There is nothing I like more than seeing other collectors’ collections and
I can spend hours looking at pictures and youtube videos where
people speak about their collections. A lot of collectors surprisingly
or maybe understandably like to keep much of the collection a secret and
that has been the case for me too all these years and I have very rarely
put any pictures up showing the game room.
I always think “just one more item and the collection will be ready for display”
or “I just need to arrange this part”. Also, I don’t want to spoil the
surprise when people visit and see the room for the first time but
I have decided to finally put up a few recent pictures, you can see this
as a half room tour! We will not get to see the Playstation shelf today
and that is where half of the games are, hehe.

I have just put a lot of the “oddly shaped” boxes and items in new protective sleeves, it might not show in the pictures
but it took a lot of time and it feels great that everything finally is protected!

(Don’t forget to click on the pictures if you actually want to see
what is on them)

The Xeno shelves change very little, the other boxes move around a lot though and this setup is far from final.

The lower corner is a chaos of boxes in different sizes, a few that I might
not even keep. Don’t mind the mystic green censor square, hehe.

This is where the Tales of collection recently relocated to, it took a lot
of time before I was happy with this, I tried making the right shelf a
Tales of shelf but in the end I got the crazy idea to put up an extra
shelf for the consoles in the background and then the Tales of boxes could
take their old spot over the TV. I like it, a bit sad that the “normal” games
no longer are on display. By the way, this is not where I usually play my
games but I plan on connecting at least four consoles to the TV,
the projector usually have Xbox360 and PS3 connected.

The red table for all the photos, and half of the SFC games.

The other half and Nintendo corner!

I rarely speak or brag about the Nintendo shelf since I don’t actively
collect any of the games, I just get the good games when they are
released, the old games are from my childhood, some of the missing titles
like Castlevania for NES is in my brother’s hands. It may look nice in the
picture but there is not much left of the Link to the Past box, haha.
The same goes for the other favorite games that I played as a child
(Poor Illusion of Time).

As a bonus, this is where the Tales of games used to be, now it’s some kind of diorama shelf! This and the one below will change when my next package arrive later this year.

I really hope that you liked it, I will do a real tour someday, including the Playstation shelf of course!

There is so much going on in and around the collection right now that I don’t
even know what to write about!

I recently looked at the stats for this blog and it seems like there has been
quite some visitors from around the world in the Xeno section lately,
I am happy and welcome you all, hehe. I really hope that you find the info
you are looking for since that is my goal with the site after all,
I will try to pick up the pace and add the rest of my collection and one step
towards that is of course to reveal the secret stash number 2!

Long before I even started collecting games there was one item that me
and my brother always dreamed of owning,
the item is of course – Xenogears Perfect Works –
Back then it seemed like a distant dream and we spent hours looking
through the amazing art in a scanned copy on the computer screen.
We spent even more hours reading and discussing the incomplete fan
translations that existed back then, those where the days and the
outcome of Xenosaga was still a mystery.

Less than a year after the collecting started a copy of the – Real thing –
finally made it’s way to me! Not only did – Perfect Works – arrive,
I soon found out about the Xenosaga Emission books and made it my life’s
goal to one day own those as well, since I was made of money back then and
had a good proxy/friend who could find them for me (I had no idea how to use
ebay or import items at that time) I didn’t hesitate to buy them all at
once when he said he could get them for me!
I was shaking just at the thought of owning them, I was not worthy of
such magnificence.

Around the same time as all of this I was planning to move and had to store
the four art books in the safest possible way. My solution was to build a
large chest, thick wood, many screws, really sturdy! On the inside I used some
kind of foam like in a mattress and made insertions for the four books and
added some luxurious cloth fabric of course.
At last I added an extra layer to the chest for future items.

After the move it probably took around a year before I even opened the chest
again and I was still shaking when I saw them all lying in there, such a sight!
I still couldn’t believe it. The chest has been with me all these years and
have of course gotten a few additions since then but very few have actually
seen the inside and sadly no one else will since I finally have grown tired
of it, or rather I have found something even more spectacular and
need the space…
The items have moved to a new location and I took some pictures of
them and put them in new protective sleeves.
(They are up in the Xeno section any moment)

For some reason I don’t have any good pictures of the chest but enjoy these old ones anyway:

It is big!

A really old picture when I stored some books on top.

This is the top layer with handles to lift it up while the items are still in place. By the way, the middle item is on my top three items ever created and of course I will get back to that one!

And this is the lower layer designed especially for the Emission books.
(Make sure to enlarge the picture by clicking it.)

It has been a while and this will be another picture heavy round.

Before that I might as well mention Tales of Zestiria, one of many reasons I
haven’t had the time to write and also one of the reasons the
month was expensive. I won’t spoil anything important so feel free to read on!

I have not beaten the game yet since I’m actually stuck on the final boss
for the first time in a Tales of game, for some reason it won’t even be
defeated on the lowest difficulty setting… Oh well, I will do some more
sidequests and try to master the far too confusing equipment/ skill system.
That is also my biggest complaint and I know that
others have the same problem.

Otherwise I like the game, the battles are really interesting and I like
that you combine two characters to make a new one! The story is quite weak
and not the best cast either but some parts still felt much better and less
dragged out than usually in Tales of. The environments are as suspected much
better than in Xillia but I can’t help but to miss the good old times with
tiles and when you actually could visit the insides of houses etc…

The best part of the game is whenever a Go Shiina melody plays, two of my
favorite composers in the same game, what a treat, Go Shiina by far makes
the more exciting music but sadly he only made 10-15 tracks this time.

In the end this is an interesting “evolution” of the series.

Now. Picture time!

Yes! I sold my US copy of Dragon Quest 8 years ago, finally it’s in place again.

I have had my eyes on this forever.

You get this beautiful figure/ diorama, there is a music box hidden in the
house that plays the main theme.

Wo! Quite a similar box, sadly Atelier Iris 3 didn’t get one like this.

This is amazing and instantly became a favorite, the figures spins one way
and the bracelet the other way at the same time as it plays the main theme.
It is just too good!

More .hack, this time an extremely limited japanese box with all three games and bonus discs.

Not for sale! If you know how this was sold originally I would be glad to know.

This is how a good box opens up!

This is the new Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross Arrange album that
we have waited for all these years! It might need its own post later,
let’s just enjoy the typical “Mitsuda art” for now.

The back, even stranger mayhap.

As you can see this was an expensive month and I didn’t even
mention the overpriced Zestiria Box…
This always happens when I have a bit of money,
it suddenly transforms into rare paper boxes.

I have spent a lot of time lately rearranging the collection and
maybe you will finally get some new overview pictures soon!

No, don’t run away!

I know this is a quite “hated” game and this is one of the times that I will
admit that it is 90% nostalgia that makes me like it, of course I know
it’s not a good game but it was one of the first RPGs that I played.
Ah, the warm summer days at my relatives house, the good old sofa,
cold lemonade and a major headache from getting lost in the cursed castles
of the game! It feels like yesterday but since then I have grown immune to
headaches, warm summer days and beaten the game plenty of times.

I say this about many games but it really has been a dream to one day own
the original X68000 version of the game, well now I do!

It’s so cool, I have been happy ever since it arrived and I can’t stop
thinking about it! The box is huge, about the size of two DVD cases,
it is my first time seeing a X68000 game in real life and I was a bit
surprised. The inside is also very nice:

The manual is big, thick and have all the information you need
(plus a small manga part of course). This is not a limited copy or anything
but you still get a full sized poster with the world map in beautiful colors,
of course the game was prized at 8800 yen (a lot back then) and very few
copies were sold. The game itself comes on four 5.2″ diskettes, a bit too
retro for my taste but I might emulate the game someday just to see the
differences between this and the SNES version we all know so well.
At least the music is superb in both versions and that is why
I am happy to present:

The freaking soundtrack, aaah, I can’t believe this! If the game is rare,
this is ultra rare, how it even exists is a mystery, the number of copies
this sold is probably next to none, which of course is sad, I have been
playing the soundtrack and the sound quality is amazing, really,
some of the tracks makes your ears melt (that is a good thing, haha).

Phew, what a rant but I am so happy about this!

I realise that it has been a while since I even mentioned Xeno
in this blog… The collecting has been really slow lately and finding the
missing items are just ridiculous both when it comes to the prices and
actually finding someone who are willing to sell them.

I did say in an earlier post that I have 3 secret Xeno stashes, well,
the first one is actually split up into 7 of these boxes:

This post will only show one of these as an example but I will add more
of them to the Xeno section soon.

Let’s have a look inside:

I like the size of these boxes, you can store artbooks and other
things in A4 size without problem.

A good start! The Xenogears postcard book, only 8 pages
but the beauty makes up for it!

Haha, the Xenosaga coasters, I can’t believe how expensive these was,
I ended up in a bidding war and finally won them, so much money
for a bit of cardboard…

Mmmm, the Xenogears calender, perfect to have if you want to keep track
of the dates in 1998. You could get this by preordering the game in Japan.

Manga time, this one is official but I have always been
a bit disturbed by the art.

Ah, my weak spot, an artbook, this time from Yuki Nobuteru who
drew the characters for the anime, a really good book.

More art from the anime in this massive book. I can’t even remember
exactly what’s in it, I have probably only opened it once years ago.

Another manga, it should follow the story of Episode II.

I see, most of the manga books where hiding in the bottom.

The DNA Media Comics, the left one is missing a paper that is supposed to sit
around the cover, if anyone knows what they are called please tell me!

More Manga, there is a total of 16 official Xenosaga Manga and this is what
lies within one of the seven boxes, phew.

I can gladly announce that all of the games actually are sold, woho!
A nice buyer that I have traded games with in the past contacted me
and we managed to make a deal including all Playstation games that
where left and also some SFC games. In total I sent over 200 games,
by far the biggest amount I have ever sold at one time, sure I
didn’t become rich since most games cost a dollar or two but it
feels really good to finally clean up the collection and make
room for new games.

Some of the games will be missed, they have been a part of the
collection for a while after all. If you wonder why I had them all
to begin with the reason is simple, I bought some large bulks
years ago to pick out all of the RPGs!

Oh well, goodbye games:

So, what to fill up all the empty space with? Thanks to JRPGeek the answer is
the amazing Bravely Default Deluxe Box (PAL version with the Agnes figure)!

I am really happy to finally have it! It was impossible to take a good
picture but there is plenty to find on the INTERNET, the best part
besides the good game, artbook etc must be the texture of the box,
it looks more like textile instead of the usual cardboard:

A really nice and luxurious box!

If you live outside of Sweden the chance that you know about retrogathering is
slim but it is… a retro gathering held once a year in the city västerås,
one of few times and places where the collectors and other fans of old
games can come togheter in this country.

The biggest part is probably about buying old games but there is also
a lot of old consoles up and running that you can try out, some
lectures/talks about games, auctions and usually some cosplay
even if I didn’t see any this time.

This year was probably my favorite, it should be my fourth time visiting
and I actually stayed from opening to closing, I usually get tired about
halfway through, hehe.

Since it felt like everyone else took pictures of everything I didn’t bother,
instead this will be a detailed version of my day!

I woke up early after far too little sleep, took the train and actually
started on Dragon Quest IX (really like it so far). Since I was early I had
time to play some more before opening (a bit too cold to play outside, hu).
As soon as they opened I rushed too all the sellers’s tables and looked for
PS2 RPG’s missing in the collection but sadly no luck, instead I found the
James Bond 007 box with the golden controller, wo, so golden,
and the only way to match the Zelda Wiimote, hehe!

After that a friend finally found me in the chaos and delivered some old
controllers and accesories I might be able to fix and also a copy of Legaia 2
that was missing in the collection. We both decided to join in a Bomberman 2
tournament, since there was many participants I decided to camp near
the tournament and play some more DS, in the end I reached round 3 of 5,
not bad but I am still a bit disapointed, I had hoped to get to the finale!
My friend had to leave after he lost in round 2 but it was fun to see him
and I will probably challenge him in a duel later.

That took a lot of time and it was finally time to find another friend
in collecting and bloging, Mlie. She was helping out her boyfriend who had
some nice items for sale (I only bought the Donkey Kong box from him though).
I was really happy when they had a small surprise for me, this little guy:

The gyroid keystrap from Animal Crossing!
A small gift maybe but I was very happy that they remembered that
I wanted one of those, especially in the chaos, many thanks!

At the neighbor table I found both Fable and Metroid Prime Hunters, ugh,
now I actually have to play them! Oh well, it is long over due.
By this time I was really hungry and the back pack was starting to feel
heavy from all those controllers from my friend, a short walk for a
classic burger and everything felt better!
I decided to go back and ended up in front of a famicom and fluteded my way
trough Mario 3, haha, some tricks was much harder to pull of in the
japanese version but it was not a terrible run.
I took some more trips around the locale in hope of finding another
collector that I wanted to meet, sadly I never did.
There was quite many games to choose from but I still choose to
Beat Mario 1 as well, haha.
The time before closing was mostly spent around Mlie and company,
the other sellers where starting to pack up (I found Phantasy Star in the
last minute, phew) and I had to wait for my train anyway,
some more Dragon Quest and I was finally home!

A really nice day, I don’t like to be around lots of people but it still
makes me happy to see and speak to some of the people who share my passion!

Lastly a picture of everything I found, I only went over my budget a little:

This will probably get a longer post later but this week I finally took care
of a long postponed project, sorting out all the unwanted japanese Playstation
games from the collection! As you guessed I found a total of 176 games that
don’t belong in the collection. Far too many of them are sports games,
pachinko simulators and other “crap” games. So far around 20 of them are
sold and the ones that no one wants will just be sold in a bulk.
I will give it a couple of weeks.

Sure I still have the games but just getting them out of the collection
felt really nice, now there is enough room to complete the PS2 collection, woho!

Speaking of the PS2 collection, I just recieved and added my most wanted item:

Very few seem to even know about this box, an odd box for an odd game.
Besides the game you get a Haseo figure (main character) and even better than
that a special disc that summarize everything from the first four games and
also tells some intresting information not found anywhere else.
If it’s not enough to find this rare disc you also need to unlock
parts of it with data from your memory card… wow.

I am really happy to finally have it even if most of it is of
course available on youtube.

If you want to see the 176 games here they are:

The title says Dark Half but first I must share my joy over finally beating
Harvest Moon!

Yes, Harvest Moon is finally over, the SNES version no less.
My biggest mistake was to play more than one entry in the series but since
many say that the SNES version is the best one I had to play it.
For me this seems to be one of the cases where the game lives on nostalgia,
I believe that the Playstation game Back to Nature is better and improved in
every way even if that too has the same problems. The main problem is of
course the length of the games, it doesn’t have a clock but my guess is
around 70-100 hours which makes it the longest SNES game I have played!
Using a guide and plan ahead would really save a lot of time, not aiming
to get the best “score” would also help a lot, hehe.
The goal is to live on the farm and make it a good one in 300 days,
I had basically done everything necessary in the first 200 days so
then it was just a matter of waiting and keeping the cows happy for the
last 100 days, a real chore and far from a good game to repeat
the same thing 100 times…
Oh well, it is finally over and the game called me a Master Farmer!
I will not return to the series.

More SNES, Dark Half was one of the very first games that I bought to the
collection and ever since then I knew it was an interesting game. Now, nine
years later, there is finally a complete translation of the game thanks to
dedicated fans! Like most games that are released late in the console’s life
Dark Half has some really impressive graphic, I usually prefer the more
classic RPG style but sometimes an isometric view works better and this
is one of those times, good choice Enix!
The interesting part of the game is of course the fact that you both play
as the “good” and “evil” party, a concept I really like in games
(Breath of Fire 4, mmmm). You play one chapter good, one chapter evil,
alternating the entire game, both of them have a soul meter that you need to
keep up, if it hits zero it is game over and this is a quite stressful part
of the game sometimes. As the good party it is quite an ordinary RPG,
you get equipments and some party members, no levels or skills tough,
all magic is used via items and stats are also increased with items.
The soul meter is filled by defeating enemies or paying money at the church
and depleted by walking around outside towns, as the good team it is never
a big problem luckily. The evil team on the other hand need soul energy for
everything, all attacks use energy and also walking around and
solving some puzzles!
There is only one party member in the evil team and no equipments, instead
you can recruit monsters and learn skills from them, it is vital to learn
heal early, be warned! I usually don’t like to recruit monsters but it works
good and you change them for better ones constantly, no breeding or complex
systems etc. To gain soul energy you can defeat enemies OR take the souls of
ALL the NPCs of the game! That is the most interesting part, walking into a
village and just murder everyone, when you return to the village as the
good party next chapter, everyone remains dead and of course you can’t
speak with them anymore. I absolutely love that part!
Sadly some of the dungeons feel a bit messy and I recommend
save states/ a guide, it’s just to easy to waste all your soul energy
trying to solve a puzzle or walking in circles. Overall a solid game,
not a spectacular story or the masterpiece music from Terranigma,
but definetly a game that deserved to be played, and now in english!
No clock in this game either but it felt like a standard
SNES RPG, around 15-20 hours.

I said that I had three more games on the way to the collection but somehow
that number grew to 10 games!

First up we have some PAL games, not that intresting titles maybe but I
plan to get them all after all, the PAL version of Summoner
doesn’t appear that often:

Next up, the intresting games:

The US version of Star Ocean 3 is something that I always wanted but just
never bought untill now, Metal Saga is also a game that I have wanted to
play for a long time. Wild Arms Alter Code F has become quite rare and I look
forward to play it as well even if I doubt it will be better than the original.
lastly Wild Arms 5 is unopened and finally in the collection where it belong!

This was a really big step towards the goal!

As promised I will keep you updated on the cleaning/repairs project.
This time I wanted something easy and decided that the Megadrive controllers
where the best choice. Except the one I posted a while ago I don’t have a
before picture but here they are, drying after a long night of cleaning:

Today, the fun part of putting them back togheter and testing them all:

Ah, the classic test setup, my megadrive collection is sadly quite small and at
the moment I have more consoles than games… Anyway, Toejam and Earl has
become my test game, it uses all buttons and is funky after all!

Somehow all 10 controllers actually works, one of them is a third party
controller and one may need new rubber for the D-pad but still,
far over my expactations! …I need to make an inventory and find a
new way to store all controllers and accesories.