EarthBound Price Update (June 2012)

Emulators4Life!

Wow I cant believe my complete set of earthbound is worth $464. It is defintly the most expensive game I own.

Ness1985,

I’m almost totally with you. I’d love to own a copy of EB, though.

It’s simple enough to emulate it with a laptop and hook an HDMI cable into a television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVc4g4R72jo

Well i hacked my wii so I have earthbound in traditional virtual console style so i’m happy with what i have!

Sell now, before the bubble bursts.

I prefer using the emulator, mainly because it doesn’t cost anything. Also, the game is no longer commercially sold, so buying a used game wouldn’t give the developers money. So basically, playing an older game on an emulator is similar to playing the actual used game itself on the system.

As somebody who played the game extensively on the SNES and CRT TV back in the day, I have to say that playing EarthBound on an emulator (I use SNES9x) is pretty much identical to the original experience. Just don’t use any of the graphics filters or you lose the classic pixelly look to the sprites! The only really missing is playing with an old-school controller, and fortunately there are adapters around that enable the original SNES controller to work via USB. I still remember how satisfying it was back in the day to be able to play the game with just my left hand using L for talk/check/confirm and SELECT for cancelling! That free right hand was nice for grabbing drinks and snacks, etc. I’m sure hardcore Mother lovers have *ahem* come up with more creative ideas…

There are many SNES replica USB controllers.

EarthBound Zero reproduction cart $50

EarthBound SNES cart $167

Mother 3 Japanese cart $80

Playing the three games on emulators priceless.

Vanasto, there are actually filters that give the illusion that it looks like an old school CRT.

I want to ask Mato a question if he’s interested.

Given that a re-release is highly unlikely, it would seem that the only way to ever own a physical copy of Earthbound will be to own the original cartridge. Do you ever believe the high-price bubble will ever burst? If yes/no, for what reasons?

Well, I kind of already touch on that on the buyeb page, but I think the high prices will still be around for a while until one or more of the following:

• A bunch of unsold carts are found in a warehouse and get tossed onto the market suddenly
• Bootlegging gets way out of hand (although it’s possible this might drive up authentic cart prices even more, I dunno, I’d have to think about it)
• A re-release is made in some form
• The demand goes down for some other reason I can’t think of

Like I mention on the site, there are multiple groups of people dealing in EB carts, so there’s a weird dynamic going on. I’m no economist, but I feel like it’ll still be a while until it settles down into whatever price its headed for. I definitely don’t think it’ll keep going up in value forever. But there’ll be a point when it gets too much for just regular, curious fans and then it’s just the crazy sellers and the completionist collectors.

I can almost imagine some wacky end scenario where it’s the crazy sellers just selling to other crazy sellers who’re hoping to make huge profits themselves 😛

The Logitech USB controller I got is a real good one for all games, a PS2 replica.

Ness1985: The Logitech is shit, actually. Mine broke within a couple of weeks.

You can get a cheaper, more reliable PS2/USB converter, which allows you to just plug in a PS2 controller into your computer.

…or you can just buy a SNES USB controller, which is more expensive.

@Bucky Well, I’ve had my Logitech controller for years and it works perfect for me.

Well, if you’ve had it for years, I imagine it’s somewhat different than the current model.