Don’t throw away those old PlayStation 2 games too quickly, they might soon be worth a fortune. Because video games never die. Whether in 8-bit, on cassette or on disk. As long as it is still in good condition… and it is not the battery Rock band.
“There is really demand for everything, everything, everything,” immediately assures Dominic Bourret, co-founder and co-owner of the Retro MTL boutique in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, in Montreal. “Except for accessories like those of Rock band. Everyone has that in their cellar and it no longer really has any value. But the Atari consoles, ColecoVision, Intellivision, everything that came before the first Nintendo console, we try to always have them in stock, they sell out quite quickly. »
A Montreal institution in the making, Retro MTL has been buying and reselling video game items since 2017. It started on the Internet, then in 2019, the store opened its doors. The expansion continued until last month, when Retro MTL inaugurated brand new premises, still on Hochelaga Street. These premises worthy of 2023 still allow you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of video clubs from the 1990s. Same smell of popcorn, same long rows of shelves on which game packets are piled up.
“I’m 44 years old and I spent my childhood in video stores, it’s something that spoke to me a lot. » Dominic Bourret, a graphic designer by training, designed the interior of the store to give it a bit of style. vintage from a video store from the pre-Internet era. He even gave birth to two mascots for Retro MTL. Under the nickname Papa Cassette, he also hosts a podcast and a YouTube channel on retro games, those which, like good wine, have (more or less) aged well.
Dominic Bourret is therefore the ideal contact with whom to mark World Video Game Day, which this year takes place on Saturday November 18. This video game day was launched in 2010 in France. If there’s one day a year to dust off your old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), or even Atari 2600 or ColecoVision consoles, if you have that in the cupboard, this is it.
Super Mario is back
Because life is sometimes well done, Nintendo launched on November 17 Super Mario RPG. It is an updated version of the original role-playing game, courtesy of Square Enix, and released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo console (SNES). This time, the game can be downloaded to the Switch console.
The craze is much greater today than it was three decades ago. Like vinyl records, retro gamingas it is commonly called, could reach its peak in 2023. This is in any case what we are seeing at Google, parent company of YouTube.
The enormous commercial success of Mario is no stranger to this phenomenon. The world of the famous Italian-Japanese plumber is so emblematic that the content linked to this franchise has exceeded 100 billion views on the YouTube platform, where the evolution of the fashion for period video games is easily quantified: the platform video counts 1000 times more downloads of videos related to retro gaming in 2023 than there were in 2007.
Super Mario RPG should strengthen the trend. The new game plays the nostalgia card to the fullest. The gaming experience tries to recreate the one that, 27 years ago, captivated an entire generation of young players. This new opus arrives barely a month after the equally notable launch of Super Mario Bros. Wonderthe first traditional game Super Mario in 2D since 2012.
The nostalgic are served… but not too much, all the same. Younger players will never know the days when you could count the number of Mario lives on one hand, or when you had to practice all night long to master the turtle’s bounce at the foot of a staircase to generate hundreds more lives.
Another era
At least one other element separates us from the 1990s. In 2023, it is impossible to hop on your bike and visit the neighborhood video store to rent, for the modest sum of 5 or 6 dollars, a copy of the game which we will attempt to complete within the allotted rental time, i.e. 24 to 48 hours, depending on the case.
Visiting a video store was, at the end of the last millennium, an experience in itself. Reliving this era is impossible for a simple reason: video stores no longer exist. This fashion has well and truly passed. Console makers Microsoft and Sony have made their own little digital shift. Their catalogs are offered in the form of a monthly subscription, or the games are purchased individually directly on a television.
In any case, the best games currently sold in stores are games from another era. Mostly used. “We buy games every day. We reserved a large space just for that: we inspect, we check and we buy back or we give a credit,” says Dominic Bourret. Retro MTL purchased two resurfacing machines at a high price that bring worn-out DVDs back to almost new condition.
It’s worth the cost: some games in their original box with the booklet still in good condition, purchased for $20 20 years ago, can now be worth $200 or even $500. Not all, obviously, but like everything that is collected, there are some priceless rarities: Little Samson on NES hovers around $3500 (note to those who have that…). Star Foxon SNES, is worth $3,000. Donkey Kong Country in its box can be worth up to $5,000.
“We received some from those. Let’s say that customers were happy to leave our house with $2,000 in their pocket,” laughs Dominc Bourret.
This is a sum that could be wisely invested in… more video games, what else? Like the 8-bit Mario from 1996, the video game still has several lives in the bank.