Whenever I think of old Nintendo games, I can't help but think about my sister.  The best games were the ones that let us both play at the same time (sharing wasn't always an easy option).  Video games were an obsession.  Every time we got our grubby little hands on any birthday money or spare change, we took it to the local movie rental store and rented games.  Our mother became our crack dealer, buying used nintendo game cartridges at yard sales.  We had enough Nintendo and Super Nintendo games to fill a small bookshelf back in the day.

About a month ago I had a bout of nostalgia for the video games that my sister and I used to play together.  Over the years those games and systems have been sold or left behind during moves.  I've had this longing for the old games before.  I've tried to cure it with emulators on my computer.  They were always horrible to play.  Who wants to play a platformer with your computer's keyboard for the controls?  I even purchased computer game controllers to try to make the games "better" but it was never as good as it used to be.

This time, I spent the evening at eBay.  I found a pretty good deal on an old NES system.  The system came with a few games and two controllers.  The bid was at about $27 with 2 hours to go.  I put in my bid for $30 and it held out for about an hour.  Later the bidding went up to $45 and then $55.  I asked myself if I was really willing to spend more than that for an old machine that was almost 2 decades old.  I stopped bidding.  In the last 2 minutes, the auction went from $55 to $127.  That is crazy! So what is a retro-gaming enthusiast to do?  Fortunately, I ran across the Retro Duo system on ThinkGeek.com.  I ordered the system that same night.  For $49.99 I got a brand new gaming console that can play both NES and SNES cartridges.  I purchased a few old games on eBay (some were as cheap as $1 plus shipping!) and eagerly awaiting delivery.

All of the games and the Retro Duo arrived on the same day with the exception of Final Fantasy (which arrived later that week).  When I saw the box for the Retro Duo, it was a very nostalgic moment.  Even the packaging reminded me of that Christmas long ago when our family got our original Nintendo.  Since the Retro Duo was a brand new machine, the cords were in perfect condition.  It works with any starndard SNES controller, so replacements shouldn't be a problem.  I'm so glad that I didn't win that auction for the old NES from eBay.  This is so much better!
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