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Saling the Thrift Store Gamut

April 22, 2007 By Glenn Turner

It's been a long month of waiting. About four weeks ago, we'd suspected that the Chicago weather had finally hit desirable garage saling temperatures, but unfortunately that first weekend was drearier than tax day. The second balmy weekend? We were out of town (Christos anesti? That's some pretty poor timing, guy). And the subsequent weekends saw Chicago wading deep in a sub-freezing climate, rendering conditions useless for saling.

And now that the weather's finally spring-like, we're hampered by a string of personal and professional obligations. Fantastic. Anyway, to make a long story short, I at least managed to hit up the local thrift stores this week!

The first store, our local Salvation Army, had little apart from a handful of id software game boxes. So I passed on those, but as I walked to the next place I ran across the following, unproofed, garage sale sign :

Yard Sale Sign

The next thrift store, one of several Brown Elephants in Chicago, had a bit more substantial game library, even if it mostly consisted of your standard Sim games. And while they did have a copy of Mafia that I briefly flirted with purchasing, what really caught my eye were two copies of Phantasmagoria, Sierra's four million dollar, full-motion video, horror-based adventure game.

I've been searching for a decent (read: all discs intact) copy of this game for several years now, but usually ended up finding an empty box or an incomplete collection of discs. And now here was an opportunity to get choosy! The first package had an older version of the PC game (I can't remember if it was the DOS or Windows 95 version), but was bundled with the 'Official Sierra Insider's Game Guide', all for $4. The second package was the Stagefright collection: A repackaged version of the first Phantasmagoria as well as the pseudo-sequel, A Puzzle of Flesh, all for the low, low price of $3.

After making sure all the discs were present, I told the counter assistant that I'd take the Stagefright edition and he informed he that he had actually 're-donated' it back to the thrift store! It turns out that the assistant is a pretty big retro gamer, and he had previously taken the Stagefright collection home with him. Fortunately for me, he was unable to get it running quickly, so rather than try and hunt down specific tools he simply returned it.

While it's nice to meet a fellow gamer, it slowly dawned on me that I'll only be able to find games & systems here that this employee has already rejected. On the plus side, this fellow was quite nice and offered the guide from the other copy of the game for free, stating that 'both copies have sat here for a while – I don't think anyone will mind'!

Phantasmagoria

The final thrift store (a venue that will yell your ear off if they see you brandishing a camera) had an assortment of standard NES carts, but nothing worth picking up. But that's all right as I was pretty happy with the Phantasmagoria find. While it may be mediocre at best (I haven't actually played either title yet), it's nice to finally be able to scratch it off my list. And better yet, thanks to a German installation tool, I was able to get Phantasmagoria running quite smoothly on my primary computer!

Now, here's hoping that we'll be able to have a proper saling expedition next weekend!


6 comments for ‘Saling the Thrift Store Gamut’

#1 jt-3d Apr 26, 2007 06:48am

I for one, welcome the return of saling, even if it is just a season primer.

Ungrateful jerks, get out of that dump down there and tell the G how great it is to have him back on the saling block, spending his cash so we don't have to.

#2 w3a2 Apr 26, 2007 07:11am

JT, i'm sure Pecc knows how much we love his articles (in fact, i am inspired to go garage-saling in our little old town).

also, "TAKE A PEAK!" :roll:

#3 D. Riley Apr 26, 2007 07:26am

It never hurts to say you love 'em, though. :D

I'm sure your wife "knows" you love her.

#4 teknohed Apr 26, 2007 12:02pm

Finally Drunk Sailing has returned (or at least threatens to return)! I can't wait for future updates, keep up the good work.

#5 Servo Apr 26, 2007 01:01pm

Hooray for the high seas of discarded treasure! I get to hit up thrift stores somewhat frequently nowadays, but I'm usually looking for furniture and general oddities.

#6 w3a2 Apr 26, 2007 10:38pm

D. Riley
she knows i love her because i still live with her. :roll: