Guest Post: "8 Bits For How Much?"

     A fellow gamer, and personal friend of mine, sent me a rant he wrote and asked if I'd post it. "Why, of course I will!" So, without further ado, Goongala's Grumbles first "guest post"...

     2013 is here and, unfortunately, the idea of buying new games scares me. Although I can confidently say I spent some money last year with no regrets on titles such as Guild Wars 2 and Halo 4, I find myself disappointed with other full priced purchases such as Gears of War 3, Assassin’s Creed 3, Black Op’s 2, and Mass Effect 3. Generally, I don’t mind paying top dollar for a fun game at it’s launch rather than waiting half a year for it to go down a few bucks, but when the brand name games fail you, it makes you rethink your spending habits. Recently, I got my first Super Nintendo (SNES) and a few games I always loved, but never owned, for cheap, and thought to myself, “Ah ha! This year I’ll buy retro instead!” Excitedly, I went to online shops and eBay. It was there that the horror began…

     The prices of some of the SNES's most popular titles are outrageous. For example, Chrono Trigger, a beloved RPG and arguably one of the greatest games of all time, was priced for $150, and SOLD OUT. I couldn’t believe it; people were buying it for such a high price? I checked eBay as well and, sure enough, most bids ended around $80-100, and even higher with original box and manuals. Game after game I found similar trends of people buying these games at incredibly inflated prices. Games like EarthBound go for over $300 easily, and any cartridge that says “competition cartridge” or “weekend cartridge” on games such as Star Fox or Donkey Kong Country sell for over $500 every time because they were a Block-Buster rental exclusive and not sold in stores. If you have any complete collections of a series such as Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Mario, or Final Fantasy, you’ll make a pretty penny as well. Needless to say this data bothers me for several reasons...

All Games Were Mass-Produced by the Millions
     Pawn Shops are often presented with memorabilia for rare newspaper articles or World Series flyers for years ago, but often the store owners will tell the customer they have little value. Why? Because anything mass-produced loses value the more they have floating around. So all games should follow the same logic... right?

So that's where they all went...

     All games were produced in factories by the bucket loads. Why do some games now sell for less than a dollar while other games are over a hundred? Are the expensive ones more rare? No. These games are in high demand, thus the sellers mark them up. Most vintage game collectors are interested in fun titles such as Legend of Zelda and Mega Man X rather than Super Fishing or Monopoly. So supply and demand control the prices. A few vintage game store owners search craigslist’s, pawnshops, and yard sales to find “gems” for dirt cheep and sell them to the over priced market value to the desperate crowd of hopeful buyers. It's fair, but stupid.

     Consider this: CNN released a report about rare video games several years ago. A man named Tanner Sandler had a copy of one of the games mentioned in the report. His game, Air Raid for the Atari, sold on eBay for $31,600. Why? First, there are only 6 copies known to exist. Why is that? The most likely cause is the game was terrible and people threw it away. I find this ridiculous. This isn't 1 of 7 swords owned by King Arthur decorated with precious gems. It’s a mass produced game that failed, and is now only treasured because of its obscurity…

All Technology Depreciates Value Over Time
     I don’t care if you call a cartridge “vintage”, it’s still technology and it's still dying. This isn't gold or a Civil War memorial that gets more valuable with time. It’s technology. A motherboard, a battery, and other components slapped together in plastic. Like all technology, it wears out and breaks over time. The only “mint” game is a game unopened in its box. Anything used should be worth very little, yet we hoard them and price them high regardless.

     I don’t care how well you take care of your game. Dust sleeves, hard cases, and cleaning will not stop your game from its inevitable corruption. Consider this: lets say you have Final Fantasy 3, another SNES gem. You might have a save on that game with all max levels and the best gear and stats possible. You've proudly posted pictures online to fellow gamers and even shown fellow geeks your accomplishments when they come over to your house. The thing is, your data is on a time bomb.

     Most people are not aware that old cartridge games have a battery inside them that allows you to save your data. The battery is not rechargeable, nor does it run on the systems power. One day, when that battery dies, everything you worked so hard to gain and proudly displayed to your friends will be deleted. Even if you replace it before it dies, taking the battery out will delete all your content as well. Not all games use this (some use passwords or force you to play the game all the way through in one sitting), but dozens of titles on the SNES do.

     Even with that sad truth, changing the battery is no simple task. Removing the board and un-soldering and re-soldering is necessary. Not only can this destroy the game, it can depreciate the value of the game as well. My SNES may last forever, but my games have an expiration date. Let’s not justify the mark up of a game because of age, because, truth be told, age is killing our old games.

Almost All Vintage Games Exist in Other Forms
     I know there’s something special about owning the original item, but is it really all that it’s cracked up to be? Consider the following: The Ninja Gaiden Trilogy that was released for the SNES sells for $100. However, each of the three original NES games sell for $8. Are they worse? No. Is the SNES version rare? No. Again, it’s supply and demand. The kicker with this game is that the new Ninja Gaiden games for the Xbox 360 and such include the arcade classics in them as well. It's truly mind-blowing to me why we pay such high prices.

     Revisiting the game Chrono Trigger on the SNES averages $100. However, it was later released on the PlayStation in Final Fantasy Chronicles (which came with 3 games total), which averages for $20. Later, it came out for the Nintendo DS and PSP, and now averages $15, or you can download it directly from the PS3 Network for $6. If you don’t own any console but still want to play it, you can download an emulator for the PC and get a ROM of it... for free. Again, here’s the breakdown.

SNES $100
Playstation $20
DS or PSP $15
PS3 or Wii       $6
Emulator          $0

     Like I said before, I do understand the value of owning an original item, but that also depends on what the item is. Also as I said before, this is an item we already know WILL break. The PlayStation version only risks breaking if it's scratched, the PSP and DS cards are virtually indestructible, your PS3 download is on a cloud-based network and is forever yours even if you get a new system, and your Emulator version can live forever on an external hard drive.

     This is why I hate the “vintage” price tag. It lasts longer and looks, sounds, and runs better on any other platform. The PS3 and Wii network are always releasing new classics to download and play that are better than the original and work with a much more reliable controller. Don't get me wrong, I would love to own an original copy of Chrono Trigger. However, with all of the above in mind, I could never buy a 36MB game for $100 when I don’t even like paying $60 for new games with over 800MB of data on them. Until I find a good deal, I’m more than happy with my $6 PS3 download.

     I know that was quite a rant, but I just wanted to shed a little perspective on the issue. I own a lot of games for several systems. I have a hard time imaging any title I own will one day sell for $30,000 because it was that bad and everyone else threw there own copy away (but I hold on to Enchanted Arms just in case). I'm just tired of people trying to over-price things because of the clichés I've mentioned above. I will give one thing to vintage technology. A friend of mine pointed out that he’s 100% confident his SNES will be working 40 years from now, and he’s also 100% confident his Xbox 360 will not. If not for the games failed battery design, these retro games could too.

Never seen one of these on a SNES, have you?

      I know this article isn't going to change the market values, but I truly wish all gamers would take these things into consideration. If people stop accepting the asking prices, then sellers would have to drop the prices. Supply and demand works BOTH ways. However, if we keep feeding them money, things will only go up, they'll get worse. I beg of you, please be responsible with your retro games. If the prices are jacked up, get a download; if you find a deal, snag it. Love your childhood memories. Most importantly, while shopping for your 8 bits of nostalgia, do the thing most gamers get accused of never doing by the rest of the world: use your brain. These prices don’t reflect an actual value, just an acceptable one we've bought into.

     Thank you, Goongala, for editing and sharing.

~ xODST Preacherx.
Killing me should be a medal. (< For real, this guy is impossible to beat in Halo...)

     No, thank you, ODST Preacher, for making a point of the sorry state of today's retro game market. I'm not gonna' lie, I've bought retro games at exorbitant prices before. I've also seen exactly what he's talking about with Chrono Trigger. I too want that game, but I can't justify paying so much for it.

     ODST Preacher has written (or is in the process of writing) another rant on the issue of violence in video games, and I'll post that as soon as he can get it to me. I'm also in the process of writing about the very same thing, so I might meld the two together to get a wider perspective. Thanks again, ODST Preacher, and you as well, dear reader.