Game Collecting

[OverclockN']

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

N64 prices are still pretty reasonable, so its good to focus on that platform right now.

This year is the console's 20th anniversary so I was wondering if it would spike prices but so far not really. I think most people still just want NES/SNES for the most part. Maybe in another 5-10 years when people who started with the N64 are well into their 30's and want to rebuy then the prices will move.

Maybe the N64 was just not a very popular console overall for various reasons, and its affected its collectibility. Sometimes it has an opposite effect I guess.

I just don't think it's old enough yet, and that you're right. As the people who grew up with those systems get older, they'll want to collect them as well. I started out on NES, but it wasn't until N64 hit that I was old enough to have some kind of job and my own income to get games myself. Otherwise, almost everything prior to that on NES and SNES was a rental.

[SubCog]

Lots of ps1 games are super expensive now, so I don't think it's about the time that's passed. I think for the most part, the best n64 games sold in high volumes, so mostly only to bad games are rare.

[Meteor_of_War]

Well the PS1 also had a massive games library compared to the N64-- 2413 to 388. So its much more likely for the PS1 library to have more rare games.

On the other hand, the N64 console did not sell well relative to the Playstation, or Nintendo's previous systems. I think there are several factors as to why the N64 is not that popular. But the main one for me is the nostalgia factor is just not there for most collectors (yet) like it is for the NES/SNES. Also, I think its where Nintendo started going off on their weird WTF? direction with their decision making.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by Meteor_of_War

Well the PS1 also had a massive games library compared to the N64-- 2413 to 388. So its much more likely for the PS1 library to have more rare games.

On the other hand, the N64 console did not sell well relative to the Playstation, or Nintendo's previous systems. I think there are several factors as to why the N64 is not that popular. But the main one for me is the nostalgia factor is just not there for most collectors (yet) like it is for the NES/SNES. Also, I think its where Nintendo started going off on their weird WTF? direction with their decision making.

And also I think the PS1/Saturn/N64 generation is a bit awkward in general. I think the SNES/Genesis era was about perfecting 2d games, and so we have a bunch of these near-perfect masterpieces from that era: Super Metroid, Sonic, etc. Whereas the 32-64 bit era was alot of exploring what a 3d game might be, on hardware that was often not capable of delivering on that vision.

The SNES/Genesis era represents the very best of what studios were trying to do for the previous 10 years... while the N64 represents the worst of what was coming in the next 10 years.

Ironically, I think it's less of an issue on PS1 because it was less advanced... the games were more of an extension of the previous generation, with lots of RPGs, etc. But the n64 library is almost all 3d action and platform games, and the genres was still in its infancy.

I love the n64, btw. But I have to admit that beyond the nostalgia factor, most of the library is pretty unplayable today.

[Meteor_of_War]

Agree with everything you said, spot on.

Also yes, the N64 would have done so much better if it just had a good selection of RPGs and shmups. Those two genres are sorely missing on the platform.

[OverclockN']

Picked up some games. Told myself I'd only spend so much, so done until next month. Ended up straying from N64. All EBay auctions and best offers. Still trying to pick up Blast Corps and Killer Instinct for N64, but have either lost every auction or been refused on offers. I'll find a deal eventually.

N64
Wave Race 64
1080 Snowboarding
Body Harvest

NES
Bubble Bobble
Double Dragon
Double Dragon II: The Revenge

[Meteor_of_War]

I actually have duplicate copies of Double Dragon 1 & III up for sale on Ebay at the moment. Awesome games that bring back great memories, even if the NES versions are gimped arcade ports.

Lately I have been picking up games here and there. My local Salvation Army has been getting a lot of good stuff lately. Lots of NES and Genesis, to go along with the plethora of crap PS3/X360 sports titles they always have in stock. Then as usual I also grab the odd good deal off Ebay, usually has to be at least $4 lower than current market value. Recent pickups:

NES: Gun.Smoke, Tetris 2, Ninja Gaiden 1, Jackal, TMNT II, Kid Icarus, 1942, 1943, Guardian Legend, Kung Fu

SNES: Alien 3

N64: Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth, Space Invaders

Genesis: Thunder Force III

PS2: Contra Shattered Soldier

BUT, just this weekend I went to reclaim whatever I left in my parents house when I moved and hit the jackpot:



My old Sega stuff! (and a few lost SNES games) I thought I had lost all this when I moved out back in 2003 but apparently I just forgot to take the box LOL. Now I'm tempted to by Sega Saturn games but they are god damn expensive.

[OverclockN']

Nice! What kind of prices are you seeing at the Salvation Army? I haven't checked out any local places whatsoever. Probably should.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

Nice! What kind of prices are you seeing at the Salvation Army? I haven't checked out any local places whatsoever. Probably should.

If you can find anything in a thrift store like SA or Goodwill, the prices are usually going to be pretty damn good. The people who run my local store don't seem to know anything about the current value of games, and usually just price them the same no matter what they are. So I generally see $4.99 for NES carts regardless if its a rare valuable game or just some common. I got a copy of Contra for $4.99 just a few weeks ago there, and that game sells regularly for about $40 online. Just imagine if some idiot unwittingly donates a Little Samson or god forbid a Stadium Events.

Lately though I have been noticing they are sometimes pricing their games differently so I'm not sure if they are starting to check Ebay prices before pricing them now, or maybe there's different employees doing the pricing. Either way you're still going to get a good deal, and especially if they let you haggle the price down a little for example if say you offer to buy everything they have (which I usually do).

Also should mention, a lot of people get frustrated with thrift stores in their area and claim they never have anything. The thing is, thrift store inventory is constantly changing. CONSTANTLY. The only way you can score nice things is if you pop in there to check out what they have every single day. Luckily the SA is right on my way home so its easy for me to stop in daily. Good luck!

[OverclockN']

Good points. I looked up a few places in my area and will check them out this weekend. What were you looking to get for Double Dragon 3? It's on my list for next month. Feel free to PM me if you like.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

What were you looking to get for Double Dragon 3? It's on my list for next month. Feel free to PM me if you like.

Well I've got it listed on ebay and it's already been bid on. Sorry 'bout that.

It's a fairly common game though so you should be able to find it easily and its only going for around $12 or so right now.

[Higgy10]

sometimes ratty old pc and video game stores in small towns are gold mines.

http://www.ramct.com/video_games.php

where i used to live, that guy had(and still has) tons of retro crap

[Meteor_of_War]

Since I found my old Sega Saturn I am seriously tempted to start getting into the Japanese imports for this console. So many more great games were released for it over there that never made it to the states. But some of them, and of course in my beloved shmup genre, are really expensive. We're talking upwards of $500 for some of the more sought after titles. Damn, if I only started collecting 10 years ago.

[OverclockN']

Just got back from a business trip and hit a few Goodwill and thrift stores on the way home. Not a single one of them had even 1 video game of any type whatsoever on a shelf. Totally struck out.

...but I did find a fair deal on ebay for Marble Madness for NES and have that on the way.

[Meteor_of_War]

It might be worthwhile to ask an employee or better yet the manager in those thrift stores about how often they get video game donations if at all. Make sure to specifically mention "old Nintendo" as regular people don't always understand exactly what you mean.

I go in my local store so often now I'm actually on a first name basis with some of the employees, and was able to find out they usually put new items out on the shelves everyday around noon. Very useful bit of info, but unfortunately I don't usually get there until around 6pm daily. I have a sneaking suspicion there's resellers that stalk that store everyday and pick through all the stuff before me to get whatever's good. They had a Sega Genesis model 2 in the box the other day but the box was in poor condition and didn't think it was something I really needed so I left it. It was gone the next day.

As for Marble Madness its actually a game on my want list. I can't remember ever playing it. Does it play well with the standard controller? I seem to remember it using a trackball controller in the arcade.

[lazyx]

I had some rare Sega Saturn games I wish I never sold.

Sold Panzer Dragoon Saga for $150 nearly 10+ years ago and now it's worth around $600-$800.

Also had Bunch of Japanese fighters for it to Xmen vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Street fighter, Vampire Savior.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by lazyx

I had some rare Sega Saturn games I wish I never sold.

Sold Panzer Dragoon Saga for $150 nearly 10+ years ago and now it's worth around $600-$800.

Also had Bunch of Japanese fighters for it to Xmen vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Street fighter, Vampire Savior.

Oh man ouch that hurts. Sorry to hear it.

We all have regrets though. I sold off a bunch of Sega CD and Genesis games that I wish I held onto.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is a biggie though. My guess as to why it's so expensive aside from its rarity is because the Japanese version is impossible to play since it's an RPG. Other JP imports for games like shooters and fighting games can still be played without the English text. Been trying lately to get some good deals on imports like Shienryu, Strikers 1945, and Radiant Silvergun. There's others i want too but damn they are expensive, like Battle Garegga. Wish i started picking these games up years ago.

[OverclockN']

As for Marble Madness its actually a game on my want list. I can't remember ever playing it. Does it play well with the standard controller? I seem to remember it using a trackball controller in the arcade.

I don't remember it being too much of a problem back in the day, but I don't know about how it feels going back to it now. I should have it tomorrow or early next week.

[OverclockN']

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

I don't remember it being too much of a problem back in the day, but I don't know about how it feels going back to it now. I should have it tomorrow or early next week.

Marble Madness was delivered today. Game controls great! Surprisingly tight controls and very responsive. I was actually pretty impressed how delicately I could maneuver the ball around the obstacles. Fun game.

[Meteor_of_War]

Cool. I definitely want to get that game at some point soon. I bet the tight controls are also due to the awesome d pad of the NES controller.

On another note, I got around to cleaning up those original red letter 3 button Genesis controllers and was all pumped to use them in Thunder Force III but turns out the d pads are all worn out. Problems like when I press up the ship flies up and to the right, diagonally. After reading it seems to be a common issue and unfixable. Thankfully I still have a good 6 button Genesis controller with the updated improved d pad. I really wanted the nostalgia of using the original 3 button ones though.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

Marble Madness was delivered today. Game controls great! Surprisingly tight controls and very responsive. I was actually pretty impressed how delicately I could maneuver the ball around the obstacles. Fun game.

I still need to get rc pro am.

[Meteor_of_War]

Woo, got my Action Replay Plus card and my first Japanese import game Baku Baku Animal in the mail yesterday. Love it!

Got a couple more of the cheaper imports coming this week, Biohazard and Layer Section. Next month though I want to try to pick up one of the more expensive shooters, like Shienryu or Radiant Silvergun. They are pricey, but I think I might be able to squeeze one a month into the budget if I'm not buying any other games. Would love to have a nice collection of games for the Sega Saturn.

Just look at this masterpiece of a game:

[OverclockN']

Wow, that looks fantastic.

I didn't know what the Action Replay card was and had to look it up. Looks like a must buy for any collector. Hell, I've never played a single game on the Saturn.


Edit: Just took a look on eBay, and holy crap Saturn games are expensive!!

[SubCog]

I only own a few legit games for my saturn. I modded it some time ago and so I have a huge pile of burned games. Most saturn games are novelties anyway, just good for 15 minutes but you'd never play through the whole game.

I own legit copies of Nights, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Bug. There's maybe a half-dozen more games that I would like to pick up someday.

[Meteor_of_War]

Yes, unfortunately some Saturn games are incredibly rare and thus expensive. You can get import versions of certain games for cheaper though. But yes, a lot of them are kind of crap games. It was early on in the 3d polygon type revolution and a lot of the games were pretty rough. It did have some great RPGs from Working Design though and the shmups are amazing. Its truly the go to platform if you love that genre, which I do.

I really love the Saturn. Its so polished and well designed, it feels like a true big boy gaming machine. Sadly it could not compete with the N64 and Playstation at the time, and so many great titles for it never made it out of Japan. Luckily the Action Replay card exists and allows you to bypass the region check and play imports. So many great games to be had from Japan.

I decided today to buy a copy of Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 which has both Thunder Force II and III, and I will sell off my Genesis Thunder Force III to recoup the cost. They are about the same value, and the Saturn versions are straight ports of the Genesis/MD versions and I get two games for one. No brainer.

[lazyx]

One thing Saturn did better than PlayStation\N64 was fighting games. It's 2d fighters where near arcade perfect ports, wheres PlayStation ports where almost unplayable. Saturn always had the upper hand when it came to 2d games.

Other gems where Dragonforce, Guardian heroes.

[Meteor_of_War]

Yeah and fighting games are another genre that you don't need to understand Japanese to play the imports.

[Meteor_of_War]

After a couple weeks of pondering I think I'm changing my mind on the Sega Saturn game collecting idea. The idea of Japanese imports is a good alternative to offset cost, but only when you are trying to get cheaper import versions of the more expensive U.S. releases.

Unfortunately for me, I am mainly interested in a lot of the games that were never released in the U.S. at all and of course they are the rare and sought after ones. Notably the shoot 'em up genre and almost all of them are really, really expensive. I'm talking starting at $100 and upwards from there. I thought well OK, I think if I put all my other spending on hold I can maybe afford one a month but honestly I am just finding it too hard a pill to swallow even if I have the money. To top it off, I figured out how to get Saturn emulation working well on my PC. I think I will just do that until I come across really good deals, or the market comes down to Earth. I feel no shame in emulating since the prices for the real thing are so damn high. **** 'em.

In the meantime I may resume my NES/SNES collecting, with some Genesis and Sega CD stuff on the side when I can. Focusing now on seeking out really cheap deals and buying up lots to get games I want and sell off the duplicates to recoup the cost. It will be tough next few months due to the inflated holiday prices and lack of flea markets and yard sales though.

[Silent-Runner]

still have around 100 games for ps1, ps2 and ps3 sitting here. Most of them are original, some of them seem to be very rare imports (jp). If i find the time i'll write up what i've got and look em up on ebay or something similar. Especially the import games are in absolute mint condition, mostly even with all the gimmicks they've put into the boxes back then.

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally Posted by Silent-Runner

still have around 100 games for ps1, ps2 and ps3 sitting here. Most of them are original, some of them seem to be very rare imports (jp). If i find the time i'll write up what i've got and look em up on ebay or something similar. Especially the import games are in absolute mint condition, mostly even with all the gimmicks they've put into the boxes back then.

Price Charting is a nice concise way of seeing current Ebay pricing. Although I don't believe it shows data for imports. For that you'll have to just refer to Ebay sold listings.