My Own World: 2012

24/12/2012

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and... Oh my...

Before I start saying something else, I wish everyone a Merry Chrismas and a Prosperous New Year. I'm not sure if I will update the blog before the end of the year, but I do have a few things that I wanted to post but still didn't find the time or patience.

Yep, this is it. After these years of intensively collecting videogames, I just realized the number of games/editions/items in my collection reached another amazing number. I now have officially over 3000. I never expected to reach this number any time soon, let alone before the end of this year. I was expecting to save some money and make a small break because there aren't many editions that I'd like to buy until February. Unfortunately sometimes it's simply impossible to take a break. There is always something to buy, no matter how hard you try to stay away from it, unless you really don't have more money left.

Recently, a big supermarket decided to do some serious promotions on recent games for all current gen platforms. This includes PSVita. As a result, since November to this day I've bought over 40 games that dropped their price to something between 2 and 20 euros. This includes some pretty recent titles, a few limited editions and games that I never expected to find still sealed for such a low price as they were supposedly sold out.

Hopefully, this will finally be the moment I take a break until February. I only expect to buy Ni No Kuni and Aliens Colonial Marines, and hopefully stop for a while. The problem is... I usually say this all the time but I hardly ever stop. Even when I think I won't be able to buy more games, some stuff happens and I manage to get something more. People that know me well know how mouthful I can be at times.

Another Piece.

And one less edition to worry about: the Special Edition box set for One Piece Unlimited Cruise. This game was split in two, unlike the Japanese versions, and they are basically ports of the Wii versions. It's a shame they split this game in two parts. I'm still missing a particular edition of One Piece, but right now this is one less to worry about :)

Finally, they are over!

Okay, so, when Guitar Hero was originally released, it was a big thing. And it became even bigger when Rock Band and other band kits and games came out. But after the 8th game or so, people obviously become tired... I have about 7 copies of Guitar Hero and Band Hero game bundles for different platforms and I honestly think that's good enough but I might still pick Rock the 80s if I ever come across the guitar bundle. Right now the "Hero" games are discontinued. These games would be so much better if less versions of it were released but Ac tivision likes to milk the cow like so many other companies and released too many in short periods of time in my opinion.

Right now I got this little press kit for both Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5. It was a nice addition to my collection.

Battlefield: Bad Company Gold Edition - slipcase version.

I've had my bunch of chances to get the steelbook version of this game in factory sealed condition but for some particular reason I didn't feel like buying it - the fact that I don't like steelbooks was reason enough for me to hold back when I had the chance. I was actually more focused on getting the slipcase version that came out in region 3 countries (Asia I believe) and I finally managed to find a good deal locally for a mint condition copy, not sealed though. I was blad that I got it. Now I need to find a copy of the Limited Edition of the second game. And now that I think about it, I'm still missing the older games, the ones before bad company.

This one I have to thank Johnny for it because I got it for free. I found the deal but I didn't want to buy all the games, so I decided to share the lot with a couple friends and each one would pay 1/3 of the price the seller was asking. There were several games I wanted, but the one that I wanted the most was this Death and Return of Superman.

Since Johnny lived close to the seller, I decided to let him take care of the deal. The thing is... the deal went all wrong and Johnny ended up paying nearly twice as much for the whole bundle. After all the efforts he went through to get enough money to pay for the new price and avoid losing the deal to another crappy buyer that tried to step on us by making a much better offer after the deal was almost closed - which makes the seller a crappy one as well, for not keeping his word - he decided to keep all the games to himself by paying for the entire lot without our help. But in order to apologise to to me and the other guy how all things went and the fact that he would keep all the games, he offered one of the games to each one of us. So I got the game that I wanted the most for free: Death and Return of Superman, for the SNES, which is not as rare as the Sega Mega Drive version, but still tough to get.

So yeah, I was happy! :)

I didn't kill two birds with one stone because I find that cruel...

...but I did get two toughies at once for the Sega Mega Drive, and they are Bodycount and The Punisher, thanks to a very friendly seller that sold them for a decent price. These games are kinda hard to find but not impossible, especially Bodycount, but as you know resellers are a serious plague on ebay and prices are sky-rocket high. I wanted the two, and the two I got now. I'm happy because they are now part of my collection, both in mint condition and they were saved from the hands of resellers or fake collectors and they were not sold to international buyers. Yeah, because all the good games and rare stuff are being taken out of this country and retrogaming is slowly dying over here...

I thought the meaning of 'rim' was related to a dirty sexual act.

There isn't much to say about this, except the fact that (don't hit me) I don't like the game and I'm saying this before I even had a chance to play it. I preordered this game, and for the 3rd time in 2 months I forgot to cancel the preorder and it arrived at my door. Great...

Mega Dri... wait, what??

Ecoplay, previously called Ecofilmes, is one of the biggest Portuguese distributors since the Sega ages. They are responsible for a number of barbarities in the Portuguese market, including high prices, used copies being sold as new (because they open all copies), the IGAC stamp, the Master System Tec Toy Purple releases and even the Mega Drive games with european covers and Genesis cartridges inside...

And to end with all the story, we have a "bootleg" console that rumours say it's actually licensed by Sega, called the Mega Game II, which was exclusively released in Portugal. It seems to be the case, because the console is actually made in Japan, it has a patent number and the best thing about it it's the fact that it's region free and it can run any type of game. That is certainly cool. It was a low cost version of the Mega Drive that hit the market when Mega Drive was almost done for. It's kinda tough to find at the moment, even though I still know a couple of stores that had a few brand new ones for sale. Unfortunately the condition of the boxes was pretty messy and the owner of the store is a stupid old guy who doesn't know how to keep his word so I had an argument with him once and never entered that crappy store again.

I was only able to buy this console very recently, and unfortunately is missing its instructions manual, but the outer box is in a fairly good condition and so is the console. The price was very good too so I couldn't miss the deal because I didn't have the console yet and I really wanted it.

But there's also a little extra I found at a boot sale and seems to be ever rarer than the console itself a boxed control pad. I have never found one before and I didn't even know it existed. The box is in average condition with general wear and tear but it was cheap and considering how tough it is to find one of these nowadays, there was no way I would let it go.

Harry Potter meets PS3...

... and the result is one of those "games" that might be appealing to Kids and actually received some pretty decent reviews. And the item pictured is one of at least two different press kits that exist. This one comes bundled with the Move controller and PS Eye, as well as the wonderbook itself, and game plus media assets disc in a clear bluray case.

Although I have the press kit and the promo copy of the game, I was still missing a retail version of the game. I didn't get this cheap before simply because I wanted a particular version, but now I decided to leave that behind my back and get the regular Limited Edition of Ace Combat Assault Horizon.

After buying this I felt the need to play the game. I used to love Ace Combat 2 and 3 (didn't play the 1st one that much) and I also enjoyed some of the PS2 games, but my favourite one as to be Electrosphere, which was in my opinion a major improvement over the second game. So I picked up my Xbox 360 promo copy and started to playing the game. In a few days I eventually finished it.

I was quite disappointed with this game... Seriously. The storyline is okay, the helicopter missions are a very nice addition and the helicopter control is quite solid, but then they decided to screw years of fantastic aircraft gameplay by adding a rubbish Dog Fight Mode. What the hell is that? I know this game is not a flying sim, but to actually go as far as introducing a mode that creates impossible manoeuvres out of nothing as soon as you enter that mode... and the worst part is that the entire mode itself is, in my opinion, a complete mess! It's so messed up, really!

Then they also added a counter attack manoeuvre that I didn't like... These games used to have some very pleasing gameplay but this one made me so upset... They broke that great gameplay to add some rubbish new modes and features. Oh well... :(

I finally managed to get a PSVita Press Kit. It's a book with a plastic slipcase and some sort of effect with the Playstation icons. It's actually well thought, this press kit, but unfortunately it looks plain, with few pictures or illustrations. It can actually hold the console inside, and each page presents one of the console features. It's well though it you ask me. Seems there are two versions of this press kit: the one that comes with the console and the other one that doesn't. Instead of the console, the last page has an illustration that can be removed from the page. If you remove it, you open up space to place the console.

The original game was good and this seems to be something quite better and not just a single port. Persona 4 the Golden received special attention in the US but it will thankfully receive a PAL version as well, so maybe they will also release some sort of CE here? I don't know, but I'd love that. Since these games are region free and this one was a limited US exclusive, I thought it would be a good idea to buy it. It was sold out pretty early and I am glad I got it. It's one of the few US editions I really felt like buying. Persona games are not exactly the most popular ones, so they will eventually become sought after in the future, specially one edition such as this one in factory sealed condition.

Once upon a time there was a great series of games...

... that has been losing a lot of quality and received one of the worst and most expensive CE's I've ever seen so far... Yes. one of my all-time favourite games is Resident Evil 2, and right now I'm talking about the 6th game. I don't plan on buying the CE or any other edition of this game any time soon, until I find a major price drop. For the time being, I am happy enough to actually have the press kit! It's missing the DVD, but considering how much money I have at the moment, I'm pretty glad with this!

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 4: Playstation, I chose you!

Okay, so I already told you about how I got my second console, the Sega Saturn. Now it's time to talk about how I managed to get a Sony PlayStation over 1 and a half years later...

I was happy with my Sega Saturn, but at a certain point I felt that something was wrong. When I first decided to buy the console, I already knew about how good PlayStation was doing. However, being an old Sega Fan, I preferred to continue buying Sega consoles instead of moving on to new territory. The main reason that made me chose Saturn was the fact that I trusted Sega. They didn't abandon Mega Drive until very late. I wasn't so sure about Playstation. It was the first time Sony was making a videogame console and it didn't appeal me that much. I knew nothing about the release titles such as Tekken or Ridge Racer, but a friend of mine actually bought the console and insisted it was as good or even better than Saturn. I just didn't care. What were you expecting from a 13 y.o. who would still argue over ridiculous stuff with poor arguments?

At a certain point I started to play the PS1 in the usual spots and I eventually became quite fond of it. Ridge Racer, Air Combat, Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden... all those titles were actually pretty good! But I was still loyal to Sega and of course it was unimaginable to own two consoles of the same generation. No kid I knew had that chance. The few kids that had one console were lucky enough actually, as most didn't have one.

One day, during summer break, my father arrived earlier at home from his night shift and dropped me a magazine on my bed before going to sleep. The magazine was just a complement of a well known newspaper and was mostly about computer and videogames, with news and reviews. One of the news was about this fantastic game that had been announced called... Tomb Raider 2. If you've read the previous episodes I wrote, you probably know how much I loved Tomb Raider. Needless to say, my mind was blown with the news and the images of Venice levels. However, I partially died inside when they mentioned that it would only be available for PS1 and PC. I panicked. No, really, I did.

The game would be released later that year before Xmas holidays. I had about 6 months to save enough cash to get a PS1, but that was nearly impossible. I talked to my parents about buying another console, explaining that I wouldn't be able to play Tomb Raider 2. I was expecting my mother would actually be interested in buying it but instead she just stepped out. So basically, for the next couple of days, I couldn't think of anything else. I wanted to buy the PS1.

... Time went by and the release date was approaching. There were maybe a couple of months left. Well, actually, the release dates over here were useless, thanks to the worst Mafia business called IGAC and the terrible distributors involved with them: Ecofilmes. Nowadays it's different but at that time games would come out whenever they wanted, several days or even weeks after the official dates.

At that point I only had saved half the money I needed to buy the PS1. I thought I wasn't going to make it, so I was thinking on investing some more money on Saturn games. But suddenly something happened and my hopes were raised again. A big supermarket decided to make a huge promotion for its birthday campaign. For two weeks, they decided to cut the price of many products which were published in a leaflet. Several products were available each day but the day and the final price were kept a secret. I'm guessing they were trying to force costumers to visit the supermarket every day during the promotion in order to attract more clients. PlayStation was on the list. By that time the retail price was 50.000$ (something close to about 250 euros). I only had around 120 euros - yep, only half the money.

The supermarket was half ways between my home and my dad's workplace. He went there every day when coming from work to try to pick a Playstation. After several days, a nice lady working at the supermarket realized that my father was visiting the store every day and decided to inform my father of the day the console would be at a lower price. It was one Friday.

My father went there on that Friday and he called home to tell me about the console. I kinda expected him to say that the price drop was not big enough. But, to my surprise, he actually called me to tell he had bought the console. Mind blown! The price was reduced to 120 euros! About half the price for a single day and I had enough money for that. I was delighted. Eventually, my parents didn't even ask for the money. I kept the console and my money! :P

Oh my gosh it flies!

Another huge edition arrived at my door and I wasn't really expecting to buy this thing any time soon. I made a preorder just in case and cancelled before the release date. I accidently preorder this twice, one for PS3 and the other one for XBox 360 and I only cancelled the PS3 version. As a result I was surprised by a delivery guy that called me to deliver Call of Duty Black Ops II Care Package for Xbox 360. Damn! It's a nice edition. Not perfect, but nice. It's huge as well. I no longer have space to keep these huge editions. I was saving my money to buy other editions but now I was charged a lot of money for this. I considered returning it at first, but someone actually made me decide to keep it.

... but still decide to get it because it received a CE and the images look good... that's what happened when I decided to pick up a copy of Fate Extra for the PSP, thanks to those guys at Ghostlight who are bringing us many japanese games that otherwise nobody would give a sh!t whether they were released in Europe or not. And I appreciate that a lot, honestly.

And what a game! One of the latest press kits to start with. Hope this means good things for the future. The press kit is still unopened and untouched and I plan on leaving it this way. I'm very glad that I actually got this :) It's not just a LBP PSVita Press kit. It also comes with a LBP Karting press disc inside. My particular press kit also came with a promo copy of LBP Karting (separately) :) This press kit looks very nice! The box has a nice touch to it!

I have been searching for this edition for a while now and I am quite disappointed with it. X Blades Royal Bundle for the PS3... It's already considered a hard find nowadays, it wasn't released in the UK (again...) and I've seen it for sale for absolutely outrageous prices, even though it hit the bargain bin some time ago. I managed to get a second hand copy from eBay and it arrived smashed. I was so unlucky... The box seemed ruined but thankfully it wasn't as bad as I expected. It's far from perfect but still much better than I thought it was. The box is made of paper. I mean, it can't even be called cardboard because it's stupidly thin fragile. How is this possible? It's so fragile... the figure looks cheap but it isn't as bad as I thought it was. It's average/decent, but not very detailed. I will hopefully test the game soon enough because I want to find out how it is. People say it's not good but I want to try it. If you're considering buying this, please don't pay the outrageous prices seen on eBay. It really isn't worth it.

Football. I'll never understand all the hype...

We not always get exclusive editions... but when we do, they kinda suck... but when the retail price is not much different from the regular game, it's not that bad! And that's what happened with Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. Over here (and probably in Spain) we received a Master Edition with a PES watch and some postcards signed by Cristiano Ronaldo. I actually sold the regular game because I wanted to get this edition before they appear destroyed at stores since it's a fragile cardbox. The game will be available at a low cots price once a newer game gets released, and I'll get it by then :).

And since we're talking about football , I also found a rather rare item which is definitely exclusive to Portugal since it was released by one of the distributors over here: a PES 2008 box set also signed by Cristiano Ronaldo. I knew about this box set because I saw a picture in a collection. It was the PS2 version. I never expected to get this, really. This edition was a gift it seems, and I have no idea how to get it. It's not something that would appear on eBay. I never really expected to find one so soon. This one's really tough to get, after all these years wanting to have one...

I have to thank Yoan for sending me this boxset to Portugal. I asked if someone from France could help me out and he did! Thank you very much! This is yet another Sonic pack, this time for Sonic Rush Adventures,called "Chasseur de Trésoir", which roughly translates to "Treasure Hunter" if I'm right. This is a boxset that includes a T-shirt and a stylus, as well as a copy of the game. A little tough to find for some reason. It's one of at least 2 exclusive sonic editions like this one, from France.

Again, it's not every day that I buy NTSC games. It's a shame I know, but since I don't have money for everything (really, I am far from being rich. I'm not kidding!) I usually just focus on PAL versions. If someone out there actually pays attention to all the crap I write in my blog, I might get shot for saying I only collect PAL games again. But when a Special Edition like this appears for a little over 10 euros, it's pretty tough to let it go. This was one of Play-Asia's promotions. ThE game, Otomedius Excellent is not going to be released over here. It's an average shooter according to the media, but for a little over 10 euros plus shipping it was totally worth. I decided to skip the NTSC Deathsmile CE though.

Yet another popular anime-based game released in Europe, this time for One Piece. These CEs are worth quite a bit - well, they're not, but fans pay for it. It was pretty tough to get this for a decent price because I cancelled my preorder. After two failed attempts to get this for a decent price I finally managed to score. This was sold out on Amazon and I believe it wasn't released in the UK, but I was lucky enough to find a remaining copy of One Piece Pirate Warriors Collector's Edition on Amazon.it for a lower price than the RRP. I don't know how that's possible, since the game was sold out and all other copies for sale by independent sellers were not available under 100 euros. I will keep my edition sealed but I saw unboxing videos and the boat replica is actually a pretty decent bonus for fans. I might be wrong but it seems this CE was not produced in very big numbers. The box might not be too big, but the boat is as nearly as big as the box, which is a fairly decent size for someone like me who wasn't expecting much more than some sort of "gashapon" figure. You have to build a fe wpieces of the boat and optionally add some stickers to it - that's the only bad part: the stickers.

China FTW

This is yet another game I don't know much about and I seriously have intentions to play it: Sleeping Dogs. I was expecting to buy the game by the time the price dropped, but in the something made me buy it sooner. I found this paritcular boxset from micromania, a french retailer, and I couldn't let it go. It's the first and only time I've seen it and I am glad that I actually won it. This isn't exactly a press kit... an employee kit? I don't know. All that matters to me is that I have it :) And yeah I made an unboxing video of this one as well :)

I haven't played all the games in the trilogy. I jumped directly from 1 to Reach and I didn't even try ODST or Wars even though I own both CE. However, I enjoyed playing Halo Reach so much that I finished the campaign in only one weekend. So I decided to play Halo 4. No actually I'm lying, I didn't decide to play the game but since I bought a little something that didn't come sealed I opened it to play the game and even made an unboxing video that's up on youtube right now. Limited to 1250 units, this not-so-Legendary Edition is exclusive to Italy and includes several items that you can buy separately. The game included is Italian dubbed, so I had to play it like that. Thankfully it has English subtitles but I really don't understand why they don't include at least the original voiceovers as well. I mean, I believe that even some Italian people wouldn'«t like to play the game without the original voiceovers. I also heard they did the same thing to editions from other countries. the Spanish dub even has two voices for Master Chief. Seriously?

One of my favourites so far!

Yes, sometimes it's not an impressive press kit or an "expensive like hell" CE that I enjoy the most. Several months ago I learned about the existence of a DS box set exclusive to France and it took me some time to finally find one of these for an affordable price. Sonic Super Speed pack comes with a nice large box and includes Sonic Colors and Sega Superstar Racing, as well as an R/C model of Sonic's car. I know the RC model is available separately but it looks really good in this pack with the games.

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 3 - the 3D Era

As you can probably tell, I skipped the Mega Drive and the 16bi age in general. Unfortunately, I missed one of the greatest gaming generations... I managed to play several games at my friends' homes but I didn't have my own console. Some of the games I loved the most were Road Rash, The Simpsons Bart VS the Space Mutants (I know this one's not that good), Sonic, Sonic and Knuckles, Donald Duck in Maui Mallard, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Virtua Racing, Lion King, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Mortal Kombat 1 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Streets of Rage 2, Comix Zone and several others.

It was 1996 when I then got my Sega Saturn.

I used to be a member of the Sega Club over here, and as such I would receive the leaflets at home, announcing new products. One of those products was the Sega Saturn. As you would expect, seeing those images of a brand new Sega console was something amazing and I instantly wanted to get one. Well, at least until I heard about the price. I didn't even ask my parents to buy me that. They wouldn't buy me a Mega Drive, it had to be my Grandmother to offer me the Master System II, let alone a Sega Saturn that was so expensive when it came out... So there I was. My master System was gathering dust because I didn't have more games for it and I had finished everything several times, not missing a single thing on any of the games I owned. I was almost 13 by that time.

Some time after Saturn's release, when the model 2 was about to come out, the day finally came when I managed to get it. That console came to my hands out of nothing. I used to visit a music store that also sold videogames. It was called Strauss. Unfortunately, that store went bankrupt many years ago but it was one of the places I loved to visit and where I'd buy some of my games. As I was walking by the showcase, I noticed the Saturn console. Suddenly I checked the price. It had dropped to less than half and that dau June 1st, Children's day (I didn't even know what that day meant, but as much as it meant gifts, I didn't even care!). I immediately called my parents and made a huge fuss about the price drop and everything. My mother was reluctant to buy the console and we went away from the store. She then left me and my father waiting for a couple of minutes to make a phone call and when she came back she said something like "okay you won't be receiving anything on your next birthday if we buy you that console now, if you really want us to buy it". Needless to say I was speechless. Out of NOTHING they bought me the Sega Saturn. WOAH!

However, my awesome mother bought the console, but forgot about the games. That cheaper console didn't come with a single game. It was just the console alone. I actually had to suffer for weeks, just watching the airship from the audio player because I had no games. Even to this day, I still tell my mother how bad that was. Eventually, she gave me the money to buy one game before my birthday - THANK GOD. I decided to get BUG! The game was awesome. Then, on my birthday, a friend of mine lent me a copy of Virtua Fighter 1. I've had that game for a couple of weeks before returning it and had GREAT FUN playing.

The next Christmas something completely changed my mother - well, not completely, but substantially. She was actually a videogaming fan but she didn't want me to play games all the time and that's the main reason why she tried to keep me away from them. She used to play Prince of Persia when I was younger on the PC at her work with her mates during breaks. She would come home telling stories about how good that game was. On that Xmas - 1996 I believe - Dragonball Z The Legend came out. At that point I didn't care about how good or bad that game was - it was BDZ, 'nuff said! Grandma got it for me. Then, when I was walking on yet another shopping center, I had the chance to play a game that had just come out very recently. It was called Tomb Raider. Nobody was playing in on the kiosk, so I gave it a shot. I was wowed. My mother came while I was playing and even she was amazed by the game as it reminded her of a much better version of Prince of Persia. She bought me the game several days later and she liked that game so much that she only allowed me to play while she could be watching, mostly during rainy weekends. Over the years that has to be the game I finished the most number of times: 21 times only in my Saturn. Later on I also played the PS1 version.

Several months later, I managed to save enough money to buy another game. I saw some awesome videos about Guardian Heroes, Shining Force III, Shining The Holy Ark and Dragon Force on a TV show. Guardian Heroes was the one I wanted the most. I was also so close to enter the RPG world, a world I never tried before... I wanted to buy one of those games, so the next time I went to a shopping center I searched for them. But... unfortunately, none of those games were there because they were kind of scarce. As you can probably guess, an impatient kid like me with enough money for a new game after several months without anything new to play had to get SOMETHING and couldn't wait. It's been a while but I can remember that I was quite disappointed to see none of those titles I've wanted the most were available. So I had to pick something else instead of looking elsewhere. And I got Nights. I loved the game, but honestly I'd rather have played one of the other games instead of paying good cash for a second hand copy many years later...

And finally, the last two games I bought for the Saturn were thanks to João Hugo, one of my best childhood friends. I wanted to buy Bug Too! because I loved the first game, but at that time classic games like Virtua Cop 2 and Daytona USA CCE had already dropped to half their original price. As a result, he convinced me to get those two games for the price of one instead of getting Bug Too! Best decision ever! I played those two to exhaustion.

In the end, my collection was limited to seven games, again, like the Sega Master System:
Bug!
Tomb Raider
Dragon Ball Z The Legend
Nights into Dreams
Virtua Cop 2
Daytona USA CCE
Sonic 3D (I remember buying this one, I just don't remember when and I didn't like it that much, unfortunately...)

I still have the console with everything including the box (it's the one pictured in the first post of this blog) and all the seven games, but over the years I replaced Dragon Ball Z with a better copy because mine had a few scratches.

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 2 - Let me play at home! - Part 2

I must start by telling that these posts should be in a different blog, and not this one. A while back when I mentioned I've lost my job, I also said I would be creating a new blog just to write these things. In the end, I decided to write my messages here. It would be a little pointless to create a new blog nobody would visit.

Okay, so in the previous message I told about my Timex, a computer I still wish to find someday for collection purposes.

This time I'll be telling you about my Sega Master System II

For the next years, there were no videogames for me. I wanted a Game Boy and Dark Wing Duck game, or a NES with the Turtles game - I was such a huge Turtles fan... But my parents just wouldn't buy one. The only way I could play videogames was when we went to the shopping center and they had those kyosks with Gameboy, Game Gear, even SNES. I managed to play many games like that: Super Mario, Tetris, Final Fight (not sure which one), Power Rangers, Sonic 1 to 3 and Knuckles, Street Fighter II and several other titles I hardly remember.

One day, my parents and I were invited to dinner at a friendly neighbour's house who had a daughter my age. I was 7 or 8 I believe. I knew the girl since I was a baby as we were born in the same year and my parents were close friends to her parents - we lived in the same building until I was 2, before my parents moved back to my grandma's home not too far.

As I was there, I realized she had a Sega Master System which was offered to her very recently, and she also had one of the most fantastic games I've ever played: Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. I remember I went back to her home a couple of days straight just to play because, to me, it was so amazing she actually had a videogaming system. I wanted to have one as well but no matter how much I asked my parents, they wouldn't get it. It wasn't because they didn't have the money... It was mostly because my mother didn't want to see me playing video games. See, the trauma... Had she given me the console back then, would I be this crazy for videogames?

I kept playing in shopping malls because those were the only places where I could actually play. I even knew the bullies and gipsies who would go there just to play. They were kids like me. After a few times I got used to them and we would switch turns in the consoles every time one of us lost. Obviously, I couldn't spend the entire day playing, I only had maybe a couple hours at best before my parents decided to go away. My parents always visited shopping malls and I learned how to be alone in those from a very young age. I am not exaggerating when I say that I used to go to the toys section alone by the age of 3 while my parents would be shopping other things. I was too young and I had to search for them when I wanted to go back of if they didn't return after I got bored. If I couldn't find them after a few minutes searching I would probably start crying.

One day, my life partially changed. I was about to turn 8 or 9. I'm not really sure any more. My birthday was close, and just a couple of days before it, I received my first gift. It was a rather large box. Yup, my Grandma's gift was... a Sega Master System II, the Alex Kidd Box set with a bonus Sonic I game. By that tim,e Mega Drive was already well established in the market and most kids were getting one. Master System received a significant price drop. When I received that Master System, I could hardly believe. Having my own console was amazing.

I've had my bunch of games for it. The first game I bought was Flintstones. Oh boy, how bad was that game? It was fairly bad, honestly, but I still played it 'till the very end (it was only 4 levels, and that bowling game was tough). Some time later I borrowed two awesome games from my friend: Streets of Rage 2 and Psycho Fox. I was amazed by those two games. Later on I also bought Aliens 3 because I loved the movie, and for some reason I also asked my parents to get me of the games I enjoyed to play the most: Daffy Duck in Hollywood. I loved that game! It was far different from the Mega Drive or Game Gear versions. I just loved it! I don't know why I chose that game in particular, but I'm glad I did. Then I also had The Lion King and managed to play a bit of Jungle Book and Desert Speedtrap. Later on, I managed to get Land of Illusion as well, when the price dropped to less than half.

This was the list of games I had: Alex Kidd in Miracle World (console memory), Sonic I, Flintstones, Aliens 3, Land of Illusion, The Lion King and Daffy Duck in Hollywood. And I'm not sure if I am missing another one but I have this impression there were 7 games total. I don't know which one's the last game I'm missing from the list...

Unfortunately, I no longer have that Master System. It was complete with everything it came with. Even the games were in perfect condition with instructions and all, but my parents decided to give it to another kid not too long after I got my Saturn. Another thing I agreed on and I'm regretting, especially because later on I found out the other kid didn't deserve it at all.

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 1 - Let me play at home!

As I've said before, I decided to tell my story and my best moments as a video gamer and collector. Today I am kinda annoyed. Since I've lost my job I've had a few things to take care and I really don't feel like searching for another job. I'd rather try to do something by myself, making a video game, I don't know. I need to think for a while, maybe find a part time and develop my skills so I am able to work by myself and eventually open my own business/company... who knows... but the economy over here is crap and it makes me want to get out of here. Unfortunately I can't do that for several reasons and I don't really want to leave the country, unless of course is to spend some nice holidays somewhere else for a short period of time :).

Anyway, this is the first episode, where everything started.

So let's start!

The first time I was able to play video games at home was by the time I was 5 or 6. My mother used to work as an office worker to a store/company that sold truck parts. My father used to shift work in a large gas factory. Every now and then we would pick my mother from her job by the time she came out. I used to love the ride.

One of those days, she came out of the store with a bag. That bag was something one of her mates brought to her. I was still young back then, but I knew about video games - don't ask me how. The thing that was in the bag was nothing less than a Sinclair Timex 2048, an official licensed "Spectrum" made in Portugal, also sold in the US. The spectrum had an internal memory problem it seemed, that's why it was given to my mother. It was still playable but most games wouldn't even start. It came with plenty of pirate games.Here in Portugal most stores would copy the games and sell pirate copies instead of the original version. It was such a common practice that nowadays it's actually hard to find original copies for sale.

My father managed to make the thing work. It was a little complicated and it required a tape player, something I fortunately had. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play that many games. I remember Indiana Jones would start running but froze right before the game start. What a shame... I know I managed to play Pac Man and a few other games, but the one that I played the most and remember well was a shooter. It took me years to find out which game it was. Actually, I only figured it a few months ago and it wasn't that hard to figure out to be hones. The game was Xenon. As soon as I saw gameplay videos and the cover, I immediately remembered that was the game. I already ordered a factory sealed copy off eBay, which now lies in my collection. It's the only Spectrum game I have besides Turtles.

I remember I made it to the first boss, a large round ship. I only managed to beat it once but died right after the start of the second level, where the difficulty was greatly increased.

For some particular reason, I stopped playing that Timex. Maybe because it wasn't working properly and couldn't run the games very well... It ended up stored in the attic until my mother decided to clean the attic and threw it away, several years ago... I told her it was okay to do that. How stupid was that!!!

And that was my first video gaming experience. The second experience only came about 4 years later. My mother was against children playing video games for many hours and she didn't want to buy me a console.

That epic moment when you find something that you've been looking for years!

Yup, after a very long time I finally managed to grab this rare Transport Tycoon + Mouse & Mat set for the Playstation 1. I can imagine why this is so hard to get: it was probably very expensive and not that many people wanted to buy the game. The condition isn't perfect, but it's better than T could expect and the seller was really friendly! I couldn't be happier :)

Take me to the better side of the dark side!

Here we go again... another country exclusive, this time unexpectedly from France. Yup, they received a better version of Darksiders 2 Premium Edition. The mask is hand-painted and made from a far better material. The difference in weight between that one and the regular European CE is astonishing. The package is also bigger and WAY better. The regular European package is quite fragile, very small, and has a window from which you can partially see the mask. The French CE has no window and the mask has a much better protection. The French CE is also individually numbered, which is a good thing. There are, however, too many of them: over 13000 I believe. It's not that limited. The only thing the regular European CE has compared to the French CE is the artbook: the French CE doesn't come with a hardcover book. Still, the French CE is definitely the best one, no doubt about that!

How many of these are there?

I've mentioned before about the Dreamcast controller packs released in Portugal. So far I have 4 in my collection and a couple of weeks ago I found another one. This time is the Sega Rally one. Now I'm missing at least another of these packs and who knows if there are more?

... Well, this game nearly beats the crap of any wallet if you are going to get every edition released. When I thought I was only missing a couple of the most important editions, I suddenly come across what it seemed to be yet another country exclusive, only available in Switzerland and Austria this time: the real Dead Island Game of the Year Collector's Edition (for the Xbox 360). I admit I wasn't expecting to find something like this. I assumed everything that existed was just those two headset bundles, but I guess I was wrong. As soon as I learned about its existence, I wanted to get it. It wasn't that easy to find though. At least not as easy as I expected! It comes with a very cool box with a sticker that indicates which platform the game belongs to, and a really big book. It's no big deal, but at the same time is costs only about 50 euros, which is an acceptable price. And I bet this one's going to be tough to find in the future!

Plastic loot

The long awaited sequel to a post apocalýptic action game called Bordewrlands finally came out and with it two very special editions were announced. As you can probably tell, I had to get the Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition.


Exactly how special is this loot edition?
The box is quite big. Its design is very nice. The outer box is actually just a sleeve holding two bulky boxes. Bad idea... The sleeve alone isn't good enough to keep the two boxes in its place. The two boxes were glued together with a small round sticker, which isn't enough to hold them on place because they are too heavy for the sticker. One of the boxes, the bigger one, actual is placed on top of the smaller one... It contains the empty loot chest, made of plastic, and comes with the bubble head inside. The thinner box at the bottom holds everything else: Artbook, guide, cloth map, steelbook, game with a really cool slipcase, authentication paper numbered individually etc. There's something funny about this edition though. Some of these were sold with several problems: the map wasn't made of cloth but paper instead. Others were missing some items. Finally, some editions had print errors on the outer cover. I heard some pictures or text were printed upside down. I'm not sure though because I never saw that personally. Mine doesn't have any of those problems though. The authentication paper for the European version is numbered individually but has an empty space and doesn't mention how many really exist (mine is over 4000 imagine that...) and I think this is the only common issue for every european edition. Overall, the edition is still quite nice. Not perfect, but far from bad. I don't know why this sold out so quickly if so many were made...

This is yet another game I had to wait until it received a major price drop to be able to buy: The Lord of the Rings War in the North. I'm not quite sure how this fits the actual TLotR series but yet again I haven't played the game. The statue looks cool. It's ugly, but Trolls are supposed to be ugly (assuming that really is a troll? Or is it another creature from the movies?).

Once upon a time there was this great action game!

Yup, Ninja Gaiden was once an amazing game. I played the first game on PS3 and oh boy that was tough! I realized that game was one of its kind. There are many action games out there, but very few match the quality of this one.

This is the sort of game that won't let you get through regular enemies or bosses unless you know exactly what you are doing. It is amazing. Every time I would reach a new boss, I would think: "No way! It's impossible to beat this thing!". But after you know exactly what to do, not only it becomes possible to beat it, but also becomes fairly easy after you get used to. I have not seen a game like this before. Usually, even when you are not doing very well against a particular boss, you can still manage to beat it after a while. But this game has very precise tactics and incredible action like I haven't seen before. But that is the first game. The second game... I haven't actually played it. But I have a funny story about it and I will tell it later! This one? I only hear bad stuff about it, honestly. I didn't have much money when the Collector's Edition came out, so I had to wait for a price drop and eventually got it for about half the original price. Unlike the crappy Mortal Kombat figures from the Kollector's Edition, this one has a prettier statue.

Yarrrr Yarrr I'm a Pirate!

And this is one of the best editions I've seen in recent times. Rise2 Pirate Tavern Edition originally known as the Keg Edition was only released in Poland. It's actually called Mroczne Wody Edycja Piracka Oberża.

Originally the this particular edition was only available for PC but later it was also released for PS3 and Xbox 360. It is amazing, to say the least and quite hard for me to get...

Some changes in my life... (part 2)

I will have a lot of spare time from now on, but I will be short on money. Unfortunately I will have to miss some deals and editions but I will still do the best I can not to miss the most important items I may come across.

Some of the new stuff I expect to do with the spare time I will have from now on on this blog will be the following:

1. Some people who come here only really care about pictures of the stuff I have. I know some people like to see the new stuff I got or that special edition I managed to find that's not easy to get etc. But not that many actually read through all the big texts I sometimes write. Soon I will add a new feature to this blog, something very commonly used in message boards, sites and blogs: the show/hide button. Basically, whenever I write too much about something in a port, I will hide the text and if you wish to read it all you have to do is click the button. This will also improve the presentation of the site, making the mfirst page shorter and hopefully more picture-based and less text-based.

2. I will create a secondary blog just to tell my stories as a videogame collector. Well, if this blog is nothing but to show off and not that many people visit it, then nobody will visit or bother to read my stories in the newer blog I will create. But that's okay because I will be creating that blog for my own enjoyment. I love my collection so much that sometimes I feel like sharing the stories behind it with other people. I am not sure which language I will chose to write that blog. It will be directly liked to this blog as well.

3. The banner will change. I've created that banner a few years ago using my low photoshop skills and the result was actually better than I was expecting at first. But right now I am no longer happy with it. There's just too much stuff going on in there. The blog title will remain the same though. This is and it will allways be My Own World.

4. Another update will be coming shortly. This one will include some of my latest purchases. Unfortunately this blog will not be what it used to be, with rare and unusual press kits. Everybody knows about press kits nowadays and everyone searches for them. I cannot compete with most people willing to pay hundreds for a single press kit. I am not willing to pay that much for many press kits because no matter how rare they are and how much people want them, they simply are not worth it. I had to lose 80% of the press kits I own at least once. The other 20% I found and bought the first time I saw them were pure luck. I do have some things that were quite expensive, but those things took months to pay...

5. Since I will be short on money, I am thinking of adding some publicity to the blog. This is something I don't agree with and I am still against it, but I will give it a thought and see if it's really worth it. I know I will not earn much if I do that, but it doesn't hurt to try. I will not add pop-ups or stuff that damages the visual style of the blog or anything remotely close to that, and it will be related with games.

I am taking a break from work right now. I hope to stay a couple of months or maybe the rest of the year at home, learning some things that will be useful in the future and spending some time doing things I wanted to do before but I couldn't. After a while I know I will need to get a job, but I really need a break. At my current age I am already feeling very tired and this is not normal at all. I've worked hard when I was in the university, and I am regretting that now. Then I got a job and things got slightly easier at times. At least I could sleep every night, unlike in university, but lately I've been feeling very tired and I don't have many expectations in life with the course I graduated in.

Some changes in my life... (part 1)

It's been over six years since I first created this blog. Back then my collection was quite small compared to what it is today. I created this blog because I needed a way to list my most important items, by simply taking pictures and writing about them. I did this just for my own enjoyment. I'm not the sort of guy to brag and share what I have with everyone, so I tried to keep a low profile and not reveal this blog everywhere. I eventually shared this blog in a couple of videogame web forums but up to this point it still remains a bit unknown.

I never expected to actually have the patience to update the blog for almost six years straight, with a few breaks but never giving up on it. And I still want to keep it this way. I still enjoy updating this blog but daily life sometimes steal away the spare time I have and patience runs low. That's the main reason I don't usually update my blog as regularly as when it was first created.

This blog was created when I was still a student. As a newbie collector, losing ebay auctions was something I was already used to. Being a student in a country like this is reason enough to prevent you from buying games. At that time ebay was not as popular as it is today but it was thanks to it that I managed to get some amazing items for rather cheap prices. Ebay completely changed my special editions collection and second hand stores were the place where I could find the regular games (from common to rare and expensive) for cheap prices.

I eventually graduated after a lot of hard work and I was lucky enough to find a nice job pretty quickly. My salary wasn't high, but it was nice and I kinda liked the work place, my work mates and the conditions I had in there - for the most part at least because not everything was perfect and there were bad moments as well. For the last 4 or 5 years I've been living this dream of collecting videogames and raised my collection to nearly 3000 games, editions, press kits and so many things...

However, the economy over here is a mess right now. Even people from the other side of the world know how bad the so called "economic crisis" is affecting my country and several others. Governors are becoming more and more inhumane by approving unsustainable tax raises and cutting benefits for the regular workers and small companies, claiming that these are sacrifices that have to be made in order to restore the economy... each time they promise there will be no more tax raises or that the measures will only be temporary, we already know they are lying because a couple of months later new measures are approved. Protesters everywhere, yet no sign of any kind of change. Unemployment is about to pass 17% and small stores and companies are closing their doors. Yesterday I saw a very old lady that could barely walk begging in a big avenue. Every time I go to work I see a nice and well dressed middle aged woman standing on a corner and without saying anything she just shyly stretches her hand, probably asking for some money. When I go to work in the morning she is there. When I come back from work she is usually there as well. This is sad, too sad. I am living in a third world country.

Many old companies and stores that have been active for decades and survived other crisis and tough situations along time are now finally closing their doors. Some of these companies had an important role on this country's development at some point in the past, just like the company I worked for...

And finally, this last Monday was the day when I lost my first and only job, after only 4.5 years. Life will be a little hard for me for the next few months. I now have to face all the bureaucracies of the terrible social security and employment agency we have in here - it gives me nightmares just to think about how bad those services actually work. I still hope to continue collecting videogames though.

Slipcases, slipcases. Slipcases everywhere!

Starting with this Call of Juarez the Cartel Slipcase. I know there are two, this one seems the harder to find. If you remove the bandoleer the slipcase unfolds behind revealing fome info about the game. It's quite original I must say. Then, there's this is a limited edition that caught my attention because it's also one of those that unfolds into a 3D diorama. It's also exclusive to France. I don't have much interest in the game itself but the slipcase actually caught my attention.

This one from Metro 2033 is just a regular slipcase used to distinguish the limited edition from the regular game, because the game box is just a normal one but this brings a DLC code and some postcards.

I've never seen this one before. World Championship Rugby promotional copy with a slipcase that promotes the game itself for the several platforms it was released for. Promo stuff only, no doubt about it.

I like to Move it Move it!

Move press kit, the 2nd. This one has plenty of games inside and an augmented reality feature. I prefer the original Move press kit a lot more. The best thing about this one is the number of games it includes.

The guy is more and more popular.

Not that many heroes have the same treatment as good old Batman is having. The latest movies are top stuff and the games are amazing as well. We've seen some amazing super hero movies in recent years (Avengers is top notch!), but most videogames are usually good/average or bad (Iron Man anyone?). Batman, on the other hand, is doing it right.

And now they decided to make a sequel for the Lego series with this Lego Batman 2 that includes other DC heroes. I guess Batman is more popular than the other characters nowadays? I'm not really sure, I have been watching the super hero movies but I don't really know much about the story or the comics or how popular they are.

I don't have the game itself (and I'm not quite sure if I'll ever get it in the future...) but found this press kit for a rather cheap price and picked it up. It's nothing special, but still worth displaying. As far as my opinion goes, I'm far more excited for that Lego ity game that was presented on E3 this year. I think that Lego games based in popular franchises is just a little... out of place. Forgive my opinion, but that's what I think.

Now this is rare!

No, it's not the edition that's rare, but the fact that I bought a PC game - that's really rare!

It's Diablo III, it's the CE, I guess I don't need to say anything else. I'm not a fan of this sort of games but all the hype around the game and the fact that the CE was selling like hot cakes made me search for one by the time it was supposed to be sold out. I found two and bought them both. No, I didn't resell the other one. I just passed if to a friend at cost. It's in good hands, somewhere in the UK now :)

And here it is yet another game I underestimated: Deus Ex Human Revolution. I usually don't let my opinion be influenced by the media or critics. I wasn't a fan of Deus Ex and I'm not really into shooters or certain 1st person games, and I hate when producers try to input RPG elements onto those. The game itself seemed quite similar to Mass effect at first - which is a great game but I don't like its gameplay style that much. Many Wertern players call these games modern RPGS but I can't consider these games as RPGs. Japanese RPGs to me are still the best, except they they are too cheesy or filled with their pop culture. The last gerat experience I've had with an RPG was Xenoblade. I don't think I'll play such a great RPG in a long time.

Anyway, back on the tracks... I knew this game was receiving good reviews but to be honest I don't think it was that appealing. A close friend told me I really should try it before making a judgement. For no particular reason at all, I suddenly had that necessity to actually try the game. I visited a local GAME store and found a used copy of this Augmented Edition for a rather affordable price. Why not' It's used, so I can't have the excuse to keep it sealed like I did with the Collector's Edition.

Basically, I do think the game has its flaws like most games do (even Xenoblade has plenty) but I really loved the game! I mean it. The gameplay is awesome. It really reminds me of Mass Effect, but I think this one 's much better in that field. The storyline is quite interesting - nothing very original but it's developing well. The scenarios are big enough and very well built. The game actually lets you play it your own style: you can choose the routes you want to take as there are several ways to accomplish the missions and you can even chose to either sneak throughout the scenarios or go on a rampage and kill everyone - and it does all this very very well. The sidequests and missions are actually useful, they are strongly related to the storyline and unlike many other games they are not excessive at all. I'm loving this game, now I just wish I had more time to play it :/

PS3 and Xbox 360 again, for both systems. Someone make me stop.

Ok, I'm not that hyped, considering I only played 1/5 or so of the first game before my Xbox 360 became ill with the usual Ring of Red (ill? more like died and resurrected), and after purchasing a Slim model I still didn't play it.

Anyway, I just couldn't miss the N7 edition of this game so I bought it. Well... actually, I bought two. The Xbox version and the PS3 version. I usually don't buy the same edition for the two different systems unless there's a good reason to do so. My preferences would be just the 360 version, because it all started there and because it's the only console with the limited editions of the previous games. But then, the PS3 had a different box. Yeah, I prefer the PS3 box. So I bought it. How lame is that? Silly excuse to be paying double just because the box is different in a time I really really need money to buy other things and had to be selling some doubles. There are obviously other reasons behind, but you don't really need to know those.

The first time I did that was probably with the FFXIII Collector's Edition but being such a huge FF fan I really wanted to get both. The same thing is true for the Crystal Edition. I originally missed the PS3 version because scumbag HMV decided to cancel my preorder one week before the release date, by the time it was nearly sold out everywhere else, so I bought the only version I found: the 360. I usually have some sort of preferences when I buy a particular game for a particular system of more than a system get the game. In FF's case, it's quite esay to find out why I would prefer the PS3 version...

Then the same thing happened with Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Preordered the PS3 version, then found out they weren't numbered and they would get an Australian release. Suddenly, a wild 360 version appears. Just to make sure I wasn't going to regret, I prerodered it. Yeah, you all know what happened to the PS3 version when the first 4000 were announced. BOOM, 200 to 500 pounds on ebay. Scumbag sellers...

I also have another copy of Dead Space 2 Collector's Edition waiting for me. I preferred the 360 version because it included the chinese-made plasma cutter replica... I mean, that thing is indeed crappy as it DOESN'T EVEN ROTATE. There are many things that upset me a lot, like poverty, wars, bad behaviour and stuff like that, but something as silly as the fact that this replica doesn't even rotate really tingles my nerves. Anyway I knew the PS3 version included the full edition of Dead Space Extraction and the differences between the two would justify owning both. Finally my dear good friends (not...) Johnny and Dark-Vash found a few copies lying on a stote still sealed for a little less than 12 euros and they decided to call me. I'm thrilled (almost... not quite actually). They told me it sounds gay when I thank them, but I must, so - thanks guys :P

...

And more recently... There ya go! Dead Island GOTY Limited Edition for both Xbox 360 and PS3. I actually intend to play this one online with a couple of mates :P

24/12/2012

21/12/2012

20/12/2012

25/11/2012

23/11/2012

18/11/2012

16/11/2012

15/10/2012

14/10/2012

06/10/2012

04/10/2012

Exactly how special is this loot edition?

30/09/2012

23/09/2012

15/07/2012