Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance has an unusual release history. Originally intended as a Japanese exclusive because Nintendo didn’t think Westerners would be into turn-based strategy (TBS), this classic game eventually released first in North America…on September 10, 2001. Advance Wars Is as Accessible, Challenging, and Fun as Ever: In the aftermath of the next day’s terrorist attacks, European and Japanese releases were postponed. Advance Wars launched in Europe a few months later in January of ’02, but the game originally meant for Japanese only didn’t come out in Japan at all for another three years, first appearing in a compilation with Advance Wars 2 in November 2004. Advance Wars was part of a larger series already established in Japan known as Famicom Wars, Famicom being the Japanese name for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The overall, series which is now sometimes called Nintendo Wars includes 12 titles in...

The reasons why this is the case have been covered extensively in other online posts. However, for the purposes of this column, it makes sense to eschew the tech jargon and explain the issue in ways that any non-gear head can understand. So here’s a breakdown. Light guns, zappers and phasers reflected light It’s true—the NES Zapper you used to shoot ducks out of the sky, as well as the Super Scope from which you launched missiles, were  nothing but simple light reflectors. They didn’t “shoot” anything at all. Instead, they merely captured light and motion. So when you would aim for those ducks, what you were really doing was using the reflector to sense for motion on the screen. And for this to work as effectively as it did on those retro shooters, the timing had to be perfect. More on this below. The guns were calibrated for timing To pull off a...

“CHA-DING! CHA-DING! CHA-DING!” Every kid who grew up in the 80s knows that sound. Even today, hearing that melodious twang awakens a mighty surge of our fondest childhood memories. For those who don’t know, we’re referring to the nostalgic trigger sound of the NES light gun peripheral, the Zapper. This iconic accessory helped define 80s gaming and still stands as the coolest video game peripheral ever made. Why’s that, you ask? It instantly transforms your game room into a safe, kid-friendly shooting gallery.It looks like an awesome future gun for destroying evil robots.It makes a cool click/twang noise every time you squeeze the trigger.The noise also causes a slight recoil so it feels like you’re actually firing.Unlike the Power Glove, the Zapper actually functions the way it’s supposed to. Still, the most impressive thing about the Zapper is what we don’t remember—namely, any NES Zapper games. Despite all the Zapper’s renown...

The Dark Knight is without a doubt one of the most beloved comic book characters and pop culture icons of all time. Over the decades, Batman’s brooding nature, ace detective skills and colorful gallery of villains has become second nature to most of us. Before Rock steady nailed the definitive Batman experience in the Arkham series of games, there were a lot of games that put players in the Caped Crusader’s shoes. Unfortunately, most of them were pure garbage and shamelessly attempted to cash in on Batman’s popularity. Fear not, though, dear reader. We went through the archives and found a whole slew of great batman games. The Batman games that are a lot of fun to play, even today. Strap on your pointy ears, and let’s begin! Batman (1991) from the Sega Genesis There have been a lot of Batman games on the Genesis console (there are more than one...

In a previous post, I discuss some classic games that you know and probably played, but that you should give a second look in the 2020s. Here I’ll discuss a trio of all-but-forgotten retro video games.  You may well have missed these games the first time around, but fear not! They’re all worth a play even today – read on to find out why. 3. Ikari Warriors Have you seen a Rambo movie? Okay, then you get the idea. Like the probably more famous NES game Commando, Ikari Warriors is a top-down, vertically scrolling shoot-em-up about foot soldiers. Unlike that game, your character in Ikari Warriors has a bandana and a friend. Co-op! On the NES! Co-op games were a rarity, and that makes Ikari Warriors a lot of fun if you’re looking for an 8-bit shmup fix. Ammo was limited, which is an interesting twist for the genre, plus you can...

I recently finished a fifty-five-hour playthrough of Grand Theft Auto V. It’s a ridiculously fun game. It’s also can be a very disappointing game.  Unlike Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V is a flawed masterpiece worth playing, thinking, and talking about whose good will never erase its bad and whose bad doesn’t, for me, overwhelm its good—it just cheapens it.   About ten hours into my Grand Theft Auto V playthrough My wife said to me, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you giggle as much as since you started playing this game.” And she was right. So many of the things that Grand Theft Auto IV almost got right were beautifully executed in Grand Theft Auto V. Driving (and piloting) was fun in its own right, and the different handling based on vehicle and terrain kept it exciting and strategically interesting. The quantity and quality of random things...

The 1980s was a great decade because it aspired to that which it was not. It thought it was the future, and it wasn’t; it claimed the stock market would make everyone rich, and it didn’t. And after all the promises of wild monetary wealth and servant robots, all the 1980s mostly delivered were a bunch of “Rocky” sequels and a plasma globe from the Sharper Image. But aside from the kitsch—and the ‘80s produced a substantial amount—it will go down as a period of time notable for great optimism, great music and, of course, great video games. This was the time of the arcades and the rise of the home video game console; and for those of us who grew up during this era it was our decade, rendered in 8 bits. With that in mind, here is a list of games that defined a generation. Pac-Man There isn’t much...

You just love playing your Super Mario Bros video game – or at least you did back in the day. It's still OK, but if you're really honest, those beloved old video games are starting to feel played out. Now you don't have to just stash your old games in the closet. You have plenty of selling options nowadays, but where to start to sell your video games will vary from website to website. So go clean out your basement, gather your kid's old video games. No need to worry about finding “silly bar codes”, we make our service as easy as possible.  The Best Place to Start Selling Unwanted Stuff Today That's easy, at least for retro games, is The Old School Game Vault which enables you to sell used video games online for real Cash! We buy new and retro games from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.  You can get instant prices...

Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance has proven itself one of those rare games well able to stand the test of time. The graphics have been surpassed, of course, but Fire Emblem was never primarily about the graphics. Story and Gameplay that Build on Each Other Keep Fire Emblem Fun Fire Emblem is a fun turn-based strategy RPG set in a relatively typical fantasy world of magic and dragons, heroes and villains. The turn-based gameplay is relatively easy for a fan of the genre to pick up – different terrain types affect movement and defensibility, there is a paper-rock-scissors-like triangle that determines which weapon and magic types do well or poorly against other weapons and magic, and your party is made up of easily understood fantasy classes. Weapons (and spell books) degrade over time and must be replaced, which makes cost management and judicious use of irreplaceable powerful weapons/spells an...

It wasn’t easy for the N64 to earn its prestigious position in video gaming history. Despite a shocking lack of third-party support, the system made a name for itself with some of the best first-party titles ever made. Most often, the system is remembered for one-player cult classics like Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But it also offers tons of excellent multiplayer titles that get far less credit than they deserve. Today, we’re going to remedy this injustice. The guide below lists the best N64 coop games you’ll ever play, period. If you’ve played all your other multiplayer games to death, try these additively competitive treats. 1. Super Smash Bros Yes, we know you’ve played several other games in this series. And that means that you know  how unique each version is. Specifically, most versions have exclusive playable characters, stages,...

A couple of decades ago, arcade games were all the rage. And one genre of games that were as ubiquitous as any were brawlers, button mashers, otherwise known as “beat em ups.” These games made a seamless transition to consoles, offering home gamers the opportunity to take out relentless hordes of oncoming villains.  And in the recent past, beat ‘em ups were reborn with the help of Xbox Live Arcade, allowing older players to rekindle their love for the button mashing genre while making some new fans in the process. So in the interest of nostalgia, here is everything you need to know about retro gaming brawlers. The origin of beat ‘em ups Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, arcade games were manufactured for one purpose: getting kids to feed quarters into machines with reckless abandon. There were few better ways to achieve this goal than by designing games with high...

Survival Horror video games are filled with colorful, twisted and depraved characters. In a game that is meant to thrill and scare the player, these horror video game characters stand out because of their sheer imitativeness and their terrifying, bowel-loosening abilities. They can stand toe-to-toe with any major movie villain, and some of them make horror movie villains look pedestrian. Cheesy horror movies and Jason Voorhees, go hand in hand.  Have you ever wondered what scary video game characters can kick Jason Voorhees Ass? Without further ado, here are the Top 5 horror game characters that make Jason Voorhees look like a girl scout selling cookies. Nemesis – Resident Evil 3 Nemesis has a face that only a mother could love. Time after time, he pops up when you least expect him to and pummels you into oblivion. His T-Virus mutation powers make him an absolute juggernaut, nearly impossible to bring down. He’s...

The Super Nintendo Console, more popularly known as the SNES, was released in 1990. It quickly became one of the most popular gaming devices of its time, partly defining the fourth generation of video game consoles. The consoles shipped with a number of games, including the major hits Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country. To this day, their characters remain among the most well-known icons of video gaming. More than two decades later, many of the classic games of the Super Nintendo are still popular, largely thanks to emulator software for Windows as well as many other operating systems, including mobile ones.  Not only are SNES games available through emulation, but you can also buy Super Nintendo games, accessories and consoles here on our website. The SNES was the successor to the Nintendo Entertainment System The popular 8-bit console launched in the mid-eighties around the world. It introduced greatly improved...

In the summer of 1991, at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show, video-game behemoth Nintendo revealed the follow-up to their much-adored NES console. The Super Nintendo would improve on the original in every way, featuring 16-bit system with phenomenal graphics and capacity for some 32,768 colors. And they had Mario. But a little system called the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in Japan) was determined to play David to Nintendo’s Goliath. With the same processing powers but just 512 colors, the Genesis previewed a game with an obscure blue protagonist no one had ever heard of. And Sonic the Hedgehog killed. To follow up on the buzz, Sega of America president proposed a wild idea—drop the console price to $149 while bundling it with Sonic. Sega Japan was vehement in its opposition, but after a chaotic board meeting that involved chair throwing, the American got his way. The gambit paid off: the Sonic...

Probably, no console manufacturer lost the initiative worse than Sega did after it slayed the dragon known as the Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1992, on the heels of a gambit that saw Sega bundle the Genesis system with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Over the last 40 years, dozens upon dozens of home video game consoles have been released across the globe. Some, like the NES, retailed for affordable prices ($89.99), while others, like the TurboGrafx-16, were prohibitively expensive ($399.99).  Then there’s SNK’s Neo Geo system Which was in a league of its own. The machine’s exorbitant $649.99 price tag (and this was in 1990 dollars) ensured that the only folks who could get their hands on it likely wore monocles and smoked cigarettes out of ivory holders fashioned from African elephant tusks. However, even after its release, the Neo Geo didn’t depreciate all that much in price. Today, gamers can still spend hundreds of dollars on an original system, and its used games are some of the priciest around. So what’s responsible for this gouging? Here are some reasons why the Neo-Geo and its catalog of titles was, is, and will always be...

“Gritty Action Movies.” “Suspenseful Morality Sci-Fi Movies from the 1930s.” “Whistleblower Steamy Psychological Animation Based on a Book Set in Biblical Times About Trucks, Trains, & Planes.” Genres can be weird, right?  Game genres can be as simple as “driving “(DriveClub) or “FPS” (Battlefield) or as elaborately specific as “first-person stealth action-adventure role-playing games” (Uncharted 4: A Thief's End). Genres can be really helpful: when I find a game I like, say Dishonored 2, identifying aspects that appeal to me, like stealth, helps me find other games I’ll probably enjoy (like the Metal Gear Solid series or the latest Thief reboot). But genres can stifle creativity if developers or publishers choose to make an easily marketable game rather than taking genre-blurring risks—or when thinking using conventional genres leads developers to not even see some of the other possibilities out there. Games that Skillfully Switch Up Genres and Viewing Perspectives Offer a Great...

In 1995, console gaming was on the cusp of a new era. 16-bit systems went the way of the buffalo as 32-bit became the new standard. Suddenly, home gaming could become so much more than side-scrolling platformers. Naturally, the console wars of this era were as brutal as a cannon fight between rival pirate ships. Each new console that came out was either a huge success or a complete failure. At this time, Sega released the Sega Saturn console—their 32-bit successor to the Sega Genesis. Sadly, due to some horrible marketing decisions by Sega, the Saturn crashed and burned right out of the gate The real tragedy is that Sega had an incredible selection of Saturn games already in development. Some of these are the best 90s games ever, and they’re not available anywhere else. To prove that Sega Saturn is the best failed console, we’ve listed the best Sega Saturn games...

In another post, I argued that video games (like all expressive media) influence the world but that, cumulatively, their influence is more likely to be positive than negative because games can show us new.  Good ways of thinking and acting that we can then rally around, whereas the bad ways of thinking and acting depicted in video games are news to no one and so unlikely to spur mass adoption by naïve, impressionable gamers. Today, though, I want to consider the minor, individual negative effects that I’ve conceded games can have on players. Specifically, I want to consider the effects of sexist and racist stereotypes in game characters, plots, and mechanics. Video Games do more good than bad They have the potential to encourage negative stereotypes, and some games definitely do. Grand Theft Auto V called it a flawed masterpiece, the flaw being the dull, stupid sexism and cynicism weighing down the many, many things...

FAQ Section - for https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/buy-videogames Updated: December 15, 2023 If I buy a Boxed Game, how will it be shipped? All box games are wrapped in bubble wrap and shipped in a sturdy box. How do you ship your Games? All Disc & Cartridge games will ship in a quality Kraft Bubble Mailer. What Shipping Service do you use? We prefer to ship with the United States Postal Service. My item is expensive, will it be insured? All items purchased with a cost of $100 or more:  Will be fully insured through the shipping carrier & Signature Confirmation will be included at no cost to you. How long does shipping generally take. Most items will arrive generally in 3 to 5 business days.  Just depends on how efficient the Post Office is.Expedited Services are available at Check Out. Will I receive a Tracking Number? Yes, each and every item sold will receive...