Scummy Retro Game Store Practices

[Ramminchuck]

Let me set this up for you. Store in my city sells used games exclusively. They have everything from Intellivision games to virtual boys, 360 HD DVD drives and a large rack of current gen games. Now they charge an arm and a leg for old stuff that people would actually know. Basically any rpg is going to cost you around $80-$150. That isn't my big problem here though. They make carts of games that were either cancelled and never saw a release ANYWHERE, or of games that never came out here. I don't know how exactly they do this but I assume it has to do with roms. Two specific examples (one of which nailed me) are Nightmare Busters and the original Clocktower.

Now Nightmare Busters is a game that WAS in development by a French company called Arcade Zone. However it got cancelled, then later picked up by Super Fighter Team who are working on it now. This is what got me as I saw the cart and thought the game might be finished and someone had traded a copy in. At $80, not too much more than what it would cost to buy the game from SFT and have it shipped to Canada, I thought this was an alright amount to pay. I did look at SFT's site but glossed over the part that says the game won't be out until 2013. As far as I know there are no carts of this game in existence anywhere. When I went to return it the guy tried to tell me it was a translation of a released Japanese game. I called him on his bullshit as the game wasn't released, but this is when I found out about the copy of Clocktower.

He told me they had a guy who translated Japanese games and put them out as playable North American style Snes carts. Quick wikipedia check and, yup, Clocktower on Snes never left Japan. Now the practice of putting fan translations on carts (or hell even unreleased games like Nightmare Busters although I'm pretty sure it's unfinished) and selling them to people doesn't bother me. The price tag of $80 does. More importantly, putting these fake carts in with real carts and then not telling customers that they are indeed fakes, pisses me the fuck off. Is it just me, or is this a really scummy thing to do?

[ENVY021]

I have to agree that it seems scummy. But in reality there are still releases of games on old consoles (a NEW SNES game whose name is escaping me released earlier this year) so you have to get carts somewhere. The actuality (made up word) of putting games/ROMs into real carts I don't have an issue with, as I've seen it done before, but in this case they are making a profit off of illegally obtained copyright material which of course I have an issue with.

I don't have any used game stores nearby me so I have no weird stories like this.

[Wedge]

I played the Star Fox 2 beta on a custom SNES cart at a local computer parts store once. They weren't trying to sell it or anything though, was just something someone did for fun, they had on display for people to play.

[Ramminchuck]

I played the Star Fox 2 beta on a custom SNES cart at a local computer parts store once. They weren't trying to sell it or anything though, was just something someone did for fun, they had on display for people to play.

Yah no, stuff like that is fine. Them making and selling reproduction carts is fine (although after emailing Super Fighter Team about the Nightmare Busters cart they seem to have an issue with it). But they are selling repro carts and not telling people that's what they are. THAT'S the scummy part.

[Benefit Evil]

isn't there something illegal about that? If you try to sell copies of games that where never released on E-bay you can get banned. Very scummy they should at least make it known that these games are "fakes" and not put them in with the regular games.

[Friendly_Wookie]

That does seem a bit dodgy, maybe you should go in and tell them you'll report them to trading standards if they don't start giving you discounted games...

[Ramminchuck]

isn't there something illegal about that? If you try to sell copies of games that where never released on E-bay you can get banned. Very scummy they should at least make it known that these games are "fakes" and not put them in with the regular games.

As far as I know it's a grey area. Kind of illegal probably but it happens on such a small scale that the companies who could get pissed just don't care. I have no problem with reproduction carts, just that they are informing people they are in fact repros.

[Wry Guy]

Retro gaming stores thrive on you not knowing what you're doing. There's a retro store near me too. They will charge you as much as possible for a game that's not worth anything. I went there and saw Diddy Kong Racing. Thought to myself "Hey, nostalgia!"

You can get it for like 5 dollars online. This place wanted 30. The game's extremely common. Back when regular stores like Funcoland and EB Games sold N64, this shit would be in the bargain bin. The funny thing is I work at a GameStop and people complain about my prices, yet at least GameStop drops the price on a game after 15 fucking years.

I'd be more forgiving if my local game shop had a good selection, but it doesn't. They put a boxed copy of Persona 2 for PSP in their glass case of rare games at the front near the door. The game was 3 months old at the time. Any notable titles that a customer might actually be looking for like some classic Mario/Zelda games, or a classic RPG or whatever, they're really unlikely to have. The exact sort of games that customers come in to my store, directly asking if I have, they will probably not find at this specialty store.

The clincher is that some of my least favorite customers happen to be regulars at this retro place. The kind of guys you really don't want to be seen around in public with, or the sort of kids that make you want to smack them upside the head so they'll finally shut up (Mind you, I deal with kids all the time. There's a few of them that act like I have some kind of fan club and hang out in my store for hours. One of the older ones even bought me a donut yesterday. I can deal with them. They don't ask if I have Gamecube games even though I tell them over and over I don't. Most of the kids I deal with have AN ATTENTION SPAN GREATER THAN THAT OF A GOLD FISH.)

You put it all together and I just don't want to bother. There's a guy at my local flea market who used to work at my store as a seasonal who, working alone, has a better selection and level of service than these guys.

[CTastic]

The flea market in my area has two stores for retro games. One (the less obvious one) is great. The owners are nice, the prices are basically the same as amazon (they check) and they take great care of their games. They'll offer you deals and they're just generally nice guys. The other one on the other hand is run by an apathetic prick. He doesn't care about game, customer service or being fair. His prices are ridiculous and yet because of this he's more successful. It's sad really.

[Johney]

This may be a different type of scummy but I was going to buy a copy of double dragon 2 from a used store (they sell used games, used movies and other kinds of used crap). When the dude took it out of the case to show me I saw that it was covered in a sticky brown substance (probably coffee or soda, but possibly feces) and it hack a crack in the back that allowed me to see the internal circuit board. They wanted like $7 for it.
Old games were was easier to get like 10 years ago, before retro games became cool again. Prices have jumped up big time in the last few years.

[randombullseye]

Is it just me, or is this a really scummy thing to do?

I don't find it scummy, I find the high price scummy. If he wanted five bucks or even ten, I'd be down for that. Hell, I'd buy everyone I knew with a Super Nintendo who would actually play it a copy of Clocktower on a North American cart. Problem is, that gets into a sketchy area with Emulation, since that goes a step beyond, he really shouldn't charge more than the price of the cart itself, not the information contained within the cart. Charging that price for a game he doesn't have anything to do with other than having the right computer equipment and access to a blank cart, that's awful. What's to stop him from making fake Final Fantasy 3's and Chrono Triggers and selling them at the same price?

Any game over fifty bucks, don't buy it. I know you want to collect these things, I do too, but at some point we're getting fucked either way. I bought a copy of Earthworm Jim 2 and Streets of Rage 2 for ten bucks off a yard sale, I felt like that was a fair price for a couple games like that. At a store I went to, guy charged me fifteen for a copy of River City Ransom with the original manual that I promptly lost and another twenty for a copy of Castlevania III, which I also lost somewhere. Moral of the story guys, don't go into these stores or yard sales, buying games is dumb.

[Scield]

Unfortunately for me all the classic used game stores closed in my area. There is one about an hour away that I went through but their prices are so outrageous I would never buy anything from them. I got an old GBA SP from a friend and and they were selling those games for $40. Oh well.
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[The Silent Protagonist]

I think this practice more or less preys on people like Stealth. People who are all Alpha about being collectors, hate digital distribution and love rare shines, but aren't terribly informed consumers. What's going down here is no less scummy than dealers that work through Amazon and warehouse "collectable" games without the damn case or instructions and still charge anywhere from $30 to $120 for CD that comes in a generic DVD case.

It makes buying games online a chore. Its not that the case and instructions are worth extra dollars, just the knowledge that the prior owner gave a damn about what they owned and the seller cares about the quality of what they sell. That the vast majority don't seem to care about these things makes me wish digital distribution for the games of prior generations would just move faster.

[UnlikelyEnding]

Stores will charge what you are willing to pay, don't buy there if you don't like the prices.