Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

What a haul this weekend! I hit a number of garage sales and a flea market and came out with a stack of games, a few of which I will keep, most of which are already on their way into circulation at Goozex. I’ll roll through the PC games first, then try to work my way along a generation at a time.

The biggest surprise was the stack of PC games I came home with. Complete, boxed copies of Age of Empires III: Gold Edition, The Sims 2 (which for some reason had an extra manual that belongs with the DVD edition of the game), and Tomb Raider Legend. I also replaced my copy of Atomic Bomberman from ages ago, but that last one has been unwilling to install so far… it’s pretty old. I may actually have better luck running it in Darwine than Windows XP. Total cost for the PC games was seven dollars. Total point value for all of them (minus Bomberman, which I’m keepin’) is 800 points, which is about $40-45.

I finally managed to nab myself a Gyruss cartridge for NES. I’m a big fan of the game and was holding out for a boxed copy, but this was only $3 and I couldn’t pass it up. The guy selling it was trying to move some of his cartridges for a lot more money, and I have no idea why. He claimed his stuff was rare… I call bullshit. I noticed hundreds of Sega Genesis cartridges today, as well as a number of consoles. I only ended up picking up one game though, that was Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition. Excellent condition. Boxed. All inserts, including the manual. It was only a dollar. I have to research if it’s worth anything in that condition, if not I’ll just hang onto it. It will be fun to take it out to play every once in a while to marvel at how hard Capcom worked to port the game to the system.

I rolled the dice on a cute little Game Boy Color with a case that a woman was selling. There was writing on it and the battery case was taped on. It didn’t even have batteries in it for me to test it. For two dollars, I took the chance and brought it home. Two AAs later, I was playing Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble with unbearable eyestrain. Now what do I do with it? Maybe I’ll toss it on eBay and see what happens.

There were lots of PlayStation games around as well. I grabbed complete copies of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions and Tekken 3. These are original runs, with black labels and all, but the manual’s a little wrinkly on Tekken 3. I need to do some research on the value of Tekken 3, but the cost of these two games was two dollars. VR Missions is already taken on Goozex for 200 points, or $10.

There was a woman selling some games at the flea market who clearly had very little idea what she was doing. She was trying to sell a UMD-only copy of Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP, Greatest Hits version, for nine dollars. At the same time, she had some reasonably priced complete Gamecube games. I grabbed a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for five dollars, knowing I could make more than that in trade or resale. I already own the game. The same guy who was selling PC games that were mixed in with his DVDs for two dollars also happened to have a complete copy of Onimusha Dawn of Dreams for PS2… also for two dollars. I bought it, cleaned it up, and am now trying to decide what to do with it. It’s worth 250 points at Goozex, or about $15, which is a fair price by most measures I’m seeing, but I don’t know if I want to try the game first, and maybe keep it. I get games like this sometimes and wonder if I’m better off just passing them on to trade for time and energy’s sake. A kid at one garage sale had a Prima official guide for Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I asked him how much it was and he couldn’t decide. When he said it was “at least 50¢,” I gave him 75¢. It doesn’t have the poster map thing and it’s not in flawless shape, but it’s cute and isn’t hurting anything sitting on the shelf next to my copy of The Wind Waker. As a bonus, the guide happens to have a walkthrough for Ocarina of Time as well. Nice. Another yard sale turned up Worms 3D for PS2 for two bucks. Total cost for last-gen games and accessories was $9.75, and I’ve already flipped Echoes for $10 worth of points.

That’s just the games. I grabbed some great music values from Iggy Pop and Type O Negative, and even some for my daughter, along with some books and clothing. It was a good day for deals. Grab anything great yourself?