waterloo game swap

During my recent visit to Waterloo for the Waterloo Game Swap I was very pleasantly surprised to find a real live AVS by RetroUSB. If you haven’t heard about the AVS, it’s newly made Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console created by RetroUSB. It does not use software emulation and offers an HDMI port so you can play your NES games on an HD TV.

Unfortunately is was not for sale. The reason the AVS was at the Waterloo Game Swap was to promote the imminent NESathon 2016 HD. In support of Multiple Sclerosis Research the NESathon will be taking donations during this 50 hour video gaming marathon.

“NESATHON 2K16 HD will take place:
Friday June 3rd at 3:00PM EST and run through until Sunday June 5th!
We will be playing NES games for 50+ hours in HD (thanks retrousb.com) and streaming the whole thing live to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis Research.”
http://nesathon.blogspot.ca

NESATHON 2K16 Official Trailer

You can find all the details here: nesathon.blogspot.ca

Although it was brief I did get some hands on time with the AVS. I was able to play Super Mario Bros. 3 for about 5 minutes. And during that time my impression of the AVS is that it does as advertised. The image was very clear like you’d expect on an HD display and I did not notice any input lag at all. The instant I pressed the button Mario would jump. Super Mario Bros. 3 seemed to play just as well as it would on an original NES.
I asked (who I believe is) the NE$ Pimp if he’d be willing to turn on scan-lines. He did and there was a very noticeable difference. I do believe I prefer the scan-lines. It really made Super Mario Bros. 3 look more authentic while still being an HD image.

My already elevated excitement for the RetroUSB AVS is climbing higher. I am very eager for news of a release date.

Below are a few pictures I of took at the Waterloo Game Swap including some pictures of the HD AVS.

Check out the line to get into the Waterloo Game Swap! Nintendo Joe and I were about half way when I took this picture. And it did not take long to get in once the doors opened.

What you see below is not quite half the size of the event floor. Nothing but piles of retro video games everywhere.

What’s this? The retroUSB AVS?! It was great to get a chance to try it out first hand.

The photo doesn’t show it off very well but this is Super Mario Bros. 3 is being displayed with scan lines. I really to prefer this option on.

Now’s your chance to see what the HD AVS can do and see NES games played in glorious HD. Tune in to the NESathon 2016 HD, watch some fellow retro fans play the heck out of the AVS and help a good cause while you’re at it.

…I wonder if the NE$ Pimp realizes that he met the Sega Dude?

So I went and have returned from VGCC’s Waterloo Video Game Swap. And something strange happened…

I went home with more money than I came with. And against all odds I did not buy a single game.

Below you can see Nintendo Joe (left) looking like someone who has been standing all day and Flavio to the right.
Flavio and I with our combined Sega Master System (SMS) and Japanese Mega Drive games dominated the Sega presence at this event. If you divide the table in half all those SMS games on the right half are Flavio’s. All the Sega stuff to the left is mine. Flavio’s commanding lead in inventory made him the day’s top earner of the three of us. Flavio said he made just about $1,000 in the five hours we were there. He also had two large boxes of NES games for sale which were very popular.

Nintendo Joe and Flavio!

For myself, I was selling a lot of cheap and often complete Sega Master System games and I thought more would sell. People in Canada seem to be very Nintendo crazy 🙂 But I did sell some; including SMS, Mega Drive, Genesis, ColecoVision and maybe one or two PS2 and xbox original games.
Since Nintendo Joe picked us up and did all the driving Flavio and I split the cost of the table and gas. After my expenses I went home with an extra $260. It’s not amazing but it’s OK.

Busy Busy!

I don’t know Nintendo Joe’s final tally but I’m sure he’ll be posting it soon at MyNintendoDimension. As you can see from the image above this small venue was packed. Which is why we all did so well. People were having a very hard time just walking around!

Even though I didn’t buy anything that does not mean I went home empty handed! Thanks to Nintendo Joe I came home with three Super Nintendo games and Dungeon Lords for the PC. Haven’t heard of Dungeon Lords?! If you’re OK with old games that look old but are still awesome check out Dungeon Lords. I’m sure Nintendo Joe only gave it up because he’s all Mac now and does not have a PC. …but I still love him anyways.

Courtesy of Nintendo Joe. For my Nintendo Corner!

Two of these SNES games are ports of SNK Neo Geo games which added a lot more interest for me with my new found Neo Geo collecting. Nintendo Joe could have easily sold these for $10 each but instead he sent them my way. Thank you! *Update: After becoming more particular about what I collect I ended up giving these back to Nintendo Joe.

Speaking of new games; just before the show I picked up some Master System games from Flavio. He gave me a great deal on a stack of games. It really pays off having friends into the same stuff you are.

For this Game Swap I decided to try something out. Something to get the SegaDude out there! And ingrain myself deep into pop-culture!!
In most of my games I stuck in a business card that I made up using the artwork made for me by EvilKalman. I also scattered these cards on the table top so people could just grab one if they wanted to. The idea was to see if I could find anyone who might want to check out what I have going on here 😀

SegaDude Business Cards!

Before I left for the Game Swap there were 96 of you wonderful people subscribed to my blog. And now a week after handing out my cards at a jam-packed video game venue?!… there are still 96. A quick calculation tells me that is a net gain of zero (0). I bought 250 cards (still have most of them) for $70. Well, whatever, I still think they are cool and I believe Nintendo Joe is a wee bit jealous so they are worth every penny. 😀

When we drove home the car felt just as packed as when we went there. Of maybe ten boxes of stuff 8 were coming home again. I’m done with my doubles and I want them gone! So I start putting them on Kijiji (Classifieds) and that same day I was able to sell my boxed SONY PSP for $80 and the next morning I had sold all of my remaining 66 Japanese Sega Mega Drive games. I was willing to sell them individually but I also offered the entire lot of games for $280. And poof! they were gone. Someone just getting back into the Sega Genesis bought them all. I got rid of them and he got all those games for less than $4.25 each. That’s a win-win in my book.

Don’t forget about Dungeon Lords. It’s an excellent open world action RPG. It’s also good and hard!

Steel Case Dungeon Lords. DRM free!