Back in the day when Chicago didn't resemble the arctic tundra, unitdaisy and I were so inspired by drunkgamers.com's garagesaling adventures that we went out about Chicago, scrounging for games. Often we returned home empty handed to post our experiences in the Drunkgamer's Message Forum. However, there were a few times we were lazy and never quite got around to posting them.

Oh, and for those unfamiliar with the term garagesaling it's simple: you wake up far too early in the morning on the weekend and go out to garage sales looking for something (preferably videogame related) while wishing you were still in bed. You can picture for yourself what drunksaling is. Or just see below.

The following events took place on July 12th, 2003.

peccaui: After a long drought of sales caused by perfect tornado weather and July 4th weekend, we finally made it out this past weekend. And low and behold, we even had a sale right across the street from my 5'x5' studio!

peccaui: If only I had this game as a child - my life could be completely different!

unitdaisy: Ha ha! Two girls have Mr. smart minds and only one boy!

peccaui: Otherwise, this sale - as convenient as it was had nada. So we stomped off on a 20 block excursion and sampled some of the finer billboard and posters that Chicago has to offer.

peccaui: Ahh, this fine city gives as much space to games as ..trashy hip-hop magazines. I can just feel my quality of life swelling.

unitdaisy: And enjoy the irony of a Jonhy English poster in Spanish!

peccaui: The next sale had some bleeding edge tech going on - check out these double density floppies!

unitdaisy: I could store an entire 10 pages of text on one of those! Or maybe an ascii picture of peccaui...

peccaui: ...And Bill Nye pulls off another coup, penetrating the vastly competative board games market.

unitdaisy: I would get nervous if I were being circled by an electron. Maybe that is why he looks so scared. A proton's life is not easy.

peccaui: What? Another video game-less sale? Say it isn't so!

unitdaisy: Well they must have had something - look at all those people.

peccaui: Maybe they were putting your Nye theory to the test.

peccaui: We had high hopes for this sale. And after roughly an hour of painful sunlight, psychotic bums and kamikaze bike riders we found out that he seems to be ...technologically illiterate. Another zero.

unitdaisy: If only people were honest in the descriptions of their sales, this does not look like "much more" to me.

peccaui: And yes, it was this hot out.

unitdaisy: Cue the Ennio Morricone...

peccaui: After leaving The Bachelor's sale, we turned our head and saw this completely out-of-place church just ...there.

unitdaisy: It was like one of those moments where the clouds part and the ray of light comes down from the sky with the music and everything - or maybe we just imagined it.

peccaui: It was right around this time that my disposition towards garagesaling started to sour. We haven't found anything worthwhile in weeks, save for a few common carts here and there. All I've found is a sunburn and empty change pockets from riding the bus.

peccaui: Nothing at this next sale except for some Pauline Kael books that I quickly snatched up and this telling cover. It really goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

peccaui: Wave your pencil proudly! Err...

unitdaisy: Now we'll be all prepared for the visit from the queen!

peccaui: You've been waiting for a British takeover for years - a few tiny tubes of lead aren't going to help.

peccaui: Shakespeare meets Trivial Pursuit - fun for two people out there. And those two aren't us.

unitdaisy: Someone is just afraid of getting his trivia ass kicked again.

peccaui: But that last game was a draw! And you keep rigging the questions!

peccaui: Cheap greasy lunch! Let's hear it for sustenance!

unitdaisy: I miss post bowling Mconald's.

peccaui: Only the finest for my girl.

peccaui: We hit up one of our less-frequented thrift stores and found that they were loaded with games that no one has ever wanted. I picked up a copy of Ikari Warriors and a Section Z - a Capcom shooter that I vaguely remember from Nintendo Power I suppose.

peccaui: The first sighting of a Dreamcast left abandoned in a loveless thrift store. We had a moment of silence before inquiring about the Playstation and Genesis on the rack - the PS was marked at a whopping $45.

unitdaisy: Poor Dreamcast... Maybe I should make it my mission to collect all unwanted Dreamcasts and give them a good home.

peccaui: Two lonely NES carts, overpriced and homeless. Don't worry little guys - someday someone will want some hot 8-bit action!

peccaui: Apparently this console was considered the afterbirth of their NES deck lot.

unitdaisy: Man, these stores are like trash heaps. Poor Nintendo console, if I hadn't already decided to open a house for wayward Dreamcasts, I'd take you in.

peccaui: Oh you sweet NES Advantage - how you've carried me through many hours of fighters, marathon Castlevania sessions and even some Gradius. But mine is waiting for me at home! No, I can't ... I wouldn't ...

peccaui: While waiting for the bus to bring our weekly adventure full circle, we noticed this woman has been detained by the city. Why else would she be framed by caution tape?

unitdaisy: It was creepy the way she kept looking at us. I think that caution tape was a necessary precaution.

peccaui: I can't figure out if this is the same PS Arcade Stick that we found several months ago or a different one. Our response was still the same: complete indifference.

peccaui: Another pair of NES decks - I swear they've realized that Nintendo has shut down production on the Famicon and they're trying to reproduce to stay alive.

unitdaisy: Ew copulating consoles...

peccaui: Sadly, the wanted $55 for this Sega Master System. $30 and I might think (for a while) about it - but $55? So long Alex Kidd - I will see you someday.

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Find of the Week: Section Z, just because I haven't seen it around before and only have vague recollections of it. It could be crap for all I know, but at least it's something.

Lesson of the Week: Make sure to bring backpacks, or you'll end up carrying your acquisitions on your head like unitdaisy here:

(peccaui is a meanie - unitdaisy)