[FS] Zelda: Link To The Past

Today I'll be posting up some snaps of my second complete PAL UK copy of one of Nintendo's crowning achievements: The Legend Of Zelda - A Link To The Past.

I am selling it as I have put together another complete set in slightly better condition to keep. First and foremost, the cart works perfectly of course! The box is in pretty good shape save for some minor creases and a tiny rip on the back corner, it still remains nice and rectangular. The map is beginning to show its age as illustrated by the delicate folds. I've shown some closeups of the damage so you can see it's nothing major.

Since I got stung on a replica manual, I went to the trouble of showing this one is legitimate as you can see from the metallic Nintendo Seal of Quality on the inside cover. The secrets book is opened but still has half the seal on the back and the cart shows no yellowing whatsoever.

This is a highly sought after game and good condition complete sets routinely sell for around £30 on ebay. Right now the lowest BIN I can see is £39.99.

I am asking £26 total. This includes postage and packaging (which will be bubble-wrapped inside another cardboard box for protection). I'll leave this post up with that price for a while as I'm in no rush to be rid of it, and I'll post if I eventually decide to put it on the 'bay.

Game Time

Here are the games I have managed to forage from ebay thus far. All are complete in box unless otherwise stated. Each box has a condition rating, ranging from 1 (garbage) to 10 (perfection). As usual, click pic for big:

From top left:

• Another World (2)
  
• Cybernator (massive rip in front of box) (4)
  
• Desert Strike (3)
• Donkey Kong Country (no CD) (6)
  
• Earthworm Jim (8)
  
• F-Zero (no manual) (6)
  
• Killer Instinct (no CD) (7)
  
• Mechwarrior (6)
  
• Mickey Mania (8)
  

The big dog:

• Super Metroid (8)
  

Carrying on:

• Out To Lunch (7)
• Pop 'N' Twinbee (6)
  
• Secret Of Mana (7)
  
• Starwing (9)
  
• Super Mario Allstars (8)
  
• Super Mario Kart (6)
  
• Super Mario World (7)
  
• Super Star Wars (6)
  
• Super Empire Strikes Back (no manual) (6)
  

And lastly:

• Unirally (9.5)
  
• Zelda: Link To The Past (8)
  
• Zombies (8)
  

And this is everything else. From top left:

• Starwing + manual
• Streetfighter 2 + manual
• Streetfighter 2 + manual
• Simcity + manual
• Super Scope 6 + manual (both in Spanish ?)
  
• F-Zero
• Super Mario Allstars
  
• F-Zero boxed (no manual)
• Zelda: Link To The Past (complete !)
• Darius Twin (NTSC US/CAN)
• Zelda box (with replica manual)
• Datel Universal Adaptor
• Snes Controller no.3 (damaged fascia)
• Jurassic Park manual
• Super Mario World manual
  

Christ on a bike that's a long post. Most of the stuff in that last pic will likely be sold off one way or another (anyone need a Spanish Super Scope 6? Makes a good door stop / paper weight, free to a good home :D ) and I'll be trying to gradually replace missing manuals and find better condition boxes for those lower than a 5 grade.

Mintendo

I hunted SNES for several weeks, trying to find one that had not yet fallen to the terrible plague of yellowing so common amongst these consoles. A friend of mine offered to sell his to me, but it was a critical plague victim. I almost jumped at the chance to try my hand at bleaching the plastic back to its untarnished grey, as documented by the vintage console restoration pioneers at Retr0Bright, but an ebay auction caught my eye.

The console looked grey from the thumbnail. I ventured closer. It was packaged in an official Nintendo SNES plastic hardcase. It had all the cables, it came with two controllers (one was knackered but usable, fortunately I bought another mint one from my friend) and 6 games including one boxed with instructions. It also came with a Datel Universal Adapter. Looking through the glamour shots of this well-kept bounty, it was clear the owner knew how to take care of a SNES.

I paid twice what I had originally budgeted myself for the console just to get my hands on this neat little collection and I can honestly say it was worth every penny.


Mint!!

So It Begins

And so I will document my purchases. I will start, conversely, not with the first item I received but instead with the last. I know, I'm a crazy bastard. I start here because it is a good point to jump on, I'll explain.

One of my latest purchases was an RGB SCART cable from ebay seller adapter_man. It cost just under a tenner including shipping which you may think is slightly steep for a SCART lead, but I can assure you that if you want the best out of your SNES, this is the way to get it. As far as I know (and I don't know very far) only PAL consoles are capable of outputting in RGB, so this lead is wasted money for a US or JAP console. Obviously, your TV also has to be capable of RGB.

There are also many fake RGB cables out there that only output the same as a regular AV cable would and using an old N64 / Gamecube RGB SCART might not be the answer either, as they may output at different brightnesses or use different wiring that is incompatible with the SNES. This can result in the image displaying for a moment before fading to black, which is useless! I did a bit of homework on this as you can tell, and after reading the item description adapter_man had written I was fully confident he knew his shit.

Here is said cable, in all its gold plated 20 pin connection glory.

Ok, not much to look at for normal people, so I'll show you what this thing does. Below is a few samples of the RGB cable in action, compared to the standard AV cable that comes with every SNES. These were shot using my Sony DSC-T20 with the exact same settings for each comparison shot. The LCD TV is my Samsung LE26R74BD. The top half of each image is the AV output and the bottom is the RGB.

The difference in colour vibrance is immediately clear, while the AV looks muddy the RGB is crisp and bright. There is also noticeably less banding in the RGB picture.

Again, the colours look so much better in RGB. The edges are more defined and the text is clearer as the blue, white and background colours are separated more cleanly.

This close-up of the text firmly illustrates the benefits of having a nice crisp RGB output compared to the smudged blur of standard AV cables.

In conclusion, if you've spent or are planning to spend tens to hundreds of pounds re-living those SNES retro dreams, do yourself a favour and get the right cable. It's only a tenner!

SNES ! (Bless you)

About 12 years ago, Nintendo released a gaming console in the UK that would forever change the world of video games as we know it. That machine was the Nintendo 64. It was the first true 64bit home system and would host some of the greatest games ever made, such as The Legend Of Zelda, Ocarina Of Time. It was fucking amazing. I wanted- I needed to own this console and I did. I still do in fact, the very same system is still going strong. However, in order to own such a momentous machine I had to make a sacrifice.

I sold my SNES.

Years would pass, I would play many great N64 titles to completion and enjoy every minute of them. I would plough through Goldeneye, Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, Lylat Wars, Super Mario 64, Perfect Dark, Ocarina and many others. It was good times. Then, a few more years would pass and a new generation of home consoles would rise. I bought a PS2, many more games and enjoyed the hell out of them. Then I bought an Xbox 360 and continued the trend up to this present day. All the while, I knew something was missing. Some part of my soul I had bartered off over a decade before.

Well no more! This is my mission to hunt down those relics of the past in as good a condition as I can find them, without breaking the bank. My willpower, strength and Ebay together, our powers combined, we shall be victorious.

Now I'm not after a complete UK PAL collection, not by a longshot. I only intend to gather the best there was in Nintendo's 16bit catalogue, the true essence of the SNES. My absolute prize will be Secret Of Mana, forever one of my favourite games. I won't stop there though, oh no! If there is a bargain to be had, I will pounce on it. I will also backtrack and sample all the many games that looked so promising when I read about them as an 11 year old boy.

This is my quest!