Original subtitles

(fire burning)

Downloaded from YTS.MX

(dramatic music)

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

(soft music)

- [Rob] It was the brainchild of now

the world's biggest video game company,

and with it, they redefined an entire industry.

- For a period of time there,

Nintendo was a word used to describe video games in general.

- [Rob] It was a Christmas gift every kid wanted.

- There was just a little magical quality to Nintendo

that caught on with the public.

- [Narrator] And it took over toy stores around the world.

- When I went to Toys "R" Us, it was an aisle,

two aisles long.

This side was all Nintendo.

This side was all in Nintendo.

And you went down there and it was like.

- [Rob] The Nintendo Entertainment System or NES

gave kids a new way to play games.

It challenged them with every title.

- With the NES, a lot of the titles, you played to the end,

and you didn't just play for three or four days,

you played for weeks, sometimes months.

- [Rob] And although the NES wasn't

the only game in town.

- The NES essentially received the baton from the arcade era

and ran with it.

- [Narrator] They did it with characters

that became pop culture icons.

- You know, so when you see a Mario,

like people are dressed up as Mario for Halloween,

you just see it in so many different places.

And everybody instantly knows what that is.

- [Narrator] And games that were dubbed, immediate classics.

- Every game they came out with really had a level

of success to one degree or another.

I can't say that about everybody.

I can certainly say it about Nintendo.

- But this video game console didn't fade

when it left store shelves,

it's still around with a fan base of millions

across the world,

and continues to impact a lot of people

like this modern day treasure hunter

from London, Ontario, Canada,

who loves Nintendo so much that he started a quest to get

all 678 original NES games in person within 30 days.

Nintendo is such a part of him that he's willing

to crisscross the country in search

in these Holy Grail like artifacts.

A journey like that with someone pursuing their dream

is bound to change anyone and become the stuff of a legend.

It's what he's calling his Nintendo Quest.

(video game music playing)

(electronic music playing)

(video game music playing)

So let me tell you a little secret,

that guy hunting those games, that's Jay.

And we've been friends for a really long time,

and he's always dreamt of owning a complete NES collection.

So I dared him to do it and only gave him the 30 days,

and told him he couldn't use the internet in any way,

'cause as a collector, that's really cool to me.

But as a filmmaker,

that's the kind of thing I want to see captured,

because following Jay around,

we'll get to talk to other members of our community,

the competitive gamers and personalities,

and the other diehard collectors.

And all of those people will get a chance to weigh in

on what makes the NES so resilient and amazingly popular

30 years later.

I mean no piece of technology lasts 30 years.

We never use phones, cars, or computers that long.

So what makes the NES the exception to the rule?

Well we're going to find out,

but first let's learn a little bit more about Jay,

'cause clearly he's a fan.

(upbeat music)

Jay's been my best friend for more than 30 years.

He's got a great dog named Spencer,

(beeping)

a hell of a star Wars collection.

- Huge fan of star Wars.

This side here is my favorite.

These were kind of throwbacks to the original packaging.

- [Rob] And an impressive library of games.

- So this is a pretty much most of my collection here.

"Mighty Final Flight",

really, really personal favorite of mine,

here's "Stack-Up".

I don't know if it's my favorite NES game,

but it's pretty close, "Balloon Fight".

- There are precisely three things he's passionate about,

Star Wars, rock and roll, and video games.

- If I remember correctly,

he always lined his haircut up to be what Dave Grohl

was wearing at the time.

- He's just your friend,

just to be your friend.

It does not matter what you do and what you say.

- [Rob] Jay's the perfect guy to take on this adventure,

because as a manager of a video game store,

he has years of retail experience that will help him out

in the wild.

Not to mention he's been collecting every kind

of video game merchandise for over 30 years.

- You called me on my phone?

And you're like, "okay, I dare you".

I dare you.

"We'll go out and I dare you

to get every single Nintendo game."

And you're like, "How about this?

How about we do it in a month?

We'll do it in 30 days."

I'm like, "Well, Rob, that's cool,

but I can just go on eBay.

And I could buy someone's private collection,

probably get 300 of the games out of the way

in one click.

You're like, "Let's do it old school, man.

Let's go and we'll hit the street."

And I'm like, "That's a really good idea."

- So here's what Jay's up against.

He's got 30 days to get all 678 officially North American

released Nintendo games.

Thankfully that does not include contest cards

like Nintendo World Championships,

but it does include Stadium Events and Little Samson.

And he's got to pay for every single game himself with no

help from friends or the film production.

Did we mention he can't use the internet to aid him

in any capacity?

And he's got to start from scratch,

regardless of what's in his current collection.

One more thing Jay's loaded a special app on his tablet.

And it's really cool because it ranks all

the games by rarity,

but more importantly,

it's sorts all his purchases too.

So of the 678 games,

he knows which ones he has,

but he also knows which ones he has to find.

- We don't know exactly where we're going.

We don't know exactly when we're gonna get there.

We don't know exactly who we're going to talk to

or what we're gonna find.

There's the thinnest of plans out there,

and no doubt there's going to be a hundred challenges

along the way.

And I'm sure it's gonna have

a transformative effect on Jay.

- Oh he'll be a different person.

First off that he's venturing away.

Like he's a real home body.

Some way, somehow he'll succeed

at what he wants to do with this.

- I really wanted to stress on Jay,

the sense of history that he and I had with each other,

but also our combined history with the NES.

And there was one place that really summed this up

and shows how seriously we took and still take

that game system.

This of course is my tree house.

- Wow.

- But for a very brief period, it was something else.

- This was the original NES Club.

- Or clubhouse.

- Clubhouse there we go.

Look how small it is.

- But we had our first Nintendo club in here.

- Yeah.

- Let's take a trip down memory lane.

- Of course you wanna see us up here.

- Yeah.

- Oh.

- [Rob] Stunt work right?

- Here we go, oh, getting old.

- All right, large and in charge.

- All right Winnie the Pooh, you're in?

Good.

- All right, so-

(laughing)

- What were we thinking?

(laughing)

- Where are we gonna put a TV in this place now?

- Well on the corner obviously.

I hope, I really hope this doesn't collapse

'cause that would really suck.

This journey is going to be incredible.

I'm going to literally go across the country.

I'm gonna get to see all these amazing games stores,

all these different types of people.

- Regardless of whether he gets all the games,

it's just gonna be this massive game loving.

It's just gonna be fun.

- I think the collecting of the games,

I think will be the easier part for him.

I think that he'll be right into it.

I think he'll be focused.

- Again I'll say it, man.

Life is too short to be doing something

that you don't wanna do every day.

- There's no cheat codes.

There's no game G, there's no extra lives.

There's none of that stuff.

He's got 30 days to figure this game out and beat it,

and that's it.

And the big boss at the end of the game

is the ticking clock.

If he doesn't beat that, he loses a chance at a dream.

- While Jay gets ready for the biggest challenge

of his entire life,

let's take a look back at the NES and the company

that introduced it.

Because after all, Nintendo managed to revolutionize

the entire industry and change the world.

So here's Nintendo History 101,

the abridged two minute version.

- [Narrator] Nintendo History 101, the two minute version.

Nintendo may be a global company today,

but this wasn't always the case.

They started in Japan in 1889 making hanafuda cards,

something like the playing cards we use today.

This was their staple,

and they did it well enough that by the 1950s,

Disney offered them a licensing deal.

This was a major turning point because

with the Disney license,

Nintendo first hand saw the power

of the family centric demographic,

so with their increase in profits, they tried making a toy,

the "Ultra Hand".

And that too was a huge success.

By the 1970s,

electronic toys were the big trend and Nintendo cashed in

on light zapper technology

with electronic shooting galleries.

When the coin operated arcade era hit,

Nintendo conquered that market too with game cabinets

like "Radar Scope" and "Donkey Kong".

And of course,

video game consoles for the home was the next big wave,

and Nintendo's Famicom,

a name that bridges family and computer was launched

in Japan in 1983.

Hefty price tag, you say?

Ha, ha, ha says Nintendo as the Famicom sweeps 90%

of Japan's market with revolutionary controllers,

appealing characters, and innovative gameplay.

Soon after though the video game industry crashed,

and threatened to thwart Nintendo's Famicom plan

for a North American launch.

Because video games were so uncool in North America,

Nintendo had to redesign their console and fool retailers

into carrying it,

so they made it look completely different.

Much more like a VCR and packaged it with a robot,

and a light zapper to give it a toy like feel.

Despite the naysayers, the Famicom,

which was renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System

or NES for short launched to massive success

without ever using the words video, game, or console

to sell it.

This has been Nintendo History 101.

- What's all this mean?

Well at a glance, Nintendo's focus on family friendly games

and universally appealing themes is timeless.

Regardless of trends or technological breakthroughs,

the Nintendo experience is always challenging

and fun for everyone.

(dramatic music)

(beeping)

- Let's do this.

So gonna go see Murray and Shannon right now.

It's the first stop.

Holy moly!

What's up guys?

Mario and Luigi.

How are you?

What's up buddy?

How are you?

- How are you man?

- Shannon, how are you love? - See you.

- [Jay] Good to see you.

Huge.

- This is our toy room right here.

- And you can show me.

You can tell me about each game if you wanna do that.

- I don't think they know these ones.

- They don't know these ones.

- Well then-

- These are the ones we haven't let them see.

- Then little Mario can tell me about them.

So we got "Swords and Serpents".

I've never actually ever seen this one.

- No? - So that's pretty cool.

No. - Good start.

- All right, so this is special,

because these are my favorite, the black box ones.

Number one is "Golf", so that's the record.

- [Rob] Seeing Murray and Shannon's kids dressed up

as Mario and Luigi was the perfect start

to this Nintendo challenge,

but it also helped that Jay managed to get a stack

of games for next to nothing.

- The biggest score out of that was this.

- What's that?

- "Kirby".

- Yeah bro. - Why is that?

Why is that rare?

Why is that the biggest score?

- Well it's a licensed, or not licensed,

it's a first party Nintendo game,

which are always expensive.

Again it's not necessarily one of the rarest,

but it's one I'm glad that I'm knocking off the list.

(beeping)

- Yo, yo.

(knocking)

- [Skylar] Finally man.

- I made it.

- [Skylar] What's going on?

- [Jay] What's up?

- [Rob] We got a call earlier in the day from Skylar

who said he only had a few carts or NES cartridges

left to offer Jay due to a trade he made

with another friend of ours.

Still, every game is a necessity,

and Jay can't afford to pass anything up.

- You know, I'll throw that one in and then we'll go

and say five bucks a game, 20 bucks.

- No.

- No?

- No, I was thinking more like less than a dollar each.

- Less than a dollar each?

- Yeah.

- Ah, maybe like 10?

What are they selling for?

They're selling for like five bucks.

I got "Dodge Ball" here, man.

Remember that game?

- I'll give you 10 bucks for this.

- 10 bucks?

- That's fine.

Separated at birth.

- What?

Are we?

- I don't think so.

Everyone used to say we're brothers in high school.

- I'm the one who got the less chromosome though.

(beeping)

- What?

- [Rob] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

- Yeah.

Well I told you I had all the Contras.

- Where the (beeping) did you get this?

- [Joe] Well I told you I had all the Contras.

- [Mike] Oh, what were we just talking about in the car?

What were we just talking about in the car?

- [Jay] Hey get, look at my hand.

- I think that there is embedded into this

a personal challenge to expand your horizons,

expand your perspective on things.

- I hope that it equips Jay with some extra tools

for just getting out there, being accessible,

just having the motivation to achieve some of your dreams.

(beeping)

- I've never even seen those.

I've never even seen them.

- Well so there you go.

I don't know it's, how can you top that?

Just one more shot of that beauty.

- Just keep topping it dude.

Just keep the momentum going.

(whooshing)

NES super fans can name dozens of great games

and go on and on about what makes each of them special.

I mean you can't say that

about every console library out there.

Even people that have never played a game

can probably name one or two,

or at least recognize characters from NES franchises

like Mario or Zelda.

But how does that happen?

What has allowed them to transcend

to the pop culture icon status?

What makes them stand the test of time?

Well, one person that might know is a well-respected game

designer, James Portnow.

- You see some of the best examples of game design

in the 2D games that you have on the Nintendo.

And I don't think that,

I think that play is timeless and it doesn't matter

about the graphics.

In the NES era, there was no shame.

There was no embarrassment about the,

like think about "Mario", right?

"Mario" is a crazy thing.

Here's a plumber dude with a mustache jumping on turtles

and mushrooms.

That would never get green lit.

If that was a new title today,

if that you pitched that in some office,

you would never get that green lit today.

That era of games relied on imagination, right?

They couldn't put everything in.

They couldn't make it photorealistic.

And so in a lot of ways,

they gave you the bones and the narrative, right.

But then you live that experience through play,

and tell yourself your own story through

how you experience that game.

And to me, that was a powerful thing.

And so we tried to shy away from all

the zany uninhibitedly joyous things

that we did in this era.

And I think there's a desire to see that again too.

- Well I didn't get much sleep.

Yeah, it feels like 30 Day Christmas Eve,

30 Christmas Eves in a row.

- [Mike] That's great.

- I'm excited.

I can't wait to see Syd.

- [Man] Yeah, you're good, there's poop.

Stop.

- [Rob] Syd Bolton is Canada's top video game collector

with over 15,000 games in his collection.

Only 90 minutes away in Brantford, Ontario.

He's the curator of the Personal Computer Museum

and has written a great book on collecting

all things "Dragon's Lair".

- I played my old Atari 2600,

but there was something about "Super Mario Bros."

and how the quality was so good, the gameplay was great,

the music was wonderful that really for me,

it was video game magic.

Whether you loved it or hated it,

the licensing deal that Nintendo set forward really,

really set the tone for the industry going forward,

and it made a huge difference in the quality of the games

that we got to play at home.

I normally never, ever, ever sell stuff out

of my own collection ever for any reason.

Like people have asked,

I've just recently someone who's a real Pokemon fan,

and he was asking me about buying one of my Pokemon games,

and I'm like, no, I don't sell any of my stuff.

But I mean, I suppose I have the,

I mean you have limited options as to what you can do.

I don't.

I could probably find another one somewhere sometime.

- C'mon Syd let's make a deal.

Alright.

- (exhaling) Yeah.

All right, thanks man.

- [Rob] Great, cool.

You need to go to the bank.

- I do.

I need to go to the bank yep.

(laughing)

- He's going to have to look for some of these titles

under every nook and cranny around.

It's gonna be tough, but a lot of fun.

- Syd, amazing guy and he never, ever, ever sells out

of the private collection.

So I feel quite honored, not only that,

that was a game that I've wanted since forever,

but that it's from Syd's private collection.

Like that's, that's amazing.

- [Rob] Jay now switches his focus to the retail shops.

Emotions are high and anxiety starts to set in as Jay needs

to haggle as much as possible.

This is something he hates and has limited experience doing.

(fast paced music)

- What are we looking at man, here, Nintendo stuff.

Can't remember?

- These are more of the commons here.

- Yeah.

- Okay, I have other games in the showcases,

some back here.

- Yep.

- So is there a title you're after?

- Oh, I got to get 'em all,

so I'm looking to get the best price in bulk that I can.

So what were you?

You usually have like a sign here.

I can't remember.

- [Rob] Wasn't it six for 20 or something like that?

- We doing five for 20 right now.

- [Rob] Five for 20.

- Yeah.

- [Jay] That's way too much money.

That's way too much money.

There's no, I'm not paying that for those.

There's no way.

- Well they're sticker price and then

there's the cash price.

- Yeah, I know.

So we'll talk about that.

I just want to get an idea right now what we're looking at.

That was almost the best deal we got.

- Negotiation wise, how do you think that went?

- Good.

You helped me there, so it was nice,

but you didn't do it for me.

- Right.

- So I think it's just gonna get better.

That was my first store right?

So I mean-

- Yeah.

- I'm glad, I'm glad we did it.

Wait 'til you see this stuff.

Wait 'til we record this stuff that we got in there?

Okay now this is a store that I've had pegged.

I know what he's got.

I know what his prices are.

And then I find this.

- [Mike] Up until yesterday.

- I've never seen it,

and I've never seen that before.

Again this.

I think tomorrow is gonna be another great day,

quantity wise.

- One of the most memorable and haunting elements

of the NES experience is the music.

It's yet another detail that Nintendo did better

than anyone else.

The music, like a soundtrack to a movie,

helps us define the experience,

and it gives each game a unique quality.

Even helping to create an emotional bond with its players.

- When you had only three channels of audio,

plus a fourth channel for a white noise.

Think about that.

Think about Mario and Zelda and only being limited

to that space.

So everything had to be so melodic.

- I'd say the music of the NES era was a lot,

it seems like it was a lot more fun.

- Probably like the best music hands down on that system.

The doctor Mario stuff.

Oh do, do, do, do, do, do, do, (giggling),

I just love it.

- Any of the Konami games,

they really put a lot of effort into their music.

* Back up the game

* Da, da, da, da, da, ta, da, da, da, nah, nah, nah, *

* Da, da, da, ta, da, da, da, da, da, da *

- If you want to talk about the iconic of the iconic,

take anything from Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda is like.

* Da, da, da, da, da, da, da

* Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da *

* Na, na, da, da, na, na, nah, da, da, da, *

* Nah, nah, dah, dah, dah, dah, *

* Nah, nah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dan. *

- Each level would have it's own melodic type of,

type of tune going,

and when you get it over and over,

I mean, you play these games for hours and hours,

and you're hearing, you're getting pounded by this music

and these games.

- They were very talented composers.

They made songs that go in a big circle.

So it goes through a few parts and you might not even notice

that it's repeating.

- The Mario brothers, of course everybody knows that one.

- [Rob] How does that go?

- Like the.

* Da, da, dah, dah, dah, dah.

* Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. *

(guitar strumming)

- It's that melody.

It's that hook.

All stuff that we know the most is things

that you can easily hum that stick in your mind.

It's the melody.

That's the most important thing.

People will be humming Mario in hundreds of years from now.

It's that iconic.

(guitar strumming)

- I've found a bunch of places that have a lot

of common games for really, really,

really reasonable prices.

So now I'm focusing on getting the rare ones

for decent prices.

Once I get those out of the way,

I'm gonna start worrying about buying the bulk stuff.

- With 678 titles in the NES library,

the games have wildly different prices.

Some cartridges cost a buck.

Tons can be hard for under 20,

but a few can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Now the cost element aside Jay's real challenge

is simply gonna be tracking down some of these games.

He's keeping a close eye on 20 of the rarest ones,

because in the end if he can't find them,

then he can't buy them.

And at the top of Jay's list is a game

called "Stadium Events".

This game goes for thousands of dollars,

but other top 20 titles of note are "Little Samson",

"Bonk's Adventure", "Panic Restaurant", and "Stack-Up".

And here are the games Jay's already secured.

(beeping)

Now over 200 games under his belt.

Jay's forced to go outside his hometown of London, Ontario,

so we're gonna head to Toronto two hours away

and visit the legendary A&C Games which got its start

as a convenience store until the brothers

that operate it made it a paradise

for retro gamers everywhere.

- Wow, now this is really impressive.

- We have the biggest selection and we pride ourself

on great customer service.

- We're just a couple of guys that grew up with Nintendo

and playing games and we're living our dream,

and we're here to always be able to have fun

with our customers.

- They have one more in there that I've never seen.

And they're kind of upselling me a little bit too,

because they've never seen it and that's "Bubble Bobble 2".

So far it's by far the highest priced

or the highest ticketed game I've seen,

so I'm really kind of struggling with that.

I wanna buy it from you guys.

I know you've already given me really great deals here.

- [Chang] Yeah.

- I'm gonna take a chance and try to negotiate

with you guys.

You can tell me if it's a way too low or what you think,

and hopefully we'll meet in the middle somewhere.

- [Rob] It's for the cause brothers.

- We're gonna help your budget there.

- For the cause.

- I got it at an exceptional price and I'm not gonna

tell you what I paid for,

but I didn't pay sticker price.

Those guys are absolutely incredible in there,

willing to help out, willing to negotiate.

So far, by far the best store we've been to.

(video music playing)

I'm nervous. I'll tell you that.

And I think, you know, I'm pretty nervous,

no more comfort zone.

It's gonna be heading into the States, uncharted territory.

And I just hope all the people we meet along the way

are half as nice as everything so far.

(guitar music playing)

* I was a stranger

* And you were a stranger

* And we were both strangers at most *

* And a ghost that pursued us

* Would always elude us

* And burn us 'til we were toast *

* It was fun being toast for a while *

* We'd smile

* And ever the poison was low

* Oh, drinking and drinking

- I think everyone likes the idea of working

in a game store just 'cause if it's your hobby,

it's a job where you're surrounded by your hobby,

and it's really interesting.

- So you got nothing else?

Ain't nothing in the back?

No hidden gems?

- [Man] Unfortunately no.

- No "Stadium Events".

(laughing)

The first store, the guy was great, willing to work with me,

knew my quest, knew what I needed to get out of there.

I'm looking at the "Wacky Races".

Couple of the more common ones you have here.

The "Wacky Races" right there.

The rest of the people honestly were a bunch of dicks.

The one guy even had to call the owner of the shop,

and the high priced games I wanted,

they weren't willing to budge a cent,

and their big excuse was cause they don't make them anymore.

(scoffs)

No.

If he's not coming down on the prices, I'm not doing it.

- That's why I'm saying get these at least thrown in.

A hundred is too much though for that.

- [Man] He said, "No.

- Nope.

- [Man] I knew he was gonna say no.

- Okay, fair enough man.

Put these back.

We're good.

- Okay.

There was definitely some tension when he's like,

"No we're not budging."

And then you didn't even ask on some games.

- It turns me off.

As soon as if they're not gonna work with me,

I'm not gonna work with them.

I'm not gonna give those people my business,

because the game I wanted was a nine out of 12.

It's not that rare and we're going to find it again.

It's not like a "Stadium Events".

If that's the case, that's a different story.

- My gut says that you might have to change that tactic

at some point.

- Well I guess we'll see going on.

(upbeat music)

All right my friend.

I think I've got a few.

I kinda just want to see where you're at for pricing.

That will definitely determine what I'm doing

with more of the common stuff.

- Yeah these here, we could probably do 10 a piece on them,

and probably like a buck a piece on these.

- So what are we looking at then for common stuff?

Is that the kind of price we're looking at?

- Yeah we could do common for you probably like a buck

and a half, buck, for most of 'em.

Sports titles probably give you for 50 cents.

- Okay, so that definitely changes everything.

That's a much better deal than we've had so far.

- Okay.

- Thanks dude, appreciate it.

- [Rob] So how does that change things?

So now we're really gonna have to move if time's a factor,

cause there's a ton here.

(gaming music playing)

This is by far the best deal we've got so far,

I'd be an absolute fool not to take it.

So that's we got 78. - 78.

- 78 off those yeah.

- So that brings us over 300 now.

- Yep.

- In five days.

- That's very good.

You know what?

It's, it's 12:42 on day six, turning into day seven.

- And here we are in Pittsburgh talking

to a couple people and now we have an opportunity

to talk about acquiring "Stadium Events".

- Something worth the dressing we're gonna call,

we're gonna call Josh Jones who has a copy for sale.

And he also messaged us and he says he has a lot

of other NES games for sale that we probably don't have.

- [Rob] Let's call him up,

throw it on speaker phone so we can hear what he says.

Maybe get his story of how we got "Stadium Events".

- Let's do that.

Hi is Josh there please?

- [Josh] Yeah this is him.

- Hey Josh, it's Jay from the NES Club.

How are you man?

- [Josh] What's up dude?

I'm good.

- Mm, so we have a mutual friend in Todd Rogers there

and he says you have a few games you're looking to sell.

One of them might be "Stadium Events"?

- [Josh] Yeah.

- So "Stadium Events" was produced by Bandai

as a track and field type game.

They used the power pad, Bandai's own power pad.

Got released very briefly.

Nintendo said, nope,

we basically want that game as our own,

rebranded it, World-Class Track Meet,

and bundled it with a power pad.

So "Stadium Events" is very rare,

because there wasn't many produced,

and there wasn't many that got actually shipped out.

As you can see, I brought an eBay auction up here.

This one is the NTSC mintin box for $77,000,

which is a pretty expensive if you ask me,

but this is an extreme example.

But this gives you the idea of the rarity

and the crazy eBay prices.

And the thing is there have been lots like

this sold on eBay.

- [Josh] You're really nice.

You just don't care if there's no crack,

as long as it's original.

- No, this is,

this is just the cart, right?

The NTSC cart?

- [Josh] Yeah.

- There's no book, there's no box obviously with it?

- [Josh] Yeah, trust me, I wish I had all that, but no.

- Right.

So let me get this straight,

100% let me hear what you're gonna sell it to me for.

- 100% would not go lower than $4,050.

- What about, what about 35?

- [Josh] No. (laughing)

- Come on, man.

Listen, you got, gotta take-

- [Josh] If I would have got it for 50 bucks,

I'd let you have it for a few thousand.

- All right, hmm-

- [Josh] I mean think about it.

I mean.

- Yeah. I'm gonna definitely have to think about it.

Just got off the phone with Josh Jones.

Who's in Florida,

who's was a really good friend with Todd Rogers.

He has "Stadium Events".

(exhaling)

Here's the kicker.

He wants quite a bit for it.

A tad more than what it's worth.

- Okay, let's think about it this way.

You get "Stadium Events", something goes wrong,

you don't, needless to say you don't get a "Little Samson",

by the end of 30 days,

are you still satisfied?

- Well that's not everything,

and that's what the challenge was.

But it's always come down to and it's always

been me saying those two.

- [Mike] Everybody's looking at "Stadium Events".

I think they're looking more of that than the completion.

Everybody's talking about "Stadium Events".

- I'm in a spot right now where there's no negotiations.

- [Mike] I understand.

- And I can't blame the guy, because I wouldn't either.

This is like the game of all video games

to get within reason you know what I mean.

Like this is one of the Holy Grails, so.

- [Rob] So do you get it while you still

have funds left leftover,

and you negotiate the remaining games?

Or do you get it when you're against the wall,

and it's the only game left and you might not

have the money?

What's your heart telling you right now?

- To do it.

(phone ringing)

- [Josh] Hey buddy.

- Hey Josh, what's up man?

- [Josh] Not much.

So I think we're gonna get Todd coming down the 29th,

the 31st of August.

Are you okay to give 'em the cart then?

- [Josh] Yeah probably, I'll see him before

or let's see here.

We'll have to try and meet up somewhere,

because let's see.

- Well yeah, he's coming to the 31st.

So yeah I would need him to bring the cart with him,

and if that's the case, then you have a deal.

You said $4,050.

- [Josh] Yeah, that's exactly,

I'm not going to make one penny off you.

- Thanks Josh, talk to you soon brother.

- [Josh] Bye, bye, take care man.

You guys be safe.

- Yep, bye, bye.

(exhaling)

- [Rob] How do you feel to?

What are you thinking?

- Oh, I don't know, man.

I'm like, my voice is gone.

- [Rob] You gonna be able to sleep tonight?

You get a second wind from that?

- (fingers snapping) Yeah, I probably won't sleep tonight.

That was a,

I wasn't expecting that tonight.

I mean from the beginning of this journey,

we thought we had everything mapped out

and this is how it would go and everything

has just been completely different than what we've seen.

It's done.

(video game music)

(dramatic game music)

- [Rob] What are the top three that we still gotta get?

- Okay so "Little Samson" is number one,

"Bonk's Adventure" is number two,

"Panic Restaurant" is number three.

- [Rob] All right.

- "Jetsons" is in the top five for sure.

I think I'm gonna be able to work with Darrin.

He seems pretty reasonable.

And I'll just say this for the record,

he only had one that was above.

Everything else is far below what it's worth in that app,

so already I'm ahead.

- [Rob] The decent priced games weren't

the whole story though.

Darrin, the owner of Warp Zone,

also made it known to us that a rival collector

had been waiting for his large shipment of NES titles

and that he had been planning to scoop up

the best games before Jay could arrive.

And it seems he succeeded.

Moreover, this rival Lex Luther like game collector,

was still there,

and he had been lurking in the background watching

our every single move during Jay's hunt.

- One of the five we were talking about earlier was there.

There was a copy of the Jetsons,

and unfortunately we were there a little bit too late.

One of the regulars there scooped it up at about 9:00

or 10:00am this morning.

We were there about two hours later.

- "Jetsons" was a game I've been looking for

since I was maybe nine or 10.

I mean, I've been collecting since I was little,

and seeing that, and knowing that you guys are gonna

have a lot of opportunities to find games like this,

I figured, okay, it's no skin off

of you guys' back in theory.

- What was great is that we did talk to him 'cause he was

in there when we were filming.

And he said, you know what,

if you guys really, really, really want it,

we'll cancel the transaction and I'll give it to you

for what I paid for it.

Now I'm a collector obviously.

And this guy was a fellow collector

and I just wouldn't feel right doing that.

- [Rob] Why?

He's got the rest of his life to get it.

You got 30 days.

- Yeah, but it's-

- [Rob] It's like he knew you were coming in.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] And he knew what you were gonna do,

and he's still scooped it up.

- Yeah, that's not my personality man.

- [Rob] But we're talking about collector etiquette right?

- Yeah, I have it.

- I wanted to jump on an opportunity as soon as I saw it.

- I think karma in any form is there.

I mean collecting karma, that's a good terminology.

I've never heard it before, so.

- To be honest, you guys got games I want,

so you guys are the villains.

- You know collectors are collectors.

They're gonna do what they gotta do

to get their collection complete too.

Just like I'm doing what I have to do.

- I mean I've been doing this my entire life,

so I don't think it's different,

in other words,

with what I've done over the past 22 years.

Think ahead come on.

- This whole Jetson saga with JD was leaving

a bad taste in my mouth, but that didn't keep Jay down.

Jay had a plan and while it was a long shot,

it might just nab him "Jetsons" by the end of the day.

So the "Jetson" saga continues.

We should have been in Cincinnati,

possibly even on our way to Indianapolis,

but here we are still in Columbus.

What happened?

What happened was pretty straightforward.

We had a few shops we still wanted to hit.

And instead of Jay just worrying about the games

that he needed,

we also found out about a couple of games left

on JDs game list.

And we just happened to find one.

- And we were looking for games for me and my quest.

And we came upon that little guy right there,

"Snow Brothers".

Now I've already collected this pretty early in the journey.

- Rob thought it would be a great idea to pick it up

so we can use it for trading.

And guess what?

It's about to pay off.

- [Rob] The saga is almost complete.

"Jetsons" has returned to the table.

- Out in the wild today,

we found a Capcom classic "Snow Brothers".

And we used it for trade with JD here to get

the "Jetsons" back and a couple of titles for Rob as well.

So with that.

- Okay, to you for these three titles.

JD was sad to see "Jetsons" go so soon,

but he knows he got a great game in "Snow Brothers".

On a side note,

he asked us to make him as villainous as possible

in the film.

But even what we've shown you doesn't do his evil deeds

and dastardly schemes justice.

If you're a collector,

you better watch your back for a guy named JD Lowe.

He's pure evil.

(whooshing)

(whooshing)

- Yeah I got a phone message from a number I know well,

and listened to the message,

and it was Josh.

Basically really, really wants to be involved with the film.

I don't know if it might be a cancellation of the deal,

but he also said, to sweeten the deal,

that he has a "Little Samson".

- [Rob] "Little Samson" is the side scrolling platform

reminiscent of the Mega Man series,

but like "Jetsons" published by Taito late in the NES run.

As Jay said before,

this is in his top three games to get,

and one that he's been personally hunting for, for years.

Hi is Josh there, please?

- [Josh] Yeah, this is him.

- Hey Josh, it's Jay calling you back.

How are you, man?

- [Josh] Oh hey man.

What I was saying is if you want to send me a list

of the stuff you're,

maybe the more rare stuff you're looking for.

'Cause like I said I got at least

probably 500 Nintendo games here.

- The one you did mention on the voice message there

was "Little Sampson".

What are you looking at for that cart?

- [Josh] I mean like that one,

like if I were to throw it on eBay or something,

I would probably put it around 650 or seven,

and just wait for the right person.

- "Little Samson" I have seen actually a couple

through my tracks.

I've seen one pretty high about eight,

which was way over priced.

And I've seen one as low as 300,

so I'm looking at spending about three, three to 400 bucks.

- [Josh] Yeah, that might be, yeah.

- Well I mean you have to understand, man.

I mean that's,

that's not a small chunk of change I'm paying,

especially with the budget I have, so.

- [Josh] Yeah.

- And you know, we obviously appreciate it and all that.

The "Little Samson" I'm gonna have to think about.

I'm not saying no at this point,

but I'm definitely gonna have to think about it.

I don't really know what to think about it to be honest Rob.

It's, he wants to be involved,

he wants us to come to Florida.

We're not gonna go to Florida, right?

I mean, it's just not in the roots

It's not in the budget.

At the end of the day, I mean there's no legal contract.

There's no eBay contract or anything, obviously.

So if he pulls out, he pulls out.

I can't do anything about that, so.

- [Rob] The next few days went by fast,

but that doesn't mean it was uneventful.

First we hit Cincinnati.

- So for the last few days of this leg of the journey,

I'm really putting on the brakes.

What's going on, man?

- [Man] How you doing man, you're back?

- Yeah, yeah.

How are you doing?

- [Man] Oh, I'm doing alright.

- Ooh yeah, "Donkey Kong 3".

That's the first time I think we've seen that.

There's that "Tom Sawyer" again.

We should probably, maybe get that.

What do you think?

"Kiwi Kraze", I think that's a rare one.

I'm going to quickly just look these up.

Maybe the "Dragon Warrior" and I'm pretty much done here.

- [Rob] Despite his plans to slow down,

Jay snagged well over 30 games at the game swap stores

we encountered in Ohio,

but they were all fairly uncommon titles,

so that was cause to celebrate NES club style

at an arcade.

But the late night fun didn't erase the early morning trip

to Indianapolis.

- I'm not seeing much.

This might be the first time we actually

not purchased anything.

Up until now I've picked up at least something

from each store,

but I think I have all these.

- [Rob] It's the last stop on the first road trip,

the Gibraltar Trade Center.

This is a huge stop for Jay because when he gets back home,

he will lose several days to hunt

due to an increased work schedule.

So he's gotta make the most of this last opportunity.

- Yeah there's a couple of,

there's actually about four or five bins here,

so take a couple minutes to go through.

I'm guessing these are the uncommon ones.

So "Dusty Diamond",

that's one of the 20, so that's good.

(clicking)

Don't worry about that, works fine, we tested it.

Actually all the stuff I got in here is uncommon,

so I'm really glad we spent the last day

and went to Detroit.

It's gonna be a lot of organizing the collection.

I just wanna make sure everything's accounted for,

I definitely wanna start cleaning a lot of them

'cause ugh, germaphobe.

(whooshing)

- [Rob] To help understand and maybe appreciate

what Jay's going through on his quest,

I thought it would be great to speak

to some other collectors in the Nintendo community,

and get their take on the collecting process

and how they approach finding the items they want

with the money they have.

- The first thing I need to identify when I go

through the doors,

Where is the classic gaming section?

Where you have your Intellivision games,

you're Atari 2600 games, your NES games?

It's hard when you actually find the item,

because then if it's not up to your standards,

it's a little disappointing.

- Someone comes in here and says to me,

"Hey, I have a rare title."

The first thing that you know,

the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I'm like, "Alright, let's go see this thing."

- Of course you've got the "Stadium Events"

and all those ones that are just, you know, forget it.

It's out of the question.

- If the price point is right, it's mine.

I'm taking it with me.

It's it's coming home with me that day.

- If something big that I've been looking for forever

is sitting right in front of me,

and even if it's like $20 over the price it should be.

If it's the correct item, it's in perfect condition,

you know, go ahead and do it.

- If I saw a "Stadium Events",

that wouldn't be one that could even think about buying it.

Even if there was a line of people waiting for it,

and I had in my hands, it's just too expensive.

I just,

I couldn't live with my like myself or my wife

might kick me out the house.

- Depending on the funds.

Right now I'm on top of the world.

Talk to me a year ago,

yeah price meant everything,

because I didn't have any money.

- Collecting takes a long time to get to the point

where you wanna have your collection exactly

where you want it to be.

(beeping)

- What's that?

Get it all in your mouth.

There you go.

Well I've learned, you never know really what to expect.

There's been so many times we've thought

this was gonna go one way and it goes the other way,

or oh that will never happen and it happens.

Definitely my negotiating skills,

which I had zero of before, I've never done that.

I hope at least I've got better in that.

I think I have.

I like to know the story for each cart.

Like what happened to this poor thing?

Why it's in this condition?

It's like someone set a sandwich on it and kind of,

and I can't even get that off.

I don't even know if it's blood.

I don't even wanna touch it, ew.

- [Rob] Any thoughts to flying anywhere?

- No not really.

- [Rob] Why is that?

- I just have no interest in doing that.

- [Rob] Why?

- Just suffering from anxiety, as I do.

I mean I've started to have, over the last few years,

anxiety being in cars for some reason being a,

it's really weird being in like the middle

of an intersection at a stop sign.

I don't know if it's I feel claustrophobic,

but it's almost a feeling of like wanting to pass out.

I don't know.

It's strange, and I'm afraid,

to be quite honest that that in itself

is getting out of control.

I can't imagine being in a tube in the air that high.

I don't know man.

- [Rob] There's one other subject

that gives Jay anxiety attacks and as best friends

for over 30 years we've only talked about it once.

- My dad was, it was a different story.

We didn't get along at all, ever.

- His dad was his dad, but Bob never understood,

and he wouldn't sit down and try and play a game

or anything like that, which was too bad.

- He wanted me to be something that I wasn't.

And when I showed him who I was,

I loved music.

I loved video games.

I love Star Wars.

He didn't want anything to do with that.

And he made it quite clear.

I remember getting up and he was walking back

and forth upstairs.

He's just like, I don't feel good.

I don't feel good.

I don't feel good.

And you know,

my dad always had 101 excuses

why he didn't wanna work, right.

There was always something why he couldn't work.

Always in and out of jobs.

And so I get up and, you know, say a few choice words,

like you know, you're just faking it or whatever.

And I remember going back to sleep

and then I heard like bam, downstairs.

Just like,

it was probably the loudest noise I've ever heard

in my life, and then my mom just screaming.

And so the rest of that is like,

like a slow motion kind of experience.

So I rushed down.

He's laying there on the floor.

We didn't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

So it was January.

It was freezing cold.

I ran outside on my bare feet.

I ran to, our neighbor was a nurse.

I went and got her.

I went and got Norm.

I don't know why I got Norm, but I did.

And so rushed back and Norm tried to revive him,

and that was it.

He just wasn't coming back.

He was gone.

And I just had such a relief man.

That it was over.

That we were free.

That my mom and I were free 'cause he was a,

he was a tyrant.

He was awful.

He's the worst person I've ever met in my life.

- It was hard because he lost his Nan who he loved dearly,

and then Pop, and then his dad.

So he doesn't handle that well.

Like God forbid I should ever get really sick.

I don't know what he'd do.

No I've had a bad day today.

- [Rob] Why is that?

- Ah, stuff with work and personal stuff.

Negotiations of "Stadium Events" have taken a bit of a turn.

I'm not too excited about it.

- [Rob] What's happening?

- I got the guy's number.

Now, basically I'm supposed to send the money.

I'm supposed to send the money without

having received the game.

"If I give it to Todd with no money up front

and something happens,

I'm out the game and the money,

so what about me?"

Question mark.

"Again another reason that you guys should come here,

it's the most important part of the film ,

and the most important game in the film,

and you're not even gonna be here to get it.

Either way, I don't know you plus you live

in another country,

so if you guys tamper with it and something goes wrong,

what am I gonna do with the damaged game?"

And I write, "Josh we've already found one fake

on our journey so far,

and I'm not accusing you of that by any means.

If you send the game with Todd and it checks out,

he will bring you the money as planned.

That's the only way this will work.

If you don't trust it.

I understand.

Todd is your friend.

He's not going to let anything happen to it.

Trust me, man.

I want this game."

What's, what's going on.

We sent a bunch of messages back and forth today

and we're kind of at a stand still here.

So what are you thinking?

- [Josh] Yeah well,

the thing I'm worried about is like from my side

is what I was saying.

I mean, I know it's real.

If it's, I mean the link that I sent you on the eBay link,

I mean, you could see the whole, the board,

and everything on there, all the numbers.

- I mean I do understand your point, man.

I do, but I can't send $4,000 to someone I don't know.

And it's obviously like I said to you

in the Facebook message,

it's not a, you know, it's not personal,

and I'm not calling you a bootlegger or anything like that.

Just this is the most expensive game I've ever bought.

- [Josh] I just want you to see the game

and tell me that everything looks right.

- I know Josh and dude, I, believe me man,

if, I'm a gamer and you're a gamer,

and it's not personal man, but we're talking 4,000,

and JPEGs on the internet.

You know I can't just go on that man.

And there's no legal binding document.

There's no eBay or you know,

anything Amazon or anything like that.

This is coming from guy to guy kind of thing.

- [Josh] I mean well yeah, I buy three,

and only got one, one real one in my hands, you know?

So like this game has probably given me- (laughing)

- So you've had a few, you've had a few fakes then?

- [Josh] No fakes.

I'm saying as far as like,

yeah I've never had a fake one,

like April fools or anything.

I've never had any kind of "Stadium Events" in my hand,

besides this real one here.

I'm saying I paid for other ones and never got 'em

like the stories I was telling you the last time we talked.

I've never had another "Stadium Events".

- Well brother, you just said it, man.

Then you know exactly how I feel.

I think it's kind of,

we've kind of both made up our minds here, man.

We should probably just put it to rest I think.

And just, just move on from there.

- [Josh] Yeah, I mean yeah. (laughing)

If that's what you wanna do man.

I mean, I was gonna say, you know,

talking to you again about it or whatever,

I mean, you know,

we can talk for two hours.

- Yeah, well, yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

We'll see where it goes.

I mean, if things drastically change, send me a message.

I'll think about it.

But as of right now, we'll just, we'll call it off man.

- [Josh] Okay, I get it, man.

- Okay?

- [Josh] All right.

- Dude, it's been a pleasure man.

Honestly, I wish you well.

- [Josh] Yeah, all right man.

- Okay , take care.

- [Josh] Yeah.

- Every single game is gonna have a story to it.

This is the game I want the most and it's not

the story I want for it.

(whooshing)

(beeping)

- One of the ways the NES legacy continues to live

on today is through competitive gaming.

Regional, national, and global competitions,

still use titles from the NES library

to draw in world-class gamers who vie for that top spot.

To hear their thoughts,

we talked to John Pompa and Mason Cramer,

a pair of competitive gamers to hear the difference

on playing for fun and going for that top spot,

the kind of attributes you need to go pro,

and of course to talk to them about

the biggest competitive gaming championship in history.

(upbeat music)

- For me and a majority of the ones that I talked to,

or play with, they're more challenging.

- [Rob] John Pompa holds over 20 world records with more

than a handful on titles from the NES library.

- You can put everything you have into these new games.

You know, the new "Batman" game, it'll look amazing,

but it's done in a half hour an hour.

You got, you beat the game,

and there's really no replay value.

- [Rob] In 2008,

the Guinness Book of World Records published

their first "Gamer's Edition" and has since published

the volume annually in January,

thus giving the gaming community and competitive gamers

somewhere to get their name and scores in print.

- I mean when I found out I was in the Guinness book,

I called everybody I knew. (laughing)

- I called my mom and I said, "Mom, I did it."

I called my sister, and I called all my friends.

I was really pumped, man.

- [Rob] Mason Cramer also holds some legendary records.

Most notably high score with one life

on Super Mario Bros. 3,

arguably the most popular NES title of all time.

- You can get good at a certain type of game,

but the real test of a master is their ability

to learn and to adapt to new play styles and new techniques.

I think NWC represents a sort of high watermark

in competitive gaming.

The most people that have ever been at a contest,

the most competitors who have ever entered,

everyone wanted a slice of NWC.

- [Rob] The Nintendo World Championships

sometimes referred to as NWC,

represents a fever pitch of the NES era.

It was every kid's dream to be a part of this glitzy

Hollywood production that brought players from all over

the country together to win cash and prizes.

All just for playing Nintendo games.

Getting in the "Guinness Book of World Records"

pales in comparison to beating out a million other people

at NWC the way Thor did.

- The NWC was something conceived and executed

in an epic scale.

Even pictures can't do it justice.

It was so cool.

This followed the release of the "Wizard",

so there was already kind of a buildup in the,

this Nintendo culture out there where everybody was like,

hey I wanna be a part of that.

The numbers that I got,

were there were 1.1 million entrants to the contest,

and there's never been anything remotely similar

to this scale ever attempted again,

'cause it shouldn't be 23 years later

that there's still nothing like it.

- [Rob] It's day 19,

and Jay's headed back to A&C games in Toronto.

Last time he was here, he focused on the rare games.

This time he knows he can't leave any game behind,

and since time is of the essence Jay's employed

the film's producer, Mike Froussios,

to help him track the days acquisitions.

(beeping)

- So far that was the most intense negotiation,

and it's the most money I've spent in one spot.

It was a good almost hour negotiations there.

All these games I got here, just crazy.

Well I'm gonna log in the 20 extra we got

for the basement.

We'll do a count.

See where we're at there.

The tally ladies and gentlemen is 554.

"Bubble Bobble 2" has been replaced.

"Stack-Up" is now the most rare.

- [Rob] But already behind a few days to hunt since

the last road trip we had to keep pushing.

So we hit one more spot that to our surprise,

offered a very uncommon kind of treasure

near mint condition, NES game boxes.

- This was very expensive,

but when are you ever going to see stuff like this?

It's kind of those things I wrestle with where it's like

once in a,

that's a once in a lifetime thing.

- [Rob] For some,

it's hard to understand why Jay would risk any

of his budget just on the boxes,

especially when he doesn't necessarily even have the games

to accompany them.

The answer is simple though.

The boxes are pieces of art.

Like the games conditioned is critical and it's the design

that makes them memorable and sought after.

Someone who has an understanding of box art

is illustrator Mark Erickson.

Mark's responsible for the artwork on games

like Tengen's "Tetris", "Thrill of War", "Bad Dudes",

"Strider", and infamously "Mega Man 2".

- They would play a beta version of the game for me.

And I meant physically they would play it,

because I'm not a gamer.

I'm just an illustrator.

Over a period of about 30 or 40 minutes,

we would just arrive at at what they wanted me to do.

The famous "Mega Man 2" incident was about the only thing

sticks in my mind where they just led me

in the wrong direction and had me do a piece of art

that wasn't correct.

Amazingly, the people that hired me to do the art,

and the art director,

neither one of them knew the game,

and we ran the beta version as I described to you,

and nobody could see the little character well enough

to know he had a cannon for an arm,

and long story short,

They told me to put a pistol in there,

and that's what I did.

To have the gaming stuff for me is huge,

because I realized there's this base of fans

who love this art.

And it's just to say it's very gratifying to me

is an understatement.

- As we March towards the inevitable future

of digital only games,

the entire notion of boxes, carts, or manuals

are disappearing along with any real sense of their history.

- These are cool items that document historical information.

- You don't have to worry about uploading your updates or

and whatever else.

You just plug it in, and maybe the screen blinks.

You have to blow in the cartridge or whatever,

but you just, there's something that's,

it's just, it's more charming about it.

- But when you actually physically look at a cartridge

and you can see the picture of the game,

you know which game it is,

you can trade it with your friends or something.

It's so much different than when it's invisible.

Why do kids nowadays want to play on the original console

and have a piece of this?

Multiple reasons, because they weren't there,

because they wanna understand where it came from.

If someone were to show me a library of NES games

in a file on their computer, I'm not impressed.

- If someone were to show me the artifacts,

that's what matters.

Anyone can take a picture.

Anyone can have a digital file of it.

But the games physically are an artifact.

Something to be preserved, put in a plastic case.

(upbeat music)

- [Rob] Day 21 means it's time for the second road trip.

This time we drive 12 hours the first day to end up

in St. Louis.

From there we hit Dallas, Austin, Houston,

and then on the way back home,

we meet up with a pair of private collectors

in Oklahoma City and Bedford Indiana, respectively.

Believe me ehen I say this trip features all lot

of driving and like Jay predicted,

there was a lot of running in and out of stores

to see if they had the few select titles

that he still needed.

Here's some of the highlights in the first few days

of the trip.

- Got, I don't know,

maybe about 10 more games.

And we met Jason who's the owner of the store.

He showed us his personal collection,

which was the best collection of I've ever seen.

He's cool too.

He's like, you know I buy the game to have it,

and then I do the upgrades.

And if I see one with a better label

or a better box, I upgrade that as well.

- [Rob] We were on the road all of day 22,

but day 23 saw us in Dallas where we met up

with video game media personality, Patrick Scott Patterson,

who's the kind of guy with his pulse on the world of gaming,

and he brought with him a mysterious bag of games.

- Reach into the bag.

- It's a game show now.

- And pull out.

- There's not a scorpion in here is there?

- No there's not a scorpion or a snake.

Let's see what happens here.

- All right, so the first one we got is "Strider".

So "Strider" I have.

- Okay.

- "Strider" I do have.

- Okay.

- Come on, no whammies.

"Three Stooges" which I do have.

- Oh man.

- I do have.

(video game music playing)

Oh will you look at that. (giggles)

Nope don't have that one.

(laughing)

Oh, I feel like I just got kicked.

(laughing)

And I pulled out "Panic Restaurant" by Taito,

which I didn't have.

So man I almost fell over when I pulled that one out.

(whooshing)

- [Rob] Okay, so what was that place like?

- Expensive.

Yeah, I didn't like that.

So yeah, 50 bucks for "Donkey Kong" and "Might & Magic".

I'm not too happy with that.

- [Rob] Why'd you do it?

- Well, cause they're there at this point.

I don't know how many of these I want to hit

to be completely honest.

I can't afford to be doing 50 bucks for two games now

at this point.

And I mean like I said before we started this whole thing,

like that's not a rare game, but it's expensive.

So I don't know.

Don't feel too good about this one.

If we didn't have those two collectors in the works,

that would be a different story.

I think maybe we should call those guys and see what's up.

See what they have, see what kind of deals we can get.

That's what I wanna do.

I don't know, I just, I felt like sick giving the cash out.

Like I felt really ill.

- It's kind of funny how Jay mentions,

he's starting to feel sick about making purchases

and then moments later pulls me aside and he has

to be back home a day earlier for work.

I'm not sure if it was a miscommunication issue or not,

but I'm sure the two are related and now I've got

to reconfigure the rest of the trip in my head

as we're about to pick up Todd Rogers from the airport.

- [Jay] What's up dude?

Can I get your autograph?

- [Jay] How are you man?

- And he's the man, I mean you know Mr. Nintendo.

- I'm excited.

- Oh I'm excited.

- [Rob] Todd Rogers is the world's first pro gamer.

He was paid by several companies to play games

because of his incredible skills at deconstructing

and mastering them.

He was also an employee of Nintendo

and holds thousands of gaming records.

- Why don't you show me some of the games you have

the world record on?

- Well I have one on "Xenon", "Yar's Revenge",

"Star Master", "Star Voyager", "Skiing".

I guess games on one of these rows,

"Qbert", "Pitfall", "Laser Blast", "Kangaroo", "E.T.",

"Chopper Command".

- Is that it?

- And of course the favorite "Dragster" up in the corner.

When Nintendo came out, man it had,

I mean the graphics were incredible.

The gameplay was great.

The controller was easy to hold.

I mean, you know, they had,

they put a lot of thought and effort into listening

to what the public wanted.

Working for Nintendo was really cool,

because there were a lot of open-minded people

that worked for that company.

They wanted to bring the entertainment to the home.

They wanted you,

the consumer to play as a collective or as a group

rather than just singulative.

- [Rob] With Todd part of the team for the day

and Jay's honorary mentor,

we traveled South,

a Stone's throw away from the Gulf of Mexico

to check out a brand new Game Over Videogames store.

- [Jay] Hello?

- Oh, the air is on, that's nice.

- [Man] We got some there and they got this rack over here.

- [Jay] Okay.

There's a few here.

- [Rob] Which ones?

- "Cool World", "Gargoyle's Quest".

So that one I need, it's 89.

That one I need is 49.

- So offer 'em 50.

(laughing)

Just like that? - Yeah, taking a few bucks.

- Just like that.

- Yeah, what's the worst they can do, say no.

- Okay, we got a huge wall over here.

Okay so it's the last store,

found a couple of real rare ones.

Just go through it real quick.

"Gargoyle's Quest" by Capcom, "Toxic Crusader",

"Cool World",

but the big one we got was the "Turtles Tournament Fighter".

- Oh, I wish we could do this everyday.

- Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

- I mean it's a blast.

I mean definitely beats the hump and role

of every day boredom.

I mean this is really cool.

- [Rob] But just because Jay was done hunting games

for the day,

doesn't mean we were done hanging out with Todd.

That night we had a blast at dinner.

Todd called Twin Galaxies founder, Walter Day,

who then allow Todd to unveil and present us

with our own Twin Galaxies video game trading card.

And of course we got to play some games.

I can only speculate for Jay,

but our time with the legendary Todd Rogers

was unforgettable.

(whooshing)

(beeping)

(whooshing)

- [Jay] Now we're going to a collector's house

who reached out to us who has about 500 NES games.

The only thing is he doesn't know there's a film crew,

so we'll see how that goes.

Hopefully he's got some of those titles.

I was sitting at 605, so I'm doing well.

- [Rob] 73, 73 to go and if this guys got 500 games-

- Yeah he said he had about 500,

so I mean that's pretty good odds that he's gonna

have some I need.

Hopefully some of the big ones

and we get a good deal.

I'm ready.

- [Rob] Which one do you want to knock off the list today?

- "Little Sampson".

- It's always gonna be "Little Samson".

What are top three?

- "Stadium Events", "Little Samson", "Bonk's Adventure".

(metal rattling)

- All right.

- Nice and cool.

- What we're looking at over here,

regular Nintendo stuff.

- [Jay] Mm-hmm.

- Super Nintendo 64, all organized.

On the table behind us here are (metal rattling) games.

So this is everything that I've got over $10,

Nintendo, Super 64.

- So what's for sale here?

What are we looking at?

- Pretty much everything.

What's this one?

What's that going for?

- I probably wouldn't sell any of the reproduction stuff.

- How much are your "Zelda's", the classic ones.

- Those probably aren't for sale.

- So dare I ask?

- I've never, I've never given anybody a price on it.

- That's interesting, don't have that one yet.

(mumbling)

The Power Pad.

So this is for use with "Stadium Events"

amongst other games.

Got that for dirt cheap.

And I got "Color A Dinosaur", which is a really rare one.

So score there.

There's about 70 left I have to get.

So what I'm starting to think now is some of the games

that I thought were I was gonna find everywhere

are some of the harder ones to get like "Bases Loaded 4",

and that's that Corvette one.

I've never seen 'em.

So I don't know.

I'm getting pretty nervous with one stop left.

Let's hope this goes through.

If not, we still have a few days back home.

(whooshing)

So this is almost, almost my last hope here.

So I'm hoping to clear out this guy,

get all the big rare ones,

all the commons I need and that'll be it.

- [Rob] Tod Curtis is a collector who reached out

to us very early on about helping Jay's insane endeavor.

- My NES collection encompasses all

the North American release games,

both licensed and unlicensed.

The prize pieces in my collection at this time are the

Nintendo World Championship cartridges.

The "Stadium Events" that's complete in the box.

I'm afraid I'm gonna be disappointed.

A little bit like yesterday.

I'm afraid like, oh I have everything,

and then I'm going to go in there

and he's gonna have everything,

but oh not for sale, not for sale, not for sale.

So I don't wanna get my hopes up,

so it's kind of a mixture of emotions right now.

So I hear you're going to show me around your collection

and you might have some stuff for sale here.

- Yeah, the collection is in here.

Come on in.

- Cool.

(electric music playing)

You got a few things there.

- [Tod] Just kind of the rare stuff is in this display case.

- You have two of "Nintendo World Championships".

- That's right?

- That's pretty greedy, don't you think?

No, I'm just kidding. (laughing)

And okay so we have I see four "Stadium Events" here.

So one is sealed, right?

- Well, one is complete in the box, it's out of the box.

So really there's only two.

So these are all the carts,

kind of separate from their boxes.

- [Jay] Right.

On this side, we have all the boxes, the inserts,

everything to go along with that, the manuals.

- Wow.

- [Rob] Makes sense.

- Okay, so I'm not gonna pull anything out,

I'm just gonna look through it right now.

- [Rob] Is he okay to pull something that he needs?

- I don't know if I wanna do that just yet.

I'm gonna look at it first, okay.

- [Tod] Okay whatever you want.

- And then we'll see where we go from there.

(upbeat music)

All right I just wanna talk to you

for a few minutes off camera before we go any further here.

Okay, so give us a sec here.

I was hoping for one of the big ones.

At this point,

I would almost rather just take the money I have

and just get those.

Instead of getting these lesser known titles

for the sake of 70 being, 70 games being the difference.

Like there's no "Samson", there's no "Bonk",

there's no "Stadium Events".

- [Rob] Tod do you have any other titles by chance?

- [Tod] Need anything in particular?

- (giggles) Really "Stadium Events", "Little Samson",

or "Bonk's" is really what I'm interested in.

At this point because the difference of games I need

to complete is so small.

For me personally, I'd rather get one of the big ones.

Instead of getting a lot of the smaller ones.

That's just me.

- [Tod] Okay.

- Right or wrong, that's how I wanna do things.

- Well the "Little Sampson" was one of

the last ones I bought in a box like that.

So I know there's one in that box.

So if there's one on the shelf.

Like that?

- [Jay] Yeah.

Holy shit.

- You say Bonk's Adventure?

That one's in the box.

- [Jay] Geez.

- [Tod] Got it.

- [Rob] Just a reminder,

"Little Samson" is number two in terms of rarity

and price on the NES list for the retail games.

Jays only other offer was through Josh Jones,

a deal that fell apart.

"Bonk's Adventure" is number three in terms of rarity

in price for Jay.

- And dare I ask you about the other one?

- [Tod] Which other one?

- "Stadium Events".

- [Rob] Unbelievably Tod has two copies of "Stadium Events",

one complete with its original box and manual.

And one with just its box though there's a slight tear

on the back.

The price for "Stadium Events" is usually astronomical

on its own,

but when you throw in the box or the box and manual,

you're talking some serious cash.

- I mean I'm going to sell more than likely one of the two,

but it would have to go with its box.

I can't break it from it from it's box.

- Okay so that's a totally different beast on its own.

Okay so these two are for sale.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay I wanna go over here.

Do you want to hang on to these for now?

- You put 'em wherever you want,

carry 'em around. - Okay, I'll come over here.

- So Jay went back to the bins and was able

to pull out 30 games or so,

some rare, some common, but all titles he needed.

Jay and Tod were able to work out a deal

for those games as well as "Little Samson"

and "Bonk's Adventur".

- So sure enough, he pulls out "Bonk",

heart attack one.

I'm like shaking, holding the cart.

And then he had a "Little Samson" and that was unbelievable.

And like the deals keep getting better,

but he gave those two carts for me

at such a reasonable price, I almost felt bad.

And then I picked up about 30 others.

The stack of everything total was way less

than what I was expecting to spend.

I'm just, I don't know.

That guy was awesome.

(whooshing)

(whooshing)

- It's day 28, and we're all happy to be back in Canada,

after another long drive and to be out of the van,

except for one of us who is racing to the vet

with a little bit of an emergency.

Jay's taking his dog Spencer in to see if he's all right.

He's not been doing well,

throwing up and really acting out of character.

So it's a bit of a cause for concern.

Hope for Jay's sake, that everything works out.

Don't know how it's going to affect the rest

of the challenge of course.

All we can do is see what's going on.

Get some more information and try to regroup

and finish strong.

Let the record show,

see if I can get this all loaded up here.

5:14 day one to day 30,

he has until 5:14.

I'm getting a text message from Schemes.

5:14 on day 30,

so he's gonna have that whole last day up until 5:14pm.

- All right, this is it.

Day 30, the very last day,

and I gonna check out the three local shops

that I frequent and that's all I can do, man.

So hopefully there's good stuff in there.

- [Man] Hey.

- Hey, what's up man?

- [Man] Yeah, how you doing?

- [Jay] Back again, one last time.

- [Man] I hear you.

- Okay here we go.

(rubbing hands)

"Barn Storming".

Oh, we're back again. (giggling)

- [Man] What's up man?

This is your third visit. - What's that?

- This is your third visit.

- The third, this is the final stop for the whole film.

Alright, well I'm hoping we can get a few out of this place.

"Nigel Mansell's World Championship".

Damn it, sports games really confuse me.

I think we got "Bigfoot".

Let's hope we didn't get "Bigfoot".

So I'm just reaching here now.

- [Man] So how close are you guys to completing the goal?

- Ugh, not good my friend, not good.

I don't know buddy, it's not looking too good.

You always gotta look.

You always gotta look.

Got 'em all, everything except "Last Star Fighter".

Score, "Classic Concentration".

Fourth one down, yeah.

One.

You guys got anything rare in for NES

or anything in the back.

- [Man] Well we just got a whole bunch of Nintendo games

in the last few days.

- Oh I like to hear that.

Are they all put out?

- [Man] Yep.

- They are, okay.

Okay.

Where are they?

(bell ringing)

I didn't really realize what I was in for.

I mean I knew it was gonna be difficult,

but it was grueling.

Kind of disappointed,

didn't really play out like I wanted it to.

If I did get "Stadium Events",

everyone would be like, wow he didn't do it,

but holy cow, he got this one.

He got the best one.

It's weird, man that something like this can change you,

but it really has.

Yeah, I'm gonna miss it.

(dramatic music)

(door slamming)

(hands rubbing)

One?

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Man I feel like I'm gonna puke.

It's the anxiety I was talking about.

- [Rob] What?

I kind of think he's like hurting.

It's that same fear.

I don't know if you guys have this,

but when you're opening presents

and people watch you open presents, do you get that?

The hate that.

Well here we are.

I was someone who I think let things get to me.

I let things get me down too easily.

Very negative, saw things in a darker light if you will.

So I look at things in a more positive,

positive way now and I'm a lot happier.

I just feel, I don't know.

I feel fulfilled.

This is all the carts that I've collected

for the entire journey.

- And this little stack here actually represents

the ones that I was short.

So these are the ones I did not collect.

- I knew you were coming back six to eight months later,

so I acquired them on eBay,

which believe me was not nearly as fun.

These here was so impersonal.

There was no communication with anybody.

It was just Buy it Now, Bid, Buy it Now, Bid.

And then, two weeks later it's shipped to my door

and all of a sudden I have gut knack.

It's not nearly as rewarding, right, so.

These aren't all the games.

There's one, there's still one game missing,

and it's the game that means the most to me.

And I want this game to have a story.

So we're hitting the road.

Oh I gotta burp.

Hello my friend.

How are you, man?

- How are you?

- Good, good to see you.

- It's good to see you too.

- [Rob] This is the last of the games, right?

- 678, this is it.

- [Rob] This is the last one,

- [Tod] Let's go in.

- As you can see, here's the good stuff.

And I understand that this is what you're looking for.

- Yeah.

It's been a, it's been long man.

This is pretty emotional so.

- Take 'em and look at 'em.

See what you think.

- I'm shaking.

- You know it was a surprise to me,

not only to have one boxed "Stadium Events",

but to have two.

And the second, I had two,

I started looking for a home for the first.

- [Jay] Yeah.

And I had no idea when that would be and it turned out,

it happened pretty quickly.

And I think that the right person's getting it,

'cause I know that you'll enjoy it,

you'll care for it, been a long quest.

This is a great finale to that quest.

- I don't even know what to say to you, like thank you.

- You're welcome.

Glad I could help you out.

(exhaling)

- Oh God I think I'm gonna pass out.

Seriously.

- I was a little surprised how nerve wracked

he seemed to be.

And I don't know if it was because he thought

maybe he would actually get down here and I would look at it

and say, no nevermind, I can't do this.

And then a whole trip all the way down here is for nothing.

- So I've been, I've been hearing that the boxes are pretty,

pretty rare as well.

- The box is the hardest thing to find.

- Yeah.

Is there a number on that do you know?

Like how many there is or?

- Is under 10?

- Is it?

- I can account for maybe six.

But then to see him with it actually in his hands,

he was shaking a little bit holding something.

I think that maybe he thought he would ever hold,

or your know, and to know that that was gonna be his own.

I thought that was real exciting.

It was exciting for me.

He understands why "Stadium Events" is important

and what it would mean to his collection,

so I was just glad to, in all honesty,

to see him finish his journey.

- So I failed the 30 day challenge, but I don't know,

I guess that didn't matter after a while,

because I wanted to complete the collection this way.

You have to want it bad enough to give up a lot

in your life.

And that sounds ridiculous,

because we're talking about Nintendo games,

but really if you want it bad enough,

you'll get it.

(upbeat music)

- [Rob] After saving every penny for the last eight months

and making the most expensive purchase of his life.

Jay's quest has finally come to an end.

- There's something I think about a lot okay,

and that's a Dave Grohl story.

But when he talks about becoming a musician,

he talks about his mom who was a music teacher.

His dad was a politician and he knew right away,

he wanted to play music.

So he was like 13, 14 years old,

15 I think.

And he went to his mom and he said,

"Mom, I'm gonna jump in a van with these guys

and we're going to tour around

and we're going to play music,

and I'm not gonna go to school anymore,

because this is what I have to do."

You know what she said?

"Go for it."

And I just wonder, I mean, why all parents aren't like that?

I mean, if he had fallen on his face,

they would still be there to pick him up,

because that's their responsibility.

But for them to even say, go for it, yeah leave school.

And he always jokes about it.

It's like this is what happens when you drop out of school.

And I love that line.

It's hilarious, because it's like,

there's so many rules that everyone

brings you up thinking that that's the way things are

no matter what happens in this world,

you can never deny what you feel inside.

You can never doubt yourself because those are true feelings

that nobody can take that away from you.

People can tell you you're wrong,

but you know deep down inside what's right.

You love, you love what you love,

and that's just the way it is.

And you have to go with that.

- [Rob] And one of the things Jay loves most is video games.

He journeyed far beyond the comfort of his home

in London, Ontario in pursuit of his number one passion,

and in the process made history.

And while he now has a complete collection

of retail NES games,

the challenge became so much more than that.

He got to meet dozens of other people that share his passion

and help Jay grow as a person.

When everyone said he was crazy to do it,

he went out and did it anyway.

And like owning the only box copy

of "Stadium Events" in Canada,

no one can take that away from him.

I dare Jay, and now I'm daring you,

chase your dreams and do the impossible.

Go on a quest of a lifetime because the adventures

that await you are priceless.

- [Rob] So what do you wanna do next summer?

(beeping)

* I know times past and a lot has changed *

* Maybe we will forget these days *

* And some days we sing along and sing a song *

* I pushed you away but then you became strong *

* Remember the smiles

* Remember the days,

* Remember the nights when you stayed up late *

* Remember the times when we went so far *

* Remember the tunes, baby down that car *

* Remember the hours

* Remember when we played

* Remember we're clinging in the hall of fame *

* Remember the nights when you called around *

* Remember the feeling when you make that sound, *

* Sound, oh yeah

* Feeling when you make that

- [Rob] Tell what the Konami Code is.

- Of course who doesn't man.

Up, up, down, down, left, right left, right, B, A, Start.

- [Both] Up, up, down, down, left, right left,

right, B, A, Select, Start.

- I did the two player version.

- Right.

- The up, up, down, down, left, right left, right,

B, A, Select, Start.

- Up, up, down, down, left, right left, right, B, A.

- I have a buddy who always punches that in for me.

- Left, left, down, right, right, down,

no I don't know that code. (laughing)

- Nintendo gave us.

These were like, lithographs,

of basically early sketches of Mario by Shigeru Miyamoto.

So these are some of the early sketches

he would have done for "Donkey Kong".

- The NES saved the video game industry after it collapsed

in '82, '83.

So if not for Nintendo, they wouldn't be anything here.

- They were the first console to deliver

what I think is something close to the arcade experience

in your home.

- So 1985, is a good year,

to launch a system, a console system,

that begins to improve the graphics.

- Four or five years old,

and my dad got me a Nintendo Entertainment System,

and right after I blew out the candles,

right after the cake, right away,

let's go hook it up.

- Well we didn't have a lot of money back then

and got my NES action set for Christmas.

We only had one game.

Throughout my childhood, I only had one game.

It was the game that I came with, the Mario "Duck Hunt".

Still to this day, it's my favorite game.

- First thing that's come to mind is just hanging out

with my brother,

playing Super Mario Bros. 3 in the basement,

like handing it back and forth every death,

or every level, depending on what you did.

- You know I was gonna run out.

I was gonna beg my parents.

I was gonna get it,

and to this day I've never been let down by Nintendo power.

- When I found out that my parents were hiding one

in the garage.

Just knowing it was in the garage in a box,

and you wanna play it,

but you have to wait 'til Christmas,

that's the memory I have about the NES.

- The NES has withstood the test of time,

and as soon as this interview is over,

I'll be picking up a console without a doubt.

You can guarantee it.

The NES library is way beyond any library

for any machine I've ever seen.

There's just no competition.

- I think it's their commitment to quality.

I think they really,

they won't put out a game unless they really feel

like it's connecting with the gamers.

- When I got home from school and did my homework,

there was a two to three hour point in the day

where I could escape and I could be in control of the world.

I could be the hero.

The goals were achievable.

I had control.

The first day I had my NES,

I was sitting there in my bathrobe,

my dad was in his bathrobe,

which we actually have a photograph,

and I'm sitting on the end of my bed

and my dad's sitting there shooting it, Hogan's Alley.

And it just kind of blew my mind that that was probably

the first game my dad ever played in his whole entire life.

And he was doing it on Christmas day with me.

And I'll never forget it.

And those are the things that,

those are the things that bring back and it's like a story.

It has really,

sometimes it has nothing to do with the games.

It's the story behind the games.

- I remember going to Sears when the NES came out

and filling out an application for a credit card

so I can get the $25 gift card and go buy the NES.

I had to have it.

- 13 years ago, I was 210 pounds, plus size 18-20,

and I was walking past an arcade

and I discovered dance, dance revolution,

and I decided to play it.

I instantly died within 10 steps,

and then some kid chuckled from the side (throat clearing)

"you suck", and it hurt my feelings.

And I remember I went home that day cause I really

had an instant connection with the game.

And when I went home, I was upset.

I looked at all my previous awards that I had

from playing sports in the past,

and I looked at my old pictures

and I didn't recognize the reflection I saw

in the mirror anymore.

This person who was now 210 pounds, that used to be 120.

And I made a commitment that moment that I was going

to master the game.

- How could I not be envious of Jay's 30 day adventure

to find 700 old games.

And plus everybody seems to have a little bit

of archeologist in them,

of going and being the Indiana, Indiana Jay.

Indiana Jay on the road to finding all those,

all those lost, forgotten,

hidden mystical games that who knows where they're

gonna show up.

(beeping)