069 · STADIUM EVENTS

• Introductions - Espo (Mike, Sean, Joe, Sam)
• First Impressions - Everyone
  • Haven’t we played this game before? - ESPO
• Tales from the Manual
  • We advise you to do warm up exercises
  • Tape down your Power Pad
  • Score recording didn’t want people to play for very long
• Gameplay
  • How to Play
    • Power Pad B side is split into two halves.
  • 100M Dash
    • Speeds
      • Normal, Advanced, Super
        • Why would you not use Super?
  • Hurdles
    • Inconsistent reads on jumping
  • Jumps
    • Doesn’t really understand the concept of long and triple jump
• Rarity
  • A NM+ VGA copy sold for 35k in 2015
    • Let’s talk about collecting
    • Let’s talk about value in the NES market
      • There are actually ~23 sealed copies
  • NintendoQuest - Documentary
  • Fun little rarity story
    • Tim saw a pallet of small cardboard boxes in the corner of the warehouse; those boxes turned out to be about 250 sealed cases of individual games for the NES made before 1991, all waiting to be scrapped. He knew someone with a storage space. For reasons he still can't explain, he decided to keep the pallet for himself instead of throwing it away.
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • We will play this game again as World Class Track Meet
• EGL (Mike, Sean, Joe, Sam)
  • Power Pad games will never be essential - ESPO

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Stadium Events, this action-packed game is controlled by your body movements.

00:21 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Guys, how are we feeling today? A little warm. Okay, warm. I was thinking maybe you'd be a little more relaxed because you've been stretching and doing some body movements over the past couple of days. I'm in the best shape of my life, actually, after playing this game. This is the $45,000 episode.

00:52 Assuming we all bought loose copies of the game at under market value. Well, no, mine was sealed in the box. Oh, so your copy alone was $45,000. I have one of the two existing copies in the box. I don't own this game. Okay. Thank you for saying that. It is true. None of us bought it.

01:09 Hopefully, you know, I always say like, and you should play along too. I do that on Twitter. Don't. And somebody actually commented about that. Sorry, I don't have your Twitter handle up. But somebody was like, oh, great. I'll just go get my copy of Stadium Events. And I wrote back something like, worst $20,000 you'll ever spend. Like, do not spend $20,000 on that. But good news for those of you that like collecting or know the rarity of Stadium Events. We're going to cover all that later in the episode. We're going to start with just some first impressions about a cult classic.

01:39 I can't even say it. Power Pad game known as Stadium Events. Actually, at the time, it wasn't the Power Pad though. It was like the... The Family Fun Center. Fitness. Yeah. Fitness Center, whatever. Right. So, Sean, you go first. Tell me your first impressions on Stadium Events. Well, it looks like it would be fun to play.

01:59 No, I mean, I feel like this is going to be the first game that we don't really have first-hand. No, we played Athletic World. Yes. We don't really have first-hand knowledge of how this game is played because none of us own the Power Pad or own this game. We tried to get a Power Pad. That didn't work out.

02:21 And so, I just emulated it and tried to play it with my fingers and that is just a very weird sensation. But, yeah, I just fessed up to that. Okay. Joe? Well, I also have a confession to make. I'd like to get this off my chest right off the bat. I actually didn't play this game. Great. But you're also not admitting to emulation. So, the police will not be coming to you. Right. I know that they listen. But I did... So, I tried to play this game. Could not get it to work. Get my cartridge to work.

02:57 Your sealed cartridge. I tried to steal cards. Maybe I got to pick it out of the box. I don't know. But I knew enough about the game that I figured I could probably watch a video and get what I need to know. Without having the Power Pad, I don't know how much more I would have gained out of playing it with the controller. And just sort of jump along. Yeah. Just jump along while you watch. Jump along with the video, of course. This is a... I guess it's my turn. But you just reminded me of something that I actually did do back in the day of Guitar Heroes.

03:20 Like, Guitar Hero was a huge thing. Guitar Hero, like, Rocks the 80s got, like, released early and some guy got a copy of it and put it on YouTube. Like, all of the tracks on Expert. And you just... But they were auto-playing themselves. Like, they just got to 100%. So, I just took my plastic guitar, watched the YouTube videos, and played along.

03:40 Not caring if we're registered or not, but just getting used to, like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do when the game comes out. Wow. I was very big on Guitar Hero. Not sure if I ever mentioned that in the past, but... He was up there. Pretty big deal. I think I was top 100 on Xbox Live leaderboards, so that's pretty cool.

03:55 But in terms of stadium events... Yeah, so I don't think that it is impossible to emulate this thing with your fingers as the Power Pad, provided that you use them like a person. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a thing. Like, I did it. It just feels super weird. Right, it feels super weird, and we'll get into that. But yes, it's impossible to play this game properly without a copy of stadium events retail $20,000.

04:20 And then a Power Pad retail $80, but good luck finding one that works. Yeah. These things are known for not working while they were, like, making them. So imagine trying to find one 20 years later. Now, I'm sure that some of you NES guys out there are going to tell me that you still have a working Power Pad. And I'm going to say, well, why didn't you just lend it to us? I would have paid shipping and handling and sent it back. But, you know, that's why you can't be in my face about this, because nobody was nice enough to offer us a Power Pad to borrow. We would have played all the Power Pad games. It's okay, Mike. I'll hold you back. You won't have to punch our viewers in the face.

04:53 Yeah. And then my other first impression is, you know, you mentioned Athletic World. I was like, haven't we played this game before? Isn't this basically, like, a mix of Athletic World and Track and Field? Yeah, pretty much. I think Athletic World looked funnier. Okay, yeah, that's true. I had the camp thing going for it. This is like the Olympics. Or some such. There is an Olympics setting. Yeah, just the Olympics.

05:15 So, let's do some Tales from the Manual, because there's a few gems in here. If you guys want to pull up your manuals. If anybody has their probably retail $10,000 manual lying around, just open up those flaps.

05:31 So, there's very solid advice in the manual here. Most importantly, we advise you to do warm-up exercises before you play this game. Oh, that's a good idea. Do you really think so, though? Like, are you really doing, like, anything that's so technical that if you don't warm-up beforehand... Well, you should always warm-up, Mike. Regardless. That's actually, you know... Look, not to get fitness in here, but I'm just going to say it. Static stretching? Garbage.

05:58 Don't do it unless you have been doing it and it works for you. Well, at least jog in place. Yeah, something like that. But if you're jogging in place, you do that in the game. I don't understand where, like, you know, touching your toes became like a symbol of warming up. Yeah, that's more just a stretch to stretch, not to warm-up, right? Exactly. Or to hurt yourself. Yeah, or to hurt yourself, yeah, because you can hurt yourself just by stretching. So, there is that whole thing going for it. But I just think, yeah... I'll take that out of my warm-up routine. Right. Good. Okay, what was your warm-up routine for this game? The same as I do for all the games that we play.

06:28 The same as I did for Duck Hunt, the same as I did for Mario Wrecking Crew. Yeah, okay, so that's like a couple finger crunches or...? Yeah, just everything. You're down a beard. It's P90X. I do 90 days of P90X. Oh, wow. Before any game. Before any game, yeah. I like to take my index finger and my middle finger and just hit A and B as rapidly as possible on an NES controller just to warm them up.

06:47 That's why, if you ever see anybody in the arcade play like Street Fighter, they usually just go over to an empty arcade cabinet and just tap all the buttons as fast as they can with one hand. I honestly thought you were messing with me for a while. No, no, no. You actually do that? Oh, no, no, absolutely. No, neither. Wow, that was like a full circle tricking you.

07:08 I can't even describe what just happened. Right, neither of those things happen. If you ever see somebody not playing an actual arcade game but just sitting there tapping the buttons, they just ran out of money. They're not practicing. They're not warming up their fingers.

07:22 But, okay, enough of that. Another great suggestion from the manual, tape down your power pad. It's a good idea. Like, put tape over it? Okay, here's what I think. On your floor? Here's what I'm thinking. The material of the power pad is pretty cheap looking. I'm pretty sure that it would get, if it's on a rug, it's just going to fly all over the place if you're bouncing on it. I've stepped on a power pad. I've done all that. I can confirm. It's a slippery thing. Yeah. So, I think instead of it folding at one point, like a weird twister pad, you should tape it down. Because you're professional.

08:00 I don't disagree. But I feel like it's such a jank suggestion. Like, we couldn't figure out a way to make this work. Get some scotch tape out of your drawer. Yeah, find some books and make some paperweights out of them. Yeah, let's be honest. Scotch tape isn't going to do it either. You need like duct tape. Yeah, it's a gab tape. It's a gorilla tape. You know, like, is gorilla tape a thing or just gorilla glue? I think gorilla has tape too.

08:20 It has tape, yeah. Very nice. So, I just thought like, tape down your power pad seems very, to Joe's point, like wonky and just like, you know, why couldn't they come up with like a Velcro solution or something like that? And they just leave it to you. They're like, if yours happens to be slippery, we're not saying they're slippery. If yours happens to be slippery, just tape it down. You know, just like nail that thing to your fault. But like if it is slippery, it's your fault. Right. Exactly.

08:44 And then, just my last observance, I don't know if you guys have any, but at the very back of the manual, there's a section for score recording. And I guess they just didn't want people to play this game for very long because there's just not enough entries. There's enough time to maybe play the game like 12 to 15 times and then you're out of space. So like, who's recording records and what are they doing with them? I think that it was, it's more of something that you'd bring to a Kinko's. Okay. And scan them. Or did they have scanners back then? Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. 1987? Absolutely.

09:22 It's like a, it's a worksheet. I think it was Xeroxing back then though, right? Yeah. Xerox. That's like, that's like sixties, right? But yeah. Xerox was still big. We cannot stay on topic. Yeah. We don't want to. We're done. We don't want to stay on topic because now we're going to get into the gameplay provided nobody else has any other manual impressions.

09:43 The manual also just overall very unhelpful. Never really tells you exactly what I'm saying. Oh, you know what I will say? Go ahead. I like the shape of it. It looks like a Super NES manual. Okay. Instead of like the, the more, more rectangular. I mean, they're all rectangles, rectangles, but you know, the, the skinnier manuals of the NES cartridges. Um, this one has a, has more of a booklet shape that, that really came, came to, uh, came to, came to bloom in Super NES. The kind you'd see in like an RPG quest kind of thing, but now it's like, you know, it's like, well, it's a big, big booklet. And then it was. So the format of the book is really, it's kind of like, has anyone ever read House of Leaves? It's very similar to House of Leaves.

10:24 To anybody who has not read House of Leaves, you're not missing anything. No, it's a great book. Don't listen to me. I'm sorry. I meant about like, like that wouldn't make sense to people. Oh yeah. Yeah. Even if you have read House of Leaves, you probably don't know why we brought it up. That's okay. It's a good book. Great. I do have one more thing. Just, it's just a small thing that the first thing in here is the types of events.

10:44 And it looks, it looks to me like, oh, it's going to tell me how to play these events, but it just like tells you like how the events, like just tells you what, yeah, like what the 100 meter dash is. And like, yeah, they never say like, okay, if you want to do the 100 meter dash in stadium events, make sure you place both feet firmly on the power plant. And then, uh, before the gun goes off, don't release your feet, you know? Yeah. That's a false start. Like they don't say those things. They just say, don't false start. You get three chances.

11:12 So that's, that's, uh, that's the manual. Anybody else? Good. Okay. Gameplay. Do we need to talk about like how to play this thing? I'll, I'll lay it down like this. Okay. The power pad, you use only the B side in this one, which is basically just, uh, like 16 inputs, uh, two, 12, 12 inputs. And between those 12 inputs, there's six on one side, six on the other. If you split it down perfectly in half symmetrically.

11:39 So one half of the power pad is for player a and the other half is for player B. So you only, you know, if you're playing this game alone, you're only ever using one half of the power pad. The bigger problem is, is that the power pad speeds are set between the back half being normal speed, the middle two buttons being advanced speed, and the two buttons at the front of the power pad being super speed.

12:05 Now, why would you ever use anything but super? Wait, what is the speed? How does it, how does it quantify speed? It just makes you move, makes your character move faster if you're running in the one and two digits as opposed to the. Really? Yeah. But the speed of your feet still also factor in too, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's just like easier on the fast speed. Yeah, just like you'll run it in human speeds if you go on super.

12:27 Maybe it's just like your own choice of like your own difficulty level. You want it to be really hard. You're supposed to stay on the snow dots? I don't understand that at all. That's stupid. To me, I guess I understand Joe's point of like, if you get tired of losing a lot, like you can just jump up to the super speed one and guarantee yourself a victory. But if you want a challenge from the computer, run at the normal speed and actually try to run very hard.

12:49 But I'm going to shift this segment over to Joe because I think he's about to break the game for a little and tell us that this game isn't about running at all. See, when you run, you make a stride, right? So this is just from the video I watched, but he keeps his feet so close to the power pad because it just seems like the way to break the game. The person that's demonstrating this game. The person that's demonstrating on YouTube here, who I'm watching right now actually.

13:15 He keeps his feet so close to the pad at all times. He pretty much just like vibrates his feet. Like just, it's not like you're running. It's like, it's just like, like a twinkle toes thing in place to just get the quickest inputs as possible. So I can't imagine it like feels like running at all. And I did try it. I tried what he was doing just in my, in my room by myself.

13:35 And I can confirm it doesn't feel like running. There's just no way. There's no way to simulate running on a power pad. This was never going to be, if anything, most people probably play this game, take the opposite approach and just do like high knees, you know? Like they, like, like I understand that like, yeah, you're not gonna be able to feel like you're running cause it's not a treadmill, but just like the idea that like you're, you're not even like lifting your, your legs up off the top. You're just like vibrating on a power pad. Yeah. I guess like even, even shuffling would work as long as you're sliding off the inputs, you're getting it in and it's probably the fastest way to get it done.

14:10 And that's like that, that, that just covers running in general. It's the hundred meter dash, the hurdles, uh, even like when you're running for the jumps, like that's the only thing that this game pretty much revolves around is you alternating your feet as fast as you can to build up a momentum. And then if it's a hurdle, you jump in the air or if it's a, I just want to point out that out of context, if we're not talking about the power pad, you are just sort of sarcastically describing running. It's true. It's true. And if there's a hurdle, you jump up with your feet.

14:46 But the thing that bugs me about the game is not even that it gets the running part of it wrong because a power pad just couldn't possibly simulate it. It gets jumping wrong too. Okay. So just, just to break it down in like the easiest way possible, let's talk about the triple jump. Yeah. This is something that is physically impossible to do correctly with the power pad. Right. So, so for those of you that don't know in the triple jump, you run, uh, for a certain amount of distance, you're allowed to like run all the way up to a line and then you're forced to jump on your left leg, your right leg, and then both legs. Hence the triple jump. You get three jumps and they're all continuous. Do you have to go left first?

15:18 Uh, that I actually don't know for sure if you have to start on a particular foot. I just know that it's, it's alternate. And then finally you can't choose like left, both, right. Yeah. You know, um, yeah, it would be weird.

15:29 But so the, the interesting thing about this when it comes to playing it in stadium events is that first you just vibrate your feet as fast as possible because the game determines that the faster you're running, the further you'll jump. I buy that. Okay. Sure. But you're not actually running. And then it, it doesn't register an input for just jumping with just your left foot. You can land with both feet and it will still just treat it like you're landing on just your left foot.

15:53 And then you can sit there for eternity. Yeah. They just having the character on screen stuck with their left foot and then jump back up. And then the guy goes onto his right foot and he goes further than anybody who's ever jumped in place has ever gone. And then you do it one more time. Right. It like, it like saves the momentum from your earlier jump. It's like you just store that while you're standing still for five minutes. You're building kinetic energy. Right. While you're resting.

16:20 Yeah. But then the bigger problem is also is that like jumping in the real world, especially for like long jump and triple jump requires somebody to jump forward. Yeah. This requires you to jump in the air. So you can't even stay up that long. Like nobody can defy the laws of physics and jump up. I remember doing this with the triple jump with my fingers. I, I did the, it took some practice, but I learned how to jump with my fingers. Uh, this game on a keyboard. These out of context bites are fantastic. It took practice to learn how to jump with your fingers.

16:53 Because I have to figure out like, all right, this, this is how this would work. And, and using no input as an input is a weird feeling for me. So you have to lift your fingers up and I tried to make it feel like a jump again. And just like, this would never work in real life. How, how would I have this much air time to get, you wouldn't even, you wouldn't, you just, there's just no way.

17:13 So that's the most interesting thing about it is just that like what it wants to simulate is this, like you built up all this energy running in place and now you're going to jump very far, but no matter what, I don't care who you are, you can't stay very long in the air. I say what you should do is you should get the power pad and a pull up bar above you. And you can, if you want to make this a workout, you do a few pull ups while you're in the air. Let your guy just fly for a while and then you land. Are you, um, you're the guy who's creating a workout plan based entirely on stadium events, right? Yeah. You might've heard of my, you know, my, my new program.

17:45 Yeah. It was stadium events. It retails for significantly less than $30,000, but still too expensive. So I really just, if there's one complaint I have, it's that, and by the way, that's it. A hundred meter dash hurdles, two jumps. That's the game. And you get your medals. There's also different people to play against that are animals.

18:05 Yeah. Okay. I didn't even notice that actually if we're being honest. Turtle. Oh, that name is animal. Oh, I thought you meant like you could actually race a turtle. Oh no, that'd be funny though. Yeah. Okay. No, that I know. Like the different difficulties of the computer based on their, yes. That's really the only other, that's the only other detail from this game.

18:22 Was bear one of them? Bear is the second one. Okay. So it's like, but it's not even enough that there's only four different options and there's not enough that like, they're not all that compelling and there's not really like a thing other than that Olympics mode, which is essentially just scoring you out of a hundred, which doesn't even make sense. You know, it's just like, oh, you ran 12 seconds in the hundred meter here, 60 points. Like who decides on what merit we decide.

18:48 Right. And then, and then the worst part is that after all of that, they can't even get these sports done correctly. It's the equivalent of like them building a hockey controller, you know, like, like you just hold this hockey stick and when, and then when you hit it, it simulates like a slap shot, except for instead, that's what you use to skate. Yeah. You know, like you just use the hockey stick to skate. You have to drag the stick back and forth. Right. You know, like that's what they've done here is that they've just figured out a way to be like, well, it's kind of like the hundred meter dash because you're moving.

19:19 I feel like Mike, you are especially offended because they, they've personally attacked you. Yeah. Well, yes. As, as a runnering, runnering, running fanatic. Uh, yeah, this is just, this isn't what I wanted it to be. And I really enjoyed, if you remember a track and field and that was just pushing buttons. So clearly, uh, I'm not against re running games. I'm just against like the, I love super Mario brothers. Yeah. Yeah.

19:45 But, uh, I just don't understand why they thought that this was going to, maybe they didn't think this was going to translate well. Maybe they knew they had a gimmick, you know, basically. Yeah. I feel like it doesn't matter how like far technology has come or how far back, you know, how far it was back in the eighties. But like, just feel like you, you just see this and you don't think like, wow, this is like, this is like real, the real Olympics.

20:07 And another thing too, is that it's that point in your life when you get older that you realize like everybody just deceives you like, you're like, Oh my gosh, is the power is like the power glove also. Did they know that that sucked? Yes. They knew that sucked. They still shipped it. They still sold like over a hundred thousand of those guys. So what do they care? Like, it's just weird to know. Like, you know, it's like, you mean they weren't thinking about the game design and they were just trying to sell a product. Yeah. It's so sad. Now this podcast has gotten depressing. Well, it's about to get even more depressing because we're going to move into the rarity section of stadium events.

20:59 So this is an essential games list. Not, this is not the essential games list. This is just us talking about how rare this game is, the story behind it and all that fun stuff. I'm not going to get too into it, but I would love to talk about just collecting NES games in general. So let me just hit you up with a couple of facts. This way we can kind of like set the tone. A near mint plus VGA copy and VGA is the company that grades video games. If you can believe it, there is somebody that does that just like how there's like the CGC for comics. Yeah.

21:28 Uh, there's things for art too. They grade art and stuff like that and baseball cards and stuff. Like, hold on. Not like Picasso. No, but like they, they, they grade the quality of the art. No, um, more like making sure that it's authentic. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

21:42 So, so a near mint plus VGA copy in 2015 sold for $35,000 and that's with the box and the manual. Okay. There are actually around 23 sealed copies of this game. I think that's an interesting stat because you would think that a game that's this rare, you know, uh, would only have like maybe one or two sealed copies, but there's apparently around 23 of them.

22:10 And that's actually because like a guy who was at like a Sears liquidation sale, like basically found like a lot of NES games still sealed that they never sold. I think he found 18. Was it 18? Um, I don't actually, it was three boxes. Yeah. I think you're right. 18 and he gave away six and then kept 12 to himself. Uh, and then, but he also had like a ton of other NES games too. And he's a huge collector. And I just think like, that's so interesting. Like, um, it wound up being like 250 sealed cases of individual games for the NES all made before 1991.

22:47 And, um, he knew he had the storage space. So he just stored it there for like forever. And now, um, these copies sell for like $35,000 complete. I think like the cheapest they'll sell loose is like maybe $11,000, $12,000, like without the box and the manual. And that's because they just don't know how many there are of these. They don't know how many sold. Uh, there's actually like a common belief that for any NES game that ever came out, uh, like a hundred thousand had to be printed.

23:19 But that's, but that's not true. Like that just doesn't add up for stadium events. We know that there's not a hundred thousand copies and it's believed that they weren't like burned, you know, like ET copies were like buried in Arizona, I think. But that, that was a myth. And then it turned out to be true. Right. Right. But I'm saying like, I don't think that they're actually turned that someone one day is going to find like 60,000 copies of stadium. So we think that this is just like a limited run thing. I think that there's probably, well, the thing is that

23:46 Nintendo will actually go on to buy the, the family fun fitness pad and this thing and put it under the power pad and remarket all these games. So that's why this one like comes and goes so fast. I could be right. I thought I remember reading while I was just looking up about this, that didn't they recall this game? Yeah. Because they, they wound up putting it under a different name.

24:07 Right. Right. Right. So that's why it's just for so few. Yeah. Now we're just sort of talking about our own, uh, sources on the internet because a lot of, a lot of this is secondhand obviously, but my source, uh, he posits, it's not obviously provable that there wasn't a recall. It was just that they didn't make many of them in the first place. Well, my source actually talks about your source and he mentioned that he's lying.

24:32 Are you being serious? No. I don't know who your source is. No, no. I get you. Uh, I think that like that's half the fun of this though. Right. Is that this game in particular is mostly valued on speculation because, uh, there's a very well known website, Nintendo age.com that actually focuses on like all collecting of all things, Nintendo. And they even try to like track down how many copies of any game exists period. Like whether it's sealed or, or, you know, just cart only or what the actual production runs were. And that's why I say like, there's only actually around 23 sealed copies more could possibly turn up.

25:11 But I think 23 still seems high to me when you, when you think about that $35,000 number. So that's why I first want to talk about, we're gonna talk about two things. We're gonna talk about collecting in general for video games. And then we're going to talk about like value of the, of NES, right? Like just, just value.

25:28 So Sean, if you wouldn't mind starting us off your general thoughts on collecting video games. I, I think that collecting video games is, you know, it's a worthy endeavor. Uh, if you like to collect things, why not collect video games? They do have a value, uh, beyond just it existing. They, they, they provide fun entertainment. Um, when it comes to collecting anything though, I think that the perceived and actual value of things can just break the economy.

26:03 Um, I can't think of any other game aside from stadium events that it turns into this much of, of, of, of a, of a leap from however much this game was MSRP for probably like 50, 60 bucks or 80 with the peripheral to $36,000. I, I cannot, I cannot fathom why that exists. Like we'll get into the value of anything, I guess later, but I cannot see where this comes from. I know that that supply, I'm sorry that I know that demand creates a value, but why is it so demanded? Joe, any thoughts on collecting? I don't have much of like a, uh, you know, I don't have much of like a preconceived opinion on, on collecting. I don't really, I haven't really thought about too much, but, um, but I do find it really interesting.

26:54 Like actually the same kind of thing, what makes it so valuable? Why, you know, why is the supply so low? Like I know in some cases, like if a, if a game or if anything is not well received when it, when it comes out and then years later, people find out, wow, that's an amazing game, but they only made a few of them because nobody was buying them back then. Like, I just feel like that's, that's very interesting that the

27:14 different ways things can become rare and, and, and have such crazy value. So to that, like, I do think it's definitely, uh, it's definitely a good endeavor to try and collect things if you're thinking of it that way. I mean, or how, for whatever reason you do, but that's one that I, that would be like something that I would be more interested in is like collect based on projecting

27:35 what its value is going to be. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Which was, you know, I got my whole collection off. Pokemon cards. Yeah. Uh, okay. So I'm not going to get into like why people collect. I hope that you guys didn't think that's what I was setting it up to be, but I'm actually just going to talk, you know, cause I think like people collect for any reason, right? They're either trying, some people are trying to fill a hole. Other people want to like amass every, like, like, that's a big thing for video games, amassing like everything for a specific system. That seems to be like a common goal. There are now like, there's a new movement of collectors, I guess, because

28:07 prices have gotten so high on retro gaming that are just trying to curate like a, a copy of, like what they think are the essential games of anything, you know, kind of like what we're doing with our essential games list is that a lot of people are just saying like, this is my Super Nintendo collection. And it's like a hundred games that they feel really confident about, like still being of value and also of time, you know? Yeah. That's cool. So I think for me, what I want to talk about when it comes to video game collecting is actually three different aspects. So the first aspect of course being the collecting is important from a preservation standpoint. Like video games definitely need to be preserved. And I think that like,

28:43 there's, you know, there's a lot of worthy endeavors all around the world right now trying to preserve video games. And that's why like, we don't frown upon emulation because sooner or later, that might be the only way to play some of these games because they get lost to license rights or companies don't re-release those games. And so we, I definitely think it's important for people to collect games just to say like, well, at least this guy has every copy of every NES game.

29:04 There's not enough people like officially doing it. There's not like an official archive, is there? No. Well, there is the, there is the video game hall of fame and there is something, um, I think they get into the library of Congress sometimes. Yeah. There is a thing with the library of Congress and there's another thing that Frank Cefaldi and a bunch of other guys are doing that's like involving like making sure that these things get uploaded. Like, like forget that it's a rare copy. Like anybody who even has prototypes, it's just making sure like we'll pay to secure your prototype, upload it and send it back to you. Like we don't actually want it. We just want to make sure it's preserved.

29:36 Right. So that's all cool stuff. Another aspect of collecting when it comes to video games specifically, that's interesting is like playability of these games. Whereas like people who collect comics just have to make sure they keep them out of the sun. You know, you don't have to actually, or, you know, for sometimes it's like, don't read it because the binding might fall out with video games.

29:58 A lot of them, uh, you know, like the cartridges, some of them just won't work in another like 50 years. And a disc rot is definitely a thing. So like discs just like PS1 games just won't work someday in the probably the near future. So in that regard, like collecting is kind of weird for video games, right? Because if you have like things that just aren't going to be playable, but you own the cases and the disc for them, is it still going to hold the same value? Or is it just seen as more of like an object?

30:28 Like, uh, like what I was saying earlier with that, where I was saying that the value came from the fact that it could be played at some point, but I guess I was wrong. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I think like, that's why it's important to make sure these things are preserved. But then the third thing I want to talk about that definitely relates to stadium events here is that I can't really think of too many other examples in other collecting mediums that I know about where something like stadium events happens. So if you look at like comics, right, all the most valuable comics for any particular run of anything have to do with key issues that are very, very important.

31:00 So like amazing Spider-Man number one is very expensive because it was the first issue. And we don't know if there were more printed of amazing Spider-Man number one versus number two. See, well, I see it more as I don't come from any kind of collecting background, but I know enough about, about it to mention like, I think that this is more like a coin collecting thing where misprints have more value than the actual correct coin. Like if it says the wrong date or, or a date that never happened.

31:31 Right. Sure. Uh, that also exists in comics though, too, with different like price variants listed on like the comic or different, like, Oh, this is the UK version, but they don't actually become worth more even if less were printed. So, so there aren't like comics that are notoriously bad or just not so great that was just like,

31:48 would have a very few of them. Yeah. No, there's just not really. I think that's interesting is like, there might be some stuff from, um, you know, like dark horse or, um, image comics, image comics obviously does like the walking dead and stuff like that. So it's like when you have things like that, like that's a very popular series. So of course that number one goes for a lot of money, even though it's not even actually that rare, but people want to own that number one copy. But another thing from image that maybe didn't get a large run, but just also isn't popular isn't going to sell for nearly as much. Whereas stadium events is the hardest, like the most expensive commercially released NES game of all time.

32:25 Like there's nothing that even comes close to it other than like, you know, other, uh, competition carts or the Nintendo power championships, like things like that come close in value, but there's no like super Mario brothers. Oh, that's the, that's the NES game. Like it's going to be worth so much, you know, like there's just so many of them, but even in like baseball cards, you know, it's not like, Oh, they only printed like 15 of this guy, but he sucked. So these baseball cards are worth a lot. It's like, no, people want the Mickey Mantle rookie card. Cause he was awesome.

32:53 You know, like I just think it's interesting that this really terrible game sells for so high just because it's the thing keeping people back from finishing their collection. Yeah. I guess just a completionist push. Yeah, exactly. If there wasn't a completionist push, there was recently a copy of super Mario brothers that was completely sealed. And was a black box version and believed to be like one of the first printed runs of super Mario brothers. And I don't know what that sold for, but I think it was like a hundred thousand dollars.

33:23 And I think the belief was, is that someday this will be the action comics. Number one of the actual video game market. Once everything gets figured out action comics. Number one is the first. No, I know what you're saying. No, I just tell the people at home. Oh, actually in comics, number one is the first appearance of Superman. And like, so a lot of people believe that since this is a sealed, never open, like first print copy of super Mario brothers, that this is a bigger deal than say something like stadium events. And I just don't know how true I think that is.

33:51 This is all without logic to me. And I know that is just from an economics point of view, this, this does make sense economically, but I, I think that that, that sort of speculation of I'm going to buy this at a hundred K because I think at one point this is going to be a million, at least like in, like not even regarding inflation, but this is going to be worth 10 times more down the line. It's just odd. Like that's quite the bet. This is just, this is another form of betting. Yeah. And I think like, yeah, it's an interesting thing to talk about because video games is a medium. People talk about like retro game being very expensive, expensive, but what's very expensive, like Chrono Trigger sells for $80. I think it's worth $80.

34:35 I think like if you're a game, it's still in the range of what a video game goes for. And so I'm saying like, I think it's just interesting that like video games haven't even like fully hit their peak in terms of like value as an art, because even in the seventies, you could have bought a copy of acting comics. Number one, I don't know what it would be inflation adjusted, but you could have bought a copy of acting comics. Number one for maybe a hundred thousand. And now it sells for 3 million.

35:00 Oh, you know, and so that's what I'm saying. Like there was a time where these things were like, and people thought that guy was crazy in the seventies. Like you're buying a copy of Superman, like for a hundred thousand dollars. One of your ancestors had a podcast and they called that guy out. One of your ancestors from the seventies.

35:17 My dad, he's an ancestor, right? And I did confirm that that super Mario brothers sealed copy did sell for $100,000, and $150 back in earlier this year, February. They had to get that extra 150, huh? Yeah. February of 2019.

35:31 Yeah. I don't know where the $150 comes into play. Shipping and handling. But you know, I think just to, just to wrap this up, my general feelings on game collecting as someone who owns a lot of video games is that there came a point where I was trying to collect so much that I forgot why I was collecting in the first place for video games. And I wound up becoming one of those curator guys who decided to just like garage sale, sell anything that I knew I either was never going to play, had no interest in, or didn't like, or finished, you know, I was just like, well, this is like the, this is the last time I'm ever going to play this game.

36:03 And I still have 800 video games. But I also still, I do see a point of like people who just are into collecting it just because it's a hobby. Like they just want to collect like that. That's, you know. I mean, there are people who build like man caves around this kind of thing, you know, like it's, and it is beautiful when all of the boxes are there too, you know, like I think that's crazy. It's impressive. That there's, I think there's like, I'm probably lowballing it, but I think there's four to five guys who actually have like complete boxed copies of the NES system. Wow. Like just everything that ever came out for it that you could get in a box.

36:35 There are things that are more rare that we talked about, like the Nintendo championships, gold cart and the Nintendo campus challenge and things like that. Those, those things were never like released. So it makes sense that they're very expensive because the only way to get your hands on them were to like either steal them or buy them way later at auction. And then there's also the whole, um, you know, prototype thing where like people just find these prototypes at like estate sales and then they wind up holding onto them. And it's like, if you have a prototype copy, uh, which I don't think exists, but if anybody had like a prototype copy of super Mario brothers, you better believe that thing would sell on unbelievable numbers, you know?

37:15 So that's my spiel on a game collecting. If any of this was interesting to you, I'm going to recommend a documentary called Nintendo quest. Have either of you toured of this? No, no. So you have to buy it. There's no way to like, like, you know, I'm just saying like, it's not like on Netflix or anything like that. But if you're interested in watching this documentary, it's about two guys that give themselves 30 days. Oh, I did travel around the United States and get, and so no online auctions or anything like that. Travel to the United States and find people who they can buy every NES copy of every game so that they have a complete collection within 30 days.

37:51 So they have to find somebody and then like, they'll buy like, okay, we need these 60 games. So we'll buy these 60 from you. And then can you tell us another guy? And like, so they essentially just go from like collector to collector, seeing their collections, which is cool. And then also buying them and finishing up their chart. And they do secure a copy of stadium events. How would you spoil it? You spoiled it. Well, I mean, I'm sorry.

38:14 I didn't think it was a big deal. We'll edit that out. I doubt, I doubt people who are interested in this would think that like, they wouldn't succeed in the goal, but. I mean, it could have turned into a documentary about friendship. That's true. You only said that they got stadium events. They could have failed at every other game. Yeah. And to be honest, I haven't watched the whole thing. So I don't know if they actually completed it. It could have been at the end, like someone might have stolen stadium events from them. Oh, that would stink. Yeah. Well, let's just do it for fun. This is the Essential Games List.

38:49 I don't know why we're doing it. Here it is, the Essential Games List. Joe, give me your vote. Well, we said a lot of negative things about this game, but there are some positive things. It's in compliance with FCC regulations as one. There's a 90-day limited warranty, which is also a very good thing. Warranties are very pro-consumer. Right. So I think that this game is Essential.

39:14 No, I think if you want my explanation for why it's not Essential, you can just listen to everything I said this episode. It's not great. It's not Essential. I would like the idea of you doing a power trip and saying, like, I'm going to vote in Essential because I know you two won't because you need the... Right. And you guys can't. Right. I'm controlling... You're just playing chicken with us because I could just vote in Essential too. You wouldn't do that. You're right. Yeah, we can't have another... Oh, yeah. Well, I guess I'll go right into my... We can't have another slalom on our hands. We cannot have another slalom. There will never be another slalom. Nothing will be as good as slalom.

39:46 I think that this game... All of the games... All of the value that this game holds is in its story. In its story of how Bandai had this whole peripheral and then sold it to Nintendo because they asked nicely, pretty much. And the whole rarity of the... It's a good story. It's a fun 15-minute YouTube video or a 43-and-a-half-minute podcast. We don't talk about this game too much on this episode because it has no value as a video game. Its only value is as a collector's item. So I voted in Essential.

40:26 And to no one's surprise, I will also vote it in Essential because... Nah, never mind, guys. You know why. Like, it just doesn't... What would make it Essential? I don't think Power Pad games can be Essential. If we're just gonna, like... If I'm just gonna, like, say it right now, I'm not sure of any of the other five or six games... That's a hot take. ...that are coming out for the Power Pad. I just don't know what would make it Essential. What if it makes you feel like you're there? Feel like you're there? Do you have something that you could add to it that, like, you're like... Open world. Yeah, open world.

40:58 A treadmill. Right. They would have just put you on a treadmill and had this game and been able to tell, like, oh, well, he's going six miles per hour, so we'll have him run six miles per hour. But then it just becomes real running. So just go outside. You know? Like, just go outside and run at that point. Right. Then it's Essential. You can do the triple jump without a pit of sand. I'm promising it. Is running Essential? Running is Essential.

41:20 A lot of people tell you running's bad for your joints. They're just not doing it properly. Let's be honest. There's just no way that a guy like Elio Kipchoge can, like, run a marathon in two hours and one minute a bunch of times, which is, by the way, the fastest of all time, and be completely fine. Faster than Rabbit? He can't shave off those last minute and a half. Like, can't he just get 159? It's very hard. You know, just because, like, humans like round numbers. We like, you know, like... I want it right under, too. Yeah, I know. As I'm saying, I think, like, people want 159, 59, and it's like, just because that's a nice number doesn't mean it's, like, humanly possible. Whatever, Mike. Like...

42:00 Well, everybody knows that, Sean. That's actually a meta-reference to a future episode. Oh, yeah. And I think that's a great way to close out this episode. So don't forget, it's www.nostalgiacast.com. That's where you'll find links to everything else that we do, except for our Twitter. I should really get a link to the Twitter up on there, because the Twitter's where things happen. You want to see, like, weird pictures of kids dancing on powerpads? I did it all this week. I posted pictures of kids dancing on powerpads on the Twitter.

42:31 The Twitter. You should lose the the. It's cleaner. That's a reference to a movie that has nothing to do with nostalgia. Well, it does now. Oh, because we linked it. Because you referenced it. Very cool. We do have a Facebook. In that case, I'm also going to say Barack Obama, because now he's a part of the podcast, like, in some way or another. You know, it's not controversial to pick old presidents.

42:54 Like, if I say George Washington, right, no one's going to be like, how dare you? What about George Washington Carver? The peanut butter guy? Yeah. Peanuts or peanut butter? Well, mostly peanuts. He was a, he did a lot of peanut work. Okay. Yeah. I know it's true. Oh, I know. Oh, I know you were laughing. I just didn't want to listen. You're so knowledgeable. Yeah. What about Marie Curie? Who's that? You know, I said her last name wrong, but I'm talking about Marie Curie. Yeah. I said Curie. I was trying to be like French about it, but it just didn't work.

43:27 Snoop Dogg. These are all people that are going to be future guests on the episode. This is what the podcast is about now. Right. I'm actually going to update our Apple podcast information thing to just be like, featuring Snoop Dogg. I'm Michael Esposito. Practically everything I said after I signed up the show was not true. So don't sue me. It's false. And you can find me on at Esposito Film on Twitter. I almost never post and I'll talk to you soon. you