Hi everyone! I hope you’re well. As promised, I’m coming back today with a part 2 of our previous blog entry, where I talked about my Nintendo handheld console collection and showed you some nice pictures.
Today I was actually planning on showing you my entire physical game collection, but after trying (unsuccessfully) to make it all fit into a dining table for about an hour and a half, I’ve finally given up. Instead, this time I’ll focus on the games that I have a manual and/or game box for, and the next time I’ll show you all of the cartridges, which make up most of the collection.
Sooo without further ado, this is an overview of my entire boxed/manual-only game collection:
That’s a big table xD Before we go any further, I’d like to point out a couple things:
- The last time, when I showed you my console collection, I forgot to include my two original Game Boy Color boxes + manuals (which you can see at the top left of the picture) and the boxes for the Game & Watches. I also forgot my Nintendo DSi box, Nintendo DSi XL box and New Nintendo 3DS XL box, which I have also not included in this picture today, but since these consoles are relatively new I guess they’re not as juicy as some of the other stuff. If you really do want to see them, though, just ask and I’ll add them to the post!
- As you can see, in the pic there aren’t only handheld games, but also games from other platforms. Most of my physical games are for Nintendo handhelds, but I also own a few NES games, as well as games for PC and Playstation 1 and 2. I decided to include them here because why not, and many of them go together with Game Boy or DS games I own.
If you want to get a better view at some parts of the picture, here you have three closer shots (click or press on them to make them bigger):
Phew! Putting those on display wasn’t easy xD I was surprised myself by how many boxed games I own, since I had never put them together like this before… the boxes really shine when you put them on a table like this instead of having them hidden away in a shelf.
Now I’ll walk you through some parts of my collection that I find particularly interesting for whatever reason, and talk about them a bit. If you’re interested, read on! If not, just scroll past the text and look at the pictures ;P
Game Boy Color boxes and manuals
You might remember from a few weeks ago that I own every Game Boy Color model that exists (the normal ones, excluding expensive special editions) as well as one modded copy:
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Game Boy Color nerd, and that’s why I’m particularly happy that, not too long after I started collecting in 2016, I was able to get my hands on a couple of complete copies of the console (including the box and manuals) for cheap prices. The market was definitely very different then, since prices have gotten a lot higher over the years. I’ll hold onto these forever. <3
Game Boy Pokémon games
Pokémon were a staple in my childhood (and many others’, back then and now), so of course I had to get my hands on some boxed games. Nowadays their prices are absurd, but back when I got them, not so much: that boxed Pokémon Gold copy only cost me 40 euros and it’s in pristine condition, and the Crystal one has a slightly battered box but I was able to buy it for the absurd price of 25 (!) euros.
Unfortunately I have no boxed first generation games; back in 2016 they didn’t interest me as much and they were harder to find than 2nd and 3rd gen ones, so I never bought them, and now they’re so expensive that I’ve passed on more than one occasion. However, if I ever come across a reasonably priced one, I’ll make sure to snatch it. I do remember owning a Pokémon Red/Blue manual though, but for the life of me I was unable to find it so I could put it in the picture. It’ll eventually show up, I hope. 😅
As you can see in the overview pictures, I also own a variety of NES and 3DS Pokémon games. I still have to play some of them, actually (haven’t touched Sun/Moon, and I’m halfway through Alpha Sapphire). I’m still missing Black and White 2, which I never played back then, as well as X/Y, which people don’t seem to like for some reason but I’d love to try. I’ll talk more about my Pokémon game collection once I show you all of my cartridges – there’s quite a few that I don’t have a box and/or manual for.
Tetris games
I love Tetris. I love puzzle games in general, but Tetris-like ones in particular, both the classic “Tetris” and the match-3 “Tetris Attack” variant. When I was little I was really hooked on Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, which is just Tetris Attack on steroids. More recently, since I started collecting, I’ve spent countless hours playing the Game Boy version of Tetris, and a respectable number of hours playing Tetris 2 (which has nothing to do with Tetris, but is a nice puzzle game anyway) as well as Tetris DX and the NES version of Tetris. You can see them all in the picture! I have the box and manual set for Tetris 2 and the manual for Tetris DX.
I also own, for some reason (?), two copies of Game Boy Tetris, one in good condition that I never use and another in a really battered condition that I play with. You can’t see them here because I don’t have a box or manual for them, but I own several Tetris DS/3DS games too. Tetris forever!
Eragon games
In case you don’t know, “Eragon” is a very bad movie slash fantasy book series that came out when I was a kid/teenager; that is, between fifteen and twenty years ago. For some reason I really liked that series, and perhaps the main culprit was the Eragon GBA game, which is a pretty interesting turn-based RPG with faux-3D graphics that I’ve played several times over the years. It certainly wasn’t because of the quality of the writing or the acting in the source material, to be sure.
I don’t know why, but over the years I’ve ended up owning almost all Eragon games that came out back then, even though the only version I like is the Game Boy Advance one. I think I’m only missing the PlayStation version. I even have the PSP one, which is the only PSP game I own (I rarely even use my PSP anyway, just for emulating stuff years ago). Eragon for PC was also the first game that I ever bought, when I was like fourteen, and I remember being unable to play it for a long time because my computer didn’t have the required specs. My relationship with these games is very weird.
PowerPuff Girls
I got these games very recently and I’m so glad that I could snatch complete copies of them at a great price! (I guess because no one wants them haha…) The PowerPuff Girls (translated, for some reason, as “Supernenas” in Spain, which basically means “Super Babes”(??)) were very important to me when I was little, and I remember playing these Game Boy Color games on an emulator back then. They’re side-scrollers where you play as one of the three PowerPuff Girls, a different one depending on the version, and keep on advancing, defeating foes and stuff. Not a kind of game mechanic that I find particularly interesting today, but having these games on my shelf is very satisfying. They look really nice and bring good memories.
Beyond Good and Evil
Beyond Good and Evil, despite not being a handheld game or a Nintendo game even, deserves a special mention because it is the only game ever that I own three times.
Here in the picture you can see a sealed French PC version of the game that I got for one euro (??) at a gloomy second-hand store five years ago or so, and the PlayStation 2 version of the game. I also own it digitally on GOG.com, but for some reason that version won’t work on my computer, so I ended up getting the PlayStation 2 version to play it on console, since the games are basically the same. I still haven’t gotten around to playing it, though (my backlog is huge), but I hear great things about it.
Game Boy Camera
What’s a Game Boy collection without a Game Boy Camera?
I’ll always remember that time that I almost bought a Game Boy Camera on a second-hand store (now closed) with its original box and everything, for a very good price, but backed off because I didn’t really know what it was… such regret 🥲 Over time I ended up buying the Game Boy Camera and its manual separately, I still don’t have the box but it’s OK. Now I even have a way to transfer the pictures to my PC (more on that in future entries 👀) so I might start experimenting with it more.
Harry Potter games
Now… my relationship with these games is particularly sad and bittersweet. I used to love the Harry Potter Game Boy Color games as a child, as well as the three first Game Boy Advance games (the fourth, not so much, since it declined greatly in quality). I liked that they were turn-based RPGs, in the case of the GBC games and the third GBA game, or nice puzzle RPGs, in the case of the first two GBA games. They weren’t low quality games, like other games based on movies: there was clearly love put into them, and the soundtrack was amazing.
However, over the years I’ve found out not only that the original creator of Harry Potter is a bit on the transphobic, fatphobic, misogynistic end of the spectrum (which would be passable I guess, since these games were made many years ago by dedicated teams and without her input afaik, and I’ve bought them all second-hand), but also that the composer for these games’ soundtracks is an abuser and overall horrible person. Which has sullied my view of these games forever. I used to listen to the soundtrack fondly, but now can’t anymore without feeling sick. So yeah. I’m keeping them because I love them but I’m not playing them again.
Also, an interesting tidbit: the Game Boy Color box of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that you can see in the photo is a knockoff that I found in a flea market a few years ago, not the original. I own the original cartridge but not the original box. Bellow you can see the original translucent cartridge and the black knockoff, side by side:
NES games
Okay, I know that the NES isn’t a handheld either, but I only own four NES games so I figured, why not put them here?
As I mentioned in a previous entry, for many years the NES (well, actually a NES clone) was the only console we had at home, and I believe that the original The Legend of Zelda is the only game that my parents have ever bought. I still have their (boxed, with the manual) copy, as you can see in the pic, which is nice because if I wanted to buy it today I’d probably spend hundreds of euros on it.
I have an original NES that I bought a few years back, but I don’t use it much, preferring instead to emulate the games in a Raspberry that I have set up for that purpose. I used to have a SNES too, but I sold it because the games are ridiculously expensive. The NES, though, I’m keeping for sentimental reasons and so I can play that Zelda family heirloom.
Code Lyoko
Code Lyoko is a (pretty bad and niche) French animated series that came out almost twenty years ago. I used to like it then and for some reason I still like it now, so I thought it would be fun to own a couple of games set in that universe. I haven’t really played them for very long, but they seem interesting enough. Also they’re very cheap because no one wants them. I think I’m missing a few, perhaps I’ll go hunting for them some day…
Cool posters and stuff
I have plenty of cool posters, flyers, adds, manuals and stuff that didn’t make it into the picture because they simply didn’t fit in the table, but there’s one I particularly like for the Game Boy Color that I managed to fit. I’m not sure which of my games it came from, but I think I might put it up on a wall or something:
Also for many years I’ve had another Game Boy poster decorating my room, in this case quite older, from the DMG days. I think it came with my Tetris 2 box. It’s pretty awesome:
Final words
OK, so I think that’s enough today! There’s many more games that I could talk about, but perhaps I’ll wait and go deeper into that once I show you my entire cartridge collection, in the next entry. I’ll rest for now. 😴
If you’ve read this far, thanks! I hope you had fun with this tour. If you have your own stories to share, you can do so in the comments!
Best wishes,
pingudroid
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