I’ve been a fan of Rob McCallum’s documentary filmmaking after pledging to his 2017 Kickstarter documentary “Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” of which, my name is in the credits of the film… due to me paying for it to be there.
I had an initially poor experience with that particular Kickstarter project initially, due to delivery issues and COVID-19 affecting access to the supply of stock, meaning I didn’t receive my stuff until long after it became free to watch online. However, when Rob found out I was having trouble receiving my pledge, he went well above and beyond, sending me a bunch of free stuff, including a real film cell from the Masters of the Universe cartoon series by Filmation. That really won me over and got me to back his N64 Quest documentary on Kickstarter as well as his upcoming Faking Filmation documentary (also about Masters of the Universe).
What is the N64 Quest Documentary?
Funded via Kickstarter, “N64 Quest” is a 13-episode documentary series directed by Rob McCallum, featuring video game collector Jay Bartlett. A decade after their original “Nintendo Quest” where the pair travelled from game store to game store attempting to collect every official North American game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (all 678 of them). I’ve not actually seen that, but will have to check it out, it is currently free to watch on Plex.
N64 Quest is a similar concept, with this series following Jay’s ambitious mission to collect all 296 North American Nintendo 64 games within a 14-day timeframe, operating under a budget of $20,000 CAD. What makes this documentary fun and interesting is that Jay must undertake this challenge without resorting to any online purchases.
As a Nintendo 64 collector myself (in the PAL region of Australia, which has a slightly different list of available games) I found this very reminiscent of my own university days when I set out to collect most of the Australian N64 library (I don’t care for sports or most racing games, so I never went for 100% but I got everything I wanted, which is still over 200 games.
I managed to collect most of Australia’s rarest games back then with only getting a few of them online (including multiple copies of Starcraft 64 and Snowboard Kids 2, very rare games) back then at a great price. Nowadays the value of N64 games has shot up massively now that there’s a booming retro market. But enough about me…
The series not only captures the excitement and challenges of physical game collecting but also serves a philanthropic purpose: Jay plans to auction the complete collection, donating all proceeds to the Alzheimer’s Society in honour of his late mother. The Kickstarter campaign for “N64 Quest” launched on August 22, 2024, offering supporters various rewards, including physical copies of the series on DVD and Blu-Ray and exclusive memorabilia.
I backed the 3-Disc Blu-Ray + Name in End Credits, which includes a bonus disc of extra material. When watching the series, I’ve never actually noticed my name, but it might be in there. I didn’t respond to the survey in time but they said they’d use our Kickstarter usernames if we didn’t respond in time, luckily that’s my real name.
I went specifically looking for my name and yep! I was credited correctly. Keith Nallawalla in the top right. Thanks!
What Happens in N64 Quest?
In each episode, Jay and the team go from store to store trying to buy as many different N64 games as possible for the best price possible. This means attempting to buy cart-only copies of each game. Some stores are more willing to break up a set to sell for a cheaper price. This is fair enough, as with retro games, you never know when you’re going to get another copy in.
Seeing all the cool video game stores and some of the other non-N64 items they have for sale is a lot of fun. The US and Canada sure have a lot more options for these kinds of stores than we have left here in Australia. Watching Jay and Rob go to these stores felt like my ideal road trip and I found them to be very endearing characters.
The one thing that seemed strange to me is that there seemed to be a lot of bartering on whether or not they had to pay tax on the sales, with different stores having different responses on the topic. To me as an Australian, we have GST baked into the price of everything, so that was something unusual to see shops doing. Guessing that’s a cash job then?
I got a bit confused towards the end, but I won’t say why without giving away spoilers, but it is definitely a documentary worth checking out for any Nintendo or retro gaming fan. I’m glad I supported this Kickstarter project and look forward to Rob’s future projects.
