My Precious

“What is all of this crap?”

“Those are our treasured possessions.”

Richie Rich

I have a fairly extensive game collection, stretching from the Odyssey II to the Switch. I have some games as common as dirt, some games that are fairly rare. Some are not worth much, well others are worth a pretty penny. Here are the five games in my collection that are the most valuable.

The Legend of Kage NES

I know what you’re thinking. “Legend of Kage isn’t a valuable game, Price Charting says it’s worth like $8. How can that be one of your most valuable games?” I previously mentioned that my Dad wasn’t much of a gamer. He would play a few with me, but didn’t really get into many of them. This was one of the precious few he really enjoyed. He did not progress much in the actual game, but he could rack up stupid high scores in the first level. I tried duplicating his techniques many times, but couldn’t. I even tried to send his highest score into Nintendo Power (it was way higher than the one they had printed), but alas the picture didn’t turn out. I know this game lands on many worst NES games lists, but just for the memories I consider it one of the best.

WWF Royal Rumble SNES

It was Saturday morning, it was the summer of 1991 and I had a problem. I was bored out of my mind. Both of my parents were at work, cartoons had switched over to reruns of old shows. I flipped the channels aimlessly hoping to find some channel with something worth watching when I stumbled across WWF Superstars of Wrestling. I had a passing familiarity with wrestling, I watched the Hulk Hogan cartoon and had seen a match or two at a friend’s house, but I never really watched it. Having nothing else better to do I watched it. I watched it again the week after that. I continued watching right up to to the present day. Wrestling soon became one of the great passions of my life. I got as many magazines as I could, begged my parents for every pay per view (and watched scrambled broadcasts of the ones I couldn’t talk them into, had many, many of the toys, my walls were covered in posters from the magazines. I rented the games and played them at friend’s houses, but for one reason or another I never seemed to get one. Until this game came out.

I was beyond hyped for this game. The Royal Rumble was one of my favorite events of the year, this game included my favorite wrestler, Bret “Hitman” Hart and the wrestlers all used their actual finishing moves (a first as far as I knew). My best friend at the time, Mike, and I spent countless hours playing this game. Our goal was to finish a Rumble in less than 1 minute. We would go to opposite sides of the ring, whip opponents at each other and hip toss them over the rope. When the last one was gone we took turns running at the other and letting ourselves be eliminated. After more attempts than I care to think about we finally did it. We celebrated like the Patriots had just won the Superbowl (at the time, an unthinkable miracle).

Contra III The Alien War SNES

Notice anything unusual about the game pictured above? That little banner that says “Demo Only”. Petty cool huh? I, like every true Nintendo fan, had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. I loved it, I entered the contests almost every month, never managing to win. One month they decided to include trading cards featuring different games in the back. They also had a contest going. Each month they would pick three different games, if you had the cards for those games you won a free game. Every month I would swear that I had the right cards and go through all of my back issues. Every month I would be wrong. One month I had two of them and a kid at school had the third I needed, but I couldn’t convince him to trade. Finally one month I was positive I had the three cards and I did. I was off the wall, I mailed it in and could not wait for my game to arrive. I even called the Nintendo help line a few times to ask about it (God those guys must had the patience of a saint). Finally one day we came home and grabbed the mail and I had a letter from Nintendo. I tore into it in the car and it congratulated me and said my game would come within 4 to 6 weeks.

We got home and I went onto our screened porch, carrying the groceries. I recall that we had forgotten to turn on the light before we left. I tripped on something and dang near face planted. It was a package that UPS left. A package for me. A package from Nintendo. A package containing this game. The letter and game arrived the same day. I thought it was so cool that my game had a different label than anyone else that I knew. I played the heck out of the game and love it.

1 2 Switch

My wife and I have 2 kids, a 13 year old son and a 7 and a half year old daughter. I grew up playing video games, my wife barely touched them until we got together, my son is a pretty avid gamer, my daughter is just learning how to play games. Finding a game that all of us can play together and all have fun has been near impossible. Either I blow everyone away or someone is bored. My kids can not agree on a game for anything. Until we got the Switch and this game. It is the one game that we can all play and have good time. We do an elimination game with Soda Shaker, we Wizard Duel. We have fun, all of us. I know a lot of gamers dump on this game, they think it is garbage. It isn’t, it just wasn’t meant for them. Thanks to work I barely get to see the family and when I do we usually have a ton of things to do. I treasure the time we spend together playing this game. I wish it was more often.

The Legend of Zelda NES

A classic, one of the greatest games ever made. One my whole family played growing up. I can recall one day when I was in elementary school my Mom picked me up, all excited. She had finally discovered where level 7 was hidden. We had been searching for it forever. My Mom was the first of us to beat the game, even managing to finish the second quest, something I have never had the patience to do. Even my Nana bought an NES and played the game, calling me to ask for tips when she got stuck. She called the Nintendo help line so many times they finally sent her a detailed map in the mail.

As she got into her later years and couldn’t do as much, she still played through this game every single day. I recall one day a few months after I had started college I received a phone call from her. I was expecting some news from home or just checking in. Nope, she just wanted to know the path through Death Mountain. Cancer got the best of her just after I finished college. I was asked what I wanted when we were dividing up her estate. The one thing I requested was her NES and games. I gave my copy of Zelda to my parents and held onto hers. Last time I checked it still had her final save file on it. I haven’t dared to boot up the game in years though, I am too scared the battery finally died and her file is gone. I can’t face that. Luckily I have many other options to play this game if I so choose.

From good times with friends and family to winning a major award, these are my five most valuable games. There are many ways to look at the value of your collection, I hope I have inspired some of you to look beyond the resale value of your games, and look at what they are truly worth to you. Money looses value every day, memories do not.

Insert Coin for Nostalgia

“Remember the old arcade/ Blew every dollar that we ever made.”- Photographs Nickelback

Arcade games where everywhere when I was young. I don’t just mean arcades, those were in every mall and most every strip mall near me. I mean arcade machines themselves. They were in fairly logical places like pizza places and bowling alleys, put also more unusual locations like gas stations and convenience stores. Heck, the first time I can recall every seeing a Q*Bert machine was in the atrium of a K Mart. I am not talking about those money stealing claw machines either, but real, actual games. Talk about a golden age. While Mom was shopping or Dad was waiting for the pizza they could just slip us a few quarters and let us play until it was time to go. Even if they wouldn’t give us any change, we would just watch the attract screens and pretend that we were the ones playing. It was glorious. Those arcade machines really helped turn me into the gamer that I am today.

Pizza places and arcade games seem like a match made in heaven. You naturally have to wait several minutes for you pizza to be ready, what better way to kill the time than a game? The pizza place even manages to squeeze a little extra out of you too. Win win. Of course Pizza Hut and Chuck E Cheese had all of the top games, but those were a decent distance to drive to from the town I grew up in. More of a special occasion sort of thing. Most of the time we went to the place right next door to where my Mom worked, Raymond House of Pizza ( I am pretty sure it changed owners/names several times, but that is the one I remember it as). It was owned by a very friendly, jovial seemingly giant of a Greek man. They had a rotating selection of arcade games come through the place.

My favorite game they ever had was Shinobi. I loved throwing the stars and using the mystical powers. I was so excited when I beat the fireball throwing boss, only to discover there were more levels. As a kid raised on the 2600 this was mind blowing. My least favorite was Robocop, I could not last long enough for our pizza to cook. How could a robot die in one freaking hit? One time they had this really weird game. You played as a character dressed in red who jumped on mushrooms and turtles. It had this one castle level with fire chains that I could not get past. I was bummed when it left the shop, thinking I would never get to play it again. How wrong I was. That was my first introduction to Mario in a local pizza shop. Little did I know what a major role that character was soon to play in my life.

Some where around fourth grade my family had a pretty big change. My Dad hurt his knee in his factory job and they decided they did not want him back. He was out of a job for a bit, fighting for worker’s comp. He eventually managed to find another job, although he was disappointed in it. I, however was ecstatic. He was going to be the manager of a new arcade being built in one of the local malls! As a kid I couldn’t understand his melancholy, he had one of the coolest jobs ever. As an adult, I get it. But man I have tons of fond memories of that place.

Right near the entrance they had WWF Wrestlefest. As a kid who lived and breathed wrestling that game was incredible. Huge characters, way larger than my NES could produce. Each wrestler used their finishing move too. Who cared if they thought you could pin wrestlers in the Royal Rumble? Who cared if you needed multiple roles of quarters to battle the Legion of Doom? That game was incredible, I can’t believe it took 30 years to get a sequel. I first played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons there as well. All of these great games based on my favorite franchises, with graphics and game play miles beyond what I had at home. I remember one day over dinner my Dad telling me about this new game they got in, one that home office was really excited about. It was a game with just 2 characters battling each other. One of the characters was this green skinned guy who could fly across the screen and turn electric. Yup, Street Fighter 2 had entered the scene. It was apparently a pain to put together, each player had a ton of buttons. My Dad figured out a logical way to put the buttons in, different from what was recommended. It was so popular that other arcades sent staff in to study his layout. Funny coming from a guy who admittedly didn’t play most of the games. He could build them easily enough, but needed someone else to test them and see if they worked.

The other local mall had an arcade too, of course, Dream Machine. I didn’t like it as much as Tilt. But there were plenty of others in the area. I lived reasonably close to the seacoast, and the beaches were full of arcades. Many of them were basically casinos with horrible odds and a loose id policy. Several of them had a nice selection of games though. To me going to the beach meant grabbing some pizza or fried dough and hitting the arcades. Which was an interesting lesson when my wife and starting dating. Her idea of going to the beach meant going on the hot sand and playing in the freezing cold water. Why do that when you could play Tron of Skee Ball? Weirdo. She eventually warmed up to the arcades a bit though. In fact right after we got engaged, when we were trying to set the date and all that, we ended up going to the aforementioned Dream Machine to talk things over. When we couldn’t decide the decision was made by a round of Skee Ball. She won every game. Should have picked Wacky Gator.

It was a sad day when I realized the arcades and the games themselves were dying off. Home technology eventually caught up to and surpassed the arcade machines. The mall that Tilt was in closed down and a strip mall was built in it’s place. Where Tilt once stood is now the loading dock for a Five Below. Dream Machine is part of a Buffalo Wild Wings and a GNC. The games are even gone from the pizza joints. Kids can just play Angry Birds or Five Nights at Freddy’s on their phone instead of Frogger or After Burner. But I am luckier than most. Some of the arcades at the beach are gone, others are still there. Funspot, the largest arcade in the world is only an hour drive from where I live, we make the pilgrimage a few times a year. I have easy access to MAME and more games than I could ever hope to play. But it is not the same, not at all. I am 40 years old, I am at the point where my dreams that have not come true most likely never will. I will not own a Lamborghini. I will never be WWE Champion. I will never visit Disney World or Universal, or star on Broadway. I have given up on the vast majority of my dreams. The one I refuse to let go off however is to own my own collection of arcade games. I know they are expensive and difficult to maintain. I know I don’t really have space for them. But I don’t care. Those games are as much a part of my childhood as anything and one day they will be mine.