That feeling when you find out your missing favorite childhood toy is now rare and expensive.

[dgame]

I used to have this Game and Watch type thing that played like Simon in one mode and it also had this repeat game. It was orange. It was fun to play. That’s all I remembered. I got it as a kindergartener and by the time I could fully read all of the markings had worn off.

The sad thing is I had it up until I left for college. I left it back home in my ‘needs batteries’ drawer and never saw it again.

Well I have been googling this for years and I finally found out what it was. It is a Nintendo Game & Watch called Flagman. Okay, so let’s see what they go for nowadays . . . Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xf5u77hgsGY?feature=oembed

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

$2000

I wonder how much Pandora will cost 10 years from now.  $1,000,000.

 

[TrashyMG]

My cousin had Track and Field for the NES and we played it a bit, when I saw the linked article a few years ago I called him up to see if he still had it.. Nope, he gave away all his NES stuff long ago.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

 

[Exophase]

At the very least this sort of high pricing for collectors keeps the thing in the public consciousness. What's really sad is when you remember some game, video, TV episode, etc that you can't find a single trace of on the internet and you start to legitimately wonder if a copy exists anymore.

My cousin had Track and Field for the NES and we played it a bit, when I saw the linked article a few years ago I called him up to see if he still had it.. Nope, he gave away all his NES stuff long ago.

Did you actually mean Track and Field there? The linked article is for Stadium Events. Track and Field is very common.

It's really crazy how some games go for really prices just because they had a slightly different label than another version. Especially if the game isn't very good and the variation isn't itself interesting in any way. For example, this blows my mind:

Superman (Sears Telegames Picture-Labeled Version): $1,000 – $3,000Don’t get too excited if you have the standard Superman release with the red text on the labels. Even a typical Sears release of the Superman game with the text-only label is only worth $150 to $200. However, if you have the Sears version that has the yellow text and the picture of Superman on it (see comparison shot with the standard release), you’re in luck. It is the rarest of the Sears Telegames variants and can fetch a few thousand dollars. A boxed copy recently sold on eBay for over $30,000 in November 2012.

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/atari/rarest-and-most-valuable-atari-2600-games

People go for something rare, but if you stop and think about a lot of things will be rare. There has to be some combination of novelty and uniqueness that clicks. Still, huge interest because of a very slightly different label on a crappy game? I can hardly think of something more mundane, I bet this sort of thing happened all the time..

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Well the amiga 500 would be my fave and its still cheap as chips to buy one!!

 

[TrashyMG]

At the very least this sort of high pricing for collectors keeps the thing in the public consciousness. What's really sad is when you remember some game, video, TV episode, etc that you can't find a single trace of on the internet and you start to legitimately wonder if a copy exists anymore.

My cousin had Track and Field for the NES and we played it a bit, when I saw the linked article a few years ago I called him up to see if he still had it.. Nope, he gave away all his NES stuff long ago.

Did you actually mean Track and Field there? The linked article is for Stadium Events. Track and Field is very common.

 He did have a few games that used the pad..  Now watching a Youtube video for Stadium Events I'm pretty sure that is what he had, I do recall it being in a third person view not a side scroller like Track and Field..

 

[dgame]

At the very least this sort of high pricing for collectors keeps the thing in the public consciousness. What's really sad is when you remember some game, video, TV episode, etc that you can't find a single trace of on the internet and you start to legitimately wonder if a copy exists anymore.


 ...

I was starting to think that about the Flagman Game & Watch. I did not remember that mine was missing the silver faceplate so it was all orange in my mind. I thought it might be a knockoff because I didn't see a picture of in on the Game & Watch wiki. Turns out it is the only one on the wiki listed without a picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_%26_Watch_games.

Since starting this thread I discovered that they occasionally show up for reasonable prices so getting another one is possible. B)

 

[slaeshjag]

At the very least this sort of high pricing for collectors keeps the thing in the public consciousness. What's really sad is when you remember some game, video, TV episode, etc that you can't find a single trace of on the internet and you start to legitimately wonder if a copy exists anymore.

This. I remember playing some freeware PC games 13+ years ago. I had for the past 8 years trying to find them, without success. I got them on one of those collection CD:s that came with computers back then. No matter what I search for, I could find neither the disk, nor the games I remembered.

Until last year, when I finally found someone with a copy of the disk. Needless to say, I got an ISO image made of it on the spot.

 

[FBnil]

I have, somewhere, a copy of an old Apogee shooter, released as a proof of concept, made in javascript for Netscape. Last time I checked (10 years ago), it still ran on the modern firefox.

But Apogee pulled the plug on it (I guess due to copyright), so it got rare. But I still have a copy somewhere.

Also have stuff from this dutch guy that recreated mario in 58Kb, the beta then went on to become Charlie the duck. http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/

Of course, beta's do not last that much. But I still treasure the mario game.

whoops, it still is remembered: http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Mario

 

[Gausen]

I still have my spitball sparky copy which is my first video game, but it doesn't get rare enough .

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

I have a steak and it's rare  :lol: