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Chi-Style Drunksaling: Vol. 5.5 - Tricky Shots & Missed Opportunities

August 5, 2006 By Glenn Turner

Unitdaisy and I were so inspired by the (now defunct) drunkgamers.com's garagesaling adventures that we decided to follow their example and searched about Chicago, scrounging for games and, when we were done, forced others to relive our experience.

For those unfamiliar with the term drunksaling, it's simple: It's kamikaze garagesaling for video games! The following took place on July 22nd, 2006.

G. Turner: We normally avoid theater sales, not because we're afraid of having to endure someone's over-rehearsed monologue, but because we've never had too much luck with them. Traditionally they feature nothing more than academic texts and mothball-ridden costumes, but this week, well, this week was different.

G. Turner: This week's theater sale we attended simply because it was close. In fact, it was just a stone's throw away from our modest home. And apparently some of their cast members like games, as we found more consoles than we could shake a stick at.

unitdaisy: Someone's girlfriend must have been putting her foot down.

G. Turner: I should note that the Xbox, while it didn't have any A/V cord or AC adapter, could be purchased for a pittance - $20, if memory serves. Why didn't I buy it? At the time I just thought 'I already have an Xbox, why do I need another monolithic hunk of plastic in my entertainment center?'

unitdaisy: You don't - really, really you don't.

G. Turner: I have a feeling that my inbox will disagree with you.

G. Turner: An Atari 2600, a handful of carts for it, a second Nintendo 64 and several controllers for it: that's one fine box.

G. Turner: Outgrow.

G. Turner: I refuse to admit that this Titanic was a disaster.

G. Turner: I bet I could run dBase IV on that baby.

G. Turner: This AD&D book keeps odd company.

unitdaisy: A girl will need to know how to hunt and fish before traveling with wizards. Wizards really don't read up much on those things.

G. Turner: For those Lazer Russian Roulette bouts.

G. Turner: As we ambled away from the actors, we remarked on our good fortune, and that apparently our streak of bad luck and garbage sales had come to an end. Or had it?

G. Turner: If shoes were sod, this sale would be the fertile valley.

unitdaisy: When I look at that mess all I see is money - so much wasted money.

G. Turner: The proprietor of this sale was quite enamored with this old-school pin-ball game (circa 1930s or 40s), even if it had seen better days. The pins were a bit bent, the plunger's not attached (it's actually occupying the marble's spot in the photo), and it's gathered quite a bit of rust. Regardless, the design is too fantastic to resist.

unitdaisy: Now if we could just rustle up some marbles and start plinking.

G. Turner: Or, we could rustle up some tickets to Los Angeles for some Plinko and the chance to win $25,000!

G. Turner: Bog standard PC games. I'm surprised this photo came out, as just photographing them forced me to stifle a yawn.

G. Turner: While you're at it, be wary of those horsewomen of the stars too.

unitdaisy: I can't remember why I didn't buy this - who doesn't love Indians in space, especially when they look like they could be Hawk's brother.

G. Turner: Twixt: the strategy game disguised as a dictionary!

unitdaisy: Only for the erudite.

G. Turner: Speaking of dictionaries, the man behind Trik-E-Shot forced us to cart away an enormous & ancient one, but not before we read its definition of panda.

unitdaisy: Carnivorous! All those media images of cute cuddly Panda bears are deluding the hapless children into their flesh-eating arms!

unitdaisy: The better to punch you with, my dear.

G. Turner: By now noon had passed, the sun was searing, and we were growing sullen and sad, much like this dog we happened across.

unitdaisy: We didn't even ask him to pose - he really was this forlorn.

unitdaisy: I'll bet these maracas are just about as interactive as the ones we have.

G. Turner: You'll have to ask the missus what this is all about. I was on the phone and she egged me on to photo it. Maybe she just wanted to memorize half the periodic table without actually paying for the poster?

unitdaisy: ...ag - silver...

G. Turner: The last sale of the day, and ironically it was the only sale I had high hopes for, as the ad implied that there'd be games fit for my demographic. It turns out that this is what they mean by 'not kids games'. Brilliant.

unitdaisy: Scandalous.

G. Turner: I prefer the lesser-known sequel, Parallel Projections.

G. Turner: There's nothing here that I didn't already learn from Evil Genius.

G. Turner: To add insult to injury, when we finally try to leave this disappointing block, the car flashes error lights at us. Something about fumes or engine turmoil or other befuddling car-speak. I'm not fluent in that sort of garbage, but it was certainly bad news, bad news that kept us from running the thrift store gamut and possibly overshadowing our first sale.

unitdaisy: Poor car - it works so hard for us and we never buy it anything at the sales.

Find of the week: While I'm a dear fan of Mr. Adams' work, I think the Trik-E-Shot narrowly beats it out this week, thanks to its antiquity and stylish design. Also, it looks better hanging on a wall than a three-CD set.

Lesson of the week: We try to only buy what we need, or at least really really want. As a result, if there's an item we're hemming about we're much more likely to not buy it instead of wasting money, energy and space by picking it up. Regardless, even I realize that a $20 Xbox, even one sans-cabling, really should have been purchased. The lesson here is: if you think you might regret buying something for any reason (apart from it's too costly), it's probably best to pick it up anyway. After all, regret is a foul feeling.

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5 comments for ‘Chi-Style Drunksaling: Vol. 5.5 - Tricky Shots & Missed Opportunities’

#1 Anne Packrat Aug 5, 2006 07:53pm

That book is actually very good and not as cheesy as the cover makes it look. If I remember correctly it's part of Ms. Norton's Beastmaster series, which "inspired" the movie. Of course, I use inspired very VERY loosely as they pretty much changed everything in the transition from book to movie.

#2 Seraph_Six Aug 6, 2006 01:00am

You probably could have re-sold that Xbox on Ebay for a nice price
Despite your hate for modding, those guys pay nicely for scrap parts

#3 hobbie Aug 6, 2006 11:57am

That Douglas Adams book was good, but I've heard mixed reviews about the game itself.

#4 Glenn Turner Aug 6, 2006 09:25pm

Anne Packrat wrote:
That book is actually very good and not as cheesy as the cover makes it look. If I remember correctly it's part of Ms. Norton's Beastmaster series, which "inspired" the movie. Of course, I use inspired very VERY loosely as they pretty much changed everything in the transition from book to movie.

Wowsa, thanks for the info! Unfortunately now unitdaisy's pretty darn unhappy that she didn't pick it up, but so it goes.

Seraph_Six wrote:
You probably could have re-sold that Xbox on Ebay for a nice price
Despite your hate for modding, those guys pay nicely for scrap parts

Yeah, or I could have given it to a friend who would have appreciated it too. Oh well. Also, I have nothing against modding, I'm just not too fond of the ends of most modding efforts (read: pirating software).

#5 Fiddytree Aug 7, 2006 12:25am

I would have bought half that crap. I miss my N64.