Jade Rambles: Most Expensive Retro Games

[JadePharaoh]

With the advent of Let's Plays and online retro game shows like the Angry Video Game Nerd, a booming second-hand market has emerged for older video games. What might have sold for just a few bucks in a pawn shop is now a highly-sought-after collector's item worth many times what it was when it was brand new! There are a multitude of reasons for this. 1) The game is legit rare and was only produced in very limited quantities (many NES games near the end of the console's lifespan were like this, since focus had now shifted to the SNES). 2) The game flew under the gaming public's radar on its release, only for demand to surge after the game was out of print once people realized how great it was (Megaman 1, Little Samson, EarthBound). 3) The game is still extremely highly regarded to this day and demand for it never really slowed down (Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, just about any Pokemon game). Or, 4) Any combination of the above. Needless to say, this has made it difficult for any Johnny-come-latelys to the retro scene to fill out a good collections. Granted, many modern consoles have made it easier by offering digital downloads of much of their back catalogue for a more reasonable price, but there's something to be said about having a physical cartridge. The market for reproduction carts has expanded as well, which can make things a bit more complicated. It's alright when they do repros of games that never got an official international release (I have several of those myself), but less scrupulous ones will do convincing repros of rare, preexisting games and try selling them off as the genuine article. That is no doubt frustrating if you're a serious collector of old games.


Anyways, I thought I'd compile a list of several of the most expensive retro games I could find. The list you see here will start with the NES, but I'll add games for other consoles later. First, a few ground rules how I want to do these lists:
- I will only list the prices of North American carts; I won't include Japanese or European imports as that can muddle things up a bit (although as I've pointed out in the past, I've found a lot of games cheaper to import than to track down the NA cart)
- I will only list official releases, licensed by Nintendo. So I won't be listing games like the infamous Action 52, the numerous Wisdom Tree/Color Dreams games, the black Tengen carts, or Nintendo World Championships 1990 (as that was a prize and not a commercially-released game).
- I am using Amazon to base my list off of, and I'm looking at the "used and new" price. The first price they sometimes list is for a new, sealed copy, which will obviously be worth a helluva lot more. The prices I'm looking at are the ones that are still worth ridiculous sums of money second-hand.
- I'm going from the most expensive game I see to the usual $60 mark that a new game is typically sold for today.



Stadium Events ($5,600)



Panic Restaurant ($598)



Bonk's Adventure ($540)



Little Samson (I didn't even see a copy listed, but when it is, it's usually $500+)



The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak ($500)



Bubble Bobble 2 ($350)



Dragon Fighter ($300)



Cowboy Kid ($275)



Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2 ($250)



Mighty Final Fight ($200)



Fire n' Ice ($200)



DuckTales 2 ($186)



The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper ($178)



TMNT: Tournament Fighters ($163)



Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters ($150)



Wayne's World  ($145)



Stack-Up ($130)



[b]Bucky O'Hare ($120)
[/b]


Die Hard ($120)



Gargoyle's Quest 2 ($120)



Contra Force ($119)



Metal Storm ($115)



Nobunaga's Ambition 2 ($108)



Megaman 5 ($105)



Bomberman 2 ($102)



North & South ($100)



Swamp Thing ($100)



Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 ($96)



Gemfire ($94)



Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar ($90)



Casino Kid 2 ($90)



Felix the Cat ($90)



Alfred Chicken ($85)



L'Empereur ($84)



KickMaster ($80)



Uncharted Waters ($80)



Dragon Warrior 3 ($80)



Dragon Warrior 4 ($79)



Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom ($79)



Battletoads & Double Dragon ($75)



Color a Dinosaur ($75)



Rockin' Kats ($70)



Zen: Intergalactic Ninja ($70)



The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt ($65)



Faria ($65)



Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom ($60)



Mario's Time Machine ($60)


Let me know if anyone else has something they want to add.

[JadePharaoh]

I was going to do a GameBoy list, but most of the games on that platform are pretty reasonable. The most expensive ones were, as expected, Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow, running about $50-55. So, I moved on to Super NES. The prices weren't as dramatic as some of the ones I saw for NES, but there are still some highly-priced ones out there.



Final Fight Guy ($350)



Pocky & Rocky 2 ($270)



Super Copa ($230)



Harvest Moon ($227)



Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus ($225)



Metal Warriors ($225)



Megaman 7 ($220)



EarthBound ($200)



Megaman X3 ($200)



Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel ($197)



Super Turrican 2 ($180)



3 Ninjas Kick Back ($157)



Ghoul Patrol ($155)



Chrono Trigger ($130)



Ninja Warriors ($125)



Pocky & Rocky ($124)



R-Type 3 ($120)



Megaman X2 ($119)



Final Fight 3 ($118)



Firestriker ($100)



The Adventures of Batman and Robin ($95)



Home Improvement ($90)



Skyblazer ($90)



Sonic Blast Man 2 ($90)



Soul Blazer ($90)



Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals ($85)



Nosferatu ($84)



King of Dragons ($79)



Kirby's Dream Land 3 ($79)



Run Saber ($76)



Demon's Crest ($75)



Legend ($75)



Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen ($75)



Oscar ($75)



King Arthur and the Knights of Justice ($74)



Megaman Soccer ($70)



Liberty or Death ($69)



Imperium ($68)



Mr. Nutz ($68)



Super Bonk ($68)



Super Metroid ($60)

[MephistoZX]

I own a lot of those Super NES games. For NES, the highest $$ game I own is Mega Man 5.

Wow Soul Blazer crept up to $90. I got my copy for free from a friend's girlfriend in 1998. One of my favorites.

I finally got into retro collecting a few years ago and it's was almost too little too late unless you're willing to pay the high prices. I have managed like a 90% N64 collection. I also began 3DO and Neo Geo CD collecting and got a good amount of those titles. I even started a spreadsheet of my games and their worth. It's a kind of fun thing to track.

You put some good effort into this. Good stuff

[Scarlet]

Hey Mephisto...tell me more about the 3DO and it's games.

[Jason]

I don't really have ANY of those NES games as far as I can remember.

I know I"ve got a few of those SNES games though... Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man Soccer, King Of Dragons...

[JadePharaoh]

For people feeling sticker-shock by now, check out this guy SpaceKappa and his series, The Backlog, where he talks about a lot of retro games most people might not have heard of, that are both really good as well as still available for a reasonable price.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...7FZ8Pd7z2U

[Ragnatz]

I owned Hillsfar, Dragon Warrior 3, and Dragon Warrior 4

[MephistoZX]

There's a couple versions of 3DO systems. There's the FZ-10



FZ-1 (which I own)



And the Goldstar, which was a totally different company making a version of the system



System was CD based, and came with only one controller port, but there's an adapter for more. The controllers themselves are pretty bad and the knock-off 3rd party controllers are worse.

The games themselves are pretty interesting studies in gaming at the time, as a lot of them are like interactive stories like Night Trap on Sega CD. In which, you basically just hit a directional button or press a button as fast as possible at prompts to survive or advance the story. Apparently some of the developers believed this would be the wave of the future in storytelling. Some interesting examples of this in 3DO games are Wing Commander III (one of the better ones), Psychic Detective, Sewer Shark, Iron Angel of the Apocalypse, Daedalus Encounter (starring Tia Carrere!), and the worst video game ever made Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. There's a ton more of that style though.

Some of the best games on the 3DO include the super rare JRPG Lucienne's Quest ($130) (I don't own it yet, way too much money)



The original Road Rash ($25 it is listed at on price charting you can definitely get it cheaper)



Space Hulk (highly recommend this one) ($13)



Star Control 2 ($32)



One of the best versions of Alone in the Dark (for its updated soundtrack) ($5)



Cannon Fodder (a neat little action strategy game) ($35)



and Slayer (D&D licensed game), but good luck finding this one. ($10,but I never see it listed anywhere)



There's a few other decent games, like the Wolfenstein port is good, the Gex game is good, and so on. However, a lot of the library is pure crap that I think most people would dislike. There's a ton of awful 3D shooters as well like Off World Interceptor, Shockwave, Total Eclipse, ect. Basically anything that looks like a space shooter on the 3DO, avoid.

It's a neat little system, but you can totally see why it was demolished.

EDIT: Guardian War (listed at $25, you can definitely get this cheaper) is kinda fun too, it's an RPG tactics type



EDIT 2, In keeping with the thread, I have added prices for some of the games. Below are the most expensive 3DO games.

Lucienne's Quest ($130)
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties ($112)

Mind Teazzer ($100, porn game)

NeuroDancer ($85, good luck, this one is rare)

Lost Eden ($70)

Love Bites ($65)

Snow Job ($65)

[JadePharaoh]

Thanks, Mephisto for the look at the 3DO and games. I know next to nothing about that console.

I'm on to Sega for right now, looking at Genesis games. Since I didn't see that many super rare and valuable games, I'm going to include the games for the console's add-on expansions, the Sega CD and the 32X (which tend to get a bad rep in some circles, but if you weed out the mess of bad FMV games, they have plenty of great games too).




Snatcher ($449)



Aerobiz Supersonic ($250)



Popful Mail ($250)



Musha ($250)



Spider-Man: Web of Fire ($225)



Crusader of Centy ($200)



Soul Star ($123)



Lemmings ($102)



Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm ($100)



Lords of Thunder ($100)



Time Killers ($100)



The Punisher ($94)



GrindStormer ($75)



Growl ($75)



Shining Force CD ($75)



Championship Soccer '94 ($70)



Trouble Shooter ($70)



Sunset Riders ($67)



Gunstar Heroes ($66)



Blades of Vengeance ($65)



Dungeon Explorer ($65)



Kolibri ($65)



Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel ($65)



Lunar 2: Eternal Blue ($64)



Sparkster ($64)



Cadash ($60)



Heart of the Alien: Out of this World 1 & 2 ($60)

[JadePharaoh]

Not a whole lot as far as GameGear is concerned. Most are still pretty cheap, but I thought I'd do a short one since I do actually own the Megaman GG cart.




Monster Truck Wars ($100)



Megaman ($95)