I'm something of a thrift store junkie. I never know what I'll find. This week I got the best score yet-- Nintendo stuff. This time around the swag consists of Nintendo Gameboy Advanced SP, Game Boy Color, and 3 original Gameboy games, Pac-in-Time, Donkey Kong, & Qix. About a month ago I scored the original pee green screen Gameboy. Now I realize this won't sound very exciting to some who absolutely have to be first in bleeding edge tech, but these machines are awesome.
I grew up mostly in the 80s, but I never had a Gameboy. I did have an Atari Lynx (fine machine, early color portable sickness), but I wanted my Nintendo in portable form. In fact when I was 14 I was close to talking a friend into saving money with me to afford one. I think he blew his money on Call of Cthulhu RPG books so that never happened. It was one of the few things I couldn't trade comics or gaming material to acquire. And I'm the guy who traded a few Magic cards (nothing spectacular) to get a guitar and amp.
When Pokemon came out I finally got a Gameboy from a friend. He jury-rigged an AC plug to play it. I guess he hated using batteries. Eventually that device gave out on me. It was tedious needing an outlet anyway.
So finding all this was nerd treasure.
I've been playing the crap out of Qix. This is a game I discovered at the Magic Scoop arcade when I was about 7. Loved it. I love the idea of being a little spark using lines that when completed in a box-like shape fills in to cause a segmented snake-like creature to slowly lose space to move. If it catches while your in the middle of shaping you die. Oh, and other enemy spark come out to follow your lines. There's something desperate and abstract that really tickles my brain. I like it way more than the Light Cycle segment of the Tron game. And I love the Tron game overall.
Anyway there are two benefits to having the Gameboys around. My young niece is occupied by them and considering I paid about $10 for both I don't have to worry about her rough hands. The second use involves chip tunes. I may not be musically trained, but I am inclined to learn and something about incorporating music from my favorite games in a non-game environment really charges me up.
So, yeah consider me in a tiny spot of Nerdvana from a quick visit to my thrift store.
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