Posted on 08/01/2019 3:32:32 PM PDT by Libloather
Scott Amos says his mom’s been after him to get his childhood junk out of her Reno, Nevada, attic since he moved out on his own more than 20 years ago, and now, his whole family’s glad he did.
When he went through one of the boxes, he came across a rare unopened copy of the Nintendo Entertainment System game “Kid Icarus” that has been sold at auction for $9,000, including the buyer’s premium.
The shrink-wrapped cartridge was still in a JCPenney bag along with a receipt showing that it was purchased in December 1988, when Amos was 9.
Amos says the game has been the talk of the family since he picked up the boxes for Mother’s Day.
“Our only theory is that it was a Christmas present my mom bought for us and never actually gave to us,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtvr.com ...
I was addicted to Donkey Kong. I would leave my apartment at night during college & go to a convenience store that had one.
I’ve thought about getting a vintage arcade one for the basement.
Beware of Jumanji.just sayin’.
Why would Baby Boomers want to pay $150,000 for some crappy old Chevrolet? Same reason.
Sort of. What I mean by that, the game itself isn’t unique is it? Can’t “used” copies be played, what makes that one special? Digital 1s and 0s means it can be replicated infinitely. Not so with crappy old Chevrolets. See where I’m goin’ with that?
I liked Lemmings. Lots of problem solving and saving Lemmings. I still have the files I wonder if it would work with windows 10.
Zelda games are almost always top notch. A few clunkers here and there (Skyward Sword - unique concept, trying to incorporate the Wii Nunchuk, but unplayable for most people at some point) — I did finish Majora’s Mask (with my kids help). The latest “Breath of the Wild” game was the most amazing game I’ve ever played ... Wii U platform available but transitioning to the Switch ... and yeah, I’ve got just about all the little amiibos too.
I used to have Silent Service, and Mike Tyson’s Punch-out. Both great games.
I still play the old NES games - I have all the ROMs and a simulator program on the PC. Had to buy a USB NES controller to be able to play some of them. Still enjoy the old Dragon Warrior, Ultima and Final Fantasy games, along with the Zelda games.
I pretty much live in the 20th century for games - I also still enjoy playing the old Might and Magic RPG’s.
Could be had for pennies online and played on emulator on PC.
This thread seems to have uncovered some disturbing Freeper psychological issues... {:-)
Of course. It was kind of Atari’s attempt at a Donkey Kong clone, but with a boxing kangaroo. It wasn’t real common, but I used to play it.
I always liked Popeye. Donkey Kong was supposed to be Popeye, but King Features said no. When it was a huge hit, Miyamoto was nice enough to not hold that against them when they wanted a Popeye game after all. I didn’t own the NES version until around 2017. It’s a pretty good port.
Never played a Kangaroo port.
Tell me again how you make a copy of an NES cartridge? So you can’t just copy it to another cartridge unless you can dig up a whole bunch of out of production hardware and start manufacturing the cartridge hardware again. The supply of cartridges of a single game are fixed and won’t be going up.
People spend tons of money on crappy old Chevies, put them on plinths and then don’t drive them. This isn’t any different. Again, the collectability is the thing.
In the 2000s, I worked for a dealer that specialized in Corvettes and vintage muscle cars. I got to drive restored and well preserved original muscle cars.
Any interest I had in the old muscle cars in stock form died after working there - 80s turbo hatchbacks would outrun and totally outperform them. And the receptionist’s V6 Honda Accord put down more horsepower on the in-house dyno than a restored, blueprinted Chevelle SS when I made that bet one time.
Well ya got me there, I figured somebody would have hacked them. Or made reproductions. Emulators. I don’t believe I’ve ever played any of those games. Do you suppose they are actually going to play it, or is it going to be displayed on a shelf, and subject to veneration?
Emulators exist, but you can’t play an original cartridge in an emulator - someone has to dump the ROM chips in the cartridge into a file with a specialized reader and the cartridge is destroyed as a result. Sure, you can play it on a PC that way, but part of the nostalgia is playing a game on the original hardware (which in the case of Nintendo stuff has actually weathered time shockingly well).
Reproduction cartridges were briefly a thing... twenty years ago. They’re gone now and they were really bad knockoffs at the time.
It’s probably going to be much like any other collectable - put in a collection and looked at/gather dust. You can get used Kid Icarus cartridges on eBay for far less if you want one to do a ROM dump or to actually play in an NES. As in “Cost is $15” less: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kid-Icarus-NES-game-cart-authentic/223608336366?hash=item3410186fee:g:nGoAAOSwe~tdQzm8
So, this cartridge in its unopened box is no different than someone putting a 0 mile 57 Bel Air on a plinth, a bottle of Chateau Margaux 1787 red wine in their cellar in a locked case, or Monica’s stained blue dress (last went at auction for $288,050.10) put in a display. The value of the item is its collectability and the value collectors are willing to pay for it, not in the functionality of the object. Indeed, to use it for its function/intended purpose would be to destroy the collectable value.
One possible use for it is for a collector to be assembling a perfect, never used typical Nintendo Entertainment System of the day, complete with all the games (unused if possible) that were available for it at a given point in time - just like earlier collectors did things like assemble an entire Ma Bell switching office room, or a Western Union telegraph office, etc.
You, sir, obviously played too many video games as a kid! ;)
They obviously mess with people’s brains, I spent too much time on some of the then-new PC games, rigjt about when the graphics started to get good - and could tell my old analog brain was having some problems. Staring at a screen for hours on end has its disadvantages. Remember DeFrag, the PC tool? I swear my mind tried to do that as I was dozing off once. It was pretty strange.
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