I’m begging Nintendo to re-release some of their Gamecube lineup (or how trying to buy Gamecube games on eBay has driven me mad)

[Curler]

People who grew up with it aged to a point they can now pay for things they had growing up. It's what happened with all previous retro game markets. They were cheap and affordable until the people who grew up with them wanted them again. Same will happen to 360, PS3, and Wii, DS soon in a couple years. Just make sure to get the hidden gems you want before they do go up.

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It was never this way with past gens, with Mario 3 for NES ever being like, $50-100 (at least, over a decade after being available for a high msrp) just because people can afford it now. Even if they can afford it, no one seems to want to do their homework, and just agree to pay for way above original msrp/typical going rate.

It's moreso a recent trend, and although some GC were always pricey due to being obscure, it just EXPLODED as of last year.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

It was never this way with past gens, with Mario 3 for NES ever being like, $50-100 (at least, over a decade after being available for a high msrp) just because people can afford it now. Even if they can afford it, no one seems to want to do their homework, and just agree to pay for way above original msrp/typical going rate.

It's moreso a recent trend, and although some GC were always pricey due to being obscure, it just EXPLODED as of last year.

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Uh yeah they did. They boomed hard around 2012 2013. NES, Genesis, SNES all skyrocketed.

 

[Curler]

Uh yeah they did. They boomed hard around 2012 2013. NES, Genesis, SNES all skyrocketed.

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For the more popular titles, though? I'm not talking about the popular rare/pricey ones. I can't think of anytime collecting games, did I come across the popular titles people would want (like Mario 1-3, etc), under glass because they were too pricey to put out. Pricecharting if anything, shows these popular NES titles going up now, way more than even going back over 13 years ago. GC on the other hand? Even the popular/common titles are on the pricey end, reaching near the $100 mark. Even if it's nostalgia, it's surprising that people will pay top dollar for it.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

For the more popular titles, though? I'm not talking about the popular rare/pricey ones. I can't think of anytime collecting games, did I come across the popular titles people would want (like Mario 1-3, etc), under glass because they were too pricey to put out. Pricecharting if anything, shows these popular NES titles going up now, way more than even going back over 13 years ago. GC on the other hand? Even the popular/common titles are on the pricey end, reaching near the $100 mark. Even if it's nostalgia, it's surprising that people will pay top dollar for it.

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Yeah getting popular nes titles complete were pricey. If you wanted Mario 1-3 CIB you were going to drop some bucks. You only had the benefit of still being able to pick them up through yard sales and flea markets where some people still not in the know selling games for cheap (you can still do this but it is way rarer now)

 

[Papercuts]

Starting to think I should actually sell my copies of Chibi Robo, TTYD, Skies of Arcadia and both Baten Kaitos games.

It really sucks how hard it can be to access such great games, Nintendo have an incredible legacy yet handle it in a very frustrating manner. I don't know how they somehow regressed so hard from the Wii VC to what we have now.

 

[PancakeFlip]

It mostly just surprises me how much people are willing to spend at these peak prices. I've always been a thrifty collector (with exceptions) for older consoles, and the fact that these prices are being driven up BECAUSE people out there are paying these amounts, surprises me the most. I just assume that people didn't know what the values were prior to last year and were just like "$100+? Sounds good, sure!!"

Nintendo does need to re-release a TON of legacy stuff. Would be nice to see more compilations get put out.

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This doesn't make sense though, unless a lot of people are that stupid that got into collecting games in the last few years. NES and SNES games at this age were not this bad.

I'm just glad I have all the GCN games I wanted and keep my games in good condition. I can ignore this insanity.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

This doesn't make sense though, unless a lot of people are that stupid that got into collecting games in the last few years. NES and SNES games at this age were not this bad.

I'm just glad I have all the GCN games I wanted and keep my games in good condition. I can ignore this insanity.

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NES and SNES games got a bit of a reprieve because of ease of emulation and the emergence of/need for digital only content in the mid 00s meaning that a lot of the titles people actually cared about and had nostalgia for could be gotten digitally from 2006 onwards easily. That combined with the GBA and occasionally DS getting many of the big SNES games helped.

Games that didn't make it to that kind of service like chrono trigger (until the ds version) absolutely did see this kind of price inflation though. GameCube onwards emulation
(1) being harder and requiring more effort to meet Nintendo kind of standards and
(2) potentially result in more revenue by sitting on the title until you can do a full remake or remaster with it properly timed in to your big budget release schedule and
(3) the realities of game development meaning that even if you're a company not looking at it directly from the revenue perspective, to keep a properly packed release schedule as a company nowadays, you basically have to include remasters and remakes in there, have all come together to make the original GameCube era library more expensive than many of their NES and SNES contemporaries.

 

[Benzychenz]

Yeah GameCube sucks ass to get games for.

Here in PAL land stuff like Chibi-Robo, Kirby Air Ride, Skies of Arcadia, and Path of Radiance are all worth like $200+.

TTYD, Star Fox Assault and many more are also $100+.

It sucks.

 

[Res-bot]

Maybe its connected to the concerns raised in this thread: Exposing Fraud and Deception In The Retro Video Game Market

Might just be that regular buyers who wan to buy the game to play are competing against speculators hoping the price of games goes up

 

[AllMight1]

Get Wii
Hack it.
Thank Nintendo.

 

[King Kingo]

Let's hope those Baten Kaitos trademark renewals means that we get a Switch port for both of those games. 🤞🏾

 

[Dragonyeuw]

NES and SNES games got a bit of a reprieve because of ease of emulation and the emergence of/need for digital only content in the mid 00s meaning that a lot of the titles people actually cared about and had nostalgia for could be gotten digitally from 2006 onwards easily. That combined with the GBA and occasionally DS getting many of the big SNES games helped.

Games that didn't make it to that kind of service like chrono trigger (until the ds version) absolutely did see this kind of price inflation though. GameCube onwards emulation
(1) being harder and requiring more effort to meet Nintendo kind of standards and
(2) potentially result in more revenue by sitting on the title until you can do a full remake or remaster with it properly timed in to your big budget release schedule and
(3) the realities of game development meaning that even if you're a company not looking at it directly from the revenue perspective, to keep a properly packed release schedule as a company nowadays, you basically have to include remasters and remakes in there, have all come together to make the original GameCube era library more expensive than many of their NES and SNES contemporaries.

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Crazy thing with Chrono Trigger, despite it being available on DS( which has also spiked the past year) and steam( for $15 and periodically drops 50% on sale), the current SNES CIB price is over $800. Before the pandemic it was like $400 plus IIRC.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

Go ahead and do so. I sold most of my GC stuff on EBay about five years ago. Had about 300+ transactions and only a couple problems. Both were my fault. I even sold two component cables , two game boy players, wavebirds. I need to sit down and sell more stuff.

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If anything I'd rather sell to resetera folk, unfortunately I live in Bermuda and the cost of shipping a game even economy is probably over a $10 and would take at least a week to get to any NA destination. I would have to take a hit on shipping because I can't expect the buyer to overpay on that if they can get free/cheap shipping buying from a NA-based seller.

 

[Brainiac 8]

That sucks. I've had a thought about selling off some of my higher value games on there but stories like that give me pause.

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I can only speak from personal experience on this, but in the past year or so I've been selling a lot of my collection to simplify and for unexpected medical bills. I have sold quite a number of high ticket items and so far I haven't run into a single issue. Doesn't mean it won't happen at some point, but so far haven't had any problems.

 

[TheLastOfPizzaCrUSt]

Expensive GCN games? Try collecting for Saturn lmao

 

[Pancakes R Us]

Sorry to hear, OP. I hope you find a good copy at a decent price.

I'm so glad I own more or less all the GC games I want. There may be a couple more I'd like to find at non crazy prices.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

I wish Nintendo would port, remaster or remake Eternal Darkness for Switch, but no :(

 

[Dragonyeuw]

I can only speak from personal experience on this, but in the past year or so I've been selling a lot of my collection to simplify and for unexpected medical bills. I have sold quite a number of high ticket items and so far I haven't run into a single issue. Doesn't mean it won't happen at some point, but so far haven't had any problems.

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I'm considering posting stuff on here and avoiding the ebay middleman. Because of my location I'd have to eat higher shipping than I'd like, but ebay takes a percentage of the sale anyways.

 

[Mantorok]

I wish Nintendo would port, remaster or remake Eternal Darkness for Switch, but no :(

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Yep, add MP to the list and I will be happy enough, although there are a ton of other games I would like ported but those 2 are the biggies.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

Expensive GCN games? Try collecting for Saturn lmao

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Saturn is wild. Strongly considering selling off some of my RPGs and just keeping my Japanese imports( mostly Capcom fighters). Love the Japanese Saturn box-art.

 

[logash]

So glad I bought Thousand year Door for $25 a couple of years back. Still, as much as I love laying games on original hardware, I would much rather play games on modern hardware. PlayStation and Nintendo really need to get on that. PlayStation in particular has been bad and Nintendo has slowed to a crawl. GameCube games on the eShop would be a dream come true.

 

[Kahhhhyle]

It sucks. I've basically given up on expanding my collection. I have a handful of games in my wishlist on pricecharting, but I'm not spending that much money on obtaining these games.

What I have done is my absolute best to preserve what I've got. I ripped all my discs, homebrewed my GCN, Wii, and Wii U and have the collection I do have installed on all of them... If I were wealthy I'd have all my discs in a temperature controlled room to prevent disc rot... Alas I'm not lol

The most expensive game I own for any platform is PSO 1+2 on GameCube.

 

[mktrOOps]

I still can't believe that ten years ago I could buy Gotcha Force for 15€ and Paper Mario: TTYD for 40€.

 

[Krypt]

and when they do, people bitch about it not being a lazy port

 

[Tavernade]

It's kinda crazy that the only Nintendo systems not to get on VC/NSO are Virtual Boy, Satellaview… and GameCube. I guess technically the Wii U isn't either but all it's games have mostly been ported.

Nintendo HAS to have a plan for eventually getting it out there. Or, at least, for getting the New Play Control ports out whenever they rerelease Wii games in the future. I was hopeful we'd get them on Switch but we still don't have N64.

 

[Multievolution]

It's pretty inconvenient that's for sure, haven't seen my Pokémon colosseum disc in a while so unless something changes that's never getting a replay, even then I'd be doing so on at best a wii which is basically 20 years old now.

Zelda: Four swords adventures is another game I own but is inconvenient to play, it's only ever been released on the GameCube and is best played with 4 people, very unlikely to be able to accomplish that

Not to mention that since the ds and 3ds are done now there's going to come a time where we will lose these too, this situation will simply repeat itself every few years as long as Nintendo is satisfied with their current way of business.

 

[JershJopstin]

It's so crazy to me the difference between the film and video game industries and how they handle "legacy" content. Production companies will update films that came out 50 years ago to the newest technology so that new audiences are able to access it while it seems like you have to fight tooth and nail with Nintendo/Sony for them to re-release a game that came out 15 years ago.

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The resources required for updating legacy content is very, very different between the two industries. Video games require a fair amount of resources that could otherwise be used for at least supporting new game development. Porting code is also just more time consuming than going through the mastering process again.

There's also the issue of price. Straight ports of old games are generally not considered valuable, but that doesn't make them cheap to make. A straight port of, say, Kirby Air Ride for $30 would both be considered expensive (even though the disc is worth $50 right now) and likely not be profitable. Publishers and developers often spice up the visuals to justify higher prices, but this requires even more devs and asset creation.

I still can't believe I bought Path of Radiance for like $30 on a bargain bin during the Wii days. I really lucked out on that one.

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Unfortunately I had to buy that one recently, but I did pick up Radiant Dawn in 2012 for about $7. No case, but I don't care that much.

 

[bloopland33]

I've always felt the obvious compromise would be something like copyright exemptions for content that is no longer actively produced and made accessible to the public, say, after 20 years or so. More than enough years to make a profit off it, and easily extendable if you continue to offer it.

But of course this will never happen. Probably something to do with the big eared mouse.



Not sure about 16:9, but 4:3 emulates fine. Might need to change some dolphin settings but people have documented them online. The only issue I noticed with my copy was I think one or two textures didnt look like I remembered them (might just be me), and there is a slight microstutter when opening the menu for the first time in a play session or maybe general region of the map. Otherwise plays really well.

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Nice. Is it just me though or does that screen appear to be 16:9?

 

[Atom]

Nice. Is it just me though or does that screen appear to be 16:9?

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Yeah -- I wasnt sure if you were asking about issues in general beyond the 16:9 curtain animation. Haven't really experimented with dolphin widescreen hacks much since I'm quite like 4:3 for nostalgia. But at the very least it emulates well in that aspect ratio.

 

[bloopland33]

Yeah -- I wasnt sure if you were asking about issues in general beyond the 16:9 curtain animation. Haven't really experimented with dolphin widescreen hacks much since I'm quite like 4:3 for nostalgia. But at the very least it emulates well in that aspect ratio.

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Oh that makes sense! Rereading my first post yeah it wasn't super clear haha. Thanks for the response though, I'm glad it emulates well at all! It's an amazing game that deserves to be accessible.

 

[BriGuy]

I really ought to catalogue my game collection one day. Even as a kid, I kept every box and manual for my SNES games in plastic containers. They're not faded or musty or anything. I could put the games back in them and they'd look exactly the same as the day they were purchased.

 

[Rytheran]

A little while ago I got my Gamecube and remaining games out and decided I'd sell it. I had a general idea of how much it was theoretically worth, but I'm very rural, so didn't expect much.. but within an hour of posting it online there were tons of people responding. One person was willing to drive like 2 hours for it. It was wild.

 

[Curler]

Just thinking about it too, there's still a bunch of GC games I still want, but could never justify paying those prices. Part of it being, is how I remember just how CHEAP a lot of them used to be back when I worked at GS a number of years ago, so I still the mentality of "I can't justify paying $50+ for Luigi's Mansion... I still remember the $4.99 stickers on it..." I just have a lot of regrets with not purchasing a bunch of stuff for cheap, in hindsight. Eh, maybe one day I'll find some good deals again, where someone just wants to give the game a good home or something :x

 

[ShinJohnpv]

It's so crazy to me the difference between the film and video game industries and how they handle "legacy" content. Production companies will update films that came out 50 years ago to the newest technology so that new audiences are able to access it while it seems like you have to fight tooth and nail with Nintendo/Sony for them to re-release a game that came out 15 years ago.

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Because film and video games aren't even remotely similar. One is quite easy to move from medium to medium, and the other is a shit ton more difficult. Transferring old film stock to a digital format is a simple task compared to making something that is programmed for a particular set of chips run on another particular set of chips.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

I'm honestly really glad I picked up Kirby Air Ride for $20 from a random eBay seller who immediately accepted my offer last month.

Because man, fun game, barely any content. Can't imagine spending something like $70 on this…

 

[Deleted member 3010]

Yeah, I checked the GC market these days and let's just say that I'm pretty fucking glad I collected early for it, like ten years ago.

 

[Kyle Cross]

Same here. There are some differences, but even s-video output from a Wii looks gorgeous on a PVM.

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Mind if I ask what S-video cables you use for the Wii? Just picked up a Trinitron with s-video inputs the other day and I've been scouring ebay for cables, with most being from brands, or even unbranded, that don't inspire confidence or are the official cable which is quite expensive.

 

[Vito]

Any hope for prices to get down to more reasonable levels?

 

[StereoVSN]

Prices are crazy for most retro games now days, even for newer ones. Some PS2 games are crazy expensive. Vita and 3DS games are climbing fast. Even some PS3 games are damn high.

I have most of things I want on most of the newer platforms, but I basically gave up on getting some of the PS2 and Gamecube games I managed to miss.

 

[StereoVSN]

Any hope for prices to get down to more reasonable levels?

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Only if there is a 1998 or 2008 style market crash. Clearly global pandemic that killed millions isn't putting breaks on anything.

 

[Hailinel]

Any hope for prices to get down to more reasonable levels?

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The retro market goes through cycles where a particular platform is the hot-ticket item for maybe a few years before it transitions on to another platform.

 

[IDontBeatGames]

Any hope for prices to get down to more reasonable levels?

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Honestly, it seems like certain games will continue to go up in prices from what I've seen such as Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Other games I've seen for around the same price for the last couple of weeks but at this point, you have to assume that the pandemic will continue to effect prices if the pandemic continues to get worse.

 

[Efejota]

It's a shame they never had a GC virtual console on the WiiU. Would have been the perfect moment even if they still offered them in 480p, as running them natively means that it would take close to no effort to port them.

Would be nice to try Chibi-Robo someday, and all of the different Mario games (Kart, Golf, Tennis, Party...) would be good companions to the current newer releases on the Switch.

 

[werezompire]

Maybe its connected to the concerns raised in this thread: Exposing Fraud and Deception In The Retro Video Game Market

Might just be that regular buyers who wan to buy the game to play are competing against speculators hoping the price of games goes up

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Regular buyers who are older, have money, and want to relive their childhoods
+
the supply of old games decreases over time as games are lost or damaged or just stuck in someone's collection permanently
+
A worldwide pandemic which has increased the popularity of indoor, solo activities
+
Speculators who are actively trying to raise the price of old games as an investment strategy

has resulted in a complete mess of a retro game market.

 

[CRIMSON-XIII]

Just saw a listing on eBay end for Thousand Year Door, which was essentially:

• Game not tested
• Lost manual and case
• Took a hammer to it one day that I was angry
• Used it as a cupholder sometimes
• I have 769 cats who all take turns scratching it every single day

And it still sold for like…$90.

How? How did things to be this bad?

Why is gaming this terrible of a hobby that companies refuse to re-release stuff that trying to play something that came out before 2006 feels impossible?

And an unrelated note, how do so many people treat their games like absolute garbage? How does your stuff get -this- damaged?

And that's the thing, you know? There's only a finite amount of working discs for these games, it's getting so hard to find copies that even function.

Rant aside, man, do I wish Nintendo would re-release some of their Gamecube library. I genuinely think that with Switch re-releases and the Wii virtual console on the Wii U eShop, that we have more Wii games having been re-released than Gamecube ones.

All that I can think of that have gotten re-releases are Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, and the remake of Wind Waker.

I'm so exhausted, I just want to play some of these games.

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These games are not sold for that price because they are worth that much. They are sold because copies are apparently hard to find.

If Nintendo had everything from N64, GB, GBA, and GC on their Switch shop, i think things would drastically change. I dont get why they dont charge 4.99 or 9.99 for every game.

 

[PAFenix]

If Nintendo had everything from N64, GB, GBA, and GC on their Switch shop, i think things would drastically change. I dont get why they dont charge 4.99 or 9.99 for every game.

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YUP.

I know I would pay for the convenience of access. But alas...

I have a new power adapter ordered from Amazon coming in a couple of days. If it fixes my N64 issue, there's a good dozen games I'll have access to again, for a $20 replacement hardware piece. Checking their availability on the Wii U e-shop (which I still have hooked up), would have cost me a bit over $100.

Your loss, Nintendo.

 

[fiendcode]

It's a shame they never had a GC virtual console on the WiiU. Would have been the perfect moment even if they still offered them in 480p, as running them natively means that it would take close to no effort to port them.

Would be nice to try Chibi-Robo someday, and all of the different Mario games (Kart, Golf, Tennis, Party...) would be good companions to the current newer releases on the Switch.

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Yeah, I was surprised this never happened alongside the digital Wii games being released. Although the digital triggers on the Gamepad would've been an issue for some games.

Hopefully Switch 2's joycons add analog triggers (with a click button press + haptic resistance) so direct GC releases via emulation are more tenable as well as fuller control parity with PS/Xbox. As is GC is really Nintendo's one platform that Switch's controls can't fully accommodate well.

 

[CRIMSON-XIII]

YUP.

I know I would pay for the convenience of access. But alas...

I have a new power adapter ordered from Amazon coming in a couple of days. If it fixes my N64 issue, there's a good dozen games I'll have access to again, for a $20 replacement hardware piece. Checking their availability on the Wii U e-shop (which I still have hooked up), would have cost me a bit over $100.

Your loss, Nintendo.

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They can release tomorrow:

- Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask
- Donkey Kong 64
- Pokemon Stadium 1 2 and Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Yellow, Blue, Red, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald
- other GBA games,
- Smash Melee
- Twilight Princess and Wind Waker HD

.. They could sell each aside from the zelda remaster collection for 9.99 or even 14.99.

They would make 200 bucks from me in one day in digital purchases. Now multiply this by a couple million people lol (not that everyone would get every pokemon).

 

[Spring-Loaded]

YUP.

I know I would pay for the convenience of access. But alas...

I have a new power adapter ordered from Amazon coming in a couple of days. If it fixes my N64 issue, there's a good dozen games I'll have access to again, for a $20 replacement hardware piece. Checking their availability on the Wii U e-shop (which I still have hooked up), would have cost me a bit over $100.

Your loss, Nintendo.

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Yeah, I don't buy into the notion that they stand to make more money off limited releases for just any game. Sure, SM3DAS could possibly make more money at selling full price, but Metroid sure wouldn't sell more that way or on Wii U than it would on Switch.

 

[Weegian]

Enough with endless ways to sell us NES, SNES, and Game Boy games.

It's time to bring GameCube VC to life.