Why is Tournament Fighters so rare?
 

I go to garage sales when ever possible and I also go to the local flea market's a few times each year, always on the hunt for TMNT artifacts. Even if I have something it still makes me happy to see it out there, which is the case for every TMNT game on the NES... except Tournament Fighters! I have never once seen it in my decade of being a Turtles fan, what gives?

It came out far after the NES was a dying system, and as other versions were available for second generation systems. I suspect it simply had low production and sales numbers. There probably aren't alot of them floating around.

It was one of the very last NES games that was made; it was produced and purchased in a rather small quantity as most people who had an NES had upgraded to the SNES and the SNES version of Tournament Fighters was vastly superior.

Good thing I was a notoriously stubborn holdout on my NES. :D

I scored the game on ebay like 8 years ago for only $10.

It's a great fighter in 8-bit style.

I love that Casey Jones and Hothead (the warrior dragon) are playable characters, and Shredder is all red like Mirage style.

Very cool and fun 8-bit fighter.

I've seen them about six or seven times in the wild; mine copy was purchased as cartridge-only, cost about $12, back in '96 or so.

I wish I could find the SNES version.

I'm not sure why you guys are looking for the cartridges at all! ;)

And yeah, SNES TF kicked the shell out of the NES version. I might put the NES one higher than the Genesis game, though...

Because there was a time when I wanted to review it...;)
When it made Screw Attack's Video Game Vault, they did a 3 games in one review of all 3 incarnations. I was gonna do just the SNES version.

To... play, maybe?

God, I knew someone was going to bring up emulation.

Emulation is not aesthetically the same as having a physical copy of the game in your hands to plug into a console deck and play.

Not to mention that at last check, emulation of TF for NES was still very glitchy.

Well, I was hinting at it before, but I didn't want to make it too obvious. ;)

And I never saw TF for NES get very glitchy back when I played the rom... but if you're talking about the flicker and crap, the actual game had that as well.

I see, I'll keep on looking for it tho.

I knew that was what you were hinting at. But even though I have ROMs and emulators myself, I normally use them for sprite ripping or for games that there is almost no chance for me to get the physical copy. For example, I have the ROM of Turtles in Time for the Super NES, and I wanted to play the game. Instead of firing up ZSNES on my laptop, I went over to the shelf, grabbed the cartridge, plugged it into the console, and played.

Playing the ROM is always an option in the case of TF for NES, and for some, it's the only option, as the game is pretty scarce - I'm just certain I've been lucky in the amount of sightings of the game I've come across, considering how much it goes for on eBay. But if someone is able to get the cartridge version for a decent amount of dough, that should be a plus, not seen by others as a waste of money.

I'm not a big fan of this "digital downloads" thing. For certain things, like anti-virus software or little independent games, it makes sense. But I fear that some day eventually, there will be no physical media for things such as movies and games. I'm a collector. I like having shelves of DVDs and games. I don't wish to one day be unable to obtain new copies of these things just because people would rather download them.

I guarantee we'll miss physical media when it's gone. Digital is great, but nothing beats being able to hold something in your hand and display it on a shelf in all its colorful glory. :-)

See, I would regard it as a waste of money. I suppose it's different for collectors of old and/or TMNT game cartridges, but if you just want to play the game... well, the emulator version is superior. Screencaps at the press of a button. Video capture? Yup, that too. Savestates, in case you have to stop in the middle of the game to do something else (or in case you're having a heck of a time beating Shredder and want to save after you win a round). If you're into cheating and/or inducing wacky effects, built-in Game Genie functionality.

Except for their lack of physical space, I find good emulators to be superior to the original systems themselves. I don't even play my PSX anymore -- I just pop my game discs into the DVD-ROM and fire up ePSXe. Back in the day I used to have to replay so many parts of Resident Evil 2 because I couldn't find the next typewriter and had to quit to go to school (I used to play early in the morning), but now I can just save anywhere and return right to that spot. It does remove a bit of the sense of fear and urgency that the game used to inspire, but it also removes a lot of the annoyance. Old-school console RPGs suddenly become that much more fun and tolerable, since now they can do what their PC counterparts were able to do for years.

But back to the main reason I would see buying TF as a waste of money... it's not a good game! The SNES version was (and I do own the cartridge of that, though I never play the physical copy anymore -- in part because our house was burglarized and our SNES stolen years ago), but the other incarnations of that game were pretty pitiful. The NES TF cartridge only has value as a collector's item. :P

Re: Roms
You know, there is that whole legality thing to consider. ;)

Meh, my NES games are dying as the contacts carode. I'll probably just build myself a ROM box one of these days and install HyperSpin on it for all my old consoles one day, then add each new one as they die at market and become emulate-able.

And digital distribution is inevitable. I don't like it all that much either because it will just give couch potatoes another chance to stay at home. I like retail, but that day will come. When it does, flash memory will be cheap enough that we can burn everything off to flash for backup purposes.