My Playstation Holy Grail

Entry posted by THE 1 2 P March 5, 2009

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Holy Grail derives from the words "holy shit thats a mutha fucking bomb ass grail dime piece", used in ancient Greek culture. But the Greeks decided that they should shorten this for the sake of trying to explain it to their young ones before they were old enough to curse. And thus it has been shortened to the term we all know today.

Pretty much all collectors have their own personal "grails", items they have been trying to attain for any length of time with varying degrees of success and failure. For me, I've been trying to obtain this holy grail for the better part of eight years. And it's a holy grail that, in an alternate time line, wouldn't even exist. But in our time line, September 11th (9-11) happened and thus my holy grail was made....out of fear and stupidity. And that holy grail is the alternate version of Syphon Filter 3.

Lots of things got pushed back or ultimately canceled during the aftermat of the 9-11 attacks. Movies, tv shows and even video games were forced to alter their schedules because of the result of our nations worst terrorist attack. It was a dark day in history for sure, but even darker for fans(like myself) of the Syphon Filter franchise. I actually found one on ebay about a year ago and the seller had a "buy it now" price of $500. Yeah, I laughed too when I saw that. He also had a "best offer" option. I used it three times, with my first offer being $100 and my last being $250. He didn't accept any of them. Granted, his copy was sealed but still. I mean, he had it listed for over a year and it was more than obvious that it would NEVER sell at that price. But you know, ebay is full of stupid ass people and he was just one of many. He finally took the item down last year without selling it. I guess for some people, it takes a year and a half of listing something(that will never sell at your price) before common sense kicks in.

I'm actually glad that idiot didn't accept my offer. I didn't need his copy because I found another one not too long ago. From the depths of hell, I had finally acquired my holy grail, but with a twist. After winning it I asked the seller where he got it from and if he had anymore. He did so I decided to purchase his whole assortment, to which.....

Beautiful aren't they? Of course they are. However, from the pictures you can clearly see that there is a problem. The seller didn't have cases for any of these and they were originally made for a two disc case(despite only having one game disk). Another problem was that I purchased a total of six of these from him(thats all he had). He had the disc, manuals and back case art for all of them. But he was missing the front case art, a fact that he seemed oblivious to when we were discussing the finer points of this transaction before it happened. Once I brought this to his attention he searched and came up with two copies of the front case art. So I would atleast be able to make two complete copies, even though I only needed one as my holy grail to cherish and love forever.

When the items arrived the front and back case art were all straightened out, as in they were never used before. These were obviously pulled at a late stage in the production before they could even be placed inside the cases. I had to bend the perforated edges myself to make them fit in the cases but I kind of enjoyed that. Much like I enjoy cleaning nes, snes and genesis carts when I get them home, I use to love repairing PS1 game cases when I got them home from used game stores. I could make any used game look brand new with the mere swap of a new case. But these are obviously different because of the requirement of a double cd case. So that meant that I got to perform a special project.

Of course, projects are fun. But they are a little beneath someone of my stature. After all, I am a miracle worker. Now normally I'm known for producing such miracles as turning water into wine and injecting common sense into fanboys. But for this one time, I decided to go old school. So for this miracle I took two of these:

Plus four of these:

And alakablam....

There you have it: instant miracle. The 1 2 P still works in mysterious ways.

And here are some comparison pics of both versions:

This was a great find indeed. Not only because it was my personal PS1 holy grail, but also because I am one of the biggest Syphon Filter fans out there. When the second game came out I was ready to beat everyone's ass in the split screen multiplayer component. Too bad I was the only one playing this game. So I basically had to play with myself.....um, yeah. But my point is that this game variant has landed into the hands of the right person. SF is one of my favorite series and without a doubt my favorite Sony made series. I've always prefered this game series over the Metal Gear Solid series, starting with the first PS versions of each. They are different but similar gaming experiences. Unfortunately for SF, because it came out a few months after MGS, the comparisons came and lingered on. The series does pretty well in both the US and Europe. But those crazy Japanese people didn't like it. Atleast they got the first PS version and I really enjoy playing that version because of the Japanese voices.

So there you have it. My holy grail has been attained and I performed a modern day miracle to make it appear as if it was fresh off the video game shelves. Just goes to show that if you want something bad enough you can eventually find it......eight years later. I got it and I'm happy. And now the only thing this thread is missing is....