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

Ended up not having to go on eBay to get a SNES, because a friend of mine was willing to sell me his old one, along with Earthworm Jim, Super Mario World, and Mario All Stars for $30. Went over to his place this morning, played a bit of each game to verify that the console worked, and took it home.

Hooked everything up back home, put in Mario World... and I start getting the same exact problem as my old SNES. I turn it on, and a buzzing sound comes out of the TV while three white horizontal lines show up on a black screen. Happens with all three games, but when I turn the SNES on without any cartridge inside of it, I just get a normal black screen, no buzzing or anything. Are the contacts really, really dirty, or did I just buy another busted SNES? I'm not so sure about the latter, since I made sure it was working when I bought it.

Edit: Fuck it, caved and bought one off of ebay for $40 shipped. Hopefully this one works.
 

Parallacs

Member
Ended up not having to go on eBay to get a SNES, because a friend of mine was willing to sell me his old one, along with Earthworm Jim, Super Mario World, and Mario All Stars for $30. Went over to his place this morning, played a bit of each game to verify that the console worked, and took it home.

Hooked everything up back home, put in Mario World... and I start getting the same exact problem as my old SNES. I turn it on, and a buzzing sound comes out of the TV while three white horizontal lines show up on a black screen. Happens with all three games, but when I turn the SNES on without any cartridge inside of it, I just get a normal black screen, no buzzing or anything. Are the contacts really, really dirty, or did I just buy another busted SNES? I'm not so sure about the latter, since I made sure it was working when I bought it.

Edit: Fuck it, caved and bought one off of ebay for $40 shipped. Hopefully this one works.


I bought a PS2 slim a while back and got some generic cables for it. It buzzed so badly on the TV. It sounded like a car. I threw the generic cables in the trash once I found official sony cables. Are you using generic s-video or composite cables? Is the power adapter the same as your old one?

Great starter set on eBay right now!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-Rare...744?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2327f65658
 

-KRS-

Member
Some boxes came damaged in the mail when I got them but it's ok. Most are in great shape.
Ah I hate when that happens. Game Boy boxes are notoriously easy to damage in the mail. But the worst one for me was the Australian PAL Ocarina of Time Collector's Edition for N64 which I paid like $80 or so for, only to find it shoved down my mail box when I got home, since it didn't fit. So the postal worker had just shoved the game in there. Nice... thanks a lot dude!

Perhaps when we get those sport games, we should destroy them. Maybe then, they might become worth something later on over time if not so many exists. Ok that was prob a dumb idea. lol
Didn't some dude build like a toilet or a urinal out of SNES carts? That's probably a better use for them rather that destroying them. :D

But seriously, those carts could come in handy in the future as replacements for other game carts. Like if the backside of a cart breaks or something you could just take one from a sports game. Of course, then it wouldn't be "original" anymore. Another use would be for repros, or flashcarts.

Speaking of flashcarts, I'm so getting that SD2SNES one the next time I get disposable money! I'm really hyped about it. Someone in this thread mentioned it, and I had never heard about it before. But I've been looking for a flashcart that can play games with special chips in them for a long time since the SNES Powerpak can only play SA-1 chip games (and it seems that they don't update the firmware for the Powerpaks anymore?). It's expensive as hell though... I fucking hope the build quality of the PCB is as good as the NES Powerpak or the N64 64drive. Looks way better than any Everdrive judging from pics though so it's probably good.

i wonder why gameboy games havent retained value.
I've been wondering this as well. I guess it's just that most Game Boy games are so simplistic by today's standards (even compared to most SNES games) that people just don't care about them anymore. Which is good for me because I've recently started collecting more GB games. :) And also, a lot of Game Boy games are just ports of games from the NES, especially the early titles. Like, why should I get Duck Tales on the GB when I have the NES cart? It's just the NES game but with fewer levels, worse graphics and inferior controls. And that's the way it is for a lot of GB games unfortunately. At least the Mega Man games are somewhat unique.

But yeah on the GB it's mostly the Mario Land/Wario Land games, the Pokémon games and the Zelda games that have retained their value over the years (actually they're also cheaper, but more expensive than other GB games), as well as the really rare ones like Trip World which of course has only gone up in value. As usual, anything with Mario in the title will also fetch a bit higher price but still usually under $8/cart. The Game Boy Color is even worse because that console is plagued with tons and tons of shovelware. The whole damn library consists of like 90% shovelware. It's pretty crazy.

I'm really itching to get a Trip World cart before the price gets totally out of hand. It's a pretty great game.



And speaking of threads for other systems, I'd be totally up for an NES thread since that's what I mostly collect. And the NES is still popular, right? I think it's definitely popular enough to warrant a separate thread for it. This thread has nudged me to start collecting more SNES games though so maybe my interest in NES stuff will dwindle a bit. :p
 
Are you using generic s-video or composite cables? Is the power adapter the same as your old one?

Not entirely sure whether or not the ones that came with it was official (at least in regards to the AV cables, the power supply was definitely official), but I tested it it with the official cable and power supply that I had from my other SNES to no avail, too.
 

eXistor

Member
Not entirely sure whether or not the ones that came with it was official (at least in regards to the AV cables, the power supply was definitely official), but I tested it it with the official cable and power supply that I had from my other SNES to no avail, too.

Is the SNES AV cable the only one connected to your TV? I have a strange problem with my cheap-ass CRT TV where it gives nothing but scrolling lines if there's more than one connection in use.
 

Seik

Banned
Just bought this:

jRmIFPZHZ60Bp.jpg


$120.

Will clean it up and take a better photo once it has arrived. But there's something even better getting here on Tuesday!

10$ less that what I paid and it looks in good shape, great deal man! :)
 

-KRS-

Member
Yeah $120 for EB is great these days. I saw one the other day ending at $192, and here's one right now for a bit over $150 at the moment. And that's in worse condition than the one you got. So I'd be damn happy to get it for $120. :)

Edit: Here was the one for $192. The label isn't even perfect IMO.
 
I'd rather not keep copying their hard work of putting that list together, so people will have to follow the link after this.

But, here's all of Illinois:

  • Disc Replay (Decatur, Downers Grove, Countryside, Orland Park, Skokie, Elgin)
  • Exile on Main Street (Champaign)
  • People Play Games (Chicago)
  • Play N Trade (Cicero, Chicago, Crystal Lake, Geneva)
  • The Exchange (Belmont Red Line & Wicker Park, Chicago)
  • Tyton Games (Villa Park)
  • Video Games Ect (Moline)
  • Video Games: Then and Now (Norridge)

Link again.
video games then and now is a great store. I need to head back there soon.
 
Word? I work in chambana but I live over in blo-no.

Stay away from my retro spots!!! ;P


BTW, if you're around champaign, there's a new(er) retro game store downtown by the train station called Live Action Games.

Funny, I just got back from there. Their prices were fucking terrible for the most part. They wanted $40 for Super Mario Kart, over $60 (can't remember what exactly) for the first Lufia, $20 for a Super Gameboy.

They had a stack of nice games they had recently gotten in that wasn't out on shelves yet. Had Chrono Trigger, FF3, Mario RPG, Breath of Fire, and more. I didn't even bother looking at the prices after seeing how much they had everything else marked at. $40 for Mario Kart is a fucking joke.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Funny, I just got back from there. Their prices were fucking terrible for the most part. They wanted $40 for Super Mario Kart, over $60 (can't remember what exactly) for the first Lufia, $20 for a Super Gameboy.

They had a stack of nice games they had recently gotten in that wasn't out on shelves yet. Had Chrono Trigger, FF3, Mario RPG, Breath of Fire, and more. I didn't even bother looking at the prices after seeing how much they had everything else marked at. $40 for Mario Kart is a fucking joke.

Maybe I'm biased after going to school in blo-no, but any retro store in central IL is guaranteed to be a fucking joke.
 

shaneskim

Member
Ended up not having to go on eBay to get a SNES, because a friend of mine was willing to sell me his old one, along with Earthworm Jim, Super Mario World, and Mario All Stars for $30. Went over to his place this morning, played a bit of each game to verify that the console worked, and took it home.

Hooked everything up back home, put in Mario World... and I start getting the same exact problem as my old SNES. I turn it on, and a buzzing sound comes out of the TV while three white horizontal lines show up on a black screen. Happens with all three games, but when I turn the SNES on without any cartridge inside of it, I just get a normal black screen, no buzzing or anything. Are the contacts really, really dirty, or did I just buy another busted SNES? I'm not so sure about the latter, since I made sure it was working when I bought it.

Edit: Fuck it, caved and bought one off of ebay for $40 shipped. Hopefully this one works.

Have you tried a different tv?
 

inner-G

Banned
I got my awesome copy of Secret of Mana from there a few weeks ago for only $25 which is a great price. They had a very tiny selection though. There was literally nothing else there I even wanted.
I got a CIB copy of Minish Cap there for under 20 not too long ago that I like. At one of the burbs locations like a year ago I found both Oracle games CIB for like 15 each, I snapped them shits up quick, lol!
 
just found my old copies of MK1 and Street Fighter 2 at my parents house. Surprisingly both in decent condition and in the box. Also found some Gameboy games (DK 94, Link's Awakening DX and Donkey Kong Land) CIB.
 

DjangoReinhardt

Thinks he should have been the one to kill Batman's parents.
I think the SNES has the perfect balance of:
1) A whole bunch of games
2) Fairly reasonable prices
3) Games which are amazingly fun to play

I mean, I own more games for my NES, and NES and Atari games are certainly much cheaper to get, but, I enjoy getting SNES games more just because of how fun they are. Even the random games one comes across, there's a much better chance of finding a game which is unexpectedly fun.

I think a big part of the high regard for the SNES - and the 16-bit generation, in general - is that 2D game design more or less reached a basic level of quality at that time. There are tons of games in the 8-bit era for which it is clear that the designers were still learning what does and doesn't work. By the 16-bit generation, though, those years of trial-and-error had eliminated a lot of the worst ideas from the gene pool. That generation of games tends to feel modern in a way that previous generations do not.
 

HylianTom

Banned
I'm loving this thread - thanks for all of the info.

Just purchased the last piece of my Zelda gaming collection - a graded, sealed copy of A Link to the Past. Once it arrives, I will then have a sealed copy of every console Zelda game ever made. This thread was a kick in the pants for me to make it happen.
(when it arrives, I'll arrange them all together and take a pic or two)
 
I think a big part of the high regard for the SNES - and the 16-bit generation, in general - is that 2D game design more or less reached a basic level of quality at that time. There are tons of games in the 8-bit era for which it is clear that the designers were still learning what does and doesn't work. By the 16-bit generation, though, those years of trial-and-error had eliminated a lot of the worst ideas from the gene pool. That generation of games tends to feel modern in a way that previous generations do not.

I think many SNES games have a certain timeless quality to them because of the reasons you outlined. The best SNES games are about 20 years old now and still feel like they haven't aged a day.

More than any other era of gaming, the whole 16-bit era felt like devs really knew their craft and there was this level of ultra polish that you never saw before(and debatably, since).
 
Yes you are correct. There is no where around here anywhere (that I know of) besides a Replay's in Hueytown. I got DKC2 there the other day but they rarely have anything SNES related besides crap. There used to be a Game Xchange on Lakeshore Dr that I racked up at all the time back in '07 but they ended up closing and tearing that whole storefront down :(
Depending on how far you want to drive, there's also Zone1 in Chelsea and Helena (always overpriced, but they have deals on commons sometimes) and Top Games in Gardendale (I've never gone there, since I don't head north of Birmingham very often, but I've been wanting to check it out).
 

Dave_6

Member
Depending on how far you want to drive, there's also Zone1 in Chelsea and Helena (always overpriced, but they have deals on commons sometimes) and Top Games in Gardendale (I've never gone there, since I don't head north of Birmingham very often, but I've been wanting to check it out).

I head up to Fultondale a lot when I go to lunch during the week (I work downtown). Where exactly is Top Games? I may try to check it out tomorrow.

Never heard of Zone1 but I will have to check it out at some point too. Thanks!
 

Lagiacrusty

Neo Member
You guys weren't kidding about Goodwill putting all their stuff online...what a drag...=/

Yeah, I hit up 2 local goodwills today and both of them had absolutely no games (xbox sports and singing games don't count), so it seems more than likely that everything goes on Ebay now. such a shame, but there is a local catholic thrift store that I've been to before that is virtually untouched by re-sellers and is fairly priced. i'll try my luck there now that goodwill is dead.
 

scoot3r

Member
Went into a neat little retro shop today I visit every so often. They had some good looking carts but I really didn't want to pay what he wanted so....
 

GulAtiCa

Member
And bought! People need to stop listing auctions here... I keep buying them. :p

I absolutely love this game. So much about it is awesome. I'll complete it one day. I actually already the game cart as it is, so I'll likely resell the cart and get some money back.
 

Pappasman

Member
Im loving this thread. Unfortunately my Yoshi's Island Super Famicom cart started freezing up and now it can't even get past the title screen. I've replaced the cart now, but looking through eBay for SNES stuff has reignited my motivation to fill out my collection.

My collection isn't the biggest but it's pretty high quality IMO.

I've got:
  • Super Mario World
  • Super Castlevania 4
  • Final Fantasy 3
  • A Link to the Past
  • Earthbound (got it for about $100 2 years ago)
  • Super Metroid (JP)
  • Yoshi's Island (JP)

Anybody have any suggestions as to what I should look out for next?
 

Parallacs

Member
And bought! People need to stop listing auctions here... I keep buying them. :p

I absolutely love this game. So much about it is awesome. I'll complete it one day. I actually already the game cart as it is, so I'll likely resell the cart and get some money back.

Glad someone in here got it. That was a killer deal.
 

Parallacs

Member
Im loving this thread. Unfortunately my Yoshi's Island Super Famicom cart started freezing up and now it can't even get past the title screen. I've replaced the cart now, but looking through eBay for SNES stuff has reignited my motivation to fill out my collection.

My collection isn't the biggest but it's pretty high quality IMO.

I've got:
  • Super Mario World
  • Super Castlevania 4
  • Final Fantasy 3
  • A Link to the Past
  • Earthbound (got it for about $100 2 years ago)
  • Super Metroid (JP)
  • Yoshi's Island (JP)

Anybody have any suggestions as to what I should look out for next?

Start working on the Megaman series, the Super Star Wars series, and the Donkey Kong Country series. All excellent.

If you are playing with friends, get Mario Kart, NBA Jam, Turtles in Time and Street Fighter II.

To round out the triumvirate of RPG gods, you need to get Chrono Trigger.
 

Teknoman

Member
Ah I hate when that happens. Game Boy boxes are notoriously easy to damage in the mail. But the worst one for me was the Australian PAL Ocarina of Time Collector's Edition for N64 which I paid like $80 or so for, only to find it shoved down my mail box when I got home, since it didn't fit. So the postal worker had just shoved the game in there. Nice... thanks a lot dude!


Didn't some dude build like a toilet or a urinal out of SNES carts? That's probably a better use for them rather that destroying them. :D

But seriously, those carts could come in handy in the future as replacements for other game carts. Like if the backside of a cart breaks or something you could just take one from a sports game. Of course, then it wouldn't be "original" anymore. Another use would be for repros, or flashcarts.

Speaking of flashcarts, I'm so getting that SD2SNES one the next time I get disposable money! I'm really hyped about it. Someone in this thread mentioned it, and I had never heard about it before. But I've been looking for a flashcart that can play games with special chips in them for a long time since the SNES Powerpak can only play SA-1 chip games (and it seems that they don't update the firmware for the Powerpaks anymore?). It's expensive as hell though... I fucking hope the build quality of the PCB is as good as the NES Powerpak or the N64 64drive. Looks way better than any Everdrive judging from pics though so it's probably good.


I've been wondering this as well. I guess it's just that most Game Boy games are so simplistic by today's standards (even compared to most SNES games) that people just don't care about them anymore. Which is good for me because I've recently started collecting more GB games. :) And also, a lot of Game Boy games are just ports of games from the NES, especially the early titles. Like, why should I get Duck Tales on the GB when I have the NES cart? It's just the NES game but with fewer levels, worse graphics and inferior controls. And that's the way it is for a lot of GB games unfortunately. At least the Mega Man games are somewhat unique.

But yeah on the GB it's mostly the Mario Land/Wario Land games, the Pokémon games and the Zelda games that have retained their value over the years (actually they're also cheaper, but more expensive than other GB games), as well as the really rare ones like Trip World which of course has only gone up in value. As usual, anything with Mario in the title will also fetch a bit higher price but still usually under $8/cart. The Game Boy Color is even worse because that console is plagued with tons and tons of shovelware. The whole damn library consists of like 90% shovelware. It's pretty crazy.

I'm really itching to get a Trip World cart before the price gets totally out of hand. It's a pretty great game.



And speaking of threads for other systems, I'd be totally up for an NES thread since that's what I mostly collect. And the NES is still popular, right? I think it's definitely popular enough to warrant a separate thread for it. This thread has nudged me to start collecting more SNES games though so maybe my interest in NES stuff will dwindle a bit. :p

Yeah the NES will always be popular.
 

Michan

Member
how reliable are the adapters? will all games run 100% as intended? also, is there a particular one that is better than the others? lastly, does the super famicom have the same yellow problems with the plastic as the super nintendo?

I can't speak from experience about the adapters, but since I just bought Earthbound and only have an SFC in this apartment, I'll definitely be buying one over the next couple of weeks. I'll post my impressions in this thread.

The SFC and PAL SNES both have the yellowing issue since they're made from the same type of plastic (and possibly even the same mould), but it's definitely less pronounce in Japan.

If you're still deciding between a PAL SNES or SFC, here is some direction/advice:

• SFC definitely works with US games, either by widening the cart slot or using an adapter;
• SFC is compatible with US plugs, PAL SNES requires transformer;
• SFC has same native resolution/framerate as US SNES, PAL SNES has different resolution;
• SFC is cheaper, due to collecting not really taking off in Japan;
• Importing a PAL SNES may be cheaper due to distance;
• PAL SNES controller cables are same length as US SNES cables, SFC cables are much shorter;
• Option of playing JPN-exclusive games "natively" on a SFC.

If you're in N.A. and choosing between a PAL SNES or SFC, there really is no question. Go for an SFC!

Off of ebay?! How and the hell did you get it that cheap?

I'm in Japan, so the demand for it isn't as high here. Picked it up from a seller offloading some imported goods :)

Very very nice!

You've set the bar pretty high for the "even better" part though.

I'm expecting Star Fox Super Weekend or something at least.

If only. Yeah, I think I set the bar too high. It's definitely less obvious than something like Weekend or another true collectors item. But it's here now, so I'll take some pics and report back!
 
Only 5 minutes left, but a nice little collection of games if it doesn't go much higher. Mario RPG, Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country 3, Mario All Stars, Mario World, and a bunch of other crap you don't care about probably.

5 Minutes Only.


EDIT: Holy fuck. In the last 10 seconds it shot from $81 to $151. Snipers everywhere.
 

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
Just bought this:

jRmIFPZHZ60Bp.jpg


$120.

Will clean it up and take a better photo once it has arrived. But there's something even better getting here on Tuesday!

Nice. I'm still trying to find a copy of this for under $200.

I did find Secret of Mana, cart only in great shape, for $50 the other day and grabbed it. There's another one scratched off my wish list.
 

-KRS-

Member
I think a big part of the high regard for the SNES - and the 16-bit generation, in general - is that 2D game design more or less reached a basic level of quality at that time. There are tons of games in the 8-bit era for which it is clear that the designers were still learning what does and doesn't work. By the 16-bit generation, though, those years of trial-and-error had eliminated a lot of the worst ideas from the gene pool. That generation of games tends to feel modern in a way that previous generations do not.

I agree with this, although one good thing that also disappeared after the trial and error phase of the 8-bit generation was a lot of the odd but cool, quirky games that were really unlike most other games. Many of them are now considered kusoge, but a lot of them are really interesting. Otocky for the Famicom Disk System is one that comes to mind.

It would have been cool to see more such oddball games on the SNES as well. There were still some games like that of course, but developers had as you say learned what worked and what didn't so most games were based on generally accepted gameplay ideas. That is good for the average quality of the games, yes, but it also meant that most experimental games went away. And I like the quirky experimental games too. They're cool to have in your collection. :)

Edit: Saw in the description that apparently the creator of Otocky is the same guy who made Electroplankton, and that reminded me that the DS actually felt a bit like the NES in this way with a lot of oddball experimental things because touchscreen/dual screen gaming was still something new and exciting for a lot of people. The Wii as well to some extent, although I feel that the Wii never really lived up to its potential when it comes to that.
 

terrisus

Member
Btw is the super scope actually fun to use?

I think the Super Scope 6 game cartridge is rather under-rated, due to people not being able to emulate it and the process that is needed to go through to actually use the Super Scope (it is kind of a pain to use), since, the game itself is really fun. Mole Patrol is awesome, and then there are a couple of fun puzzle-like games, and then a couple of flight-type games, so there's some good variety in there.

There aren't, of course, all that many other games for the Super Scope, although Yoshi's Safari is interesting, and Battleclash is fun as well. I know there are others out there also. But even just for the Super Scope 6 game alone I'd say it's worth it.
 

Linkhero1

Member
Went to the flea market and spent a few hours walking around. My God, there's nothing there anymore. I mean there were a handful of SNES games but mostly sports. I did manage to get RE2 on N64 for a couple of bucks.

My day didn't go to waste though! I picked up a handful of SNES games for dirt cheap off a guy. $20 for Super Castlevania IV! I'll post pics of my pickups tonight or tomorrow.
 
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