Game Boy World 1989 covered every Game Boy game that, as the title suggests, saw its initial release in 1989 in any territory (which, in fact, was 100% Japan). I’m 15 entries into Game Boy World 1990, but… 1989 had 25 games total. 1990 has about 140. I’m probably going to end up breaking the big years like 1990 into multiple books, because trying to cram write-ups and photos for 140 games into a single self-published volume is how you end up with a book that costs $100, which no one buys.
So that’s the… well, not bad news, but the “stark reality” news. The good news: I’ve managed to track down complete-in-box copies of about half of 1990’s games so far. I’m gathering them in roughly chronological order with the help of monthly Patreon proceeds — a significant majority of that income does indeed go toward sourcing games for archiving — and as of today I am just four complete games and one box short of reaching 1990’s halfway point. Unnnnfortunately I can tell there are going to be some sticky wickets in here, especially when it comes to boxes. For stuff like Fish Dude, Sumo Fighter, and Amazing Tater, I’m realistically just going to have to settle for cart and manual and a yearbook-style “missing photo” card, unless I luck out and win the lottery or something.
(Even that probably wouldn’t work, actually. I just remembered that someone gave me a lottery card for Christmas, and I won $8 but forgot to redeem it. Ah well.)
But, if anyone out there is able to help source some of this stuff, I’d appreciate the assistance! If you have complete copies of any of these games you no longer want, or that you’re eager to sell, or would be willing to trust me enough to lend them to me for photography and scanning, or simply know where to find them for a reasonable price, please drop me a line — toastyfrog at gmail dot com. The five pieces I’m trying to track down at the moment are:
- Ninja Boy — I just need the box, but the only copy I’ve seen for sale online this summer is some dude on eBay who’s asking for about six times what the last copy sold for, LOLOLOL
- Boxxle II
- Shisenshou: Match Mania
- Amazing Penguin
- Hong Kong
I’m no longer trying to find all versions of games, because that would be impossibly expensive; if a game had a U.S. release, then I want to find the American box. If not, then the Japanese or European box.
And in the long term over the next year or so, I’ll be needing all of the following, complete in box, and in approximately this order:
- Power Mission
- Patlabor: The Mobile Police
- Battle Pingpong
- Atomic Punk
- Skate or Die: Bad ‘N Rad
- Extra Bases
- HAL Wrestling
- Side Pocket
- DuckTales
- Boulder Dash
- Lunar Lander
- F1 Boy
- Maru’s Mission
- Balloon Kid
- Wheel of Fortune
- Mr. Chin’s Gourmet Paradise
- Fish Dude
- SD Gundam: Lacroan Heroes
- Stop That Roach!
- Astro Rabby
- Pop ‘n Twinbee
- Palamedes
- Ghostbusters II
- Monster Truck
- Roadster
- Radar Mission
- Soreyuki! Amida-kun
- Afterburst
- Rolan’s Curse
- F1 Race
- The Rescue of Princess Blobette
- Aretha
- Pac-Man
- Parasol Henbee
- Square Deal
- Go! Go! Tank
- Battle Bull
- In Your Face
- Play Action Football
- Robocop
- Korodice
- Scotland Yard
- Chibi Maruko-chan Okozukai Daisakusen
- Double Dragon II
- Bubble Bobble
- Painter Momopie
- Power Racer
- Kininkou Maroku Oni
- Kung-Fu Master
- Pri Pri
- Nail ‘N Scale
- Ginga
- Klax
- Final Fantasy Legend II
- Nekojara Monogatari
- Pocket Stadium
- Godzilla
- Ponta to Hinako no Chindouchuu: Yuutou Hen
- Ishida Masao no Tsumego Paradise
- Capcom Quiz: Hatena no Daibouken
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch
- Battle Unit Zeoth
- Bubble Ghost
- Chase H.Q.
- Fighting Simulator
- Monster Maker
- America Oudan Ultra Quiz
Yeah, OK, I don’t think I really understood what I was in for when I started this project. So I would definitely appreciate any leads on cheap complete copies of these. Especially Fish Dude and Mr. Chin’s Gourmet Paradise.
Incidentally, I’m not using this project to build myself a complete Game Boy library. I intend to keep a handful of the best games for myself, and the rest I’ll most likely sell off to pay for more games once I’ve photographed, recorded, and scanned them. Unfortunately Frank Cifaldi has convinced me I need to capture higher-resolution scans of the 1989 material than I’ve taken, so I have many long hours of slaving over a flatbed ahead of me before I can start trading these things in….
Wish I could help, but I only have Duck Tales and Battle Unit Zeoth, and both are just loose carts. I assume that is of no use to you?
Alas, loose carts are easy to find. The challenge is to find things complete, and to archive them. Thanks though.
Might be a looooonnng shot, but RF Generation keeps lists together of what people have what games and in what degree of completion. You could reach out to them?
http://www.rfgeneration.com/
Of that list, I have a US copy of Final Fantasy Legend II with book and slightly squished, but intact, box. I think they are from when Sunsoft reprinted the Legend games later on, which I think was a thing? I’d be willing to lend those out or find a way to gather the photos you need. I also have a selection of games, boxes, and books for a real scattershot of other games from later years of the Gameboy and Gameboy Color.
I have mint boxes of the Sunsoft reprint of FFLII and FFLIII with manuals and carts and am also willing to lend or scan for the cause. I have a few other games as well, but would need to go digging to confirm if I have box and manuals.
As a bit of a GameBoy enthusiast myself I can only pity your future finances. Since you’re doing this for archival purposes, wouldn’t it be smarter to reach out to a community like NintendoAge and see if the people there would give you access to their vast libraries? At the very least you’ll have a better chance of finding the games you need that way.
“Hello, complete strangers! Would you mind lending me your holy grails for a while? It’s for a good cause, honest!”
Basically! You’re a known quantity among some gamer circles, I’m sure that helps. By getting in contact with the right collector you’ll save yourself a lot of money and improve the odds of this project in the long run. Sure beats ponying up for a Gameboy collection yourself.
I mean, it’s just a suggestion. I like your GB World project, so I want to see you succeed here.
I can help out with Amazing Penguin box art. Click on my website link, hope these scans are okay.
I’m less concerned with scans than consistent packaging photos. But thanks!
Is it necessary to photograph the boxes yourself? Else you could ask not for the games themselves but for detailed photographs, probably you could describe how the photos should look like and many people would probably help you with that.
Same with scans…