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Thread: New discovery - N64 Grey Turok Rage Wars cart

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    Well, I guess we can see how high a bidding war over a single copy will go now.

    I wonder if a buyer flaked out or if the seller owned more than one full manufacturer's box.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Buyatari View Post
    It appears some people did know a grey cart existed and less that it was a replacement cart which fixed the bug in the black cart. The discovery if you can call it that was only to the collecting community.

    Since the "discovery" a few threads have been uncovered where Turok players describe the bug and the way to fix it by sending the cart back to the company for the grey cart replacement. The few people who did care enough to do so later traded in their carts when they moved on to the next system. The fact that these carts were later found in used game store inventories does not discredit the story. Finding none in used game store inventories would be more suspect.
    I think that it more than just "appears" that some people knew about the cart before, as it has been found in multiple threads and whatnot, and I have data pointing back to 2008 that the GOAT Store had them listed as such in our inventory. It seems, however, that people want to believe that there are only 120 of these in existence, and there is no way that the game could have been released in any other form.

    For the amount of copies of it that have passed through my hands, it's too high for it to be just a mail-in thing and that it had to be released in some numbers somewhere. Since 2008, I've had about 100 copies pass through my hands, and about 10 of them were the grey version. Are you really saying that 10% of the people who traded in the game thought to mail it in for a new copy, and then didn't think they had something interesting to keep? I'd believe that *some* would be right, but considering the amount that I've seen, to me it had to be released in higher quantities. Besides that, from having seen and talked with some people who actually produced games at the time, the minimum order was probably 5,000 carts if not higher. It would have made no sense for Acclaim to make that many carts to fix a problem that was not a game killer for the majority of people who bought the game (it was confined to a co-op part of the game) and NOT sell some of them. Someone else found something saying that Acclaim was planning on sending the new version of the game out to stores, which is a lot more believable.

    But, I get it -- the better story is that these are a never before seen mail in only thing, and almost no one heard of them. There really is almost no way to tell, so I guess that if that is what you want to believe, why not? I won't keep trying to convince you or anyone else otherwise. I guess next time I find some grey carts though, I can get a lot more money for them
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatdan View Post
    I think that it more than just "appears" that some people knew about the cart before, as it has been found in multiple threads and whatnot, and I have data pointing back to 2008 that the GOAT Store had them listed as such in our inventory. It seems, however, that people want to believe that there are only 120 of these in existence, and there is no way that the game could have been released in any other form.

    For the amount of copies of it that have passed through my hands, it's too high for it to be just a mail-in thing and that it had to be released in some numbers somewhere. Since 2008, I've had about 100 copies pass through my hands, and about 10 of them were the grey version. Are you really saying that 10% of the people who traded in the game thought to mail it in for a new copy, and then didn't think they had something interesting to keep? I'd believe that *some* would be right, but considering the amount that I've seen, to me it had to be released in higher quantities. Besides that, from having seen and talked with some people who actually produced games at the time, the minimum order was probably 5,000 carts if not higher. It would have made no sense for Acclaim to make that many carts to fix a problem that was not a game killer for the majority of people who bought the game (it was confined to a co-op part of the game) and NOT sell some of them. Someone else found something saying that Acclaim was planning on sending the new version of the game out to stores, which is a lot more believable.

    But, I get it -- the better story is that these are a never before seen mail in only thing, and almost no one heard of them. There really is almost no way to tell, so I guess that if that is what you want to believe, why not? I won't keep trying to convince you or anyone else otherwise. I guess next time I find some grey carts though, I can get a lot more money for them
    No matter how many you recieved 10% of the used carts out there in circulation are certaintly not grey. The numbers on ebay at any given moment confirm that. Start watching every Turok Rage Wars auction on ebay and tell me how many you see before you see your first grey cart. There are way more than 10 up for sale at a given time and none before this were ever grey.

    How did you recieve so many grey carts is another question. Perhaps stores recieved 1 each for customers who complained at the store. Perhaps you just got lucky. The guy in charge of sending carts out from HQ would pick a black cart over a grey because some grey were returned as PAL. Who knows. I have no idea and as that is all speculation.

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    I don't think anybody is claiming that the box of 120 is ALL that there was. The facts have already easily proven that to be false, plus it would be completely illogical that the only box of carts manufactured would stay sealed and unused. The question is how many boxes did exist. It could very well be quite a small number. I'm sure that 5000+ minimum applied to an overall production run of a game. This is not the original print run, and considering it existed to fix a bug, I wouldn't be surprised if a minimum requirement was waived to produce a small number of recall copies. There have been other games that were recalled and replaced, like Card Fighters DS, so does anyone know details about a game like that so we could perhaps compare?

    I could see them using the carts for other purposes, but I doubt we would be talking great numbers. Even if they sent some to stores, how many would we be talking? Keep in mind that the game had probably already been out for a while at that point. Stores want to promote brand new and upcoming games, not a game that's old news. I really don't imagine these were sold at retail since they're in the manufacturer's box as loose carts. I highly doubt they made new packaging to go along with these, which all the more backs up the recall theory since they'd have the customer only return his/her cart, retaining the original packaging.

    I personally wouldn't expect it to be kept as a collector's item by those who did request the replacement. Wasn't Rage Wars promoted mostly as a multiplayer game? The people who sent it in probably only really cared about being able to complete the game via co-op. If that's how you like to play, that's a pretty huge kick in the pants to not be able to complete the game that way. Anybody remember the frustration of co-op in Battletoads being screwed up? Anyway, these were probably just gamers/players, not collectors, so they didn't care that the cart wasn't black. Once they had their fill of it or moved on from the N64, off it went. No big surprise there.

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    There has to be a decent number of them out there, they would have had to make new custom ROM chips for it. It's not like it would have been as cheap as manufacturing replacement discs, I would assume they'd make a few thousand of these even if they were to just offer as replacements. The black cart version is pretty common, if you're offering a recall you would need to make sure you have enough on hand to send out if they were requested.

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    Here is an email tracked down from Acclaim in 1999 regarding the bug in Rage Wars. It was, at the least, available by contacting Acclaim for a replacement:

    rom: Consolesupport <Consolesupp...@acclaim.com>
    To:
    Subject: Turok Rage Wars:
    Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 15:34:08 -0500

    Thank you for contacting Acclaim's Consumer Service Department.
    Please send your game UPS, Certified mail, or Federal Express
    to the below address and we will replace your game for a new copy.

    Consumer Services
    Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
    One Acclaim Plaza
    Glen Cove, NY 11542
    Hotline516)759-7800
    --===--

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
    I don't think anybody is claiming that the box of 120 is ALL that there was. The facts have already easily proven that to be false, plus it would be completely illogical that the only box of carts manufactured would stay sealed and unused. The question is how many boxes did exist. It could very well be quite a small number. I'm sure that 5000+ minimum applied to an overall production run of a game. This is not the original print run, and considering it existed to fix a bug, I wouldn't be surprised if a minimum requirement was waived to produce a small number of recall copies. There have been other games that were recalled and replaced, like Card Fighters DS, so does anyone know details about a game like that so we could perhaps compare?
    Yeah -- except they were changing the internals of it completely, and those 5,000 minimum rules that I know of applied to each time they ran it. Long story short, it's why you sometimes didn't see more copies of popular but ultimately niche titles -- ensuring that the minimum is met and will be sold is a tough thing to do. But, reruns happen extremely regularly in the video game world. Essentially, companies pick a number to make for a game, and the bigger that first number is, the more that they can make from each copy. Running 5,000 games in the first run would net you some to sell, but running 10,000 might save you $1 per copy. Running 500,000 might make each copy worth a few pennies. But, if you are only going to sell 100,000 copies, making 500,000 is a poor business decision.

    Acclaim got BURNED with producing with Turok 2 for the N64, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if they did Turok: Rage Wars in a series of smaller runs.

    I could see them using the carts for other purposes, but I doubt we would be talking great numbers. Even if they sent some to stores, how many would we be talking? Keep in mind that the game had probably already been out for a while at that point. Stores want to promote brand new and upcoming games, not a game that's old news. I really don't imagine these were sold at retail since they're in the manufacturer's box as loose carts. I highly doubt they made new packaging to go along with these, which all the more backs up the recall theory since they'd have the customer only return his/her cart, retaining the original packaging.
    Walk into Target today and look at your Wii selection. How many of those games came out in the last month? The *majority* of the games did not, titles like Epic Mickey and Donkey Kong Country Returns are still there, and they still get restocks. Those restocks come from somewhere, and it doesn't require anything other than just copies showing up. A reseller somewhere has the stock, and the store says, "Okay, today I need 10 more copies of Donkey Kong Country." Target could care less if those copies were just made or not, so long as they get them. The reseller might tell Acclaim, "Hey, we're still sending out 500 copies of this game a week." so Acclaim restocks them with a smaller run to continue to satisfy the lingering demand that is out there.

    Again, I don't know why I'm taking the time to type any of this, because it isn't sexy the way that retail works, and it makes for a very boring story. It's way cooler to just assume these were mail-in only, and that the rules were bent for them, and there is no way that they ever were released. I think based on everything that I know about the gaming world, there are definitely some more of these that are floating around out there, but there really isn't a way at this point to prove it one way or another, so again -- your sexier story makes a heck of a better narrative than my story. That's why I really don't want to defend it any more.

    You're probably right -- it's probably mail in only, and Nintendo probably gave them a special exception to run a tiny amount of carts to fix the bug with, and almost no one knew that you could send your carts in to get them replaced.
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatdan View Post
    For the amount of copies of it that have passed through my hands, it's too high for it to be just a mail-in thing and that it had to be released in some numbers somewhere. Since 2008, I've had about 100 copies pass through my hands, and about 10 of them were the grey version. Are you really saying that 10% of the people who traded in the game thought to mail it in for a new copy, and then didn't think they had something interesting to keep? I'd believe that *some* would be right, but considering the amount that I've seen, to me it had to be released in higher quantities. Besides that, from having seen and talked with some people who actually produced games at the time, the minimum order was probably 5,000 carts if not higher. It would have made no sense for Acclaim to make that many carts to fix a problem that was not a game killer for the majority of people who bought the game (it was confined to a co-op part of the game) and NOT sell some of them. Someone else found something saying that Acclaim was planning on sending the new version of the game out to stores, which is a lot more believable.

    But, I get it -- the better story is that these are a never before seen mail in only thing, and almost no one heard of them. There really is almost no way to tell, so I guess that if that is what you want to believe, why not? I won't keep trying to convince you or anyone else otherwise. I guess next time I find some grey carts though, I can get a lot more money for them

    Quote Originally Posted by Buyatari View Post
    No matter how many you recieved 10% of the used carts out there in circulation are certaintly not grey. The numbers on ebay at any given moment confirm that. Start watching every Turok Rage Wars auction on ebay and tell me how many you see before you see your first grey cart. There are way more than 10 up for sale at a given time and none before this were ever grey.
    I have the perfect analogy for this GoatDan. Hows that Hot!New! hunt for a printed Blitz 2k coming? You'd never seen a copy in all your time of games coming into the store and searches on ebay and doubted their existence. Your ability to pull 10 of these Rage Wars was sheer luck and is just proof that the magazines that this info got out to at the time worked. Maybe your area had larger than normal sales and people who knew/wanted the right version mailed em out. Have they been on eBay before this dude's 120? Of course. But were they hiding behind a stock photo or poor listing? Most certainly. I highly doubt that those buying Rage Wars who got a grey cart from someone on eBay even noticed it wasn't black.
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    Quote Originally Posted by PapaStu View Post
    I have the perfect analogy for this GoatDan. Hows that Hot!New! hunt for a printed Blitz 2k coming? You'd never seen a copy in all your time of games coming into the store and searches on ebay and doubted their existence. Your ability to pull 10 of these Rage Wars was sheer luck and is just proof that the magazines that this info got out to at the time worked. Maybe your area had larger than normal sales and people who knew/wanted the right version mailed em out. Have they been on eBay before this dude's 120? Of course. But were they hiding behind a stock photo or poor listing? Most certainly. I highly doubt that those buying Rage Wars who got a grey cart from someone on eBay even noticed it wasn't black.
    Dude, I'm over it. These exist, they were never sold, and they were probably made in a quantity of only 150, tops.
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    It's not about what's "sexy" or "cool"; it's about what's logical. How many loose Wii discs do you see being sold at Target? Because that's what the appropriate analogy would be. These games were manufactured and packed up as loose carts. It's completely illogical to suggest that they'd be shipped off to retail stores to be sold. My suggestion that perhaps a small number would be shipped to stores was in regard to display copies. Maybe 5000 were manufactured, who knows, but that's still a very small run either way. But considering the cost of manufacturing carts, the fact that none were selling at retail presumably, and the unusual circumstances of a recall, I'm sure they'd try to minimize their losses and manufacture as few as necessary.

    If you had 10 grey carts out of 100 copies of Rage Wars, great, consider yourself lucky. But it's already clear that they don't represent 10% of all copies. There are enough serious N64 collectors out there, and enough that are specifically serious about color variants, to form a decent body of collective experience, not to mention the simple act of browsing eBay auctions that anyone can do. And now that more collectors are aware of this, the information is only going to get more solid, since I'm sure plenty are going to begin a serious hunt to locate grey copies.

    But if you think your sole experience with the game in your own store is definitive, fine, go ahead and be the next Mike Etler and make a N64 rarity list. Because we all know how flawlessly factual his NES list was.
    Last edited by Aussie2B; 02-28-2012 at 02:18 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
    It's not about what's "sexy" or "cool"; it's about what's logical. How many loose Wii discs do you see being sold at Target? Because that's what the appropriate analogy would be. These games were manufactured and packed up as loose carts. It's completely illogical to suggest that they'd be shipped off to retail stores to be sold. My suggestion that perhaps a small number would be shipped to stores was in regard to display copies. Maybe 5000 were manufactured, who knows, but that's still a very small run either way. But considering the cost of manufacturing carts, the fact that none were selling at retail presumably, and the unusual circumstances of a recall, I'm sure they'd try to minimize their losses and manufacture as few as necessary.
    Your assumption here is that the singular box of cartridges is how the entire run was packaged. Considering that it is one data point -- one, singular box -- all that I have been trying to suggest is that it was probably sold in both ways. It's not too difficult to ask to package up 4000 and keep 1000, for instance. Oh, and I would agree that it was a tiny run and was never trying to claim what you said I was -- that 10% of the run was grey. I would bet it would be more like 250,000 black carts were made, and then they reran 5,000 at the end to deal with complaints and to tack on to their sales. An extremely tiny run, probably making it equal to the smallest runs that the system had for it.

    But again, logically, you can never back up either story fully. You can never *prove* that they weren't sold and I can never *prove* that they were, because if you have a boxed copy that contains a grey cartridge, you don't know if they got that because they mailed it in or if they bought it that way.

    But really -- I. Don't. Care. I thought it was an interesting conversation that I could lend some other data points too because I have both had a bunch of these carts for a long time, and have some inner workings of how production worked around this time at other companies. I never claimed that I should be making a 'rarity guide' or whatever off it. You and a few others got extremely defensive that these HAD to be mail in only, and there is no other way to do it.

    And again, *that's the better story*. So it doesn't matter what I've seen or the data that I can lend to the hunt. As you said, the other collectors will hunt and find the data, so it doesn't really matter what I had or didn't have. A considerable amount of video game history is built on conjecture, and the more interesting the story, the more people hear it and are interested by it. If these were a late run of the games, it doesn't sound as good as if these were a mail in offer only that almost no one took up because no one heard about it.

    Neither of us are going to prove anything from this, and it benefits me more to have it your way... sexier backstory = higher sale prices... before the whole mail in only thing, I had 10 copies of this for YEARS without selling them for $9.99 apiece. Now, the one on eBay is selling for $50+. Why? Because the collecting community made the story of them sexy and it spread quickly because of that.

    So, again, I agree with the data presented that it is clear that these were absolutely never sold, and they were probably made in a quantity of 150, tops.
    Last edited by goatdan; 02-28-2012 at 02:45 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatdan View Post
    Your assumption here is that the singular box of cartridges is how the entire run was packaged. Considering that it is one data point -- one, singular box -- all that I have been trying to suggest is that it was probably sold in both ways. It's not too difficult to ask to package up 4000 and keep 1000, for instance. Oh, and I would agree that it was a tiny run and was never trying to claim what you said I was -- that 10% of the run was grey. I would bet it would be more like 250,000 black carts were made, and then they reran 5,000 at the end to deal with complaints and to tack on to their sales. An extremely tiny run, probably making it equal to the smallest runs that the system had for it.

    But again, logically, you can never back up either story fully. You can never *prove* that they weren't sold and I can never *prove* that they were, because if you have a boxed copy that contains a grey cartridge, you don't know if they got that because they mailed it in or if they bought it that way.

    But really -- I. Don't. Care. I thought it was an interesting conversation that I could lend some other data points too because I have both had a bunch of these carts for a long time, and have some inner workings of how production worked around this time at other companies. I never claimed that I should be making a 'rarity guide' or whatever off it. You and a few others got extremely defensive that these HAD to be mail in only, and there is no other way to do it.

    And again, *that's the better story*. So it doesn't matter what I've seen or the data that I can lend to the hunt. As you said, the other collectors will hunt and find the data, so it doesn't really matter what I had or didn't have. A considerable amount of video game history is built on conjecture, and the more interesting the story, the more people hear it and are interested by it. If these were a late run of the games, it doesn't sound as good as if these were a mail in offer only that almost no one took up because no one heard about it.

    Neither of us are going to prove anything from this, and it benefits me more to have it your way... sexier backstory = higher sale prices... before the whole mail in only thing, I had 10 copies of this for YEARS without selling them for $9.99 apiece. Now, the one on eBay is selling for $50+. Why? Because the collecting community made the story of them sexy and it spread quickly because of that.

    So, again, I agree with the data presented that it is clear that these were absolutely never sold, and they were probably made in a quantity of 150, tops.
    Your copies didn't sell at $9.99 because no one including you knew what they really were. I shouldn't say that.. some people who cared more about co-op Turok and less about N64 collecting did know but had long since moved on. Rather N64 collectors who have really only cared about this sort of thing for the past 2-3 years did not know about it.

    Where does this 5000 unit min come from? Is that a guess or do you know that? It would be good to know for sure that 5000 was the min order but I'm not sure if you are basing that off of the lowest production run you know of or if you know that this was a hard number for a min order of games boards.

    Another thing we have to consider is that Akklaim was not good with their money and they went under. I bought a ton of stuff including some rare Turok items and I can tell you that lots of things were just tossed in the trash. They could have made 100,000 fixed carts but if the boards were junked then what good is it?

    Why do some insist that this game is pretty rare when you had 10? Because outside of your stash of 10 and this guys auction none have made it into N64 collectors hands in the past 2-3 years.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Buyatari View Post
    Where does this 5000 unit min come from? Is that a guess or do you know that? It would be good to know for sure that 5000 was the min order but I'm not sure if you are basing that off of the lowest production run you know of or if you know that this was a hard number for a min order of games boards.
    I said this before, but that is hard knowledge from *another* company that was manufacturing titles at the same time -- it was a 5,000 per game minimum run limit, because it took "a lot of time to retool the factory" to run games. From what I was told, Nintendo was way more hardcore than this particular company was with what they did. Remember that when you're making cartridge boards, you need to actually make a custom chip to hold the data on it. Gearing up a factory to run a custom chip is a costly endeavor no matter what, and it is a big reason why companies would have had a minimum order of at least that big.

    Again, my knowledge comes from another company at the same time who was not using cartridge based media, and their absolute minimum order (re-order, or whatever) was 5,000 units.

    Another thing we have to consider is that Akklaim was not good with their money and they went under. I bought a ton of stuff including some rare Turok items and I can tell you that lots of things were just tossed in the trash. They could have made 100,000 fixed carts but if the boards were junked then what good is it?
    That's true. Again, no one will ever know. And I agree with everyone else, the other story sounds better, so I'd rather just go with it.

    Why do some insist that this game is pretty rare when you had 10? Because outside of your stash of 10 and this guys auction none have made it into N64 collectors hands in the past 2-3 years.
    Again, I never said that it wasn't rare. I questioned people immediately jumping to the conclusion that it was a mail in exchange copy ONLY, and that the others were probably released at the very end of the run. Which would have made them likely to be regional (which could explain how I came across so many), and still extremely rare. I thought, incorrectly, that people would like to know that these were known about before the lot on eBay and to lend my two cents to how these probably came about. I was very curious about the mail in thing, so I did a bunch of digging through the WayBack machine, and found ZERO data on any Turok or Acclaim site about it, so I was really wondering what the difference was.

    It caused people other than me to dig too, which is where the emails and stuff like that confirming that this was, at least partially, a mail in title came from. I think that sort of thing is fascinating. And again, I'm happy to drop it at that -- that it is a guaranteed mail-in only copy, because what sounds better in your collection and what are you happier to say:

    I got an ultra rare mail in only exclusive copy of Turok Rage Wars that comes in a grey shell.

    -or-

    I got a grey Turok Rage Wars cart that was the final run of the game.

    Go with the first story. It may not be correct, but again -- there is NO proof that anyone will ever be able to produce that says that it isn't, and it makes it one heck of a better story. Ultimately, I get it -- those who want to tell that first story are put off by me offering up different ideas that it might not be correct, and again since everything that I said is conjecture based on indirect information that I know, dismiss me as someone who has no idea.

    I've been convinced -- I believe these were mail in only. If you got one, you own something SUPER rare, and it's well worth celebrating!

    (Quick side story, because I really mean that last sentence and I feel like you and others keep thinking that I'm being sarcastic -- My copy of Earthbound is in a decent, but not great box, and has a crappy label. It still has a big "Rent Me! $1.95 - Buy Me - $5.95" sticker on it. And I love it because it is the rarest copy of Earthbound ever. You can't convince me that it is worth less than a brand new copy of Earthbound. You know why? Because MY copy has MY story of how I found it and fell in love with it. If I bought a new copy, the story would be that I bought a new copy. But MY copy has the background of me not buying it, and then really regretting it, and then going back and buying it only to play through it over and over. If you want to stand up and say that YOUR copy of Earthbound is better, I don't have to believe you -- because mine has MY backstory behind it, and I wouldn't trade it for a copy with a perfect label no matter what.

    If I hurt anyone's feelings by making this story less amazing, I didn't mean too. There aren't many games out there that are this rare, and if you picked one up, whether it was from the GOAT Store, eBay, or randomly shopping, you've got a story. Believe whatever you'd like to believe that makes the game more special to you and your collection. The mail in things sounds good, and I can tell you we'll never find proof against it, so if that is what makes the story the best for you, use it. You'll NEVER be proven wrong. Especially not by some shmuck who found 10 of 'em )
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    Quote Originally Posted by goatdan View Post
    I said this before, but that is hard knowledge from *another* company that was manufacturing titles at the same time -- it was a 5,000 per game minimum run limit, because it took "a lot of time to retool the factory" to run games. From what I was told, Nintendo was way more hardcore than this particular company was with what they did. Remember that when you're making cartridge boards, you need to actually make a custom chip to hold the data on it. Gearing up a factory to run a custom chip is a costly endeavor no matter what, and it is a big reason why companies would have had a minimum order of at least that big.

    Again, my knowledge comes from another company at the same time who was not using cartridge based media, and their absolute minimum order (re-order, or whatever) was 5,000 units.



    That's true. Again, no one will ever know. And I agree with everyone else, the other story sounds better, so I'd rather just go with it.



    Again, I never said that it wasn't rare. I questioned people immediately jumping to the conclusion that it was a mail in exchange copy ONLY, and that the others were probably released at the very end of the run. Which would have made them likely to be regional (which could explain how I came across so many), and still extremely rare. I thought, incorrectly, that people would like to know that these were known about before the lot on eBay and to lend my two cents to how these probably came about. I was very curious about the mail in thing, so I did a bunch of digging through the WayBack machine, and found ZERO data on any Turok or Acclaim site about it, so I was really wondering what the difference was.

    It caused people other than me to dig too, which is where the emails and stuff like that confirming that this was, at least partially, a mail in title came from. I think that sort of thing is fascinating. And again, I'm happy to drop it at that -- that it is a guaranteed mail-in only copy, because what sounds better in your collection and what are you happier to say:

    I got an ultra rare mail in only exclusive copy of Turok Rage Wars that comes in a grey shell.

    -or-

    I got a grey Turok Rage Wars cart that was the final run of the game.

    Go with the first story. It may not be correct, but again -- there is NO proof that anyone will ever be able to produce that says that it isn't, and it makes it one heck of a better story. Ultimately, I get it -- those who want to tell that first story are put off by me offering up different ideas that it might not be correct, and again since everything that I said is conjecture based on indirect information that I know, dismiss me as someone who has no idea.

    I've been convinced -- I believe these were mail in only. If you got one, you own something SUPER rare, and it's well worth celebrating!

    (Quick side story, because I really mean that last sentence and I feel like you and others keep thinking that I'm being sarcastic -- My copy of Earthbound is in a decent, but not great box, and has a crappy label. It still has a big "Rent Me! $1.95 - Buy Me - $5.95" sticker on it. And I love it because it is the rarest copy of Earthbound ever. You can't convince me that it is worth less than a brand new copy of Earthbound. You know why? Because MY copy has MY story of how I found it and fell in love with it. If I bought a new copy, the story would be that I bought a new copy. But MY copy has the background of me not buying it, and then really regretting it, and then going back and buying it only to play through it over and over. If you want to stand up and say that YOUR copy of Earthbound is better, I don't have to believe you -- because mine has MY backstory behind it, and I wouldn't trade it for a copy with a perfect label no matter what.

    If I hurt anyone's feelings by making this story less amazing, I didn't mean too. There aren't many games out there that are this rare, and if you picked one up, whether it was from the GOAT Store, eBay, or randomly shopping, you've got a story. Believe whatever you'd like to believe that makes the game more special to you and your collection. The mail in things sounds good, and I can tell you we'll never find proof against it, so if that is what makes the story the best for you, use it. You'll NEVER be proven wrong. Especially not by some shmuck who found 10 of 'em )
    The back of the cart has an A notation on it. IF there is a box it should have this as well. If these are out these it is just a matter of time before one turns up now that people know to look for it. Far from making this game commonplace a sealed or complete copy of the grey cart version would be worth a ton more than just the cart.

    I am not put off by your view. The truth is always more interesting than the best story. I just don't think your version of events is as likely.

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    I think that it had a print run in the thousands, but most of those were destroyed by the same people who destroyed the Polybius arcade game for secret conspiracy reasons. Only 150 copies of this Turok cart were saved by being hidden and kept secret only to be given out later through mail order only. This was done to conduct random experiments on the people who requested them without anyone else noticing, until the rest of the carts finally surfaced recently.




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    Here is the latest auction to post with a buy it now of $150.00 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Turok-Rage-W...item1e6bbc67b2
    I love ALL Video Games with all my heart and soul

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
    Well, I guess we can see how high a bidding war over a single copy will go now.

    I wonder if a buyer flaked out or if the seller owned more than one full manufacturer's box.
    I'm sure he had more. That's how you introduce a rare product to a market; sell some copies at a low price, generate a buzz, and sell the rest with prospective buyers going crazy over the opportunity to own a copy before they're all gone.

    Quote Originally Posted by Parodius Duh! View Post
    I hate assholes that buy a ton of a could be rare item just to flip them at inflated prices. Hope all of you who do this crap are reading, cause you are total fucking piece of shit and a total disgrace to the vintage gaming community, fuck all of you who do this shit!!!!!!
    I wish I had been able to buy several copies. Ultimately the consumer decides what they are willing to pay for an item. If someone is willing to spend $100 on a game I paid $10 for, more power to them. They wanted it more than I did. The funny thing is this guy probably bought all of these at an estate sale, yard sale, or auction for a couple of bucks and made a lot of money. Why aren't you getting mad at him for selling copies of the game at $10 he probably paid mere pennies for? Just keep in mind if it wasn't for resellers, many items would never be made available to collectors at prices they agree to pay.


    Anyways, I would be suspicious of buying copies of this game a month or two from now. What's to keep someone from removing a label from the black cart, applying it to a crappy gray cart sports game, and switching the PCB? Many collectors won't play the game enough to notice any differences. $100 versus a couple of dollars is more than enough incentive to counterfeit a couple of carts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jaruff View Post
    Anyways, I would be suspicious of buying copies of this game a month or two from now. What's to keep someone from removing a label from the black cart, applying it to a crappy gray cart sports game, and switching the PCB? Many collectors won't play the game enough to notice any differences. $100 versus a couple of dollars is more than enough incentive to counterfeit a couple of carts.
    Anything is possible but for the effort it would take you are better off faking more valuable games like Stadium Events.

    The grey cart has a few differences besides the cart color. If you open it up you can tell the difference on the chips and board. Also the back of the cart has and "A" at end of the cart model number to note the difference. The front label appears identical, the back label says "07A", "A" signifying the revision.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Buyatari View Post
    Anything is possible but for the effort it would take you are better off faking more valuable games like Stadium Events.

    The grey cart has a few differences besides the cart color. If you open it up you can tell the difference on the chips and board. Also the back of the cart has and "A" at end of the cart model number to note the difference. The front label appears identical, the back label says "07A", "A" signifying the revision.
    Couldn't you just get a PAL version and swap the back of the shell? Those were released in a grey cart already with the proper revision, right?

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    Quote Originally Posted by xelement5x View Post
    Couldn't you just get a PAL version and swap the back of the shell? Those were released in a grey cart already with the proper revision, right?
    You would have all the same problems as you would turning a PAL stadium events into an NTSC stadium events. Nothing would match including the front which has a different Nintendo seal logo.

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