25/01/2009

Portuguese Purple Exclusives for Master System

I usually don't mind if the editions I buy are portuguese or from different countries. Sometimes it is best for me to find a foreign version of a rare game for a cheaper price as much as the language of the game remains in english. However, not always that is possible. Some games are one-country exclusives and I have to search for the in the original place they were released.

And that's the case of the portuguese purple versions of master system. These editions were released much later, when Mega Drive took the place of the older 8bit console in worldwide markets. Ecofilmes, the official distributor in Portugal, released the latest version of Master System (III Compact) which was officially released in Brazil by the hand of Tec Toy. Following Brazil's example of keeping a very successfull console still alive and for a cheaper price in the market, Ecofilmes decided to release their own edition of 16 Tec Toy games, some of wich are in fact unavailable elsewhere in the world besides Brazil, Portugal and Spain. So far I was able to get 13 of those 16 games as well as the console itself. The public attention was already concentrated on Mega Drive by the time these games came out and by that time not many people wouldn't be willing to buy an old console despite its cheap price. Basically, it is not easy to spot these games even in Portugal. Many of them have already left the country directly into foreign collectors' homes.


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14/01/2009

They started in a basement. With rats...


Guitar Hero World Tour is the latest release in the Guitar Hero series originally released as a PS2 Exclusive. The game was really good, but seriously I don't think that's a reason to justify the release of at least six different games in such a short period of time (and that is excluding the portable versions...). Anyway, last Xmas my only gift (well not my only, but the only big one besides chocolates) was the complete band kit for the 360. Yes, I was quite happy. These editions are expensive, I hear of an economical crisis going around all over the world, yet such expensive game disappeared from stores faster than the candies Santa was giving away at the mall. In fact I first noticed it was already released over here when I saw several people carrying the box around. Impressive...

The item in the pic something you probably don't have and even I don't know what's inside because it's still sealed. But yes it's another one of those press kits. I hope to find another one unsealed to find out what it really as, because if it depends on me I'll just let it sealed.
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Zombies and stuff...



Creepy game, the one above... I can't really talk about it as I don't own the previous two and have not played any. But I know it's about creepy things in a survival horror style. The box is also creepy but at least it looks better than the Resistance 2 tin. A small box containing hidden papers, pictures and postcards, as well as the game disc and the additional disc. Rare and unusual, another item worth collecting.


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Resistance, but not against rust

Resistance was one of the first games on PS3, and probably one of the best options to spend your cash when the console was released. If you still have not played Resistance and enjoy shooters, then you should. It's a very nice experience. Unless of course you start whining about the lack of realism, as tha's not what resistance is supposed to be. I kinda enjoyed the first game and I am not a fan of shooters (DEFFINITELY NOT!). The fisrt game gave me some hours of joy but this one is a little boring, don't ask me why. It looks amazing to be honest, but it's not providing me enough enjoyment and I'm almost finishing the game. Besides, I only have the pre-release version and I've noticed several problems.

Anyway, I don't really like this edition. An imitation of an old tin case with real rust, containing some old papers and the two discs in the middle. This reminds me of the 24 The Game Edition, which is something similar (except it's a box of cigars that even smells bad on purpose!). I don't quite understand the meaning of theses boxes. It's like they are covering that a particular game is inside, probably expecting to surprise those vip employees that get them for free by mail every now and then (no I'm not one of those, I have to suffer and sell my soul sometimes if I want to get these editions). It looks ugly, dirty, and... it's not something that looks very nice for displat purposes. I hate rust, my regular tin editions start getting rust after a couple of yeas and I have to buy them again in factory sealed condition. Now I bought a special varnish to prevent that from happening.

Okay too much talk now, enjoy the pic (contents were left inside the box except the only clue that shows it belongs to Resistance 2).



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Agressive in the Pacific

The following edition belongs to a very well-known racing game on PS3: Motorstorm Pacific Rift. I have not tested the game myself yet as I've been enjoying the fact that I managed to get this complete edition from a very very kind person from the UK.

It does not contain anything that special but it does look very nice. The outer case resembles a tire, and even has grains of sand glued to it - very nice! Comes with two discs (one being the game), several leaflets, one poster and one of those id tags with info about the game. Also has a rubber band with the game logo on it. No big deal as I said, despite being one of the most important exclusives on PS3 :)



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07/01/2009

Happy New Year 2009

It's never too late to wish you a Happy New Year 2009. It's been a while since the last update. But I have been busy and to be honest, a little lazy when it comes to write and take pictures of the new games I have. I still have some thigns I never showed until now.

Seriously, I expect to decrease the quantity of the games I buy this year. I have been spending too much cash every month, specially now that I have a job. But I need to think about my future, start saving some cash for the next years of the economic crisis, and also start paying taxes very soon. That sucks. A lot. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up on buying more games. I'll just reduce the purchases, search for better deals, sell some repeated and common games I get every now and then to make a profit allowing me to buy new ones.

I expect to update this blog next weekend. Promises, promises... anyway, this is for my personal enjoyment as not that many people visit this blog.
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12/11/2008

New Stuff coming soon...

Did you miss my little special editions and kits that you can't find aywhere?

I did... It's been a while since I found the last one :(

But now, a few new ones are coming my way and one of them is REALY important: Sackman will be happy with it :). Just wait until tey come to me. And hopefully will be able to win a few more :)
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Fact: I CAN'T KEEP UP!



Yes, I definitely CANNOT keep up with so many games being released at the same time. The end of this year has been crazy with new releases and top games coming out every week. My main problem now are the special editions. These are comming out like drops during a rainy day. I can't keep up with all of them, specially knowing that I'm still missing SO MANY for 360.

Anyway, above were my latest additions. No Gears of War and no Fallout 3 variants yet, I can't buy so much stuff at once! I've chosen Fable 2, Saint's Row 2, Farcry 2 and I had to get Gears of War 1 before I buy the newly released edition... With it I also got a special edition for Rainbow 6 Vegas 2.

I don't buy just special editions. I also have to keep an eye on games that are released for certain consoles and sell very fast, making them hard to find not only later but even now! And I am talking to you, you damn Playsation. First, 4 PAL anthologies from SNK with amazing games. Then, a special edition Wild Arms 5 with art book (Yes, it does exist in PAL lands, as if the regular game was not hard to get already...). I also got a collector's edition of Naruto Ninja Storm for PS3, PAL verison too (I did not even know it existed...). For some particular reason, that game seems very hard to find anywhere. I only found a couple of shops that have a few copies... I could not miss my chance on that one either. Pictures some time later.
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Wii like special covers



Yeah I like those card sleeves and slipcases with a nice artistic illustration. I always try to collect them, even if they are nothing more than just exclusive gimmicks from certain uk stores to get more sales, maybe? I only know the ones I have above: Super Smash Bros. Brawl + post cards, Okami and Wall-E. Yes, I love Wall-E :P.
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Funny Money



What do the two items above have in common? They both contain a special coin with two of the most important videogame characters in history. Took me a while to get both, but I finally made up my mind and picked the first chance to get them.


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Master System Tec Toy: Portugal VS Brazil

Tec Toy, a brasilian distributor for most Sega consoles and games in the past, still produces several consoles and games from the old Mega Drive and Master System times. Some console and game variants are exclusive releases, unavailable in any other part of the world.

Back to the past... Tec Toy was responsible for the release of several (well, dozens, maybe even hundreds) top games in brazilian portuguese. But they went even further... in order to catch the attention of brazilian kids, tec toy released several exclusive games related to brazilian tv shows and comics and converted many important games from other systems (such as Game Gear) into Master System games. Some versions of several games, such as Street Fighter II', Baku Baku, Sonic Blast and Virtua Fighter only exist in Brasil. Besides the regular blue covers that are different from all the master system covers we're used to see around the world, there are also a lot of card boxes, originally released before they were replaced with the plastic ones.



Following the brazilian example, Ecofilmes from Portugal picked up some of those tec toy games and released their own versions. Only a very small amount of tec toy games were ever released in Portugal. These editions have two important tings: exclusive art cover, with the purple shading at the bottom of the box, and they also include the tec toy serial number. These are hard to get a hold of - even in Portugal, due to the low number of games available and sold. The ones pictured bellow are all the complete games I could ever find. There are at least 8 more tec toy games, including a very important one: Sonic Spinball. This Sonic Spinball version also exists in Australia, with a silver cart and box, and was released in Portugal - as I have one copy myself. But the original Ecofilmes release of that game... I am yet to find one.


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Quero é Sambar!


With its Wii sequel released not too long ago, I decided it was the time for me to pick up one of the most original dreamcast games: Samba de Amigo. The original version for Dreamcast was overlooked and now became a little hard to get. When I saw the Wii version on the shelves, I got that feeling that I should get myself the previous version of this game. And so here it is!
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It's been a while.

Yes I am alive. I just have no time for almost anything else but work, train, and sleep.

Anyway today I ate dinner too late as I came back home after 10 pm. I can't really go to sleep right now. I don't feel like playing either. Let's throw some new pics.

This one's nothing special. The Point Blank 2 box set for PS1 can be a little hard to find but every now and then it's possible to pick one for a nice price. Point Blank is one of the funniest shooters on PS1. Ignored by many, considered a classic by others, the truth is that it does deserve some attention. This is the only Point Blank I own. Not even the DS version is part of my collection yet.

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28/09/2008

After a moment of silence

No time and little patience to update this blog. I will try to get it moving again, but I no longer have as much spare time as I used to.

Here's a picture of two editions I got last August. Two collector's editions for Xbox360, both sealed: Assassin's Creed and Bioshock. I don't have any other special games right now but still managed to get these two. I am more focused in getting new furniture to organize my collection and in getting regular games, specially for older consoles. It's getting harder to find rare and unusual editions lately because of the increasing number of collectors and speculators who are selling less common titles for absurd prices, both in ebay, other aution websites, forums and even real 2nd hand stores. Disgusting people looking for easy money and increasing prices... I've never seen so many "buy it now" auctions on ebay as before. I guess Ebay is no longer what it used to be... *shrugs*


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14/06/2008

Even great heroes get old...



Solid Snake is a well known character from the videogaming history. Ever since the NES version of the genius creator Hideo Kojima was released, the fame of this series increased drastically, specially after the release of Metal Gear Solid for Playstation 1. I was amazed when I bought the game and thought it was the best game I had played in a long time. Solid Snake is back, this time older than before. This will be the final game according to Mr. Kojima (well, the first Final Fantasy game was supposed to be the only one anyway so we will see what happens in the future). This is the European Limited Edition. Looking at Ebay prices and not being able to find any available for sale a few hours after the game was available over here, I knew I was in trouble to get it.


However, Luck was on my side. Because of the major strike among European truck drivers due to the increasing price in fuels and oil, the release date of this game over here was delayed for one day. I was unable to get the special edition in the release day. However, since the release day was also a holiday in Lisbon, I knew that my only chance to get this edition for the right price was to go to the most important store in Lisbon the next day (Saturday) and get it as soon as it opened. Luckily, there was a single edition left, in perfect condition, when I got there. It is now mine ^_^!
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Burnout Revenge


This prticular promo kit does not include anything related to the game. It either is incomplete or it really is just this: a crash kit with a camera (nice!), a paper ruler, a pen and even one of those insurance papers with the Burnout logo. It is very original I must say. Another one of those editions that I enjoy collectiong. I had no idea this even existed.

Note. Since I am not a fan of violence, accidents and people suffering, all occupants were uninjured in the picture selected for the background, despite the nasty look of the cars.
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Pink



I knew they would like to release a Pink PSP, but to actually use the popstar as a reference to sell the console itself was something unexpected. This small (but large) promo folder is a 3d paper model (great looking by the way) with the promo disc and the UMD music video that comes with the PSP Pink Edition. A pretty nice addition to the collection, and great looking. I really thought it was not worth buying when I first found out and let it go, but now that I have my own I do consider this a pretty nice purchase!
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SNES Starting now...



As you probably noticed already, my collection is very poor when it comes to NES and SNES. Well, I already have a few NES games anyway. But for SNES I only had the Super Mario World Cartridge that came with the console itself. Finally, I decided it is now time to start my snes collection seriously. Here is the first purchase: something pretty nice and not expensive at all! Terranigma, big box with the guides and comic.
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07/06/2008

And to celebrate 1000...

Here's a little thingy I got. It is rare, belongs to the weirdest game available for ps1, and it makes a nice addition to my collection. It is nothing that special, but here goes... the Vib Ribbon Press Kit =)



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IT'S 1000!!!

That's right, after such a long time all my efforts in getting the most interesting items in my collection have come as far as reaching the massive number of 1000 games, one number I thought it would be unreachable for me. I wanted my 1000th game to be something really special, but I don't know what to consider special right now...
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