Have you ever thought about this?

[Wavelflack]

Here's some food for thought:

Look at your copy of Mach Rider. Go ahead. It's in your NES section, if you didn't remember it.
Now look at your copy of Urban Champion.
While we are in the same section, keep an eye out for 10- Yard Fight.


These games were 1st gen NES games. They were on the market so early, they probably never had a chance at being reduced in price or put on "clearance".

You probably got those games for a buck or less, but they were USED.
This means that somewhere along the line, someone paid full price for them.
Some kid probably got them for Christmas.


Can you imagine?
I never received any "full price shit games". I had friends, however, that had stupid and/ or nondiscriminating parents. Several of my friends got 10 Yard Fight for christmas, that first year the NES was out. I got Metroid. One friend also got Urban Champion. I got Trojan. My cousin had a friend who was really good at Mach Rider, because that's all he had (besides SMB, of course).
You can guess which party was trying to borrow games from the other. No thanks. Not even with 1942 thrown in for good measure.


Anyway, the idea here is that most of the 1st gen and up to the middle generation NES games were NOT marked down at all. Which means that someone paid full price for Back To The Future and (most incredible of all) Stack Up.

People actually paid for Stack Up!
"Billy, your Mom and I noticed how much fun you had with Gyromite, we decided to get you another Grinding Robot Game!"
"Thanks, Dad! Zelda looked stupid anyway!"

[GarrettCRW]

Depending on what Nintendo's policy regarding clearance merchandise was back in those days, I can easily see some of the weaker sisters of the black box games hitting clearance. For one thing, the original TV spot showed the following games in action:

Super Mario Bros.
Duck Hunt
Hogan's Alley
Kung Fu
Baseball
Excitebike

It seems likely that Nintendo knew which of the black box titles were rubbish, and therefore gave junk like the ROB games and Urban Champion lower productions runs. And even if Nintendo was obliged to take back unsold stock at first, some of these crappy games pobably sat on store shelves until Nintendo discontinued them in '87 or so (by which time Nintendo was happily becoming evil in their practices). Later games probably had a higher instance of becoming clearance, since they were at least likelier to be around when the NES was discontinued (one of the Vegas Toys R Us stores had tons of Startropics carts and NES Advantages as late as January of '98).

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I'm most disturbed by a full price Back to the Future, since that's the game I've actually tried out. Argh.

I never knew about Trojan before now, though - hey, it's nice!

[Push Upstairs]

Stupid me picked "Bart vs. The Space Mutants" over "Startropics". :angry:

I never had that problem again after i started renting games first.

[NE146]

I paid 50 bucks for SNES Power Moves.. holy crap did I feel ripped.

But aside from that, hey.... I paid full price for 10 yard fight! (actually I probably paid full price for 90% of what constitutes my Famicom/NES collection). But you know what, in light of it's peers and what was available... 10 yard fight wasn't too bad. ...sorta :hmm: Although I did feel kind of ripped when I eventually tried out Tecmo Bowl LOL

[Kroogah]

My dad paid full price for Mach Rider. And we loved it.

But you think paying full price for NES 10-Yard Fight is bad, imagine playing full price for bad Neo Geo games. There used to be plenty of hilarious stories like this at the neo-geo.com boards. Imagine paying full price for something like The Super Spy or Football Frenzy.

[Videogamerdaryll]

The last NES Game I paid full price for (back in the day)was XENOPHOBE.....ohhh,did "I" hate that game.
I had a choice of that and what I found out to be a much better game later in time..I still remember that mistake till this day,and I still hate the game.. x_x

And I think I still have that same XENOPHOBE game

Since I have a large family,they always gave me Video Games as Gifts(Birthday/Christmas)..NES games was the main thing I accumulated in this time due to that.
Though I used to hint to what I liked sometimes I got something that sucked (that they paid full price for.)
I don't complain though,a gift is a gift..

[Ed Oscuro]

imagine playing full price for bad Neo Geo games.
On the other hand, imagine buying Metal Slug for full price. Wow, there's an investment that's aged well :D

[qbertandernie]

ive thought about this several times....every time i see a crappy game at a garage sale that noone wants...someone paid $50 for that game, and now its worthless. but i guess thats how all the systems are. when there are only 10 games available, they will all sell. look at the n-gage games people paid full price for that clearanced to $2 a year later!

[Porkchop]

Nintendo was obliged to take back unsold stock at first, some of these crappy games pobably sat on store shelves until Nintendo discontinued them in '87 or so (by which time Nintendo was happily becoming evil in their practices). Later games probably had a higher instance of becoming clearance, since they were at least likelier to be around when the NES was discontinued (one of the Vegas Toys R Us stores had tons of Startropics carts and NES Advantages as late as January of '98).

I don't think any of them made it to 87 on store shelves. I those early days Nintendo was so hot the stores sold all the games they could get and begged Nintendo for more. Games were in short supply so bad or not they got sold.

[Graham Mitchell]

My dad paid full price for 1942. Blecch.

Some of those black box games were actually pretty worth it, though. Excitebike is pretty timeless. Pro Wrestling has more to it than most of those games. Wrecking Crew, Mario Bros., and Gumshoe are still awesome, awesome games. But yeah, if I got 10-Yard Fight for Christmas, I'd have converted to satanism.

[Wavelflack]

My dad paid full price for 1942.

Only one thing I can say here:

"CONGRATULATION"

[Doonzmore]

Only games i ever bought at first release were Soul Caliber 2 (which i have no regrets for doing so) and Spirits and Spells for Gamecube. Not a bad game but sheesh it could have easily been pulled off on the Saturn (seriously) but a delightful game non the less and here's hoping for it being a future rarity. :cheers:

Anyone thought about purchasing Bebe's Kids or Donkey Kong Competition from NP? :)

[ngt]

and to think....someone paid $70 for a n64 game that was worse then those games,lol...

[unbroken]

luckly, i had always stuck to the big titles (thanks nintendo power) like contra,mario, castlevania,mega man...ect, so i never actually payed full price for a shitty game. i definetly had my share of $20 budget clearance games (robocop and any game made by OCEAN..), back then i could get my 20$ worth out of them, but have any of you tryed to play a game made by ocean? jesus christ i wouldnt even take them for free now.

[§ Gideon §]

I was thinking about this just today, actually. :/ I can't help buy pity those people who continue to wonder why they end up with mediocre things.

[Graham Mitchell]

My dad paid full price for 1942.

Only one thing I can say here:

"CONGRATULATION"

If it was Ghosts 'N' Goblins, it'd have to be "CONGRATURATION".

[SamuraiSmurfette]

Actually, I get reminded of this on a daily basis.
At work, someone brings in an N64 to trade.
I say we'll give them $2, as we sell it for $10.
Their response: "$2??!?! I paid $200 for it! RARRR!!"

Even at yard sales. Once I picked up loose copy of tomb raider GBC thinking it'd be a buck, when I'm barraged with "You're selling your tomb raider???! I paid $50 for it! RARRR!!"

[Push Upstairs]

Some people, especially those that get angry and make lion noises, don't understand that most electronics do not retain thier value over time of that supply and demand dictates trade price.

I cannot count the number of times that people were pissed because the quote i gave them wasn't what they wanted it to be.

An N64, a SMB/Duck Hunt cart, and a Performance memory card and they expect like $50 for that junk. LOL

[NESaholic]

I have paid full price for some games when i was a kid namely SMB 2 + 3,Castle Vania,Wizards & Warriors,A Boy and his Blob and some others.

I can remember driving my parents nuts for any penny i could get from them and save it all to buy it when it got released, SMB 3 was most exspensive for me back then.

Nowadays with some NES games i pay double the price they were sold back then,isn't that something!

[Wavelflack]

I think we are getting somewhat off track here. The idea is that for a certain period of time (namely release up to 1989 or so), Nintendo games were so hot that they simply didn't go into bargain bins. You really can't say that about an entire chronological segment of another system's life.

During this period of time, the black label NES games were among those. I think it's fair to say that most black label NES titles had something going for them, and were not a waste of money. But titles like Urban Champion, Mach Rider, and so forth, were not games worthy of their retail price. Those games sold anyway, and since they were not being discounted (no reason to), that means someone paid full price for them.

So any time you put in a game from the era and laugh about how pointless and repetetive it is, just remember that some poor soul blew their $40 on that game instead of Kid Icarus, or whatever.

This is good to keep in mind when playing LJN titles as well.

And I mentioned Stack Up for a reason, and that is because I am simply amazed that it ever sold at retail. Gyromite is a pretty stupid game in all respects, even if you "cheat" and use the 2nd controller yourself instead of spending 10X as long issuing robot comands. Stack Up has no point whatsoever if you don't use ROB. That means that a certain segment of the population enjoyed Gyromite enough WITH the robot that they were willing to pay another $40 or so for the 2nd robot game, Stack Up. It's just incredible. I certainly can't name a soul who wasn't disappointed/ irritated with ROB (most of my friends, myself included, thought it would be able to play 2 player games, like Rush n Attack, with you. We didn't know how, but that's the idea we had. Boy were we in for a rude awakening!)

Maybe Stack Up sales came from parents who felt obligated to "see it through"; that is, their choice of shelling out for the deluxe set. "In for a penny, in for a pound"--that sort of thing. I see that behavior often enough, where a person continues to support a poor choice they have made, simply so it won't be a total waste (the original choice).

Anyway, hoping to get this back on track...

[Wavelflack]

dp

[Graham Mitchell]

I think we are getting somewhat off track here. The idea is that for a certain period of time (namely release up to 1989 or so), Nintendo games were so hot that they simply didn't go into bargain bins. You really can't say that about an entire chronological segment of another system's life.


You know, I just don't think that's true. I remember distinctly that when I was young, Kay-Bee Toys would put NES and SMS games on clearance all the time. I bought Wild Gunman (a black box game) and Lode Runner new for $19.99 (the cheapest the games ever got back then.) Also remember that the more successful black box games got reissued, and exist in a couple different cart variations. Hogan's Alley got continually re-pressed for some odd reason, and it would show up at discounted prices. My friend didn't get a Zapper until the freakin' 90's, and bought Hogan's Alley to go with it, on clearance. It came in the variation with the absent gold connectors in the center of the board (I lack the engineering vocabulary to describe this properly, but you know what I'm talking about...the latest cart variant.)

Not that you don't have a point. Urban Champion blew even back then because I'd already played a little game called Renegade.

Oh and, I bought a copy of Stack-Up last year because I assumed you could just play ROB's part yourself like in Gyromite. Boy was I wrong. What's interesting about Stack-Up is that for as worthless as it is, Gumpei Yokoi's team sure did seem to put a lot of time into it. It has really pretty good visuals all things considering, and is one of the first NES games I can recall to have digitized voices. Strange.

[Blitzwing256]

I bought Stackup originally after loving gyromite.
unfortunatly having rob drop the blocks too many times made me hate it quickly ;-) I do remeber just hitting select to "finish" a level and max out the score..at the time that was "fun"


I do recall buying mario bros. on a slight discount ,the store was even so nice to write the discounted price ON the box itself (wasn't shrink wrapped)

still have both of them though.

[SirDrexl]

We paid full price for Urban Champion back then, but full price for those early games was only $25 or $30 (don't remember which). We thought it was okay, but we do wish we would've gotten something else. There wasn't a lot to choose from back then though.

I think that maybe the reason we got UC was because it was a little cheaper than some of the other games-like it was $25 when others were $30, but I'm not sure (this was 1986 and I was 11).

[ShinobiMan]

I remember many a day walking into Toys "R" Us (or better yet, Children's Palce. Anyone else remember?) and seeing clearence bins with NES and SMS games. This was around 1990 - 1991. Perhaps you never came across a clearence, but they were out there.

[Wavelflack]

*sigh*

I don't know why I have to keep mentioning this, but I'll do it a third time.

1. I'm not talking about games from the waning years of the NES' life.
2. I'm talking about games from release to about 1988.
3. In 1991 and beyond, there were clearance bins with NES games in them.
4. Yes, I saw them.
5. In 1987, there were not.
6. Stack Up, Urban Champion, and Mach Rider (among others) were almost certainly not reissued.

[s1lence]

How about Super Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. That game retailed for what 69.95. To think I saved up for that game instead of picking up Chrono Trigger or one of the Final Fantasies.