Four me? Yes! ...terday I bought.

I bought Disney Illusion Island thinking that it could be my Christmas game for this year. Everything I’ve read and heard about it highlights that it’s as easy-going as you could possibly get - and that’s exactly what I’m after when all I want to do in the mornings is lay in bed, tan sweets and not be too hungover.

Sonic Colours came down to under £17 on Amazon one day, I’ve grabbed it with the intention of replaying it during a quieter spell.

As for the retro games, Toy Story Racer was £3 in CEX and looked interesting in the same way that the Alone In The Dark GBC port did. Everything else was bought in the same fruitful jaunt to Cash Generator. That’s GTA 2 and Dancing Stage Euromix on the PSone, Tekken Advance, GT Advance 2: Rally Racing, Crash & Spyro Superpack Vol. 1, Star Wars: The New Droid Army and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 for the GBA and Army Men on the GBC for a quid each, and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D for £2.

I really want Disney Illusion Island but every time I've been ready to buy its been back at full price, will probably just go for it over Christmas as my daughter's quite high on Mickey at the moment.

I know it's an older game now, but getting any 3DS game for £2 feels like a steal, let alone a Donkey Kong game.

I traded in REmake 4 (which I recently finished) and LEGO 2K Drive that I put towards


This is now DualSense number four, and I do kinda want the upcoming Silver one, that I was looking to see how many colours available, I would have to get 11 more to get them all which is a pass.

With some Xmas money I got


Plan to build on my upcoming week off

And from Genki as I put a request in ages ago for Captain Rainbow, I got these


The other two were really to make the order worth ordering with the postage, and Starfy is like Kirby right and Kirby is great

A case for my Portal is also on its way as I hadn't used for a few weeks due to play Mario & Sonic on Switch handheld, that it was getting a bit dusty

Now that Lego Tallneck I'm very jealous of!

Other people in my family have been making those designer lego flower sets; I wonder if I should get a Tallneck - it'd just look like a tiny giraffe to scale! Or giant flowers

masofdas wrote:

And from Genki as I put a request in ages ago for Captain Rainbow, I got these


The other two were really to make the order worth ordering with the postage, and Starfy is like Kirby right and Kirby is great

I've never successfully put in a request at Genki, so it's good to know that it can sometimes actually work.

I see they've just refreshed their stock for some of the old SEGA systems alongside a few PlayStation and Nintendo games, but I've been using Genki long enough to see that they've bumped up their prices. What I don't like is seeing a game go out of stock for a couple of weeks and then suddenly reappear for £5/£10 more, and that seems to be happening more often. Still, you'll enjoy Starfy if you get round to it, it's a nicely made game.

£42 for a pre-owned Switch game at CEX might seem like a scadge, but it was paid for with trade-ins that I made a decent profit on – it cost me under half that in ‘real’ money.

I felt that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk might be a good game to help fight off the January blues, and I’m well up for a Jet Set Radio-like game that’s a bit more modern. My Friend Pedro was only £13 on Amazon, I can see myself quickly rattling through that soon.

My nearby Cash Generator had some stock of sealed PS4 games the other day and Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for £6.99 was the pick of the bunch. Worth having at that price, I thought.

I also continued my streak of finding Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox 360 in charity shops. I think this might be the fourth or fifth time I’ve bought it in as many months. I got Halo Anniversary as well – I think I’ll give this a go someday, I’ve never made an effort with any Halo game before. Both those 360 games were oddly priced at £1.45. I also had Black Ops II, FIFA 17 and a couple of LEGO games on the 360 but they went towards the trade-in that paid for Metal Gear.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

My nearby Cash Generator had some stock of sealed PS4 games the other day and Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for £6.99 was the pick of the bunch. Worth having at that price, I thought.

People tend to shit on it, and I guess if I take a step back, the plot is really illogical (but TBH see all Tomb Raider games ever) but I think it's really good - if you like, after shooting bads, some quiet time to run around and find all the Easter eggs* (and I do) it's a great'n.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I also continued my streak of finding Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox 360 in charity shops. I think this might be the fourth or fifth time I’ve bought it in as many months.

Sounds like you need a Red Dead INTERVENTION [the who /]





*As in what kids would do on an Easter egg hunt, I don't mean it's full of dank memes

Well actually it was bought for me, a Christmas present that took a while to arrive.
When I first heard about this, I thought it was going to be a self-published 50 page "book" with a big picture of the spaceship from Elite, and the word "Elite", on half the pages.
Actually it's 500 pages long, including a history of the building of the Acorn computer company* , and interviews with all the people who ran publishers** and developers (for the bigger games, sometimes both the development team). Yes it's mostly interesting me as it ties in with my nostalgia, but it works, and it makes me feel like I didn't imagine some of the happy memories I had as a little one in the 80s.

Ideally this would be in interactive form, with Digital Eclipse running the show. The Atari 50 package was great - the only let downs were... the games themselves! Ultimately if it's not your nostalgia, the truth this generation was still too early to make things fun long-term (or the Jaguar being run by people that hadn't paid attention in the intervening 15 years), and the best games in that collection were the re-imaginings. So actually, if there was an interactive thing, I'd like it to go alongside revamps and QoL updates of the best games***. We've only got Elite Dangerous I think****.

(Actually, I'd want a Smash Bros. / Mario Kart with the lads on the front cover)





*I forgot that, although they stopped making computers before the 21st Century, they basically power all small electronic things now
**Some of the absorptions mean that we need to pester EA and the Embracer Group for new things
***The ones that weren't blatant rip-offs of other successful games, mind.
****Surprised to read a paragraph from that the chap who runs Superior Interactive, apparently there's a new Repton in the works! This was published in 2020, and I haven't heard any news whatsoever on that, so...



EDIT: Looked at Repton's Wikipedia page. The PC DLC came out in 2006. The things I submitted for the PC port of the BBC Micro game are themselves 18 years old. Time has no meaning any more.

That's the most Jim thing I've ever seen on here. I'm glad you enjoyed it sir.

That sounds like a cool volume, but as you said yourself . . .

Jimbob wrote:

Ultimately if it's not your nostalgia, the truth this generation was still too early to make things fun long-term

So basically . . .

Balladeer wrote:

That's the most Jim thing I've ever seen on here. I'm glad you enjoyed it sir.

This.

You're not wrong! Also some of the games featured in the book, the programmer actually said "wow it was a bit rubbish!". YES IT WAS.

Jimbob wrote:

****Surprised to read a paragraph from that the chap who runs Superior Interactive, apparently there's a new Repton in the works! This was published in 2020, and I haven't heard any news whatsoever on that, so...

I got an news email 5 minutes after this, there is a new Repton in the works! If they do this right, it could actually counteract the "old UK computer scene" problem, and has the potential to be an excellent puzzle game in 2024.

I've bought all sorts of gubbins:



I felt bad for the courier who delivered the Mario Kart Booster Pass. It was late during the night that Storm Isha brought 80mph winds. When he handed me it at the door I said ‘that’s a shame you’ve had to be out in that’ and he replied ‘I know – fucking hell!’. Then he - wait for it! - stormed off.

Super Pokemon Rumble and Cooking Mama were decent charity shop pick-ups, and a sealed copy of The Simpsons Movie on PSP UMD was too strange and unexpected to leave behind at just a quid fifty.

The Switch game is a Jaleco retro compilation. It doesn’t get any more exciting than that.

Underneath is the three Eyetoy games. I had no inkling to buy them when I went into the shop but I spotted them lined up together on the shelf. With the camera included I was well up for that nostalgia for only £2. I had a fiver on me so thought ‘why not’ and I picked up the Rayman Wii compilation too.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I felt bad for the courier who delivered the Mario Kart Booster Pass. It was late during the night that Storm Isha brought 80mph winds. When he handed me it at the door I said ‘that’s a shame you’ve had to be out in that’ and he replied ‘I know – fucking hell!’. Then he - wait for it! - stormed off.

I have fond memories of faffing about with the EyeToy games back in the day. I'd expect they do not hold up in the least, but hoping for a Cappa retro post about them soon.

JayMoyles wrote:

I have fond memories of faffing about with the EyeToy games back in the day. I'd expect they do not hold up in the least, but hoping for a Cappa retro post about them soon.

That’s the plan. I’ve played through the first one, getting high scores in the twelve different games. It’s quite hard to believe that it’s just over twenty years old…because it plays like it’s not a day under a hundred and twenty years old.

As expected.

Hard to believe those EyeToy games probably inspired Peter Molyneux to have an awkward conversation with a boy named Milo many years later.

I bought Advance Wars: Re-boot Camp after finding Hogwart’s Legacy in the Cash Generator down the street about ten minutes beforehand. Hogwart’s Legacy was £19.99, CEX offered £35 trade-in credit – a quick swap means I basically got Advance Wars for £19.99.

Eledees and Bloody Roar 2 took my fancy, as retro games I’ve got little experience with yet really enjoyed their prequels. Eledees wad sadly without the manual and had dodgy yellow staining on the back cover, so that’s already headed back to CEX for a refund. It’s disappointing as it seems like really good stuff – but I’m not paying £38 to keep a manky incomplete game like that, just naw.

Cuphead was randomly down to £11.99 on Argos for about two hours a few Saturdays ago, I snagged the only one in stock nearby. They had Gang Beasts on Switch for the same price and I bought two copies of that – but they both went straight to different CEXs, where they were offering £20 trade-in credit at the time.

Finally, some non-CEX purchases. The Konami game is the Japanese version of Poy Poy, a game I’ve been interested in for years but can’t remember seeing for a reasonable PAL price. The cartridges next to that are Spiderman: Edge of Time on the 3DS and Trauma Centre on the DS. For the three of them, I feel I got a really good deal at £15.

Finally, Hogwarts Legacy was good for something.

May have mentioned this on the discord a chap in work, is selling his game collection. He sent me over pictures of what he's got which includes sealed Silent Hill PS2 games, Rule of Rose on PS2, Brand New Pokeball New 2DS XL, Persona 3 for PSP and so on.

I could have made a very long list of that be cool but we'd be talking 1000's of pounds, even with him only charging me less than CEX for the most part (sealed Silent Hill would have cost close to sealed price)

That I just ended up getting of him the European VITA games that I didn't have in my collection



These are all still sealed though the condition of the seal on some aren't great (Lost Dimensions, I could easily remove from the packaging), as I say he charged me less than CEX prices, so a £65 Silent Hill, I paid £50.

Might also get some 3DS games of him, the PS2 stuff would be nice, yet even I'm not spending hundreds on Rule of Rose.

Also Final Fantasy VII Rebirth arrived yesterday, the start of my three days off.

Is he only taking offers for the full collection or can you not buy a few games from him that take your fancy, Mas?

Cappa: I see a distinct lack of World's Scariest Police Chases in that recent roundup.

I can buy a few games as I fancy like I did with the VITA games, just all the PS2 games he's got are a £500 Rule of the Rose or a £200+ Silent Hill that even being selective it's overly expensive games.

Though the 3DS games aren't top dolla yet, so will pick up a few of those from him at some point.

And I did pick up a few 3DS games from him, and I got a few other games turn up as well today

JayMoyles wrote:

Cappa: I see a distinct lack of World's Scariest Police Chases in that recent roundup.

Here it is!



Super Mario RPG was bought with expiring Game Collection credit at the start of last month, and I’d fully intended on starting it soon after I’d had it delivered. That said, Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door’s remake has since got a release date for May. I don’t fancy playing two Mario RPGs back to back, and knowing that I should really give Thousand Year Door a proper go, unfortunately Super Mario RPG is getting put on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

Next to that is Air Twister, “Yu Suzuki’s latest masterpiece” supposedly. It was under fifteen quid new, and should scratch that Space Harrier itch that I occasionally get. The Evercade’s Indie Heroes 3 was bought on release but I don’t think it’s very impressive, I haven’t played it much and I don’t expect I’ll do so either.

The three Wii games were bought today. I was very happy to get these from a charity shop in my hometown that was formerly a brilliant source of games but over the last couple of years didn’t seem to sell them at all. Even better, all media was ‘buy two get one free’, meaning these added up to £3.90 altogether.

Lastly, FIFA Street was an impulse CEX buy, World’s Scariest Police Chases was from Cash Generator and in nice condition, and SSX Tricky was minty-mint for a quid.