Game & Watch

As many gamers know, Nintendo released the Game & Watch in 1980. It was a series of handhelds developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi after he’d seen a bored commuter playing with his handheld calculator on the way to work. He pitched the idea of a handheld gaming device that doubled as a watch to Nintendo and Sharp, and the rest is history. Many different types of Game & Watch were developed over the years, ranging from the basic LCD model to colour models and even a “multi-screen” model, serving as the precursor to the Nintendo DS, launched in 2004. (And the clamshell design was re-used with the Game Boy Advance SP, but that’s beside the point)

These handhelds assumed some good popularity during its eleven-year tenure, though admittedly, I had never heard of a single one. Never saw one, either. I was quite “in the know” when it came to several of Nintendo’s earliest gaming platforms – NES, SNES, Game Boy and its later iterations – but the Game & Watch flew right by me, so to speak. I’m sure it was largely because I grew up without video games, and only the biggest names and highest sellers caught my attention. Well, that and I wasn’t even born in 1980. In 1991, I was eight years old. It’s quite easy for something like that to slip under the radar when I was a non-gamer in a non-gaming family.

So, when did I finally hear about Game & Watch? About five years ago, which puts me at the age of thirty-three. I was a small part of the retro gaming community on Instagram and was learning more and more about the countless games I’d missed over the years, both in childhood and adulthood. Someone had made a post about Game & Watch, and I was completely confused. What the heck was that thing? Kind of looked like a Game Boy Micro… but much older.

As I learnt more about it, the more intrigued I became. The legendary Gunpei Yokoi, who created the Game Boy and WonderSwan, designed the Game & Watch before all of that? I knew I had to get my hands on one of those things, at least to study and marvel over the design.

…Unfortunately, my quest ended before it could begin. Even in 2016, prices on any Game & Watch were astronomical, at least to this broke gamer. I couldn’t justify coughing up at least $100 on just one handheld. So I contented myself with admiring photos and reading even more about the development of the Game & Watch… and try not to let jealousy consume me. It didn’t seem right that literally all Game & Watch handhelds were so insanely expensive.

In early 2020, Nintendo announced two new limited-time items for the thirty-fifth anniversary of Mario: Super Mario 3D All-Stars for the Switch, and for the first time in nearly thirty years: a brand-new Game & Watch that featured Mario. The handheld had a colour LCD screen, rechargeable batteries and three – yes, three – Mario games. Gaming sites that covered this new Game & Watch showed a plethora of features and extra goodies, all packed into one little handheld device.

I was ecstatic. I knew it wasn’t the older models of Game & Watch, but to get my hands on a new model? It was almost unreal. I saw the $50 price tag and knew it was more than I wanted to pay, but if I wanted one of these things without paying some insane price, I’d have to bite the bullet and come up with $50. The difficulty of buying one increased when no pre-orders were available, and only seemed to be sold at three retailers: Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy. I was surprised Walmart and Target didn’t have any but worked on a game plan to make my purchase on day one.

On the night of 12 November 2020, I sat at my computer and had tabs open for all three retailers. Whoever had the handhelds available first, I’d order a copy immediately. I waited and waited. And kept waiting. Finally, after what felt like ages and countless page refreshes, at midnight, Best Buy’s site showed the Game & Watch was available. When I tried to order one, the site crashed. I angrily went to GameStop’s site, which didn’t have the handheld listed at all. Amazon’s page still showed it unavailable.

Disappointment settled in. Would scalpers snap up all the handhelds before I had a chance to even get one? I still didn’t want to pay $50 but knew it was the only way I’d get a Game & Watch at a semi-reasonable price. But what could I do? No one seemed to have the thing besides Best Buy, and the site went down at exactly midnight. I grabbed my mobile and left my room, still unhappy about the whole thing.

I sat in the living room and complained to my mom about it, then decided to try again from the mobile browser. I went to Best Buy’s site, and lo and behold, the page was up and running for the Game & Watch. I had to do some strange thing by waiting five or ten minutes – maybe to keep scalpers away? – but it finally let me place the order. I put in my information as quickly as possible, and once the order confirmation was in, I sat back and let out a sigh of relief. I’d finally be able to get my own Game & Watch.

Later that morning, I received an email that told me the order was ready for pickup. I normally don’t like being in that part of the city – it’s one of the two busiest places – but I hopped on the highway and headed over there. Before I knew it, I’d picked up my very first Game & Watch, and stared at it in awe.

It was… small. Quite small, really. But gosh, it sure was beautiful, too. I was very happy to have it, though I was uncertain if I should take it out of its box. It was a collector’s piece, for sure, and I had all the Mario games on it for the original hardware (well, Lost Levels was on my Super Mario All-Stars cart but that’s the only way we got it in the West for many years), save for the “Ball” game. But was it really worth taking it out of the box for it?

Needless to say, I left it factory sealed.

Several months later, I was blown away by another surprise: a second Game & Watch was planned for release, this one themed after The Legend of Zelda series for its thirty-fifth anniversary. I couldn’t believe it. Not only did we have a new Game & Watch after three decades, but TWO of them?! This one would include three Legend of Zelda games as well as a Link variant of a classic Game & Watch game called Vermin. It was even better than the Mario one, and for the same price to boot.

Since I worked for a certain big-box retailer, I decided to not place a pre-order anywhere (besides not really having the money to do so), and instead waited for the store to have it in stock in November. About a month before its release, I spoke with a manager in the Electronics department, asking if we’d be getting the Zelda Game & Watches. He said yes, it was on the planogram. I was glad, as it meant I could just buy the handheld whilst at work and not deal with online ordering, possible shipping costs or going out of my way to pick it up somewhere.

Two weeks before it released, I spoke with the same manager, asking if he could hold one of the Game & Watches for me when it came in. He said he could, but only if there were extras that wouldn’t fit on the shelf. I understood and left it at that. To my surprise, a few days before it was released, the manager sought me out and told me he’d gotten in the Game & Watches and could hold one for me. I apologised and explained I wouldn’t have any money until that Thursday, a day before it was supposed to go on sale. It was disappointing, but I also hadn’t expected to get the chance to buy the handheld several days before launch.

On Thursday, 11 November, I was paid… and no manager in sight. I tried and tried to look for him but apparently, he wasn’t working that day. I couldn’t find any electronics associate when I had the chance to get away from work, regardless if it was for lunch break or when I got off that night. I was again disappointed, knowing my chance to get the handheld even a day before launch was shot.

The next morning, I awoke early and went to the store closer to home – I live at the north end of town but work at the store at the south end of town. I’d gone under the pretence of doing a little holiday shopping, but I knew my real motive as I headed towards the back of the store where the Electronics department lied. I sought out an employee and asked for the Legend of Zelda Game & Watch. He told me he had it in stock and went to fetch it from the glass-enclosed case for higher-priced Nintendo items. A second employee talked to me about it a bit, and I told him about owning the Mario one from the previous year, how I was excited to get my hands on a second Game & Watch.

The first employee returned shortly thereafter and rang up my purchase. I attempted to use my employee discount card, but sadly, it didn’t give me a discount. However, I’d noticed the price of the Game & Watch was much lower than the previous one, by several dollars. That was good enough of a discount for me, I thought to myself as I popped my bank card into the card reader to complete the purchase. Within moments, I had my bag in hand, holding my second-ever Game & Watch.

I was so excited to get this, I took a picture of it in my car. That's the backseat in the background

It also goes without saying I left that one factory sealed as well. Whilst I may not ever get any of the older Game & Watch handhelds, at the very least, I can say I own two of the newest ones and love how they look on my gaming shelf. I also can’t help but wonder if Nintendo is planning to release any more Game & Watches; it would be great to get even more of them to display with the two I already own.

(French narrator voice) Ah, such beauty, such majesty~

*Thank-you to Wikipedia for the info about the Game & Watch series

College

I have been to college three times. No, really. It was on three separate occasions, three different colleges, three different lengths of time. The first time was a one-year stay at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. (Which was incredibly stupid considering I’m an Atheist, but that’s another story) The second one lasted three years at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and no, I didn’t graduate. Quite the opposite, really. The most recent was a nearly six-year stint at the Art Institute of York – Pennsylvania, which the location of the school is in the name. And sadly, no longer exists. I did graduate from the Art Institute; my degree proudly hangs on my wall and countless memories I have of the school come to mind on a regular basis. I loved the teachers (well, almost all of them), it was the first time I came out publicly as transgender, I took so many different classes that left different kinds of impacts on me, on and on. There were also downsides, of course – like one time a mean comment from a classmate sent me into a depression spell in the middle of class – but I loved the school dearly and it’s saddening to know it’s no longer there.

But this story, oddly enough, takes place during my first trip to college, when I was eighteen. Young and dumb, I’d wanted to go to OBU because the campus was pretty, and the people were so friendly to me. That was it. I’d denounced my faith five years prior for Atheism and I had no interest in ever going back to religion. I still feel this way to this very day, more than twenty years later. I’d had no idea what I wanted to do for a career when I went to OBU, I just knew I wanted to go to college. Besides, it’s okay to not know what you want to do when you first go to college; you can always decide whilst taking classes.

At the time, I hadn’t ever heard of the word “transgender”. This was 2001, okay. However, I’d been labelled as a “tomboy” many, many years prior due to my general disinterest in “girly” things and desire to dress and act like a boy; I would later be considered “one of the guys” when joining a group of them to play a collectible card game with them in 2002-2003. Despite this, my body was still female and… well, developed as a female body should. This made things quite uncomfortable for me when developing certain… things, shall we say, as well as when a particular cycle would begin. It all felt so weird and wrong, but I never knew why until around 2010-2011.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because OBU was a two-hour drive from home, which meant I had to live on campus. The dorms were separated by sex and yes, I was put in a three-story dormitory full of nothing but freshman girls. I was on the top floor at one end of the hall, and believe me, it was extremely uncomfortable being around so many girls every single day. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against girls and women, but to be forced to live with them and be treated like one when I’m not one of them… It’s very off-putting. One time, the girls on my side of the hall (the hall was exceptionally long, so it was divided into halves) decided to have a “girls’ night” and I seriously felt like screaming and running as far away as possible. I was the only one who felt this way. It was a gigantic red flag that pointed at me being transgender, but again, I didn’t know the word existed. Instead, I had to put up with feeling sick to my stomach whilst the girls planned their night of makeovers, pizza and Friends (the show). When they held the girls’ night, I stayed in my room all night and watched anime and cartoons by myself.

On the ground floor by the front door of the dorm, there was a little office of sorts for an upperclassman or faculty member to occupy and make sure the people who came in and out of the dorm were the ones who resided there. Also on the ground floor was a sort of commons area (think a big living room), where there were huge couches and chairs and a big-screen TV. Boys were allowed into that area but had to leave after a certain time. Just down the hall from the office and commons area was a small computer lab; I frequented that place so much outside of class and was online very regularly at all kinds of ungodly hours. I loved surfing the internet, checking out websites of my favourite shows, chatting to online friends, reading fan fiction and occasionally playing online games.

I generally wouldn’t go into the commons area – I had no friends from other dorms, and I hated whatever they had on the television – but I’d sometimes glance in there just to see what was going on. One day, a Saturday, I believe, I had to stop and nearly do a double take at what I saw on the TV.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time.

My eyes were huge. Nobody in the entire building had any video games – I only had my Street Fighter II from Christmas several years prior, so I didn’t bring it with me – so it was a complete shock to see not only someone owning a Super Nintendo, but they were playing a Ninja Turtles game on it.

I beelined it for the commons room and gaped at the TV. My eyes fell on a Super Nintendo that rested on the table in front of the couch where a boy was playing the game; presumably, his girlfriend was the one sitting beside him and making a poor attempt at playing as well. Neither were doing all that great in the game, and I longed to hold the controller in my own hands, to play as my favourite turtle, Donatello.

I’m an extremely shy person, both online and in person, so it took a few minutes for me to work up the courage to ask to play. When I did, the guy said I could and handed me the controller so I could play with his girlfriend. I couldn’t believe it: I actually had the chance to play a Super Nintendo all on my own, without having to sit to the side and watch a sibling play. It was just me… and this girl sitting nearby.

We started a new game, and of course, I chose my boy Donnie. We began playing through the level, her playing poorly and me taking time to figure out the controls and how to beat up the enemies and avoid obstacles. I’m not a spectacular gamer by any means – I’m quite lousy at all of them – but I was certainly playing better than this girl. I figured she’d not played video games before and didn’t really want to make the effort; she’d been playing before to please her boyfriend.

Before I knew it, her turtle had lost all his lives and she’d given up playing. This left me completely alone to play the game.

I was delighted.

The two stayed nearby – it was the boy’s console and game, after all – and they watched me beat a couple of levels on my own. They were astounded I was playing better than both of them; even the boy hadn’t gotten to the third level.

Unfortunately, that was where Donnie ran out of lives and the boy politely asked for the controller back. I returned it, grateful he wasn’t being mean or demanding, and happy I got the chance to play an awesome Ninja Turtles game. When I left the commons room, the boy was playing Super Mario World; it was a fun game, but I was still thinking about Ninja Turtles and how much fun I’d had playing that game.

I wish I could have some neat follow-up to this part of the story, where I finally obtain my own copy after some number of years. But sadly, I do not own a copy of TMNT IV. Since playing the game the first time at OBU, it slipped from my mind for many years until about 2010 when I got my first brand-new computer. I’d only had old, used computers that previously belonged to my parents, so it was a big deal that I finally had my own new computer. Somewhere down the line, I discovered ROMs and emulators, and amongst the countless ROMs I tried, one was TMNT IV. It was still a blast to play, even if it was illegal to do so. When I later became a serious collector, I attempted to find the game, only to discover the price was more than I wanted to pay. Unfortunately, the price has never gone down – the pandemic’s made it go even higher now – so I don’t bother looking for it anymore. However, I still have my memories of playing it at OBU, which is good enough for now.

Going back to college in 2001, the reason I’d mentioned the office in the front of the dorm was for another gaming story. On occasion, the upperclassman who sat in the office for a few hours was male, but he generally stayed in the office only, sometimes stepping out to use the nearby restroom. The office was a short walk away from the elevator, which I frequently rode to the ground floor to visit the computer lab at the aforementioned ungodly hours. I’d even pull an all-nighter in that little room once or twice.

One time, in the wee hours of the morning, I decided I’d had enough of the computer for the night (even if it was 5:30 AM) and left the lab. On my way to the elevator, I caught sight of the TV in the office, as somewhat familiar music was playing from it. I headed to the office and peered inside: an upperclassman I knew – I’ve since forgotten his name – had an NES hooked up to the TV and was playing Super Mario Bros 3. The music was familiar because I’d heard it in Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES, which my brother had rented at one point.

I stared at the TV in amazement. I knew there was a television in the office, as it can get mighty boring sitting in there for hours on end, but I didn’t think someone would have an NES to hook up to it. The graphics were much more primitive than the SNES port, but it was still astounding to watch.

I made some remark about the game, and the guy in the office talked to me about it for a bit. I honestly don’t recall any specifics, only that I desperately wanted to step inside the office and play the game for myself. I was too shy to ask to play, and the guy gave no indication that he would let me play. Instead, I had to content myself with watching from outside the office. It was just like all the times I had to sit to the side and watch my siblings play.

After some time, perhaps thirty minutes or so, my feet began hurting from all the standing, so I admitted I’d been up for about twenty-four hours and excused myself to bed. The game stayed in my mind a while longer; I sure wished I could have had a chance to play Super Mario Bros 3. Oddly enough, I never saw the NES in that office the rest of the year I was at the school.

Now, I do have a neat follow-up on this story, as I eventually bought my own copy of Super Mario All-Stars shortly after getting my own SNES in 2009. I played SMB3 plenty of times then. Several years later, in late 2016, I’d bought my own NES and made sure Super Mario Bros 3 was one of the first titles I bought to go with it.

I’ve played it a fair bit since buying it, and it’s my number one favourite of the SMB trilogy. (My favourite Super Mario game overall is Super Mario World) It’s just incredible how much Nintendo crammed into that 8-bit NES cartridge with Super Mario Bros 3, with the many various worlds, enemies, bosses, colours, graphics, music and powerups. The game’s overall feel and setup is remarkably similar to Super Mario World, which I know was started with an SMB3 base. But it’s amazing the NES title had so much in it, they were able to take the framework of that game and not only transfer it to the SNES but expand upon it so much to create a game as fun and filling as Super Mario World. It blows my mind just thinking about it.

Moral of the story: Someone wanna cough up seventy-five bucks for me so I can get that Ninja Turtles game?

Edit: I'm well aware of the Cowabunga Collection that's to be released sometime this year, and I'm beyond excited to get it. Sure, it's $40, but it's worth that price for TMNT IV alone. And there are lots of other great games in the collection, including the near-masterpiece that is the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade). I'm going to buy Shredder's Revenge in the near future, and hopefully Cowabunga Collection will be a day one buy whenever it's released. Getting both physically, of course.

Edit 2: At the time of originally writing this story, 19 June 2021, the price of TMNT IV was selling for roughly $75. It's since dropped to about $55 as of 14 June 2022, which is still much more than I want to pay for it. Will be keeping a closer eye on the price in case it continues to go down.

SpongeBob

As some readers may have guessed, especially if they came here from my main Twitter account, I’m a huge fan of a certain little yellow square sponge. I’ve been a fan since nearly the beginning of the show’s run; I’d started watching roughly two or so weeks after the show started airing in July 1999. I was sixteen at the time. At first, I was admittedly turned off by the art style; the designs all looked so stupid. However, I knew I absolutely loved shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and The Angry Beavers, and none of those characters looked a thing like their real-life animal counterparts. Heck, an ongoing joke within Rocko was the fact no one could tell he was a wallaby, partly because there generally aren’t wallabies in the United States (besides zoos), but also because he doesn’t look like a wallaby. Even in Angry Beavers, occasional jokes are thrown at the beaver brothers – sometimes at each other, even – that they look like some kind of “pointy weasel”. As such, I couldn’t let the character designs prevent me from possibly enjoying a great show. My sister, aged thirteen, agreed with me, and we sat down to watch an episode together.

It was the episode “Bubble Stand”. It wasn’t a “new” episode, per se, but rather a rerun. At the time, Nickelodeon replayed the earliest episodes multiple times between new episodes to get more people to watch the show. That’s what my sister and I did. At first, the episode was okay, nothing spectacular. But roughly one-third of the way through the episode, SpongeBob was showing different kinds of bubbles he could blow – one looked like a caterpillar, one looked like a family of ducks, etc – and he used “two hands” to blow a gigantic bubble of an elephant. Circus music played in the background. Patrick laughed and said, “It’s a giraffe!”

My sister and I lost it. We were laughing so hard, as we didn’t expect Patrick to say something so incorrect. Ever since then, we both became fans of the show and essentially have been fans ever since. My interest in the show has come and gone, though each time it “comes”, it’s more intense than the previous time. The most recent one started in late 2017 and has yet to end; I’m more obsessed with the show than ever. That’s why my username on some social media sites is “spongebob2600” (or spongebob.2600 on Instagram); it’s a combination of SpongeBob and the Atari 2600, showing my love for both the cartoon and retro gaming.

One thing I like to do when I get obsessed with something is to collect merchandise wherever possible. The problem is most of the things I obsess over has little to no easily obtainable merchandise. For example, I’m a big fan of Seto Kaiba from Yugioh, but how much merchandise is there of him? Very little. Merch in the United States? Maybe a Funko Pop. I’ve lucked out with obsessing over SpongeBob, as there’s a plethora of merchandise easily available right here in this very country. I work for a big-box retailer and I see SpongeBob merch there all the time. And yes, I buy it. I sort of regret dropping $30 on a three-foot outdoor inflatable but hey, what’re the odds of finding it again? I spent way more than that on the entire SpongeBob x wet ‘n wild makeup collection, but it was limited edition and sold out very quickly. I don’t regret that purchase at all.

To get to the point, the reason I’m mentioning the merch is because yes, this does pertain to the video games SpongeBob has starred in. Around mid-2018, I decided to collect every single SpongeBob video game. I’d start with the ones for consoles and handhelds, then work my way through the PC and crossover games. In this instance, “crossover” games are the Nicktoons games that feature SpongeBob as a playable character, such as Nicktoons MLB, Nicktoons Freeze Frame Frenzy and Nickelodeon Kart Racers. I was certain this would be easy, since basically all the games were poorly received and are generally cheap and easy to find.

I was wrong.

A good number of the games were cheap, but if one wanted discs in their original cases or CIB (complete in box) games, they’d have to pay a little more. Five dollars here, eight dollars there, and the cost adds up quickly. I knew it wouldn’t be as simple as buying all the games at once; there were quite a few out there, and I wouldn’t get just SpongeBob HeroPants on PlayStation Vita and leave the Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS versions, I’d have to buy all three. The only SpongeBob game I had at the time was Lights, Camera, Pants! on Game Boy Advance. I’d bought it brand new several years ago and had a blast playing through it. It’s different from its console counterparts that have a Mario Party feel to them, as the GBA version is a 2-D side scrolling platformer where one can switch between SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and Sandy during the levels. It has a high replay value, too, at least to me.

I worked as a full-time sales rep, though the hours were rather light. I also had bills to pay, which always comes first. I have no credit cards to my name – I can’t get one even if I wanted – so the money used to buy the games would have to come straight out of my weekly pay cheque. I’d have to budget the amount of money I spent each week for the games, ensuring there was still enough left over to buy gas for the car (I did a lot of driving as a sales rep), food for myself, etc, after the bills were paid.

At first, the games were easy to buy. The prices weren’t much different to get CIB versions of many Wii and PlayStation 2 games, and several others were moderately priced as well. I would buy at least four each week from eBay and not even break $30. They’d arrive on different days throughout the week, then when I was paid again, I’d scour eBay for more games. This went on for several months – sometimes I was unable to buy any games due to a lack of money, but usually tried to get at least one per week – before I realised there were far more games than I’d thought. In fact, there were likely games I wasn’t aware of, or at least titles I knew were on systems I wasn’t aware of.

a random batch of games received in a week

After my collection grew a fair bit and I continued running into the same games anytime I searched eBay for “SpongeBob” in the video games category, I decided the best thing to do was write out a list of the games I was missing. I found a list and checked over it: as I’d feared, there were indeed many more than I’d originally thought. Games like Lights, Camera, Pants! were on five different systems; as it was a low-budget SpongeBob game for kids, the developers ensured the games were on as many platforms as possible for the time. A few games were exclusives, such as a handful on the DS, but nearly all the rest were multi-platform. This raised the difficulty of buying all the games considerably.

But I wasn’t about to give up so easily.

one of my lists of monitoring eBay prices and budgeting for each game

Week after week, I’d go to eBay and check the prices for each individual game I needed and wrote down the lowest price of each one. I’d choose the cheapest ones, add them up and see if they’d fit into my budget. I tried to keep the budget at about $30 per week. Somewhere amongst this collecting, an announcement was made for a new SpongeBob game: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. It was to be a modern enhancement of the original, which appeared to be most beloved by the fans. As a huge fan of the GBA iteration of Lights, Camera, Pants!, I was quite bewildered by this claim. I’d also played Battle for Bikini Bottom on Game Boy Advance and failed to see the appeal. I later learnt the console version of Battle for Bikini Bottom was a completely different game; apparently, this was the case for all GBA ports of console games. Regardless, I knew the newest game would have to be added to the collection as well.

I went to the local GameStop – the only one in town, even – and requested to pre-order the newest game. I was asked if I wanted it on PS4, Xbox One or Switch, and, grinning, I said, “Yes.” The employee was confused, so I told him I wanted all three. He put the information into the computer but still seemed bewildered, so I explained about collecting SpongeBob games. He wondered what I would do when I got all the games, what would be the point, and I replied, “Bragging rights?” I was doing all this for myself, not trying to get anything out of it other than a feeling of satisfaction, and perhaps bragging rights. I mean, who else would go this far out of their way to collect all video games about SpongeBob?

one of my many SpongeBob plushies advertising my latest games in the post

Before I knew it, I was down to the final dozen games. I was excited, knowing my quest for getting the games was nearing its end. Unfortunately, the remaining games cost at least $15-$25 each. I’d have to buy no more than one game per week, greatly slowing down the process. I was certain the last game I’d end up buying would be on GameCube, as those games tended to be more sought-after. My prediction was for the final game to be Battle for Bikini Bottom on GameCube and waited (and price-shopped) in the meantime to see which one ended up being the final game purchase.

One of the games had to be purchased on Amazon through a third-party seller, as the game – Truth or Square for Xbox 360 – was several dollars more expensive on eBay, strangely enough. I also bought empty boxes and cases for my loose games, attempting to keep as many of them boxed as I could. In the end, the final game ended up not being Battle for Bikini Bottom, nor was it a GameCube game.

my noble quest has finally come to an end

It was Plankton’s Robotic Revenge on PlayStation 3. I received it in the mail on 2 May 2020, ending my collecting of SpongeBob games. It was both exciting and a relief to finally be done after all this time. I tried to think how long it took to obtain all the games (excluding the newest ones, as they’d been delayed to June at this point) and guessed it was roughly eighteen to twenty months; just under two years. Someone later asked me how much money it cost to buy all the games and I hadn’t the faintest idea. The best I could figure was at least $250 total. However, thanks to careful planning and budgeting, I’d saved a lot of money on the games, and that $250 wasn’t spent all at once; it was spread over the course of a year and a half, minimum.

I alphabetised the games and placed them on my shelf in very neat order, and even decorated it with SpongeBob merchandise. I later bought a SpongeBob light switch cover (yes, it’s official) and replaced the plain white one that’s near the shelf. I’ve also bought roughly half the PC games and a good number of the crossover games. When June came round, I picked up my newest SpongeBob games on day one from GameStop.

"trifecta perfecta", as I'd worded it on Instagram

It was an incredible journey to get each game, and it’s amazing nearly all of them came from eBay. I’m currently taking a small break from collecting, as prices of video games are quite inflated thanks to the pandemic and rising demand for video games and consoles; however, I intend to return to PC game collecting soon, then resume the crossover game collecting. If any more SpongeBob games come out, rest assured I’ll be at GameStop (or their website) placing a pre-order as soon as possible.

current state of the collection

Addendum: I'm well aware of the announcement of The Cosmic Shake, and once a release date is announced, I'm totally pre-ordering a copy for all the platforms it'll be on physically. I'm extremely excited for the game and can't wait to eventually get it.

Mew

 In September 2006, I lived in the Dayton area of Ohio. I attended a community college in Dayton and lived with my sister in a townhouse roughly thirty minutes away in a neighbouring town. My brother had recently moved out to live with a friend, and my parents were forty-five minutes south of us in a Cincinnati suburb. My memory of the time is admittedly quite hazy, but I believe my video game systems still only consisted of my Nintendo 64 and cobalt Game Boy Advance SP. I loved playing Pokémon games on the GBA, and my N64 got minimal use. The selection of games I’d had were rather small, too, but as a part-timer, I couldn’t exactly afford to go out and buy the latest and greatest stuff. Besides, I was content with the games I’d had, especially since I’d bought Pokémon Emerald brand-new the previous year and was having a blast with it.

When I learnt about Toys R Us having a special promotion for Pokémon, I was interested. I don’t recall how I’d found out about it, but the stores were giving away an “event” Mew to people who had the latest Pokémon games. At the time, FireRed and LeafGreen had released prior to Emerald, but I didn’t own either game. The promotional signage seemed to primarily advertise getting Mew for the Kanto remakes, so I’d hoped I could get one for my Emerald game. Further research into it revealed one could get it for Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald. I was relieved. Out of those games, I only had Pokémon Emerald.

On the day in question, I took my GBA SP with me as I drove to Toys R Us. I normally never take my games or systems out of the house unless I’m going on a road trip with the family, so this was a bit unusual to me. Nevertheless, I went to the toy store and made my way to the video game section. There was already a bit of a line, so I stood at the end of the line and waited.

There were people of varying ages ahead of me, ranging from little kids to adults in their twenties or so. At the time, I was twenty-three, so I didn’t think anything of it. What struck me as odd was the fact they were all guys. No girls or AFAB (assigned female at birth) people like me at all. I didn’t realise I was transgender at the time, so it was rather uncomfortable to realise I was the only girl there. This was 2006, where were the girl gamers I’d heard about? Apparently not at Toys R Us getting an event Mew.

We were previously instructed to catch a Pokémon that we’d be willing to trade. I figured everyone would go for the “throwaway” Pokémon, like Wurmple or Taillow. I believe I went with the latter, though I felt guilty at catching a Pokémon for the sole purpose of trading it. When the event began at noon, the employee in charge of the event had a GBA SP and a cable, ready for the first person. I’d wondered how the event would work, and now I could see: the Pokémon caught for the event would be traded for the event Mew. The employee had a special cartridge of the game that was full of event Mews.

When it was my turn, I connected my end of the cable to my SP and did as I was told. I’d never been to one of these things before, so it was entirely new to me. Thankfully, the process was simple: have the trainer at the Pokémon Centre in the trading area, go to the correct NPC as one would for a cable-linked trade, then select the Taillow I’d caught for the trade. The employee selected the event Mew to send to me.

Within moments, I had a level 10 Mew in my party. I thanked the employee as I saved my game, disconnected the cable and left the store. I was excited to have my very first event Pokémon in my party, especially one as awesome as Mew. No GameSharks or other illegitimate means of getting legendary Pokémon, this one was the bona-fide real thing. As real as Pokémon get, anyway.

I didn’t realise till many years later that it was the only non-online distribution of event Pokémon I’d ever participated in. Although the next iteration of games was on the Nintendo DS, I did not obtain one for many years to come - both the handheld and any applicable games - and by then, most of the distribution of event Pokémon was done via WiFi. The days of manually connecting two physical handhelds to get event Pokémon was in the past.

Currently, the event Mew sits in Pokémon Bank on my New 3DS XL. Its level is 52, meaning I’d used it in my Pokémon Emerald game for quite some time; unfortunately, I don’t have any memory of doing so. Nevertheless, I’m glad I was able to get it off my Emerald game so I can use it in whichever game I want. For now, however, I’ll leave it in Pokémon Bank, along with several other event Pokémon I’ve obtained over the years. 

Final Fantasy IV

This memory will have to start out sadly, I’m afraid. In August 2015, my dad, who’d just turned fifty-nine, suddenly passed away in a hospital in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He’d died from a pulmonary embolism – that is to say, blood clots in his heart and lungs. I was a half hour’s drive away at home, sound asleep, when he passed. I never got to say goodbye to him. My relationship with my dad was poor, as it is with all family members, but I never wanted this to happen. But it did.

The reason why I’m mentioning this is because we’d moved to Pennsylvania in December 2010 for my dad’s job. The only reason we were in that state was for his job. When he passed away, my mom, sister and I (brother stayed in Ohio; he’d recently married) had no reason to stay. That October, my mom moved to Arkansas to be closer to her family, and my sister and I stayed behind so we could finish our schooling. I was in college for the third time and was doing quite well for once.

My sister and I didn’t have jobs that paid well enough to support ourselves – come to think of it, my sister wasn’t even working at the time since she was living on campus two hours away – so I used my “inheritance” (a small share of the life insurance money my mom collected) to pay for the move and the first six months’ rent for an apartment on the other side of town. I was able to keep a little bit of the money to treat myself, which I used to buy a new (cheap) computer, a used Playstation 3, a used PSP and later, a new TV. All of these were quite low-cost and weren’t all purchased at once.

Backing up to discuss the living arrangement, whilst I was able to sign the lease for the apartment and such, I had to wait two weeks before moving in, presumably because they were having the place cleaned and ready for moving in. However, I couldn’t stay in the townhouse I’d lived in with my family. Where could I go?

The answer: a hotel.

Indeed, the first two weeks of November 2015 were spent living in a hotel about twenty minutes away from where my sister and I would soon live. During this time, I’d purchased the PS3 and PSP and was looking into games to play for each system. My knowledge of games for either one was essentially non-existent, so it was like a shot in the dark trying to figure out what games were available and if I’d enjoy them.

Eventually, I learnt a few Final Fantasy games were on the PSP besides Crisis Core (which I later bought). Two of them were ports of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV. The latter was a “complete collection”, which included an “interlude” and sequel game. I looked up the prices of both games on eBay and saw the prices were rather steep; at least, more than I wanted to pay. Since the “Buy It Now” option was out of the question, I decided to check the auction listings to see if the prices were reasonable there.

Now, I’m not a competitive person by any means, and I normally stay away from eBay’s auctions. However, occasionally, I’d manage to find something good there for a low price and win it because I was the only bidder. I’d hoped to do the same with these games but wasn’t so fortunate. With Final Fantasy II, I found an auction with a low price and only two or three bidders. I decided to try my hand at bidding, so I placed a bid, as well as a maximum bid. I did the same with Final Fantasy IV: bid, set a maximum bid. I left both alone, knowing if I checked on them, I’d get anxious about it and probably terribly upset when I lost the auction. Leaving the listings alone until after the bidding ended would keep my mental health in check.

Funnily enough, I forgot about them until I received emails about the listings after they’d ended. I suppose between the stress of school and work, combined with the stress of living in a hotel (believe me, that’s not fun by any means), it had slipped my mind. To my amazement, I won both auctions. I had to see for myself how many bids were placed and headed to eBay. Final Fantasy II was won with seven bids, which was interesting to me since I didn’t hit the maximum bid on it.

How many bids were placed for Final Fantasy IV?

Eighteen.

I was stunned. Apparently, someone had tried to get into a bidding war with me at the last minute and failed to bid high enough before the auction ended. Even more surprising was the fact I still didn’t hit my maximum bid; I paid less for the game than I’d planned.

Although the games came from different sellers, I received them on the same day. I could receive mail at the hotel, so long as I informed them of incoming mail and included my room number in the address. It ended up being a pain, though, because the hotel owner checked the mailbox only once a day in the morning, so mail could sit in the box for nearly an entire day with no one able to get it.

When I got my games, I was incredibly happy and excited to have them, and played them both right away. When my sister and I travelled to Arkansas at the end of November to celebrate Thanksgiving with our mom, I brought my PSP and Final Fantasy IV with me to play during the flights. I never beat the game, but I sure enjoyed playing it a lot during that time, and I always love telling the story of how I won it on eBay with eighteen bids.

Ditty Kong Adventures

In summer of 2009, I lived in an apartment in Ohio with my parents and sister. I worked at a grocery store in the deli department and had recently dropped out of college for the second time. I was paying my bills as they came up, so on and so forth. When I got the chance, I’d accompany my family on Saturday mornings as they went to yard sales in the area. Sometimes we’d find things to buy, sometimes not.

I should mention at this point whilst I had some video games and consoles – a Nintendo 64 and a handheld or two – I wasn’t a serious collector yet. The idea hadn’t occurred to me at the time. I’d sometimes play my games, like Pokémon Snap or Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury, but it wasn’t a frequent thing. I was pretty far out of the loop on the latest and greatest in gaming, though I still loved the older consoles, such as the SNES, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600. I’d only heard of the ColecoVision when it was mentioned in an episode of Family Guy but had never laid eyes on one.

Imagine my complete surprise when, one Saturday morning, my family happened upon a small cluster of yard sales and one had almost nothing but video games and consoles for sale. I believe the guy was selling off his collection to go on a mission trip or raise money for a developing country; details are fuzzy on that. Regardless, this guy was a serious collector who knew his stuff and answered every question I’d had about the games and consoles.

Naturally, my eyes fell upon the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis that were for sale, though I also saw a Virtual Boy and, to my shock, a ColecoVision. I’m sure there were other consoles, but those four had caught my attention. I didn’t have much money at the time and cursed my bad luck. I really wanted to buy everything there – can you imagine how cool it would be to have a freaking Virtual Boy?! – but with very little money, that was impossible. Instead, I settled for the two consoles I wanted more than anything: Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

I didn’t have enough money for both of them, so I begged and pleaded with my mom (who’d stayed in the car with my dad) to loan me some money to pay for them. There was no way I could decide between the two, and I certainly wasn’t going to walk away from this thing empty-handed. My mom reluctantly gave me enough money to help cover the cost for both, and I rushed back to the yard sale with money in hand. Er, pocket.

The guy was very friendly and even let me pick two games for each console to add into the bundle for free. I was so excited and happy, and eagerly looked over the game selection. I don’t recall which games I chose for the Genesis – I remember one was a space shooter I got for my sister, but she displayed zero interest in it – but the two chosen for the SNES have always stayed in my mind. The first one was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I was told it was a hard-to-find Final Fantasy game for the Super Nintendo, and was a different, but fun entry in the series. As a fan of both Final Fantasy and RPGs (and JRPGs), I knew I had to have that one.

The second game was one I’d never heard of before, and, well…

The guy told me he couldn’t remember which game it was, only that it was a Donkey Kong game. The label was obviously gone, so he’d written the name of the game on the cartridge with a Sharpie marker. I only really knew of Donkey Kong Country, so I was intrigued and decided to get it as well. What kind of game was “Ditty Kong Adventures”? I had to find out.

After returning home later with the consoles and games, I hooked up the SNES and tried out Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It was fun and certainly different from other RPGs I’d played before (usually Pokémon), but I was mostly concerned with ensuring the game and console worked. Next up was Ditty Kong Adventures; I was dying to know what kind of game it was and how it pertained to the Donkey Kong franchise.

I popped in the cartridge, turned on the console…

And was greeted with the title screen for Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.

I was quite surprised to see the game’s title was vastly different from the title written on the grey cartridge, though I thought it was a nice stroke of luck to have the sequel to the well-known and well-loved Donkey Kong Country. I wouldn’t obtain that cartridge for several years to come, but it was great having the sequel game. I played through the game for a bit, then turned it off and kept the game and console.

Some years later, the SNES stopped working (I’d already sold my Genesis to a co-worker, though I later bought another one), so I replaced it with one I’d found on eBay. I kept all my games, of course, and tried to store and display them the best I could. The number of games slowly grew, I’d play them on occasion, etc.

In 2017, I’d obtained a small media shelf to store my then-tiny collection of games and found a spot to display my SNES games. I looked at my Ditty Kong Adventures cartridge and knew it needed an upgrade, badly. I recalled seeing reproduction labels for certain cartridge games on eBay and was certain I’d find one for this game easily. Within a week or so, I had the repro label in hand and was ready to get to work.

First, I cleaned off all the Sharpie marker letters and that weird white spot, along with the tiny remaining fragments of the original label.

After the cartridge had dried, I carefully added the repro label to make it look as nice and neat as possible.

I know in retrospect, I could have left the cartridge as is and it would’ve been an interesting conversation piece, but I’d really wanted it to look like the actual game – it gets rather tiring to me seeing the hand-written “Ditty Kong Adventures” and the strange white spot on the front – and cleaning the cartridge really helped it look much better. Personally, whilst it’s fun to recall the origin of my Donkey Kong Country 2 cartridge, I prefer it with the repro label, and it looks a lot nicer in my SNES collection.

Pokémon Black & White

I’m a big fan of Pokémon. I’ve been a fan since 8 September 1998, at the age of fifteen, when the English dub of the anime first aired on television. I normally watched Fox Kids at six in the morning during the week for the daily episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. I had an old black and white TV my parents gave to me as a hand-me-down of sorts; this was the type where one had to turn on the TV and let it warm up for several minutes before a picture appeared. During this time, I would start preparations for breakfast, which included emptying the ice trays into the bucket in the freezer and refilling the trays with water, then I’d get the water and coffee grounds for the coffeemaker and start the machine. The coffee was only for my parents, of course.

On this particular day in ’98, when I returned to my room, I was astonished to not see Sonic, but rather the intro of some bizarre cartoon I’d never seen before. I watched, confused. What the heck was a “poh-keh-mahn”? Who was that kid – Ash, was it? – who wanted to become a Pokémon master? What’s a Pokémon “master”, anyway? And what in the world was that rodent who acted like a giant mouse with an attitude (and electricity)? I kept watching, of course, and by the end of the episode, I was in tears and a huge fan. I watched every episode, tried to doodle Ash and Pikachu; when the cards came out (and I worked a job more than a year later), I bought packs of cards and marvelled at the artwork, I talked about Pokémon all the time, on and on.

I was hooked.

There was talk about video games but psh, who had the money for a Game Boy, much less the games themselves? No one I knew had either one… no one had the cards either, really. I was the only one in my tiny cluster of school-only friends who loved Pokémon. But it was okay, I was used to being the only fan of something like this; a handful of years prior to this, I’d been totally obsessed with Toy Story (yes, the first movie), and absolutely no one I knew was as big a fan as I was. I’m not sure I knew anyone who’d even seen the movie, though it’s possible they had but didn’t want to admit it.

The first Pokémon game I ever bought – forget about my parents buying me this stuff, are you mad? – was Pokémon Yellow in 2002. When I was nineteen years old. I’d purchased a Game Boy Pocket to go with it and played and played that game like crazy. I was dumb enough to sell it some time later, but in 2004 or so, I’d bought another copy to play on my Game Boy Colour. Oddly enough, it didn’t come with a label, only the words “Pokemon Yellow” (without the accent) written in red Sharpie.

At the time, I’d printed out a picture of the title screen of the game and literally taped it to the cartridge. Left it that way for more than a decade, too. As you can see from the above photos, in 2018 I finally bought a reproduction label, removed the printout and tape, cleaned the marker off and put the label on. It looks much, much better now.

Over the years, my interest in Pokémon has come and gone, but around 2007, I was into it again big-time. I absolutely loved the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum games and the anime based on it; Dawn was my favourite character by far and admittedly I became a huge Pearlshipper (the fan-created romantic relationship between Ash and Dawn), I drew lots of fanart, et cetera. My interest in the anime finally ended for good around 2009, and I intentionally stayed out of the loop on the storyline and characters. It just got too repetitive and dull for me. However, I still loved the franchise, and I was extremely excited for the latest entries in the video game series: Pokémon Black and Pokémon White for Nintendo DS.

These games were released in Japan in September 2010, nearly six months before we would get them Stateside. As each character and Pokémon were revealed in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, I’d attempt to draw fanart of each one. I’m aware of my inability to prove it now, but at least in terms of Deviantart, I was the first one to draw fanart of many of the Unova Pokémon, including Sandile, Munna, Pidove and Darmantian. I absolutely loved the female trainer, Hilda/White, and had made a fan club for her on Deviantart before her name was ever revealed. I also drew lots of fanart of her in various poses, using a pose reference website so I could have an excuse to keep drawing her. I memorised the Japanese names of each Pokémon and human characters, and I recall my disgust at the absurd number of puns used for the English names once they were revealed. When the game released in Japan, I downloaded a ROM of both games to play on my computer. I couldn’t read a thing, of course, but I was familiar with the game’s interface and basic method of play that it didn’t make much difference. Any Pokémon I caught was given a nickname of their Japanese name, written in Romaji so I could tell which one was which.

I was absolutely obsessed with these games, and with good reason. Although they were on the DS, the graphics were a step up from Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. There was a much better 3-D feel to the game, with rotation and scaling in various parts of the game; the Pokémon sprites were animated nicely, with continual movement throughout the entire battle; the scene – and some Pokémon – changed with the passing of seasons, which was a delight to see. It was a big improvement over Generation IV, showcasing what the DS was capable of before the 3DS came along.

North America got the games on 6 March 2011. I was living in Pennsylvania at the time and had recently started an early morning job at a department store, so I had some money. The idea of pre-ordering a game didn’t occur to me at the time, as I’d never bought a brand-new game on launch day. Even my copy of Pokémon Emerald, which I’d purchased new in 2005, wasn’t a day one buy.

So what did I do on launch day for Pokémon Black and Pokémon White?

I drove with my mom to Toys R Us in the next town over and stood in line roughly ten minutes before the store opened. When the doors opened, I walked with the others to the video game section and bought both games. The line was thankfully short, and surprisingly, only one person had pre-ordered the game. Not only was I the only one who bought both games, I was also the only AFAB (assigned female at birth) person. In 2011. I was surprised but kept that surprise to myself as I paid for both games – even got a little freebie, not in the picture below, for the purchase – and returned to my car. I was so, so excited to finally have the games in English and could play them without the aid of my computer.

The first chance I got, I tore into my Pokémon Black game and started playing it, grateful for the ability to read the text and have a better understanding of the game’s story. I poured a lot of hours into the game, having an absolute blast with it. When I got the ticket in-game to catch Victini, I was ecstatic and spent at least twenty minutes listening to the awesome battle music whilst trying and trying and trying to catch it. I eventually succeeded and it became a key figure in my party. I loved guiding the female trainer, who I named White in my copy of Pokémon Black, through each town and marvelling at the sights and sounds whilst catching all the Unova Pokémon I could and level grinding my Pokémon. It was so much fun.

Years later, I was excited for the release of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y on 3DS, and later still, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon also on 3DS, but I don’t think I’d ever been as totally excited, completely obsessed, with any series of Pokémon games before or since Black and White. Currently, my interest in Pokémon has greatly declined, especially with the disappointment of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield – I feel like the only person who genuinely adhered to the boycott, and not because of “Dexit” – though my interest has started to grow a bit with the announcements of the Diamon and Pearl remakes, in addition to the Pokémon Legends: Arceus game. But it’s nice to look back with fondness on those days of my excitement and obsession with the Black and White games, and occasionally, I’ll pick up one of the games and pop it into my New 3DS XL (that I bought refurbished, ha) for a bit of fun times.