The cost of retro gaming

So I gather most of you have seen this in the news on most gaming websites.

Stu brought up else where the cost of RADIANT SILVERGUN on the Saturn which is worth about £80 for a original, even though you can buy it on XBLA for £9.99.

I of course collect some retro games on certain consoles, but most even with a much cheaper re-release like the above keep on climbing in price.

I don't know the reason why it might just be more people want to relive there youth, more think it's a great hobby now then let's say collecting china pigs or stuff like The Sun whom print articles that a OG Game Boy is worth 500 million that every man and his dog now thinks everything is worth a fortune.

But saying that, it's been brought up that you can get some great game for the cheap on some retro sytems.

So what's everyone's thoughts is it a expensive thing, great for picking up some cheap retro games also might be a good idea to say what system might be the best to collect for.

I think age is elevating the status of some games. Quality can be irrelevant, as we know, but in the case of NES, SNES and Mega Drive - all quality systems with quality games - the older they get the harder it is to track down copies of decent/sought after/obscure games, hence the increase in price.

It's the eBay scalping I can't stand: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samba-de-Amigo-Dreamcast-PAL-Sealed-and-in-Perfect-Condition-/221637466123?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item339a9f580b

I like owning such games for bragging rights, but those are my games and I wouldn't dream of buying one with the specific intention of flogging it on at some crazy price.

See I don't mind doing that I've done it with a lot of retro like buying SOTN for £5 in gamestation when they got rid of retro, I put on eBay right away after giving it a play and got like £50 for it. Which likely just went towards more game but some are getting excessive like that samba it's worth what £40 without the marcas, so a sealed version I can't really see being worth more then about £300 not nearly £800. But someone will likely pay it like with the Stadium Events in my link.

It's inevitable that prices will rise - simple supply and demand. Imagine if CDs or DVDs were only available to buy new for about 5 years, and then a new format came along to replace them. Unless they are re-printed or re-issued in the new format, there will only be a limited number of them.
The problem with Nintendo games is that not only do they hold their value well anyway, but stuff like SNES, GBA, N64 all had cardboard boxes that many (including myself) simply threw away. It was packaging rather than cases like the Mega Drive or Playstation had.
We are also one of the first/second generations that have grown up with videogames, so our whole childhoods may have been based around certain games or systems. For instance, most of my friends at school had N64s, so we all bonded over Goldeneye and Mario Kart. I can now afford to buy more games than I could as a child, but having owned and sold numerous retro consoles over the years, I've come to the realisation that I would like to be able to play all of those games from yesteryear, it's just not worth the added expense of owning the original, just so as to have a case on the shelf. Unless you're going on Youtube to show off the fact you have Conker complete, there are a million better things to spend £150+ on.
I'm torn between picking up anything pre-Gamecube because we're now in a time where just an N64 cartridge on its own can cost £40. If I'm given the choice of paying £40 to play Paper Mario on the N64, or £10 to play it on my Wii-U, it's a no-brainer. I'll always prefer paying for a physical product for current stuff (such as Wii-U), but I don't mind paying for digital versions of old games - as long as it's playable.
That was a bit of a rant...

Difference between a retro gamer and a retro collector, I suppose.

I'm kinda in the middle, I'm not going to go out of my way to buy let's say Canon Spike for dreamcast on eBay for £60+ but if I saw it in a local shop I would pick it up.

I think a true collector would of finished buying all the remaining dreamcast games I need for instance but I'm just buying if I see them.

I think I'm done with the old retro game collecting for two reasons: I've moved 200 miles away from all my retro game stuff, and - yes! - the increasing cost of it. That said, I never really intentionally collected stuff; I just bought what took my fancy. It just so happens that an awful lot took my fancy, natch.

Asides from Starfox Assault for £9, I can't think of a single really, really good retro gaming bargain I've had in the last two years.

Of the two, I'm much more of a retro gamer than a retro collector. This does limit me to VC titles, so I'll never get the pleasure of playing Road Runner on the SNES, for example, but c'est la vie. As many people have mentioned already, collecting is expensive.

ZeroJones wrote:

...I'll never get the pleasure of playing Road Runner on the SNES

Don't lose too much sleep over this, Zero. Just... don't.

I don't collect retro games, really. Though I do flit between retro systems depending on what's taking my fancy at any given time. It's also a fantastic time to pick up a game you've heard about and know is great, to give your system something new to play. As gjones says, no way would I play silly money for a boxed NES/SNES game, when the cartridge works perfectly well without. Popular SNES games seem to be higher in price that obscure(ish) NES games at the moment.

I'm not a huge VC fan being in favour of actual systems, but I'll happily download something like, say, Demon's Crest to avoid playing insane eBay prices.

That's why I sold the SNES i bought cheap as nearly all the games on it, I would like are rather expensive like £90 for LttP boxed (I would want it boxed) that I didn't bother as most are available else where even though it's not my preferred method.

But hey I can still play the GBA LttP on TV thanks to my GameCube.

I'll be honest and say this always seems like a weird "thing" to me. I like old games, but not necessarily old systems. I don't see the point of collecting a piece of hardware for the sake of having it (and usually having it break - unless you don't use it, in which case... why?)

Old stuff doesn't break though, my mega drive is old as me and I can put it on now and it will work. I don't see anything after the 5th gen era working in 25 years though.

Having a old systems just feels right, like holding a mega drive controller and playing MKII and knowing all the moves, give me a PS3 controller and a download version and I wouldn't have a clue how to do sub zero's freezing move for instance.

Also some you still need a old system like what can you play Saturn games on apart from Saturn apart from the odd one or two on XBLA.

Totally agree with everything mas says there. My Mega Drive's been with me since release, and my SNES not long after (and that was secondhand when I got it). Both are still as good now as they were in the nineties. The only consoles I've invested in retrospectively are the Game Gear, Saturn, NES (simply because I was too young) and Master System.

I found out after I bought a new one that I could've easily fixed my "broken" NES, and I had a laser death on my first Saturn, but other than that they're all as good as new. As mas says, there's no substitute for playing them how you remember them, and they're worth having to play the mountains and mountains of games you'll never see available for digital download on modern systems. Most of the NES games I love are licensed games, for example.

Yeah you still need a N64 to play Goldeneye and that will never come to anything due to to many people having a piece of the pie.

You know, that's fair enough - I apologise and retract that; my NES still works fine, and the top half of the casing's been twisted half-off since 1993.

I just bought on eBay Marvel vs Capcom 1 on DC as I had a £2.50 nectar voucher. Meaning I've got 39 UK games or 40 EU (41 if you want to be pedantic about who wants to be millionaire) and looking a the prices of the ones I'm missing some like Evil Twin has sky-rocketed in price but MoHo which was a £90 games I now down to about £50 but all 40 (as I want Taxi 2) would cost me £725 on avg that's £18.13 a game which sounds good for likes of Evil Twin but not so much for Flogian Bros.

Just been looking at DC games as you do and seen Evolution 2 which I knew was my rarest game in terms of money going for £180 (mine is missing the manual, so I might get about £120 for it).

That's not a lot of money in terms of retro gaming but is to me and I only paid £60 I think for it (was going for about £120 mint), that it shows retro games are going up and up.

But I was looking and if you want to get into retro gaming, I say retro but more of I want to collect but don't want to spend £100s. I would checkout the PSP.

There are some really great games on PSP, particularly if you're an importer. I have some corking JAP PSP budget games that would never stand the chance of release in the West.

I'm thinking about doing a feature on the PSP now on Gintendo.

That would be a nice feature. I'm not much of a fan of the PSP, but at the same time I can't deny it was a criminally overlooked platform.

And up Stubert

As a retro player, rather than simply a collector, it's as expensive as I want it to be. If something's out of my price range I simply won't buy it, as I want to play the thing over simply popping it on a shelf, that isn't to say I won't pay a fair whack for a game I really want though.

I recently bought four Super Famicom games (Front Mission : Gun Hazard, Cosmo Gang : The Puzzle, Darius Twin, Xardion) as I (upcoming Yorkshireness) reet fancied playin' 'em - 8 quid each unboxed. Barg. [from : genkivideogames.com ]

Think the last game I paid "a lot" for was Super Mario RPG, set me back £50, boxed with instructions.

So yeah, as a player, not so expensive. As a collector, probably so.

Be even cheaper if I played the games I had even more, rather than hoovering games up as much as I do

I do know Amazon want you to pay 194 quid to get SMA3...

CEX have bumped up their Gamecube game prices In the space of a year, Metroid Prime has gone from £5 to £8 to £12...

I think there catching on now that retro has become a very popular thing, PS2 games are still cheap like I've said else where just a shame there all crap where I am.