u/FlintHardcheese

I had some time after work and ran to record store up the road to poke around since I’m back in a buying mood again.

Grabbed this leather jacket version of No Remorse. I saw it behind the counter as I was shooting the shit with the clerk and asked, apparently a guy had just brought it in an hour before I arrived. He priced it out for me and that was that.

Listening to it now while doing the most metal thing possible… playing Peak in a fluffy robe and slippers while waiting for my spouse to get home from work 😎🤘

Stacked two deep on a Billy, this is all of my curated collection (round about 118 games but my spreadsheet might be off… there’s also a box of sports titles somewhere in the junk closet I didn’t feel like digging out. There’s no show stoppers in there anyway)

Started collecting for a bunch of different retro systems in high school (along with vinyl) but NES and SNES were my main focus and what I knew the most game wise.

When I moved in with my future husband, I ended up cutting my collection in half so what’s here is what made the cut.

Separated some chaff from the wheat on my shelves to the tune of 100 albums recently and decided on adding some new spins with the newly created space in my collection.

Portishead - Dummy was on my list for a while… being a fan of Sneaker Pimps, Hooverphonic, Massive Attack, etc, its a no brainer addition. This was a cassette that was constantly in my 1992 Honda Civic until she finally went to car heaven on I-294 at the tender young age of 197k miles. Never really looked for it on vinyl until recently because I wanted to revisit it. Same with Presidents of the United States but obviously a different vibe.

Young Marble Giants I discovered along side the Feelies - Crazy Rhythms a long time ago on what.cd (when I was still torrenting on the high seas before Interpol took them down 🕯️) but was never able to find it on vinyl when I grabbed the Feelies vinyl so it dropped off my list for a long while until I decided to start buying again.

Dead Moon was a total impulse buy. Saw this in the store in the new bin, never heard of them, listened to a little on my phone on YouTube and it sounded dirty and raw, so I decided to take it home.

This was at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago going on a decade ago (maybe over a decade). I chose Mitchell specifically to bring in hopes they’d sign it just because it was Joel’s last episode.

My date (now spouse) and I went to watch the boys talk about creating the show and their process and hurdles and fun or frustrating moments during the production. Joel and Frank were the nicest people we ever met and chatted with them a bit at the signing afterwards.

Trace however… he was in his own separate private room, surrounded by heavy security who only called him “presidenté” We had to be patted down before we entered (I got pulled aside for a random strip search) and he wore sunglasses the whole time. He spoke very little and I was sweating so I tried to break the ice by complimenting his watch. He stopped cold and raised an eyebrow and said “OF COURSE ITS NICE! THIS IS WORTH MORE THAN YOUR HOUSE!” and then he snapped his fingers and barked “THE PLEASANTRIES HAVE CEASED!” Broadcast Museum employees simultaneously whisked me away while bringing him a fresh cocktail and what looked to be an entire Beef Wellington with Purée De Pomme truffled potatoes (I heard a plate crash and Trace yelling about how he could taste a sub-standard brandy was used in the duxelles). When I exited, I was handed an invoice totaling $11,759.98 for the signature and asked to pay on the spot (they accepted only cash, wires, or an official bank check)

All things considered, it was a fabulous time.

About 15 games there are my originals from when I was a kid: Mario 1, 2, 3, Contra, Danny Sullivan, Metal Storm, Mega Man 2, Bionic Commando, Battle Chess (my dad got that for himself), Adventures in the Magical Kingdom, North & South, Double Dribble, Ice Hockey, Tecmo Super Bowl, Smash TV, and Iron Tank).

Then… SNES and Genesis took over and I didn’t get back into the NES until I got a bunch of games at a neighbor’s garage sale and started buying here and there with my own money at Game Crazy and EB Games and places like that, joined some early forums, some pre YouTube retro game content creators making recommendations, etc.

This is what I have left. When my now husband and I decided to move in together back in 2014, I cut my total game collection in half and sold off about a third of the NES collection. Kinda wish I waited because man, what I sold the games I got rid of for doesn’t even touch what they’re going for today but c'est la vie, whatyagonnado?

Anywho, I mostly game on my Retro USB AVS for NES stuff nowadays . Still have my toaster (I installed a Blinking Light Win in it a while ago) and a Top Loader, but the AVS is getting the most use now.

I rarely buy an original NES game nowadays. I believe the last official NES game I bought was Family Feud just because some friends wanted to play it and we had a grand old time.