April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 106
retro
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
How some smart collectors are making thousands on classic titles...
From PONG to Super Mario Bros to Final Fantasy VII to The Last of Us. There are many games that
live in our hearts and stay in our memories forever. But for a games collector there are games and
consoles that went under the ‘mainstream radar’ and become a lifetime obsession to own. They may
not have been the most entertaining of game, it wasn’t their gameplay, graphics or music but the story
behind the manufacturing and distribution. Their history becomes more of an importance than the
games itself. Here are the stories behind these video game gems.
Stadium
Events... Valued
at $13,000?
Stadium Events valued around $13’000. It is
not uncommon for games to be recalled but
this one tops the records for most valuable
and rare. In 1987 Bandai (now the company
known as Namco Bandai since the merge in
2005) released Stadium Events which included a soft mat similar to todays Nintendo’s Wii
Balance Board. A year after release Nintendo
bought out the rights to the game, renaming it
World Class Track Meet. All shelf copies were
recalled and destroyed although it was estimated that around 200 copies were sold. One
recently sold on Ebay for $41’000. A man from
the United States had found one in his garage
and was planning on donating it to Goodwill
but instead he put an auction on Ebay and became $41’000 richer.
Only 200 units
ever made
of S.T.A.R.S
console...
The Resident Evil (Biohazard) Dreamcast. To celebrate the launch of Capcom’s fourth instalment of the Resident
Evil Franchise, Capcom joined forces
with Sega to produce the Claire Redfield
Dreamcast Console and the S.T.A.R.S
Limited Edition Console. Each console
were plaqued with a number and matching controller. Only 1800 units were manufactured of Claire Redfield’s Dreamcast and with only 200 units made of the
S.T.A.R.S console be prepared to search
the rest of your life to find one.
The $20,000 gold
cartridge?
The Most well known and rarest of all – The 1990 Nintendo
World Championship Grey and Gold E dition cartridges. In
1990 Nintendo promoted a video games competition that
toured 29 cities in the United States. Thousands flocked to
compete over 3 days of gaming but only 90 competitors won
the 1990 Grey Nintendo World Championship Cartridge. A
later contest was held by Power Magazine and the Gold
1990 Nintendo World Championship cartridge were given to
26 lucky prize winners.
For more details see the Wikipidea article. Click here!
Written by Oz