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

N

neoemonk

Member
A few years back, a coworker gave me his old SNES. He was going to toss it. It had one original (beat up controller), a third-party controller, and the plastic had yellowed. I took it off his hands along with the only game he had, NBA Live '95.

The other day on impulse I picked up A Link to the Past for $30. The cart is in good shape, no box or manual though, but I played it so much as a kid. I just wanted to own that one game, or so I thought. Now I'm seriously considering hunting down some old classics that I enjoyed. I wouldn't mind picking up both ActRaiser games, and of course FF III and Chrono Trigger.
 
M

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
-KRS- said:
Nice haul! Umihara Kawase is such a great and overlooked game.

Still need to get Doremi Fantasy one of these days.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Really looking forward to checking Umihara Kawase out!

sixteen-bit said:
Awesome. Lots of heaver hitters, lol.

Ninja Warriors Again has to be my pick of the bunch. Love that game!
Click to expand...

Yeah it wasnt cheap lol. Played through the first level of Ninja Warriors Again and it seemed like a really cool game. Definitely going to try to beat that first.

davidwhangchoi said:
nice grabs
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Thanks!

BTails said:
Isn't Gunman's Proof a Zelda clone? I remember reading about it once, I should check that out!
Click to expand...

It is something like that yeah, and with some japanese text, but hopefully i can manage. Looks really good from pics, so looking forward to try it out.

neoemonk said:
A few years back, a coworker gave me his old SNES. He was going to toss it. It had one original (beat up controller), a third-party controller, and the plastic had yellowed. I took it off his hands along with the only game he had, NBA Live '95.

The other day on impulse I picked up A Link to the Past for $30. The cart is in good shape, no box or manual though, but I played it so much as a kid. I just wanted to own that one game, or so I thought. Now I'm seriously considering hunting down some old classics that I enjoyed. I wouldn't mind picking up both ActRaiser games, and of course FF III and Chrono Trigger.
Click to expand...

Welcome to retro collecting - and get ready to get a few extra credit cards!
 
H

HaL64

Member
neoemonk said:
A few years back, a coworker gave me his old SNES. He was going to toss it. It had one original (beat up controller), a third-party controller, and the plastic had yellowed. I took it off his hands along with the only game he had, NBA Live '95.

The other day on impulse I picked up A Link to the Past for $30. The cart is in good shape, no box or manual though, but I played it so much as a kid. I just wanted to own that one game, or so I thought. Now I'm seriously considering hunting down some old classics that I enjoyed. I wouldn't mind picking up both ActRaiser games, and of course FF III and Chrono Trigger.
Click to expand...


This is how it began for me.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
I got my first SNES in 2005. I was waiting for Revenge of the Sith to start so I checked out a nearby EB and they had the system for sale. Copped that then when I got home I ordered a SCV4, Contra 3 and Super Metroid (Boxed!) for like $35 total. Those were the days lol. Ended up building my collection from friends and yard sales back when games were reasonable. Gamestops were clearing out stock too so even though they were pricier than yard sales, you could still make out well with the B2G1 sales.
 
I

IrishNinja

Member
i was a genesis kid but the SNES had an amazing 1st summer (92) with SF II dropping, so i had to go in on that & LTTP (with SMW pack-in) and man was that one of the finest summers in gaming i've had!

took it to college many years later & it finally died, a childhood friend won hers from the Super Mario Bros Super show & it didn't get played much, so that's the one i use to this day! its a later model that doesn't yellow, fortunately.

during hard times in the early aughts, i was forced to sell a lotta stuff, sadly parted with much of my sega collection & SNES manuals but kept the carts, even then i thought they might be hard to find one day. damn sure glad i at least kept those, haha.
 
J

JDH

Member
So totally missed out on the SNES growing up, but if you guys had to recommend THE best SNES game to play for the "first experience" what would it be?

I'm just waiting on my OSSC 1.6 so I'm trying to get a plan together for a few games to start me off with.
 
I

IrishNinja

Member
i feel like most of us started with SMW and that's not a bad one at all, really

looking at the lineup for the SNES classic, there's just so many fantastic starting points there - i'd just add Sim City, TMNT: Turtles in Time & Zombies Ate My Neighbors, personally

okay, ActRaiser, Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Pocky & Rocky too

maybe Sunset Riders, Ninja Warriors, Mario Paint (with a mouse!) and of course Chrono Trigger

fuck man they should make another model of these things
 
T

Teh Lurv

Member
JDH said:
So totally missed out on the SNES growing up, but if you guys had to recommend THE best SNES game to play for the "first experience" what would it be?

I'm just waiting on my OSSC 1.6 so I'm trying to get a plan together for a few games to start me off with.
Click to expand...

Can't go wrong with some of the launch gems: SMW, Sim City, F-Zero. I have great memories of those titles at friends' houses who were lucky enough to get a SNES just after launch.
 
C

Cheerilee

Member
JDH said:
So totally missed out on the SNES growing up, but if you guys had to recommend THE best SNES game to play for the "first experience" what would it be?

I'm just waiting on my OSSC 1.6 so I'm trying to get a plan together for a few games to start me off with.
Click to expand...

Super Mario World was the pack-in for almost all of the SNES's life, so it's the game almost everyone started with, and it's not undeserving of that high honor. You should start there.

If you're looking for "a few games" to start with...

- Super Metroid is legendary.
- Megaman X is also widely regarded as one of the best games ever (after Egoraptor made a popular video explaining how great it's game design is).
- Zelda: Link to the Past was like... the first perfect Zelda game.
- Final Fantasy 3 (known as Final Fantasy 6 in Japan) and Chrono Trigger often compete for the title of "best JRPG of all time".
- Super Castlevania 4 is pretty great, although the 8-directional whip is kind of broken ("broken" as in "overpowered", which makes the game easy to recommend to Castlevania noobs).
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
The SNES had an awesome but small Launch library starting there is definitely a good way to go. Also I got my SNES just a few months after launch. One of the best systems of all time.
 
B

BTails

Member
Yup, there's some amazing games on the SNES. In terms of "first game" to experience, I'd have to vote for Super Metroid. Not that there aren't other "stone cold classics" like Zelda, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country... but the first 10-15 minutes of Super Metroid are so exciting: the combination of intro, action, music, boss fight... It's hard to describe how perfect it is.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I scored a SNES mini pre-order the other day. I've been totally into collecting all the classic edition Nintendo minis (USA and Japan versions), despite the fact that I have the old consoles with RGB, Framemeister, and SD2SNES/Everdrives.

So I was thinking about how the SNES mini would fit into my life.... Would it just be a collector's item sitting on my shelf? Then I remembered: it features a lot of the games that the SD2SNES cannot play: Super FX chip and SA-1.

As long as the emulation is decent, there might be some serious utility in this thing putting games like Star Fox, Super Mario RPG , Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star on-tap in my setup. This combined with SD2SNES, I'll have nearly the entire library ready to play without digging up my carts. The only holdout I can think of it Kirby's Dream Land 3.
 
socksfelloff

socksfelloff

Member
BocoDragon said:
I scored a SNES mini pre-order the other day. I've been totally into collecting all the classic edition Nintendo minis (USA and Japan versions), despite the fact that I have the old consoles with RGB, Framemeister, and SD2SNES/Everdrives.

So I was thinking about how the SNES mini would fit into my life.... Would it just be a collector's item sitting on my shelf? Then I remembered: it features a lot of the games that the SD2SNES cannot play: Super FX chip and SA-1.

As long as the emulation is decent, there might be some serious utility in this thing putting games like Star Fox, Super Mario RPG , Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star on-tap in my setup. This combined with SD2SNES, I'll have nearly the entire library ready to play without digging up my carts. The only holdout I can think of it Kirby's Dream Land 3.
Click to expand...


I'm with ya! I wanted the NES for collections sake but I never did manage to get one. The SNES on the other hand runs all the games my sd2snes can't so actually playing it is very appealing. Here's hoping it gets cracked wide open like the NES!
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
Cheerilee said:
Super Mario World was the pack-in for almost all of the SNES's life, so it's the game almost everyone started with, and it's not undeserving of that high honor. You should start there.

If you're looking for "a few games" to start with...

- Super Metroid is legendary.
- Megaman X is also widely regarded as one of the best games ever (after Egoraptor made a popular video explaining how great it's game design is).
- Zelda: Link to the Past was like... the first perfect Zelda game.
- Final Fantasy 3 (known as Final Fantasy 6 in Japan) and Chrono Trigger often compete for the title of "best JRPG of all time".
- Super Castlevania 4 is pretty great, although the 8-directional whip is kind of broken ("broken" as in "overpowered", which makes the game easy to recommend to Castlevania noobs).
Click to expand...

Good stuff here.
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
JDH said:
So totally missed out on the SNES growing up, but if you guys had to recommend THE best SNES game to play for the "first experience" what would it be?

I'm just waiting on my OSSC 1.6 so I'm trying to get a plan together for a few games to start me off with.
Click to expand...

I'll cheat and say Super Mario All stars + World cartridge.
 
J

JDH

Member
IrishNinja said:
i feel like most of us started with SMW and that's not a bad one at all, really

looking at the lineup for the SNES classic, there's just so many fantastic starting points there - i'd just add Sim City, TMNT: Turtles in Time & Zombies Ate My Neighbors, personally

okay, ActRaiser, Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Pocky & Rocky too

maybe Sunset Riders, Ninja Warriors, Mario Paint (with a mouse!) and of course Chrono Trigger

fuck man they should make another model of these things
Click to expand...

Teh Lurv said:
Can't go wrong with some of the launch gems: SMW, Sim City, F-Zero. I have great memories of those titles at friends' houses who were lucky enough to get a SNES just after launch.
Click to expand...

Cheerilee said:
Super Mario World was the pack-in for almost all of the SNES's life, so it's the game almost everyone started with, and it's not undeserving of that high honor. You should start there.

If you're looking for "a few games" to start with...

- Super Metroid is legendary.
- Megaman X is also widely regarded as one of the best games ever (after Egoraptor made a popular video explaining how great it's game design is).
- Zelda: Link to the Past was like... the first perfect Zelda game.
- Final Fantasy 3 (known as Final Fantasy 6 in Japan) and Chrono Trigger often compete for the title of "best JRPG of all time".
- Super Castlevania 4 is pretty great, although the 8-directional whip is kind of broken ("broken" as in "overpowered", which makes the game easy to recommend to Castlevania noobs).
Click to expand...

Shin Johnpv said:
The SNES had an awesome but small Launch library starting there is definitely a good way to go. Also I got my SNES just a few months after launch. One of the best systems of all time.
Click to expand...

BTails said:
Yup, there's some amazing games on the SNES. In terms of "first game" to experience, I'd have to vote for Super Metroid. Not that there aren't other "stone cold classics" like Zelda, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country... but the first 10-15 minutes of Super Metroid are so exciting: the combination of intro, action, music, boss fight... It's hard to describe how perfect it is.
Click to expand...

davidwhangchoi said:
i loved SUPER E>D>F>
the music is so catchy

and Super slow Gradius III and Super slow R-Type
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Fox Mulder said:
I'll cheat and say Super Mario All stars + World cartridge.
Click to expand...

Wow, thank you all! Looks like I'm going to be broke.

rSmaJMJ.gif
 
P

pirata

Member
Oh, and don't forget that Donkey Kong Country 2 is way better than the first, one of my favorite games of all time (maybe tied or just below Super Mario World), and is actually quite affordable.

Also, don't forget to look into the Japanese version of games with little text. They're often way cheaper than the American versions of games! I got Kirby's Dreamland 3 and Super Metroid for about 20 bucks each, for example, and the carts are so much cooler than the US versions! All you need to do to play Super Famicom games on an SNES is remove the plastic tab that locks the carts in place, which I did using a pair of pliers and a butter knife. It's shockingly easy, but you might want to open the console up before you try it. It can be done with a console/cart tool kit, which is also surprisingly cheap and can also be used to open up the cartridges of many types of old systems for deep cleaning (best done with windex and q-tips).
 
M

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Just bought all five Super Bomberman-games for Super Famicom (and one bonus-game) for $60 which sounded reasonable. Ive never owned the series for the Snes, so really looking forward to this. Guess there wont be any trouble with text?
 
T

Teh Lurv

Member
Sonic Rift said:
I've posted about this other places over the years, but maybe you Gaffers can recommend something. I have a yellowed old US SNES that no longer works with the later SNES games. Super Street Fighter 2 doesn't have sound, and SuperFX games don't run at all. The weirdest thing is that in the first level of Yoshi's Island, I run into a necessary platform that I pass right through.

Based on all my reading, I think power isn't being fed into the cartridges to use coprocessors built in to certain games. That suggests that my Yoshi's Island problem is a copyright feature, which I think is super interesting, albeit unfortunate.

I've got a pretty nice SNES collection (Chrono Trigger being the pièce de résistance), and can only play my games in my Retron 3 where the audio is always too hot.

I've tried cleaning as best I can, as well as using a Game Genie to no avail. Any suggestions?
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I know you said you tried cleaning, but have you cleaned the little expansion pin slots on the SNES console? Those are tough to clean and dirty contacts would only affect games that use those extra pins (like Yoshi's Islan or SSF2A)
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
Morfeo said:
Just bought all five Super Bomberman-games for Super Famicom (and one bonus-game) for $60 which sounded reasonable. Ive never owned the series for the Snes, so really looking forward to this. Guess there wont be any trouble with text?
Click to expand...

I have one of those games and don't recall much, if any, text. You should be good. They're good imports.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
What's up with Lufia 1's spells? I just learned a spell called statue that lets you petrify a party member. Why would you want to turn an ally to stone?
 
D

Danielsan

Member
So long time SNES fan and I'm finally replacing my PAL collection with (US) NTSC copies. Imported a US SNES this month, and have a Super Famicom on the way (supposedly).

It feels good to play these games at proper speed and without shitty borders. I also picked up a RGB Scart cable which is another great improvement over my old PAL SNES experience.

q739Zo9.jpg


x1XPEoW.jpg


70fMSOt.jpg


I splurged on Demon's Crest. I'm normally not one to pay € 100 for a single game/cart, but it's just such a fantastic game and I'm afraid it will only get more and more expensive.

Still need to replace quite of few games that I sold off my PAL versions of, but on the other hand I picked up some cool stuff such as Final Fantasy III and Shadowrun that I didn't own before.
 
I

ironjoe989

Member
Demon's Crest is indeed amazing, though a bit on the short side for the money we both paid. I managed to buy the manual for $25 on a lowball best offer, but the box will be forever out of my price range.

Nice pickups as well. I've been meaning to get Magic Sword since I read about it in Nintendo Power. Its not terribly priced as well, and at this point in my collection, that's pretty important.
 
K

-KRS-

Member
Danielsan said:
So long time SNES fan and I'm finally replacing my PAL collection with (US) NTSC copies. Imported a US SNES this month, and have a Super Famicom on the way (supposedly).

It feels good to play these games at proper speed and without shitty borders. I also picked up a RGB Scart cable which is another great improvement over my old PAL SNES experience.

http://i.imgur.com/q739Zo9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/x1XPEoW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/70fMSOt.jpg

I splurged on Demon's Crest. I'm normally not one to pay € 100 for a single game/cart, but it's just such a fantastic game and I'm afraid it will only get more and more expensive.

Still need to replace quite of few games that I sold off my PAL versions of, but on the other hand I picked up some cool stuff such as Final Fantasy III and Shadowrun that I didn't own before.
Click to expand...

Been thinkin of doing that as well since i switched to collecting NTSC only, but I've been too lazy to actually do it. Good luck!
 
K

Krelian

Member
I'm doing something similar but I decided to go with NTSC/Japanese games. For some games, like RPGs I plan on getting the US version and either play it with a cartridge slot extension or by putting the PCB inside a Japanese game shell.
 
T

TeaJay

Member
Danielsan said:
So long time SNES fan and I'm finally replacing my PAL collection with (US) NTSC copies. Imported a US SNES this month, and have a Super Famicom on the way (supposedly).

It feels good to play these games at proper speed and without shitty borders. I also picked up a RGB Scart cable which is another great improvement over my old PAL SNES experience.
Click to expand...

You're getting there! Now you just need a CRT TV and you'll get the real experience, without lag.
 
T

TeaJay

Member
Danielsan said:
It's on my list, but probably early next year. I kind of want to get a Sony PVM,
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You're in euroland, so you shouldn't have too much trouble picking a nice consumer TV with RGB scart inputs and 60hz support - most of them do those things. It will look and feel a lot better than playing on an LCD TV (at least without any additional upscalers) and later on you can start hunting for a PVM if you so desire.

Good luck in your search!
 
B

BTails

Member
socksfelloff said:
Y'all see this ?

https://store.iam8bit.com/products/street-fighter-ii-30th-anniversary-edition
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Hahahahahaha! $100. Man, I can't stand iam8bit. They have routinely had terrible customer service, and the price gouging is unbelievable. Hop into the VGM Vinyl thread and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone defend them.

I paricularly like the disclaimer, where they basically tell you that you're buying a $100 usd trinket that may or may not work and may blow up your SNES:

iam8shits fine print said:
WARNING: Use of this reproduction game cartridge (the “Product”) on the SNES gaming hardware may cause the SNES console to overheat or catch fire. The SNES hardware is deemed a vintage collectible, so please exercise extreme caution when using the Product and make sure there is fire extinguishment equipment nearby. Use of the Product is at the sole risk of the user. The Product is sold “as is”. Neither iam8bit, Inc. nor Capcom Co, Ltd. make any representation or warranty, express or implied, of any kind, including any warranty of merchantability of fitness for a particular use, or that the Product is safe to use, and iam8bit, Inc. or Capcom Co, Ltd. shall have no liability for damage to property or persons arising from use of the Product
Click to expand...
 
C

Cheerilee

Member
socksfelloff said:
Yup. I got a little bit hype the realized I hate Iam8bit.

$100 for a snes repo of one of the most common Snes games.


Nope
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Apparently Steam takes 30%, while they let the publisher have 70%, and that ratio's apparently not too uncommon in the industry.

So maybe Iam8bit asked Capcom for permission to do this, and Capcom said "Okay, if you give us our 70%." And then Iam8bit figured they could viably repro the game for $30, and Capcom said "Deal. The MSRP can be $100, we get $70 pure profit, while you get $30 and all the associated costs."
 
L

Lionheart1827

Member
I was in a retro gaming shop a few weeks ago and came across this:

kDHg4e3.png


I asked the owner and she said they're all legit and not repros and would be willing to open them up if needed. I wasn't about to spend that much money on it, but if they're legit copies, damn.
 
alf717

alf717

Member
Lionheart1827 said:
I was in a retro gaming shop a few weeks ago and came across this:

kDHg4e3.png


I asked the owner and she said they're all legit and not repros and would be willing to open them up if needed. I wasn't about to spend that much money on it, but if they're legit copies, damn.
Click to expand...

Dude $9 for Desert Strike is a steal. Should of picked it up you're gonna regret it.

=D
 
J

Jer

Member
Randomly found a very good condition Chrono Trigger manual at a 2nd and Charles this weekend, I'm super excited, I just have CT raw, so this is great. I've had surprisingly good luck there actually, the selection is random, but the prices are pretty good when they get something interesting.
 
S

SeanC

Member
sixteen-bit said:
It's amazing how you couldn't give away Earthbound in 1995 and now it's like one of the most valuable SNES games
Click to expand...

In the late 90s I was working at a video store and we had a big-box version of Earthbound for $40 bucks. Couldn't get rid of it. It sat there for years. Even on sale days marked down 20% off still just sat there.

My biggest regret in life is not buying it myself. Now I have none...
 
B

BTails

Member
Lionheart1827 said:
I was in a retro gaming shop a few weeks ago and came across this:

kDHg4e3.png


I asked the owner and she said they're all legit and not repros and would be willing to open them up if needed. I wasn't about to spend that much money on it, but if they're legit copies, damn.
Click to expand...

D-Force is the name of my sex tape ;)
 
the androgyne

the androgyne

Member
So these showed up at my local recycling place today. Can anyone guess what the SNES games have in common? :D



I wasn't planning on getting a SNES Mini cause i have most of the games already, and now i have even more! Pretty crazy prices as well. Back in the day i paid over $100 AU for Super SF2. Feels nice to have it again for around 4% of the price!

And yes, my keyboard is freaking dirty!
 
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