http://www.gamesetwatch.com/thrift.jpg You guys probably read Chris Kohler's Game|Life blog over at Wired News (newly acquired by Wired Magazine ubercompany Conde Nast, incidentally, after a long period of website/printmag separation, so the power of Wired is back in one company's hands, muhahaha), so you'll know about his latest San Francisco thrift store escapades.

As for 'the art of thrifting', chez Kohler, he helpfully explains: "Technically it's not as if I am just ridiculously lucky or anything. It's kind of down to two factors: 1) I do not, technically speaking, have a job; 2) I know what is and is not valuable."

His haul? "There aren't that many Sega Master System games that are worth a lot of cash -- even the sought-after Phantasy Star isn't worth more than $40 or so -- but Golvellius: Valley of Doom is in the upper tier. Apparently it's a quirky but fun Zelda clone, with a bug that resets the game if you buy a certain weapon. Hot!"

What's more: "Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 is much harder to track down than Space Squadron or whatever it's called, I can't be arsed to scroll up and look, but it sucks. Herzog Zwei, meanwhile, not only does not suck but is the rarest game in this pile. Whoo." C'mon, Chris, Herzog Zwei is the FATHER OF SOMETHING OR OTHER. That must count for something!

[Anyhow, Kohler's post was also useful because the comments alerted me to the fact that Dan Amrich, aka Dan Elektro for those GamePro fans (and nowadays over at Future U.S.), has a new weblog up, in which he's apparently considering making a random quote generator for classic things said by Andy Eddy's wife. This, folks, is what happens when you're a game journalist for too long, and I, for one, like it a lot. Also, he has two Um Jammer Lammy guitars, and I'm still jealous.]