I don’t buy into the whole Valentine’s Day thing and this year I tried to persuade Danielle from feeling pressured into giving into the flowers, candy, and dinner theme. So we opted to go to a flea market and peruse around. I love going to flea markets because every so often you will find a nice little game store there that’s moderately priced. Although, the past couple of places we went to, we hadn’t been so lucky. I remember this one guy trying to sell me Nintendo games at $20.00 a cartridge. Um, I don’t think so.

This time, however, we were much luckier. We have been fighting off the temptation of buying a PS2. I’ve wanted so badly to get my hands on a nice Dreamcast. And yesterday, we got incredibly lucky.

We found a nice little booth at the flea market that had a nice array of used consoles and games. We browsed through the NES games, that’s were priced between $3.99 and $9.99, I can handle that. We found a copy of M.U.S.C.L.E, and had to grab it regardless of the price. Out of curiosity I asked the guy how much he was selling his Dreamcasts for. He said, “Thirty-five dollars”. I said, “WHAT?! Does it work?!” He responded with, “Of course. But you know if it doesn’t, bring it back and I’ll give you your money back.”

We caved. We bought it. We also nabbed a couple of games and were on our way. We decided on the way home that we’d visit a couple of our favorite pawn shops and see if we can find some more games and accessories.

By the time we finally made it home, we had spent just under $70.00 and got a Dreamcast, 4 games, keyboard, web browser, and two memory cards.

So, I was the first to check it out, loaded Jet Grind Radio and indulged for a little. Then I let Danielle have her turn and what happens?

The Dreamcast stops working.

Okay, so I try to maintain my composure, but I’m pretty pissed. So I start fiddling around with the little guy, turns out it’s not spinning discs.

Argh.

It was getting late and I was a bit too tired to toy around with the DC so I put the project off for the morning.

After a cup of espresso, I decide to give it whirl and tinker with calibrating the laser. I take it apart, adjust the calibration device a bit and after a couple of tries, she’s fully revived and now I’m off to enjoy ye old Dreamcast.