We all know about the gnome who steals socks out of our laundry. But have you heard about his pixel-hungry buddy who steals battery covers off of Game Boys? How about his neighbor who snatches expansion covers off of old N64 systems?
Time to fight back!
We’ll be carrying several colors of replacement expansion covers for the Nintendo 64. Yup, we’ll be keeping the retro gaming world dust free by carrying the original Gray, Jungle Green, Pikachu Blue, and Atomic Purple versions of these little missing lids. If these do well, we’ll be happy to get more colors produced in time.
Ok, so here’s the funny part. Nintendo made an Atomic Purple N64 set, right? What color was it? Wait….think about it…hmmm.
Hmmm…so it really wasn’t a purple system. But it did come with a sweet Atomic Purple controller that kicked off the numerous “funtastic” variants that Nintendo released in controllers and systems.
Atomic Purple expansion covers, really? Yup. Why? Because yellow would have been silly. Seriously though, we figure these will give people a great opportunity to continue the custom mix-and-match process of customizing their N64. We all did it with controllers as a kid. Why not the system? Would the system in the box below look better with an Atomic Purple expansion lid? Would that same lid also look sweet on a colored system? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you understand. If not, gray is definitely available too. Modders, here’s one more color to toy around with.
People were asking how closely the colors match the originals, so we figured we’d give you a better look.
For decades, the Cheetahmen have been locked in a bitter and futile struggle against Dr. Morbis. In Cheetahmen II, every two levels a different Cheetahmen becomes available. Theoretically, a player starts with Apollo (crossbow) for the first two levels, gets to play as Aries (fists) for the third and fourth levels, and uses Hercules (dual clubs) for the fifth and sixth levels. Unfortunately, the Cheetahmen’s feline courage and ninja skills have not been enough to pass the mutant Ape Man boss at the end of the fourth level. A software bug has thwarted years of insanely skilled and strangely dedicated players from ever getting to level five. Ironically, it turns out that beating Cheetahmen II is even more rare than this holy grail of NES cartridges.
Broken Ape Man boss fight in Cheetahmen II
Will we finally be able to help the Cheetahmen defeat Dr Morbis?
Last week, I had the opportunity to chat on the phone with Greg Pabich find to find out about his newest project. Since I was polite enough not to record the conversation, here’s a paraphrased version of our discussion:
Mark: Hey Greg, how’s it going?
Greg: Mark, I’ve been pretty busy! I’m excited about our next Cheetahmen project!
Mark: Ha ha! Oh dear!?! What’ve you been up to?
Greg: Well, you know how that pallet of Cheetahmen II cartridges never made it to market?
Mark: Yeah, collectors love them, but what a frustrating game.
Greg: When Active Enterprises was about to go under, I’m guessing Vince Perri abandoned them either because money wasn’t coming in on the Action 52 like he figured or because he realized it was an incomplete game.
Mark: Yeah, you can only even play the first four levels, right?
Greg: Exactly! So here’s what I’m up to. I think the world needs to have that game up and working. Love it or hate it, it just needs to get finished and put on a cartridge.
Mark: Now that would be interesting.
Greg: The original Cheetahmen II game carts are selling for thousands of dollars now. Most collectors can’t even begin to afford them. I want to put together a playable cartridge that will have all the levels working. Apparently, it was originally designed with more levels, but it was just too buggy to let anyone play them. Once we have a working game with all its original levels working, I’d love to put them into NES collectors’ hands.
Mark: What’s the game plan going to be for doing that?
Greg: I put a small fortune into producing and distributing the Cheetahmen Creation cartridge last year. Between development, production, marketing, and selling a repaired version of Cheetahmen 2, I know it’s going to cost some serious cash. I’m thinking Kickstarter will be a great tool to launch this project.
Mark: That’s probably wise. Plus, from one married man to another, I have a feeling your wife might like the Kickstarter plan a bit better than trying to fund it all yourself. So, I know people love, hate, and pretty much love to hate Action 52 and Cheetahmen 2. What’s going to get people to back this project?
Greg: Kickstarter has a great model of letting people support a project and get something unique as a thank you for their support. We have some pretty reasonable donation levels, and based on how much people donate, we’ll have things available ranging from exclusive posters to actual cartridges of the game once we get it produced. I’ve got Mario Gonzalez, one of the original designers of Action 52/Cheetahmen involved, and he’s created some fantastic new artwork for the posters and will be signing certain items! Plus, most items will be numbered and hologram stickered as limited editions available only to contributors.
Mark: Actually, that a pretty good plan. I’m a pretty big NES collector, and this might be a much more reasonable way for me to get a copy of Cheetahmen II into my collection even if it isn’t the original. I’m guessing you could get some good buzz in collecting circles around this.
Greg: Actually, we’re going to go bigger than that. By sheer coincidence, the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) just did a video on Cheetahmen II!
After seeing it, I contacted him to see if he’d be interested in getting involved in this. The AVGN signed on, which is going to be a ton of fun and nuts as usual! I got Pat the NES Punk involved as well. We were sponsors in his last NES Marathon, which turned out to be a huge success. Plus, the Game Chasers guys from Retroware TV are involved and basically putting it all together.
Mark: Wow, seriously, that’s an amazing lineup! Are you making any video appearances yourself?
Greg: Yeah! It turns out that acting isn’t so easy though. I’ve finished working on my parts. The Game Chasers are putting it all together. It’s 100% top notch production and coming along nicely! I think people are going to be blown away by the AVGN, Pat, the Game Chasers, and some possible appearances of the Cheetahmen themselves…
Mark: Greg, sounds like you’re going 100% in as usual. When are you launching this?
Greg: The Kickstarter campaign should go live 8/7/2012.
Mark: And, any idea when you’re hoping to have new copies of the fixed Cheetahmen II game available?
Greg: In good Active Enterprises spirit, sticking to Vince Perri’s 3 month development window would put us in November or December. Either way, I’m guessing we should probably get this done before the world ends in 12/12/12.
Mark: Ha ha, nice! Even once it’s fixed, I’m hoping that Cheetahmen II won’t be the last NES game I ever play. But seriously, I’ve got to hand it to you. It sounds like this is going to be a ton of fun and a huge success. Best of luck with it!
Greg: Absolutely! Thanks for helping to spread the word on Cheetahmen II: The Lost Levels.
Need a Mario Phone? How about a Vectrex kiosk or a Virtual Boy sign?
You’ve got to love eBay and the fantastic and unique gaming items listed this week. Here’s a collection of my favorites:
GAMES
FACTORY SEALED nes Chubby Cherub CIB new +box nintendo
neo geo aes metal slug 5 usa excellent ultra rare!!
COLLECTIBLES
Pikmin 2 Nintendo Gamecube Countertop Display RARE
E.T. Atari Game Video Store Display Mobile 1982 Sealed
RARE Age of Empires III Game Promo Ship Store Display
Mario Nintendo Custom Bomb Omb Art Sculpture Galaxy The beauty of paper mâché…
Nintendo Game Boy Color Store Display Kiosk
Rare XBOX 360 Large Neon Sign
RARE Nintendo Neon Sign
AMAZING VECTREX DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE !!!
AMAZING SEGA GAME DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE I have a semi-respectable Vectrex collection and would love to have the space and cash for this gem.
AMAZING SEGA DISPLAY STAND PROTOTYPE – VERY RARE !!!
RARE NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY STORE DISPLAY SIGN INBOX
Rare Nintendo Gamecube 35mm film trailer Metroid/Mario
Nintendo Game Cube Stand Up Store Display Game System
Sega Saturn Nights into Dreams Poster Promo Rare 120 120-Games.com is selling this and other items for the 100% benefit of the American Breast Cancer Foundation.
Mario Kart Telephone This may not be the rarest item, but it makes up for it in sheer awesomeness. Apparently in Mario’s car phone was just as absurdly large…just like in the early days of cell phones in real-people land…
eBay has some treasures in store for retro gamers and collectors. I’m personally excited to see how much the complete copy of Shantae for Game Boy will go for at auction rather than being listed with an absurd BIN price. Also of interest is the M8 below that’s getting a bit of bidding action. Enjoy!
Spotted on eBay
NINTENDO 64 COLLECTORS DISPLAY SET (good condition) Pretty nifty looking kiosk. I wonder how long the controllers lasted on these.
Vintage NES Nintendo Super Mario Bros. 2 Note Pad
Custom Marvel Legends GREAT TIGER from Punch-Out NES I’m not sure what inspired “Joe of War” to create this particular character. Heck, I’d love a King Hippo. However, you have to respect the retro gaming love.
Seller’s Description: Hello and welcome toy enthusiasts! You are bidding on a Custom Marvel Legends GREAT TIGER from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out the video game! He was built from a Kraven Marvel Legends 6 inch figure. His gloves are partially sculpted. I also sculpted his turban, jewel in turban, mustache, and goatee. All of it was sculpted with Aves Apoxie sculpt. The chest tattoo is a tribal tiger head done in black. Check out the tiger paw print on the butt of his pants haha! Figure is still posable and comes with stand for display. He was repainted with Testors and Citadel acrylic paints. The last picture shows my work in progress for the figure. Feel free to send me any questions, but NO I do NOT ship outside of the U.S. Check out my custom figure blog here: http://joeofwarcustomactionfigures.blogspot.com/
11X17 PEACH Nintendo Original Sketch Pinup -DaiKon Art
Cosplay Final Fantasy VIII 8 Sword Gunblade Squall
Nintendo PowerFest Poster and Ticket (The BIN of $400.00 USD or Best Offer isn’t totally unreasonably when you consider that the custom framing & matting job itself probably cost the seller $100.00.)
NINTENDO 28 SUPER-SIZED DOMINOES 22 MARIO LUIGI TIN
Shantae (Game Boy Color, 2002) RARE, NM w/ BOX Pretty rare to see complete.
Heavy Rain for PS3 – Rare Press Kit
Nintendo M8 Store Demo Display NES RARE m82 snes
Turbografx 1991 CES booth display **ONE OF A KIND**
Vintage 1980′s 4 foot NINTENDO store display sign RARE
Atari 2600 Demonstration Boards & Documents
Nintendo Mario LCD Watch MINT Rare Vintage Original
Nintendo Mario Yoshi LCD Watch MINT Rare Vintage
Playstation 2 PS2 Test Debugging Station | DTL-H30001 (BIN of $179.99 or Best Offer and the seller has 10+ of them currently.)
Have you spotted a rare video game or collectible that hasn’t been featured here yet? Feel free to submit it to sales@GamesOgre.net
Here are some fantastic retro gaming and collecting auctions that I’m watching on eBay. There’s some real museum-quality history popping up here, which is one of the reasons I love collecting and am nuts about eBay. Enjoy!
Games & Accessories
Blockbuster SNES Donkey Kong Country Competition Cart
Nintendo NES NTF2 Test Cartridge Version 1.1
Nintendo NES Joystick Test Cartridge
Nintendo NES Power Pad Test Cartridge
Nintendo NES Port Test Cartridge
Atari 2600 Atlantis II 2 CIB and Contest T-Shirt This insanely rare listing of Atlantis II has been graced by it’s owner (eBay seller scrabbler15) with a couple videos. The videos do a fantastic job of giving the game’s history…and I must say, they also put a smile on my face due to their sheer geek factor. (Ended May 15, 2010 at $6982.82)
Nintendo Game Watch Donkey Kong signed Shigeru Miyamoto
Collectibles, Promo Items, & Misc
Vintage 1990 Nintendo Mario Fabric Panel NEW!
Rare Atari Console Prototype Nolan Bushnell 7800 eBay seller knowwhatimeanvern gives a fantastic history of this “signature searies” Atari 7800 shell:
I acquired this wonderful item several years ago and am now offering Atari collectors the rare opportunity to add this prototype to their collection! You will likely never see this item up for auction again. Please note, this is a pre-production prototype – there are no electronic parts inside. This project was cancelled before the boards were manufactured.
Mr. Vendel provided me with a firsthand look at the history of this amazing Atari 7800 Remake project that was ultimately cancelled. From its ashes rose the successful Atari Flashback plug and play console line.
“Yes, I designed the case along with Tom Palecki of Pear Design whom I brought in to finalize things and run off 8 cases – 10 were actually made as I had two special pearl white ones designed specifically for myself and another for Mark Diluciano with whom I commissioned to create an exact replica of the Gerber files of the original Atari 7800 1984 PC board so that it would fit into the casing.
The project was commissioned by O’Shea Ltd as they had approx. 1 million Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges and wanted to bundle them in with a new console, so they wanted to product approx. 250,000 consoles.
O’Shea approached Nolan Bushnell about doing a “signature series” – I have Nolan’s signature on file from him signing my Atari Pong arcade, we created a digital scan and added his signature to the case label.
The project fell through after that as O’Shea tried to source a factory to front all of the money to product the consoles, none would do it and in 2004 Atari directly asked me to produce a console for them, but had to have something ready within a 10 week window, so using an off the shelf NOAC chip the Atari Flashback 1 console was created.
Of the 8 cases, 6 were delivered to the client as per the contract along with the wooden low production test run molds (aluminum of high grade steel would’ve been needed for doing a full 250,000 pc run, the wooden molds were good for about 20-25 test runs only.) 2 grays stayed with me, which I later sold, but kept the pearl white unit along with the source molds built to create the wooden molds (2 units) of the 8 gray units, half were done with the Atari logo, the other half were done with ProSystem logo on them.”
I asked Mr. Vendel if a production Atari 7800 board could be installed into this prototype shell:
“Almost — the LED light-window on the new shell is much different from the original Atari 7800, so the motherboard needs one minor change – the LED and its stalk need to be removed and the led soldered back on and about 1/2 of the height of what it was originally at.”
More information on this prototype can be found at the following links:
RARE FINAL FANTASY ORB ONLY 50 MADE eBay seller felixollie does a great job explaining the origins of this prize:
This contest was run for the original Final Fantasy RPG designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi of Square for the Nintendo NES.
This awesome collectable is a must-have for the serious collector and Final Fantasy enthusiast. Only 50 Final Fantasy crystal orbs were made and distributed worldwide. It is made of solid lead crystal. The crystal orb is etched with the legend ‘Final Fantasy’; a shield with a crossed axe and sword are etched above. This can be viewed when looking through the crystal orb. The orb has been signed by the artist, Kusak.
Included with the Final Fantasy crystal orb are: 1990 Sept/Oct Nintendo Power Magazine issue 16 which features contest and Final Fantasy crystal orb prize, original box and packaging, and certificates which came with Final Fantasy crystal orb. All are in excellent condition. The orb itself is in perfect condition; no visible scratches, nicks, cracks or signs of wear. Any imperfections in the photos are natural characteristics of this solid crystal piece. This rare orb weighs approximately 1 lb 8.8 oz, and is a bit larger than a baseball.
Be among the 50 lucky people in the world who own such a desirable collectable!
I acquired this wonderful item several years ago and am now offering Atari collectors the rare opportunity to add this prototype to their collection! You will likely never see this item up for auction again. Please note, this is a pre-production prototype – there are no electronic parts inside. This project was cancelled before the boards were manufactured.
Mr. Vendel provided me with a firsthand look at the history of this amazing Atari 7800 Remake project that was ultimately cancelled. From its ashes rose the successful Atari Flashback plug and play console line.
“Yes, I designed the case along with Tom Palecki of Pear Design whom I brought in to finalize things and run off 8 cases – 10 were actually made as I had two special pearl white ones designed specifically for myself and another for Mark Diluciano with whom I commissioned to create an exact replica of the Gerber files of the original Atari 7800 1984 PC board so that it would fit into the casing.
The project was commissioned by O’Shea Ltd as they had approx. 1 million Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges and wanted to bundle them in with a new console, so they wanted to product approx. 250,000 consoles.
O’Shea approached Nolan Bushnell about doing a “signature series” – I have Nolan’s signature on file from him signing my Atari Pong arcade, we created a digital scan and added his signature to the case label.
The project fell through after that as O’Shea tried to source a factory to front all of the money to product the consoles, none would do it and in 2004 Atari directly asked me to produce a console for them, but had to have something ready within a 10 week window, so using an off the shelf NOAC chip the Atari Flashback 1 console was created.
Of the 8 cases, 6 were delivered to the client as per the contract along with the wooden low production test run molds (aluminum of high grade steel would’ve been needed for doing a full 250,000 pc run, the wooden molds were good for about 20-25 test runs only.) 2 grays stayed with me, which I later sold, but kept the pearl white unit along with the source molds built to create the wooden molds (2 units) of the 8 gray units, half were done with the Atari logo, the other half were done with ProSystem logo on them.”
I asked Mr. Vendel if a production Atari 7800 board could be installed into this prototype shell:
“Almost — the LED light-window on the new shell is much different from the original Atari 7800, so the motherboard needs one minor change – the LED and its stalk need to be removed and the led soldered back on and about 1/2 of the height of what it was originally at.”
More information on this prototype can be found at the following links:
It is wrong that I spend more time collecting video games than playing them? I think this first auction proves that actually playing video games is just a fraction of the entertainment they provide.
This Costume is Amazing!
Bioshock Big Daddy costume / replica This costume is simply phenomenal! Yes, the drill arm works! The costume itself weights 50-60 and is sheer awesomeness. Someone please buy this and wear it to Comic-Con 2010 so that I can see it in person! Check out the full build process. Check out some recent photography.
Unique & Rare Video Game Collectibles
Nintendo NES Mike Tyson Lifesize Punchout Display 1988 Not only is this cutout super awesome, but you better believe it’s going to sell for a ton. Within 12 hours of the start of the auction, it already broke $100 USD, and I’m sure that price has a lot higher to go! (Update: This sold by eBay seller “cardinalscoop“on Dec. 6, 2009 for $445 USD + s/h! That’s one expensive chunk of cardboard!)
Sharp 19” Nintendo (NES) TV Works Great New 72-pin A NES built into a TV!!!
Sharp 19” Nintendo (NES) TV Works Great w 22 games
Retro Gaming Store Display Kiosks
SEGA store KIOSK for Genesis Saturn – nice
Super Nintendo Store Display NESM80C -Kiosk- SNES
*GREEN KIOSK CONTROLLER* Nintendo 64 w/ Rumble RARE!! What’s interesting here is that the rumble pack received power through the controller itself and didn’t require batteries. Curses upon Nintendo for having that technology and making us waste all those batteries…
Long before Guitar Hero and Samba de Amigo, the original Nintendo brought us iconic music in simple but brilliant midi ditties. Not only did our favorite classics have awesome soundtracks, but Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Legend of Zelda tapped into our budding imaginations with magical whistles which later, in Zelda’s case, became the ocarina. The ocarina, a 12,000 year old instrument, eventually morphed into an iPhone app by Smule giving iPhone users the ability to rock out and pretend we’re Link.
As if that wasn’t perfect enough, an eBay seller “nes_harmonica“ has continued the trend of NES musical influence by bringing us the 8-bit Nintendo cartridge / harmonica!
Custom Made NES Zelda Harmonica
Custom Made NES Dick Tracy Harmonica
Custom Made NES Mario Brothers 3 Harmonica
Funny enough he’s built the harmonicas, quite appropriately, into a gold cart Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dick Tracy! I’m pretty sure this is where brilliant meets absurd with brilliant winning. Will we see YouTube videos of people playing their harmonica along with their favorite NES game? Time will tell… (As a disclaimer, I don’t know the seller; however, he was kind enough to give me permission to use his photos. I’m not sure how well these work, but I certainly admire this creativity.)
If you’re more interested in an ocarina on your iPhone than in your NES cart, you can find the Ocarina app and other games at iTunes: All Your Music, All In One Place
We all know about the gnome who steals socks out of our laundry. But have you heard about his pixel-hungry buddy who steals battery covers off of Game Boys? How about his neighbor who snatches expansion covers off of old N64 systems?
Long before Guitar Hero and Samba de Amigo, the original Nintendo brought us iconic music in simple but brilliant midi ditties. Not only did our favorite classics have awesome soundtracks, but Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Legend of Zelda tapped into our budding imaginations with magical whistles which later, in Zelda’s case, became the ocarina. The ocarina, a 12,000 year old instrument, eventually morphed into an iPhone app by Smule giving iPhone users the ability to rock out and pretend we’re Link.