought a Power Player controller, which isn’t even for the Genesis but I hope it works because it’s blue and has a joystick add-on for the D-pad.
Performance Super Pad -38 cents
Power Player -$1
4)
Number four is an official Sega Genesis controller. These were much smaller than the original controllers and more comfortable, they also had a mode button on the top right. I needed Genesis controllers so I bought this one for just…
3)
Naturally if you’re going to have a Genesis, you want games! I’ve managed a handful of them throughout the year, you may recall the 2 I got for 50 cents each in my Top 5 scores list. I also happened to score these others: Altered Beast, Pacman 2, Virtua Racing and Ren and Stimpy.
Pacman 2 (Complete in case) -$2
Virtua Racing -50 cents
Ren and Stimpy (Complete in case) -Free!
2)
Recently, I found an original Sega Genesis in a local thrift store, the side door was missing but I wasn’t concerned with that. I knew the store had the system, so I went to check for a power supply or AV cables. I ended up only finding 2 Sega controllers; a Quickshot and a genuine controller you could tell went with this deck. These items were marked a little funny but I went ahead and bought them all…
Sega MK1650 and QS-181 -$4.50
1)
Probably one of the most well known RPG series for the Sega Genesis was Phantasy Star. Despite an odd (intentional) spelling error it looked fun, yet I never really clicked with the series. But I did know when I saw Phantasy Star II in it’s case, I had to snatch it up!
