DefaultGen

I missed it! It looks like the same one based on the waves in the plastic. Brilliant! Thanks for making my day

I'm no PS2 expert, but GT3 came out in 2001 and had security seals throughout it being Greatest Hits. The console bundle version had different box art. AFAIK there's no re-release box set or anything. So... did IGS post a resealed Gran Turismo 3 front and center in one of their ads? Because if so, that's amazing and would make my day.

8/10, varied levels, decently challenging, secrets all over, obviously the graphics and music. When @Optomon counts down the top 50 SNES tracks, I'm sure Aquatic Ambiance will be on it. My only issues are it's a little loosey gooesy like most 16-bit platformers which isn't my favorite and the bosses are pretty worthless besides K. Rool. Also sometimes I have to play as Donkey Kong when I get hit as Diddy Kong

I'm also in the weeds of Japan, learning a lot about 80s computer games and early Nintendo variants/rarities. It's kind of twofold even because I'm also learning lots of variants that are going crazy in the US market. There's lots of new info free floating in space now. It sucks that there's nowhere it gets organized, but more collectors than just the deep, deep guys are looking into microscopic variants than ever I think. For better or worse, I'm getting around to many items on my "one day" want list. Had 2019 not happened I'd almost certainly be trying to box random Nintendo tapes or start collecting the PS or PS2 set. Since 2019 spooked me, I've stopped buying set fillers and am just paying up for more big ticket wants out of fomo. I mean, not the best reason, but I have tons of stuff like CIB Doom, CIB SMW, NewLeaf, MS Flight Simulator 1.0, super nice Magnavox Odyssey etc. that I've wanted forever but never got around to because they're expensive and not in a set project.

I don't know why we're fighting, but Pinball fits the bill. During the bonus stage, you can drain out the sides and you're fine, you just go back to pinball. But if you release Lady and fail to catch her, you lose your entire ball!

Another Ninja Gaiden: 90928

NWC Gold @ $1m on Ebay (smpratte's one that's been up for years) was the best deal in games earlier this week. If a gray cart is $180k and a Mario 64 is $1.5m (and thus earlier mint Zeldas, Marios, etc. are multiple millions by extension), NWC Gold should've sold instantly for $1m when that auction was over. But you guys missed your shot, he upped the price to $2m today.

This is both cool and it seems trivial to reproduce. No store branding or anything? Couldn’t you just… print up a receipt with any receipt printer?

Corruption confirmed

Tomb Raider already hit that

Beckett is a grader, price guide, and marketplace!

At least we'll get a Reserved Investments video about this

I bet everything will be considered low pop and there's a new gold rush wave to Ebay to buy all the things. Sports card and comic grading has been going on for decades. Even the most common game, like SMB or SMB3, won't be anywhere near how many Hulk 181s, Jordan Rookies, or Charizards have been graded. Yeah it costs multiple times as much to grade a video game, there's the sealed/CIB consideration, those hobbies are more popular, and game grading hasn't been around as long but people are one million percent going to compare numbers and prices 1 to 1.

Wata has a black box spreadsheet with most possible variants that goes over seals, Rev-A, etc.: https://www.watagames.com/learn/blog/post/nes-black-box-variant-guide/ Our own @0xDEAFC0DEhas a Zelda variant resource: https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/121-list-of-all-north-american-zelda-game-variants/ Most of the info is hidden on forums and social media posts and private conversations. It's crazy how this market works TBH. Lots of enormous sales this weekend were on games that people would call the less desirable versions (like a 100k late print FF7 that wasn't even mint).

Yo shut up I need that still!

Cabal, what do I win

Apparently an incomplete copy of 3.5" Doom v1.2 sold for $1700 today, which is the most common version. Jeeeeeez.

Awesome find. FWIW, the $5000 sale was a 5.25" v1.2. One also sold in 2020 CIB for $3100. The 5.25" v1.2 might actually be rarer than v1.1, but it's hard to say which is more valuable or if people even care. I'd certainly take v1.1 regardless of rarity. Another point of data is a set of loose master disks sold a couple years back (used in manufacturing but not the only ones) for like $1000, which is like the stone age now. If you do want to complete it, you would probably have to buy a CIB Doom v1.1 and swap the disks, which may take a bit to come up and would be pricey. All the Doom boxes are the same AFAIK. v1.1 has a specific manual that's mostly black on the back (rather than the more common gooey reddish one). There are many variants of the addendum because they were photocopied and corrected over time. As long as you have an addendum, I don't think the price will matter because no one knows which addendums go with which versions, if it's possible to tell at all. IMO it's difficult to a value on because it's hard to say how much more some big shot buyer would pay for the convenience of having the whole package CIB without hunting for nice components. I personally wouldn't sell them outside of an auction to avoid underpricing them. I would pay like $1000 for them, so there's your floor, but I bet someone would pay more. Also they've been counterfeited in the past so take good pictures if you do auction them.

OK but I'm going to reduce the production value because you're being demanding.

The Monkey Wrench puzzle is the main thing that sticks out about MI2 to me in my memory, like many people only think the Turbo Tunnel when they think Battletoads. The puzzle design is probably the reason I never continued the series. I don't remember as many specifics, just that the world was huge, there were many useless items, and the "logic" of the monkey wrench puzzle. I remember being frustrated with the logic of The Dig too but the music and atmosphere was so good it was easier to pixel hunt and avoid getting frustrated. I haven't played all the old adventure games, but MI2 is the hardest I remember that wasn't just because I got stuck on one crazy puzzle. Try Loom if you haven't. It's unique and easy

Doing the math sometimes makes my brain hurt.

Imagine keeping Keio Flying Squadron sealed for 25 years. It becomes the rarest Sega CD game and by far the most valuable, the last CIB copy going for $3000. You pay $100s to grade it. You send it into the biggest auction of sealed video games ever with a $1.5m sale. And after fees you get an $750 premium over the last CIB sale. Absolutely rekt. I need to buy more rare games because investors don't care at all.

HA knows so much about this market that no one else does They know what really sells to fat cat collectors, what sells back to cosigners, what they themselves buy, what bidding wars Rally and Otis are getting into, if these sales are going to all new people or the same 8 people are pumping them every week. People think Wata controls the market as the Wizard of Oz, but man Heritage has the most priceless information. In a market without even pop reports, imagine being the only one with the bidder history of the most expensive game ever sold.

Screw Guinness and their fake records, but her collection is awesome either way. I love weird 70s/80s electronic stuff. Cool collection for an electrical engineer to have too! 2500 is a lot of systems.

The best man. The “bubble” finally plateaued and we’re a couple years out from 100k Marios FOMO and corona times. Probably the most relaxing year for me in collecting!