What's your best gaming deal to date?

[brettybluevein]

You know what I didn't realize about it until I got it though, was that they ditched the nicer A/V outs and went with RF only, and you also lose the ability to play the card based games on it. I guess it was the cheaper, late entry version a la top loader NES.

[scott]

I noticed a year or so ago, that the Genesis I have is the same way. RF only, no AV. While the NES and SNES have AV on both.

[brettybluevein]

I noticed a year or so ago, that the Genesis I have is the same way. RF only, no AV. While the NES and SNES have AV on both.

Genesis 3?

[scott]

Nope it's a model 2. I've had it since it was brand new.

[brettybluevein]

Well, Model 2 has A/V out. It's a pin connector that that has RCA ends on it. The SMS II and NES top loader only have the option for an RF output.

[scott]

Ah, cause I was looking for actually AV jacks. ha

[darko]

You guys need to invest in a nintendo s-video adapter. I think I paid a whopping 12 dollars for mine. It works with the snes, n64 and gamecube....and do an a/v mod on your Geneses. I picked a model 2 up with the SCD modded with stereo rca jacks and component video for 30 bucks.

[amauriel]

My husband and his best friend got our best deal ever while I was at work.  (And before we were married...would not have the game collecting in my blood if it hadn't been for that fateful trip, I'm sure.)

He and the friend went to a local community garage sale that happened every Memorial Day. I was working to pay for my trip to Japan and felt bad calling in, joking that every day I called in was one less game I was coming home with. (So this would have been 2004.)  He calls me the moment I'm off the clock to let me know that they got a good deal and they were coming over to my parent's house to divvy it up (I was still in college, and was off for the summer.)

An hour later, the friend's van pulls up, boxes stacked to the brim. I first start off with the obvious "How much did you guys pay?!?!?" to which they giggled and said they were out $25 each, $50 total.  Without further ado, here's everything I can remember being in this haul:

9 Intellivisions (2 of them III's, 3 of them CIB)
2 Odyssey2s (CIB)
1 TurboGrafx16
Over 200 Intellivision games, many CIB
Every single U.S. release Odyssey2 game (all CIB...some, like The Wall Street Fortune Hunt, still have their game pieces in plastic)
Repeats on most of the Odyssey2 games
A decent haul of Atari games (I'd say maybe 25?)
A couple random games for other systems (TMNT: The Arcade Game for the NES is the only one I specifically remember)

We spent probably 5 or 6 hours playing random games on the Odyssey2, kept one complete collection of Odyssey2 games for us, with the exception of Power Lords, which we let the friend have in exchange for letting us have the entire collection, and he got all the dupes. The Intellivision games we laid out on the floor and picked around in a circle, not really knowing what anything was worth. We got the TurboGrafx too, although I'm not sure how we pulled that off....maybe let him have most of the Atari games?

Point is, I had the ColecoVision as a kid and was a Nintendo kid growing up, my husband was a Sega kid, neither of us really got rid of anything, and with the addition of this set here, we got married with a pretty healthy start to our gaming collection.

[varkias]

My best deal so far happened about a year ago when I was heavily visiting garage sales.  A lady had purchased a Nintendo and ten games for her kids back in the day but they never played them.  Although they were no longer sealed they were in absolute perfect condition.  I paid $50 for all of it, and the gems were the minty boxed NES, Contra Force (like new) and Contra (like new).

[hexen]

I love telling this story.

A friend and I where at a Movie Trading Company. In the past 4-5 years, I have bought every label-less Intellivision game I found in hopes it was something I didn't have. Sadly, about 75% turned out to be Poker & Blackjack, and the rest things I already had. So, that day they had 2 new label-less games for $2 and $1. I decided that my days of buying label-less Intellivision games where over. For the next couple of weeks when we went my friend would always bug me to buy them, but I held out. Finally, one week, my friend bought the two games for me as a joke to annoy me. So, we get back to my house and I fire them up. The $2 game is Sub Hunt. I was happy that it wasn't Poker & Blackjack. I plug in the $1 game and it doesn't seem to work, It looked like I was getting error lines. I take it out, clean it, and try again. Same thing. I then pulled out my regular Intellivision (I was using my Intellivsion II for the first part) and plugged it in. The same error lines and stuff. This time, however, I let it run. The lines did all sorts of weird colors and then jumped to a screen with two pictures of Intellivision controllers that lit up as I pressed the corresponding button on each controller. My friend and I both knew what had happened at this point. Turns out that this was an MTE 201 Test Cartridge. It's pretty pricey, going for about $80-$100 on eBay (Buy it nows are usually around $300, but Buy it nows are almost never priced anywhere near correctly.)

Also, while on the topic of the Intellivision, Holy cow Amauriel, that is one of the most legendary stories I have ever heard.

[nightowljrm]

Mine was probably a free Atari 5200... yeah, not that good. I'm never lucky. =P

[amauriel]

@hexen: Yeah, I wish we'd taken pictures of the van as we were unloading it. I still have a couple of extra Intellivisions in the basement (although I recently bought an Intellivison II at a Goodwill since we had the I and III...I think my husband coulda killed me when I brought it home. Then I saw that little glint in his eye and all was forgiven.)

I know we have a lot of copies of Poker & Blackjack, but the one I remember having stacks of was Lock 'n' Chase. Also Frog Bog. I honestly haven't gone back through the Intellivision games in a LONG time...and when we do, it ends up that we play Burgertime (me) and Dragonfire (him).

And we don't have ANY test cartridges, so you've definitely got me there.

[mojoeskateco]

Recently got a sega Saturn with 2 controllers and the following games

Shining force 3
Albert odyssey
Road rash
Quake
Sega rally

All for $40.  Games were all complete and mint.  The first and so far only games in my Saturn collection.

[scott]

Oh man, that's an excellent deal. Did the guy not know what he had or what?

[mojoeskateco]

It was actually kind of odd.

He obviously had no idea what they were worth or he did not care.

He was selling a Dreamcast with a bunch of common games for $100 so I think he was just basing his prices on how old the hardware was.

He mentioned that Shining Force III was hard to find but he still sold me everything for $40.

The battery in the console was dead so I'll have to replace it before I can save anything.