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Among the most expensive collectable games he currently has in stock, Temssah points to a complete Kirby 64 at $2500, and Fatal Fury 3 for the exceptionally rare Neo Geo AES system at $1800. An AES was recently sold in the store for $1200.

“Most titles are still affordable, but there’s always going to be that rare elusive stuff. And it’s good to see stuff like that having value, and people appreciating it,” he says, adding that high-profile sales only grew the market and kept it healthy, as seen with the recent Pokemon card craze.

The market for people buying old games just to play them continues to grow as well, often driven by nostalgia. Research published by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association indicates more than two-thirds of Australians now play games, with 78 per cent of those being adults.

Temssah says each generation has their favourite systems and games, with the Nintendo Gamecube — released in 2002 — now more popular at The Game Experts than 1996’s Nintendo 64 for the first time. His youngest customers even consider the Wii — released in 2012 — to be retro.

And while there are many avenues to play these games — through official re-releases like digital collections or mini-consoles, or through legally grey software emulation — for folks looking to recapture their childhood or share their memories with their own kids, you can’t beat the real thing.

“Having that item from your childhood, being able to fire it up, look at it. And just remember all the happy times that came with it, that really is a main driving factor for people,” Temssah says.

So, are old video games the next vinyl?

If they are, they’re currently where vinyl was pre-2007, where the market is almost wholly old stock and you need a very old machine or very expensive new machine to play them. American company Analogue released a “reference quality” new Game Boy system last month that plays the old cartridges in a high-fidelity recreation of the original visuals. But it costs more than $400 delivered and is back-ordered through to 2023.

‘Honestly all it takes is for a Youtuber to get onto it. That’s literally what happened with Pokemon.’

Sal Temassah, owner of The Game Experts

And while interest in new products related to old games is on the rise — from video scalers that make old systems look good on new TVs, to devices that let you replace ageing disc drives with modern storage — it seems unlikely you’ll ever be able to walk into JB Hi-Fi and grab a new pressing of an old game, like you can with vinyl.

Not only are some old formats like cartridges prohibitively expensive to produce, but decades of corporate acquisitions, rights deals and company closures mean many old games are unable to be legally re-released. If there weren’t enough of them originally produced to satisfy current demand, their price will likely only increase.

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