Author Topic: Lament (Read 311 times)

vestcoat · « **on:** August 29, 2006, 09:31:38 PM »

Finding games for NEC consoles keeps getting harder and more expensive every year. I still can’t believe I had opportunities to buy Dynastic Hero for less than $50 as recently as 2004.
It's 2006 and here are some signs of the times:
1)   The West Exit closed. Did any of you guys notice this? They were the only reliable seller on ebay that didn’t charge premium prices. Dream Stars and 16-Bit are trustworthy and I’ve picked up a handful of uncommon games from them that weren’t unreasonably priced but usually their prices are up there with whatever Bullseye is calling himself these days.
2)   TZD continues to shrink. The last year has seen the extinction of Loom, Hit the Ice, Somer Assault, all of the TV Sports games and probably some more I didn’t notice.
3)   Gameexpress.com is cleaned out. Technically, yes, they still have Madden Duo Football but I don’t count that.

This point isn’t too frustrating because we had a fun little buying frenzy on this forum last year when everything was ten bucks.
4) Japan Game Stock had copies of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari for about $100 until a month or two ago. At the time it was too rich for my blood but now I doubt I’ll ever see it for less than $200 on ebay.
5) I know Telegames.com stopped selling retro games some time ago. I just discovered telegames.co.uk threw in the towel as well. The url now directs you to some Direct4games site that has only a shadow of the stock telegames used to. I never purchased anything from them because of overseas shipping charges and the horrendous exchange rate pretty much doubled the prices but it was always comforting to see someone still selling brand new Duo and SGX decks with a huge selection of games all in the shrinkwrap. For what it’s worth, they currently have Ys 3 brand new for 30 pounds if anyone is desperate.

It will be interesting to see if the TG16 games released on the Wii have any effect on the retro market. Maybe new gamers will get a taste and start collecting the originals, further increasing demand. Depending on how many games are released, maybe some people will be content with a virtual collection and sell off their dusty old hard copies, finally bringing some prices down. Of course, emulators have been around for years and most likely there will be no change whatsoever.

Perhaps the Wii will be nothing more than the last spark of interest in the inevitable decline of the Turbo…one final hiccup in the doomed history of NEC consoles.

Keranu · « **Reply #1 on:** August 29, 2006, 09:41:23 PM »

I feel your pain and it hurts me to see the things you mentioned as well, like stores closing down, TZD's stock selling out, and prices raising stunningly. I hope the Wii can help things, but I don't really know if I can count on it.

vestcoat · « **Reply #2 on:** August 29, 2006, 10:02:05 PM »

On the plus side, I counted today and there are only about 60 US releases that I don't have. This means i'm about half way there. Most of what's left is cheap and easy to get. I'm content with my import copies of Cotton, Terraforming and Bonk 3, so the only expensive games I don't have are Magical Chase (which i'm not even going to bother with), Dynastic Hero, Godzilla and Beyond Shadowgate. I'll have to scrounge around a little for Neutopia 2 and Legend of Hero Tonma but otherwise I'm on easy street.
This is the first time in years i don't have that "must-buy-games-now-before-prices-go-up" feeling.

PC Gaijin · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2006, 12:42:21 AM »

I figured The West Exit was gone since his eBay store is no longer valid. He's been showing up occasionally on eBay listing a few dozen games at a time. I guess he's clearing out the last of his stock. I bought a couple PC Engine games off him. Decent prices with Buy It Now.

I was kind of hoping things like the Virtual Console would kill demand for older Turbo stuff just because I'm selfish and would like to see prices drop. All I can say about some of the Turbo prices I've seen lately is...I'm so glad I bought pretty much all the Turbo games I wanted a long time ago when they were readily available and cheap. Prices for stuff like Dynastic Hero, Beyond Shadowgate, M&MIII, Magical Chase, etc. are kind of ridiculous. Sometimes I wonder what really drives the prices on some of these. I mean, they can't be that rare. All of those games were available from TZD through at least the late 90s for $40-50 or less. Hell, even prices for Ys Book I & II are going up. WTF is up with that? That game isn't even remotely rare, I mean it was only the most popular Turbo CD along with being a pack-in with the Duo.

TZD was selling those new as recently as two or three years ago for $30.

One thing I've done in the past few years is stock up on hardware while I can still get it new. Whether it's from TZD or places like Game Express, I've bought all the taps, controllers, cables, light guns, and other crap I would ever need for the Turbo and Saturn (my two favorite systems). Speaking of Saturn, Game Express used to have a pretty good selection of domestic titles, but they're almost cleaned out now. Funny that most domestic Saturn games used to be worthless except for a couple of RPGs and late releases, but I guess collectors are finally running out of imports and such to buy. Anyone know what the deal is with the US release of Winning Post for Saturn? Prices on that game have really skyrocketed lately. It has to be collectors because...it's a horse racing game for gods sake. I bought that game brand new for $5 five years ago. I'm really tempted to sell because I mean c'mon...horse racing!? But I'm kind of waiting to see exactly how high prices will go on it.

GUTS · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2006, 08:27:34 AM »

I don't think there's anything selfish about wishing the virutal console will help drop prices, I mean I have no problem paying up to $100 for a rare game, but when it gets over that it's really f*cking ridiculous. Plus it's like collecting Turbo games is the cool thing to do now, so everybody and their f*cking mom is doing it. It sucks because I've owned all the really expensive games at one time or another but sold them thinking I'd be able to just buy them back in the future, but with prices as they are there's no way in hell I'm spending $500 on a damn video game.

T2KFreeker · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2006, 08:39:29 AM »

Direct 4 games is a scam! They were coming over to the JSII website, a huge Jaguar fan forum, promising to slash prices so they could build a bigger fasn base and give us gamers a chance to get some real gameage going on. The sad truth is that most prices stayed the same and a few even went up. It's like Telegames just decises to change their name and boost prices, that way people wouldn't think it was Telegames doing it and it wouldn't hurt their reputation where new releases are concerned. We all laughed when we saw "Space Ace" for the Jaguar on the site for 130 pounds, that was a sign that things weren't on the up and up.
I see your point on the signs though, games are getting harder and harder to find, of course, I am lucky to know some damn cool people who did collect, so I am happy to see that I do get deals from time to time.

We all knew this would happen though as The Turbo has been around for quite some time and it is building new fan bases constantly. Even one person is one more person you have to fight for that game that you wanted!

esteban · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2006, 12:08:15 PM »

Not to upset you further, vestcoat, but if the Wii is successfull and the TG-16 games really get a second chance at life, it might very well make things even worse.

Why?

Assuming that virtual TG-16 is mildly successful, there will suddenly be even more demand for the hardware/software if only a fraction of retro-gaming Wii owners decide to get a TG-16 / Duo and some games.

Of course, I'd rather the prices drop. Plus, hopefully my economic theory is totally bogus and I forgot some important factor.

* Useless Trivia: "Lament" is a great album (and song) by Ultravox, by the way. I recommend folks check it out.

Quote from: "GUTS"

I don't think there's anything selfish about wishing the virutal console will help drop prices, I mean I have no problem paying up to $100 for a rare game, but when it gets over that it's really f*cking ridiculous. Plus it's like collecting Turbo games is the cool thing to do now, so everybody and their f*cking mom is doing it. It sucks because I've owned all the really expensive games at one time or another but sold them thinking I'd be able to just buy them back in the future, but with prices as they are there's no way in hell I'm spending $500 on a damn video game.

Indeed. I myself can't believe that I've *raised* the upper-limit on what I consider outrageous. A few years ago, $100 was the absolute most I'd pay for a game without feeling like a friggin' sucker. Today, however, I've crept closer to the $150-$175 range... and I am poor with no expendible income. As I've said elsewhere, I consider all of my video game purchases to be a waste of money (I don't sell my games, so they aren't an investment that will ever be realized).

It's really sad, because I *used* to think that NeoGeo fans (especially back in the day) were crazy, but now they don't seem so bad when TG-16 games are fetching such ridiculous prices. NeoGeo was always a high-end luxury: how in the hell did TG-16 become one?