What is Sexy?
By:  The NintendoAge Mod Squad
Compiled by:  Michael "Mario's Right Nut" Swanson
11/24/10 - note that a couple mods have been inducted since this article was completed. 

Every person collects for different reasons.  Every time that I ask myself the "why" question, I come up with a different answer.  However, each time it all boils down to my love for gaming.  Every time I knock another game or C I B part off my list, I get a perverse pleasure that will someday end up costing me a boat load of cash for therapy.  Suffice it to say, people don't invest the time and effort that we spend on our hobby without finding it sexy. 

Following this line of thinking, I decided to ask the NintendoAge frontmen what they thought was sexy.  Some of the answers will surprise you.  I certainly didn't receive the responses that I was expecting.  In alphabetical order by username, the NA Mod Squad tells us what they think is sexy.

Braveheart69

First up is my Canadian version Stack up, I wanted that thing FOREVER to complete the 4 pack of Big Box Gyromite and Stack-Up USA and Canadian versions.  The Canadian Stack-Up is BRUTAL and I owe the guy on NA who sold it to me a big thanks as there are so few to go around.  Next up of course is my CIB Stadium Events that completed my CIB collection.  I am still very happy that when I bought it the money paid off all the debts of a guy in Georgia who just lost his job and has mutliple children he's taking care of.  Next up Magexa Soccer and Mah Jong let's just say I NEVER thought I was going to get those as again they are so scarce.  The Goonies Hong Kong Game Company, I know Pengo would give your right nut for it and it's the only one I've ever seen.  Such an oddity and I love it.  Lastly my Asian Version Super Mario Bros II, again a total odditity that people are still debating as to what it is.  These are a few of my favorite things!

Burdger

I can't really say that anything in my collection is "sexy," but this is easily my favorite piece. I won this game for getting the high score on K-Han's Ultimate Frogger Championship. I loved this game from the moment I began beta testing, and I spent hours setting the high score, while on vacation in Florida with Penguin. Thanks again Kevin for making such an awesome game!

Dain

NintendoAge Campout

Over the last few years, we've had a site-sponsored campout event hosted by Paul (NA username "Paul"), and each year the users of NintendoAge have put together a really special gift for me. The thoughfulness behind both of these has really brought me a lot of smiles and each serves as a daily reminder to me of how much I care about the crew and the friends I've made on NA. Both the plaque and the picture book are displayed prominently in my collection, right next to my graded Myriad.

NintendoAge Concept Art

Whenever I'm feeling remeniscent, I'll take a few moments and pull out the concept art that was submitted by Aaron Bieber (NA username "xARSEFACEx"). Each and every time I see these sketches, it takes me back a few years to the early days of NintendoAge. One day I hope to frame these because they're truly a treasure to me.

Dangevin

My sign is probably the sexiest item I own, mainly because it's large enough for me to actually make love to. There are a couple of ventholes that are certainly big enough, and once it gets warmed up...look out. I'd been chasing this sign since I lost a mis-listed one ("nitendo sign") to Parpunk in 2007...that one was local pick-up only (about 6-7 hours' drive from me) and closed for about $70. He was willing to make the trip -- a wise move. I finally found this one within about an hours' drive, and it put me out $250. The owner was glad to see it go to a fellow collector...but mostly glad he didn't have to ship the damned thing. Also in the shot is the silhouette of my lego mario sprite, which my wife recommended I put up as my sexiest item since it is unique. Bonus!

Mario's Right Nut

The sexiest part of my collection would have to be my Robotic Operating Buddy, or ROB, stuff.  ROB is what first got me into collecting.  I remember seeing Johnny 5 playing with a ROB in the credits to a Short Circuit movie and I always wondered what it was.  When I got to college and started to use the internet to search for...things, I decided one day to try to figure out what that little robot was.  Once I figured it out, I was pretty stoked.  I loved Nintendo games and had no idea that the NES that I had sitting under my TV had this little add on.  So, I went to eBay and bought me a loose robot.  But when it arrived, I found that you needed all these little pieces (and, um, the games for the robot) to play any games with ROB.  But, upon returning to eBay I found that the US systems were really expensive.  However, being a broke college kid, I found that if I ordered the foreign robot pieces and the American carts, it would work just as well and the cost would drop to almost nothing.  Long story short, I spent long hours playing Gyromite in college.  I never got into Stack Up as much for whatever reason.
Then when I started hard core collecting after I had some disposable income, I went back and found some of the American counterparts to the games that had started this collecting obsession for me.  This picture is the first time that I've had all these pieces displayed like this.  Thanks for all the fun times ROB!!

NationalGameDepot

When MRN asked me what I thought was "sexy" I immediately thought of young little Deniz, but then I realized he ment something from my collection.  I mulled around the idea and probably my favorite piece is something that is basically worthless!  A few years ago I had the idea to send a random cart around and have a bunch of members sign it.  Around the same time on the forum there was a funny thread about a guy trying to photoshop something that didn't exist (I can't remember what it was now though).  But NES_Dude colored the text on a Baseball cart and renamed it the ultra rare Meg-uh-man version.  It of course got a hung laugh and was the best thread on NA for a few weeks.  After it was all over I asked him if I could have the cart and what my plan was for it, and he was super happy to help out.  The cart has traveled all over the US, and even all over Canada.  The cart has over 30 signatures so far and still have plenty of room left for more!  I meant to bring it to the campout this year and it totally slipped my mind. :-/  I have plenty of rare stuff that is worth 1000 times more, but this little gem shows the history of this great site and all the great people I have had the chance to get to know.  The original purpose of this cart was to auction off and all the proceeds to go the NA for server costs.  Once the cart gets full, that will happen at some point but for now she hangs out in the game room keeping all my other carts company.

Pats1717

The sexiest part of my collection is definitely, the Nintendo ceiling fan I acquired at the flea market in 2009 for $5. I have found many things out in the wild, but this one caught me by surprise. I was crusing my local flea market last october and was done for the day, I decided to take another swing through the market (must have been fate) and saw this sitting on the table. I asked the guy how much for it and he said $5, I thought I was dreaming. What a perfect addition to the game room and always a nice conversation piece. I have been offered $400 for this fan and have turned it down. It is one of those things that would be too hard to replace. Merchandise from back in the day is starting to become one of my favorite things to collect. It is just amazing how many different items that were produced.

Paul

What is sexy?

To me the sexiest thing in my collection is Ultimate Frogger Champion, especially this box because I got it autographed by the programmer himself.  Kevin Hanley allowed me the privilege of beta testing this game and it opened my eyes to a whole world of NES, the homebrew world.  Before Frogger I was just another collector, but after Frogger I spend more time playing homebrews and enjoying the thing I love the must, the Nintendo Entertainment system. Collecting is great don't get me wrong, but the wonderful exciting world of homebrews has allowed me to relive those moments of trying a new game for the first time.  Lately, I've been playing alot of Blade Buster, new Japanese homebrew, and without Frogger I would have never learned how to use emulators or how to load roms.  So as lame as it is Frogger is sexy.

Penguin

I have always enjoyed my history classes growing up, learning about trials and tribulations of our forefathers in the past.  So, it is no wonder when I got involved with Nintendo collecting, my love for history would cross paths with my hobby.  About a year and a half into my collecting life, I ran across NintendoAge.com , and things were never the same again.

One thing in particular sparked my interest the first time I saw it, the Nintendo Service Center.  I used to tinker with old electronics when I was a kid, and when I learned Nintendo had people who actually performed repairs on my favorite gaming equipment, I just had to learn more!  So for months I did research and talked to members here to learn everything I could.  In December of 2007 I obtained my first test cartridges.  From that point on I had the bug, and in 3 years I've amassed many amazing pieces, almost enough to set up my own repair center!  

The coolest part though, in my opinion, is the actual manuals and binders that service technicians would use to perform repairs and educate themselves on the inner working of the NES and its components.  Not many of these binders still exist, and thanks to several members on NA, I was able to include several in my collection.  (Thanks Limbofunk, Bunnyboy and Parpunk!) 
It's really neat to take a look back at all the circuit boards of the original NES toaster, and to see what customers paid for parts from the distributor.  One neat little fact; an NES Advantage could be purchased for around $12.00 from Nintendo and was sold for almost three times the amount at retail!

The NES and SNES test stations are extremely unique pieces of equipment.  I remember seeing one when I was younger at a Service Merchandise store, and wondering what it was.  There were also several different signs that Repair Centers had that would tell customers that they were an authorized Nintendo Service Center.  One of the most popular is the Service Mario. He is depicted holding a tool box, screwdriver, and wearing a blue jacket with a bow tie. 

Service Center items are a very niche focus as collecting is concerned.  However, in my opinion Nintendo Test equipment is one of the most unique and rewarding things to pursue.   I have several fond memories of searching for pieces and learning about the Nintendo industry from a perspective the public was never intended to see.  These are the pride of my collection, and I look forward to learning even more as time progresses. Hopefully one day I will be able to set up my own mock Service Center from the pieces I have collected.

Qixmaster

The right nut of Mario has been bothersome lately. Get this done, don't go too deep into your "topic", I need a photo, don't rub it if it is red, blah blah blah,.... As some of you may know, my laptop took a dump. It took such a marvelous crap that with it went an unreleased NES game that featured a full-frontal threesome between DreamTR, Mark Nolan and The Red Eye. It was, for lack of a better word, epic. Full on close ups of EPROMS with multiple builds, unique artwork and unaltered dumping. Could it have been Super Black Ass, the much-anticipated sequel to Super Black Bass?
No. Super Black Ass will be released on PS2 later this month – Mario Van Peebles stars as Black Ass. Hopefully his badass song will lure in some tail so he can... wait for it... Bait and Tackle...
And while we are on the topic of dead systems (referring to the PS2, duh), why does Martin from nesworld dot com strongly dislike the SNES? I think I've discovered the answer – Europe doesn't have the NBA. They just pretend to with their Tony Parker's and Valde Divac's. Pfft! I can only imagine that NBA Basketball SNES and Sega games sold like crap in Europe, much like the soccer SNES titles sold like garbage here in the United States.

I say this loud and proud. Martin, had you grown up down the road from me, you'd have loved the Super Nintendo. One title – Bulls vs. Blazers.

Maybe it's because I'm from Oregon, or maybe it's because the 1992 Blazers were flat out the balls, but Bulls vs. Blazers by EA was simply the best game ever. Not because it was fun, but because it was about my team. This game has meant more to me than any video game title to date. That's right – eat it NBA Jam.

Growing up, Jordan vs. Bird just didn't do it for me. Magic Johnson's Fastbreak was a joke and Arch Rivals, while classic, was repetitive and lacked the real NBA stars. I had to wait it out. I thank the gods that EA created just the title for me.

I was probably 10 years old when my father took me into Ace Buyers in Glenwood, Oregon – a crapshoot town off the ass end of Eugene. Whenever I had done my chores or whatever, I'd get a used video game from this pawnshop. As always, they were overpriced... but even then, sports titles sold horribly, so they were a bit cheaper.

I saw it, a complete copy of a gem game – Bulls vs. Blazers. Even then I loved a complete game (I was a whore to this Nintendo thing from day one). To be honest I wanted it because it was a game about my favorite basketball team, and more importantly, about Oregon. My father paid twenty bucks for it and we left. When I arrived home I tore into the game like any new game. This was the first sports title I really cared about. I enjoyed it. I loved it so much I cut the whole goddamn box up and slapped it on my wall right next to my dollar store Ken Griffy Jr poster (The one with the old Seattle Mariners logo uniforms).

Bulls vs. Blazers put me in control. I loved the whole range of NBA stars and different teams. It was a joy to sub in players that I was familiar with (thank you Upper Deck and Topps) – especially Danny Ainge (born and raised, Eugene, OR). Bulls vs. Blazers was perfect. From the way the EA Sports Network logo popped up at the beginning to the way the team names bounced on the title screen like basketballs, this game could do no wrong. The programmers even tried to prefect the Jordan Airwalk from the 1987 dunk contest... or so I recall. This game taught me the rules to basketball. It taught me a love for the game.  It taught me that half court shots were impossible to make, but full court shots at the buzzer seemed to go in at least once a game.

This game, this piece, is without a shadow of a doubt, the most important piece of my video game collection. Bulls vs. Blazers (and the NBA Playoffs, of course)  – cartridge only – my original copy from 1992 from Ace Buyers in Glenwood, Oregon.

Speedy_NES

Back in 1996 or 1997, my collecting bug was ignited and I spent about a year accumulating NES goodies. During this time, I also archived every bit of NES info and pics that I could get my hands on. When I got back into collecting in 2005, one of the first things I did was go through my old archives for some good old nostalgia. I came across a picture of an item that always remained a mystery to me, that I had followed on eBay (I believe it was still called AuctionWeb at the time) and that I had regrettably forgotten to bid on. I asked around on forums to see if anyone had any info on the item or had seen one in recent years, but to no avail. I avidly checked eBay on a daily basis hoping to find this piece – and near the end of 2007, my call was finally answered. Not only was the mystery piece (item on the left) being auctioned, but it was accompanied by its bigger brother! It turned out that these accessories are interfaces that interact with generic aids for handicapped players. They are practically the unlicensed counterpart of the NES Hands Free, with more functionality.  The time I spent searching, their obscurity, and my love for NES accessories makes these two among the more sexy & prized items in my collection!"

SuperNESman

I particularly remember the "Not For Resale" labels that distinguished the games behind the plexiglass windows in Funcoland's N64 and SNES kiosks from the ones on the shelves. I would always go into Funcoland and Toys R Us and play the demos with my older brother while my parents shopped around. If we loved the game, our parents would make a mental note, and that would be the gift for the next birthday/holiday. I particularly remember playing Donkey Kong 64. I had played it at a friend's house briefly, and when I went to play more of it in the store, it was only a demo! Who on earth would want a demo?

About a year and a half ago, I spotted one of these "Not For Resale" carts in a Craigslist post for a lot of games. It was "Jet Force Gemini" for the N64. After quick research, I realized that these were those games that were behind the kiosks. They weren't anything different from the original version oftentimes, but they were behind that plexiglass for everyone to play before they were in their homes years ago. I had to have them all. Once I found out there were SNES NFR carts, I had to have those too.
I wish I could say I have them all now, but I don't. I'm still missing some N64 ones, but I did complete my SNES set. It took awhile, especially when I got to Mortal Kombat 2, easily the rarest NFR cart out there (unless as speculated by some, like myself and Retrogamer72 there exists a Lion King NFR cart). I remember that I didn't bid on a Goodwill lot including several of the rare NFR carts for SNES such as Donkey Kong Country and Mortal Kombat 2. I tried for days to contact the winner, and when I did, I negotiated with him to buy the cart. At the time, it was the second one in existence. When it arrived, I couldn't be happier. My next goal; Lion King.

Now some may say that a NFR set isn't complete unless you have the carts with the stickers on the back. However, I think that the label's differences are what distinguish the cartridge from the rest, and that's how I knew I was playing the game that I would one day own back when I didn't even know what "Not For Resale" meant.

Themotherbrain

Here is a piece of my collection that I find particularly "sexy". This was a very thoughtful Christmas gift from NA member Custom NES Guy and the pics don't even do it justice. I acted just like a kid when I opened up my custom "Metroid System" and it was definitely the coolest gift I got that year. If it wasn't enough that I was given this beautiful system, he didn't feel it was complete until I had a matching Metroid cartridge to go with it. The time that goes into this kind of work is something I can truly appreciate and I display it proudly. Look at that shine! Or else... >:[

UncleTusk

Having darn close to a complete CIB set I have lots of stories of how I found games on the cheap.  Like coming across a minty CIB Sqoon for 30 bucks and a minty CIB Clu Clu Land for 10 bucks.  Or just gambling and buying something from Amazon and it turning out to be gorgeous.  But saving all that money was never enough to make something my favorite.   There has to be some sort of unique value to something to make it reach my plateau of favoritist collection thing a ma bob.   I have lots of cool items that came close to being number 1 on the list.  To name a few, my Tusk statue made by Mr. Gimmick, my NAge Hunt cartridge, all my LE homebrews, my immortal paper work tips and tricks from the company, factory sealed hot slots, my original nintendo that I have marked with a sticker to never lose, sealed trolls, but coming in at number one has got to be my Star Wars Press Kit.  I found this sucker while trolling on ebay.  It was a BIN. I'm not going to say how much, but it wasn't on the cheap.   It comes complete with a folder that has Luke Skywalker on it with an NES controller.  Inside you find lots of LucasFilms offical paper outlining this new excting game.  Along with the paper work there is slides of the movie and slides of the game to come.  A couple of each.  Now I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, I do like the films, but in no way am I a full fledged fan.   Anyways, this is my favorite because it truly is a one of a kind item.  I think there's only 1 other press kit out there like this of a different game.  You'd think most or all games had fancy sexy paper work like this at one time, where did it all go?   Now my only mission is to get the prototype for this game and team it up with this.  If Ianoid would ever sell it to me!

xArsefacex

I went back and forth in my mind thinking about what aspects of the hobby are really important. I've acquired a lot of rare and valuable games over the years, but so have a lot of us. Having "the big ones" is cool, but it doesn't make one collection better than another. I think Paul's collection if misfit carts is every bit as unique and interesting as Erik's twenty copies of everything. What makes this hobby so great is that there are places like NA that really bring us all together as a unified community. What good is a passion if there aren't others there to share it? In the end, what's sexy to me is knowing that I can ask other people in the hobby for help, and that they can do the same of me. Freefall was the first NA release that I was asked to take part in the creation of, and it was an honor to help Jason get it out there. As far as the NANWC, I think that is one of the best representations we have of the community coming together to support something that we all believe in- NintendoAGE."

Zzap

Got to say, this was a tough one to pick my most sexiest item! I have quite a few items that others from the community have given to me that I really appreciate. Firstly, there's the Atari 2600 that qixmaster sent over so I could test out my game Chunkout 2600 on real hardware during development, adding to that all the work he's helped me out with, he's a really top bloke! Then there's my NANWC that Dain bestowed upon me whilst visiting his place in North Carolina, I also came home with an appreciation of shrimp poboys and Waffle House, so thanks for the southern hospitality Dain!. Then there's the prototype SNES Powerpak that bunnyboy gave me to test for PAL compatibility, it's very cool to be an early adopter and with Brian's genius with electronics you never know what he's going to come up with next!

In the end, I'll have to go with my lady frog edition Frogger from Khan, he did an awesome job at constructing that, and with the fantastic unique artwork inside by Mr. Gimmick, it's a win for sure!