Top Ten Most Collectible Video Games

Obiwan Kenobi writes "Gamespy has a new article up on the Top Ten All Time Rarest Video Games. This wacky list includes such gems as Chase the Chuck Wagon and Bubble Bath Babes, the only NES game with nudity (square nipples, anyone?). Makes me wonder what the top ten rarest PC games are..."

Great read

[Mupp252]

I can see collecting vintage video games becoming a hobby much the same as people who collect vinyl and record players.

Sure, you can always get the emulated version of the game or the mp3 version of the album.. but it's just not the same.

Chuckwagon is not all that rare

[freeweed]

This is sort of an urban legend type thing amongst game collectors, but the cart itself isn't all that rare. Thankfully, the article even points this out:

It is neither the rarest nor the most enjoyable Atari 2600 game

The article isn't so much about the 10 rarest games, as it is the 10 most collectible/sought after games. And considering "Prototypes" is #2, it's not even much of a top 10 list at that :)

Oh, and for anyone interested in that Gold NES cart - yes, it's been dumped. I know I won't be shelling out $6k+ anytime soon to play the real thing.

Note that 'Collectable' don't exactly mean 'Good'.

[Bonker]

'Chase the Chuckwagon?' WTF I would have thrown that game away with other favorites like 'Avoid the Noid' and '7-up Spot'. Seriously...

Top Ten Games that Don't Suck and I'd still willingly pay money for:

Doom - PC - FPS Grandaddy.
Battlezone - 2600 or any other platform since.
Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES, SNES - Miyamoto's best work, IMHO.
Metroid - NES. I once saw a prototype/display cartridge at Sears Roebuck in which Samus had a heart meter instead of a power meter.
Burgertime - Colecovision? Arcade classic, at any rate. I can still play Burgertime for hours at a time on Mame.
Galaga - Ditto.
Legend of Zelda - NES - Excellent game design by Miyamoto before there really was such a thing.
ChronoTrigger - SNes - All kinds of RPG Goodness from Square.
Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis. The first 'Twitch' game I ever played. Sonic rocked my world.
Excitebike - NES - One of the first games you could truly edit. My friends and I would spend hours making nasty, yet well designed tracks to race through. We went so far as to write the letter/number track parts down because the save feature never worked quite right. I always assumed it was for the floppy-endabled Famicom.

Re:OMG!!!

[Lumpy]

better yet contact the next highest losing bidder and offer it to him for $5500.00..

screw ebay, they just want their cut.

Chase the Chuckwagon is crap!

[Junks Jerzey]

It has always been crap, and even it's creator has stated that it's not a good game. Just because something is rare doesn't mean it's worth collecting.

Re:OMG!!!

[NeMon'ess]

The value will not increase indefinitely. Like many SNES games, as the system dies their price declines. As it becomes difficult to locate new copies the price goes up again. In time most every collector who wants a copy will acquire one and the price will decline again. Everything pre-NES was before I could ride a bike (age 5) and I don't remember them nor care about the games. The same will happen with the SNES in time. Do you think kids born in 1990 will be ebaying Contra III for a hundred dollars in ten years? I highly doubt it. Every gamer from that era probably has their copy already so there won't be much demand anymore. My personal target is a copy of Snatcher for the Sega CD for $40 or less. HEY how about that, ebay's got it for $33 and 18 hours left. I doubt it'll stay that low as most auctions end at about 55.

M.U.L.E.

[ackthpt]

I've probably got the first Zork game for Apple][ computers, back before they called it Zork I. It was simply Zork.

I've tried a couple times to buy M.U.L.E. with the original packaging, manual, disk, etc. on eBay and see it regularly surpass $35. When accounting for inflation it's still lost some value, but I can't imagine an E.T. VCS cartridge doing better, what with 10 million or so of them disposed of. ("Just when did Earth get that second moon?")

I've still got a stack of Apple magazines from 80-81 and a couple promotional posters, one for Sneakers and the other, IIRC, for Beer Run. Rest assured, they're safely stowed.

Re:Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy...

[boinger]

I still have a few working TI-99/4a decks with Parsec.

And Hunt the Wumpus, and TI-Invaders, and bunch of other games.

I should hook one up to the big-screen TV. hehe.

Why Collectible?

[Junior J. Junior III]

Games are software.
Software is bits.
Bits are infinitely copyable.

Why is any game rare? If it is rare, it must mean few people are copying it. If few people are copying it, it must mean it's not popular. If it's not popular, chances are better than fair that it sucks.

I could give a ratfuck about the original packaging.

Re:Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy...

[sjudd]

I remember choplifter for the TI-99/4a - trust me, you dont wanna know. I was a Parsec legend