Haven't read it just yet, but I'm pretty sure that Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games is an amazing book. It is after all written by Matt Barton, whose depth of knowledge you can check both via his amazing YouTube channel and from his CRPG history Gamasutra articles. As for the book itself, well, get it from Amazon
. They are having sort of a sale right now.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is an excellent adventure game with small RPG and action bits thrown in. It also is a brilliantly gory offering and one of only three games to star cult horror icon Elvira. To grab a boxed version of Elvira for your Commodore 64, do follow thar eBay link. Seller ships worldwide.
The Sega Mega Drive Twin Pad Player, a creation of Sega's official distributor in China (that would be AtGames), might not be a vintage or collector's machine, but it definitely seems like a handy gadget for retro gamers. It is after all a complete MegaDrive/Genesis that theoretically plays every cart from every region and comes with two joypads and 20 built-in games. What's more it does both NTSC and PAL games! Seems interesting; especially when considering the price, though I must admit it's not the most beautiful console I've ever seen. To buy one, better visit Play Asia.
It's not everyday you see a complete CPC being shipped outside Britain, but apparently today is such a day. Anyone from Europe (only Europe I'm afraid) can bid on this lovely Amstrad CPC 6128 at eBay. The computer comes complete with its color monitor, all necessary cables, and is in excellent working condition.
This quite impressive bundle would have cost you a small fortune 25 years ago, but can now be grabbed cheaply over @ eBay. Seller only ships to US addresses. It's a classic Atari 2600 console, that comes complete with two joysticks, two paddles, all necessary leads & bits and an amazing selection of 93 games.
Said games include offerings by Activision, Atari, Coleco, I magic and more, and include such gems as Atlantis, Demon Attack, Asteroids, Pitfall!, Keystone Kapers, Amidar, Donkey Kong Junior and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Quite a few rarities among them it seems, then.
It's discoveries like this (US only) Apple 1 auction that make searching eBay worth the trouble. The Apple-1 (or is it Apple I?), you see, is an incredibly rare piece of computing kit and was hand-built by Steve Wozniak. There are probably less than 50 of the thing left, as most were returned to Apple to be traded in for a much more powerful yet definitely not rare Apple II...
Or, to give it its full name, Action Replay 4M Auto Plus. Mind you, it's probably the best accessory you can get for your Saturn, as it's compatible with all versions of the console, allows you to play import games, works as a vanilla Action Replay cheat machine and functions both as a RAM expansion and as a memory card. Pretty smart.
Amsoft, as most CPC users will already know, was Amstrad's gaming software way of helping the CPC to a good start. Apparently it worked and you now happily grab 13 almost classic Amsoft games from eBay (on tape). Seller ships worldwide. Oh, and do have a look at this nice Amstrad retro feature...
Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of its release, a recent upsurge in the fascination with the Commodore 64 (not just as a retro game computer) has fueled compelling interest for the C64 as an instrument in the dance-scene. Micromusic and productiehuis ON have combined forces and invited members of the Dutch Ricciotti ensemble. Together with conductor Bas Wiegers they have founded the C64 Orchestra, that focused its on the music heard on the C64. For this project Micromusic and ON approached two of the most experienced C64-composers of the 1980s namely, Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel. Run 10 finds the C64 Orchestra performing their music, with scoring done by Rob Hubbard. This 2 disc set is packaged in a replica of the original Commodore floppy case. The first disc contains the orchestral versions of the original tunes; the second disc contains the original game tunes themselves, plus interviews with Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel and more for C-64 aficionados. You can buy Run 10 over @ Amazon.com.
Just to prove that retro gaming can be an incredibly expensive hobby, here's the eBay auction for Stadium Events. And, yes, it's a sealed copy of a ridiculously rare and expensive game for Nintendo's NES, that might just sell for over 10,000$. Oh, and it's US only.
Well, it seems you lucky owners of a Japanese Famicom complete with its glorious Famicom Disk System can now grab the excellent disk version of Metroid. Priced at an extremely reasonable 40$ (30 euros/28 pounds) over at Play-Asia, I'd definitely suggest you have a look.