I've got them all, finally :D

The gargoyles trilogy, finally completed! After finally obtaining Demon's Crest a few months ago, Gargoyle's Quest II was the last game in the trilogy that I was still missing. Not anymore. It's not in a wonderful condition, but the price was also less than usual. Can't really complain. Yay!

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Meet George Jetson!

Seriously, kids can be some of the worst consumers ever. Back in those days, much before you had several TV channels displaying cartoons the entire day, you probably did the same as I did: you had to wake up very early during weekends to catch the morning cartoons. And then, out of all those shows, there were always some that you'd like the most. And you obviously wanted to get the games, toys, cloths and all sorts of related crap... and of course, videogames. Pretty much like the current hardcore Assassin's Creed collectors on eBay, who would probably pay hundreds if Ubisoft released a limited run of used toilet paper with the AC logo printed on it. No offense to AC collectors out there though.

2D cartoon-based videogames back in those days were great. Well, at least most of them, specially if they were based on Disney movies. There were many cartoon games that weren't as great and a few that even sucked but it didn't really matter that much if they were based in my favourite shows, so I had to get them. Sometimes it would be best to buy some other game instead and deep in my head I knew that  but I was so focused on getting that particular game from that particular show that I wouldn't even care. When I finally got home to play it, my first reaction was: "This game is ok. It's kind of cool". This is actually how a fanboy describes a crappy game based in one of his favourite shows. Several years later, you finally have enough maturity to admit you had some fun playing it but it sucked.

But then you have Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22. That game was so bad that even the most hardcore DBZ fanboy would trow up while playing it. It's probably the most horrible game I've ever played. I do remember a PS1 demo I played that was in the same putrefaction level as UB22, and it was a cartoonish boat racing game. I am glad I don't even know its name.Yuck!

All that crap to say that I've only bought this game because it was based in one of the cartoons I enjoyed back in the days: The Jetsons, for the NES. I don't even know how good or bad the game is because I haven't played it yet but I wanted to get it anyway. And this is not your cheap-ass NES game either.  20 years later I still behave like a kid. Damn! Adulthood is overrated anyway.

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Gotta find the balls

France has always been the number one door for Japanese animation and games in Europe. Nowadays that's no longer true because Japan's influence over the entire world is creating a new generation of kawaii baka-chan teens (which are basically the only words most western people who select Japan as their location on Facebook know).

It's hard to imagine a game based on an anime series named Dragon Ball being released in France before the 90s (and 4 years later in Spain). And they even had that show on TV. That is very impressive. Of course, the game was also catastrophically released in the US at about the same time. I don't know what those guys in the US had in their heads, but they had to screw anything good that was brought from Japan. That tradition still seems to remain nowadays (Evolution... yuck!). The US version of this game is called Dragon Power and suffered a major editing. I wonder what they named Goku... Sam? John? Ritchie? And I don't even want to imagine the rest of the names. Edit: meanwhile, I already learned that they kept Goku's name...

This is how they did back then: you replace the cute Japanese covers with some horrific artwork that shows general stuff like a karate kid wearing a bandanna. Then you replace the main character that actually looks fun and cartoonish with an atrocious freak that has absolutely nothing to do with the character on the cover. You take away the boobs and the pixelate-suggested sex content. Finally, you remove some interesting parts of the game to make it more Americanized. I find it hard to believe that they replaced the rice cakes in Alex Kidd with... burguers... Also, it's okay to hit on Chun Li, Sonia and basically all other female characters in fighting games. However, it was completely unacceptable to hit Poison in Final Fight because it's a women. "Yeah, let's also hide some of the additional pixels that show too much of her body and accept the poorest excuse ever invented by the makers of the game (the one about her being transsexual)..." Well done!

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Oh... My... GOD!

As you can probably guess, several months without posting anything here means I still have several items to show, but it's enough for today, so I will end it with something really special that I never ever imagined I would be able to get...

I originally entered this competition because I had some ideas about what to do. My drawing skills are kinda rusty and my digital artwork skills are very poor, but after some time and effort I've decided that I should enter the competition. I never really expected to win anything, but I actually did win. This has to be the first press kit I've ever gotten without having to pay anythign for it. 

The prize is possibly my newest number one item because it's both awesome and extremely hard to get. I must say that, however, I was slightly disappointed though... This was supposed to come individually numbered, but the version I received has no number :(. On top of that, I was expecting to win a PAL version but ended up getting an american version instead. In the long term the american version might be worth a lot more, but since I am mostly a PAL collector I'd love to get my hands in a PAL version of this - something that is close to impossible. 

Anyway, I can't complain much - I have a new "rarest" item in my collection, and  - I must say - a very special one: The Ducktales Remastered Press Kit with the working NES golden cartridge. This competition was open for residents in US and Europe. I can hardly ever win national competitions for much less important things, let alone something so special with such a global scale. The thing is, I did win and I still find hard to believe... 

In order to win this, there were several options: either sing the Ducktales opening theme, draw a classic Capcom game cover with the Ducktales crew or "duckify" a Capcom character so it could fit Disney's and Ducktales' universe. I've decided not to complicate things and make a duck version of the most notable character in Street Fighter series: Ryu. The final result definitely isn't a pro level masterpiece, but for someone inexperienced with computer drawings I even surprised myself. It took me some time to create it, and every second and minute I've spent working on it was totally worth it!  

I'm now the proud owner of one of these beauties, out of 150 produced in total. When they announced the initial set of winners one day before the end of the competition and I saw Capcom's e-mail saying I was one of the winners, I nearly fainted. I was stressing so much after losing my first and greatest chance of winning one of these copies that I never imagined I would eventually win one in the bigger competition.

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Castlevania and Megaman

Some people who know me a little better already know that my main goal at this moment is to try and collect all the retro versions of Megaman and Castlevania while keeping up with the latest limited and collector's editions. Due to the stupidly demand on press kits and the fact that I'm quite low on cash at this moment and I don't know what will happen in the future with my job, I am leaving the press kits behind for a while. I already missed many but I can't buy everything anyway and the massive amount of exclusive and limited editions being released at the same time make it impossible for me to keep up with everything so I have to make decisions...

I usually don't show just single games unless they're that special, but this is my blog and I post whatever I want to.

Getting all megaman games will be a pain. I have a complete NES PAL Set and X2 for the SNES. I still need to buy a lot of games for the GBA unfortunately. But at the very least I found an important game in a pretty good condition: Megaman IV for the original Gameboy. All games from Laguna seem to be a PAIN to get, and this one and V are by far the rarest for the Gameboy. Same goes with X3 for the SNES which will be my worst nightmare...

As far as Castlevania goes, I got a mint copy of Castlevania III that seems to be the hardest to find for the NES. And for the Gameboy I'm now missing only Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge because another nightmare was over when I found a copy of Castlevania Legends for a fairly decent price. As for Belmont's Revenge, it's not easy to find a complete copy but due to lack of money I failed to win a recent auction for a fair price. However, it's only a matter of time until another one pops up. I'm glad to have found a copy of Legends because that was the game causing me the bigger head ache.

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Some weird acessory from the 80s

I heard it's pretty uncommon... Not the sort of thing you can find lying around, especially in brand new condition. But for some weird reason quite a few of these popped up in recent times and I bought one for me. The NES Laser Scope with that kid on the cover... this looks really weird. I'm sure I'd freak out if I was given this when I was a kid. This is as ugly as it works (if that even makes any sense).

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Say hi to the THREE new members of the family!

I am still missing some of the main consoles. but in the last few months I was able to get some of those I was missing.

First of all, the Mega CD II. I really don't like Mega CD to be honest, but it still has some pretty good games. Not many, but those few are really worth the system alone. Snatcher should probably be the number 1 title for that console in my opinion.

Seccondly, the Mega Drive I. I already had a few models of Mega Drive II but I was never able to find the first console in good condition and for a good price. I finally found it, and I am very glad that I bought it!

And finally, probably the rarest and most important of them all... Something I did not even know it existed until last year and I never expected to find it so soon: a PAL version of the NES Top Loader. I am so glad that I was able to get such a console in my collection. I did not expect to find one so soon, really!

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