the_wizard_666

Did you miss the part about bipolar disorder, and psychotic episodes...

Except I sleep most of the daylight hours away whenever possible, and avoid leaving the house more than necessary. If anything, I'm seeing more sunshine now than at any other time of year

I'm bipolar. Specifically, Bipolar II, rapid cycling, with psychotic tendencies. I'm honestly more afraid of what happens after the depression than anything. Though this is definitely seasonal and not anything related to that, as my Facebook memories can attest. I think just getting away from it last year just has me longing for silence this year. Or maybe I'm just a grumpy old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn, I dunno.

You too man. I guess the root is stress...it's not that I hate Christmas, it's just that I have a hard time coping with being alive, so adding extra bullshit on top makes it much more difficult for me. Honestly, I'd just curl up in bed and not get out for the next few days if I could. It's just too damn much.

My nieces are the only reason I get out of bed on Christmas. And some years even that doesn't make it happen, though that's got less to do with the season and more to do with manic depression

I'm constantly stressed as it is. If it were up to me, I would stay alone, but I don't have that option, though I've chosen self isolation on multiple occasions. Last year happened to be the best Christmas ever. Also the first Christmas I wasn't around my parents. I miss that separation - I was literally able to say "fuck it" and had no worries. I loved it. Now I'm back in the shitstorm again. Ugh. I got a text today. Old pic of my Grandpa dressed as Santa. He died 12 years ago today. Not what I wanted to wake up to.

Like the title says. I loathe Christmas. The noise, the stress, the idiots that seem to come out of the woodwork...but god forbid I voice my displeasure, because I'm "not in the spirit" or some such nonsense. Is it too much to want to be left alone?

Caltron was legit rare before a load showed up something like 10 years ago. It was the last of what we called the "big 7," though it's long since lost that title. The other 6 though, they're still right up there.

You're lucky. The one I printed up was Etler's list. Passed on some really rare shit back then in favor of much more common fare because Etler said it was rare.

Big Nose Freaks Out came with a set of four stickers. Just different Big Nose drawings. Nothing special, but pretty tough to find. Only Camerica release that got stickers.

I didn't know that. But then the question becomes - does it have the stickers? Cuz the sticker sheet is conspicuously absent from that pic...

Big Nose Freaks Out is far and away the rarest Camerica title. I'd put it about equal to Duck Tales 2 as far as rarity goes, maybe even a touch higher. One thing to note though is that CIB it's going for about the same as it does loose, which is where a real discrepancy should lie. The real comparison should be something like an AVE Deathbots cart , which goes for around $30, despite the fact that I've seen the same number of copies in the last 25 years as I have seen copies of Chip and Dale 2. Riddle me that young grasshopper.

DPs guide is a snapshot of the early 2000s. It's been out of date for that long.

I can't speak for everyone's data, but you're free to use the sealed contents list for any noncommercial purpose you see fit.

It doesn't need to. It's based on the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Anyone remember Santa Slayer? That shit was awesome

Any Die Hard games.

Under the old owners you'd be lucky to get $20. Still beats that.

Our local shop did that shit for years, to the point that it's reputation among the local collecting community was pretty much garbage. In came a new owner, who started offering fair value on trades (like 50-75% instead of 5-15%), rebalanced the prices to the point where he could compete with eBay, and started rebuilding the brand. And what was the result? He's constantly got traffic, few people leave empty-handed, and not only does he have higher end items in stock, but his inventory is extremely fluid. Local resellers drop their overstock off regularly (what sells on the flea market circuit is different from a store), local collectors go to both buy and trade in goods, and nobody has a bad thing to say about it. I definitely recommend voting with your dollar, as if the guy doesn't make money, he'll hopefully sell the business to someone who will.

Game Name (as it is in the given region): Abadox: The Deadly Inner War Region (Canada, USA, GBR, JP, etc.): USA ID (e.g. NES-TY-USA): NES-A3-USA Classification (e.g. licensed, unlicensed, bootleg, etc.): Licensed Publisher: Milton Bradley Developer(s): Natsume Release date (for this region/release): March 1990 Genre: Shooter Number of players: 1 Required peripherals: None List of inserts (please be very confident if you're going to provide this): 2 insert lists confirmed to exist. The Nintendo Power sub-card is the only difference, and there were several from that particular year, so there's probably a couple more feasible options for that particular insert as well. - Cartridge (NES-A3-USA) - Box (NES-A3-USA) - Manual (NES-A3-USA) - California Games Poster (MIL-NES-US) - Nintendo Power Subscription Card (PMG-PT-USA) - Flat Black Dust Sleeve - Cartridge (NES-A3-USA) - Box (NES-A3-USA) - Manual (NES-A3-USA) - California Games Poster (MIL-NES-US) - Nintendo Power Subscription Card (PMG-BB-USA) - Flat Black Dust Sleeve Mapper Type: MMC1 Board Type: SLROM Board Variation: NES-SLROM-05 Source Links: NES Cart Database; NES Game Contents FAQ

The thing is, they do cover that stuff, but being that it's a UK magazine, who's primary audience as a print magazine would be domestic, it makes perfect sense that they'd focus on what was popular domestically. I have an issue that is almost fully devoted to the TurboGrafx, for example. I wouldn't suggest someone who wants specific things to become a subscriber, but I would absolutely suggest combing through back issues, as most issues have an overarching focus that could be of interest. And honestly, I really dig the focus on systems that weren't popular here, like the Speccy or the BBC Micro. Why? Because that's an area where I don't know all that much, so reading about it is actually informative to me. I find I'm less interested in an NES feature since there really isn't anything they can put in there that I don't have at least some prior knowledge of, which makes reading it kinda blah.

That makes the chip shortage theory much more sound then. Gyromite seems to have an inordinate number of converters compared to other games that could potentially have them. My guess is they started running out of chips, so they used converters for Gyromite and Stack Up, then as the shortage was more dire and demand outstripped supply, they made a run or two of other launch games. Once they got more chips they reverted back to 72 pin carts. The shortage was a thing through 88 though, so a few other games that needed more copies than planned in order to fulfill demand may have got the same treatment, though only on a case by case basis. This is, of course, pure speculation, but it would make sense why some exist, others don't, etc, along with how rare they are. As for Gumshoe, since there was never a 60 pin version, it stands to reason that a converter copy doesn't exist, as there's no reason why it should exist.

I have a mag that focuses on the PS1 and another who's cover feature was Goldeneye. They cover a wide variety, but each issue has an overarching focus. Makes each issue feel like a cohesive unit.

They're a Euro centric magazine, so not only is it a lot of pre NES stuff, but it primarily gears toward 8 bit computers rather than home consoles. Still, I've enjoyed every issue I've read. It's well written, well researched, and generally top quality. It also covers a wide spread of time, as some issues focus as late as the PS2 era. So I recommend it, especially if you have an interest in games of all eras.

That's part of it. I had cut a few that were far too short to use, so many in fact that I said fuck it and gave an extra inch to the ones that had to go long distances. Another factor is that there wasn't enough space to go over the chips, and with the number of wires there, I had to reroute some so I could fit them all into the case. MMC5 repros are no joke!

Yeah, at least there's one resource that survived. Had he caved, the best we'd have left is RarityGuide, and that one has never been good