Goodwill Hunting – 1st Gen Gameboy

Trudging through a humid, un-air conditioned flea market in the middle of an Indiana summer does have its advantages. Long forgotten and dust covered, this Gameboy set was a definite deal, even to someone who isn’t a retro game collector.

What’s in the package?

Well for my hard earned Andrew Jackson, I received:

1 first gen Gameboy, in OK condition

1 copy of Pokémon Red

1 copy of Super Mario Land

1 copy of Konami Track and Field

1 copy of Ultra’s World Circuit Series

1 ASCII Gameboy case

2 Gameboy game cases

Not bad eh? Well Lets do a quick review though of the package to see if we got our money’s worth.

Pokémon Red

What really needs to be said about Red (or Blue for that matter). This is one of the best games in my opinion ever released for the Gameboy. Long game play, HUGE replay value including the ability to port your collection to other Pokémon games and trading among friend’s collected Pokémon. This is flea market gold.

Super Mario Land

This oddball Mario one of the launch titles for the Gameboy way back in 1989. The game itself is okay. Controls are solid and Graphics are… well… it’s a 20 year old Gameboy game, not a lot expected there. I will give Nintendo credit here because they did attempt to alter the series by adding different settings (Egypt, Easter Island and so on), horizontal shooter levels (which Im not a huge fan of), lots of different enemies and so on. Not my favorite game, but not a bad one by anyone’s standard.

Konami Track & Field

I have a copy of this for the NES somewhere as well. The game includes lots of different events, 11 to be exact, but each with the exact same mechanics as the previous events. The majority of your time your will be mashing the A button as fast as possible and getting pretty much nowhere. Some events like hurtles, javelin and the triple jump require the D-pad to adjust angle which adds another dimension to the rather boring gameplay, not enough to save it though.

Ultra’s World Circuit Series

This is really your run of the mill, top down racer. You play as an F1 Race car in a closed circuit, that’s really it. The Game offers little variety in game play, well, it has pit lanes, but who gives a $#!%.

The ASCII Gameboy Hard Case

This case is actually very nice. It’s a hard plastic shell with shoulder strap, with a clasp that keeps the unit closed. On the inside, the molding reveals a well fitted area for your Gameboy and 4 games with cases (or 6 de-cased games). Score.

The Gameboy

Well, to be honest, I’m a little disappointed with it. The back cover has been broken off, with the clip rattling around in the back. This was held together by quite possibly the oldest packing tape that I have ever seen. The tape smelled of feet. After filling it with 4 fresh Duracells, I slid the power button to the right. Being met with no little red light and no familiar Gameboy “BLING!”, is a little disappointing. I promptly did what most self titled Mr. Fix It’s do… I hit it. Much to my surprise, it actually worked, the light came on, BLING!, and I was on my way. I love old Nintendo’s “Hammer and Fist” approach to their continuous maintenance.

The screen did work, for a time, then began to blink in and out, and fade as well. I’m sure that it’s a connection problem with the screen, so if I can get the proper drill bit to take it apart, I’m sure that it can be fixed.

Is it worth it?

Hell Yes. Even though the game boy was a bit disappointing, the games and case were worth it. Plus, it looks really friggin’ good on my Bookshelf, next to the rest of my collection; it’s always been more of an aesthetics thing with me anyways. Word.