How rare is Mario Bros for Atari 2600?

[vaderlover]

Does anyone know how truly "scarce" this game actually is? I was under the impression that is not that rare of a game but the prices I see it going for on Ebay, just for the cart, seem to reflect differently.

Edited September 16, 2009 by vaderlover

[+GroovyBee]

Just look at what people want for a Combat cart on eBay. I see plenty of "<insert common cart name here> Rare" auction titles on eBay.

[homerwannabee]

Does anyone know how truly "scarce" this game actually is? I was under the impression that is not that rare of a game but the prices I see it going for on Ebay, just for the cart, seem to reflect differently.

According to AtariAge it's a rarity 4, but in reality it's probably a rarity 3. OK, here is the answer to your question. In this case it's not the rarity that matters, it's the demand. Think about this for a second. This was the first title that had Mario Bros. You know the one that spawned Super Mario Bros. and all that went after it. No it's not his first appearance, but it is the first game with his title. Because of this, the game has a much higher demand. Also, the first Amazing Spider-man comic is pretty common as well, but it goes for a ton of money.

Edited September 16, 2009 by homerwannabee

[+save2600]

Perhaps the younger Nintendo (or otherwise) players are collecting them for the sake of collecting. Great 2-player actually,

so I hope most end up playing them...

[vaderlover]

Just look at what people want for a Combat cart on eBay. I see plenty of "<insert common cart name here> Rare" auction titles on eBay.

 

True..........I am stunned at what some people pay for the most common of games.

[GideonsDad]

Perhaps the younger Nintendo (or otherwise) players are collecting them for the sake of collecting. Great 2-player actually,

so I hope most end up playing them...

 

Agreed, it is one of the best 2 player games for the 2600 IMO.

 

GideonsDad

[pinball22]

Yeah, it's common enough to be a $3 game, but it goes for more like $9-$12 on eBay, and I think it's because of the Mario-ness of it.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Mario Bros is just being fanboyed on Ebay right now. It's just because it's Mario Bros and nothing else, it's also being fanboyed on Gamefaqs too, I posted a review of the Atari 7800 version and it got almost 600 views the first week while the rest of my reviews got like 20-30. Don't worry, give it a while and the demand will return to normal.

[Lord Thag]

It is a great game, and one of the best arcade ports Atari did. I still have the one I bought at Sears for my 9th birthday. That cart has got a LOT of miles on it. Not a lot of games I bought in 84 that I still play today. Great stuff. Well worth tracking down

[MS-DOS]

Mario Bros is just being fanboyed on Ebay right now. It's just because it's Mario Bros and nothing else, it's also being fanboyed on Gamefaqs too, I posted a review of the Atari 7800 version and it got almost 600 views the first week while the rest of my reviews got like 20-30. Don't worry, give it a while and the demand will return to normal.

 

 

I don't see the demand changing at all in the future.

[Pete5125]

It is one of the best looking, funnest games that I played on the 2600....I would put it in the top 20 games for the system, plus Mario is a known game.

 

Mario is also one of the games made towards the end of the units life, that looked good enouth to compete w/ early NES games, this California Games, Winter Games, Rampage, Ghostbusters, Ms. Pac Man, Dig Dug, Double Dragon...all these games look and play very similar to their NES counterparts....to the point that you are like wow...I can't believe a system that was designed to make slight veriations of Pong and Asteroids could handle this.

[Christopher T Leach]

I would say to the average atari collector mario is not a hard find and not valued very high, but is it complete...does it have the manual and what label variation is it? All that can make a cart go for more...

And the younger kids are probally trying to collect it as well...good point

[shadow460]

Around here, Mario Bros sells for $1 to $3 in the wild. I'd wager there's a loose one out there for sale right now somewhere in my city.