u/nusilver

Haven’t posted here in years (I completed my arcade when MVC 2 came out) but since I was super active here long ago I thought some of the old timers would appreciate this.

Got to meet a personal hero, Steve Wiebe, today, at PRGE. and he signed my control panel for my Arcade1UP Galaga-> Donkey Kong full conversion. Actually, since the expo for some reason didn’t have a table set up for him to sign things, I offered the back of my control panel for him to sign peoples’ King of Kong DVD inserts, posters, etc., so I hung around for a few minutes holding it up while he signed on it. Lol.

But yeah. This is a dream come true and just wanted to share.

1. Pop your cartridge in, hit + and select Software Update. A 22gb update will download. This isn’t the Switch 2 version and I have no idea why it’s so big! When it’s updated you’ll be on version 4.04d.

2. Open the game. There’s a new item on the menu called “Available Now On Nintendo Switch 2.” Click this once to go directly to “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered” on the eShop. It will show as a free download. Download it!

3. That’s it. It’s a separate download from the Switch 1 game, meaning no cartridge is required and this fancy custom cover I printed up is kind of silly. But free is free, so I ain’t complaining!

Okay, so homebrew not pictured aside, there’s still only 29 games here. But for a system whose official library at time of death was just 22 games globally, that’s nearly a 32% increase. I love this weird little system so much and I hope to be able to keep adding more games to my collection for years to come.

(p.s. yes, I know you hate the box I went with for Zero Racers—I didn’t design it, but I do like it, even if it is most certainly AI.)

… and it only took nineteen years!

Sorry, I know it’s not Monday… but this was a looooong hunt and now that it’s over… I don’t know what to do with myself.

Guess I’ll rip this and throw it into the lossless archive tomorrow. :-)

A PSA since I’ve seen more than a few people touting M64’s CRT compatibility as something Analogue doesn’t have over on their sub:

Yes, you absolutely can use your Analogue 3D on a CRT. Other than when my launch system first arrived and I had a friend over to check it out on my living room 4K OLED, I have ONLY played my 3D on my PVM (and I play it regularly; currently about 20% through 100%ing Banjo Kazooie.)

My video from eight months ago has links to everything you need, but you should be able to get all the specific equipment for roughly the same cost as ModRetro’s (admittedly much more convenient) accessory that’s currently on preorder.

https://youtu.be/z8s7rlh51ZI?si=3HUiCBA_9y7FK3Zn

Happy to answer questions as time allows, although I’m doing a double feature with my kids in our home theater today so I may not be back to this much today.

This came today. I got it for $1 plus shipping ($7.72 total, no sales tax in my state.) It took 13-14 days of logging in daily to unlock the coupon that made this $1, but you can definitely just buy it from the shop for $40 plus shipping. Coolest of all: this cover variant is unique to that shop.

Like a lot of people here I was pumped to add Star Fox to my Switch 2 collection--it was my 50th game for the platform, and a remake of one of my most-played, and most often-returned-to, Nintendo 64 games. And like some of you, I preordered on Amazon with a promised release date delivery. Sweet... can't wait! I placed my pre-order on May 7th, and the delivery date was set as the release date the entire time, until I updated my order with a different payment method and the delivery date changed to June 29th. Uh... huh?

I wasn't too miffed about this, but I have some not fun travel this week so wanted to make sure the game would indeed come before I left. I opened the chat, told them what happened, and the agent apologized for the delay, tried to fix it, and once that didn't work, told me that once it was delivered I could reach out to customer service again and they would refund me as an apology. Oh, that's nice, I thought, they're giving me that customary 10-20% refund to keep my business. I thanked them, asked what kind of refund we were talking about, and they replied: "Full refund $49.94 after delivery"

... oooookay!

The game ended up coming on Saturday, and I reached out to Amazon support as soon as it was delivered, and told them to please check the previous chats on the item as I was promised a full refund for the delay. The new rep immediately responded "no problem, I've processed your refund, is there anything else I can do for you today?" I thanked them, but still didn't believe it was going to happen. Well, the full refund hit my bank account this morning. Star Fox was, indeed, completely free for me. I'm flabberghasted and never expecting this to happen again... but I'm not complaining! In the grand scheme of things, a free $50 video game isn't a life-changing development... but it makes a difference to my family!

Anyone else had any weird things like this happen where a retailer's customer service responded to a very typical customer concern with unexpected generosity? One of my best friends suggested that the customer service agent who initially helped me might have been looking for a new job so just didn't care, and I'm having trouble thinking of another reason why this might have happened.

In just over a year, I’ve hit 50 “Switch 2 games.” Obviously due to the nature of the system’s library this is a little fuzzy, but I’ll break it down below:

1. 25 of these are honest-to-goodness, Switch 2 “red box” games.

2. Of those 25, 13–more than half!—are game-key cards. Storage issues aside, I’ve made my peace with this in an era where the biggest game of all time just got announced as a code-in-the-box for its only physical release. The majority of my physical games on modern platforms have some sort of optional or required download anyway, and I’m not going to deprive myself of games to uphold my minority stake in a battle we were never going to win. That doesn’t mean I like it; I’m particularly disappointed in Square Enix’s seemingly blanket policy of supporting GKC only. My robust Square collection goes back many console generations. This is a huge bummer, but one that I only think about when I’m staring at my collection, which isn’t often these days.

3. Four are black Switch carts with digital Switch 2 upgrades, for which I was able to find cheap copies of the cases for the “Nintendo Switch 2 Editions.” This made a lot more sense to me than shelling out another $320 for games I already had. In this bucket are the two open-world Zeldas, Kirby and Animal Crossing. In fact, I still haven’t actually paid for the upgrades for BOTW/TOTK, since they’re part of NSO, and I’m not losing sleep over it.

4. The remaining 21 are Switch games that got some sort of update or upgrade pack that brought them up to Switch 2 standards, whether those updates/upgrades were advertised as specific to Switch 2 or they simply looked or played better on Switch 2. I have commissioned custom case art for the majority of them and will have case art made for the majority of the rest of them in the next couple of months (in addition to doing the same for the other Xenoblades later this year.) One exception: Hollow Knight. I was able to preorder the Switch 2 version for like $18, which is not much more than the typical going rate for case art commissions from the guy I trust to do them.

My greatest “treasure” in this collection is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as it’s the only version of the game on any platform that is “complete” on its media (Order of Giants DLC notwithstanding.) I’m a lifelong Indy fan and have adventured to places I never would have otherwise gone without that influence, and Great Circle is one the best games I’ve ever played, period. This is a huge win for Nintendo collectors, IMO.

My most disappointing release is Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s an incredible game that looks great and runs well on Switch 2… but it’s a GKC. But again: alas.

My Great Tales Deluxe set arrived today, much to my surprise (I’m in Portland, OR, and AwesomeBooks was estimating they would arrive two weeks from today.) Yay! Not yay: Beren and Lúthien and The Fall Of Gondolin arrived with creased spines.

I have already reached out to AwesomeBooks about a replacement, but in the meantime: is there any way to fix this without replacing? It’s hard to see in the photos but it’s definitely obvious in real life, and none of my other books in this series are afflicted with this or any other issues.

Mother 3 is my favorite game ever. I love Earthbound. Earthbound Beginnings has never clicked with me. But now I’m experiencing it in 16-bit, and it’s lifting me up.

Here’s what I’ve been working toward all year: the current and “final” state of my Virtual Boy collection (at least until Nintendo drops what are in all likelihood the very last officially released VB games, Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers, on NSO later this year!)

This was a long time coming, and an immensely rewarding, if sometimes frustrating, collecting goal.

The officially released North American library is 100% complete and 100% authentic. Yes, even Jack Bros.

Scattered amongst those NA games are several unofficial releases: incredible homebrews like Virtual Warzone and Hyper Fighting, games originally intended to be released as part of a second push for the system, including the fantastic Bound High and Dragon Hopper (currently box only!), and Faceball Remastered, which skirts the line between homebrew and an unofficial release of a canceled game.

In the back corner are all of the Japan exclusive titles. The four laying down on the table are 100% authentic and 100% complete. The four standing at attention are 100% reproductions, and I couldn’t be happier about that. You know what I could do with a fifth of what it cost to get authentic CIB copies of Virtual Bowling, SD Gundam Dimension War, Space Invaders: Virtual Collection and Virtual Lab, the majority of which are considered the absolute dregs of this system’s meager library? I could take my family to Hawaii for a week. Which I’m doing in just a couple of days instead of wasting thousands of dollars on bad video games.

I’ll always have the memories of how I got a Virtual Boy as a child, lost it, got it back again, had to say goodbye to it again, and finally “completed” the collection when, and I’m a way that, it made sense to do so… but now, I’ll get to make new memories that my wife, my kids and I will never forget. Seems like a pretty fair trade off while still owning one of the best Virtual Boy collections you will ever see.

I’ve had a blast getting back into the collecting game this year, and I’m not done! I’m currently filling in some of the non-Nintendo gaps, and will be back with another fun “complete” collection photo later this year.

(And yes, I know the stand is backwards.)