Old games that you spent (too much) money on?

Having listened to Peter Brown talking about buying Panzer Dragoon Saga and now having watched that Playdate video, I figured I should make a thread about this.

Has there been an old game (sixth generation console era and older) that you just had to buy the original, physical copy of? Even if you could've bought a digital version of it on some modern platform? Don't have to spew the exact details on how much moolah you spent.

I haven't spent hundreds of euros to buy a single old game (yet), but I have definitely burned some money over the years. I think the most expensive package was a few years ago, when I felt like that I just *had to* own Super Castlevania, Super Metroid and few other games on a proper SNES. It still wasn't too crazy, maybe around 150€ for the whole bunch. One could add a 50€ to that, if we're also including the used console I had to buy.

Other similiar case was PS2, though the console still isn't so old that the prices would've skyrocketed all-around, so it wasn't that big of a sinkhole to buy the console along with around dozen, relatively popular games.

I think it might help that there's no physical retro gaming stores around here. There would probably be a very high possibility for me to spend way too much money on some old boxed pc-games, for example, if I happened to walk into a store and see a shelf full of those things.

I dropped $150 on a nice copy of Koudelka a few years ago. That's the most I've ever spent on a single game. It's not the best game in world, but you have to complete a collection once you're locked into it.

For the most part the old games I collect aren't the ones that people ask a lot of money for. I primarily collect military sims for the Sega Genesis and Atari ST and stuff like that, and most of those go for less than $10, even classics like Herzog Zwei for those platforms don't go for much more than that as most of the collector scene around here is NES and SNES oriented.

That said, I did about $70 each on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Michigan: Report from Hell for PS2, as well as Space Hulk: Revenge of the Blood Angels for PS1.

I also spent $50 on a copy of Perfect Dark for N64 about 12 years ago that I immediately lent to an acquaintance who never gave it back and left the city, so that was a waste of a lot of money.

I don't think I've spent more than about $70 on any old game, I even got the aforementioned Koudelka for about $12.

I blew $90 on a copy of Path of Radiance from eBay that had disc and case but no manual. At the time I was wanting to play it, Dolphin had a bug that prevented proper emulation of Radiant Dawn, the sequel, and RD is the only game in the franchise to have a save import feature. I had a Wii, but PoR had a notoriously short print-run late in the GCN's life ('05), and didn't really become popular until Ike's inclusion in SSB Brawl three years later. But the used supply really became tight after Awakening revived the franchise and brought in a huge new influx of players and media attention. Compare PoR's brief blip during the Nintendo press conference on this episode of Game Tapes to the recent Nintendo Switch Direct and the ton of time they spent announcing three different FE games. Naturally, I didn't bother getting around to rustling up a copy of PoR until it was announced that Switch wouldn't be launching with Virtual Console. We in the FE fan community have really been hoping Nintendo would digitally re-release the old games.

Ive probably bought Mutant League Football 6 or 7 times over my life because I keep losing my last copy. Not that its ever been over like $8 other than it was new, but over time, that adds up......

Re-buying Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door after having sold it years ago. Ended up getting a nice copy of it for 100 Danish Kroner which is around a 100 USD.

I haven't really spent a huge amount of money on one old purchase but I have bought Final Fantasy X four times new (PS2, PS3, PC, PS4) which has definitely exceeded £100. I have also edged close to purchasing a Vita and a portable copy too... but even with the price of Vitas plummeting, I still can't justify paying another £80 just to play a game I already own 4 versions of.

This was actually what I was going to say. I bought the game new and then got another sealed copy for $125 so I spent about $175 on that game.

I have considered spending money on older games, but I always catch myself before I fall down the rabbit hole.

I would like to complete a Marvel vs Capcom collection, and to me that means going back to get all of the PS1 era games leading up to it, but they're kind of pricey imo. I recently snagged a copy of X-Men vs Street Fighter at my local Goodwill for about 12 dollars and change, only to see it on ebay when I was searching for the other games for 50 dollars or more, even up to 100. That's insane to me. So now I pretty much always scan PS1 games at local used shops in the hopes that I can snag X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Heroes vs. Street Fighter at a sane price. Luckily, I have the other games, including my PS2 version of Marvel vs Capcom 2. And you know what's even more insane? The box and used voucher (not even the game) for the PS3 release of Marvel vs Capcom 2 goes for as much or more than the real PS2 game! And a factory sealed one? Hundreds of dollars! WHAT THE WHAT?!?! I mean, I have it, I bought it when they released it originally, but MvC fans are straight crazy when it comes to collecting.

I've conditioned myself to believe that no game is worth that much money. I love games, I just think that older games should be easily accessible to people, and a crazy inflated game resale market dashes those hopes. I hope that the people buying the games also try to preserve them and share them with others, and even would be willing to loan them to people who can dump the ROMs and preserve them in that way. I would hate to wake up one day and be unable to ever play something like Deceptor for Commodore 64 again, but I also don't think a copy of a game should be hundreds or thousands of dollars (that game isn't worth anywhere near that obviously, but who knows, maybe the C64 market will explode someday). I just get so amazed that the secondary market for this stuff is so intense right now. I remember being able to get all kinds NES and SNES games for dirt cheap in the mid 90s, and now even Mario and Duck Hunt can be overpriced. I don't know, I kind of hope the bubble bursts and it gets easier to collect again, but that probably won't happen.

But, I won't begrudge someone spending money on stuff they love. I have a lot of comic books and other things that I paid more than I should have for. I bought a 3 issue Green Lantern miniseries for over 30 dollars in 2001 or so, which you can now get for under 10 dollars on ebay (believe me, I just checked). But I love Green Lantern, and Jade, and so buying those books was well worth it to me at the time. Heck, I don't regret it now. So if people want to spend a ton of money on N64 games, who am I to judge? :)

Does it count that I've bought Duke Nukem 3D at least five times since 1996? Every time they re-release that damn thing, I'm there.

There are a number of big box PC games that I'd happily spend way too much money on (The Neverhood, for instance, which I've seen sell at around $150... even jewel case copies go for almost 50), but I haven't bit that particular bullet just yet.

For a single game I spent around $130 on a copy of Persona: Revelations for PS1, it's the only Persona game I didn't own an original copy of so I didn't mind spending it to complete the collection. I also spent around $300 getting all the .hack games for PS2. I don't really remember why I got the urge to play the whole series randomly. The GU games were good, I kinda regret getting the original series but it's cool to have a complete set I guess.

For me it was on MMORPG games. I remember paying $100 for just a chance to get a rare hat in Ragnarok Online that basically doesn't do any stat boost. Just aesthetics and bragging rights.

I paid about $100 (Canadian) for Dragon Force in the early 2000's. I think that's the most I've ever spent on a single old game. I liked that game so much back when it came out that I modded my Saturn so I could import a copy of the sequel. Playing a menu based strategy/RPG in Japanese was tough, lots of guess work and trial and error, but I still enjoyed it.

I'm honestly shocked that someone beat me to this, but every few months I find myself looking up the original .hack series on eBay. I bought the first game back around launch but didn't get around to beating and falling in love with it until long after production had ended. For years now you've only been able to find the rest of the games in complete sets that people sell for $200-300 and...ugh, someday I probably will pull the trigger.

Pretty incredible seeing how older games can be so pricey now and I've even experienced that when looking at PS1 games. I bought a green label copy of FFVII that was "used" for $40 at a home and pop store. I say used, but the entire case looked like it was taken apart professionally and every crevice was wiped down and clean and the discs had no scratches, so it was like new. Basically I felt like I was getting a good deal when compared to other copies I see for sale. Just looking now, I see a never opened black label of FFVII on amazon for $155...

I'd like to collect games and even pick up hidden gems that I missed along the way for different consoles, but man... I already have an interest in collecting vinyl records and those can be just as expensive if not more depending on the rarity. It's interesting to see the value of games increasing though, and I still would love to play Castlevania SOTN on my own PS1 and not through an emulator.

The most was probably my sealed Mario 64 for around 300 dollars. Mario 64 tended to be ripped open immediately on Christmas morning. Otherwise it's been the opposite of people paying me too much money for things. Sold a lot of my sealed garbage for too much money. Now all that's left in the collection is a new in box GameCube I bought back in the day which I will open up one day to play some double dash and crystal chronicles.

I think my most expensive retro game buy was a Ristar cartridge for about 60 dollars. Had to buy a repro case separately for shelf continuity so I think it came out to maybe closer to 80 dollars with shipping considered. Ristar is a hell of a game, by the way.

I bought ico twice and neither would work in my ps2. Wasnt a ton of money but too much for a game that wouldn't work on the console it was made for.

@oursin_360: I assume that was before the HD collection came out? NA PS2 copies of ICO have fallen in price drastically since its release.

My most expensive old game purchase was probably my copy of Super Metroid. Paid $90 CAD for it but I had a $62 credit at the store I bought it from so I don't know if it qualifies for this thread. I wanted a physical copy of it because its one of my all time favourite games but I probably wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have the credit. I don't often buy physical copies of old games any more because the prices on them just become more and more astronomical over time and if a digital re-release is available, it just isn't worth the premium for the novelty of a physical copy IMO.

I spent around $70 on a complete physical copy of Suikoden II. Considering how it still routinely goes for around $100, I felt like I got a pretty decent deal on it. Naturally, I have it currently resting in a drawer and only play the PSN release of it.