The rant at 2:20 is a joke that is failing to land with some people. So let me clear up that it is a joke, I don't wish death on anyone and I thought with how ostentatious the rant was that people would see it as a joke. I thought with how weirdly specific it was that people would see it as a joke. The idea of someone being buried in an avalanche of games seemed impossible enough to me that it would be seen clearly as a joke even if my delivery was deadpan. Some appreciated it, some didn't. If you want to see the full version with the "rant" you can see it on my patreon for free. www.patreon.com/serasthings
Most of my videos seem to be negative? More than half of my videos are about promoting artistic communities and the creatives in them. As for the joke part, everything in my videos is scripted, from top to bottom. So everything is written very deliberately. The death is one of hubris where they would be dying to their own pride and dying from an avalanche of unplayed games. You would need a very large amount of games for that to be possible.
Unfortunately somethings need to be promoted with negativity or appear to be negative or else people won't click them. My best performing videos are negative ones so it looks like all I make is negative stuff. In reality its all you all click. I'd suggest some of my positive videos but you wouldn't watch them. My tamagotchi video, amazing island, warioland 4, gba for gen z, and pretty much all of my videos about original species or the furry community are positive. I also have a video coming out soon about Castlevania. Unfortunately the videos that I work the hardest on and are positive don't do well.
Right? It's terrible and really fucks things up for everyone who truly enjoys the hobby. But people love easy money, so treating everything as an investment is never going to stop.
I buy and sell retro games. Not exclusively but ive been in the resale business for over 10 years and I can attest to how overblown this market is. The folks who deal in games exclusively are the absolute worst when it comes to fair prices and reasonable markup values. Ive watched buyers at estate sales fight over games and consoles. Ive seen dealers try to sell pc game collections for thousands of dollars. Its very, very frustrating and it ultimately makes me want to just not even bother with trying to find decent games to sell.
If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing. If I am not going to be able to play my favorite games legally, then I will play them through an emulator because there is no other way to play them unless I want to spend thousands of dollars just to play Animal Crossing on the Game Cube. It is disgusting how corporations market off of this stuff I recently got into Dungeons and Dragons because I love role-playing games. And then of course like clockwork, we are forced to spend thousands of dollars just to play with our friends online even though the applications that we used to play the games on were making enough money to begin with. The same can be said with gaming. I miss when all we needed was just the console, our favorite game, and the internet connection or our friend's console to play. Now you need an overpriced console, an overpriced game, an overpriced router, and a subscription to the company's online subscription to be able to play your favorite game online. And that is for games like Monster Hunter. For MMOs, you have to drop thousands of dollars to play it with friends sometimes. I have given enough money to these companies for the little amount of quality that we get now a days.
Either way piracy isn't stealing, because, for example, if I could copy your car then you still would have a car and I have copy of your car. Piracy is copyright infringement.
@ I will say never steal from indie game developers unless they are just shitty people. The reason why I condone pirating against corporations is because they squeeze every little penny out of the people they serve. While indie game devs need more money to be able to keep up with other developers.
Theres a problem to be had with remakes and remasters: if the devs behind the port/remake dont know what theyre doing (or are affected by other things like current world events), things can go south very VERY quickly. Advance wars 1 & 2 remake, silent hill remastered (not the remake tho i heard that was good), and grand theft auto remastered trilogy are three that come to mind. Remember folks, sometimes alternative porting methods (such as emulation or source ports) are the best way to experience classic games, especially if said ports are fan-supported with unofficial patches (and servers for multiplayer games) to make them run decently on modern hardware. And if these graders and AAA studios cant come to terms with how games preservation should be, then we'll just yo-ho-ho with a bottle of go f*ck yourselves.
Jesus christ that rant, you just went overdrive! Burn hotter than center of a sun. In all seriousness preservation is doing fairly fine - emulators are around and basically unkillable and they can run same games as consoles, often to near perfect accuracy (or sometimes "better than perfect" - some games are laggy on oriignal consoles, but emulation can skip it.). Sure, there's some very obscure games that have no roms, but they are very miniscule exception. In some cases you can emulate the games on PHONE and phones are very easily accesible. PSP is especially funny case as i can move savestates beetween PC and phone emulator of PPSSPP. Also emulation as a whole is both piracy and preservation, depends on whenever you have licence to use actual games (usually in form of... buying the game). This gets even more funky in case of emulating current (Switch can be emulated!) or not-very-old consoles. The general gist is that emulators are legal but roms are not unless you also have the game, but both cases have their exceptions of course.
This is why I just buy flashcarts and ODE's I tried to collect I managed to get a PAL Silent Hill 1 minty fresh and then a few months later it went up like I hate people. It sucks. I hope the bubble pops and we can get the games again for cheap like the old days.
I think the only original hardware that could be considered a necessity is a New 3DS and PS Vita. The former because whilst emulation is technically good for DS and 3DS these games can feel clunky when made to work on different hardware. And Vita emulation still needs more work before it is ready for everyday use. Thankfully both of those systems are easily hacked, removimg the need for physical games and having their storage expended to fit it all. Plus depending on what you want to play can also double up as emulation handhelds.
Have you tried 3ds emulation on a retroid system? I've been using RP3+ to play DS and it's not too bad as long as I don't need a stylus for it like rhythm heaven or cooking mama. You'd need an RP4 Pro I think to do 3ds. But I've used my drawing tablet for 3ds games just fine. But yeah, you need specialized handhelds for it 3ds/ds and PS2/Gamecube onwards. I think we'll reach a point where people will have two handhelds, one for standard games and one for 3ds emulation. I really only want it for Denpa Men.
@@SerasThings I've done it on the Steam Deck and never managed to find a way of doing it that didn't feel awkward, to me at least. I went through a period a while back where I tried using the Steam Deck for everything I could, and those are the 2 systems that never quite clicked for me. Which is especially strange as Wii U did clcik but you would think it would have the same issues.
Retroid uses Android as it's OS so I use DraStic, I don't know about 3ds. But if the DS emulation is ok on the RP3+ then the ones that have 3ds emulation are probably fine. What I do in drastic is I have one screen be the main screen and a button is mapped to swap which screen is displayed. Alternatively you can have one screen displayed in full and a smaller version of a second screen on the right. This wouldn't work for things like TWEWY obviously, but for the majority of games it's fine.
@@SerasThings Oh yeah, I have played both 3DS and DS like that and it is perfectly fine for most games (The Sonic games are a bit rough due to being designed around vertical screens but even they are doable). Maybe I am just being a bit too picky as I jumped on 3DS hacking shortly after the Switch launched so have always had that option.
I hate people who grades items, like they're going to disappear someday, let me or someone use them! Emulation is nice, it helped me play things i could never without it :D
The whole concept of graded games completely baffles me. At least with trading cards, stamps, etc you can still view the entire piece, the grading box merely acting as a protective layer. But with video games, all you're doing is locking away a copy forever, never to be played.
The issue is much more complex than just the rising prices of retro games. At a basic level, people still need to prioritize essentials like food, housing, and clothing. But we live in a world where unrealistic standards are glorified, and where even those working hard can struggle to make ends meet. The rat race we find ourselves in often leads to a search for meaning or a way out-sometimes through things like nostalgia or the desire for financial gain. In this context, mass-produced items like video games become a symbol of scarcity, fueling the market for collectibles. Everyone wants a piece of that ‘sweet pie’-the chance to turn old plastic into profit. Whether it’s for nostalgia or the hope of striking it rich, the cycle feeds itself. There will always be buyers looking to relive memories, while others see a financial opportunity. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps pushing prices higher, even though, fundamentally, they are just pieces of the past.
This left my core audience fast. How many are commenting without watching the video? The video goes in a direction you might not expect so I can kind of tell when you didn't watch it.
i honestly wish companies had a "Made To Order" system these days where they would make them for you if you wanted them. I'd pay nintendo their base MSRP price for any GameCube title, but not a reseller.
The only console I've been picking stuff up for recently is the Nintendo Switch. Trying to find anything for older hardware has been stupid difficult because of the chaos happening in the secondhand market. I do try to pick up whatever remakes or remasters of older titles are around. That Paper Mario remaster and Metroid Prime's look intriguing and I'll definitely look into those.
Not only am I refusing to pay the extreme inflated prices, I've decided to reduce my support of companies that refuse to rerelease games. I can't entirely decouple from Nintendo or Gamefreak content, its a large part of my streaming content. I am however absolutely pivoting more and more to indie games and devs that DO rerelease games. There's many games in my backlog. I can wait a long time.
What I hate about the reselling market is that Experiences I Wish I Had are STILL cost prohibitive by the same magnitude as they were when I was a child. I literally just want to play a physical copy of Pokémon Emerald on a GBA SP I don't even have the hardware to transfer anything I'd catch in the game. I just want to experience it the way 10 year old me should have had the chance to.
There are a lot of reproduction carts and flash carts and they are essentially indistinguishable. With the flashcart you could also play modded versions like randomized.
Its crazy how much scummy behavior is in the retro gaming community and market This shit is actually terrifying, if i wasnt cool with emulation id be too broke to actually experience these games nowadays
Even worse is that when official companies decide that they care, they close off accessibility anyway due to certain things like Virtual Console and Wii Shop Channel stop proving as profitable.
I hadn’t been into retro gaming in years but yknow it reminds me a good bit of how after Covid with retro games n all I’ve seen people are selling old shitbox diesels for a fuck ton of money same with plenty of 20 year old Silverado 1500 and 2500s on marketplace saying “I kNoW WhAT I got” while selling it for 8k when in reality it’s worth 3 to 4. It’s ridiculous how stuff like this happens in practically everything 💀💀💀
And for people who don't like the idea of "piracy", just keep in mind that buying from the second-hand market means you are paying some random person for the developer's work. The people who made the game don't see a dime either way.
Developers are usually paid after the project is done anyway, so you likely don't give the devs money for buying the game new. Unless it's an indie title.
There’s a bunch of retro games I’d love to own but the price would easily stretch into the thousands. I’ve just had to come to terms that I’ll never own most of them and only sparingly buy the ones at a reasonable price. Sucks that a lot of the people selling these games probably don’t care about the series either and are just hoarding them like a stock investment.
on my myoo mini I've still kept the arcade games roms because often it's quite hard to find the exact rom that work on the exact copy of mame which come with the device and often games like street fighters 3 being japanese doesn't really affect the gameplay.
i quit buying them when they stopped being new. As soon as i could emulate my collection, i sold off the stuff I could use on my computer. They aren't supporting that stuff, why should i buy it?
I can understand something like magic knight reyearth on the Saturn being expensive because so few copies were printed. But pokemon games are some of the most overprinted games on their respective platforms so them being anything higher then 50 or 60 dollars seems like greed unless it's actually rare like pokemon box or whatever that gcn pokemon game that's just a storage for the gen 3 pokemon games was called.
I bought 3 retro consoles and collected some games (mix of imports and extremely little US versions) and the GameCube seems more of an expensive retro system to play compared to the Dreamcast and PS2. Chat am I cooked?
i also feel like name-dropping certain sites can also put them at risk of them possibly getting taken down. it's like the first two rules of fight club. it's just something that genuinely irks me. but that's just my opinion
"Loose lips sink ships" it's how Vimm went from the best EmuParadise alternative to "I can get about half of the things I want but have to find the rest elsewhere."
I've been collecting for a real long time now, been one of my biggest passions. It's always been an expensive hobby but it was worth it to me, having access to a bunch of games for whenever i wanted. But ever since 2020 this already expensive became just downright unfeasible to really be able to continue you forward. I would purchase some things here n there but I mostly died down. In comes the steam deck. And I'm able to play nearly my entire collection and then some. All on one device. Cheaper, more features, and more content. And thats not even mentioning being able to play a large portion of your already existing steam library and that anything you buy on there you'll be able to play free of charge without having to rebuy the same games over and over.
The only retro games i buy instead of emulating are pokemon, and thats for the "ecosystem" around them. Im hoping an unofficial pokemon bank/home replacement comes out soon in preparation for banks inevutable end
The Evercade is a good way to scratch that retro itch. Got all the expected things like carts, cases and manuals but is technically a modern system so the market for the games isn't a mess. I also personally like it's focus on hidden gems and indie games.
My worry with them is the same worry I have with Antstream. I think by re-releasing these games to their system they're encouraging companies to not bother with making retro games available on modern hardware like pc. "Why re-release my games when companies like evercade and antstream will pay me to put it on their platform?"
Funny enough, when you factor inflation, it costs less now than what it did when it came out. Not that the game was worth its original price to begin with.
If it were possible I'd love to purchase recreation versions of retro games, ideally with a recreation console to go alongside it, I want the click of cartridges and the sesire/need to blow in them when they don't work, I want my ps1 to not scratch the hell out of discs, I want the experience as a whole to be authentic as possible without having to drain my wallet to an unreasonable degree! ...but until that time my computer is something of a beast so it can handle emulation damn near flawlessly at least when I actually manage to set it up properly x3
Repro games that on good quality carts are going to be hard to find due to copyright issues, however there are blank carts and repro shells for them which can be flashed with whatever game ROMs you want (I found them for GB/GBC, I have to assume people make them for other consoles too). Printing labels at the same quality as the originals might be tough though.
I really want to buy the original Marvel vs Capcom for the PS1 and they are so expensive its so dumb, I also bought a ps2 game from amazon and payed a dollar extra when I could have gotten it dollar cheaper on eBay. What sucks is that my PS3 can't read DVDs so I may have to spend more money uhhhh. I been really wanting to get into retro collecting and playing older games since I was like 9 or 10, but these prices omg.
Some of these people selling retro games are out of their minds. I'm not taking out a loan to buy Pokemon Platinum. I'm sticking to emulation. If I want a cheaper physical alternative, I'll get a flash cart or reproduction.
Did you see the Voultar tweet back in September covering the fact that PSX repros are becoming indistinguishable from the original official production run (black underside and all)? Here's to hoping that we start seeing this happen on all platforms and flooding the market so the wannabe investors can really eat some losses.
Yea on my end, I understand emulation. But physical media tickles my brain more than pressing a button to play it on a emulator. And as I have been looking for pokemon firered and it hurts me when it costs over double what my gameboy did a year ago when I got ahold of it, even though it's just the cartridge and heavily used
Have you tried emulation handhelds? The RG28XX is like a bigger GB Micro, RG35xx SP is like a bigger SP, and Anbernic just released one that is just like the GBA original.
Mod your consoles especially for Nintendo its super easy. Use R4 cards on 3/DS. They make writable GBA carts most are cheap but some people make good ones just make sure the save type matches the one for the game you want to write to the cart. They also make Flash carts where you can load up multiple games from one cart as well if you want that option just make sure you get the right one for your needs. Remember we have the technology we can rebuild them.
Consider smartphones too, secondhand flagship smartphones. They're cheaper than a lot of Anbernic/Retroid handhelds. All lot of these are mostly being resold due to dropped support. I would recommend anything android version 7 or later and a snapdragon chip for compatibility purposes. Also expandable storage is a must especially for CD based systems Ps1, Ps2, GameCube, Wii, Wii U etc. All good telescopic controller can be pretty cheap too. I would also keep an eye on the MCon as that looks pretty promising. Also foldables, if you can find a good secondhand foldable it'd be perfect for ds and 3ds. I will die on a hill that smartphones and tablets are the second best way to play those games if you can't get your hands on original hardware. I fully support emulation and archiving. Digital libraries on official consoles can be taken back or made useless at anytime. Physical hardware will eventually break for good and physical games are super expensive now. I have a hard drive and SD cards full of games that I can put into any computer, smartphone, tablet, and retro handheld that no one can take from me and I can copy as many times as I want to keep it alive.
If you already have a phone or an old one I do recommend using them to emulate. I repurposed my old phones into cameras for recording and streaming physical stuff. But if you're looking to spend I think people might prefer having real buttons on their handheld, I know you can use a controller or grip with a phone but that's awkward. RG28XX is in the 30 usd range, 35 models are 50 or lower (even the SP as it goes on sale often), and the 34 is less than 80. But I do agree that android emulation is pretty good, my main device right now is RP3+.
I will call it archive and preservation. But, I will also call it piracy. Yes, I pirate games. Yes, I will continue to pirate games. You don't want me to pirate games? Then sell your games online somewhere I can buy and play them. :p Also, I don't think there is anything wrong with game grading and telling people they should die is just dumb. You're just an unhinged elitist. Yes, gatekeeping is good. But, not by telling people to kill themselves or wishing they would die. Piracy is good for the industry. It's on the path to preservation.
@@SerasThings Idk man. Joking about death just seems weird to me. I could understand calling someone names, but wishing death on them seems a bit too far. Even if it is just a joke.
My sense of humor isn't for you and that's totally fine. It's a morbid joke and I thought the absurdity of death by an avalanche of unplayed games would carry it. It's also an ironic death and death by hubris, which I think makes it funnier because of the impossibility of it. Sorry it didn't land. Edit: Is death by avalanche of games a common cause of death in some part of the world or something?
@dfess6463 Not every joke is going to be a knock knock joke. Example, "I hope you step on a Lego piece", there isn't a punchline there but rather the specificity and oddness is what's funny. "I hope you fall down an up escalator" funny because it's specific, odd, and the likelihood is low. Either way I removed that portion of the video.
The retro game market was already shit long before covid. I had a few of the old systems when I was a kid, but ended up getting rid of them with the games I had. In 2006, I got back into it. And by some time between 2010 and 2012 I got most of the retro games I wanted so I didn't bother anymore. Fast forward to 2015 when I got a RetroN 5 and wanted to get a few more games, and my fuck were they stupidly expensive. So I got a few and left it at that. Nowadays I'll just emulate everything. I've got a good PC with a good monitor. And there are CRT filters.
You don't get how scarcity and economics work. The real thing you should get mad at is IP. Being able to own an idea is what causes a monopoly over that idea and the artificial scarcity in the first place which is what causes prices to go up. (We could have better health care, etc etc etc the list is MASSIVE!) 3:40 Humans will just be a lazy as their technology allows. This is an issue with _humans._ Pricecharting was _NEVER_ good. Grading games is mostly a scam that is kind of like cryptocurrency. You shouldn't be paying someone to tell you how minty your game is unless all you're trying to flip it to other midwitted type collectors. It's like a casino though, for every dude who got a 10x return a hundred dudes lost their asses.
@@SerasThings 334.9 million people live in the USA. Only 2.09% of the population can have a single copy. If even 50% of the cartridges survived 20 years since it was released the price is going to go up quite a lot. Let alone the box since no one ever saved the box so complete copies will go for a grip. Part of the price inflation comes from money printer go brrrrr. Money is worth less because more of it exists. Money is just a way to deal with scarcity. Demand is one factor yes, but that does not control for all other factors. In 2004 it wasn't as scarce and money wasn't so inflated, but today both those things have changed thus you get where we are today with retro game prices. The thing to be mad at is still IP.
Edit: Actually nevermind, we agree for the most part. Nintendo does suck, but I think for the retro part we have more control than you think. I think arguing this is a waste of time for both of us since we both think nintendo is the root cause. I'm just saying, we don't have a ton of control over what they do. But we are able to talk to each other and together as a community we can get together and make a change. So we shouldn't argue. Thanks for commenting.
stores i go to sells classic games for 30$ max so no we shouldnt kill retro games, and consoles are sold between 70 to 200$ so maybe go to stores instead
Problem: What if the nearest store that sells retro games for such low prices is like, 2-3 hours away? At least us Tennesseans have a couple of local stores abound for retro games & the like every like, 30 minutes of road, but man I do NOT want to imagine what it's like in freakin' Wyoming.
Based opinions. I remember going to a retro game expo in 2018, long before the nightmares of COVID and raters, games used to be actually affordable. I got a PS2 for $50. I'll take your advice and try not to buy any retro games this year. On the topic of PS2/Wii emulation handhelds, I got a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro for my birthday and I haven't run into any issues with PS2 games whatsoever, Sly Cooper not withstanding (the game is infamous for not being able to run on many things). Right now that's $175, I think, so it's cheaper than a Switch Lite. I think that, at that price point, it's more than worth it.
I bought my old pokemon games CIB because they are cool pieces and they look good on my shelf. Buying them as an investment is stupid but whining because you can't afford them is also cringe.
Not being able to afford isn't something to whine about, true. But when these games are produced in the millions and people are charging 200 a cartridge, that's a little messed up. Not to mention it opens up online markets to scams, more so than usual. 200 dollars on a cartridge that could be faked for 20 bucks is a large profit margin. It can be hard to tell which are scams over a picture, discoloration and ugly labels could be passed as age or damage. I'm not so much complaining about being unable to afford them, it's not important stuff like food and water. I'm complaining about price gouging and scams. But you can only fit so much into a video that's watchable, especially when many are commenting without watching in the first place. The subject deserves a nuanced discussion, but it's not like anyone would watch it anyway.
I think you lose the plot when you wish death on people who grade games lol. In examples like Pokemon gba carts, the repros do 95% of what the legit carts do which is good enough for most but they don’t have all the functionality (gc connectivity, ds migration). The market dictates what people are willing to pay for stuff, for example emerald version is $200 loose. They did make millions of copies but there are only a few hundred for sale on eBay at any given time for example, supply and demand. My personal philosophy is I’ll pay the $500 for an emerald cib because I’m going to play it and I want the original box for my display. I would rather spend the big money on one game rather than be one of those collectors that has a wall of games they aren’t ever going to play, but hey they got it at a good price. I’m not going to whine to my local mom and pop game store about what they want to sell because I got bigger things to worry about. If they got something I want for a decent price then I’ll buy it not I’ll find it some place else.
I don't seriously wish death on them, I'm leaning into the disdain people feel for them by intentionally giving an ostentatious response that no reasonable person would genuinely give. It's commentary on how ridiculous it is to do that. I use some obscure comedy in my videos because I learned from a comedy class. I even have a comedy license, well, it's more like a certificate. But they call it a license because that's funnier. I understand the high price for CIB as those boxes are difficult to find and maintain. My issue with cart prices comes exclusively from overprice loose carts. Which is what this video is, in part, about. Like you said, market dictates that. Market is partly demand, I'm suggesting to buy less overpriced stuff to reduce the demand and price. You also lack the full context of the conversation with my retailer, which is fair because I didn't give it. The subject of grading came up naturally, I didn't drive 2 hours to a retro store that's not in my town. Slam my fist on the table, and demand they don't sell bambi on the ps2 as a graded game or I'll never return. I can clown but I'd never spend gas money to be one.
Unblock games 6x has pokemon emerald on it for free emulation 🤑🤑 And other pokemon games that it emulates to play on a school chromebook. That might not be legal come it think of it-
@@coerce1 I don't think most of the people that took issue with the video watched it. I'm sure polo is going based on title or just the first couple minutes. I've had a couple admit it then delete their comment already.
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The rant at 2:20 is a joke that is failing to land with some people. So let me clear up that it is a joke, I don't wish death on anyone and I thought with how ostentatious the rant was that people would see it as a joke. I thought with how weirdly specific it was that people would see it as a joke. The idea of someone being buried in an avalanche of games seemed impossible enough to me that it would be seen clearly as a joke even if my delivery was deadpan. Some appreciated it, some didn't. If you want to see the full version with the "rant" you can see it on my patreon for free. www.patreon.com/serasthings
...Was it a joke? Most of your videos seem to be negative, bashing on something or another
Most of my videos seem to be negative? More than half of my videos are about promoting artistic communities and the creatives in them. As for the joke part, everything in my videos is scripted, from top to bottom. So everything is written very deliberately. The death is one of hubris where they would be dying to their own pride and dying from an avalanche of unplayed games. You would need a very large amount of games for that to be possible.
Unfortunately somethings need to be promoted with negativity or appear to be negative or else people won't click them. My best performing videos are negative ones so it looks like all I make is negative stuff. In reality its all you all click.
I'd suggest some of my positive videos but you wouldn't watch them. My tamagotchi video, amazing island, warioland 4, gba for gen z, and pretty much all of my videos about original species or the furry community are positive. I also have a video coming out soon about Castlevania. Unfortunately the videos that I work the hardest on and are positive don't do well.
Yeah I don’t know why EVERY hobby needs to be considered a money investment.
I agree
Right? It's terrible and really fucks things up for everyone who truly enjoys the hobby. But people love easy money, so treating everything as an investment is never going to stop.
It's because holding money itself is a bad investment. Money printer go brrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Because for those people its not a hobby, but a money investment. They just try to brand it as a "hobby" to not look too bad infront of others.
Emulation is the way forward, the average person has been priced out of retro gaming on actual hardware.
Not only that. The vast majority of retrogames isnt even available on any store. If its not available then there cant be any money loss by pirating it
I buy and sell retro games. Not exclusively but ive been in the resale business for over 10 years and I can attest to how overblown this market is. The folks who deal in games exclusively are the absolute worst when it comes to fair prices and reasonable markup values. Ive watched buyers at estate sales fight over games and consoles. Ive seen dealers try to sell pc game collections for thousands of dollars. Its very, very frustrating and it ultimately makes me want to just not even bother with trying to find decent games to sell.
i got a` sealed copy of unreal u wanna buy it lol
If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing. If I am not going to be able to play my favorite games legally, then I will play them through an emulator because there is no other way to play them unless I want to spend thousands of dollars just to play Animal Crossing on the Game Cube. It is disgusting how corporations market off of this stuff I recently got into Dungeons and Dragons because I love role-playing games. And then of course like clockwork, we are forced to spend thousands of dollars just to play with our friends online even though the applications that we used to play the games on were making enough money to begin with. The same can be said with gaming. I miss when all we needed was just the console, our favorite game, and the internet connection or our friend's console to play. Now you need an overpriced console, an overpriced game, an overpriced router, and a subscription to the company's online subscription to be able to play your favorite game online. And that is for games like Monster Hunter. For MMOs, you have to drop thousands of dollars to play it with friends sometimes. I have given enough money to these companies for the little amount of quality that we get now a days.
Either way piracy isn't stealing, because, for example, if I could copy your car then you still would have a car and I have copy of your car.
Piracy is copyright infringement.
@ I will say never steal from indie game developers unless they are just shitty people. The reason why I condone pirating against corporations is because they squeeze every little penny out of the people they serve. While indie game devs need more money to be able to keep up with other developers.
Retrogaming goes hand in hand in emulation. All the games i wanna play are either $200 or not available to be bought at all
Emulation: 🦸♂️
Theres a problem to be had with remakes and remasters: if the devs behind the port/remake dont know what theyre doing (or are affected by other things like current world events), things can go south very VERY quickly.
Advance wars 1 & 2 remake, silent hill remastered (not the remake tho i heard that was good), and grand theft auto remastered trilogy are three that come to mind.
Remember folks, sometimes alternative porting methods (such as emulation or source ports) are the best way to experience classic games, especially if said ports are fan-supported with unofficial patches (and servers for multiplayer games) to make them run decently on modern hardware.
And if these graders and AAA studios cant come to terms with how games preservation should be, then we'll just yo-ho-ho with a bottle of go f*ck yourselves.
The psychotic rant at 2:20 made me laugh so hard I HAD to sub. It genuinely caught me off guard lol.
"Game Graders: A Measured Response"
Retro game prices got you down? Have you tried not buying them and telling everyone you know to not buy them either?
Good more for me. ;)
Today's market price is tomorrow's insanely good deal. (If you know what to buy when.)
That's great and all but people are too fecking stupid to understand
Jesus christ that rant, you just went overdrive! Burn hotter than center of a sun.
In all seriousness preservation is doing fairly fine - emulators are around and basically unkillable and they can run same games as consoles, often to near perfect accuracy (or sometimes "better than perfect" - some games are laggy on oriignal consoles, but emulation can skip it.). Sure, there's some very obscure games that have no roms, but they are very miniscule exception. In some cases you can emulate the games on PHONE and phones are very easily accesible. PSP is especially funny case as i can move savestates beetween PC and phone emulator of PPSSPP.
Also emulation as a whole is both piracy and preservation, depends on whenever you have licence to use actual games (usually in form of... buying the game). This gets even more funky in case of emulating current (Switch can be emulated!) or not-very-old consoles. The general gist is that emulators are legal but roms are not unless you also have the game, but both cases have their exceptions of course.
This is why I just buy flashcarts and ODE's I tried to collect I managed to get a PAL Silent Hill 1 minty fresh and then a few months later it went up like I hate people. It sucks. I hope the bubble pops and we can get the games again for cheap like the old days.
That might just never happen sadly. They'll just keep cannibalizing themselves 'til the end of time.
I think the only original hardware that could be considered a necessity is a New 3DS and PS Vita. The former because whilst emulation is technically good for DS and 3DS these games can feel clunky when made to work on different hardware. And Vita emulation still needs more work before it is ready for everyday use.
Thankfully both of those systems are easily hacked, removimg the need for physical games and having their storage expended to fit it all. Plus depending on what you want to play can also double up as emulation handhelds.
Have you tried 3ds emulation on a retroid system? I've been using RP3+ to play DS and it's not too bad as long as I don't need a stylus for it like rhythm heaven or cooking mama. You'd need an RP4 Pro I think to do 3ds. But I've used my drawing tablet for 3ds games just fine. But yeah, you need specialized handhelds for it 3ds/ds and PS2/Gamecube onwards. I think we'll reach a point where people will have two handhelds, one for standard games and one for 3ds emulation. I really only want it for Denpa Men.
@@SerasThings I've done it on the Steam Deck and never managed to find a way of doing it that didn't feel awkward, to me at least. I went through a period a while back where I tried using the Steam Deck for everything I could, and those are the 2 systems that never quite clicked for me. Which is especially strange as Wii U did clcik but you would think it would have the same issues.
Retroid uses Android as it's OS so I use DraStic, I don't know about 3ds. But if the DS emulation is ok on the RP3+ then the ones that have 3ds emulation are probably fine. What I do in drastic is I have one screen be the main screen and a button is mapped to swap which screen is displayed. Alternatively you can have one screen displayed in full and a smaller version of a second screen on the right. This wouldn't work for things like TWEWY obviously, but for the majority of games it's fine.
@@SerasThings Oh yeah, I have played both 3DS and DS like that and it is perfectly fine for most games (The Sonic games are a bit rough due to being designed around vertical screens but even they are doable). Maybe I am just being a bit too picky as I jumped on 3DS hacking shortly after the Switch launched so have always had that option.
@@SerasThingslook up the Ayaneo flip ds, it’s designed for ds emulation
I hate people who grades items, like they're going to disappear someday, let me or someone use them! Emulation is nice, it helped me play things i could never without it :D
The whole concept of graded games completely baffles me. At least with trading cards, stamps, etc you can still view the entire piece, the grading box merely acting as a protective layer. But with video games, all you're doing is locking away a copy forever, never to be played.
The issue is much more complex than just the rising prices of retro games. At a basic level, people still need to prioritize essentials like food, housing, and clothing. But we live in a world where unrealistic standards are glorified, and where even those working hard can struggle to make ends meet. The rat race we find ourselves in often leads to a search for meaning or a way out-sometimes through things like nostalgia or the desire for financial gain.
In this context, mass-produced items like video games become a symbol of scarcity, fueling the market for collectibles. Everyone wants a piece of that ‘sweet pie’-the chance to turn old plastic into profit. Whether it’s for nostalgia or the hope of striking it rich, the cycle feeds itself. There will always be buyers looking to relive memories, while others see a financial opportunity. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps pushing prices higher, even though, fundamentally, they are just pieces of the past.
This left my core audience fast. How many are commenting without watching the video? The video goes in a direction you might not expect so I can kind of tell when you didn't watch it.
all i know is you made an inflation joke somewhere and that was pretty based (i'm half way through)
i honestly wish companies had a "Made To Order" system these days where they would make them for you if you wanted them. I'd pay nintendo their base MSRP price for any GameCube title, but not a reseller.
me who just brought Super Mario World: haha you can't stop me
The only console I've been picking stuff up for recently is the Nintendo Switch. Trying to find anything for older hardware has been stupid difficult because of the chaos happening in the secondhand market.
I do try to pick up whatever remakes or remasters of older titles are around.
That Paper Mario remaster and Metroid Prime's look intriguing and I'll definitely look into those.
Not only am I refusing to pay the extreme inflated prices, I've decided to reduce my support of companies that refuse to rerelease games.
I can't entirely decouple from Nintendo or Gamefreak content, its a large part of my streaming content. I am however absolutely pivoting more and more to indie games and devs that DO rerelease games.
There's many games in my backlog. I can wait a long time.
What I hate about the reselling market is that Experiences I Wish I Had are STILL cost prohibitive by the same magnitude as they were when I was a child.
I literally just want to play a physical copy of Pokémon Emerald on a GBA SP I don't even have the hardware to transfer anything I'd catch in the game. I just want to experience it the way 10 year old me should have had the chance to.
There are a lot of reproduction carts and flash carts and they are essentially indistinguishable. With the flashcart you could also play modded versions like randomized.
Its crazy how much scummy behavior is in the retro gaming community and market
This shit is actually terrifying, if i wasnt cool with emulation id be too broke to actually experience these games nowadays
Even worse is that when official companies decide that they care, they close off accessibility anyway due to certain things like Virtual Console and Wii Shop Channel stop proving as profitable.
@Rons-Fansubs yeah! The availability of these old games is tied directly to if the companies see them as profitable
I hadn’t been into retro gaming in years but yknow it reminds me a good bit of how after Covid with retro games n all I’ve seen people are selling old shitbox diesels for a fuck ton of money same with plenty of 20 year old Silverado 1500 and 2500s on marketplace saying “I kNoW WhAT I got” while selling it for 8k when in reality it’s worth 3 to 4. It’s ridiculous how stuff like this happens in practically everything 💀💀💀
And for people who don't like the idea of "piracy", just keep in mind that buying from the second-hand market means you are paying some random person for the developer's work. The people who made the game don't see a dime either way.
Developers are usually paid after the project is done anyway, so you likely don't give the devs money for buying the game new. Unless it's an indie title.
There’s a bunch of retro games I’d love to own but the price would easily stretch into the thousands. I’ve just had to come to terms that I’ll never own most of them and only sparingly buy the ones at a reasonable price. Sucks that a lot of the people selling these games probably don’t care about the series either and are just hoarding them like a stock investment.
on my myoo mini I've still kept the arcade games roms because often it's quite hard to find the exact rom that work on the exact copy of mame which come with the device and often games like street fighters 3 being japanese doesn't really affect the gameplay.
I don’t even buy retro games, I download them from rom sites. Emulation ftw
i quit buying them when they stopped being new. As soon as i could emulate my collection, i sold off the stuff I could use on my computer. They aren't supporting that stuff, why should i buy it?
I can understand something like magic knight reyearth on the Saturn being expensive because so few copies were printed. But pokemon games are some of the most overprinted games on their respective platforms so them being anything higher then 50 or 60 dollars seems like greed unless it's actually rare like pokemon box or whatever that gcn pokemon game that's just a storage for the gen 3 pokemon games was called.
I bought 3 retro consoles and collected some games (mix of imports and extremely little US versions) and the GameCube seems more of an expensive retro system to play compared to the Dreamcast and PS2. Chat am I cooked?
i also feel like name-dropping certain sites can also put them at risk of them possibly getting taken down. it's like the first two rules of fight club. it's just something that genuinely irks me. but that's just my opinion
"Loose lips sink ships" it's how Vimm went from the best EmuParadise alternative to "I can get about half of the things I want but have to find the rest elsewhere."
I've been collecting for a real long time now, been one of my biggest passions. It's always been an expensive hobby but it was worth it to me, having access to a bunch of games for whenever i wanted. But ever since 2020 this already expensive became just downright unfeasible to really be able to continue you forward. I would purchase some things here n there but I mostly died down. In comes the steam deck. And I'm able to play nearly my entire collection and then some. All on one device. Cheaper, more features, and more content. And thats not even mentioning being able to play a large portion of your already existing steam library and that anything you buy on there you'll be able to play free of charge without having to rebuy the same games over and over.
And this is the reason why people play classic games on an emulator nowadays
I literally got a repro of Emerald on ebay for $20 and its been playing perfect. I dont get why people are playing ball with these stupid prices.
The only retro games i buy instead of emulating are pokemon, and thats for the "ecosystem" around them. Im hoping an unofficial pokemon bank/home replacement comes out soon in preparation for banks inevutable end
The Evercade is a good way to scratch that retro itch. Got all the expected things like carts, cases and manuals but is technically a modern system so the market for the games isn't a mess. I also personally like it's focus on hidden gems and indie games.
My worry with them is the same worry I have with Antstream. I think by re-releasing these games to their system they're encouraging companies to not bother with making retro games available on modern hardware like pc. "Why re-release my games when companies like evercade and antstream will pay me to put it on their platform?"
@SerasThings That's a good point. Thankfully the games on Evercade do at least have a bit more permanence than Antstream
This video reminds me of the fact that people are paying a huge load of money for Action 52 on NES.
Funny enough, when you factor inflation, it costs less now than what it did when it came out. Not that the game was worth its original price to begin with.
If it were possible I'd love to purchase recreation versions of retro games, ideally with a recreation console to go alongside it, I want the click of cartridges and the sesire/need to blow in them when they don't work, I want my ps1 to not scratch the hell out of discs, I want the experience as a whole to be authentic as possible without having to drain my wallet to an unreasonable degree!
...but until that time my computer is something of a beast so it can handle emulation damn near flawlessly at least when I actually manage to set it up properly x3
Repro games that on good quality carts are going to be hard to find due to copyright issues, however there are blank carts and repro shells for them which can be flashed with whatever game ROMs you want (I found them for GB/GBC, I have to assume people make them for other consoles too). Printing labels at the same quality as the originals might be tough though.
I really want to buy the original Marvel vs Capcom for the PS1 and they are so expensive its so dumb, I also bought a ps2 game from amazon and payed a dollar extra when I could have gotten it dollar cheaper on eBay. What sucks is that my PS3 can't read DVDs so I may have to spend more money uhhhh. I been really wanting to get into retro collecting and playing older games since I was like 9 or 10, but these prices omg.
Some of these people selling retro games are out of their minds. I'm not taking out a loan to buy Pokemon Platinum. I'm sticking to emulation. If I want a cheaper physical alternative, I'll get a flash cart or reproduction.
Did you see the Voultar tweet back in September covering the fact that PSX repros are becoming indistinguishable from the original official production run (black underside and all)? Here's to hoping that we start seeing this happen on all platforms and flooding the market so the wannabe investors can really eat some losses.
Just got my rg34xx and I’ll be donating me 28xx
This is when you put on your peg leg and eyepatch. Yarr.
Yea on my end, I understand emulation. But physical media tickles my brain more than pressing a button to play it on a emulator. And as I have been looking for pokemon firered and it hurts me when it costs over double what my gameboy did a year ago when I got ahold of it, even though it's just the cartridge and heavily used
Have you tried emulation handhelds? The RG28XX is like a bigger GB Micro, RG35xx SP is like a bigger SP, and Anbernic just released one that is just like the GBA original.
@SerasThings i already have a gba, and I don't really have the money to buy another handheld thing at the moment
Especially Pokemon Soul Silver and Heartgold. 😢
Mod your consoles especially for Nintendo its super easy. Use R4 cards on 3/DS. They make writable GBA carts most are cheap but some people make good ones just make sure the save type matches the one for the game you want to write to the cart. They also make Flash carts where you can load up multiple games from one cart as well if you want that option just make sure you get the right one for your needs. Remember we have the technology we can rebuild them.
i hate how retro games are too much i don't want to buy a copy of a game i never played how much retro game are right now
Consider smartphones too, secondhand flagship smartphones. They're cheaper than a lot of Anbernic/Retroid handhelds.
All lot of these are mostly being resold due to dropped support. I would recommend anything android version 7 or later and a snapdragon chip for compatibility purposes.
Also expandable storage is a must especially for CD based systems Ps1, Ps2, GameCube, Wii, Wii U etc.
All good telescopic controller can be pretty cheap too. I would also keep an eye on the MCon as that looks pretty promising.
Also foldables, if you can find a good secondhand foldable it'd be perfect for ds and 3ds. I will die on a hill that smartphones and tablets are the second best way to play those games if you can't get your hands on original hardware.
I fully support emulation and archiving. Digital libraries on official consoles can be taken back or made useless at anytime. Physical hardware will eventually break for good and physical games are super expensive now. I have a hard drive and SD cards full of games that I can put into any computer, smartphone, tablet, and retro handheld that no one can take from me and I can copy as many times as I want to keep it alive.
If you already have a phone or an old one I do recommend using them to emulate. I repurposed my old phones into cameras for recording and streaming physical stuff. But if you're looking to spend I think people might prefer having real buttons on their handheld, I know you can use a controller or grip with a phone but that's awkward. RG28XX is in the 30 usd range, 35 models are 50 or lower (even the SP as it goes on sale often), and the 34 is less than 80. But I do agree that android emulation is pretty good, my main device right now is RP3+.
I will call it archive and preservation. But, I will also call it piracy. Yes, I pirate games. Yes, I will continue to pirate games. You don't want me to pirate games? Then sell your games online somewhere I can buy and play them. :p Also, I don't think there is anything wrong with game grading and telling people they should die is just dumb. You're just an unhinged elitist. Yes, gatekeeping is good. But, not by telling people to kill themselves or wishing they would die. Piracy is good for the industry. It's on the path to preservation.
I thought with how weirdly specific the death thing was that more people would see it as the joke it is.
@@SerasThings Idk man. Joking about death just seems weird to me. I could understand calling someone names, but wishing death on them seems a bit too far. Even if it is just a joke.
My sense of humor isn't for you and that's totally fine. It's a morbid joke and I thought the absurdity of death by an avalanche of unplayed games would carry it. It's also an ironic death and death by hubris, which I think makes it funnier because of the impossibility of it. Sorry it didn't land.
Edit: Is death by avalanche of games a common cause of death in some part of the world or something?
@@SerasThings Except there was no punchline. It was more of an anger filled rant because you dislike one aspect of that side of retro gaming.
@dfess6463 Not every joke is going to be a knock knock joke. Example, "I hope you step on a Lego piece", there isn't a punchline there but rather the specificity and oddness is what's funny. "I hope you fall down an up escalator" funny because it's specific, odd, and the likelihood is low. Either way I removed that portion of the video.
It's sad that pokemon games cost so much :(
The retro game market was already shit long before covid. I had a few of the old systems when I was a kid, but ended up getting rid of them with the games I had. In 2006, I got back into it. And by some time between 2010 and 2012 I got most of the retro games I wanted so I didn't bother anymore. Fast forward to 2015 when I got a RetroN 5 and wanted to get a few more games, and my fuck were they stupidly expensive. So I got a few and left it at that. Nowadays I'll just emulate everything. I've got a good PC with a good monitor. And there are CRT filters.
You don't get how scarcity and economics work. The real thing you should get mad at is IP. Being able to own an idea is what causes a monopoly over that idea and the artificial scarcity in the first place which is what causes prices to go up. (We could have better health care, etc etc etc the list is MASSIVE!)
3:40 Humans will just be a lazy as their technology allows. This is an issue with _humans._
Pricecharting was _NEVER_ good. Grading games is mostly a scam that is kind of like cryptocurrency. You shouldn't be paying someone to tell you how minty your game is unless all you're trying to flip it to other midwitted type collectors. It's like a casino though, for every dude who got a 10x return a hundred dudes lost their asses.
Most of these games aren't scarce though. Emerald sold 7,000,000 copies. That price inflation can only come from demand.
@@SerasThings 334.9 million people live in the USA. Only 2.09% of the population can have a single copy. If even 50% of the cartridges survived 20 years since it was released the price is going to go up quite a lot. Let alone the box since no one ever saved the box so complete copies will go for a grip. Part of the price inflation comes from money printer go brrrrr. Money is worth less because more of it exists. Money is just a way to deal with scarcity.
Demand is one factor yes, but that does not control for all other factors. In 2004 it wasn't as scarce and money wasn't so inflated, but today both those things have changed thus you get where we are today with retro game prices. The thing to be mad at is still IP.
Edit: Actually nevermind, we agree for the most part. Nintendo does suck, but I think for the retro part we have more control than you think. I think arguing this is a waste of time for both of us since we both think nintendo is the root cause. I'm just saying, we don't have a ton of control over what they do. But we are able to talk to each other and together as a community we can get together and make a change. So we shouldn't argue. Thanks for commenting.
Have you considered emulation?
I mention emulation in the video.
@@SerasThings Then let the collectors enjoy their toys.
I never told them they can't enjoy it? Could you timestamp where I said that?
@@SerasThings Don't worry about it. I often get excited and get ahead of myself. UI stropped watching the video when you said the word TERF. LOL.
good point unfortunately cringe channel
Not a pin of shame, this is genuinely the best description of my channel.
@@SerasThings ROCK IT LIKE A G
you forgot the comma
and the period
and capitalization
and spacers
you are correct, though
stores i go to sells classic games for 30$ max so no we shouldnt kill retro games, and consoles are sold between 70 to 200$ so maybe go to stores instead
Problem: What if the nearest store that sells retro games for such low prices is like, 2-3 hours away? At least us Tennesseans have a couple of local stores abound for retro games & the like every like, 30 minutes of road, but man I do NOT want to imagine what it's like in freakin' Wyoming.
Based opinions. I remember going to a retro game expo in 2018, long before the nightmares of COVID and raters, games used to be actually affordable. I got a PS2 for $50. I'll take your advice and try not to buy any retro games this year.
On the topic of PS2/Wii emulation handhelds, I got a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro for my birthday and I haven't run into any issues with PS2 games whatsoever, Sly Cooper not withstanding (the game is infamous for not being able to run on many things). Right now that's $175, I think, so it's cheaper than a Switch Lite. I think that, at that price point, it's more than worth it.
I bought my old pokemon games CIB because they are cool pieces and they look good on my shelf. Buying them as an investment is stupid but whining because you can't afford them is also cringe.
Not being able to afford isn't something to whine about, true. But when these games are produced in the millions and people are charging 200 a cartridge, that's a little messed up. Not to mention it opens up online markets to scams, more so than usual. 200 dollars on a cartridge that could be faked for 20 bucks is a large profit margin. It can be hard to tell which are scams over a picture, discoloration and ugly labels could be passed as age or damage. I'm not so much complaining about being unable to afford them, it's not important stuff like food and water. I'm complaining about price gouging and scams. But you can only fit so much into a video that's watchable, especially when many are commenting without watching in the first place. The subject deserves a nuanced discussion, but it's not like anyone would watch it anyway.
I think you lose the plot when you wish death on people who grade games lol. In examples like Pokemon gba carts, the repros do 95% of what the legit carts do which is good enough for most but they don’t have all the functionality (gc connectivity, ds migration). The market dictates what people are willing to pay for stuff, for example emerald version is $200 loose. They did make millions of copies but there are only a few hundred for sale on eBay at any given time for example, supply and demand. My personal philosophy is I’ll pay the $500 for an emerald cib because I’m going to play it and I want the original box for my display. I would rather spend the big money on one game rather than be one of those collectors that has a wall of games they aren’t ever going to play, but hey they got it at a good price. I’m not going to whine to my local mom and pop game store about what they want to sell because I got bigger things to worry about. If they got something I want for a decent price then I’ll buy it not I’ll find it some place else.
I don't seriously wish death on them, I'm leaning into the disdain people feel for them by intentionally giving an ostentatious response that no reasonable person would genuinely give. It's commentary on how ridiculous it is to do that. I use some obscure comedy in my videos because I learned from a comedy class. I even have a comedy license, well, it's more like a certificate. But they call it a license because that's funnier.
I understand the high price for CIB as those boxes are difficult to find and maintain. My issue with cart prices comes exclusively from overprice loose carts. Which is what this video is, in part, about. Like you said, market dictates that. Market is partly demand, I'm suggesting to buy less overpriced stuff to reduce the demand and price. You also lack the full context of the conversation with my retailer, which is fair because I didn't give it. The subject of grading came up naturally, I didn't drive 2 hours to a retro store that's not in my town. Slam my fist on the table, and demand they don't sell bambi on the ps2 as a graded game or I'll never return. I can clown but I'd never spend gas money to be one.
hehe just hacked my 3ds last night :3c
i dont get retro games, i play them.
Don’t tell me what to do you’re not my dad
Are you sure? The Paternity Tests haven't come in yet.
@ good point
Why not.
Unblock games 6x has pokemon emerald on it for free emulation 🤑🤑 And other pokemon games that it emulates to play on a school chromebook. That might not be legal come it think of it-
get emulators
💯
not buying them isn't a solution. also way to victim blame.
What is your solution then?
OP was pretty clear that price speculators/manipulators are to blame for the state of the market and I fail to see how they're being victimized.
@@coerce1 I don't think most of the people that took issue with the video watched it. I'm sure polo is going based on title or just the first couple minutes. I've had a couple admit it then delete their comment already.
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