The first Legend of Zelda game (NES) was sold for the equivalent of 130 dollars today
- Thread starter ChoosableOne
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FatallyYours
Member
So what youre telling us is that you've learnt how to read and do basic maths?
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this
ByWatterson
Member
Gaming is more affordable than ever and people keep bitching
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
LordOcidax
Member
I remember ending the game in one sit every time because the battery was bad. GOAT.
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
In Europe, yes, because of import fees.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yes, carts were pretty expensive to produce.
Discs are like penny's.
Discs are like penny's.
Kuranghi
Member
My pal couldn't afford a controller pak for his N64 so we left Blast Corps on for a week and the N64 died lol
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Only because a few companies had a monopoly on roms.
Kuranghi
Member
Actual price at the time was like 120 dollars tho right, or is that some other game? Adjusted it a crazy amount iirc
Haint
Member
Inflation doesn't impact every market and sector the same. Technology, "computer", and entertainment have (broadly speaking) stayed pretty flat if not gotten cheaper over the decades while the real driver of inflation has been in necessities (food, housing, transportation, staples) which have gotten exponentially more expensive. The cartridges themselves also cost an ass load (large SNES carts were reputedly upwards of $30) and Nintendo basically ran a monopolized racket on them. The videogame market was also a fraction of a fraction of the size it is today.
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Generic
Member
Inflation defense force is here.
Mister Wolf
Member
I still remember the day i got it from Toys R Us. The gold cartridge, the music on the title screen. Was something special.
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ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
house was sold for what ? 13.000
now 200.000
now 200.000
Power Pro
Member
Less people bought games at those prices then today. I didn't play a game on the NES unless it was a rental, or extremely discounted used copy.
ByWatterson
Member
Right.
More people can and do buy them today. Because it's more affordable than ever.
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Guardian Monkey
Member
Not counting the SBM pack in, Zelda was the first game I bought, was $40.
SkylineRKR
Member
I barely bought new games in that era. I think no one did. A game was pretty much 8% of the average monthly wage back then. My parents found it ridiculous, and I could only choose stuff from the bargain bin. Or I rented. Or I borrowed. There were always ways to play. GB games I sometimes bought on release, but never for NES. For Genesis I think I only bought 1 or 2 games for the full retail price.
Later dedicated gameshops began to sell used games. I picked a lot of stuff used for 16 bit.
Funny enough I own a Neogeo AES for 20+ years lol. But I was a working adult and a freak by then.
Later dedicated gameshops began to sell used games. I picked a lot of stuff used for 16 bit.
Funny enough I own a Neogeo AES for 20+ years lol. But I was a working adult and a freak by then.
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Kuranghi
Member
Yeah we had an Amiga 500 but my dad bought it for the "art making abilities" so he didnt want to pay out loads for games but knew I loved them.
So he'd take me to a work colleagues house and I would just tell him any game I had read about or seen and he'd copy it onto
s, he rarely didnt have a game. I remember asking him for Monkey Island and he looked distraught cause it was on like 20 disks ha.I think he did it for free cause the floppies were bought at work and internet/phoneline expensed as part of the job.
Later when we had a PC I would a abuse the 30 day refund and swap games forever, the receipt was like 3 foot long lmao
Pasta la Vista
Member
We also rented a lot more games and traded with friends in the 80s/90s. Any game I actually owned was used, the only new game I ever got for NES was SMB3.
Guardian Monkey
Member
It is, by a long shot.
Major Insano
Member
Blades of Steel was better.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
What about housing, health insurance, car / home insurance, car cost, food prices and a lot more shit compared to back then?
The issue isn't just gaming, the problem is cost of living has gone far ahead of wages.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
This was the kind of game you bought to enjoy for nearly a whole year, though. I remember as a kid... many months on this, with zero guides or information whatsoever (I didn't even have a mental concept of "dungeon" or game structure when I started). I remember the day when I saw a bush burn and open a hidden staircase, stunning revelation! And then, a long journey back through the game on the "second quest."
A game that equals that level of entertainment value would be equivalent to much more than nearly every high-pricetag game today. I guess, to be fair, TOTK may be at that level...
But the surrounding electronic entertainment market is now saturated with a million experiences you can have immediately of all kinds, so the relative value of something like a single video game is legitimately minuscule compared to what it used to represent. The price relative to the value conferred by one boxed game is actually far too high today at something like $70, because of that context.
A game that equals that level of entertainment value would be equivalent to much more than nearly every high-pricetag game today. I guess, to be fair, TOTK may be at that level...
But the surrounding electronic entertainment market is now saturated with a million experiences you can have immediately of all kinds, so the relative value of something like a single video game is legitimately minuscule compared to what it used to represent. The price relative to the value conferred by one boxed game is actually far too high today at something like $70, because of that context.
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ByWatterson
Member
I mean,
1. That's not really true. Aside from some hiccups, real income (adjusted for purchasing power) has gone up for decades in America; and
2. What does the relative price of those things have to do with games?
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Can a one person working household afford a house and being able to take care of a family? The salary numbers are generally BS unless you take real cost of living into account including medical and housing.I mean,
1. That's not really true. Aside from some hiccups, real income (adjusted for purchasing power) has gone up for decades in America; and
2. What does the relative price of those things have to do with games?
What it has to do with is indicating amount of available money to spend on extras for a family now days.
ByWatterson
Member
That is adjusted for purchasing power.
But sure, let's do disposable income instead.
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StereoVsn
Gold Member
This is average per capita from what I can see. Now compare the wealth of top 10% in 1986 vs 2024.That is adjusted for purchasing power.
But sure, let's do disposable income instead.
Look at amount of wealth/income bottom 50% have now vs 1986. Or even bottom 75%. Now look at all in spend and free cash flow in 1986 vs now as a median vs average.
Edit: For shits and giggles I ran income/spending/cash flow through Gemini and ChatGPT thinking models. For area I included Oklahoma and median salary for 4 person household.
Adjusted to current dollar value, median family ran ~ negative $7.5K deficit in 2024 and run negative $26.5K now.
Of course this isn't super accurate since I didn't spend digging more than 10 min on each model. You can do some Deep Research queries.
The point being a median (not average) household is worse off in US vs 1986. And they have less disposable income.
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ReBurn
Gold Member
No kidding. When I think back to the PC rig I spent 2 grand on in 1989 compared to what I got for 2 grand fairly recently it's impossible to not see the value we get today. 2 grand was a heck of a lot more money back then.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Or try to buy a house on one income at a median US salary.
Poppinfresh
Member
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
But this usual "ak-shually the numbers say you're better off than ever" line falls completely deaf today on nearly everyone for good reason.
I lived through the 80s & 90s as many of us did, and I remember the world of yesterday... it is absolutely true that the ability of the typical couple to secure a decent house, savings, and stability -- very often, back then, with just one income, like my dad who was by no means making a lot of money or holding advanced degrees -- has absolutely fallen off a cliff relative to that time.
These measures are very complex and can be extraordinarily misleading, particularly with averages that don't look at the distribution across ages, relative to personal debt ratios, etc. Some of it is also that the parameters of life today are built upon much higher consumer spending, which makes the case that it is indeed somewhat self-inflicted, but at the same time the game we're running as western economies has built itself (questionably) upon that consumer spending so that it's almost as if the machine has to keep being fed by extravagant over-spending or the current market propped up by it collapses.
It's a total mess, hard to assign blame across all the layers, but today are people substantially better off in their basic living / working arrangement? I'm going to say, hell no they are not at all.
Jsisto
Member
You're absolutely right, but that has nothing to do with gaming. You're talking about two different things. Gaming is a luxury hobby, and relative to the things you mentioned, inflation in gaming isn't even in the same universe. Perfect example, people still find a way to afford their gaming hobby when young but can barely afford the things you mentioned if at all. Why is that?
ReBurn
Gold Member
My PC had a ~25 MB hard drive and it took 5 MB to install Word Perfect so that I could write my papers for college. I remember most of the games I played on it being from shareware I would download from a dial-up BBS or buy on floppies at a local music shop.
Poppinfresh
Member
My dad had a buddy at work that was tuned-in to piracy back then so he supplied me with a lot of games.
I remember firing up Police Quest by Sierra-Online for the first time and having my mind blown.
ReBurn
Gold Member
It was King's Quest IV for me, followed by V. I also played Police Quest. Man, those were the days.
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
Nice how much was food inflation? and the dozen eggs? was there some fucking captain Banana Cuckoo piloting the ship?
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
I didn't believe that number - but Wikipedia does, in fact, say that. Granted they are talking about Japan, but I'm honestly still shocked they managed to sell 1 million copies of Zelda on day 1.
PlayStaytion
Member
What has really changed positively is that secured fields do exist for everyone and you don't need to be a spoiled privileged kid to choose a secure path for your journey. The real problem is there's just too much noise out there.I mean,
1. That's not really true. Aside from some hiccups, real income (adjusted for purchasing power) has gone up for decades in America; and
2. What does the relative price of those things have to do with games?
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