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SNES Game Collecting (Tips, discussion, and info for like minded collectors)

S

Scalpel Knight

Member
This is a great thread. After watching a lot of Classic Game Room and GameCenter CX recently I had the itch to buy some older consoles. I grew up owning a NES, Game Boy and Game Gear and sort of missed out on the 16-bit systems. I used to play Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country 3 and a number of other games by a friend and wasn't exposed to a lot of the other classics until emulation arrived. I ended up scoring a nice lot on eBay with some of the best games on the system. Since then I've bought a few more games for it as well (all on eBay). I'll post pictures of the collection later. The SNES is probably my favourite console.

Some of the stuff has been a bit pricey, but totally worth it for me now that I have a decent income. I still live at home however so space is becoming an issue. When I move out I'll have a dedicated room for all this stuff. Sadly I have no CIB games but I find that having boxes, although nice sometimes, seems cumbersome.

How do you guys store/show off your collection? Shelves, boxes? Any recommendations?
 
G

GulAtiCa

Member
Posted this in the pickup thread, but this came today for me.

i3QiNV.jpeg
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T

thebeeks

Banned
Chacranajxy said:
Oh, Holy Christ, BioMetal. It needs to be seen to be believed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFcYzXLQYpk

The game basically shits out a digitized version of everyone's favorite jam from the 1997 smash hit, Air Bud.


The game itself is aight... nothing great. Obviously, get the US version for the sweet music if you're interested in it. The Japanese version's soundtrack is not this passionate.
Click to expand...

Thank you for selling me a copy of BioMetal. I'm a sucker for shitty eurodance.
 
G

GulAtiCa

Member
I want to try to find a decent Super Famicom off eBay for $50 or less at some point. Though it doesn't seem like it will be easy. Most auctions/etc I see are from the same person and for console only. Then there are the $200 auctions.

That's one thing I dislike about eBay, when others list their auctions very high only because they see others doing the same. Even if those high prices mean they never get sold. Sega Saturn games are plagued by this issue as well.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
Teknoman said:
Hopefully awesome ebay of the day becomes a trend here for those who might be missing something.
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Yeah, I thought about that instead posting shitty things, actually posting some interesting things. So here's a couple.

Two systems and some games. Nothing special game wise outside of Link to the Past and Mario World. But, if it doesn't get bid up very high, you could probably sell the second unit and the games you don't want and make a good chunk of the money back if you feel like putting in the effort:

pSDdC0e.jpg
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At $85 shipped at time of posting. Ends in three hours.
 
D

DidntKnowJack

Member
The problem when you buy a 'lot' of games like that is you end up with a bunch of shitty sports titles and if you do manage to get a decent title, it's usually in pretty poor shape. Most of the games in that lot are virtually worthless. I personally wouldn't touch that deal, but I guess it depends what you are looking for. Maybe it's ok for a novice who wants an instant collection, but personally, I avoid those like the plague.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
DidntKnowJack said:
The problem when you buy a 'lot' of games like that is you end up with a bunch of shitty sports titles and if you do manage to get a decent title, it's usually in pretty poor shape. Most of the games in that lot are virtually worthless. I personally wouldn't touch that deal, but I guess it depends what you are looking for. Maybe it's ok for a novice who wants an instant collection, but personally, I avoid those like the plague.
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Yeah, I can't decide if it'd worth it or not. I'd keep Zelda, Mario, and the Super Gameboy and sell the rest with the second system. Surely you'd get a good $60 before shipping and ebay fees, if those came out to like $20, you would have gotten a system, mario, zelda, and super gameboy for $45 if you get it for the minimum bid. There were a few Mario and SNES combos that finished recently for $55, so it wouldn't be a bad deal if things panned out well.

Here's a SNES and one controller getting ready for end in 40 minutes, and it's already at $43 shipped. So I think it'd be worth it money wise, up to the person to decide if it's with the time and hassle.
 
T

ThatsMytrunks

Member
This is probably universally common knowledge, but in case you don't know already:

To play Japanese Super Famicom games on an American SNES, all you have to do is break off two small pieces of plastic in the system's cartidge slot. Once the cartridge makes full contact with the pins, it has no region protection.

This is a detailed explanation, but I just grabbed a pair of needle-nose plyers and bent the tabs back and forth until it snapped.
 
K

Kainazzo

Member
I'd like to take another stab at reproductions. I own three: Radical Dreamers and Final Fantasy V from Gamereproductions, and Terranigma from god-knows-where.

Terranigma is odd in that it's at least 10 years old, which makes it a very early repro. As I've said before, I was swindled into buying it because I was told it was a USA proto, and I believed them because it certainly looked legitimate. It even had a NA retail-perfect box and color manual, all shrink-wrapped (and 60fps too). The one problem was that the title was spelled incorrectly on the end label (Teranigma). In the several years I went afterwards without Internet, I always thought the game had a proper US release. I didn't really know what a 'proto' was supposed to be!

The point I'm getting at is that my repro carts from GR, while nice, but are of a significantly lesser quality. The labels are too bright and don't use the same material as a real cart. The label art is smaller too. Other sites like Timewalk paint the cartridges, use yellowed cases, or just put a tacky sticker on the back label. They know they can charge top-dollar to sell to an enthusiast crowd, so why don't they up the class a bit? Why don't they make them more like my Terranigma?

-Sturdy cardboard boxes that will resist sun fade. These aren't the kind of buyers who will just toss the box.
-Manuals without content or syntax errors and have uniform binding.
-Labels that use the same material as real ones, and are formatted correctly. Look at this. In 1996 several SNES games didn't feature the ESRB logo, and even then it would've been the classic 'hollow' one.
-If you're going to color the cartridge, dye the plastic before it's molded. The paint smell still hasn't left my SD2SNES.
-Above all, make it look authentic and something an enthusiast would want. They may've been wanting that game for years, give them something special. If you're going to include company labels, do so in the manual.

Having errors or concessions like that just makes it look like you're trying to pander. This is not a rant towards repro sites, I'm very glad there's a market for this. Doubly so that people have invested the resources to get this market off the ground. I'm only disappointed that it isn't yet at its full potential. I'd like to think that, someday, there'll be a way to manufacture carbon-copy reproductions of any and all physical games we never got (grey as the market may still be), if only so our grandkids have something to shut us up in our retirement homes :p

Edit: Indeed, I hope talking about repros like this is okay. Should this post end up locking the thread, I'll apologize to the OP and never peep about them again.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Btw are repros frowned up on GAF, because I wouldnt want this thread to be locked just because we're talking about them. Then again in the Genesis collection OT, there was a small conversation about Alien Soldier/ Pulseman repros, and nothing happened there.


That being said, the only translated repros i'd probably pay for SNES wise would be: Treasures of the Rudra, Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3), Live a Live, Bahamut Lagoon, Terranigma, and Final Fantasy V.
 
goldenpp72

goldenpp72

Member
I was curious about reproductions as well but personally, hope that they never get off the ground for stuff that legally released here in the country. It makes hunting difficult unless they distinguish it as a knock off somehow. I thought about buying.. 3 reproductions but haven't yet due to being gun shy on the price, so I am curious about gaf policy there too.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
Yeah, curious about that as well. I've posted pictures of mine and discussed it in a few threads and haven't ever had a mod tell me to stop, but I've also been a little shy about saying where I got them.

My rationale behind it being okay is that most of them (I believe) are actually the Japanese Famicom carts which have had a chip swapped out for one with english on it, and put back into a US cart. So, it's really no different from buying a Japanese cart off ebay. Even ebay allows them to be sold. Whether a mod would agree with that, I don't know.

goldenpp72 said:
I was curious about reproductions as well but personally, hope that they never get off the ground for stuff that legally released here in the country.
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Yeah, those aren't repros, those are fakes and anyone who makes and sells them on ebay should have the piss beat out of them. There are tons of fake Earthbounds and Haganes out there.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Oh and another you guys should try is Arcana (Card Master in Japan). If you like first person dungeon crawlers, turn based combat, and Kirby esque music (its made by HAL). Speaking of which, thats another repro i'd go after, Alcahest (action RPG).

Both are pretty fun and have great soundtracks. I havent played much of Alcahest aside from a little of messing around with a translation. but from what i've played and the opinion of other GAF, its most likely a winner.

Arcana aka Card Master music

Arcana aka Card Master gameplay sample

Alcahest music

Alcahest gameplay sample
 
S

Seik

Banned
goldenpp72 said:
I was curious about reproductions as well but personally, hope that they never get off the ground for stuff that legally released here in the country. It makes hunting difficult unless they distinguish it as a knock off somehow. I thought about buying.. 3 reproductions but haven't yet due to being gun shy on the price, so I am curious about gaf policy there too.
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I bought a Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3 with Eng. traduction) repro from someone and not regrets so far.

Repros are worth it only for games that never got released here and are unplayable because of the language barrier otherwise imo.

Selling repros of games like Earthbound and existing games is fucking scammy though...
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Seik said:
I bought a Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3 with Eng. traduction) repro from someone and not regrets so far.

Repros are worth it only for games that never got released here and are unplayable because of the language barrier otherwise imo.

Selling repros of games like Earthbound and existing games is fucking scammy though...
Click to expand...

Seconded. The good thing about Ebay is that you can force a return if justified. Get a repro English Earthbound cart without knowing it and it starts going nuts? BP power activate.
 
M

Michan

Member
I'm considering paying $16 (inc. shipping) Buy It Now for Yoshi's Island. I loved the game on GBA, but have never played it on SNES. Any thoughts?
 
O

Olly88

Member
Michan said:
I'm considering paying $16 (inc. shipping) Buy It Now for Yoshi's Island. I loved the game on GBA, but have never played it on SNES. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Don't know if that's a good price for it in the US (though it sounds it), but it's better than the GBA version IMO, and it's a classic for any collection :)
 
K

Kainazzo

Member
Dangit, guys, you're making me pop on eBay at ungodly hours of the morning to look for more SFC games. I love this thread :p

I always wrote off Magical Pop'n because I thought it was a rhythm game (like Pop'n Music Fantasia). I had no clue it was a quirky little action-platformer. On top of that, this thread's got me searching for Front Mission 2, Eternal Filena, Dark Law, Wonder Project J (J2 was a nice way to relax), and Doremi Fantasy. I'm interested in the more 'open world' games, especially since I've generally associated JRPGs as being fairly linear (at least until the map opens up). Wonder if Dark Law is more Romancing Saga or Emerald Dragon?

With you both on the repros too. They can be nice for games that never made it over, but there's no good reason to peddle lookalike fakes of domestic releases. It's hard enough sorting through MVS bootlegs. Best solution would be if you could somehow 'stream' translations/mods to a real cartridge through a passthrough device, though to my knowledge that isn't yet possible. One that works anyway, since that Super UFO apparently does not. You're right though, I got a bit overzealous and glossed over a very big issue. If one were to make incredibly accurate repros, then they could just as easily pass them off as the real deal. Heck, I'm one of the suckers that was fooled! I was only thinking of Japanese games and hadn't considered that. We always start with such good intentions!

Edit: Oh boy, Earthbound. I got my copy several years ago for ~$50, but the label is a bit faded. It never occurred to me that it might be a fake (I've never encountered fake NA carts), I know what I'm doing as soon I drive home tomorrow >_>
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Michan said:
I'm considering paying $16 (inc. shipping) Buy It Now for Yoshi's Island. I loved the game on GBA, but have never played it on SNES. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Olly88 said:
Don't know if that's a good price for it in the US (though it sounds it), but it's better than the GBA version IMO, and it's a classic for any collection :)
Click to expand...

Thats a pretty good price. The SNES version is much better than the GBA (sound quality, and I think some of the visual effects are better).
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
I used to work at a small game retail chain called Rhino Games while I was in college. We carried retro games all the way back to NES, and the best part about working there was snatching up rare and valuable SNES/PS1 games after they were traded in.

I remember adding pristine copies of Super Metroid, Sunset Riders, and some others to my collection during my 1.5-year tenure at the store. Eventually they got bought out by GameStop (surprise, surprise), and GameStop wanted to throw away all of the classic gaming stock in the dumpster. Fucking despicable.
 
smbu2000

smbu2000

Member
I just bought this from Yahoo Auctions JP. Now I can finally plays SNES games on my Super Famicom! The price wasn't too bad and the guy threw in 4 other random SFC games as well.

SNES games don't physically fit into a SFC, so you need to mod it or get a pass through device like the Honey Bee. Used Super Famicoms are plentiful here in Japan, but used SNES systems are much more expensive.

I think this is the first SNES game that I've purchased since the 90's, haha. Although, I've gotten plenty of SFC games.

P1010550_a_zps1488389d.jpg
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I have a CIB copy of Yossy Island! The box is beat up, but I couldn't have paid more than 200 yen for it so I can't really complain. ;-p
 
Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
McBradders said:
You should all consider buying the far superior Yossy Island.
Click to expand...

What's the difference, other than Yossy being a sweeet name? Only thing I can think of is there's like... one level in the game where they spelled "YOSHI" with coins in the US version, and in the JP version, it's in Japanese or some crazy shit like that.
 
C

CoachKevin

Member
Holy shit, Chrono Trigger has doubled in price in the last year. I bought a copy for $45 in mint shape off ebay last january. Now it is going for $100.
 
M

McBradders

NeoGAF: my new HOME
CoachKevin said:
Holy shit, Chrono Trigger has doubled in price in the last year. I bought a copy for $45 in mint shape off ebay last january. Now it is going for $100.
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English?

The Japanese version always surprises me that its so reasonably priced. Then I remember it's in Japanese :3
 
C

CoachKevin

Member
With the prices getting fucking ridiculous in the US, I am going to load up on SFC games when I get back to Tokyo in 3 weeks.

Even most of the Japanese rpgs like Secret of Mana and FFV have translations you can play it with.
 
O

Omegasquash

Member
CoachKevin said:
With the prices getting fucking ridiculous in the US, I am going to load up on SFC games when I get back to Tokyo in 3 weeks.

Even most of the Japanese rpgs like Secret of Mana and FFV have translations you can play it with.
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And the action shooters don't even have a need for translations. My wife and I are planning a trip to Japan in a few years, and I already told her that I'm setting aside a mountain of cash to burn on games.
 
P

pseudomyxoma

Member
CoachKevin said:
Yep, was just out there about 2 months ago and heading back for another week. Thankfully JAL does direct flights from BOS now.
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haha I was just waiting for a possible influx of people begging you to pick up some imports. Always wanted to go to Japan myself but it always seemed like it would be too expensive. If you don't mind me asking how much do you think you'll spend on flight and hotel?

Linkhero1 said:
I'm hitting the flea market this week hoping to stumble upon some treasures. *crosses fingers for demon's crest or wild guns*
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good luck, I just picked up Demon's Crest for $55 on ebay last week, felt like that was a pretty good deal
 
L

Linkhero1

Member
I'm hitting the flea market this week hoping to stumble upon some treasures. *crosses fingers for demon's crest or wild guns*
 
T

televator

Member
ScOULaris said:
I remember adding pristine copies of Super Metroid, Sunset Riders, and some others to my collection during my 1.5-year tenure at the store. Eventually they got bought out by GameStop (surprise, surprise), and GameStop wanted to throw away all of the classic gaming stock in the dumpster. Fucking despicable.
Click to expand...

That's it... Gamestop is for people who hate video games. I already avoid them as much as I can, but now they don't exist to me.
 
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