Rarest video games versus rarest computer games?

[Tanrunomad]

Few questions:

 

1) When talking about rare video games, are the terms videos games and computer games synonymous?

2) When talking about the lists of the "rarest games" how come people only talk about console games and not computer games? There are some games for the Commodore 64, Atari 800 and Apple II for example that only saw 1 or 2 commercial box releases to the public. Although lesser known than more obvious rare titles they are technically far rarer than the Nintendo World Championship game or Atlantis II for example.

3) When talking about the most expensive, rare game, did anyone see this one: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F230908736394

[xDragonWarrior]

$98,462.13...DAYUMMM!.Is it even worth that much?

[JadeETC]

$98,462 is... Alot. Though they say the highest price ever payed for a video game is $41,300. Video games and computer games are apparently not the same.

[high voltage]

Excellent at least it was a 'real' release, not like one of those NES Championship carts, which didn't even see a release.

 

There's a PC game called The Filmaker by Unimatrix Productions which goes for like $20.000, very rare game

 

On A8 there's the disk game Pondering about MAX, which was a late release, and demands quite some megabucks, and Gold Mine from Spectravideo is a R10 as is Tigervision's Matterhorn, both on cart.

Edited August 30, 2013 by high voltage

[jhd]

I suspect that there are far fewer people who collect "computer games" as opposed to (console) "video games". Far fewer people are going to know (or care) which computer games are collectible -- and which are junk.

 

There are so many more titles for computers than consoles; in the past, it was so much easier for a small indie developer to release a game on disk (or even cassette) rather than deal with cartridge production, licensing agreements with the console manufacturer, etc. Consequently, there are going to be a geat many more obscure "rare" titles, but there is also significantly less demand because nobody has ever heard of them.

 

I cannot imagine spending more for a video game (or a computer game) than the price of a (small) house, but that's just me.

[mkiker2089]

I sometimes wish games had no value. I watch retro gaming videos on youtube and one of my "recommended" videos was about selling game professionally. It was an interview with the guy that owns atari2600.com and it actually made me a little sick to my stomach to watch it. Just knowing that people are actively inflating the price of games by buying, hoarding, selling, rebuying them annoys me.

 

I'm in that odd group of collectors that collects to own and show off with no regard to value. I prize my common Tengen Ms. Pacman as much as I'd value an Air Raid.

[darthkur]

I sometimes wish games had no value. I watch retro gaming videos on youtube and one of my "recommended" videos was about selling game professionally. It was an interview with the guy that owns atari2600.com and it actually made me a little sick to my stomach to watch it. Just knowing that people are actively inflating the price of games by buying, hoarding, selling, rebuying them annoys me.

 

I'm in that odd group of collectors that collects to own and show off with no regard to value. I prize my common Tengen Ms. Pacman as much as I'd value an Air Raid.

 

I feel the same way. All that "system" does is make the rare stuff only available to the wealthy. For that matter I wish everything had no "value" and money would become obsolete. Some day hopefully. Quality of life will be exponentially better when it happens.

[bennybingo]

I sometimes wish games had no value. I watch retro gaming videos on youtube and one of my "recommended" videos was about selling game professionally. It was an interview with the guy that owns atari2600.com and it actually made me a little sick to my stomach to watch it. Just knowing that people are actively inflating the price of games by buying, hoarding, selling, rebuying them annoys me.

 

I'm in that odd group of collectors that collects to own and show off with no regard to value. I prize my common Tengen Ms. Pacman as much as I'd value an Air Raid.

Rare games are only valuable if you are a collector. For collectors who want the original game, box, manual and associated random items which were included at the original release, there is usually a hefty price tag associated. For everyone else, there are repros, emulation and bootleg copies which allow for gameplay without the substantial cash investment...this is at least the case for most games. In some cases, I think the repro copies even look nicer than their overpriced counterparts. I enjoy these kinds of repros in my collection with similar admiration.

 

In some rare instances, there are games which are darned near impossible to find beyond the original release. Some games employed hardware which does not work on emulation. Other games have some form of copy protection which hinders those trying to reproduce from the original. IMHO, this is a travesty, as they will eventually be lost forever to age, deterioration and sheer obsolescence. For some of these games, I couldn't care less...as they are not very fun. Others though would be terribly sad to see disappear.

 

On a side note, is it just me, or does it seem that some of the rarest games were sucky to begin with? I would think that a decent percentage of the "rare" games are rare for this very reason...they did not test well and were halted prior to a full scale production run. Of course, this is not the case for all of the games, but it just seems this way for some of the overpriced "gems" out there. Personally, as a collector, I would only grab these titles if I came across a good deal on one in the wild. I would rather let the rabid collectors fight over them on ePay like the last scrap of meat remaining on the carcass. That is not what I consider fun. To each their own though.

 

...it's funny how supply and demand can do a complete 180 over time. No one collected or wanted these games when they were initially made available and the supply was readily available...30 years later, everyone wants them and there aren't enough copies to meet the demand!

[fiddlepaddle]

Rarity (supply) and value do not necessarily correlate; you must also factor in demand.

Computer games are uninteresting (to me) because there are so many variables between them: memory requirements, OS version, graphics capability, etc. that it always seems to be chore to set them up to play. Then you add all the formats: cassette, 8"/5" floppy, CD, and various copy-protection schemes, and it's almost as if every game has it's own unique environment requirements... too much work.

Then, you find those boxes and instructions are all different sizes, and don't "collect" together very well. Also, many, many computer games were were produced and sold almost by word-of-mouth in limited numbers, and even without real packaging.

This results in accumulating not so much a COLLECTION, but an ASSORTMENT.