Which is the rarest commercially sold shmup video game?

[Ceph]

How about Bangai-O: Prize Edition for dreamcast there like only 10 of those in existence , it must costs thousands of dollars .

They are identical to the regular Japanese edition, the only differnce is a small sticker on the case. That's probably why collectors don't go nuts over them: One sold for 2 or 3 hundred USD a while ago. If Treasure had given it a different cover or special game modes it would probably be a different story; simply slapping a sticker on a regular edition case stating that "this copy is a prize" hardly turns it into a new edition.

Besides, those copies of Bangai-O with a sticker were given away as a prize of a score contest in Japan. This topic is about commercially sold games.

[The Coop]

The american SMS version of Power Strike is rare also, the one w/ the B&W cover. I think they go for $75+ these days.

I have that one. Got it for about $10, complete

... or the US SNES version of Aero Fighters for example.

How can a game that's $1.99 at Game Crazy be rare?

[BrianC]

Rescue Terra I for the Atari 2600 is quite rare. While the original carts of Solar Storm and Demon Attack aren't incredibly rare, the Xante versions are.

Here is some info about Xante from AtariAge (which I didn't link since it has 2600 roms):

Founded by Princeton/Wharton alumn Roger Collins in 1983, Xante had plans to be a major player in the videogame software distribution market. With a business plan similar to Romox, Xante planned to establish attended kiosks that could produce cartridges on demand from a catalog of games. The customer would choose a game, the game would be downloaded over a phone line, and then burned to an EPROM right on the spot. A simple label and instruction sheet would be produced to accompany the game, as well as a rather generic box. According to Collins, the cartridges were actually reprogrammable like Romox's, however they were not marketed as such, and a new cartridge was created with each purchase.

Although Xante had plans to produce cartridges for many different game systems, they concentrated on the 2600 since that was the most popular system at the time. They had secured licenses from many software companies such as Imagic and Twentieth Century Fox, but negotiations with Atari were stalling. Retailers were more open to the idea because it reduced their inventory costs.

The project was started with a limited catalog in Tulsa, Oklahoma convenience and grocery stores. Unfortunately, before it could take off on a national level, software licensing issues and the videogame market crash of 1984 caused Xante to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. They never made it outside of Tulsa, and consequently their cartridges are very difficult to find. Their games are instantly recognizable from their blue casing and embossed logo. Xante was well funded and ahead of its time, but were an unfortunate casualty of licensing and the great crash that hurt so many other companies.

Today, Xante founder Roger Collins operates RBC Ventures, a Tulsa based venture capital company.

[Shinichi Chiba]

Besides, those copies of Bangai-O with a sticker were given away as a prize of a score contest in Japan. This topic is about commercially sold games.

Opps ! GINGA FUKEI DENSETSU : SAPPHIRE for PC Engine is very rare .
I thinks it goes in $200-$400 range .

[Sonic R]

... or the US SNES version of Aero Fighters for example.

How can a game that's $1.99 at Game Crazy be rare?

I paid $8.99 at Game Crazy for Aero Fighters back in 2005


Another game I pay mad cash for - Eliminate Down on the Sega Mega Drive for the cost of $160

Another game I paid 3 digits for - Keio Flying Squadron for the sum of $120
Now I had this game and got it dirt cheap long ago but that disc snapped clean in half and to get another one I had to pay the piper I paid.

[Ceph]

Another one that hasn't been mentioned before:

Tatsujin Ou for FM Towns / Marty. Hardest to find and most expensive FM Towns game (along with Splatterhouse).

[GaijinPunch]

Tatsujin Ou for FM Towns / Marty. Hardest to find and most expensive FM Towns game (along with Splatterhouse).

I would say Rainbow Island Extra, Rayxanber, and Splatterhouse are all harder to find than Tatsujin Ou. Maybe I just had good luck.

[Shinichi Chiba]

I found this on Yahoo!Japan Auctions: http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f54035252
What they hell are they ? There going for 58,000 Y and you can see Tatsujin Ou in the pic .

[CIT]

Rarest and most expensive Marty game is Zack McCracken, for sure!

Tatsujin-Oh and Splatterhouse run around 150 Euro, which is not too bad as far as rare games for obscure systems are concerned, but you might as well just get the PCB instead.

Mahou Daisakusen for FM Towns is probably more expensive, but of course that won't run on the Marty.

[elfhentaifan]

because of it´s rare edition, viewpoint is one of the most valuable, and propably most expensive shmups.

At least there were made 8000 copies of the game, but just 1000 were sold worldwide. The big rest was kept in japan itself for e.g. many arcade hall and other companies

[GaijinPunch]

What they hell are they ?

5-CD set of Toaplan game soundtracks.

because of it´s rare edition, viewpoint is one of the most valuable, and propably most expensive shmups.

Which version? Since you mention arcade I would assume Neo Geo but there are far more expensive shooters than that (on the Neo Geo itself even).

[Shinichi Chiba]

What they hell are they ?

5-CD set of Toaplan game soundtracks.

because of it´s rare edition, viewpoint is one of the most valuable, and propably most expensive shmups.

Which version? Since you mention arcade I would assume Neo Geo but there are far more expensive shooters than that (on the Neo Geo itself even).

Who ever buys that CD set should be shot . The neo geo AES has Blazing Star (JPN) it goes for $700 and the infamous Iron Clad , which sucks, for Neo Geo CD goes for $200-$300 .

[eight]

What about Last Hope AES or Last Hope DC LE?

[Shinichi Chiba]

What about Last Hope AES or Last Hope DC LE?

You mean Last Resort AES right . Well the price has been going down on those , all three versions , it goes for $70-100 . Last hope DC LE , dont know much about the price on that one .

[Radiant]

What about Last Hope AES or Last Hope DC LE?

AES: u can still buy it new for 500€/675US$
LE DC=?? last one i saw on bay was 200+ for a sealed one

[zak]

How about Bangai-O: Prize Edition for dreamcast there like only 10 of those in existence , it must costs thousands of dollars .

What's different about it?

[Ceph]

How about Bangai-O: Prize Edition for dreamcast there like only 10 of those in existence , it must costs thousands of dollars .

What's different about it?

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 375#271375

[segasonicfan]

Eliminate Down is up there:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Eliminate-Down-Shmu ... dZViewItem

(so glad I own it already)

What do you mean specifically by commercial release though? Does that not include bootlegs? The rarest shooter on the MD is Magic Girl- a fantastic Cotton-esque homebrew/unlicensed title. How I managed to get a copy is beyond me...

Took me something like 6 years to finally land complete copies of Cotton for the X68 and GG Aleste. So those would be considered quite rare too but I am sure there are much rarer shooters for obscure systems like the X68.

I think one of the rarest/most expensive wide-spread US commercially released titles is actually Cotton as well. The only US version was on the Turbo Duo. Though i think Magical Chase had a US release so it's up there too. My knowledge of console rarites lies mainly with MD stuff.

-Segasonicfan

[majik989s]

How about Judgement Silversword for the WSC. Yes, there was a rerelease but alone it still has a very limited number of prints (around 1,000 total I believe). Selling for no less than 130 USD, regardless of new/used status. And it really is a fantastic game for the system.

[Shinichi Chiba]

How about Judgement Silversword for the WSC. Yes, there was a rerelease but alone it still has a very limited number of prints (around 1,000 total I believe). Selling for no less than 130 USD, regardless of new/used status. And it really is a fantastic game for the system.

Is Judgement Silversword for the WSC really that good . I was thinking about getting a WSC since it is dirt cheap . Here is a Yahoo Japan Auction for Judgement Silversword I found for 9,800 yen :
http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m47143205

[Ghegs]

Is Judgement Silversword for the WSC really that good .

It is. Best handheld shmup out there easily.

[majik989s]

Yes indeed it is. Believe Ghegs. But keep in mind it is only compatible with the swan crystal. Dont get a wonderswan colour (also wsc... whoops).

[CIT]

No, it works on the Wonderswan Color as well. The screen is just shite, that's all.

[J-Manic]

It's not really a 100% shmup, but Rendering Ranger R2 is still quite rare. And the shmup levels in the game are freakin superb.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Eliminate Down is up there:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Eliminate-Down-Shmu ... dZViewItem

(so glad I own it already)

What do you mean specifically by commercial release though? Does that not include bootlegs? The rarest shooter on the MD is Magic Girl- a fantastic Cotton-esque homebrew/unlicensed title. How I managed to get a copy is beyond me...

Took me something like 6 years to finally land complete copies of Cotton for the X68 and GG Aleste. So those would be considered quite rare too but I am sure there are much rarer shooters for obscure systems like the X68.

I think one of the rarest/most expensive wide-spread US commercially released titles is actually Cotton as well. The only US version was on the Turbo Duo. Though i think Magical Chase had a US release so it's up there too. My knowledge of console rarites lies mainly with MD stuff.

-Segasonicfan

Ah yes, the American Super CD-Rom2 version of "Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams" was released by Turbo Technologies Incorporated (TTI) for the U.S. region Turbo Duo console back in 1993 -- it commands some serious $$$ for such mint and pristine copy indeed. It retailed on American store shelves for $49.99 USD back in the day and got a very limited release stateside... ^_~

TTI also released it's USA version of Magical Chase Hu-Card in late 1993 with a MSRP of $49.99 USD with different graphics compared to the original Japanese Hu-Card version of the same name. At the current time back in late '93, nobody knew that the USA version of Magical Chase would be the very last American Hu-Card based game to be produced by TTI themselves. Eventually, it was strewn around in the bargain bins of speciality video game shops and marked down to a paltry $19.99 USD -- the U.S. Toys-R-Us store locations had a bunch of them at that insane low asking price for the entire year of 1994.

I passed up on buying the USA region Magical Chase brand new thinking that it was just some "kid's game". Eventually, I got hold of a used mint copy and found out that it was such a cool TG-16 arcade-type of shmup with such beautiful hand-drawn sprites & such cool BGM tunes. I should've bought it brand new when I had the chance...oh well. You snooze, you lose..... ^_~

The more common JPN version of Magical Chase goes for $150.00 USD and up...

I've never seen such a brand new sealed TTI Magical Chase for sale on eBay to this day...could it be that hard to find today? ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CIT]

I've never seen such a brand new sealed TTI Magical Chase for sale on eBay to this day...could it be that hard to find today? ^_~

A friend of mine who's a huge PC Engine and Magical Chase nut took a chance and bid on a factory sealed TurboGrafx Magical Chase auction without a picture some 4 or 5 years ago.

He won the game for about $250, but then it took forever to arrive in the mail. He did get it eventually though, after a very scary wait, and sure enough it was a brand-new factory sealed Magical Chase!

The only problem? It had a price tag on it that literally said "Hot Shit $19.99".

After much searching he found a super-powerful sticker remover that he could apply, to dissolve the glue on the price tag without destroying the sealing. So now he has a perfect factory sealed copy!

BTW, since he is such a huge Magical Chase fan he even made this website just for fun: www.magicalchase.de

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I've never seen such a brand new sealed TTI Magical Chase for sale on eBay to this day...could it be that hard to find today? ^_~

A friend of mine who's a huge PC Engine and Magical Chase nut took a chance and bid on a factory sealed TurboGrafx Magical Chase auction without a picture some 4 or 5 years ago.

He won the game for about $250, but then it took forever to arrive in the mail. He did get it eventually though, after a very scary wait, and sure enough it was a brand-new factory sealed Magical Chase!

The only problem? It had a price tag on it that literally said "Hot Shit $19.99".

After much searching he found a super-powerful sticker remover that he could apply, to dissolve the glue on the price tag without destroying the sealing. So now he has a perfect factory sealed copy!

BTW, since he is such a huge Magical Chase fan he even made this website just for fun: www.magicalchase.de

That's cool for your friend to snag such a new & sealed copy of TG-16 Magical Chase but to buy it without a photo of it is, indeed, a bit risky...

Magical Chase does have a unique charm all of it's own...really shows off what talented artists and brilliant programmers can do with such a collaboration with the ol' PCE/TG-16 hardware -- they just don't make them like that in the classic 16-bit coding anymore. ^_~

Thanks for the Magical Chase link -- will check it out..... ^_~

[Vurpa]

Massive bump on the topic of Bangai-o prize edition (dunno if it's the right place):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0851918375

Does it look legit? Seller has 2 recent negatives for fakes. 800 bucks is a lot of money and seeing as how all you'd need to fake could be easily done with a printer...

[Kollision]

Doesn't Darius Alpha for PCE go for roughly a boatload of money? I seem to recall seeing copies sell in Japan for over 120,000 yen.

Not a commercial game. And it's not a full game in the first place.

Don't know about the comemercial side of it, but Darius Alpha is indeed a full game.

[Ghegs]

Don't know about the comemercial side of it, but Darius Alpha is indeed a full game.

That's up for debate. Darius Alpha is a boss rush game, made from the bosses of PCE's Darius Plus. It just as well could've been an extra mode in Plus.

And if Internet is to be believed, you had to buy both Super Darius and Darius Plus for PCE, send in the coupons that came with them and that only entered you into the raffle for a chance to win Alpha. So definitely not a commercial release.