It is hard to think of a role-playing series that is more iconic than the Japanese phenomenon Final Fantasy. A brainchild of Hironobo Sakaguchi, an ex-developer from Squaresoft/Square Enix, Final Fantasy initially took shape as a frantic attempt to carve a niche in the massively competitive games industry.  

Pokémon is one of the most iconic franchises of our time. The cute pocket monsters in this colorful universe have been around for over two decades at this point, and new entries continue to add more amazing characters to the already massive roster.  

Have you ever wished you could run super-fast? But not just fast – blazingly, ridiculously fast? Of course you have – you are a gamer. 

And therefore, it’s no surprise that you have either enjoyed a Sonic game or know someone who has enjoyed turning into a ball and dashing through the Green Hill Zone.

Any time a series inspires an entire genre of games, you know they’re doing something right. One half of the inspiration behind the ever-popular Metroidvania genre of games, Castlevania does a lot of things well and arguably includes the most battles against Count Dracula featured in any gaming series.

Today, we are going to take a look at some more classic RPGs from the Super Nintendo stable. At The Old School Game Vault, we are fond of RPGs and it would make us happy if you the reader can discover some of the games that gave us so many happy memories growing up.

The first thing I do when I encounter any expensive game is looking for serial numbers. For Nintendo 64 games look in the cartridge slot. On authentic games, if you look in the groves of the N64 game you see some numbering in the slots. 

There are few ways to look at this nowadays.  Either you’re a retro video game fan who enjoys playing with emulators.  Or you’re a retro video game fan that enjoys playing with the original software. 

Are you a fan of Super Mario Bros, then you got to check out the history and what made this such an epic gaming Franchise.  This article was written by the nice folks over at GamesMojo.com, so head over and check them out!  They are a great spot for reviews, news and fantastic gaming blogs!

Updated: 02/01/2019

For years Yelp has been frustrating business all across the country.  Yet again, this stupid company won't show our reviews on their platform. 

Now yelp states The Old School Game Vault is closed, which is wrong.

For those of us who were young when the NES first hit markets, it represents a childhood filled with countless gaming memories. Finally beating the last level on Super Mario Bros, giggling maniacally as we shot down ducks in Duck Hunt and nearly tossing the controller after a single bullet grazed my leg and killed me in contra.

The Nintendo Entertainment System’s reputation as the home console of the’80s has only been burnished over time. And as its notoriety has increased in retro game circles, little myths and legends have popped up that capture the attention of gamers of that era. 

Recently we obtained a box of some really Rare Super Nintendo titles.  At first glance it was pretty obvious to tell these games where not authentic.  Below are points about how to spot these fake/ counterfeit "reproduction" SNES Games.

The late 1970s saw the release of the Atari 2600 and the rise of the home gaming console. But by the early 1980s, it crashed and burned. This was due mostly to gamers’ frustration at sub-par games (“E.T. The Extra Terrestrial,” anyone?). The sentiment effectively killed the home-console market.

The newer generation of gamers may not remember Blockbuster Video. However, for those of us of a certain age the rental behemoth is almost impossible to forget. There was a time about 20 years ago when Blockbuster was as ubiquitous as McDonalds.

These days, game systems come with all kinds of I/O ports—USB, HDMI, Ethernet, Optical Audio and more. These portals are used to do everything from log online to connect digital cameras.

1998, as we’ve talked about in the previous article, saw the release of some all-time classics. 3D began to take hold, and games and game developers responded in kind.

The Dark Knight is without a doubt one of the most beloved comic book characters and pop culture icons of all time. Over decades, Batman’s brooding nature, ace detective skills and colorful gallery of villains have become second nature to most of us.