This isn’t something you see every day. Earlier this week, a man walked into a used game store in Albuquerque, New Mexico and sold a bunch of old Sega stuff. Among it was a box that contained 203 copies of Night Trap, one of the most infamous home console games ever released.
The Sega CD title, which was withdrawn from sale in 1994 following its role in a Senate Judiciary and Government Affairs Committee hearing, eventually came back on the market with redesigned box art. If you’re ever trying to buy a copy, you’re usually buying one of these second editions.
But this box was full of original, uncensored versions, complete with (where applicable) original boxes and manuals. The seller tells reader Jon, who works at the store in question, Gamers Anonymous, that they’d originated from a Blockbuster distribution centre, where they’d ended up when the rental chain had recalled its copies in the 90s. Having been ex-rentals from all over the country they were in all sorts of condition, but most were either working or could be refurbished.
Why the instant sale at a store, and not eBay? With a “van full of boxes” of old Sega stuff, Jon tells Kotaku “he just has a ton of stuff to unload and isn’t nearly as concerned with money as he is clearing up room at his house.”
“I feel that I may have a tangible percentage of copies of this game out there”, Jon says, “and it kind of makes me feel weird, but it’s also a bit exhilarating.”
I’m not sure on the monetary value of this deal, and to be honest I don’t care. What’s amazing here is seeing so many copies turn up at once, all together, in such a random set of circumstances. This wasn’t a concerted effort on the part of fans to track down copies; it was as though they literally fell out of the sky.
Seeing so many copies suddenly turn up like this also feels like a small victory for the game. Like a band of Sega CD discs, on the run from The Man, hid out in the woods for 20 years, and have now returned to a world that, even if it still has reservations about Night Trap, is at least accepting enough that it can find backers for a Kickstarter for the game’s revival.
Comments
14 responses to “Guy Trades In 203 Copies Of Controversial Old Sega Game”
god damn… if only these were PAL copies that would literally be a mountain of gold.
Probably needed the money to buy some sauerkraut.
Or some bear claws!
or meth
I am imagining all those copies being put in individual plastic bags, smuggled in Los Pollos Hermanos batter buckets and distributed across the country.
There’s a song about that isn’t there?
i See what you did there 😀
Got any bear claws?
Do stores have to buy any game trade in that comes in? What if someone brought in all those copies of E.T. they dug up. “Hi, I’m wanting to trade in 2 million copies of E.T. Yes, I’ll take store credit. Yes, $0.50 is fine.”
I would say most game developers would say that trade in’s are illegal because you do not actually own the game, you buy a licence to play the game and that licence would not be resell able.
For stores no they do not have to take a trade in if they do not want it their is no law requiring them too, most big stores will so they get your sale.
It’s not illegal – for games delivered on physical media, the “right of use” transfers with the physical copy. As such trading in physical games (that do not have an online account component) fall under the same rules as pawning goods.
I don’t know why stores aren’t required to take ID and perform other checks like a pawn broker has to. It might be something to do with the low value of the item (below the materiality threshold), but I don’t know.
I think that might vary state-by-state? I know that here in NSW you have to have ID to trade games in at EB. And also I’ve heard from friends that QLD is the only place where you can get cash for your trades rather than store credit, because of a legal requirement they have there.
Revolution CD in the ACT will always give you the option of cash or credit.
Is there someone who unloaded at a used games shop a ute bucket’s worth of games?
What was so wrong with the original?
It was more violent, so far as I know. Might have also been slightly more sexually explicit (although no version had any actual nudity).
Oh my god, learn the DEFINITION of the word LITERAL! No they did not literally fall out of the sky, Luke. No they would not literally be a mountain of gold.
So sick of so called professionals being unable to use basic English. Think before typing. No wonder Kotaku is mocked the world over.
Seems like its a millenial thing to use literally figuratively
*says the 23 year old*