Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Rare Games and Their Collectors

Posted by Zonk on from the more-valuable-than-gold-by-the-gram dept.

simtastic writes "John Szczepaniak in his article, Obscurity Below the Radar, exposes the underground world of buying, selling, stealing and acquiring rare, one-of-a-kind, and non-public games and gaming hardware. From the article: 'Oftentimes, such groups run the risk of the law, yet still dedicate their lives to the acquisition and recording of things. In trying to uncover this secret realm, I was graciously granted access to some of the more high profile members, including the head of one such community. A renowned American gentleman who wishes to be known only as ASSEMbler, he tells us a little of himself and also the nature of such undocumented people ...'"

33 comments

  1. For all who care by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 2, Informative

    Join us at Assemblers forum: http://assembler.roarvgm.com/

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:For all who care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks, I love this kind of stuff - the 64DD still gives me cheap thrills (I still play F-zero X and would love the track editor). When I strike it rich, I'm going to get one *swoon*.

    2. Re:For all who care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      old domain. try again.

    3. Re:For all who care by LocalH · · Score: 1

      You dumbass, give the right link next time.

      --
      FC Closer
  2. Is Assembler my old roommate? by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 1

    Working as a game reviewer through college always landed me cool swag and games... like my fairly rare original backlit Japanese Gameboy. I think I spent more time at the local pawn shop trying to get my stuff back my freshman year than studying.

    --
    http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
    1. Re:Is Assembler my old roommate? by Meagermanx · · Score: 1

      It's a shame they're greedy bastards, or they could rip the discs and put them on bittorrent networks for all of us to share.

    2. Re:Is Assembler my old roommate? by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "like my fairly rare original backlit Japanese Gameboy."

      No, we're not talking about the kind of people who import a Game Boy Light, we're talking about the kind of people who managed to get their hands on Nintendo's official (and unreleased) English translation of the Famicom game Mother (now known to the internet as "EarthBound Zero").

    3. Re:Is Assembler my old roommate? by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 0

      Umm, I'm not sure you understand. I actually own a Nintendo made Japanese prototype Gameboy that came with a backlight in it. They are rare, this isn;t some mod I did to a Gameboy.

      Also I own a collection of almost every game from Atari 2600 through PS1 COMPLETE! Meaning NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, and Genesis. Not ROMS either, a complete collection. Including many rare and unreleased playtest copies of games, beta's, and proof of concept work. These are original RARE releases that are not available to be purchased. My collection spans over 20 years and even includes original working Pong systems.

      On at least 10 occasions I had to go to the pawn shop with police and get my stuff back during the course of my freshman year. I used to kick his ass daily, it was affectionately known as "Fight Night" in my dorm. He was a crackhead and stole anything he could, he was arrested for taking my shit and selling it numerous times.

      What fun college memories.

      --
      http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
    4. Re:Is Assembler my old roommate? by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "Umm, I'm not sure you understand. I actually own a Nintendo made Japanese prototype Gameboy that came with a backlight in it. They are rare, this isn;t some mod I did to a Gameboy."

      You don't understand: it wasn't a prototype. The Game Boy Light was sold in Japan. They're moderately rare, but only really rare outside of Japan.

      "Also I own a collection of almost every game from Atari 2600 through PS1 COMPLETE! Meaning NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, and Genesis."

      We're not talking about people who collect published games, we're talking about people collecting unpublished games, the ones that never made it out of R&D. We're talking about people who try to get their hands on the Final Fantasy N64 tech demo there was a submission on yesterday.

      "On at least 10 occasions I had to go to the pawn shop with police and get my stuff back during the course of my freshman year."

      You should have called the police. Pawn shops aren't supposed to be involved in fencing stolen goods, and wouldn't have dealt with your roommate if you involved law enforcement.

    5. Re:Is Assembler my old roommate? by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You made absolutely NO sense with your response. The Gameboy Light is very rare in the US... that would classify it as RARE, like I originally said. All I was saying is that I wasn't talking about the afterburner GBA mod.. but the original Japanese gameboy backlight.

      You then go on to snip my reply to make it seem as if I was talking solely about my videogame collection, when clearly I stated in the sentence you FORGOT to include that my collection includes many rare, unreleased, demo, beta, and other titles and items.

      Then you actually quote "On at least 10 occasions I had to go to the pawn shop with police and get my stuff back during the course of my freshman year." and state I shoudl have called the cops... ummm, no shit Dick Tracy. I DID.

      You seem to think that the average inner-city pawn shop gives a flying fuck about legality... newsflash! they don't! They care about making money and they gave a lame excuse each and every time to the police and nothing was done about it.

      --
      http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
  3. Thrill Kill by Daetrin · · Score: 1

    Hmmm, it doesn't seem to mention Thrill Kill, which is the only rare game i happen to own. (Though it's kind of hard to tell since the article is spread out over so many pages.) Not that i've ever actually played it on my own machine, i've yet to get around to acquiring a modded PSX or PS2.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:Thrill Kill by chrisbtoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Though it's kind of hard to tell since the article is spread out over so many pages.
      "Print" version - select "Text" from the bottom of the escapist page.

      --
      Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
    2. Re:Thrill Kill by AvoidTheNoid · · Score: 0

      Thrill Kill is not rare. It's pretty much the most common unreleased game out there. You can find it on just about any file trading service out there. Not to mention that it sucks. A lot.

  4. wonderful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of the most well-written conspiracy theories I've read in a long time.

  5. Interesting article... by avalys · · Score: 0

    It's an interesting article, but the melodrama kills it.

    --
    This space intentionally left blank.
    1. Re:Interesting article... by eudas · · Score: 1

      yeah, a very fluff article. ok, you're all "cloak and dagger", hope that roleplaying works for you guys...

      *shakes head*

      the fact that it was images and not text is weird, too. what's with that?

      eudas

      --
      Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
    2. Re:Interesting article... by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 1

      It does use text, it's just the website was designed by someone who obviously wished they were making a print publication rather than a website.

      It does sound a bit over cloak and dagger, but I suppose there is some chance of being sued. But they do seem to be a rather insular lot from this article.

      --
      10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
      20 GOTO 10
    3. Re:Interesting article... by badasscat · · Score: 4, Informative

      yeah, a very fluff article. ok, you're all "cloak and dagger", hope that roleplaying works for you guys...

      I'm not sure how much of it's role playing and how much of it's a bit of editorial license taken in the article.

      I own some of the stuff listed in this article, and have had access to other items (I used to work in the game industry, first as a reviewer and then in the marketing department for a major publisher). So I technically am one of these guys, and I know plenty of others who collect this sort of stuff.

      I know I sure don't dress up in trench coats and meet guys in back alleys with suitcases full of cash. I don't know anybody else who does either. Maybe it's because I'm still using my industry contacts and we're sort of a casual bunch; maybe guys who are on the "outside" really do make a real game of it. But I think most of the people who are even interested in something like a Dreamcast dev kit or an M2 prototype probably have some connection to the game industry; otherwise, why the interest to begin with?

      There's really not any actual difference between the guys who go on Ebay and blow $200 for a copy of Radiant Silvergun and the guys who are out looking for PS2 TOOL systems. It's the same guys, despite what this article says. Collectors all have their various fetishes - nobody just collects a bunch of totally random stuff; everybody specializes. But whether you're into modern games, classic games, collecting all the Sonic memorabilia ever created, possessing all Nintendo hardware ever made, or whatever... you're eventually going to get to a point where the only stuff you've got left to look for are prototypes, unreleased games and systems, dev kits and debug units, hotel units, or other oddball stuff. A collector is a collector. These guys are not a special breed, though a few of them may think they are.

      I'm inclined to think there's a little bit of both of what I mentioned before in this article - rampant editorializing and role playing by a few specific people. The section on Japan ("virtually impenetrable due to the language barrier and sense of security"), for example, is utterly hilarious on both counts. It makes it sound as if there's some sort of secret Yakuza faction hoarding all the rare video game stuff, when in reality all you need are a few Japanese friends. Heck, I'm sure I've bought stuff in used stores in Japan that the guy quoted here probably considers legendarily difficult to come by, simply because I knew where to look and he doesn't, and I happened to get lucky on that particular day.

      But that's the thing... read between the lines here and nothing in this article is really all that dramatic. "Connections" is just another word for "friends", for example - but "connections" just sounds so much more clandestine. If I wanted to, I could probably insert myself into an article that sounds just like this, but there's absolutely nothing about my life as a collector that I'd think of as anything outside the normal way human beings interact with other human beings.

  6. Greed Island! by EMeta · · Score: 1

    Great! Greed Island, here I come!

    Hmm. Having a problem here. Anyone know where I can learn to use Nen?

  7. All of them eventually become rare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Try to find SuperMarioBros I.

    Not rare yet? Wait a few more years and try again.

    1. Re:All of them eventually become rare by Mattintosh · · Score: 1

      One word: Goodwill.

      The one in my area has it.

      Also the SMB/Duck Hunt dual cart, the Duck Hunt standalone cart, and some other NES game that I'd never heard of. I'm guessing they haven't sold them yet, either.

    2. Re:All of them eventually become rare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That, along with the SMB/Duck Hunt has got to be the most common NES cart in existence. Any time you see a group of NES carts for sale, you see it. By the time it becomes truly rare, all other NES carts will have become virtually non-existent.

  8. Copyright by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

    In this dark age of eternally extended copyright terms and the ephemeral lifetimes of so-protected works, I applaud anyone who enters the order of the digital monk to preserve these rare and fleeting works for the enjoyment of an enlightened future that must eventually allow the copyrights to expire so that these works can be released to the world, providing a rich public domain, even as their acts of preservation for the future run afoul of the laws of the present.

    Even the copyright on unreleased works must eventually expire and give back to the public domain.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:Copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've missunderstood: these people are not interested in releasing anything. Their "scene" is one big circle-jerk where their e-penis length is determined by how much crap they have - and can keep out of reach from others.

    2. Re:Copyright by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      these people are not interested in releasing anything.

      Maybe not now, but perhaps in 150 years when they can't be prosecuted for it....

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  9. Are many of these titles really worth having. by sharopolis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can't help but think there maybe a good reason why most unreleased games weren't released. Having played a lot of the more readily available protos floating around the 'net, it seems there are a few genuine bonafide classics that got shelved due to bankruptcy/internal politics or whatever and I can see why these may get premium prices.
    Sadly there's no mystery why a lot of protos reamined locked away, it's because they were crap.

  10. hmm by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1
    I'm a pretty big collector, but I'm mostly a thrift-hunter collector, just getting cool stuff as I run across it by accident. We thrift store type collectors are notoriously cheap, so I really don't have any interest in most of this stuff other than it being cool that people are trying to preserve it somehow. And mostly I'd rather write new stuff for old systems anyhow.

    I've got a single one-of-a-kind item, but it's from the 8-bit era. And I'm actually surprised that no others of this thing have been found, since it was a released, though very rare item. Of course the first thing I did was dump the ROMs and share them.

    --

    --
    "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
    "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  11. Not a big deal but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oftentimes, such groups run the risk of the law...

    The law itself isn't a risk. They run the risk of breaking/subverting/pissing off the law.
    And just "Often" will suffice.

    Brought to you by the All-National Bastards-for-Grammar Association.

  12. Im a BORed MAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, whats the point of collecting if you are going to give it away for free. Things in this world are worth money, so why should it be given for free? If someone wants to, so be it. but dont go holding against someone when they dont give away THEIR item for free. Plus, you cant just give away software, especially with NDAs, and links back to the source. And, on top of that, the next type you see someone throw up a torrent for getting free hardware, let me know. (Its quite obvious that it wont happen).

    1. Re:Im a BORed MAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, they certainly have no problems taking from others who share what they have. In fact, they will usually be the first in line. And of course lots of the hardware they're trading has been outright stolen (eg. PS2 kits), but that's of course all right because it enhances the value of their collection!

    2. Re:Im a BORed MAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except it isn't "their" item It's stolen IP that was intended by its creators for public release.

  13. Goldeneye 64? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or how about Conker's Bad Fur Day? Both are Rare games.

  14. Dagnabbit! by DingerX · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ten years ago, if I had known there were people rich and foolish enough to shell out huge sums prototypes, beta and final roms, crap that never got released, and so on, I'd be a wealthy man today.

    Actually, if I'd known about it then, I would have been extra vigilant in destroying every proto-cart I came across.

    You fools you! Some games and game machines were never meant to be! Don't go tampering with forces you cannot understand!