How much were NES/SNES/Genesis games back in the day?

[FallingEdge]

I was looking at a few of my old Nintendo Power magazines (issue 56 - Jan 94 to be exact), just reading some reviews and whatnot when I stumbled across the "Suggested Retail Price" part of the review. Is this true? SNES games going for 60-80?!

The Lawnmower Man - $60.00
T2: The Arcade Game - $60.00
Flashback - $65.00
Super Solitare - $60.00 (It f'ing solitare!!)
Soldiers of Fortune - $70.00
Metal Marines - $75.00!

As a kid growing up, I never paid for any of these games and until now, I never really thought about it. All my NES/SNES games came as birthday/Christmas/doing well in school gifts. Damn man, how much did games like Chrono Trigger and FFIII go for?

BTW, there always was a card that I filled out that asked questions about your favorite games, questions about mags you read and all that stuff. I saw one card that I didn't turn in. I was 8 years old and my favorite SNES game? SSF2 :wgrin:

[TrunksSS3]

for what i remember super nes games costed me like $70 the most..but i forgot how much were sega and reg nes games

[Zachman]

Sonic 2 was the best.

[Super Warrior]

I was looking at a few of my old Nintendo Power magazines (issue 56 - Jan 94 to be exact), just reading some reviews and whatnot when I stumbled across the "Suggested Retail Price" part of the review. Is this true? SNES games going for 60-80?!

The Lawnmower Man - $60.00
T2: The Arcade Game - $60.00
Flashback - $65.00
Super Solitare - $60.00 (It f'ing solitare!!)
Soldiers of Fortune - $70.00
Metal Marines - $75.00!

As a kid growing up, I never paid for any of these games and until now, I never really thought about it. All my NES/SNES games came as birthday/Christmas/doing well in school gifts. Damn man, how much did games like Chrono Trigger and FFIII go for?

BTW, there always was a card that I filled out that asked questions about your favorite games, questions about mags you read and all that stuff. I saw one card that I didn't turn in. I was 8 years old and my favorite SNES game? SSF2 :wgrin:

Depends what area you lived i guess. But the price of games back then, are'nt all that different from the prices of games now.

Much like newer popular releases today, ask around $40-$60, so did the latest brand new SNES or NES games back in the day.

I remember the sub-par port of Mortal Kombat 1 for genesis, went around $55 at KB Toys when new.

Legend of zelda: A Link to the past, for SNES, was also around the $50 mark when new.

[TrunksSS3]

I remember when i bought mario kart 64 i paid $74 thats with tax!!!at Kmart i think

[Sileighty]

yeah, prices back then weren't too different from now. Cartridges are supposed to be more expensive to make.

Shouldn't games actually be cheaper now since we're making them on disc formats?

[Super Warrior]

I remember when i bought mario kart 64 i paid $74 thats with tax!!!at Kmart i think

Yeah Nintendo 64 games were definitly on the expensive side. No doubt nintendo's choice of keeping the cart format played a role in that.

Carts were notorious for being a *HELL OF ALOT* more expensive to make, than a CD-Rom, and damn it SHOWED in the prices!:sweat:

Even so-called "budget price" players-choice titles, were in the $30-$35 mark(in comparison to saturn or psx games, which were around $15-$20 instead).

yeah, prices back then weren't too different from now. Cartridges are supposed to be more expensive to make.

Shouldn't games actually be cheaper now since we're making them on disc formats?

Yeah its no secret that CD-ROMs were *MUCH* cheaper to make, than carts. So are the DVD-Roms of today as well.

N64 cart format= Just the first in a long line of MANY bad decisions by nintendo 12 years ago.

Edit: Oh and Killer Instinct Gold for the N64, cost me about $80 back in christmas of 1996.

[TempestFox]

Hooray wikipedia.



NES
For its North American release, the NES was released in two different configurations, or "bundles." The console deck itself was identical, but each bundle was packaged with different Game Paks and accessories. The first of these sets, the Control Deck, retailed from US$199.99, and included the console itself, two game controllers, and a Super Mario Bros. game pak. The second bundle, the Deluxe Set, retailed for $249.99 and consisted of the console, a R.O.B., a NES Zapper, and two game paks: Duck Hunt and Gyromite.


SNES
The release was an exciting surprise for North American gamers, since Nintendo had been advertising a launch date of September 9. Initially sold for a price of US$199, the North American package included the game Super Mario World.

Genesis
In 1987, Sega announced a North American release date for the system of January 9, 1989, making it the second console to feature a 16-bit CPU (the first one being the Mattel Intellivision) and the first to feature single-instruction 32-bit arithmetic. Sega was not able to meet the initial release date and U.S. sales began on August 14, 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles[2] with a suggested retail price of $200 at launch. The Genesis was released in the rest of North America on September 15 of the same year with the price reduced slightly to $190.

Games and System prices are pretty solid, basically. Games always used to be in that 50-60 dollar range, although nowadays they're usually around 30-50, cd's a cheaper and easier to make. Also today's systems are all spiked up over 200 bucks, which used to be the norm.

[Return of Shiki]

Yes, cartridges WERE that expensive.

Generally in the $60-$75 range for SNES games.
Genesis games, I remember were usually a little less (except for EA Sports games).
NES games were $50-$70.

Of course, some retailers had even higher prices.
I remember some Square SNES games like Chrono Trigger being $80 at some places.

And yes, there's no reason that PS3 and 360 games should be $60-70 as they are disc format, but a lot of the reason stems from the fact that the average cost of developing those games is much higher now...too much time and $$$ has to be spent on the graphics in order for them look "next-gen".
So in short...blame it on the graphics whores.

[Alex]

phantasy star 4 for the genisis was $119 @_@

[Stevie White]

$72 bucks for SFII Turbo - I remember this because I had to save up for a whole year to get it. Man my allowance sucked. FFIII was 80 bucks....

The first NES game I ever got as a kid was RC Pro AM - that cost $35.

[D-Force]

I remember Virtua Racing for Genesis being $90.00 when it came out.

[Pat the Great]

i remember the first time i ever saw a brand new game for $50 was Diddy Kong Racing for N64. i was amazed. now i rarely spend $50 on a new game.

adjust for inflation, and older games were hella expensive, and i've only gotten cheaper...

[Biolink]

Man that's pretty crazy looking back.Never really thought about the cost of games back then.

[X-Sapphire]

The first NES game I ever got as a kid was RC Pro AM - that cost $35.

That game fucking rocked. I got it for $20 :wgrin:

[9999]

I think I mentioned this a while ago, but back in the mid-90's some N64 games here went for 100-120 bucks. I remember one of them was fuckin HEXEN :rofl:

[Windlord0]

phantasy star 4 for the genisis was $119 @_@

I remember paying $90 for this + tax. I saved all year waiting for it.

[hellhound7]

I remember the first game I bought with my own money. It was streets of rage 2 on sega genesis. Twas like $69.97. Damn, that game was so much fun when it came out.

[Hunter D]

$50-100 was the price range for games in the 16bit age.

[Taito]

I can accept games these days costing so due to colossal production values and Hollywood-quality technology, taking up gigs and gigs of space.. I wrote college papers with larger filesizes than any $70 Genesis or SNES game. What a ripoff.

..although I liked those games alot more than most stuff out today.

[ruthless_nash]

i remember buying streets of rage 3 for about £80, thats was a heck of a lot of money! even for back then... i think megadrive/genesis games were about 40-45 squids here.

[{PFH}-Lake]

I remember everything was like 30.00-40.00 bucks. Chrono Trigger was the best game back then in the snes days.

Nes days were the best ever, almost every game you bought was good, you cant say that about alot of systems now adays.

I bought MM4,5 and 6 for 20 bucks each brand new. Chrono Tigger I got for 40.