The twenty thousand dollar videogame

The HUGE finds
If you ever see any of these games at a boot sale or second hand store, don't let them see your excitement. Tell them the sweat trickling down your cheek is a medical condition and those palpitations shaking your body are hereditary.

Nah, just kidding (sorry if we had you going). No, seriously, the 2,000 copies produced were recalled, leaving a couple of hundred games in the hands of customers. The game was rebranded as World Class Track Meet and distributed as a first-party game, with Nintendo's own 'Power Pad' controller. But those scant few copies of the original still in existence now fetch over $1,000 (£500) when they appear – and complete versions are rumoured to be worth around $5,000 (£2,500).

Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash – Commodore Vic-20
A Commodore Vic-20 was this writer's introduction to the gaming world. Ah, happy memories of Frogger, Blitz and Initial Race. And taking it literally when it said 'HIT SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE'. Thwack! But anyway, this Ultima game is hardly anything to do with the main Ultima series and Richard Garriot (Lord British) didn't even know it was being produced with the name until it was out in the shops. It sold badly even before it was discontinued, making the remaining few copies that did make it to consumers' hands worth something in the region of $3,500 (£1,750).

Kizuna Encounter – Neo Geo (PAL)
This is quite unbelievable. Apparently, there were 12 (yes, twelve) copies of this SNK fighting game produced for the PAL territories. It is said that eight of those were shipped back to Japan and relabelled for sale there. So that makes… four copies. They're doing the rounds in Europe and the US, selling for about $12,000 each time. Yes, that's about £6,000.

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.

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