Howdy again folks! It’s time for a VERY SPECIAL EDITION of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! As I’ve stated in the last couple of editions, I’m running super behind on these, and well, this is my haul from immediately AFTER PAX to about the beginning of November. This is a very sentimental and memorable edition for me, as with this haul, I have brought my game collection to OVER 1,000 GAMES! Wait, what? Yeah, you read that correctly . . . ONE THOUSAND GAMES! Yes, I have finally broken the 1,000 game barrier and it was quite a special moment. So enough with the chit-chat, and let me share with you the wealth of games I have gotten this time around with some retro Sega Master System stuff, ATLUS, NIS, and Working Designs, Club Nintendo, a pretty rare version of a Zelda game, and more love for a little place I call Cash Converters!



So, here is my haul of DS games from my gaming mecca of Cash Converters. Bomberman, Pokémon Ranger, Sprung, Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and My Chinese Coach (if I get around to it, I thought it MIGHT be kind of useful to learn my “natural” language). I SERIOUSLY really need to get the original Professor Layton, as I played like 10 minutes of the sequel and instantly got hooked and know it’s a game I’ll actually play and enjoy!



Here’s some NES games I decided to pick up, in the shape of: Mach Rider, Clu Clu Land, and Pipe Dream.



So, not nearly as epic as most of my SNES finds, but still not bad nonetheless. An in box Mega Man X, Out of This World, Space Invaders, Revolution X, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and apparently (according to Zoel) the extremely difficult The 7th Saga.



Some various games in the form of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Shining Force EXA, I-Ninja, and Shenmue II.



Finding old school and rare PS games from Cash Converters is also another side hobby in itself, hahaha! Here we have: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Monster Rancher 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Rock Band Unplugged (which is actually a pretty sweet game on PSP), and a replacement Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast, so I can get rid of my current ugly “Sega All Stars” version.



Look at the freaking condition of these two Guncon II including games! You’d be hard pressed to find these period, but the great people at Cash Converters really do look out for me! We’ve got some Ninja Assault and Time Crisis 3 here! Thanks guys! ^_^



Yet another pretty awesome find at Cash Conveters, would be this Final Fantasy VII for PC. While it’s not complete, since it’s missing the box, it’s still pretty much the best I’m going to get and all, so I’m not complaining!



I’m not too sure, but have I mentioned I love a place called Cash Converters? Just wondering? =D Here we have a Sega Master System!



Old school Sega Master System games! Booyah! The only one drawback with all of these is that none of them have the instruction manuals with them, but for how old they are, I’m not going to bitch about it. We have Alex Kidd: High Tech World, Alien Syndrome, Double Dragon, Ghost House, Global Defense, and Golvellius: Valley of Doom.



Continuing on with the retro games – Hand On & Safari Hunt, Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, Phantasy Star, R-Type, Shinobi, and Wonder Boy. Damn! Some of these games are actually the good ones for the system!



So, a few of the games were cartridge only, as the system and games were kind of a bundle, still no complaints though. We have Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Cloud Master, Fantasy Zone, and Quartet.



First and foremost, sorry garison! =( If I find another one mate, I’ll be sure to make sure it’s your’s! Here we have a relatively rare The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which I believe was sold only at Wal-Mart in pretty limited quantities (a first for Wal-Mart? Hahaha!), which has both the game AND the Ocarina of Time Master Quest bonus disc in it as well! Simply awesome! This ends my Cash Converters love affair for the past couple months.



A good thing about networking with people or having people know you’re a collector, would be that you can convince most of them to contact you before going to EB Games or Best Buy to trade-in games. I got these from an acquaintance and all for a pretty good price. I got me some: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Space Invaders Extreme (Wry Guy says this game is bitchin’), LEGO Battles, Super Mario 64 DS, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Boom Blox, and Mario Super Sluggers.



Fellow Dtoider and Calgary homeboy Zoel tipped me off about a guy he talks to that was selling his collection, which allowed me to pick up Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, and yet another Working Designs game in RayCrisis: Series Termination.



After roughly a 2 month hiatus, I also got back into the Goozex groove, which netted me Resident Evil, R-Type Command (Woot! Go Atlus!), Dragoneer’s Aria (Go NIS too!), and Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX.



Believe it or not, incase you’ve forgotten, I actually do buy new games or games from other places besides Cash Converters, hahaha! This is my DS selection and we got us some more Atlus lovin’ in Dokapon Journey and 101-in-1 Explosve Megamix. I also got in on the Scribblenauts action, which was a pretty sweet game, although the controls for moving Maxwell can be annoying as hell at times. We finish off with some Flower, Sun, and Rain along with some Nostalgia.



We’ve got some quality PSP titles here and half of them just might be from my favorite publisher/developer, Atlus . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . hahaha! Here is some Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament, and some ENGLISH (none for you Québec) Half-Minute Hero!



I know there’s going to be some people who are going to groan, but for the price I paid to get a sealed copy of Major Minor’s Majestic March, I’m totally justifying it. I also managed to snag MagnaCarta 2 and Psychonauts from my EB Games as well.



My local Best Buy was also having a mini-sale and all, so I decided it would be the perfect time to pick up The Last Remnant and Valkyria Chronicles.



Websites like RosenQueen totally know how to keep gamers happy! I got A Witch’s Tale along with the soundtrack and digital art collection, Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days with a Laharl in PRINNY form plushie, and Phantom Brave: We Meet Again with soundtrack from there. God bless NIS and extra freebies.



Once again from RosenQueen, here we have the super limited edition of Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, which has the normal packaged game that has a soundtrack, along with an artbook and giant foldout poster.



So, since I have a “terrible” system (quote possumwrangler) for updating my collection file and such, I kind of arbitrarily get to assign a certain games whatever number I want, but it’s a procedure that close enough to the true number. Still, with my first post in July of 2008 (twas a lurker for quite a while) showing my setup and my newly bought 600th game, it makes me reflect and realize how adding another 400 games to my collection in a couple months short of a year and a half is pretty goddamn obscene! Still, using the collection file that possumwrangler developed and all, as you can see I’m at a solid 999 games, and if you look closer, you can see how it’s broken down as well.



As I said, I kind of arbitrarily choose in my hauls which game I will give honor to for landmarks, and this time around for such a monumentus occasion, I bestow this honor to a game by ATLUS (which I’m slowly continuing my pursuit of owning every North American released game by them) and the critically acclaimed Demon’s Souls! Those who know me know that I would settle for nothing less than the Deluxe Edition, and along side it is the wonderful artbook and soundtrack the most fan dedicated company gave out with preorders. Long live ATLUS and did I mention that I now have 1,000 . . . holy crap . . . ONE THOUSAND GAMES!!! ^_^



This is a picture of my collection file once again, showing the landmark occasion! Let the collecting continue is all I can say!



Now onto the exclusive part of my hauls that some people go straight to. SWAG TIME! In this picture, we have the Scribblenauts Rooster Hat, Mini Ninjas Pins, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Comic, and some Deca Sports 2 Biking Gloves.



In this one we have a Halo 3: ODST Lanyard, a Halo 3: ODST Sgt. Johnson Promo Code, a Forza Motorsport 3 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro Promo Code, A Boy and His Blob Stress Ball, a Star Wars The Clone Wars Comic – Crash Course, the MagnaCarta 2 Official Visual Book, D-Day Code Name: Overlord Documentary DVD, a Tekken 6 Limited Edition Laser Cel, NHL 2K10 Wii Remote Faceplates, and a Lego Rock Band Keychain.



A few more doodads and such. A sealed Gamecube Broadband Adapter? Heck yes! A Prinny PSP Pouch? Awesome d00d! A great condition Game Boy Pocket? Booyakasha!



So, there are certain series that I’m a HUGE fan of, and Kingdom Hearts would be one of those. I actually HAD the game bought, but since we get scammed of the cool stuff in Canada, I actually RETURNED the game, since it didn’t have the cool slip cover. I ended up ordering one off eBay so I could get the slipcover version, so that will hopefully be in my next update. Here we have the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Postcards, Guide, and Poster. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t come out with a Collector’s Edition version of the guide, but hey, you win some, you lose some. If you’re wondering what the poster under the Kingdom Hearts one, it’s an old Euro 2004 one for all you fellow football fanatics! ^_^



So, here we have the first thing I’ve spent using the thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) of coins I’ve accumulated from Club Nintendo . . . of America. Not going to lie, it’s about time we got something cool and unique like the following 3 posters of The Legend of Zelda. The best part about these posters is that they’re not printed on crappy, easy-to-tear generic paper. They’re actually printed on hard paper and laminated as well. With this one, we have Link’s History, depicting the many variations the Hero of Time has taken up over the years.



In this one, we have a nice scene of Link sailing a boat with the art of The Wind Waker being the main theme here.



Finally, we have a nice montage of all the main characters from Twilight Princess with some nice gloomy coloration that I’m quite a big fan of.



Continuing with the Club Nintendo theme, for being an Elite member for the past year (having over 600 coins registered), I chose to get a Mario Hat mailed to me as my Platinum award, as opposed to the other option of Doc Louis’ Punch-Out!!



So . . . 1,000 games . . . wow . . . simply wow . . . =S Never did I imagine that I would ever approach that many games. For a guy who didn’t really start collecting until about 4 years ago, it just boggles my mind. Looking back at my first blog on Destructoid, showing my setup, 1 year and 4 months ago, when I was celebrating my 600th game . . . it hits you pretty hard to realize that in that time I’ve added over 400 games . . . holy shit . . . holy fucking shit! I don’t even want to know how much money I’ve spent to build this collection, although, I know it could very well be even MORE than I’ve spent, if not for my thrifty hunting. All I know is that this is something I’m very proud to have and something to pride myself on.

With that said, I want to extend an EXTREMELY big thank you to possumwrangler, of whom I’ve known for pretty much 15 years now. My fellow collector, who still has more games than me (albeit, arguably not as many “quality” titles ;-D), but who has been my collecting buddy through thick and thin. God knows how many thousands of dollars we’ve spent at Cash Converters, EB Games, eBay, RosenQueen, etc. Plus, I don’t know how I’d even keep track of this absolute monster of a beast of a collection, without the “collection” file he made for both of us in Excel. Thanks mate . . . thanks! =D Next up would be my “second family,” the employees of Cash Converters. Over the past couple of years I’ve developed more than a regular customer/employee relationship with them, and would proudly call them my friends. A HUGE thanks goes to the one, the only, the man, Diamond Dave! A guy who has gone beyond the normal duty of a salesman to be a brother from another mother to me, and has done more for me, and has been one of the main reasons I’m able to continue my passion of collecting games. A shout out also goes to James, Jeff, David, Dan, Suzanne, Stephen, and Aron. Thanks guys! Zoel also gets a shout out for being my importer and translator when it comes to stuff that’s obscure or foreign to me. He’s the one who managed to get me The World Ends With You (otherwise known as It’s A Wonderful World) DS Lite for me. You da man holmes! Big thanks to all the people I’ve traded with on the RetroForceGO! Great Game Trading Thread. Finally, a GIANT thanks goes to Destructoid! I thank Niero and ALL my fellow Dtoiders for giving me a place to share my collecting exploits and allowing me to show you guys my collection. You guys rock! d(‘-‘d)

With that said, this ends yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. I’m already starting on the next edition, which has one super huge trade from the Trading Forum, and some other cool odds and ends. Thank you for reading this very special edition, and hopefully . . . dare I say . . . here’s to the next 1,000 games . . . ^_^