I don’t want to buy games digitally anymore until I can actually own the game rather than the license. But then some freak on eBay is asking for $500 for a copy of Klonoa on the PS1. Then there are even more freaks who are willing to bid higher than that! Then the smaller retro games stores around me base their prices on these prices. There needs to be a price cap on this stuff. We can’t let all of the richest nerds control the economy.
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Videogame publishers not caring about their backcatalogs. If they’d care about preservation and actual long term gain, they’d make old games available.
It took EA so long to make Sims 1 and 2 available. It felt like they actively hate money. And there are plenty of other games that people would love to buy and that are just not made available.
If owning the physical retro game is the only way to play the game (legally) that will help drive up prices.
This is of course but one of the reasons.
You can make many backup copies of your rom collection. Not so with old discs that are not reading, or carts suffering from bitrot or physical damage.
With retro gaming; emulation IS the way forward. Physical media is more of a display piece for nostalgia maniacs, or an investment for speculators.
On every retrogaming forum I’ve ever been on, this has been a topic and it’s been a topic for at least 15 years. A few practical bits of advice:
- The cheapest games will always be last generations games
- Anything not deemed “retro” yet is cheap
- Nintendo is always super expensive unless it’s Wii or handheld
- Anything Xbox is cheap
- PC is cheap, unless it’s big box, but even then sellers will sell big box for cheap because they often don’t know what they have
- There’s nothing wrong with buying from GOG, burning to disc, and making your own labels and box art—which is easy to do because it’s DRM-free
- Except for PS1, Sony is cheap. But even then PS1 is cheaper than N64 or Saturn.
- Nothing wrong with an Everdrive, especially since that’s the best way to play aftermarket games
Emulators are your friend. Hoarders, graders, and scalpers can go suck a railroad spike.
Supply and demand, since they’re all collectors items now.
And I hate to say this but also the success of vintage/retro PC and video game channels on YouTube.
On the flipside this has led to a whole slew of new businesses that cater to people who just play the ROM’s and even new mini PC’s just to play vintage/retro games on.
Yep, it’s the collectors’ market. I say that as someone inspired by those very YT channels to get into the hobby myself. But I’m just looking to get games I remember and enjoy, not looking to get whole complete collections or anything. If a game I have my eye on becomes some “holy grail” $500 thing, I can live without it. What helps me, though, is living in a bigger town for a rural area that does have one or two brick-and-mortar retro game stores, where I may be able to find games I’m looking for at below eBay prices. That’s another hint; hit up the physical shops you may have near you, be they specialized game shops or even thrift stores. Diamonds in the rough do exist sometimes.
EDIT: I mention rural areas specifically because they usually won’t have as much demand driving up prices as the big urban areas will, even if supply is lower.
Not expensive when you live in the Indian ocean
Scarcity. Those games are no longer in print so there is no new units to bring the price down.
Scarcity and some artificial scarcity called grading. Take for example Pokémon vintage trading card game packs. Base set has a bunch of print differences but even buying a normal unlimited version pack is $300-400. The value of a Charizard, if you pull it out of that pack, is ~$200-400 raw. However, if you grade it and it comes back a 10, it’s suddenly “worth” $1000+.
This is not quite as prevalent in video games but it is happening. The price of popular Pokémon games that are complete in box are sky high because someone somewhere wants to buy it and submit it for the chance it’s “worth” 10x the price.
Pricecharting.com is your friend. Patience is a virtue.
Good luck with that.
