By Chris Kohler
TOKYO — Some Japanese videogame collectors won't settle for perfect copies of titles they played in their youth. For a handful of devotees, it's all about getting their hands on the rarest retrogames in the world, some of which were manufactured in batches of just a few hundred.
Some of these singular games graced store shelves for only a moment; others were given out as contest prizes. But Tokyo game stores will hand them over to you — if you've got a wallet bursting with cash.
In the United States, game prices can rise and fall based on "hype and demand," but in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district, a retrogame's relative scarcity drives pricing, collector Jason Wilson told Wired.com in instant message.
"When only a handful of games are made, they can charge what they want for it," said Wilson, who lives in Nashville. "It won't necessarily sell — but if you have to have it, this is where you would get it."
Such retrogames used to be spread all over Akihabara, but these days the rarest ones have funneled into three specialty stores: Mandarake, Trader and Super Potato.
Feast your eyes on 12 of the most expensive game cartridges in all of Akihabara,If you bought the full dozen, it would cost you 1,248,150 yen — about $15,250.
Time Gal
The Price: 68,250 yen (approximately $833)
The original Time Gal was a 1985 arcade game released by Taito. Like Dragon's Lair, it used animation clips stored on a laserdisc for graphics. Home versions were released on platforms like the Sega CD and PlayStation, but the most faithful translation was this version for the laserdisc-based Pioneer LaserActive platform.
Games on LaserActive can sell for upward of $100, but Time Gal is by far the most expensive. This copy is actually a bargain — the piece of paper in the lower left corner says the paper obi wrapped around the left side of the disc has slight damage, resulting in the price being lowered. (Said damage is apparently invisible to anyone who is not an anal-retentive Japanese store clerk.)
Gradius (Archimendes edition)
The Price: 69,800 yen (approximately $852)
Konami's classic shooter Gradius is one of the easiest games to find on the Famicom (8-bit Nintendo) platform. But this special edition is one of the rarest. Archimendes was a brand of cup Ramen. The company ran a promotion in the '80s, giving away 4,000 specially tweaked copies of Gradius.
Besides the sticker on the box, the in-game graphics were modified slightly: Bowls of Archimendes replaced your spaceship's power-up capsules.
Metal Slug X
The Price: 75,000 yen (approximately $916)
Games for SNK's Neo Geo platform were identical to their arcade counterparts, a rarity in the early '90s. This faithfulness to the arcade machines came at a steep price: Neo Geo cartridges started at around $200 when they were released and climbed from there.
One of the most expensive Neo Geo games in Tokyo is this copy of Metal Slug X for sale at Super Potato. This series of super-difficult side-scrolling shooters is one of the most popular on the platform. The games have been re-released many times, though, so you don't need to drop $900 just to play this.
Other games include:
Radac Tailor-Made
The Price: 79,800 yen (approximately $975)
WWF Raw and Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage
The Prices: 79,800 yen (approximately $975) and 98,000 yen (approximately $1,197)
Shock Troopers Second Squad
The Price: 98,000 yen (approximately $1,197)
Darius Alpha
The Price: 98,000 yen (approximately $1,197)
Kunio-kun Dodgeball
The Price: 98,000 yen (approximately $1,197)
Z-Gundam Hot Scramble Final Edition
The Price: 148,000 yen (approximately $1,808)
Yoshi's Cookie Kuruppon Oven de Cookie
The Price: 157,500 yen (approximately $1,924)
All-Star Power League
The Price: 178,000 yen (approximately $2,174)
Akihabara. AKA "Electric Town"-Tokyo.Where you just know your going to pick up a bargin!!.
