Collector Stories - My First Boxed Super Famicom Game

I just got my latest eBay purchase in the mail. It's complete in the box Super Famicom game - that's the Japanese Super Nintendo, for any readers who don't know. I don't own a Super Famicom, but I do have a Super Nintendo with the two plastic tabs inside the cartridge slot removed, and that's the only modification you need to play a Japanese game on an American Super Nintendo. I'm not sure about European ones, but I'd imagine that it's the same process. There's no region lockout function on the Super Nintendo, making it very convenient for importers who don't want to spend $70 on a Super Famicom.

The game is SD Gundam GX. I am a huge fan of the Gundam franchise and I'm a sucker for buying games based on the franchise. In fact, I bought a PS3 when it came out because one of the launch titles was Gundam Crossfire, which turned out to be one of the worst games I've ever played in my life. But there are good games in the series, and this is one of them. It's a strategy game with some action thrown in, and while it isn't a particularly deep game, it serves it's purpose well for a Gundam fan. You control an army of mobile suits and battleships and blow up another army of mobile suits and battleships. But this isn't a review of the game. That'll probably come later. This is a review of the packaging for a boxed Super Famicom game. I've never even seen one of these before, so this is a first impression.


This is the second Super Famicom game I've bought, the first being the Japanese version of Pilotwings, but that was just the game itself, so I really didn't know what the box looked like.

It's about the size of a VHS, and it opens from the top. This specific box is in slightly shoddy condition, but it's acceptable. It's twenty something year old cardboard. You kind of have to expect that.

Shown for size comparison

The case contains a piece of plastic to hold the game in place, and if I remember right, the Super NES games only used a piece of cardboard, which is a lot less likely to survive for a couple decades.

The game itself rattles a little bit when I shake it, but it works. In fact, my copy of Pilotwings rattles as well. Maybe Super Famicom games rattle more than their Western counterparts. I've only ever had these two Super Famicom games, so it could just be these two specific carts and not a general thing among them. But they do look a little less well designed. They're closer to the shape of a Genesis cartridge, and those tend to have a little more rattling than Super Nintendo carts. Maybe they're just not as well designed.

Also, the game leaves a little bit of space in the cartridge slot of my Super Nintendo when I put it in. That's sort of obvious given the difference in shape between the cartridge and the cartridge slot, though.

The booklet isn't in great condition either, but again, it's almost twenty years old. It's a lot smaller than the American Super Nintendo booklets, but it feels like it's made out of the same kind of paper.

The manual itself

On top of the manual for Clayfighter for size comparison

Also, the manual has some pretty cool drawings of super deformed mobile suits in it.

One of my favorites, the Kampfer from Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket on the left, and the Double Zeta Gundam from it's eponymous series on the right.

And a recreation of an iconic scene from the original Gundam. That scene didn't take place in open space, though. I'm not sure why it does here.

Honestly, the wear and tear doesn't matter too much to me. I'm just glad to have this game in this good of condition. Collecting Super Famicom games might be my next collecting vice and there are a lot of people selling them in North America, which makes it easier for me than if I had to rely on a seller in Japan who I might not be able to communicate with if something goes wrong due to the language barrier, not to mention the huge shipping and handling price and the time it would take to get a video game from Yokohama to New York.

In any case, I'm going to sit down and play this game for a bit. Expect a review at some point.

Collector Stories - Verify Before Buying, Dumbass

You know how hard it is for me to not make stupid, impulsive purchases on eBay? Just before I started writing this, I had to talk myself out of a bidding war for a copy of Lethal Enforcers on the Sega Genesis - a game that I don't particularly like, but I wanted it because it came in the big box with the gun controller and everything. It's badass. But I had to force myself to say "No, I don't need it." But dammit, I want it. Anyway...

It's hard for me, as a collector, to pass up what I think is a really good deal. Especially if it's a friggin' awesome deal, like getting a game that's worth a thousand bucks for fifteen bucks because the seller doesn't know what he has. Let me explain...

Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Master System is a very common game in the European market, but given the commercial failure of the Master System in the North American market, there are very few copies of it made for the American market. Therefore, American copies of the game are extremely valuable. Like, a thousand dollars valuable. But European copies go for the equivalent of about five bucks, tops. And that's complete in the case, not loose. It's more common than dirt over there.

So, what's the difference between the two versions of the game? Nothing in terms of gameplay, or even the design of the cartridge or case. So, how can you tell the two versions apart?

The most expensive sticker ever.

You see that UPC sticker? That's the only difference. A sticker on the case. It's not even a part of the case itself. That sticker increases the value of the game 200 times over. And the kicker? That sticker is very easily counterfeited.

I bought this game on eBay, believing it to be the rare as hell American version of Sonic for the Master System. At the time, I had it confused about which version was the super expensive one, and after a small bit of research, I realized that I was an idiot. I bought it from a seller in England, and with the shipping, the price added up to about $13.

On one hand, I did see what may have been a UPC sticker on the back, exactly where it's supposed to be on the cartridge, and he didn't draw attention to it by mentioning it as the "SUPER RARE AMERICAN VERSION!!!" and his starting price was something like a single British pound. On the other hand, why the hell would an English seller have an American copy of this game? If it is the American version, it's unlikely that he counterfeited it, because why would he do that and then not draw attention to it while selling it and ask for a higher price?

I don't know. Regardless, it's not something I'm going to be able to sell, because it is so easy to counterfeit, that no collector would trust a seller's word on it unless they knew them, trusted them and could verify that the seller is the original owner. I can do none of that. Also, the seller is in a region of the world where the cheapo version can be found without any trouble.

At least I didn't get ripped off. Worst case scenario, I got a big name game for a console that I only have a small collection of games for. Best case scenario, I have a super rare game that I can't verify the rarity of, and therefore probably can't sell for more than a couple of bucks if I ever want to. I feel stupid, but I can't complain much. If I ever wanted the game, I wasn't going to get it for the market value. The price of shipping from Europe guaranteed that I'd be spending at least twice that price. I paid about the expected price.

I'll post an update when I get the game in the mail. The projected date of arrival is between the 15th and 17th of July.

Game Collecting Stories - My White Whale, The Lunar Games

I think most collectors have that one game, console or peripheral that has eluded them for a while to the point where it becomes something of an obsession. To the point where you feel like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick trying to kill that damned white whale. For some, it might be a big name collector's item like Earthbound, for others, a no name game that they really want like Spider-Man: Web of Fire on the 32X in an effort to complete their 32X collection (and why wouldn't you? It's such a great console, and Web of Fire isn't infamous for being one of the worst games on the 32X... Oh, wait. ) For my white whale, there's more to it than "I WANT THIS." It wasn't even a specific item I wanted, and the reasons for my obsession wasn't that it was a rare, expensive item, but that it kept slipping through my grasps.

It was Lunar 2: Eternal Blue for the Playstation. I saw a complete boxed copy for sale on eBay with all the cool stuff that came with it, the game, the soundtrack CD, the cool collectors items... all of it. Usually, that goes for about $100, easy. I didn't have that kind of money to spend, but I did have about $70. I figured I'd just keep the game on my watch list just out of curiosity to see how much it would go for. I was betting at least $120. I checked back the next day, and it was something like $55. I was pissed. I could have gotten it. There's a very good chance that the final bidder had a much higher bid than that, but it was worth a try. I might have a really kick ass collectors item and what's supposedly one of the best RPGs on the PS1 in my collection for about half the typical market value.

That's when it started. After another lost auction for the game (just the game itself in the standard double jewel case - none of the bells and whistles) it got worse. Then I saw a copy of Lunar: The Silver Star, the first game in the series at a thrift store. I was elated. I was about to get one of the Lunar games for a few bucks. I opened the case, and there was nothing inside. I asked the people who worked there if they kept the discs separate, but they didn't. They just had the empty case.

I will own you some day... You bastard.

That's the moment when it got personal. I went to GameStop and found the PSP game, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for $15. I didn't hesitate. I grabbed it, put it on the counter and laid down my money. I finally had one of those games. I didn't know if it was a port of the first game, the second, another game in the series I didn't know about or an entirely new game, but I didn't care. I owned a damn Lunar game. Anything else is irrelevant.

I got home, popped it in my PSP and turned it on and... giant ass crack on the screen. The PSP still worked, but I couldn't see a damn thing. I looked online to see if I could connect it to my PS3 and play it that way, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.

This was the point that I gave up. This was probably almost a year ago and I had put it out of my mind. Until now.

I just bought myself another PSP. I can now at long last play Lunar: Silver Star Harmony.

I just paid over $60 for a handheld console that I don't particularly care for, passing over a replacement for my long lost Nintendo DS that was roughly the same price

If this game isn't amazing, I'm going to be pissed.

My Thoughts on the Neo Geo

I've been saving up some cash for a while with the intention of buying some cool retro gaming stuff. Maybe a console. A few months ago, I got myself a 3DO for $40, and it sucks, because it's a 3DO, but there are some other consoles I've been thinking about for a long time. A Turbografx 16, a special edition N64 (maybe the Pikachu one, or maybe one that's just a different color than the standard gray or black), or maybe something obscure like the Casio Loopy, that sucks, but is a fun little conversation piece.

My holy grail as a collector however, is a Neo Geo. I've wanted one since I was a kid. It's the elite console of gaming. It has all the hardware power of an arcade cabinet in one giant clunker of a console with giant cartridges more than twice the size of a Super Nintendo cart.

The thing is that I'd have a Neo Geo except for one simple thing. The price point is absurd. I don't even mean that it's high. It's ridiculous.

The consoles themselves are a bit pricey. About $250 and up is the price I've seen on eBay. That's not ridiculous admittedly, but it's out of my price range. But I understand it. It's a top of the line game console with a rabid cult following. You can demand that price and people will pay for it. Fine. That's not what I'm talking about with the price point, though.

How much do you think a complete in box copy of King of Fighters '95 would go for? Consider that it's an entry in one of SNK's flagship series. It's a game in demand among Neo Geo owners because of that. But it's not rare for a Neo Geo game, you wouldn't think.

At the moment, there's one on eBay going for $2300. No, not $230. You missed that last digit. This thing's going for around the price of a cheap used car, a semester at a community college, or a Gretsch Country Gentleman, the guitar George Harrison used. At least if you have a Country Gentleman, you can play the opening guitar part from Revolution, which is admittedly pretty awesome. With a copy of King of Fighters '95, you can tell people that you spent $2300 on a video game and have them look at you like you're an idiot, and know in your heart that it's true because you could just get the PS1 version for like, $15 or better yet, a compilation of the first several games on the Wii for like, $20.

Okay, maybe you can get another game cheaper. Samurai Shodown 4 goes for a mere $1860. Again, not a typo

At a more reasonable less insane price are copies of Fatal Fury 2 and Art of Fighting 2, where the seller's only asking for $160. I'll stick with my Sega Genesis version of Fatal Fury 2, thanks. If the only other version available was the Super Nintendo version, $160 wouldn't be that insane, because the Super Nintendo port was atrocious.

But still, the price is a little high. And by that, I mean that it's still way out of the price range for most collectors.

In fairness, there's a copy of Samurai Shodown 2, arguably the best game in that series, going for $30 with an extra $17 for shipping. The shipping seems like a lot, but the seller's in Italy, so it's actually fairly reasonable for an import, considering that the average price for shipping inside the US for a Neo Geo game is $10.



If I wanted to blow $50, I might consider buying Samurai Shodown 2 even if I can't play it. It's a pretty cool shelf piece, and if I ever do get the console, I'd have one of the best games on it already, and for a decent price too.

In any case, I know what I'm going to do if I ever hit the lottery. I'll own all of these games, put them in a glass case and bring my other game collecting friends over to my house just to rub their noses in the fact that I blew thousands of dollars on games that I can get near perfect ports of on the PS2 and the Wii for much, much less.