Retro Game Get!

As promised, here is a helpful list of places and ways to bulk up your retro collection, or simply locate some of your favourite titles that may seem hard to find now. I am providing this list to help out- but in no way are any of these suggestions a concrete way to guarantee you will find something. Part of loving retro games, is not getting discouraged when wading through nasty swap-meet boxes of crap. You never know when you might find an Earthbound strategy guide amongst broken coffee cups (true story!)


1. Craigslist.

Craigslist is worldwide- and thus a great place to begin for everyone. It’s better to keep searches broad, like “Genesis games” than to narrow it down to actual titles. While you will find people who are hoping to get rich by trying to pass off games as rare- you will also get Mum’s just trying to clean out their kid’s crap. Kids go off to college and leave shit behind- take advantage of it! As always, make sure to check the condition of the games/systems before you buy!

2. Locale Swap Shops.

I’m unsure of what name to designate these stores with, but they should be crowned STORES OF AWESOME. There are still small, family-owned business, which carry older titles and consoles. I live in California, thus I am only able to recommend places in California-if you know of any other places PLEASE COMMENT!! I will be adding this FAQ as a page of reference so please- Help each other out!! The Alameda Game Exchange is a fan-fucking-tastic place. They get a lot of trash talk on yelp, but please do not let that discourage you. The owners are a husband, wife, and their young son- and they are doing a huge service to us retro gamers. They carry everything- and I mean EVERYTHING. They also FIX close to everything. In my spare time I take in broken SNES systems and fix them for people (no, I cannot fix your system…read: SPARE TIME) and finding parts is hard work! These awesome people will do it all for you! Also- they will help you find games. The owner has a few stores and controls the inventory for all, so if they don’t have something at one store, he will try and find it for you at another. They do have some high prices for rarer titles. They know what games are rare and what games are not. You can find almost everything with the manual and a box. You can haggle with them- but I wouldn’t recommend it. They know games, and cannot be fooled. Be respectful and it will be a godly place! You can also see me there almost twice a week…spending waaaaaay too much money…
Also there is Fair Game in Sacramento. They have 2 stores, and are along the same lines as Alameda Game Exchange. I should mention that both of these stores do take in games and systems for trade- which is how they get the majority of their stock. I have been going to Fair Game for years also, and the staff is wonderful. They have always been knowledgeable and friendly with me. Once again, these are my experiences and others might not have had such a rosy time. Still though, keep the golden rule in mind. These stores are getting harder and harder to find- so yeah, they will charge $50 for a copy of Secret of Mana in the box with a manual; and no, they will not budge on that. This is their livelihood, and you should respect it. Fair Game also provides hard to find items- like AC adaptors and such for older systems. Check them out! The links are under RETRO SUPPORT in the sidebar.

3. Auctions, Garage Sales, and Swap Meets

Alright- you are getting into some dangerous territory here. I think of these bad boys as Retro Gambling. You never quite know how the day will turn out, but if you go in open-minded it can be a really fun experience. It also requires a great deal of patience. As a child, I spend a great deal of time at Denio’s Farmers Market and Auction in Sacramento. This place is basically a huge garage sale and vendor spot for Northern California, as well as the birthplace of Jimboy’s Tacos! My sister and I would run around collecting bootleg Sailor Moon goods and video games. A story that I have told many a coworker, is when I first played Starfox on the SNES…and how angry and frustrated I became. In my rage, I destroyed one of the two snes controllers we had at the time. This was during the time period when it was IMPOSSIBLE to locate a controller on its own, without a system. With my cousin (it was his system) threatening to strangle me in my sleep, I frantically ran through Denio’s trying to find a new controller. Low and behold- there were tonnes of them! Story time aside- locale swap meets can be treasure troves. If really, really old systems are what you are looking for I highly recommend it. And older computer parts should come pretty cheap if you are trying to build a retro gaming rig. Also bring CASH- a lot of places will not take cards or cheques! The only major drawback is- does this shit work? You are usually buying blind and will have no idea how things work until you get it home. Sometimes you can get lucky and the seller will test things out (or shit will be so decrepit you KNOW it doesn’t work.) Mostly I recommend swap meets because they are fun- or at least, I think they are fun. You can go home with a box full of Colecovision games, an accordion, a blanket with the face of the Virgin Mary on it, and a bushel of delicious oranges. I call that a fucking fantastic day.

4. The Dreaded…eBay

I use eBay as a last, last, last resort to things. Ebay in my opinion, is more trouble than it’s worth. Sadly it is really the only place to find certain things. Not all sellers on eBay are horrid people. I have certainly gotten some killer deals and found awesome rare stuff for reasonable prices. This however, is usually not the case. People will try their damnest to rip you off. Beware of people who show a picture of a game with a box, but NOWHERE on the page will it mention a box. That game could look like anything. Be very, very selective. Ask for more pictures, pictures of the label, of the contacts (the metal part on the inside of cartridges) of the undersides of disks, etc. Be a picky buyer. Also- KNOW what you are looking for. Does a game or a system seemed priced kinda high? More than likely- it is being priced too high. Earthbound is a rare game- but you shouldn’t be paying $100 for it. Do some research beforehand and you will avoid being ripped off, and you will avoid fueling people who are trying to take advantage of others. This is in no way a jab at people who run legit business through eBay- in fact I encourage people to locate them and talk em’ up on here! I have had bad experiences through eBay and I want to make sure they are not repeated.

This is just the basics of obtaining games. A lot of times, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. I worked at GameStop for years, and would get lucky when people would bring in boxes of retro games and realize GameStop wasn’t buying them- and I would (we weren’t supposed to do that, but I did it all the time!) Another good thing to keep in mind is that when you do get your hands on games, is to take good fucking care of them. Even games that aren’t rare- they will be someday and it’s easier to take care of them now then to find them later. If I had known what a bitch it would be to find SNES games in boxes, I would have kept every box and not let my Gran write my initials on the cartridges! Keep your games and systems in good condition and who knows, years down the road you might make some kid who is collecting “retro Xbox 360 games” very very happy.

You know a game is good when it has incredibly annoying parts that normally would cause you to pitch it out a window…and yet you look past them over and over. Bust a Move is such a game. The concept is simple- 2 dino buddies work together to pop balloons and clear the screen. It involves grouping 3 balloons of the same colour together and bustin’ em. Super simple idea; with a myriad of possibilities. The levels range from easy to are-you-fucking-serious. It also (like most retro puzzle games) relies a bit on luck. The bubbles you are given to shoot correspond to the colours that are already on the screen, but other then that- they are random. In a Dr.Mario-esque way you can have a good game or a disaster based on what bubbles the game gives you. Now, a seasoned BAM player can work around this difficulty most of the time, however at other times there is just nothing that can be done. There are power-ups and such too, like fire that will blow up the bubbles around it regardless of colour- but really the game is very simple and straight-forward. Ah, the makings of a great puzzle game! SIMPLICITY!



I am indeed a seasoned BAM player. I would even say I’m damn fucking good at this game. I have made my way through all the levels many, many a time. Each time I have done so, has been a journey through a range of emotions- everything from bored to sitting on the edge of my seat sweating. This is the kind of game you will pick up and put down (Hardly anyone sits down and says “Alright…gonna play through until level 65…” You may sit down and suddenly find yourself at level 65 with hours passed and your bladder full- but I think it’s safe to say it’s rare people sit down with that goal. Moreover, there is a handy password deal that allows you to pick up where you leave off if you die, or need to turn off the game. And let it be known, that it’s almost worth it to lose because Bub crying is pretty adorable. It really softens the blow


This game has one song. That’s right -- ONE. Every stage, (except the final one) exactly the same tune. It starts with the childlike shout of "READY? GO!" and then….the song starts. A game with this many stages and only one song would normally drive people to stabbing- but for some reason it works. I always sit down thinking, oh this time I’m going to put it on mute and rock to my own tunes. Maybe I will for awhile, but soon I find myself zoning out to the happy little ditty. The game is so involving that you sort of become accustomed to the music, and forget that you’ve heard the same 50 second loop for the past 50 levels (but trust me- your roommates will not be as forgiving.)


The backgrounds change, and in some stages they move, which REALLY adds a level of difficulty if you are easily distracted. And let’s be honest here: look at these little guys...

They are adorable! Bub a little more so than Bob…Bob looks a bit…

...touched… Bub and Bob (who have also been referred to as Dragons) are lil dino guys who operate your bubble machine. I remember when I first saw this game it was in the arcade. It had the happy music and the cute chubby dinodragons, and took up hours and hours of my time (and money) at the Jimboy’s tacos by my mom’s work. Eventually, when I learned of a Super Nintendo version, I was all over that shit. I could hang out with Bub, Bob, and the Belugas in the comfort of my own home! Since I already knew what the game was like, I was incredibly confused when I saw the actual cartridge. Look at this box:

What the hell is this?! That looks like the Millenium Falcon shooting a rocket at a hostile cloud of candy. And it appears to be happening in the vast emptiness of space. This box is incredibly misleading. Imagine for a moment that you have never seen the gameplay before and you pick up the box -- you would expect something drastically different when you got it home and started it up. I mean compare the two bubble launchers:

They are completely different. The title leads me to believe there is some form of dancing involved, the ship makes me think of 2001 A Space Odyssey, and the rainbow bubbles do not fit the equation in any way (I understand that the game was originally dubbed Puzzle Bobble and for some crazy reason they changed it stateside).

If you see the PAL version of the box, it’s much better. Cute, buckteeth dinos tossing bubbles around. It is beyond me why they included the Starship Enterprise rendition in the USA release. Either way -- I think it adds to the wacky charm of this game.

I have already stated that I kick major amounts of ass at the single player mode in this game, but let’s talk about the versus mode. When 2 people play against each other, the game changes slightly. You are still using dino-slave labor to pop bubbles, but when the bubbles are popped, you send them to clutter the other player’s screen (ala Super Puzzle Fighter.) The first one to fill up their screen loses. When I play against other people, like with all puzzle games, I feel sorry for them because of the assbeating I dish out. Anthony refuses to play against me anymore- and my roommate was smart and realized she shouldn’t even try. But enough of my shit talking -- let’s get one thing straight: playing against the AI is FUCKING INSANE. As I stated on Rebel FM- you get your ass beat. The cute little characters and bubbly music are a facade for a painful, merciless beating. I have never beaten versus mode against the AI. I know it’s possible, and tonnes of people are gonna comment saying, "WOW JADE U SUCK-IT’S SOOOO EASY".Well let me say to you: No, it isn’t...it isn’t easy AT ALL. If you can beat it, great job, you are a fucking machine -- because this game doesn’t fuck around.

Can I also say that the ghost guys are referred to as Stoners?

I suppose it’s fitting. I can recall struggling against this versus mode and CONSTANTLY getting my ass beat by the Belugas.

Screaming and swearing at those cute purple whales as they wiped me across the floor. Oh the memories!! The way I look at it is there are 100 stages in the single player mode- that was what I concerned myself with.

I know this game has been remade a bajillion times on every platform known to man. I for one, was really excited to hear about the DS version, since that meant I could take it with me everywhere and play against other people wirelessly. Sadly I was very disappointed with the dumb rubber band touch screen bullshit. You use the stylus to “fling” the bubbles with a slingshot sort of action. Also, having the aiming over 2 disjointed screens is awkward and aggravating. Why bother with that? Just use the d pad! I guess the controls put a spin on the game, but that’s not what I’m looking for in Bust a Move. I’m looking for the old school arcade action that I know and love. This game isn't hard to find, and you should not pay a lot for it. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s “rare” or anything like that -- because it isn’t. If someone is charging you over $30 for the cartridge without the box, they are ripping you off (the PAL version might be a bit more, but not by a lot). The Alameda Game Exchange in Alameda, CA and Fair Game in Sacramento, CA are good places to look besides the dreaded eBay. I will be including a FAQ in this blog/site/deal with how to go about obtaining these games I speak of. I know ROMs are available for almost all games now, but I want to help those who are interested in collecting the actual items.

This review was a bit of a test run, and hopefully wasn’t too painful to read! Next up is the awesome horror point-and-click adventure Clocktower.

So here is it. The first entry in what I’m hoping will be a fun stroll down memory lane for people. I won’t do too much introduction, since I’m including that in the sidebar and such. My name is Jade and I’ve been playing games as long as I can remember, and they have always been a huge part of my life. I have an immense amount of respect for older games because they made it possible to keep the industry moving forward to make more games. Just like music, new things are made by building on old things. Even if retro games aren’t your thing- at least have respect for where the new awesome games and concepts came from.

WHAT THIS BLOG IS: This blog (hopefully) is going to be an entertaining place to relive past memories, or learn about games you might not have known existed. I have a pretty vast collection of games on many different consoles, and will try my hardest to mix it up. I won’t lie though- the Super Nintendo is my favorite system, so expect to see a lot of SNES games. Originally I wanted to create a horror game blog, and honestly most of the games I’m going to post about are going to be horror related, or at least really weird and obscure. Yeah, there will be the occasional well-known retro game (like this test-run entry- which is Bust A Move,) but I didn’t want to lock myself into doing just one genre. However this blog just started, so it might move in any number of directions. I hope to keep it a positive direction no matter what though. I appreciate any constructive comments people have, and feel free to email them to thosedustypixels(at)gmail.com or leave them on here in the comments section.

For now, I am the only one posting on here- but that is also going to change. The next review will be a dual discussion on a retro horror game that is to be announced later in this entry. As for how frequently this deal is updated- that is something I do not have nailed down yet. So I thank everyone for their patience ahead of time!

Also- a HUGE shout out to Attract Mode for suggesting the title Dusty Pixels. It beat out The Retro Orgasm...but just barely!

Enough with introductions! READY? GO!