Original subtitles

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.

It was the Christmas gift every kid wanted.

There was just a little magical quality to Nintendo

that caught on with the public.

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 Nintendo,

and you went down there, and it was like...

The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES,

gave kids a new way to play games

and 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.

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.

...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.

...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's such a part of him

that he's willing to crisscross the country in search

of these Holy Grail-like artifacts.

A journey like that

with someone pursuing their dream

is bound to change anyone

and become the stuff of legend.

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

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 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,

like competitive gamers and personalities

and the other die-hard 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 gonna find out,

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

'cause clearly, he's a fan.

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

He's got a great dog named Spencer...

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.

And an impressive library of games.

So this is...

pretty much most of my collection here.

"Mighty Final Fight."

Really, really personal favorite of mine here is "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 'n' 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 or what you say.

Jay's the perfect guy to take on this adventure,

because as the 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.

And 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 'bout this?

How 'bout we do it in a month?

We'll do it in 30 days."

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

but I could just go on eBay,

you know, 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 carts

like "Nintendo World Championships,"

but it does include "Stadium Events"

and "Little Samson,"

and he's gotta 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 gotta 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 sorts all his purchases, too,

so out 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 what we're gonna hit there.

We don't know exactly who we're gonna talk to,

or what we're gonna find.

There's the thinnest of plans out there,

and no doubt there's gonna be 100 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 homebody.

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 treehouse...

- Wow. - But for a very brief period,

it was something else.

This was the original NES Club.

Or clubhouse.

- Clubhouse. There you go. - Yeah.

Look how small it is.

We had our first Nintendo Club in here.

Yeah.

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

Of course you want to see us up here. Ohh.

- Stunt work, right? - Here we go.

Ohh. Getting old.

All right. Large and in charge.

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

- Good. - All right, so...

what were we thinking?!

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

Well, in 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 game 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 want to do every day.

There's no cheat codes. There's no Game Genie.

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.

...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 came and 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 toylike 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.

Let's do this.

So gonna go see Murray and Shannon right now.

It's the first stop.

Holy moley. 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?

- Good to see you. - Good to see you.

Huge.

This is our toy room down here.

And you can show me.

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

- They don't know these ones. - Well, then--

These are ones we haven't let 'em see.

Then little Murray can tell me about them.

So we got "Swords and Serpents."

I've never actually ever seen this one,

- so that's pretty cool. - No?

- No. - Good start.

All right, so this is special,

because these are my favorite, the black-box ones, right?

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

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.

- Oh, absolutely. "Kirby"? - What's that?

- "Kirby." - Definitely.

Why is that-- why is that rare?

This is one--

Why is that the biggest score?

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

Yo, yo.

- Come on in, man. - Let me in.

- What's going on? - What's up?

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 couldn't afford to pass anything up.

You know, I'll throw that one in.

We'll go, 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.

Uh...

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 these.

- 10 bucks? - That's fine.

Separated at birth.

- What? Are we? - I don't think so.

Everyone used to say we were brothers in high school.

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

What?

Yeah. Well, I told you I had all...

Where the did you get this?

I told you I had all the Contra.

What were we just talking about in the car?

Hey, 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.

I've never even seen those.

Never even seen them, 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.

Let's just keep this momentum going.

NES superfans 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 into 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 2-D games that you have on the Nintendo,

and I don't think that that--

I think that play is timeless,

and it doesn't matter about the graphics.

In the NES era,

there was no... shame.

There's no embarrassment about their--

like, think about Mario, right?

Mario is a crazy thing.

Here's a plumber dude with a moustache

jumping on turtles and mushrooms.

Um...

that would never get green-lit.

If that was a new title today,

if 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 of the narrative, right,

but let you live that experience through play

and tell yourself your own story

through how you experienced that game.

And to me, that was a powerful thing.

And so we try to shy away

from all the zany, uninhibited, joyous things

that we did in the NES era,

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

Well, I didn't get much sleep.

Yeah, feels like 30-day Christmas Eve,

30 Christmas Eves in a row.

- That's right. - Um...

I'm excited. I can't wait to see Syd.

Yeah, you're good.

- There's poop. - Stop.

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 Brothers"

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, you know, 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--

you know, just recently someone was a real Pokémon fan,

and he was asking me about buying,

you know, one of my Pokémon 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, right?

I don't. I could probably find another one somewhere sometime.

Come on, Syd. Let's make a deal.

All right.

- Whew. Yeah. - Indeed.

All right, thanks, man.

Great. Cool. You need to go to the bank.

I do. I need to go to the bank, yeah.

He's gonna 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.

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.

What are we looking at right here, Nintendo stuff?

Can't remember...

- Yeah. - Okay?

Yeah.

Oh, I gotta get 'em all, so I'm looking to get

the best price in bulk that I can.

So what do you--

you usually have, like, a sign here. I can't remember.

Yeah.

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, there's 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

of 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. - So I'm glad we did it.

Wait till you see this stuff.

Wait till we record this stuff that we got in there.

- Whoo. - Okay, now this is a store

that I have had pegged. I know what he's got.

I know what his prices are, and then I find this.

- Okay? - Up until yesterday...

I've never seen it.

And I've never seen that before.

Again, this.

I think tomorrow's

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 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 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 "Dr. Mario" stuff. Ohh.

I just love it.

Any of the Konami games,

they really put a lot of effort into their music.

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

take anything from Zelda.

"Legend of Zelda" is like...

Each level would have its own melodic 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-- this music in 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 everyone knows that one.

- How's that go? - Like the...

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'll be humming "Mario"

in hundreds of years from now, you know?

It's that iconic.

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 had 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 was 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 items of note

are "Little Samson," "Bonk's Adventure,"

"Panic Restaurant," and "Stack-Up."

And here are the games Jay's already secured.

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 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 want to buy it from you guys.

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

Yeah.

I'm gonna take a chance

and try and negotiate with you guys.

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

- Okay. - And hopefully we'll meet

in the middle somewhere.

It's for the cause, brothers.

Okay, we're gonna help your budget.

For the cause.

I got it at an exceptional price,

and I'm not gonna tell you what I paid for it,

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.

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, you know, half as nice as everything so far.

* I was a stranger, and you are a stranger *

* And we were both stranger than most *

* And the ghost that pursued us would always elude us *

* And burn us until we were toast *

* It was fun being toast for a while *

* We'd smile whenever the poison would flow *

* Oh, drinking and dreaming... *

I think everybody 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.

You got nothing else? Ain't got nothing in the back?

- No hidden gems? - Unfortunately no.

No "Stadium Events"?

The first store, the guy was great,

willing to work with me, knew my quest,

knew what I needed to get out of there.

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-price games I wanted,

they weren't willing to budge a cent.

And their big excuse was 'cause,

you know, they don't make them anymore. 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.

It's hundreds too much, though, for that, so...

No?

Okay. Fair enough, man.

- Put these back. We're good. - Okay.

There was definitely some tension when he was 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 gonna 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.

All right, my friend. I think I've got a few.

I kind of just want to see where you're at...

- Okay. - For pricing.

That will definitely determine what I'm doing

with more of the common stuff.

Yeah, these here,

I can probably do 10 apiece on them.

And probably, like, buck apiece on these.

So what are we looking at then

for, like, common stuff?

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

Yeah, we could do common for you

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

Sports titles, probably give you for 50 cents, you know.

Okay, so that definitely changes everything.

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

- Okay. Yeah. - Thanks, dude. Appreciate it.

- How's that change things? - So now we're really gonna

have to move if time's a factor, 'cause there's a ton here.

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

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

- Yeah, so we got 78. - 78.

- 78 off the list, yeah. - So that brings us over 300...

- Yep. - In five days.

That's very good.

You know what? It's 12:42 on day six.

- Day six. - Turning into day seven.

And here we are in Pittsburgh talking to a couple people,

and then we have an opportunity

to talk about acquiring "Stadium Events."

Something worth addressing. 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, so...

Let's call him up, throw it on speakerphone

so we can hear what he says,

maybe get his story of how he got "Stadium Events."

Let's do that.

Hi. Is Josh there, please?

Yeah. This is him.

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

How are you, man?

What's up, dude? I'm good.

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."

Yeah.

So "Stadium Events" was produced by Bandai.

It was a track-and-field type game that used the Power Pad,

Bandai's own Power Pad.

Got released very briefly.

Nintendo said, "No,

we basically want that game as our own,"

rebranded it "World Class Track Meet,"

and bundled it with the Power Pad.

So "Stadium Events" is very rare,

because there wasn't many produced,

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

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

This one is the NTSC, mint in box,

for $77,000,

which is...

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.

It's really nice. There's no tears.

There's no cracks.

- Now this is-- - It's all original.

This is just the cart, right, the NTSC cart?

- Yeah. - There's no book.

There's no box obviously with it.

Yeah. Trust me,

- I wish I had all that, but... - 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?

No.

Come on, man. Listen. You gotta take--

Trust me, If I would have got it

for the 50 bucks,

I'd let you have it for $2,000.

All right.

Um...

You 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 a really good friend with Todd Rogers.

He has "Stadium Events."

Here's the kicker.

He wants quite a bit for it,

a tad more than what it's worth.

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.

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

- That's just it. - 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...

So do you get it where you still have funds left over

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.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, Josh. What's up, man?

Not much.

Um...

so I think we're gonna get Todd coming down the 29th?

The 31st of August.

Um...

are you okay to give him the cart then?

First-- yeah, I'll probably--

I'll see him before-- let's see here.

Gonna have to try to meet up somewhere,

because-- let's see.

Well, yeah, he's coming 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.

Yeah, that's exactly--

I'm not gonna make one penny off you.

Thanks, Josh. Talk to you soon, brother.

- Bye-bye. Thanks a lot, man. - Okay.

- You guys be safe. - Yep. Bye-bye.

How's it feel to...

What are you thinking?

Oh, I don't know, man. I'm like--

my voice is gone.

Um...

You gonna be able to sleep tonight?

Got a second wind from that?

Yeah.

I probably won't sleep tonight.

That was...

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.

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.

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...

- Right. - So already, I'm ahead.

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 Luthor-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 10:00 a.m. 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 have 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 your 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.

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

- You've got 30 days. - Yeah, but--

- He knew you were coming in... - Yeah. Yeah.

And he knew what you were gonna do,

and he still scooped it up.

That's not my personality, man.

But we talk a little 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 wanted,

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 "Jetsons" saga with J.D.

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 "Jetsons" 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 games left on J.D.'s game list,

and we just happened to find one.

And we were looking for games for me in 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.

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 J.D. 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.

J.D. 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 J.D. Lowe.

He's pure evil.

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.

- Uh-huh. - Um...

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

but he also said to sweeten the deal

that he has "Little Samson."

"Little Sampson" is the side-scrolling platformer

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?

Yeah, this is him.

Hey, Josh. It's Jay calling you back.

- How are you, man? - Oh, hey, man.

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

of the stuff you're--

yeah, 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 Samson."

Um...

what are you looking at for that cart?

I mean, like, you know, like, that one,

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

I would probably put around, you know, 650 or 700

and just wait for the right person.

"Little Samson," I have seen

actually a couple through my treks.

Um...

I've seen one pretty high, about eight,

which was way overpriced,

and I've seen one as low as 300,

so I'm looking at spending about 300, 300 to 400 bucks.

Yeah, that might be-- yeah.

Well, I mean, you have to understand, man,

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

especially with the budget I have, so...

- 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 route.

It's not in the budget, so...

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...

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?

Good. You all right? - How are you?

- Yeah, yeah. How you doing? - Oh, I'm doing all right.

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-- need to get that, I think.

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

I'm gonna quickly just look these up,

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

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've actually

not purchased anything. Up until now,

I've picked up at least something from each store.

But I think I have all these.

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--

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.

Gonna be a lot of organizing the collection.

I just want to make sure everything's accounted for.

Definitely want to start cleaning a lot of them,

'cause, ugh. Germophobe.

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 door is where is the classic gaming section.

Where do you have your Intellivision games,

your 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,

first thing that, you know--

the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"All right, let's go see this thing."

Of course, you know, you 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 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, you know, the correct item,

it's in perfect condition, you know, go ahead, and do it.

If I saw a "Stadium Events,"

I 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 it in my hands. It's just too expensive.

I just couldn't live with myself for--

my wife would probably kick me out of the house.

Depending on the funds.

Right now, I'm on top of the world.

Talk to me a year ago, eh, price meant everything,

because I didn't have any money.

Collecting takes a long time to get to the point

where you want to-- you know, have your collection

exactly where you want it to be.

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.

Where, "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-- what happened to this poor thing,

why it's in this condition.

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

I can't even get that off. I don't even know if it's blood.

I didn't want to touch it. Eww.

Any thoughts to flying anywhere?

No, not really.

Why's that?

Just have no interest in doing that.

Why?

Just suffering from anxiety,

as I do.

I mean, I've started to have,

over the last few years,

an anxiety being in cars.

For some reason, being--

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.

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--

um...

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,

you know, 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 want to 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 rush 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 in 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, you know,

that I-- 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.

Why is that?

Oh, stuff with work

and personal stuff.

Uh-huh.

Um...

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

I'm not too excited about it.

What's happened?

Got the guy's number.

Ah, now basically, I'm supposed to send the money.

Um...

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 going to 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 going to do with a 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 gonna let anything happen to it.

Trust me, man. I want this game."

What's going on?

We sent a bunch of messages back and forth today,

and we're kind of at a standstill here,

so what are you thinking?

Yeah, well,

the thing I'm worried about is...

like, on my side, what I was saying is,

I mean, I know it's real.

You know, 'cause, I mean,

the link that I sent you, on the eBay link,

I mean, you can see 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.

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.

I mean, well, yeah, I mean, I've bought, you know, three,

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

so, like, I mean, yeah,

this game has probably given me--

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

No fakes. I'm saying as far as, like--

yeah, I've never had a fake one,

like April Fools or any--

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

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.

Well...

I've never had another "Stadium Events."

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 move on from there.

I mean, yeah, if that's what you wanna do, man.

I mean, I was gonna say, you know,

you know, talking to you again about it or whatever,

I mean, you know...

Yeah, well...

Been talking for a few hours.

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.

Okay. I hear you, man.

Okay?

- Dude, it's-- - All right, then.

It's been a pleasure, man, honestly.

I wish you well.

Yeah, all right, man.

- Okay. Take care. - Gotcha.

Every single game is gonna have a story to it.

Um...

this is the game I want the most,

and it's not the story I want for it.

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.

For me and the majority of the ones that I talk to

or, you know, play with,

they're more challenging.

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, you know,

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

You know, you go out, you beat the game,

and there's really no replay value.

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.

When I found out I was in the "Guinness Book,"

I called everybody I knew.

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

I called my sister. I called all my friends,

and I was really pumped, man.

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 it-- the real test of a master

is their ability to learn

and to adapt to new play styles and new techniques.

I think that NWC represents

a sort of high watermark in competitive gaming,

the most people that have ever been in a contest,

the most competitors who have ever entered.

Everyone wanted a slice of NWC.

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.

And the NWC was something

conceived and executed in an epic scale.

Even pictures can't do it justice.

It was just so cool.

This followed the release of "The Wizard."

So there was already kind of a build-up

in 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 for the contest,

and there has never been anything

remotely similar to the scale ever attempted again.

'Cause it shouldn't be 23 years later

that there's still nothing like it.

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 day's acquisitions.

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.

You know, all these games I got here, just crazy.

Well, I'm gonna log in

the 20 extra we got from 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.

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.

Um...

but when are you ever gonna 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.

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, condition is critical,

and it's the design

that makes them memorable and sought-after.

Someone who has an understanding of box art

is illustrator Marc Ericksen.

Marc's responsible for the artwork

on games like Tengen's "Tetris,"

"Guerilla 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 what they wanted me to do.

The famous "Mega Man 2" incident

was about the only thing that 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 'em 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, you know, 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 realize there's this base of fans

who love this art, and it-- 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

and whatever else.

You just-- you plug it in.

Maybe the screen blinks, but--

you have to blow on the cartridge or whatever,

but it's just there's something that's, you know--

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 want to 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.

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 when I say this trip features a 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 are 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

I've ever seen. He's cool, too. He's like,

"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."

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. All right.

- 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.

- Ah, man. - I do have.

Holy-- look at that.

Nope, don't have that one.

Just feel like I just got kicked.

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.

Okay...

Expensive.

I didn't like that.

So, yeah, 50 bucks

for "Donkey Kong" and "Might & Magic."

I'm not too happy with that.

Well, 'cause they were there at this point.

I don't know how many more of these I wanna 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 want to do.

I don't know. I just felt like...

I'm 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.

What's up? Can I get your autograph?

How are you, man?

He's the man, you know, Mr. Nintendo.

- I'm excited. - Oh, I'm excited.

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 "Zaxxon," "Yar's Revenge,"

"Starmaster," "Star Voyager" "Skiing,"

I guess games on every one of these rows.

"Q bert," "Pitfall!," "Laser Blast," "Kangaroo,"

"E.T.," "Chopper Command,"

- That it? - And of course the favorite,

"Drag Strip," imported.

When Nintendo came out, man, they had--

I mean, their 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, really cool,

because there were a lot of open-minded people

that work 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."

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 video game store.

- Hello. - Hi.

- Oh, the air's on. - Got some there,

and they got this rack over here.

- Okay. - Take a look at this.

Hmm.

Yeah, there's a few here.

Which ones?

"Cool World,"

"Gargoyle's Quest."

So that one I need is 89.

That one I need is 49.

So offer 'em 50.

Just like that?

- "Will you take 50 bucks?" - Just like that.

What's the worst they can do, say no?

Okay, we got a huge wall 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 every day.

- Yeah. It's a lot of fun. - I mean, it's a blast.

I mean, it definitely beats the hub--

the droll of everyday boredom.

I mean, this is really cool.

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 allowed 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.

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.

He's-- 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.

Ready.

"Little Samson."

"Stadium Events," "Little Samson,"

"Bonk's Adventure."

- All right. - Nice and cool.

What we're looking at over here, regular Nintendo stuff.

- Mm-hmm. - Super Nintendo, 64,

all organized.

On the table behind us here...

are...

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

Nintendo, Super, 64.

So what's for sale here? What are we looking at?

Ah, 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 Zeldas, 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.

- Oh, the dinosaur one. - Yeah.

The Power Pad.

So this is for use with "Stadium Events,"

amongst other games.

Got that for dirt cheap.

Uh...

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.

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.

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 released games,

both licensed and unlicensed.

The prize pieces of 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,

little bit like yesterday.

I'm afraid, like, "Oh, I have everything,"

and then I'm gonna go in there, and he's gonna have everything,

but, "Oh, not for sale. Not for sale. Not for sale."

So I don't want to get my hopes up,

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

So I hear you're gonna show me around your collection

and you might have some stuff for sale here.

Yeah. The collection is in here.

Come on in.

Whoa.

Yeah, you got a few things there.

It's kind of the-- the rare stuff is in this display case.

You have two "Nintendo World Championships."

That's right.

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

No, I'm just kidding.

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

- Well... - So one's sealed, right?

Well, one's complete in the box.

- Okay. - It's out of the box.

So really, there's only two.

So these are all the carts

kind of separate from their boxes.

- Right. - On this side,

we have all the boxes, the inserts,

everything to go along with that, the manuals.

- Wow. - Makes sense.

I'm not gonna pull anything out.

I'm just gonna look through it right now.

Is he okay to pull stuff out that he needs?

Don't know if I wanna do that. I'm gonna look at it first...

- Whatever you want. - And then we'll see.

We'll go from there.

I just want to talk to you for a few minutes off camera...

- Okay. - 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."

Uh...

really, "Stadium Events,"

"Little Samson," or "Bonk's."

Those are really what I'm interested in.

At this point, because the difference of games

I need to complete is so small...

Uh-huh...

for me personally, I would rather get one of the big ones

instead of getting a lot of the smaller ones.

- Mm-hmm. - That's just me.

Right or wrong, that's how I want to do things, so...

Well, you know, the "Little Samson"

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?

Yeah.

Holy shit.

You say, "Bonk's Adventure"?

That one's in the box.

- Jeez. - You got it.

Just a reminder. "Little Samson" is number two

in terms of rarity and price

on the NES list for the retail games.

Jay's only other offer was through Josh Jones,

a deal that fell apart.

"Bonk's Adventure" is number three

in terms of rarity and price for Jay.

And dare I ask about the other one?

- Which other one? - "Stadium Events."

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... - Mm-hmm.

But it would have to go with its box.

I can't break it from its box.

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

Okay. So these two are for sale.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. I'm gonna go over here.

Do you want to hang on to these for now?

- Put 'em wherever you want. - Okay. Put 'em over here.

- Carry 'em around. - 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 Adventure."

So sure enough, he pulls out "Bonk."

Heart attack one.

I'm, like, shaking holding the cart.

And then he had "Little Samson." 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.

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 gonna 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,

so 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 5:14 p.m.

All right, this is it.

Day 30, the very last day, and I'm 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.

- Hey. - Hey, what's up, man?

Hey, how you doing?

Back again, one last time.

I hear you.

Okay, here we go.

"Barnstorming."

Oh, we're back again.

- What's up, man? - Third visit?

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

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

All right. 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.

Think we got "Bigfoot."

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

So I'm just reaching here now.

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 Starfighter."

Scored.

"Classic Concentration."

Fourth one down.

- The bottom? - Yeah.

One.

You guys got anything rare in for NES

or anything in the back?

Oh, I like to hear that. Are they all put out?

They are? Okay.

Okay.

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, "Well,

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.

Ah, I'm gonna miss it.

- One? - Yeah.

Ah, I feel like I'm gonna puke.

So the anxiety I was talking about...

What?

Everything is, like, hurting.

It's that same fear, you know--

I don't know if you guys have this, but when...

when you're opening presents

and people watch you open presents.

Do you get that?

I 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.

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, you know, two weeks later,

it's shipped to my door,

and all of a sudden, I have "Gun-Nac."

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'm gonna barf.

- Hello, my friend. - Jay.

- How are you, man? - How are you?

- Good. Good to see you. - It's good to see you, too.

This is last of the games, right?

678, this is it, yeah.

This is last one. 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-- it's been long, man.

This is pretty emotional, so...

Well, take 'em, and look at 'em.

See what you think.

I'm shaking. Oh, my God.

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. - 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-- you'll enjoy it,

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

This is a great finale to that quest.

I don't even know what to say, dude.

- Like, thank you. - You're welcome.

Glad I could help you out.

Oh, my God.

I think I'm gonna pass out,

seriously.

I was a little surprised

how nerve-wracked he seemed to be.

You know, 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, "Never mind. I can't do this,"

and then, you know, a whole trip,

all the way down here is for nothing.

So I've been hearing that the boxes

are pretty, pretty rare as well.

The box is the hard-- hardest thing to find.

Yeah. Is there a number on that?

Do you know, like, how many there is or...?

- It's under 10. - Is it?

You know, I can account for maybe six.

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

you know, he was shaking a little bit,

holding something, I think, that maybe he thought

he would never hold or-- you know, and to know

that that was going to be his own.

I thought that was really exciting.

You know, 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-- 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-- ahem-- ridiculous,

because we're talking about Nintendo games.

But really, if you want it bad enough,

you'll-- you'll get it.

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.

It's something I think about a lot, okay,

and it'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, you know, jump in a van with these guys,

and we're gonna tour around, and I'm gonna 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,

and 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.

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 helped 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 boxed copy of "Stadium Events" in Canada,

no one can take that away from him.

I dared Jay, and now I'm daring you.

Chase your dreams, and do the impossible.

Go on the quest of a lifetime,

because the adventures that await you are priceless.

So what do you want to do next summer?

* A long time has passed

* And a lot has changed

* Never will you forget these days *

* Some days we sit alone, we sing a song *

* At first, you were weak *

* But then you became strong *

* Remember the smiles, remember the days *

* Remember the nights where you stayed up late *

* Remember the times when we went so far *

* Remember the tunes

* Baby, drive my car

* Remember the hours

* Remember when we played

* Remember Cleveland and the Hall of Fame *

* Remember the nights when you crawled around *

* Remember the feeling when you make that sound *

* The sound, oh, yeah

* The feeling when you make that sound... *

You know what the Konami code is?

Of course. Who doesn't, man?

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

Up, up, down, down, left, right,

left, right, B, A, select, start.

I did the two-player version.

Up, up, down, down, left, right,

left, right, B, A, select, start.

Up, up, down, down,

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.

Nintendo gave us these all, 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, there 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 include 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."

Ah, 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 it came with, "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, and 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,

you know, just knowing it was in the garage in a box

and you want to play it,

but you have to wait till Christmas,

that's the memory I have about the NES.

The NES is what stood 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, and the goals were achievable.

I had control.

Well, the first day I had my NES,

I was sitting there in my bathrobe.

My dad was in his bathrobe, which, you know--

we actually have a photograph,

and I'm sitting on the end of my bed,

and my dad's sitting there, shooting at "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, and really it has--

really sometimes it has nothing to do with the games, you know?

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 could 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 some kid chuckled from the side.

"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,

you know, some of the-- 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.