Lists of Gaming Minutiae

video games
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I love to compile every single item I can find in a category, I find the research and the checking off and the excitement of “woah a new one!!” every once in a while to be enthralling. So I spend large quantities of time digging through eBay and Mercari collecting photos and throwing them in google docs and then very occasionally, wrap them up nicely and put them online. The first one I did this for was every single Nintendo Wii U ‘U’ Box Design, which you can see the full thing at

(Should I copy all the photos and text over here? Would people want that, or is just leaving a link good enough? Don’t want to swamp up the servers or anything but I also understand wanting to stay on the site you’re on)

I know we also have the lovely Moai in video games 🗿 :D

Does anyone else like to compile information about niche gaming topics? If so, I’d love to see!

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Linking is totally good enough! you don’t have to redo the work. This is how it was in the olden days of the internet, so shall it be again!!!

Anyway this is really neat and I certainly would not have expected there to be so many wii u boxes.

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“I did not expect there to be so many x” is exactly what I say about every single list I’ve ever put together

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In sharing The Video Game Soda Machine Project, I have learned that it has been inactive for years :(

Something that sounds interesting to me is a MacGuffin database. Like, how many magic crystals, instruments, badges etc. do you need to collect to reach the end of a game? Intuitively, I think common numbers are 3,4,7,8. But is that actually true? How much has this changed over time? What series has the highest average number?

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I love that one! I actually found a new one and tried to @ him on twitter but no dice, alas. At least as it is, it is magnificent!!

MacGuffin database would be interesting! I smell spreadsheets and charts >:D

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I basically made a whole (infrequently updated) website that’s mostly about things like this.

So far I’ve got

  • Forklifts
  • Unlicensed in-game appearences of Super Mario
  • Cats (this one is not a completionist thing but just a bunch of ones I liked)
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Heck yeah a kindred spirit!! I knew I’d find more :D
I can’t wait to look through these, this is awesome! Can I ask what sparked each of your lists? And are you working on any currently?

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I’ve kinda just always taken screenshots of forklifts, until I eventually realized there’s a surprising number of games with forklifts in them.
The Super Mario Moonlighting one came out of the idea of how many different jobs he’s had in all kinds of genres (especially in the old times) but since it can be kinda trite to just list a bunch of Nintendo games I went for the illegitimate ones instead.
Cats in part because I like cats and in part because I figured maybe it could help me get a little attention for the site (very limited success).

I’ve always got a bunch I’m building on-again off-again, maybe the one’s that’s most advanced right now is a list of game covers/ads with plastic arts elements (clay figures, paper dolls, etc.)

I also once tried to make a genealogy of puzzle game concepts until it became too big to manage on a google slide. Maybe I’ll try to reboot that in some other form some day Puzzle Game Family Tree - Google Slides

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Thank you for your patience! I wanted to read all your lists first so I’d understand better your responses :)

Regarding the forklifts - I loved that list! I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a forklift in a game though I tend to play Nintendo stuff and I don’t think they have (m)any? But I am delighted to inform you that there is a DRIVEABLE forklift (as DLC, might be delisted at this point) in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing!!

Witness the glory of that, wow!

The Super Mario Moonlighting was also really cool, my far my favourite is the Battle Mania Daiginjō one, Mario as a shmup enemy what a concept

“kinda trite to list a bunch of Nintendo games” Well I guess I have egg on my face cuz my next list I did was

which is … a big ol list of Nintendo games xD I really loved putting it together but I understand there is a pretty big Nintendo bias online and some people get tired of it, so that’s fair. I hope everyone here finds it interesting anyways if only for the gorgeous hanafuda art!

I liked the cats list too, and how you had something to say about every one, and then also how each one was ranked 5/5 stars xD For me, I love lists of video games because it’s almost like rapidly playing each one as I recall either playing it or what I do know about a game I haven’t played, like a flipbook but for happy memories? (Does that make sense? haha) And I definitely got that from this cat list :D

I would love to see any more lists you ever publish, is there a way to get notified of site updates or anything?

I also have dozens of lists in the works that I need to get around to finishing up… The plastic arts elements one sounds cool! I really love how video games can have such diverse art styles like that.

The puzzle game family tree one reminds me of this brainstorming website they used to make us use in middle school Bubbl.us - Create Mind Maps | Collaborate and Present Ideas which I have not thought about once since then XD I love seeing all the lines coming out of Tetris

Thanks again for sharing your work ^^ Good luck with whatever you’re working on currently!

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Oh, sorry if that remark came off as disparaging! I didn’t mean to say that there can’t be any interesting things to say about Nintendo games, and the Hanafuda list is really neat and genuinely interesting, both because of the company’s history and because Hanafuda is certainly not something most people in the West will always have on their radar while playing video games.

It’s just, like, saying “Mario was a Doctor in Dr. Mario” isn’t really an angle that adds much to any conversation.

Thanks for all the kind words about my lists! I don’t have any built-in feed on the site, but I just saw you followed me on Ko-fi (also many thanks for the tip!) - I cross-post there every time I’ve got something new. Also on Bluesky (don’t really want to post on X anymore), but I guess it’s easier to miss things there.

Oh, and also I’ve seen Ryu’s forklift in Sonic & Sega All-Stars in a trailer back when it was announced, but had forgotten all about it, thanks! I have the game in my Steam library, but I gotta check if it includes the DLC vehicles…

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It’s all good, I read it as cheeky not disparaging. I see what you mean though, thanks for explaining!

I will keep my eyes peeled on ko-fi then :) Can’t wait to see what you do next ^^

For me I’m hoping to get a follow-up to the GameCube Jewels post done, it’s about a UK magazine called CUBE that included a “fascia” which is basically a gamecube jewel that comes apart so you can insert whatever image you want, and they included a few in their magazines for cutting out for a while there. Pretty cool stuff that you never see talked about!

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Hey what do you know, talking about it made me want to go wrap it up so I did : ) thanks for the motivation ^^

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phylaxis over on the What’s That Game Paratext thread sparked my interest in some WarioWare stickers which made me think about other cool game box stuff…so I spent the weekend compiling some photos of parts of boxes that you hardly ever see! I hope everyone enjoys :)

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I actually got this done (well, the first half of it anyway): Sam Derboo's Odditorium - Arts and Crafts and Games

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HECK YEAHHHHHHHHH!!! WOO :D You did it!!! Congrats :D
I can’t wait to get home and dig in!!
Thank you so much for all your hard work and for sharing it with me, I am honored ^^

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this is awesome!

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What a fun read! Thank you so much for putting it together.

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Was definitely my favourite, I love all the little critter dudes!!

I’m curious what your research process is like? To me it feels like finding ads would be way harder than game boxes, but maybe you have some techniques!

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Nothing particularly clever, tbh. Mostly just looking at a lot of things over multiple years and saving everything that looks interesting. I noticed there seemed to be a little trend with Japanese computer game ads around 1986, so I went through all the available issues of LOGiN with a comb (Japanese magazines make this a bit easier by gathering most of the ads in one block). I never got that secret torrent of Famitsu scans so I might have a few gaps for Famicom stuff, but the handful of Japanese sites that collect old ads cover a decent amount.

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Have you tried talking to Dean over at The Video Game Library? He mass saves game magazine scans and was able to send me some that had since been delisted. Couldn’t hurt, and you can even tell him I sent you if you want.

Thanks for sharing how you did it! I really love to hear that part ^^

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