There’s big money in vintage video games. Earlier this month a copy of game Super Mario 64 (1996) sold at auction in the US for more than $1.5m (€1,271062), making it the most expensive video game ever sold.
he game was a launch title for the Nintendo 64 console and the cartridge was in near-perfect condition, with an intact seal. It sold at Heritage Auctions in Texas where, just two days before, an original Legend of Zelda (1988) cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had sold for $870,000 (€737,216).
Neither game has ever been, or probably ever will be, played. That’s not the point. Both games have been re-released for the Nintendo Switch console and used vintage versions are widely available. For collectors at this level, video game cartridges are a type of physical memorabilia. And an investment.
“The ratio is about 70 pc in favour of those who play vintage games and 30 pc who simply collect,” says Anthony Dobbs, owner of the Retro Gaming Store in Wexford.
“I don’t play the games that I buy. I used to buy two copies of each – one to play and one to keep – but that was before marriage and responsibilities.” Like most collectors, his focus is on the library of games produced for a specific console and his collection includes a complete set of games for PlayStation 1.
“I got lucky when Xtra-vision closed,” he said. While he doesn’t have anything liable to sell for a million, the collection has appreciated value over time. “A lot of the games that I paid £1 and £2 for are now worth between €200 and €300. All of them are sealed.”
The Retro Gaming Store both buys and sells games and consoles. “It’s usually mums that come into the shop with a bag of games and consoles when their kids have left home,” he says wryly. “That happened to me too. My mum sold some things that she really shouldn’t have…” While in no way encouraging parents to sell off their children’s gaming heritage, Dobbs is open for business.
“The mums come in thinking that the games might be worth a few euro. Often, they go away with up to €500 and we still make a turnover.”
The price that you can expect for a game or a console depends hugely on whether you have kept the original packaging.
“A Super Nintendo console with all its wires will retail for between €60 and €70. If it’s in its box, it will cost three times as much. “The people who collect want the box. The people who play just want to know that it works.” Some of the older consoles work best with older television sets. “It can be hard to get them to work with a modern television,” Dobbs says. “There’s always a work-around.”
The Legend of Zelda is a classic game from the late 1980s
Should you plan to sell, the Retro Gaming store has a quotation procedure set up on the website and via Facebook.
Dobbs finds that many of his customers are too young to remember the games when they first came out. “We get a lot of kids aged between 8 and 14. They’re very big into vintage gaming. YouTube has a massive influence. We also see a lot of autistic kids whose focus is on knowing everything about a particular game or console. They come in and talk to us for hours…”
For many buyers the nostalgic power of video games is immense. There’s something about the combination music and graphics that drills straight down into memory. For many collectors, the starting point of a collection is a game that they remember from childhood.
Naoise O’Hare is a Dublin-based collector who posts about his hobby on Instagram. “With every type of collecting there are people who are in it for the money and people who are in it for the actual type of product they are collecting.
“For me personally, it’s about playing the video games and I generally like to play games that I might have had as a kid.My all-time favourite is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. I first played it when it was released in 1998 and I still have the original cartridge. I bought a box because I’d like my collection to be displayed on shelves. The box art for the older games is fantastic.”
His ambition is to have a room dedicated to video games. “I sold the games that I wasn’t going to play but I don’t plan to sell my collection. I’m keeping it for my daughter,” he says. “She’s ten weeks old.”
See theretrogamingstore.com and @retro_gamer_ireland. See also retrogamerireland.com and therage.ie.
