I may not be a Neo-Geo expert, but I’ve ran this site long enough to know that there’s a number of SNK fans that aren’t keen on Dion Dakis. The co-founder of NeoGeoFreak pushed the buttons of a lot of American Neo-Geo collectors with his online antics and personality. Last summer I had a trip out to Las Vegas and I worked it into my schedule to sit down with Dion Dakis for an evening and talk about the last [...]
It has been quite a while since I’ve done a product review, but since I’ve been offered some review copies of some Retro Gaming books, I thought I’d give the concept another whirl. Personally, I’m quite an information junkie – especially for topics I enjoy. My love for curating information is a big part of why I started this site in the first place. This first book I’m reviewing, Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990 (see previous entries in the series) [...]
It is very easy to get overwhelmed when collecting vintage video games. It can be tempting to attempt to collect full console libraries of games, but sometimes focusing on a certain sub-category of a particular library can often be a more practical (and many times more enjoyable) experience. This is the first of a series of collecting guides that will focus on a subset of games that are popular with collectors. The launch titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) [...]
Even though retro-styled games are making a comeback of sorts, important establishments that are part of retro gaming culture such as arcades and stores that stock retro games and gear are still on the decline. Since these establishments are becoming such a rarity, we need to keep retro gamers educated where existing places are located and make sure they are supported sufficiently. We just started taking nominations for the best remaining arcades in the world, but for this post, I wanted [...]
You might remember my interview and store tour with Jason from Trade N Games (based in St. Louis, MO area) (See our interview here). Well anyway, I wanted to share an extra video segment from that day where he shared his thoughts on sealed games and how you can spot fake sealed games in the wild. I also thought I’d round up some other tips to share with you in case you are on the lookout for sealed games. Sealed [...]
For those of you that are old-school Sega Junkies (especially fans of the Dreamcast), you may have heard of Sega’s simulation adventure that puts you in control of the (at the time) beloved hardware and software maker. Segagaga was filled with lots of fanboy humor and put you on a mission to beat Sega’s competitor, “DOGMA” (which is a parody of the PS2-era Sony). Sounds like a Dreamcast fanboy’s dream come true, huh? Well, the only problem is that [...]
A little over a week ago, I attended PAX East in Boston for the second time and was able to attend a few very interesting panels that were related to retro gaming. My favorite panel of the bunch was entitled “Ten Games You Need to Play: The Digital Game Canon” put on by the IGDA (International Game Developers Association). The title is a bit misleading as the panel didn’t really talk about the “Ten Games You Need To Play”, but [...]
Check out the Racketboy Youtube Channel and Facebook Photo Set for related media As we all know, arcades are disappearing around the world – even in the largest of cities. I know that here in the Midwest part of the US, there are only a handful of quality arcades and not many “mega arcades” . Since I was making a trip out to California to visit my brother, I wanted to make a special detour to Santa Cruz to revisit [...]
The holiday shopping season is in full swing now and I thought it would be a great time to round up some products that would be useful for not only building up your own wishlists, but also might be some good gift ideas for other gamers in your lives or for friends that just need a little friendly re-introduction to retro gaming. As an added bonus, I invited the Racketboy staff members to share their recommendation for this gift guide. [...]
I get a real kick out of talking to owners of independent game stores. They always have so many interesting stories to tell, and often, cool things to show off. During my visit to Trade N Games while in St. Louis this past summer, I was treated to lots of both. I actually recorded about 80 minutes of footage while I was there and had a hard time cutting it down to fit it into the one Youtube clip I [...]
Every now and then, when visiting different parts of the US, I like to track down independent or small-chain game stores and report my findings to the Racketboy community. While in on a road trip back in July, I was able to spend some time in the wonderful city of St. Louis (serious, I recommend visiting if you’re in the area). Just outside of St. Louis, is the town of Fenton, MO which is home to Trade N Games. (See [...]
Every now and then, when visiting different parts of the US, I like to track down independent or small-chain game stores and report my findings to the Racketboy community. Usually, I like to do a video interview with the store owner and not only get a tour of the store, but also get their insights on the retro-gaming world. While in Oklahoma last month, I had the opportunity to visit a couple of locations from a regional chain of stores [...]
Presented by Zen Albatross Tiny bagels and pots of hot coffee wait patiently on a fold-out table in a a small classroom on the southeast end of New York University campus. It’s an early Saturday morning in late June and most of NYU’s students are on Summer break. But for the group of artists, programmers, hackers and musicians about to gather around that breakfast table, the most important class of the year is about to begin. Using a couple of [...]
One of the most popular features of this site is our Rare and Valuable Game Guides. These features have received a lot of attention lately because of the recent sale of a Stadium Events NES Cartridge on eBay for $13,000 and a sealed listing of the same game on eBay for more than $20,000 (auction is still active). Because of this recent traffic, we have received a lot of emails and blog comments asking how much their old games are [...]
When the digital distribution model started taking off on services like Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, I had a feeling that we would start seeing affordable downloads of cult-classic games that have previously been expensive collectors pieces. So at the end of 2006, I started tracking a handful of games that I thought would be candidates for digital re-releases. Three years later, I decided to chart out the results of the tracking and see how affordable downloads of the [...]
Get incredible video quality from your Dreamcast with this adapter. Seriously, you'll be surprised how good it is.
You just can't beat an official controller -- especially for a system like the Sega Dreamcast. These are all brand new and in the box.
