Need thoughts on Nintendo Pokemon Mini

[SomeGuyWithDSL]

I was offered what I think is a great deal by a friend, in which I would give him a rather small amount of money and, in exchange, he would give me a NIB complete US collection for the Nintendo Pokemon Mini system. That's the system w/pack-in game, and all 3 (yeah, three) other released US games.

 

I hadn't even heard of this thing before the offer was made, so the only facts I have are the result of an afternoon of hasty Googling. Basically, it's a tiny cartridge based portable with monochrome dot-matrix LCD, D-pad, A+B face buttons, C-button shoulder trigger, IR, rumble, and motion sensor. Powered by 1 AAA battery. The games were all Pokemon themed, and seem to be even more simplistic than basic first-gen GameBoy titles. A "party" minigame cart was included, and pinball, cards, and puzzle carts were made available separately.

 

AFAIK, it was sold only at Nintendo's Pokemon Center and online. There are even rarer official accessories, like cases and such not included with this deal. I'm not in the least a Pokemon fan, but this "forgotten" Nintendo system had some weird appeal to me. I have a small collection of obscure and/or commercially unsuccesful handhelds. So a few questions to the collecting gurus out there:

 

1. Is this considered a "real" system? Should it be? I have a certain mental threshold which excludes some cheapy toys from "systemhood," such as the Tiger R-Type player and carts. This Pokemon Mini is right on that line for me, though, probably because it bears the Nintendo name which implies a certain degree of engineering quality and capability. It is a proper cart-based device, has a fully programmable display (not static LCD characters) and has a small library. It also has a tiny homebrew scene, believe it or not.

 

2. How would you rate the rarity of a complete US collection for this system now, and how would you define its monetary and collectable value?

 

3. In 10 years?

 

Thanks in advance for pondering tonight's random thought.

[hex65000]

If you are concerned about the value of your collection years from now, it may be time for a rethink.

 

I wouldn't mind picking up one of those units myself, but I am into playing Pokemon -- so that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

 

Hex.

[ There is coffee in the pot... it must be morning. ]

[SomeGuyWithDSL]

If you are concerned about the value of your collection years from now, it may be time for a rethink.

 

Nah, I'm not concerned about it like its an investment or anything. I'm just curious how people thought this particular system would play out over time.

[SteveW]

As far as oddball rare systems, it's a keeper. It takes up virtually no room, so why not get it? It's not going to take up a lot of shelf space, after all.

[+kisrael]

It seems like a really cool idea for a system... same direction as the good old DreamCast VMU ...

[Video]

and has a small library. It also has a tiny homebrew scene, believe it or not.

 

 

 

There's a Homebrew market for these things? Cool.

 

Awesome find dude. As for collectability, I don't know. If it was just pokemon, I'd say pretty low, at least around here the Pokemon scene has pretty much died. But due to being an unuseual game system, and pretty rare too, It'll probably only go up. In 10 years, I'm sure there'll be the odd pokemon fan who is looking for the really odball stuff and it'll be worth something to them. How much, don't get me lying, but I'm sure it will.

[SomeGuyWithDSL]

There's a Homebrew market for these things? Cool.

 

Team POKEME, the Pokemon Mini Dev-Site

[gulag picture radio]

I want to say that there was even a pedometer built in so that you'd build up points or strngth or whatever by walking around with it.