This is Propellor Arena, not some shitty piece of crap. Sure, PA is available freely now, but the GD-R is still something special. For some people, it may just be the game on official format as opposed to CD-R. That's fine. But for others, it's worth something more, because it's the original proto.
No, when you release something you fuck it's value. It's just the way it is. You can't give something away for free then expect people to pay big money for it later. GD-R's are ten a penny. Get me a GD-R Writer and I'll knock out 100 Propellor Arena GD-Rs.
Yeah go on knock out 100 GD-Rs... but with what code? the stripped down, compressed music, on a non original developer print run. Why are you willing to pay $650 for it already then? If they are ten to the penny... Go and get a bargain one for $300 else where...
It's still not the same. This one is real, straight from Sega. It was in AM2's hands. That means something.
Compressed music, edited? Just to clarify that search the NFO file of the game at the net and you will read at the notes "nothing ripped and everything is intact". The first Propeller Arena GD-R that appeared at Ebay (won by DCHistory) ended at around $1200 and the auction included Half-Life and the System Disc 2. And that was before the game was ripped. So I can't see why the amount of money the people are offering right now for the Servicegames disc are not "serious offers".
ServiceGames was the person who made a big havoc because he released it and that is something i can´t talk good or bad about since i am a bit biased on that subject since i remember all the fuzz around it and i feel the pain from the people who feel ripped off and in the same time i am happy other games (not PA though) is/was released
Umm im pretty sure hes had to downsample somethings however even if he dint the leaked code is different. Its been messed with and copy protection cracked. There is also a Megalexx logo on the sega licence screen. Also the IP.bin file isnt the original rip one.
my copy doesnt have megalexx, you can remove that by just putting another ip.bin and most ip.bin are the same.
Honestly, Legit's offer is probably the best you're going to get. Funkstar said it best, if not so eloquently, that once something is publicly available the value is going to drop. Among collectors unreleased games are usually only swapped for unreleased games (or other highly desirable kit). After all, those are the only things of comparable value. Once you and the members of this board decided to invest in your little venture the collector value of P.A. originals dropped like a rock. Like I mentioned before, I used to get offers for mine. The day your purchase went through P.A. went from a "gotta have it" to "just another GD-R beta" in an instant. The only saving grace I can hope for (I haven't seen the version of P.A. that you released) is that my disc is a different build than yours. If so, it will maintain some of its collector value over the long run. If not, well thank the maker than P.A. is a fun game. At least I can keep playing it in its original form. Besides, as you already said in another thread, you pulled in around $800 from people IIRC. If Legit is offering $500 for your disc that puts you at a total of $1300 in and $1500 out. Once P.A. was released to the masses the beta disc was no longer rare and desirable, especially that disc. Why? It is the equivalent of a gold master burn. If I could score $500 for every G.M. or beta disc I have in my collection I'd be one hell of a rich person. Most folks look at G.M. discs though and go "well, it's the same as the released version. nifty little item, but nothign special." That's where you're at with P.A. As a piece of general advice to anyone, if you're going to collect rare games, only collect the ones that you are going to actually enjoy playing. This way, if an investment *does* plummet in value you can still get some enjoyment out of it. If you simply purchase games for the return, when invesments go bad you're left with nothing more than a paperweight. -hl718
The mistaken understanding of the way things like this work never ceases to amaze me, especially when people insist on scaremongering others to the point where everyone is terrified of this inaccurate scenario of original software being worthless when a dump occurs. The price for a GD-R game does not drop like a rock the minute the game is released, especially a game of this magnitude. There are very few games out there in the same boat as PA - finished but never released commercially - and that alone makes the originals collectable. However, PA is a fun game, and one that was very much anticipated by a lot of people. Is it worth the $1500 it was purchased for? I wouldn't go that far - it's fairly common knowledge the original seller was quite the profiteer who was known to jack up prices, but at the time this was the only possible way PA would have gotten any sort of public release. The reason why there aren't a whole lot of offers on this board is simple - nobody here has the money. But this is not surprising, considering the insane amount of money and effort that was required to initially purchase the disc - it wasn't an easy deal. I think the game could easily reach $800-$1000 on eBay, but the market just isn't here. But all that is beside the point - what's going on here is someone is trying to sell an item, and people seem hell bent on preventing any sort of sale. You wouldn't pay an asking price? Fine, just leave it at that, and don't clutter up the thread with trying to explain why the thing will never sell for $XXX or how through your superior grasp of market economics, you predict the disc is only worth $25 at most now. Seriously, knock it off and let the man try to sell his goddamned disc.
It's a GD-R, straight from Sega. That alone would make it worth a lot to certain people. If I had the money to burn, I'd buy it in an instant. I think GSL said it best though, that most of the people on these boards can't just drop that much at a whim. eBay, however, is a different story. ; )
I'll still only bid $500 if it went on eBay Maybe somewhat less as I'd have to cover postage, packaging a customs fees and then seller would also get eBay fees out the ass too hehe. At the end of the day they are other funky things I could piss $500 on so the offer won't be on the table forever, I've just bought myself an o2 XDA IIi PDA/Phone and I've got my eyes on a pair of 256mb Oakley Thumpers and assloads of other crap too. People will always debate whether or not an item drops in value after a dump - I'm in the camp of it dropping in value for many reasons and I'm sure the man (ASSEMbler) is too, but a damned good reason is why should I pay $1500 to play a game people play for $0? Sure, the original media makes up half the value, but then you have to halve the original cost as the build itself now has $0 value. It's not just that, but as a Dreamcast fan and a collector Propellor Arena is far from my Holy Grail - my personal Holy Grail is the Phantasy Star Online GD-R with the game logo sticker applied as seen on the advert on Yakumo's FTP and I wasn't too interested with PA to start with, not entirely because of the game but I also never download/play ROMs (yes, even if it's a game I want to play badly!)
"but a damned good reason is why should I pay $1500 to play a game people play for $0?" Good point, I shall have to remember this every single time I am tempted to buy anything.. Why buy anything that I can get for free.. Also I would like to point out that I did pull in several hundred dollars in donations initially, but I returned several hundred dollars in donations at the request of disgruntled donators.. I was left with less than $200.00, which barely covered the postage and insurance to ship the game from place to place to be worked on. -ServiceGames-
Why is it that the same people who believe that protos don't lose their value after they are dumped are never the ones who end up buying them? Adam
Indeed, if I had the money to spend on such an item I would, but in the tail end of winter when jobs are scarce and paying the phone bill is a magnificent feat in itself - well, those kinds of purchases are not even dreamt of. Though I must say, how dare you make any sort of value judgement on what I do or do not purchase without even being remotely aware of my current occupation or financial situation?
Whatever you may think, just a few months ago an unreleased flintstones game for DC was ripped and released. Guess what? Several weeks later, a white label of the same game went for over £400 on Ebay, 4 times what it was available at this very board for at that time. You know why? Because unreleased original discs do not drop in price - its an excuse that people cook up to justify their hoarding. If you don't want to share, fine, but don't lie and make excuses that the value will drop when it's plainly not true. If I were Service Games, I'd stick it on Ebay. I'm fairly confident the end bid would shut up the majority of the paranoid here...
That Flintstones disc was purchased by a buyer from Kuwait, he probably did not know that the game was already ripped because when it was posted at Ebay the rip was not very well-known. The fact is that the same guy that ripped the game has been trying to sell the disc at least 2 times on Ebay without success. At the last auction the end price was even lower of the 100 euros. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8178803781