Only English Final Fantasy 2 NES Cartridge On Sale for $50K

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Only English Final Fantasy 2 NES Cartridge On Sale for $50K

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 23, 2012 @11:25AM from the perfect-gift dept.

Croakyvoice writes "In what seems to be the 'in thing' at the moment comes another auction to add to last month's Zelda NES auction and that crazy million dollar collection. This time, for RPG fans, this could be classed as the Holy Grail of NES games. The game in question is Final Fantasy 2, which was never released outside of Japan, but luckily for the person who at this time is selling this on eBay for 50K, there was one made for the 1991 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by SquareSoft. Sadly, the U.S. version never had a release because they decided to work on the Super NES instead."

29 of 109 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

He should have sold earlier by uCallHimDrJ0NES · 2012-08-23 11:27 · Score: 3, Funny

Before Square burnt up every bit of affection the general public had for the name "Final Fantasy".

--
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
1. Re:He should have sold earlier by Smauler · 2012-08-23 12:23 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  When did they do that? I personally hated 13, loved 12, liked 10, hated 9, loved 8, quite liked 7, and after (or before) this it's not about affection for the gaming public, because very few people have actually played 1-6.
  You'll get loads of people disagreeing with my personal opinion about FF, but IMO FF12 was the best they've done. Yeah, they fucked up 13 (IMO), but they've fucked up in the past and come back. It's still a franchise I'll buy into.
2. Re:He should have sold earlier by Burning1 · 2012-08-23 12:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Huh? Lots and lots of us in the US played Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 4, and Final Fantasy 6. A bunch of us also played fan translations of Final Fantasy 5. I also played 7, but I haven't tried anything more recent... I just don't have the time or energy to play Final Fantasy games anymore.
  I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of a generational gap between those of us who played FF1-6, and those that play FF7+
  My bet is that the guys who played FF1-6 are the same group who miss reading Nintendo Power. :)
3. Re:He should have sold earlier by k8to · 2012-08-23 14:31 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I'm too old for nintendo power (there was no Atari Power).
  However I did enjoy final fantasy 1 and 4 (or 1 and 2 as i knew them.)
  
  --
  -josh
4. Re:He should have sold earlier by parkinglot777 · 2012-08-23 23:31 · Score: 2
  
  because very few people have actually played 1-6.
  Are you implying that those people (including myself) are old? ;)
  Actually, I played all up to 8 (in Japanese version first, and then in English). When I was 12, I played Final Fantasy 1 when it first came out (in Japanese) and I was hooked because the battle system was completely unique that day. I am an old school and I like cartoon more than real. I like them up to 7. Once 8 came out and I tried for a couple hours, I no longer wanted to play it any more because the game looked too real and not a single part is cartoon.
  I agree with many people here that $50k is a joke for just a software with a crappy old case that you could still play using emulator and a downloaded ROM...
Is it worth it? by joeflies · 2012-08-23 11:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

I never really understood why these development cartridges fetch such high prices. Well, on a superficial level, I understand since it's a matter of supply and demand. But at a deeper level, it's a one off because it's an unfinished product. To me, I don't see any difference between a free fan-based english conversion vs an official "never sold to the public" version.
Would you pay millions of dollars for a test version of Windows 98 developed for esperanto? The answer is no, because nobody cares. However, the same logic doesn't apply when it comes to toys and games
1. Re:Is it worth it? by Githaron · 2012-08-23 11:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  It gains the owner prestige in his/her social circle.
2. Re:Is it worth it? by _Shad0w_ · 2012-08-23 12:04 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I would and you wouldn't, because you don't care and I don't care, but I bet someone would and does. People like to collect all sorts of things and some of them have a lot of money to spare. Collecting game cartridges is no more stupid than numismatics, philately, or even cartophily - some cigarette cards have sold for millions.
  
  --
  Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
3. Re:Is it worth it? by veganboyjosh · 2012-08-23 12:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Altho i'm loathe to use the word/admit it, i collect vinyl records. i tend to focus on a specific sub-genre of one that's not uber popular, so the records i'm really after and willing to spend more than list price on usually don't go for too much. Many of my peers are into collecting every variation of a record that's pressed on multiple colors of vinyl. (ie, a label will press 1000 of a particular band's album. 500 of these will be on black vinyl, 250 on red, 200 on green, and 50 on clear vinyl.) My collector nerd friends would then seek out all 4 versions. Indeed, a lot of labels even offer a pre-sale package featuring all 4 variants, particular for these guys.
  
  In addition to a completist mentality behind wanting to own every variant of a record, there is also a demand (ranging from "mildly interested" to "i will mortgage the house to get this") for "test pressings" of records. These are just like what they sound. There are usually fewer than 20 of these made per release. Often less than 10 or even 5. Plain white labels or possibly a boilerplate label with "artist, song title, label" info handwritten onto the labels. No printed cover. A few go to the label, some to the band, for listening to and final proofing before the "go ahead and make us 1000 copies" order is put in. It's very rare that there is a change to an album once the test pressings have been created and they are almost NEVER available for sale to the general public. I've mostly only seen them for sale after the album comes out, strictly as collector items.
  
  The $50k asking price may be ridonkulous, but the demand for this one-off game makes perfect sense to me in light of what i've seen people get stupid over in the vinyl world.
4. Re:Is it worth it? by Chemisor · 2012-08-23 12:13 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  People also pay a lot of money for an original Van Gogh painting, even though a good modern painter can make you a copy that only an expert would be able to distinguish from the original. If appearance were the only thing that mattered, the price difference wouldn't have been as great.
5. Re:Is it worth it? by Man+On+Pink+Corner · 2012-08-23 17:53 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I don't think anyone will give you shit for collecting vinyl records, as long as you're not one of those nutters who claims they are better at reproducing sound than a properly mastered CD. "Vinyl collector" does not necessarily equal "Vaccine-shunning, astrology-believing, $5,000-power-cable-buying, moon-landing-denying audiophile."
6. Re:Is it worth it? by realityimpaired · 2012-08-23 23:03 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I don't think anyone will give you shit for collecting vinyl records, as long as you're not one of those nutters who claims they are better at reproducing sound than a properly mastered CD
  I haven't heard a "properly mastered CD" in years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
  That's why vinyl sounds better... it's not that the medium itself is better, it's that it's not physically possible to press a record that's been as overmastered as the crap that they can do with a CD.
Re:never released in the US? by retchdog · 2012-08-23 11:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

It was FF4 that was released as FF2 in the US.

--
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Re:FF1 just ported to Android... by jeffasselin · 2012-08-23 11:50 · Score: 4, Informative

FF2 has been available on iOS for a couple years now.

--
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
Re:Does anyone know if... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-23 11:51 · Score: 5, Informative

Yes. The person auctioning the cart dumped it himself. (It's Frank Cifaldi, who's a pretty well-known video game historian and journalist.) While doing so kills the market value, Frank Cifaldi believes more highly in the preservation of prototypes and betas than in maintaining the value by letting a cartridge languish in a box and degrade.
I believe his site, Lost Levels (lostlevels.org) in fact offers the ROM for download for preservation purposes.
The translation is kind of rough, but I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.
50k is not the selling price by Spy+Handler · 2012-08-23 11:56 · Score: 4, Insightful

50k is his asking price. As anyone who's watched Pawn Stars knows, there's usually a big difference between what people ask for and what they end up getting.
1. Re:50k is not the selling price by Darkness404 · 2012-08-23 12:23 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Because Pawn Stars is a TV show, they run a real Pawn Shop but many episodes are filmed with actors "recreating" moments that might have happened. Just look at http://centraltendencies.com/2011/03/pawn-stars-is-fake/
  
  That doesn't mean that its any less entertaining, but its a staged show bringing in far more interesting things than what the average pawn shop owner would ever see in their lifetime.
  
  --
  Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
2. Re:50k is not the selling price by SurfaceMount · 2012-08-23 12:27 · Score: 2
  
  I've never figured out why people take some of that shit to a pawn shop instead of Christies.
  They explain it to customers all the time during their negotiations.
  "Yeah it will sell for triple my offer at an auction, but you will have to pay $$$$ upfront for catalogue fees and appraisal, then a percentage after sale, and it may take 6 months to sell".
  People go to a pawn shop because they need money TODAY, bills have to be paid.
  They dont have any money for upfront costs, they cant wait months for the sale. They need that cash in their hand asap and thats what a pawn shop specialises in.
Re:I suspect this is a fake by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2012-08-23 12:12 · Score: 3, Informative

They did. IT was on display at CES. The translation features Nintedoisms like censoring the religious symbology and so forth.
It's Frank Cifaldi. The dump's authentic.
Now Bio Force Ape... That's going to be one hell of a sale.

--
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I also want $50k by cvtan · 2012-08-23 12:15 · Score: 4, Funny

I have this copyrighted chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's the only copy written in English. Because you know it's not possible to make another copy of it.

--
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
1. Re:I also want $50k by Darkness404 · 2012-08-23 12:25 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The value of this is not the data, it is the cart itself. Just because everyone knows what the Mona Lisa looks like and you can buy a nice replica for $5 at a decoration store and a nice hand painted copy for $50 doesn't mean the original painting is only worth $50 or $100.
  
  --
  Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:I suspect this is a fake by Darkness404 · 2012-08-23 12:19 · Score: 2

Um, they did.

http://www.lostlevels.org/200312/200312-ffan2.shtml

With enough searching I believe you should be able to find screenshots and such from the game.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17wkpxma1zym7jpg/original.jpg is an image of part of an ad that ran before its release.

--
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Definitely Unfinished by guttentag · 2012-08-23 12:26 · Score: 3, Funny

A screenshot of the game shows the status screen for a character that has been killed. It simply reads: "GUY DEAD"
1. Re:Definitely Unfinished by Dwedit · 2012-08-23 12:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  "Guy" is the character's name.
2. Re:Definitely Unfinished by skipkent · 2012-08-23 12:35 · Score: 2
  
  From that example, the character was actually named "Guy" and he was dead.... But yes, from the other screenshots it seems that the translation is a bit rough... From what I'm getting one lady translated it for the trade show, so it wasn't the polished final results.
Re:Old NES translations by LocalH · 2012-08-23 13:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Those were fan-created translations. This one was official.

--
FC Closer
Re:It's just the translation patch, it's a fake by Myria · 2012-08-23 16:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

10 dollars says it's the US fan-made translation patch that some idiot programmed onto EPROMs and is passing it off as a "rare prototype".
While that's possible, in general, there exist ways to determine whether a game has been translated by force. Because of the lack of the original source code, many of the changes to the existing code will be done as branches to other areas of ROM.
If you change the size of a block of assembly code, you have to adjust pointers throughout that segment and beyond. This is the task of an assembler and linker, working on your source code. For ROM hacking, you don't have the source. It's infeasible--and provably uncomputable in the general case--to know where all these pointers are, so that you can adjust them when you rebuild with hacks in place.
Thus, patched ROMs are made by placing branches in one part of the code pointing at some previously unused area, then jumping back after finishing whatever needed to happen there. These jumps can be detected in a thorough analysis of a given ROM image in comparison to its Japanese original. If it is clear that the code adjustments made for the English version were made by reassembling from source, the probability that it is a translation from the original author is very high.

--
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Re:I have an idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-23 19:13 · Score: 2

better idea, go get the ROM as mentioned in a comment above yours for no cost
Re:Does anyone know if... by mastershake82 · 2012-08-24 01:56 · Score: 3, Informative

FTFAuction:

Q: Can you please upload to ROM online, so the world can play it? There is no way publisher will release this, and if you don't it could be lost to time: Forever.
A: OK, I did it (9 years ago).

So, it looks like he dumped and uploaded the ROM as soon as he acquired the cart.