Your personal classic video game demons..

[Susuwatari]

I have many demons but my #1 worst demon that still gives me ulcer whenever I think about it. About 15 years ago, Glib cart was thrown in the trash because it didn't work. Back then, I didn't know anything about dirty contact and if I knew then, I would probably have been able to make it work by cleaning the contact.

 

Now I got to find a bottle of the pink stuff.

 

Other demons:

Throwing away the box for 2600 Survival Run and Cosmic Commander set. Selling my first Vectrex with lots of games cheaply. Not buying other new copies of SQ:Water World when I bought the first one for only $3 at a toy store. And not picking up a Commodore 64sx for free when I had the chance.

[raindog]

Well, let's see. I can't call any of these things "demons" because they don't actually bother me all that much... more like "learning experiences". Naturally, I didn't keep very good track of boxes and manuals when I was a kid. I actually have a tough time of it even now, but I don't think I've actually destroyed any GBA or Gamecube boxes or manuals.

 

I sold my C128D in 1991, along with about 300 disks of my own stuff... documents, my own programs, a ton of pirated games, pr0n (yeah, very low-resolution gay pr0n....) and a lot of other stuff that will hold heart-rendingly sentimental value in hindsight in another.... 5-6 years, i guess. I still have a number of games (or at least boxes) at my parents' house, which I discovered while setting up the used Gamecube I bought for my nieces to play on (or, for that matter, me when I'm there. )

 

I left a big bag of Colecovision stuff - pretty much every game I had, all bought in 1982-84, as well as one of the controllers (don't remember if it was the Turbo wheel or the Slither ball) at a friend's house in '94 or so. Friend has since moved twice and gotten married and moved to a different state, but since we had a falling out some years ago I wouldn't really be able to even ask if he still has any of it.

 

And I had a manila envelope of all the Vectrex overlays for the carts I had sitting in the desk in my room, except my desk eventually became somebody else's desk and my parents had no idea what I was even talking about when I asked if they'd found the overlays in the drawers.

 

I did nearly have a big ol' regret when I was staying there for Mother's Day just last month. Around 5 in the morning I heard a crack of thunder and didn't pay much attention to it because I actually love thunderstorms. Then I was suddenly wide awake as I realized that I had left the window open in another room, and that the Vectrex was sitting right under the window. I managed to get there and close the window about a second before the drops started hitting the windowpane.

 

Not that I could even really consider selling the thing, but I wouldn't want to try to replace it

[NE146]

Luckily I have kept EVERYTHING video game related (mags, books, carts, consoles, etc.) I have ever had since I was a kid in the 70's. So I still have 99% of the things I find nostalgic and actually unlike a lot of you, I don't really buy too much of anything retro-actively with the occasional exception. I'm pretty satisfied with the same stuff I've had for years. I have a collection, but I'm not a collector so to speak.

 

That being said.. I guess I do sort of regret throwing away every single box I've owned almost immediately. Occasionally one box will survive for some odd reason (like the 5200 console box or other odd things like the Bandai Zaxxon LCD game box amongst others). The thing is.. I haven't really learned my lesson. I STILL throw away my GBA boxes for example. I've thought about keeping them.. but fuck, they just take up too much space. For example I just trashed my Mario vs. Donkey Kong box.. woot out the trash it goes! If the box is plastic and good for storage like the Genesis boxes or a ps2/gc/xbox box, then of course I'll keep it. But it's just too hard for me to hold on to GBA/GB boxes. I'm sure I'll regret it someday so maybe that's my demon that won't let go

[trnsfrguy]

1) Selling my 2600 and 300+ games.....

2) Selling a mint Waterworld CIB to a "friend" for $30, who promptly sold it on Ebay for big bucks!!!!

[Mr.FoodMonster]

NE1, you want to throw any more boxes away, offer them on the marketplace!

 

Well, there was the GBA + Washer incident that happened a few months ago, and is detailed somewhere on the forums here. Go look at my reget. It works now though =D

 

Selling off my ENTIRE NES, SNES and Genesis collections are big mistakes that I have made. Selling ANYTHING videogame related is bad to me. Also, throwing out all my GB and GBC boxes I used to get. I tossed them like they were nuclear waste, got rid of them as soon as I could.

[Adrian M]

Sadly, I had lost a good portion of my original EGM mags (1988-1992 issues--- the golden era of EGM) due to the fact that I had put them into storage in my parents' basement when I went off to college. Well, there was some minor flooding or whatnot and when I came back, the mags were water damaged and some even had fungus growing on them!

 

Needless to say, I've been replacing these lost issues slowly but surely. Still missing a few key issues, but what can you do?

[The 8th Passenger]

1) Passing up a 95% functional stand-up Space Invaders at a garage sale for $100 back in 1998.

 

2) Selling my NES collection (300+ games) and 2600 collection (200+ games) once I discovered emulators (around 3 years ago).

 

I'm working on recovering from #2 by getting back into collecting, but #1 will always be that thorn in my side.

 

John

[Adrian M]

1) Passing up a 95% functional stand-up Space Invaders at a garage sale for $100 back in 1998.

 

 

Odd. I had almost the exact same experience in 2001.

I was at the Twin Galaxies Classic Gaming Tournament at Funspot in Weirs Beach, NH. Some guy had a Jatre Spectre (a Japanese Space Invaders clone) cocktail cabinet for sale...as is, $75.

 

Worked flawlessly and it was one of those odd little Japanese cocktail units that you don't see too often here in the US. Could have used some minor restoration, but it worked/played fine. Like a fool, I debated it and continued to play some games. As the hours dragged on, I eyed the cabinet (which surprisingly no one had purchased yet) and then decided to go to Funspot's ATM machine to get the $$ to purchase it. I could transport it easily in my car since the cocktail was smaller than most US versions. Well, as luck would have it, the ATM (only one in the building and in the vicinity for that matter) had the dreaded "out of service" message. I was stuck with only $30 in my wallet. When I went to talk to the seller about arranging a payment, he said he had just wrapped up a deal with someone else not more than 2 minute prior.

 

Some days luck just isn't on your side.

[Shannon]

For example I just trashed my Mario vs. Donkey Kong box.. woot out the trash it goes! If the box is plastic and good for storage like the Genesis boxes or a ps2/gc/xbox box, then of course I'll keep it. But it's just too hard for me to hold on to GBA/GB boxes. I'm sure I'll regret it someday so maybe that's my demon that won't let go

 

OK everyone get out the rope, there is about to be a hangin'

[Susuwatari]

I'll bring the tar and feather!

[MegaManFan]

I've kept every box for every GBA game I've bought since day one, all the way back to Super Mario Advance. Even the one and only game I bought used, I bought CIB.

[Shannon]

I've kept every box for every GBA game I've bought since day one, all the way back to Super Mario Advance.  Even the one and only game I bought used, I bought CIB.

 

Pat's MegaManFan on the back.

 

Now that's more like it.

[pinball22]

Throwing out the boxes to my 2600 games as a kid. I had kept them all at first, but they

were piling up and I threw them out.

 

Also, throwing out my Atari Age magazines at some point.

[raindog]

I've bought most of my GBA games used, and always insisted on CIB.... in fact, my first and only negative feedback on ebay happened when I bought a "like new in box" Bomberman Tournament from someone who turned out to not speak the language and by "in box" he meant "loose cart shipped in a box". I protested, he suggested I visit gamefaqs.com unless I wanted to pay to ship it back to him and get a refund less shipping costs... double shipping costs came to over half the price I'd paid for the game in the first place, but that was all he was willing to do. It wasn't worth the money to file a complaint with ebay, knowing I only get 3 in my life or whatever. I negged him, he negged me back with some ESL gibberish.

 

Sometimes it sucks to be picky, but at least I learned to email the seller if they're not absolutely explicit about having the original box and manual

[Cap5750]

I guess I'd have to say as others that I regret not keeping the boxes to my systems/games. Thankfully, I kept everything else.

 

Aside from that, I regret giving away my original 6-switch Atari (I don't believe it was a heavy, but still it was my first) all because the power switch wouldn't work right anymore and I'd gotten one of those fancy Atari 7800's and didn't think I needed/wanted it (the original) anymore.

 

Cap

[AtariDude]

About the only thing that I regret was when I stopped using my original Gameboy. I used to play a lot of it but then got bored with it and eventually my sister used it. It lasted for a few years and then broke one day. It would have been great if I had kept those games since I could use them now on my GBA SP.

[Famicoman]

No particular order:

 

1. getting a coin stuck in my sega Pico

 

2. Forgetting where I put my Sega Pico games

 

3. Scratching my N64, and ending up peeling off part of the molding

 

4. Selling 2 of my 3 Sega Genesis' because I thought I only need on

e

5. Spending all my money on something stupid, and not having enough to buy a 3DO, and a Colecovision.

 

6. Breaking the plastic in my Intellivision 2 that projects the LED light.

 

7. Cutting up my GBA boxes for school assignment.

 

8. Not being educated on how rare a Boxed Famicom Disc Drive is in the states.

 

9. Selling most of my sega genesis sports games.

 

10. Breaking my Sega Genesis RF cable right where it connects.

 

11. Overloading my outlets and breaking a Genesis.

 

12. Selling my games to EB for 5 cents a peice.

 

13. Throwing a party, and having 3 Gameboy games missing.

 

14. Missing an Atari 2600 sell at a flea market w' 4 joysticks, 2 paddles, an organizer, and 19 games for $15.

 

15. Selling some N64 games for a couple bucks.

[glitch]

When I first got my Vectrex it was very dusty and had a few white paint spots on it (still does ). After cleaning up the dust I decided to try oops on the paint spots, got rid of the spot but ate right through the plastic. Now there is a mark on top that looks like someone put a cigarette out on it

[Brad2600]

I regret loaning my GTA games for the PS1 to my brother. He claims they were stolen from him.

[ANTHONY ATARI]

I had an Intellivison and like 50 games, most that were boxed w/ instructions, and in very good condition. (some were the rare INTV games)

and I sole everything for dirt cheap. (40 bucks)

At the time I was happy to get rid of the stuff.

But as years passed, I realized I shouldnt have done that.

 

 

I gave away a 2600 and like 40 or 50 games to my little cousin years ago.

I dont think he ever even hooked it up.

 

 

I passed up on carts at the thrift store

 

 

I had an Amiga 500 and like at least 100 games and my brother went and sold it all away

[Cassidy Nolen]

I got all the way to the end of the second Zelda game (where you fight yourself), and then 'showed' my Dad how the game had a save feature. I also showed him how you clear the memory save. Needless to say, I to this day have never finished that game....

 

As for stuff I wish I still had, I wish I still had my boxes for most things. For some reason, my Mother knew that the Transformers and stuff would be worth more in the boxes. How wierd. All my Star Wars toys, Transformers and Robotech is all boxed. There was a big box of Atari cart boxes in the basement closet for years. I am guessing somewhere around 90 it got thrown out. There was a fire in 02, and I cleared the basement out myself (oddly and luckily, everything on that end of the house was just fine;little dusty but fine). I was hoping I would find that box of boxes, but no luck.

 

Non video game related demon: Mom sold my USS Flag Mint in the box at a yard sale for like 25 bucks. They go for a Grand now.... Guess she bought it for me, she could do what she wanted

 

Cassidy

[Kialan]

Ok, here's one where I felt really stupid.

 

Ever since I was little I always had this small RF-only input tv, so when we got new consoles (like SNES, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, Playstation, 3DO, and N64) we would go out and get RF adapters for them, and abandon the composite cables.

 

My dad was smart enough, but never told me how bad RF really is. I would think "Oh the game is playing in Mono sound because my TV is mono" but the RF cables were ALSO mono, when I thought they were stereo. -The thing that bothers me is isn't analog cable in stereo I can't figure that out.-

 

So from the beginning I was 'trained' to use RF adapters. About 2 years ago I was STILL using RF, on my front-composite-jack-enabled TV. It was until it clicked that RF is in mono did I start looking for all the composite cables for my systems.

 

I did a comparison and hooked the Genesis up in RF AND composite, and wow was there a difference! Stereo sound, and beautiful picture. It was so amazingly different I did a school project on it.

 

And to this day I can't believe I was using RF when I had composite available. For 10 years.

 

-----------------

Another demon is when we got the RF adapter for Saturn, it buzzed on the tv speakers. Like crazy. Turns out it was a third party adapter (I never paid attention to that then, and it never occured to me that maybe third party products suck) and so we took it back and got an official one. No buzzing ever again. But you see, now I have the problem that whenever I turn on the Saturn (and see the broken pieces flying together to create the logo) I EXPECT to hear buzzing. It is ingrained in my brain. Right now I can recall the sound, and it was 6 years or more ago.

[raindog]

Heh, our main TV is RF-only. I got it in 1996 so it must have been one of the last. I'm sure if I were just about anyone else on AA, that alone would count as a regret

 

Of course, I feed the dvd player, gamecube and cable box through the stereo receiver, so the only real annoyance is when the people downstairs turn on the hair dryer or whatever and suddenly there's rainbow sleet on top of Mario or whatever....

[SteveW]

At a big computer and electronics street sale three or four years ago, I found an odd looking multi-colored plastic thing in a box full of wires and junk. Along with it, there was a bizarre looking joystick that looked like they belonged together. I looked at it for a minute, and not figuring out what it was, put it down and walked away. A few months ago, I was poking around the 'net, and I found a picture on an obscure video game console web site. It was some kind of game console built by Polaroid, but the site creator didn't know what it was, or basically a single thing about it. It was supposed to be extremely super rare. Damn, I wish I could come across that thing again.

[Vic George 2K3]

Now that I've gotten myself a GBA SP, I regret having to trade in or get rid of some of my Gameboy arcade classic titles. I was fortunate that my half-brother still had his Gameboy Color cartridge version of Q-Bert.