So, what exactly is the big deal about non-greatest hits games?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I totally get the whole thing about greatest hits looking bad on a shelf, but at the end of the day is really that important? Do u get games to play or to look nice on a shelf? I mean, I'll pick up a black label game over greatest hits, but if I see a game thats real good, that I've been wanting to play but its a greatest hits, is the different label that important? I used to be about everything being uniform on a shelf, but in the end, I kinda regret not buying particular games just cuz of the stupid label.

[Emperor Megas]

Do u get games to play or to look nice on a shelf?

I'd wager most collectors get them to do both, and they spend a lot more time being viewed as shelf pieces than actually being played. You can only play a game as time allows, but they're ALWAYS visible (assuming you display your games).

[Rickstilwell1]

Greatest Hits don't look too bad on a shelf as long as you keep them separated from the non GH stuff. If you really like a particular game you're probably going to want to collect the different versions of its release too.

[Tanooki]

You know in those few rare cases where the PS1 2 or 3 game in GH form may have added stuff or a critical fix, it's not that much of a stretch to eventually track down a spare case/spine(or cover) art and just stuff the 'GH' style disc within. No eye sore, no bugs. Problem is you can't do it with Nintendo stuff as it has been on the sticker in the cart days.

[SeberHusky]

To put it short and to the point...it's rarity.

Has nothing to do with what is "the best", how it looks , etc.
Greatest Hits titles are released 1 to 2 years after the original game. If the original game sells well, they make more copies of the games, millions more. Thusly, the original run of the game had a smaller number of pressings for it compared to a Greatest Hits title. Because of that, that makes the black label rarer than the greatest hits title. Now, sometimes they do patch certain glitches or things or add extra content for greatest hits titles, but not all the time, and most don't care about that. (I personally collect for neatness due to my OCD, so seeing all those green borders messes me up.)

The best case I know of this happening is with the Spyro series. People will pay double the price of a Greatest Hits title for the original title (including myself). One example is trying to find the original Spyro: The Dragon as a black label, it's considerably harder to find it compared to the Greatest Hits version.

Back in May 2014, I paid $53 to buy back all the Spyro PS1 games I used to have, complete. I paid $20 each for Spyro 1 and 2 as a black label, but didn't have enough left for the black label of Spyro 3, so I had to cheap out and get the GH version.

[Tanooki]

Rarity is obvious, look at Rage Wars (Turok) on the N64. The non-color (gray) version fetches over $100 while the normal one is a dollar dumper. That gray game not only being overpriced, but it is one of the few that fixes a bug, a critical one no less that jacks the game up if you hit it too.

[FieryReign]

I'd wager most collectors get them to do both, and they spend a lot more time being viewed as shelf pieces than actually being played. You can only play a game as time allows, but they're ALWAYS visible (assuming you display your games).

Because we spend a good portion of our lives staring at a damn shelf....

[genesisguy]

It really shouldn't matter.

My copy of Revenge of Shinobi is from the "classic series" or whatever Sega called those rereleases of some of the original games. I don't care what it looks like on a shelf. For one, I have some games on a shelf and some in drawers so I really don't have a shrine that I stare at. Secondly, I collect Genesis games and there are a lot of weird colored boxes so there's really no uniformity.

My goal has always been to play the games. When I start caring what the carts or boxes look like then I need to find something better to do with my time.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Rarity is obvious, look at Rage Wars (Turok) on the N64. The non-color (gray) version fetches over $100 while the normal one is a dollar dumper. That gray game not only being overpriced, but it is one of the few that fixes a bug, a critical one no less that jacks the game up if you hit it too.

Well, this is only rare for a particular reason, cuz to get it you would have had to beat the 2-player mode, which not a ton of people do, and you would have had to encountered the glitch where the game is unbeatable, and called up Nintendo asking for a refund, for which they'd then offer u the fixed game on the black cart. That's why it's rare.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Rarity is obvious, look at Rage Wars (Turok) on the N64. The non-color (gray) version fetches over $100 while the normal one is a dollar dumper. That gray game not only being overpriced, but it is one of the few that fixes a bug, a critical one no less that jacks the game up if you hit it too.

Well, this is only rare for a particular reason, cuz to get it you would have had to beat the 2-player mode, which not a ton of people do, and you would have had to encountered the glitch where the game is unbeatable, and called up Nintendo asking for a refund, for which they'd then offer u the fixed game on the black cart. That's why it's rare.

But, I have zero interest in collecting these cart variants, it's pretty ridiculous. I'd like to maybe someday procure a complete N64 set, but this and the other cart variants on the system are just totally unnecessary in my opinion. Especially for the ridiculous prices. These should be sold for maybe $20 more than the asking prices.

They may be pretty up there in rarity though, I'm not sure, but it sounds like they could surpass Sculptor's Cut in terms of how few there are.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

To put it short and to the point...it's rarity.

Has nothing to do with what is "the best", how it looks , etc.
Greatest Hits titles are released 1 to 2 years after the original game. If the original game sells well, they make more copies of the games, millions more. Thusly, the original run of the game had a smaller number of pressings for it compared to a Greatest Hits title. Because of that, that makes the black label rarer than the greatest hits title. Now, sometimes they do patch certain glitches or things or add extra content for greatest hits titles, but not all the time, and most don't care about that. (I personally collect for neatness due to my OCD, so seeing all those green borders messes me up.)

The best case I know of this happening is with the Spyro series. People will pay double the price of a Greatest Hits title for the original title (including myself). One example is trying to find the original Spyro: The Dragon as a black label, it's considerably harder to find it compared to the Greatest Hits version.

Back in May 2014, I paid $53 to buy back all the Spyro PS1 games I used to have, complete. I paid $20 each for Spyro 1 and 2 as a black label, but didn't have enough left for the black label of Spyro 3, so I had to cheap out and get the GH version.

I totally get ur point, but the black label Spyro games are not rare. Sure they're a little more difficult to find then the Greatest Hits, maybe, but this is probably because so many collectors are holding on to the black labels now, and the greatest hits all end up on the shelves of retro game stores. I understand they look better in black, and if given the choice I'll always choose the black label for that reason, but I think it's gotten out of hand with the black label obsession. I have a lot of greatest hits in my PS1 collection, mostly from games I originally owned in the 90s, but I have no interest in re-buying these games like Crash and Spyro and Metal Gear which are all around the $15-$20 range, just so they look nicer. I'd rather just buy more good games I don't own yet.

Spyro games are common, they're everywhere, really. I have the first 2 but I'm missing the 3rd, and mine are greatest hits, and I don't care. They're not any more rare then say, Ape Escape, and I've seen both the Greatest Hits and black label selling for the exact same price in one shop. So what if they're maybe 15% rarer? People throw around the word rare way too much, I think. To me, if you can find it on Amazon or Ebay, it's not really that rare. Suikoden 2 is rare. Spyro black label is definately not rare. I guarantee u there's prolly just as much copies of Spyro out there as there are Super Smash Bros carts.

[Tanooki]

Wasn't it figured out there were maybe a couple thousand of the gray Turok Rage Wars made to how many ever hundred thousand(?) copies of the black cart? That's why it goes for stupid money. I had one I picked up for $5 and got well over $100 for it which was madness. I agree with you though that the variants shouldn't cost more when it's just a stupid piece of colored (or not) plastic with the same interior contents. I don't like having random colored carts unless it's 100% unavoidable (DOOM-SNES) so when I was bothering with N64 I always kept an eye out for a gray Hydro Thunder with no luck. It was like $10 for blue and $30 for gray and I wasn't having it.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Wasn't it figured out there were maybe a couple thousand of the gray Turok Rage Wars made to how many ever hundred thousand(?) copies of the black cart? That's why it goes for stupid money. I had one I picked up for $5 and got well over $100 for it which was madness. I agree with you though that the variants shouldn't cost more when it's just a stupid piece of colored (or not) plastic with the same interior contents. I don't like having random colored carts unless it's 100% unavoidable (DOOM-SNES) so when I was bothering with N64 I always kept an eye out for a gray Hydro Thunder with no luck. It was like $10 for blue and $30 for gray and I wasn't having it.

Fair enough. I actually like the different colored N64 carts, my collection, I have about 700 something games on 2 huge shelves, and I think the N64 color variants look cool. A colorful collection can be cool lookin. Idk, I'm weird about it too, I do like the uniform black PS1 games, but like I said it's not a huge priority of mine to weed out every greatest hits I own. I started really collecting games about 2 years ago and I already had about 30 PS1 games from the early 2000s I got when the PS2 was released, and I, for some reason, liked buying greatest hits games.

I can see why the grey Rage Wars cart is more, cuz it is rare and there's a certain story behind it, even tho it's not cool like the NWC cart, but why it has to be sooo much more, is beyond me. There are other cart variants on the N64 that are rare also and also sell for hundreds. Which, to me, is just stupid. But I like the random blue and yellow and gold carts in the stacks of N64 games, I think the different colors look good, and I kinda wish they weren't predominantly grey

[Tanooki]

I don't think it's hard to understand. You have a game let's say on the low end was produced with 100000 copies that sold in black. People discover a bug and complain, so a run of them are made, and so far to this point at least, it's known that there's maybe a couple hundred of them out in the wild, most out of a single box found by this one dude selling the 'new' in the plastic bag they shipped in while thrown in a larger box.

100000 vs 200~? That's why one game is $5 and one is over $100. The other stuff like Aidyn's Chronicles, Hydro Thunder, Army Men, they were largely produced in both colors, not an even split by any means, but having a 1:3 or 1:4 odds versus 1:10000 makes the difference. I don't like it, but that's how it is when people want to run the price up the flagpole on stuff, they find an excuse that works.

[o.pwuaioc]

I don't think it's hard to understand. You have a game let's say on the low end was produced with 100000 copies that sold in black. People discover a bug and complain, so a run of them are made, and so far to this point at least, it's known that there's maybe a couple hundred of them out in the wild, most out of a single box found by this one dude selling the 'new' in the plastic bag they shipped in while thrown in a larger box.

That guy sold them for next to nothing. The very next day all the resellers that bought them listed them on ebay for $$$$$$.

Fucking leeches.

[Tanooki]

Yup parasites alright. The same thing has now occurred with Retro City Rampage DX for PS4. The company made just 2000 physical releases of it, and it went for $25+4 shipping (I got one.) There are jerks online now trying to harm people who wanted it they cut them out of by selling it on ebay and the desperate are paying between $130-200 for it new with the pack-in fangamer zip bag with the extra little goodies. It's despicable.

[Gentlegamer]

I expect to see copies of the Targa repro that were sold through NA show up on ebay for $$$ soon.

[Tanooki]

Oh no doubt, that's how it goes with NA. They engineer a numbered release just for the entire purpose alone of having status and money behind it. There's no rational reason to limit the money you can make other than to prop up the value of a bootleg (which is what protos are, they're stolen goods often enough) so others will want it too and they'll pay to get whatever number they can down the road. The sleaze of old gaming behavior just widens as the years go in this decade. Eventually it'll implode.

[BlastProcessing402]

Some others also include additional content. Later releases of Resident Evil 2 (and, on the PS2, Silent Hill 2's GH includes the Restless Dreams scenario) for example.

RE2's additions came before the GH version, there was just a thing on the cover mentioning Dual Shock support or whatever.

RE Director's Cut did add the DS support when the GH version was released. Maybe you're conflating the two.

I'm going by American releases, it's possible it was different in other regions.

[Rickstilwell1]

All this talk about alternate cart shell colors has me wondering... what was the production split between blue carts and black carts of Bible Adventures for NES? I've had both but have no idea if one is more or less common than the other. I also have no idea which was the earlier print run or if they were simultaneous.