u/WolfySimRacer

Earlier, I posted a shot of a model taken with only a street light illuminating the subject against a red brick background. As mentioned before, I’m a pro photographer that works primarily with ambient light. I wanted to share a photo from that same shoot taken under a different street light that I didn’t even touch up or crop to show what can be done with the right settings and a harsh, out-of-my-control light source. It’s all about light and how to handle it. A wide open aperture lets in more light, a slower shutter speed lets that light in longer, and only using a very low ISO (I typically stick between 100-200) to eliminate noise that you’d normally get in darker parts of the image. I look at ISO as a last resort. Combine all of that and you can work in what may seem like impossible light.

I’m a professional photographer that owns my own company but I only shoot part time. I pride myself in rarely using fill/supplemental light, especially at night time. It’s how I learned starting at 4 years old from my grandfather on his Nikon FM2a film SLR. I challenge anyone to put your flash away and master your manual settings. It’ll change everything. This was shot with only the street light that was to the right. If I had used fill light, I wouldn’t have gotten those interesting shadows and a semi-Rembrandt effect on his face.

I traded 2 cameras for this table and made out way better than the other guy. DK Jr is my favorite arcade game of all time so I was stoked when I picked it up 10 years ago. It came with the original schematics and manual. A credit button was added at some point. As you can see, I’m replacing the cards with repros but haven’t gotten around to finishing it. The best part of it is that I installed the Donkey Kong Remix kit which upped the fun tenfold!

Sadly, there is terrible vertical scrolling that kicks in after only a bit of play. The monitor chassis needs to be recapped and I can’t do it due to a messed up left leg. Can anyone think of a safe way for me to get the monitor out? I have the gear to repair it other than needing to order the caps.

I had wanted a NEO•GEO AES since it was released. I had put in so many hours at the mall arcade playing the big red MVS cabinet. It was a 4-slot so I had plenty of options. I remember when the AES was announced - the arcade experience at home! Sega, Nintendo and Atari touted the same thing but fell way short (especially Atari 😂). SNK wasn’t kidding. So when I saw the box on the top shelf of the game store, I drooled after it. It was out of reach both figuratively and literally. At $650 back in 1991 (equivalent to $1,500 today), that just wasn’t going to happen.

Fast forward to 10 years ago. It was time to finally get one. I found a bundle from Japan for $500 on eBay. It came with the console, 2 kidney bean sticks (1 is CIB), a memory card, and 6 games (4 being CIB). That same year, also on eBay, I picked up the North American versions of NAM-1975 and Magician Lord (both CIB) for $200 total. A few years later I bought the Japanese version of King of Fighters ‘94 (CIB) for $75. Then, a couple of years ago, I was disappointed to see that the original TerraOnion NEOSD was sold out, so on a whim I contacted Stone Age Gamer and they just so happened to be getting one shipped back to them. They promised to hold on to it and contact me when it came in. Sure enough, as promised, I got the email! I would have paid full price for it but they knocked it down significantly.

All said and done, it cost me around $1,100. However, with the retro game bubble blowing up and not stopping, it’s now worth approximately 3 times that. NAM-1975 and Magician Lord alone are worth $800 total! Four times what I paid for them a decade ago. But, I don’t care about that. I will never part with the set. It’s one of those things that make you think “I made it!”

I just found a sealed copy of Donkey Kong Junior for the Atari 7800 in one of my retro gaming boxes. This was back when Nintendo licensed their IPs to other consoles.

I own an arcade cocktail table of this game with original hardware and Nintendo schematics for the boards. It also has the chip set kit that makes the original Donkey Kong available. You might say I’m a fan…

Before anyone understandably suggests the bottom one is sun faded, the underside is the same shade. To further confirm it isn’t sun faded, I opened it up and the plastic is the same shade inside. Totally not an important question but I’m curious if anyone has an answer.

It still works and still brings me an immense amount of joy! I even have my original Wavebird, GBA cable, memory card and my only 2 surviving games - MGS Twin Snakes and Wind Waker.

This is a miracle because when I moved to my old house, a mover stole the majority of my childhood/retro game collection - SNES, NES, original Game Boy, purple Game Boy Color, Virtual Boy, original GBA, not my N64 but all of the games, and all but 2 of my Gamecube games. All said and done he stole about 150 games - most of which I bought new as a kid. Oh and that doesn’t include all of the non-Nintendo consoles and games. He eventually got caught but had unloaded every last console and game for peanuts.

This is the first time I’ve popped it into the NES in years. It’s a surprisingly good game and a fairly involved RPG for the console. The game came out in 1989 but only for the Famicom. It’s a huge shame we never got it in the States. If you’re a Resident Evil fan, that series was partially inspired by Sweet Home. You can find copies of it on eBay. The red cart version of it used to be available for around $11.00 USD on Etsy but now I can only find a gray cart version for $40. Either way, it’s well worth it.

Hi all! Before my maternal grandfather died, and shortly after he stopped shooting because of Macular Degeneration, he gave me his favorite camera - a Nikon FM2n and also an N8008s (I no longer own). Photography was his main passion (followed by fly tying and fly fishing). He shot every day for 70 years. The majority of his camera collection, which was quite extensive, were Nikons but he did have a few Canons. He never shot for payment, simply out of love. Along the way, he won various awards for landscape, portrait, and macro photography. After his death, I acquired every single negative he ever shot. Thousands and thousands of them from over many decades. I now have the equipment to digitize them but now I need the time. I’d like to make a multi-volume photo book series of his work, too.

A long while after he gave me the FM2n, and after I shot hundreds of photos with it, I stupidly traded it and the N8008s for an all original Donkey Kong Junior arcade cocktail table with original schematics. It was my favorite arcade game as a child and I felt I couldn’t pass it up. Within hours I regretted the trade, even though on a monetary level, I made out much better. I then spent years trying to buy it back from the guy that made the trade. Pestering him every few months. To his credit, he responded to every single email stating that it’s part of his collection and he doesn’t sell or trade cameras from that collection (even though the majority of his collection are Canons).

5 years later, I decided to try one more time. My persistence was wearing on me by now and I had slowed down the frequency of the emails. My grandfather sadly had passed by now. This time, I made a truly impassioned plea for the camera. Laying it all out. Expressing that my grandfather had been my idol my entire life (which is true) and that, as a photographer, I learned everything I knew from him and that I needed it back to continue his work through my eyes. Well, he didn’t respond. So I figured that was that…

…until 2 months later. He responds and says he’s willing to part with it and that he’ll take the lowest value of one sold on eBay! PLUS, the 50mm lens it came with at no extra charge. Mind you, the FM2n is spotless. I mean, absolutely clean and free of scratches, same with the lens. Which is surprising because that was his favorite and most used camera. My grandfather babied everything he owned and passed that trait down to me. The guy sent me pictures and I confirmed it was the one I traded because I had documented the serial number when I owned it. A few days later it was in my hands. Not only did he give me the 50mm he said he would, he gave me a few other Nikon lenses since he no longer had a Nikon in his collection. Such a wonderful day.

The Pentax SP1000 doesn’t have such a romantic story. After my paternal grandfather passed, my dad gave it to me. I was not close with that grandfather and had only seen him a handful of times throughout my life. The camera itself is also clean of wear and scratches so I’m very fortunate there, too. It shoots beautifully and I do use it on occasion.

It’s pretty wild that I have the favorite cameras of both of my grandfathers and I’m happy about that.

An Hideo Kojima game for the Game Boy Advance. What makes it unique is that it has a UV light sensor added to the PCB. The Gun del Sol weapon requires real sunlight to fully charge up and to charge up solar stations. However, if you play the game in sunlight too long, the weapon can overheat. If you live in the north and you’re smack dab in the middle of winter, be sure to bundle up! 😁

I always bust it out during the late spring and summer months. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and it’s just such cool technology.

I picked this up from a Prop Store auction. It was meant to be a gift to my partner at the time. She had met Mark Ruffalo while he was filming Foxcatcher here in Pittsburgh. She hated it 😂

Did not include the jock strap…

…by jamming on his signature Guild guitar.

I see so many amazing NEO•GEO AES and MVS collections on here. Ones I very much envy and not because of value. I don’t have much of a collection but I love what I have nonetheless. The NEOSD lives in my AES these days but before I got it, I played a hell of a lot of Samurai Spirits 2 and NAM-1975. If I wanted to punish myself, I’d put in Magician Lord and end up crying by the time I died a thousand times, usually only reaching level 3. I just can’t figure it out. 😂

I haven’t bought a game in years so what inexpensive (a funny word when referring to anything AES related) Japanese-version game should I get next?

NEO•GEO AES
NEO•GEO CD Controller Pro x 2 (1 with box)
NEO•GEO Memory Card
TerraOnion/Stoneage Gamer NEOSD
NAM-1975 (NA, CIB)
Magician Lord (NA, CIB)
King of Fighters ‘94 (Japanese, CIB)
Samurai Spirits (obviously Japanese, loose)
Samurai Spirits 2 (obviously Japanese, CIB)
Fatal Fury 2 (Japanese, CIB)
Fatal Fury Special (Japanese, CIB)
Fatal Fury 3 (Japanese, CIB)
Art of Fighting 2 (Japanese, loose)
AES+ preordered