58 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Can anyone give me insight into how this price is reached? Like what factors play into it going to 90k?

2 or 3 to exist, so it's rare. 

Castlevania so cool?

A ton of money on the sideline from other HA auctions and switching into favorites or better long term holds?

Bitcoin went brrr so time to splurge?

Maybe a quick flip? Raw -> grade gets $110k?

Honestly curious. People saying they're not surprised by $90k but that's more than most grails in other sectors of the collectors markets. And those are for graded items. Pivotal game, sure but not historic in my book. 3 is a better game but I guess missing the hangtab factor? $90k is 3x $30k. Like, that's a proper amount of cash.

I feel people are numb to these huge numbers. It's $10k over $80k. That's nothing to stick your nose up at. It makes me think these purchases are with funny money from big profits pulled from other sales. 

I think any combination of what you said might be the case. If I had to guess, I would say someone with a good amount of disposable income (a millionaire) who remembers playing the NES and Castlevania, and decided this was a great investment opportunity.

As to whether 3 is a better game (it sure is), that does not factor into the price because this is the ORIGINAL Castlevania, one of the most influential games of all time. I would absolutely say Castlevania is "historic" and "pivotal" -- I could walk down the street telling people how important Our Town is to the American zeitgeist and why Thornton Wilder is a genius... and people will stare blankly. But, for better or worse, everyone will know what Castlevania is...  Anyway, while I think Castlevania III is fabulous, it's like saying "I think Mickey's Christmas Special is much better than Steamboat Willie" -- that may be the case, but Steamboat Willie is the first appearance of Mikey Mouse and will always be the more valuable and scarce collectible. 

7 hours ago, RH said:

You kind of get sticker-shock when you see that much money floating around a hobby that hasn't been that way for the prior 20 years.  I imagine that's the shock because even I feel that way from doing this for about 8 years now.

Yeah, the genie is out of the bottle. Now that games can be graded, there's no going back. Very much along the lines of all other highly collectibles -- Star Wars, GI Joe, Magic the Gathering, comic books, etc. -- once something can safely be authenticated and then sealed so that it basically appreciates in value, prices go up and up. Again, 20 years ago a Black Lotus was around $1k -- one recently sold on ebay for over $28k

1 minute ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I feel like this thread is a veiled excuse for @avatar! to vent his Slay the Spire frustrations yet again 

I mean, to be fair, how can you review one without the other

3 hours ago, Gloves said:

*ahem*

Sure you could in principle get super unlucky and get obliterated, but it's worlds apart from Slay the Spire   Also, to be clear, it's not that Inscryption doesn't have it's challenges, especially at the beginning. But, from start to finish it's about 10-15 hours and the game truly is meant to be experienced and completed. There's no artificially increasing the playtime by needlessly making enemies super challenging or always starting from scratch as in Slay the Spire --

My frustrations with Slay the Spire, 100 hours later

https://www.giantbomb.com/slay-the-spire/3030-59383/forums/my-frustrations-with-slay-the-spire-100-hours-late-1822259/

I have NEVER beaten the Awakened One...Yeah screw The Awakened One. I've beaten the games 4-5 times or something, but never won against him/that. I feel it was stupidly poorly balanced ...I really hope they change/balance the last bosses some more.

I did beat the Awakened One, it was tough, but I got lucky. And therein is the major problem with Slay the Spire, even if you play it for hundreds of hours, at the end, it comes to luck. While you can grind in Inscryption, there's really no point. Slay the Spire on the other hand SHOULD have a mechanism to strengthen your deck or at least re-balance the bosses so that it's not entirely RNG dependent -- as it stands, that's exactly what it is, RNG dependent.

11 hours ago, Brickman said:

I’ll check it out next year.

One thing I didn’t like about Slay the Spire is how random it could be. People here and in reviews commented how random it can be to beat the corrupt heart. This put me off and I never finished the game.

Is this game like that? I don’t mind a bit of RNG but not if I’m going to spend more time fighting against it.

Inscryption shares some game mechanics with Slay the Spire, that's really about it. I feel that in Spire you have:

1)Limited growth.
2)It's all about RNG.
3)No saves -- have to start from scratch every time -- gets incredibly BORING.
4)Artificially increase the game time by making the last stage incredibly challenging, so that's it's all about the RNG to win.
5)And lastly, is there a story or plot?

Inscryption basically bypasses all of the faults above. Again, without spoiling, let me say Inscryption wants you to win, it's the opposite of artificially increasing the difficulty. Even if you're "not so good" at deck building, you will complete the game, and what a marvelous game it is

2 minutes ago, NostalgicMachine said:

Battletoads (NES)

Battletoads/Double Dragon (NES)

Battletoads was amazing, but yeah, I almost always blew it on that POS level

2 minutes ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

Your words are enough for me to atleast try it out.  What platform did you play on?

I played it on the PS5, had no glitches or any issues. As far as I can tell it's solid on any platform. Definitely want to hear your thoughts on it! My only advice: don't look anything up, just play and enjoy the journey...

I will write a short review of the game later. I actually finished Inscryption a few months ago, and I like to let a game linger for a moment, that way I can truly decide what I think of it! Yes, no doubt, Inscryption is a masterpiece. The basic premise of the game is that it's a "roguelike deck-building game" similar to Slay the Spire. I am happy to say that while it outwardly shares traits similar to Slay the Spire, it is far superior in basically every way. I have to think about what to carefully say in the review, because in my mind the greatest strength of the game is the story. It's amazing, and the journey from start to finish is beautiful.

I'm old(ish), like quite a few of you on here
So yeah, I've played games from the NES to the PS5 and very few are ones I will truly remember fondly. Inscryption is one of them. It's something to be experienced.

10 hours ago, drxandy said:

I started collecting some more autographed items:

Dev team signed copy of Project Gotham Racing 2

 

Guitar Hero Live guitar autographed by James Franco and Lenny Kravitz from the ad campaign

 

Very cool! Do they come with some guarantee of authenticity? There are so many fakes out there (not saying yours are), you gotta be careful. WATA has started something that authenticates video game autographs, which is great! It's similar to what CGC does for autographed comic books --

https://blog.watagames.com/2023/07/17/welcome-to-watagraphs/

That said, they've only done a handful of games, it would be lovely if they do more.

NES sports games -- my favorite were Blades of Steel and Tecmo Bowl.

I don't consider Mike Tyson's Punch-Out a true "sports game" -- although it absolutely is a fabulous classic!

18 hours ago, Tabonga said:

This is just pathetic.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13250905/Woman-jaw-wired-shut-stranger-punches.html

This walking piece of feces gets off with a misdemeanor despite the severe harm that was done.  Not to mention his lengthy history of this stuff.  Who the fuck decided to cut him loose and do you think it just might happen again?

Effin NYC, what do you expect? I've said this numerous times, years and years ago, NYC was a safe place. You felt if anyone tried anything violent police would not tolerate it. Now, thanks to some people (politicians) the police are neutered and people are fending for themselves. At this rate, you gotta wonder when people are just going to say "enough is enough" and start shooting/killing violent criminals that just get released over and over and over...

5 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That only mean you get the spot ahead of me.

 

21 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

THE MARKET FOR MYSTERY HOUSE HAS JUST EXPLODED

I saw like two copies in the past year. The one you just linked, which is still in the process of exploding someone's wallet, and just the disk. Like cartridges for the NES etc, the disk is certainly valuable but not THAT valuable -- to be fair, you could fake one of those pretty easily. However, the insert is much harder to fake and can be authenticated, and that's where the money is. It really is a piece of gaming history so I can't blame people for bidding like crazy. I wonder if the seller had any idea? Can you imagine thinking your game would hopefully go for a couple of hundred and then you see it's within a day or two $4000+

18 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

There's a couple Mystery Houses on Ebay. This one looks really nice and is an early-ish print. I dunno how to authenticate these, but given that sells old computer stuff, it seems legit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176306040636

WOW

Still 5+ days to go --

18 hours ago, Tabonga said:

I've heard of cheeseheads ........ but legoheads?

https://news.yahoo.com/lego-requests-california-police-department-185122495.html

That's Cali for you!

The police department noted:

20 hours ago, Tulpa said:

I laughed, and then realized I just reserved my place in hell.

Nah, that's nothing. Remember this --

6 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Mercari getting rid of selling fees?

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/s/GQfbYsyaOV

I'm honestly not familiar with Mercari. Did a quick look -- looks like they definitely have some good stuff, but just a tiny fraction of what ebay has.

6 hours ago, G-type said:

Sine Mora
Beamrider
Strikeforce
Recca summer carnival
Turmoil
Lifeforce

Color me surprised, but somehow I figured a member with the screen name of "G-type" who has an image of R-type as their picture would list R-type as a favorite 

More fakes

If you take a look, it looks like the P-station is absolutely spelled out "Playstation" much in the same ways as the original. The bootleggers clearly just photoshopped a few characters in the first pic. I would imagine that these fakes are probably clearly fakes in the hands of someone who knows what they are looking for, but again this is going to dilute the market and make it hard for everyone

2 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Just taking a swag attempt off the top of my head

• Slaughterhouse Five
• Catch 22
• Animal Farm
• 1984
• A Bridge to Terabithia
• The Witches
• The Wind in the Willows
• The Lord of the Flies
• Of Mice and Men
• The Shining
• Misery
• The Stand
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Let the Right One In
• A Song of Ice and Fire
• The Lord of the Rings
• Mistborn
• Hyperion
• The Terror (reading now, but serious candidate)
• Snow Crash
• The Forever War
• The Wasp Factory
• The Books of Blood
• American Psycho
• Masters of Doom

All well known stuff, but it's my true list

Have you read The Night Circus? I just started it, so far so good. We'll see what I think the farther in I get

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Circus

2 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'd have to think about.  If I say The Shining and The Stand I'm going by stuff 25+ years ago 

Fair, I know our changes and sensibilities definitely change. Still, feel free to list what in your mind are your favorites, even if you haven't read them in a good while

Gradius III was my favorite back in the day! But, I was also a big fan of R-type. Wow, those games were also super hard! My favorite of the more recent games is Ikaruga. I will say, I am FAR from "good" at these games. I enjoy them, but I'm not someone that can make it to the end of a bullet hell unless I seriously tone down the challenge or cheat

I know some folks on here are experts, so I wanted people's opinion! What are your favorite games in the genre, and on what systems? Also, any truly great compilations that are worth tracking down?

I will say, as a fan of the Everade, I have to give kudos to Irem Arcade 1 which includes the original arcade version of R-type. I know R-type was ported to numerous consoles, but as far as I know the Evercade is the only official arcade release which is cool -- EDIT: I think R-Type Dimensions EX also includes the original arcades which can be played in both updated or retro graphics -- can someone confirm this? Now I also know that Irem is releasing a 5-disc Collection and so far of the three announced game lists NONE of them include R-type, yeah seems strange to me. 

https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/collections/irem-collection-vol-1/products/irem-collection-vol-1-5-bundle-playstation-5

That, and why exactly do we only get only three games per PS5 disc -- yeah, to maximize profitability, I get it. Still kinda sucks. But anyway, talk games to me...

Edit: Also, if anyone can help me figure out what games are included in the gazzilion and 1 Darius Collections that have been released, that would be great! SLG has released I have no idea how many compilations, and they never seem to include an actual list of the games...

25 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I love The Forever War.  Probably in my top 25.

One of my favorites too!

Okay, what are your top 25?

13 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Blah.  Nonstop, boring proselytizing, theorizing, moralizing.  Now I know why I gave up on it as a kid.

It's interesting just how influential the book is, but like you, I could not get into it. Admittedly when the book came out there really wasn't anything like it, and so today we're more likely to think "power suits? mechs? that's not new!" but of course Heinlein basically is the father of mechs. and back then it was new. Still, the book with it's plusses and minuses just bored me. Probably does not help that I strongly disagree with much of Heinlein's militaristic philosophy. Well, I slowly did get through it, but I would never read it again. Stranger in a Strange Land is so much better.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend reading The Forever War -- it's basically Joe Haldeman's response to Heinlein. Interestingly enough both Haldeman and Heinlein were in the military, and both have very different viewpoints. I tend to agree with Haldeman, and arguably even more importantly, The Forever War is just a wonderful read -- it's in my opinion what Starship Troopers should have been

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Mods Undercut Capcom’s Controversial Microtransactions, Dish Out Infinite Save Slots

https://www.ign.com/articles/dragons-dogma-2-mods-undercut-capcoms-controversial-microtransactions-dish-out-infinite-save-slots

Just days after Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched amid a controversy over its microtransactions, modders have worked their magic, making much of what publisher Capcom is selling day-one available for free.

As IGN has reported, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is currently embroiled in a vociferous debate about its day-one microtransactions, which let players pay real-world money for useful items in the $70 single-player action role-playing game.

Items that can be obtained in-game or as paid DLC items include a character editor called Art of Metamorphosis, warp location markers (Portcrystals), Wakestones, which restore the dead to life, and gaol keys, which, as you’d expect, let players escape from gaol. Players can also buy a lightweight Explorer’s Camping Kit for $2.99.

These microtransactions have sparked a controversy not just for the sheer number available day-one, but because they make parts of the game deliberately designed to challenge players in certain ways either easier, less frustrating, or quicker. Players have already pointed out that these microtransactions help with fast-travel, which in Dragon's Dogma 2 is restricted.

At the end of the day, players are upset and I can't blame anyone. For most it feels like a slap in the face. These are not just cosmetic items, if that was the case I would be "okay, sure, who cares" but these are truly useful and arguably "important" items in the game, at least most people would certainly argue fast travel is important.