Pocket Reversi (NGPC) - A Forgotten History
Is history about to repeat itself?
In this issue of Game Spec I recount the history of Pocket Reversi for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It had a storied life as a collectible game and is primed for a new chapter.
If you polled game collectors in 2003 “what are the most expensive video games?,” you would have likely gotten European Pocket Reversi as one of the responses. Its notoriety among game collectors has since waned, but it’s more scarce than ever.
Rise to Fame
Early discussion in the late 2000’s following the death of the NGPC focuses on games people wanted to play such as Evolution, Faselei!, and The Last Blade. These were the titles that had lots of demand while being under-produced. Some astute collectors like Adol were ahead of the curve in noticing Pocket Reversi’s rarity, but this was not yet recognized by Neo Geo Pocket collectors as a whole.
By early 2002 it was on the top of more peoples’ NGPC rarity lists. By mid-2002, desperate collectors began making the desirability more obvious. In August, one sold for $215. In that thread, a user says they paid £80 five months earlier. A two year old game having five months between listings on Ebay is a very long time. One auction isn’t definitive, but it would foreshadow what was to come.
In a Holiday 2002 issue of Edge magazine in the UK, there was a two page spread dedicated to the NGPC. (I don’t have access to this article) From what I can gather, the interviewee erroneously stated there were 10 copies of Pocket Reversi made. I’m not sure why anyone would believe that given SNK was in the business of selling software, but that didn’t stop hype from building.
In January 2003, a bidding war pushed this over $400. For those newer to game collecting, that amount of money for any1 game in 2003 was insane. This level of frenzy over a game was especially unique in the early 2000’s. To put things in perspective at that time, loose Little Samson was worth around $30 and complete Snatcher was around $50.
A couple months later, one sold for $325 which marked the downturn. To cap it off, in 2005, Mat Allen2 wrote a piece for Retro Gamer on the 20 rarest games most likely to explode when they show up on Ebay.
It seems like this was the source for the Guinness World Record entry. Imagined production numbers tend to quickly become “facts” in the world of game collecting.
The Truth
Complete Pocket Reversi is very rare, more so than 99.5% of games out there. However there were certainly thousand(s) produced, and anyone guessing 100 units survived is, in my opinion, severely underestimating the availability of this game. It only seems so rare to people because few owners ever part with it.
What sets NGPC game rarity apart from other platforms is that not all produced games stayed with retailers and were discounted until sold. When SNK announced its withdrawal from markets outside Japan, they offered to buy back inventory at cost.3 This was a good deal for retailers unhappy to sit on inventory for a dead system. Many retailers must have taken advantage of the opportunity, especially with the games that were not selling. Not all retailers, and definitely not for all games. Some people could still find Pocket Reversi months after the elective recall.
The European version of Pocket Reversi may have been intended for sale in Europe, but it saw distribution just about everywhere outside of Japan. NCS carried it in the US, but supposedly sold out quickly. Hong Kong and Asian countries also carried English language NGPC titles; I’ve seen multiple Pocket Reversis originating there. The distribution wasn’t particularly large, but it can add up. If we assume 500 stores worldwide carried it, half sold one, and the rest were shipped back to SNK, that would mean about 250 exist. I think that’s a low estimate and assume there are more out there, but I don’t think it’s responsible to guess how many.
It’s important to consider the demographic of people who bought this game. This was sold alongside Evolution and Cotton, which all hit the market around the time of the NGPC’s death and announcement that stock was being recalled. Most people rushing to pick up a final game would have ignored Pocket Reversi. From day one, this title mostly sold to collectors - the type of people who don’t often sell their games.
Downtrend
The huge price spike combined with a slow-but-steady supply meant the price wasn’t sustainable. Driven by eager collectors, many other uncommon European NGPC games had similarly risen to inflated levels. To make matters worse, the market was flooded with thousands of loose cartridges in 2003, which made most games cheap and common without the box and manual. European Evolution, Faselei! and Dive Alert Becky sold for up to $200 complete early on in the decade, but would steadily drop as low as $50 after the bubble popped.
By April 2005, one seller had difficulty selling a mint Pocket Reversi for $250. A year later he sold it for $125, a 70% drop from the high. In December 2006, another reliable seller had one listed for months at $168 with no takers. This low point is when I stopped watching NGPC prices.
An Uneventful 15 Years
Given all the excitement around Pocket Reversi early on in its life, it has received a relatively small amount of attention ever since. Dedicated NGPC collectors continue to recognize its rarity, but its obscurity and scarcity have kept it out of the spotlight.
I had trouble finding sales data since 2006. One sold for $600 on the Neo-Geo Forums in 2012. I’m sure it was regularly appearing on Ebay, but not frequently. This forum post from 2012 noted that English black and white Neo Geo Pocket games were showing up on Ebay less frequently than Pocket Reversi. This matches my experience acquiring these games five years prior.4 One collector paid $150-$200 for Pocket Reversi around this time. Another sold on Ebay for $1,100 in 2014.
Recent NGPC Collecting
Neo Geo Pocket collecting has seen a boom in recent years. Even before the COVID spike, all Neo Geo Pocket games were quickly rising in price. They had been rising faster than other platforms. NGPC had remained a niche system while other game prices exploded, but NGPC prices were finally playing catch-up with the market as a whole.
Complete US NGPC games had historically been ignored by collectors. Now all of those games are two to five times more expensive than a few years prior. European and Japanese games have also increased, particularly titles people want to play like Cotton and Evolution. The more uncommon European games like Picture Puzzle, Neo Baccarat, and Dynamite Slugger frequently sell for over $300. They only show up every few months and anyone in a hurry to complete their collection has to beat all the other bidders.
The Future
I’ve been watching all NGPC listings on Ebay fairly regularly over the past 18 months. I have not seen a complete Pocket Reversi during that time, besides one as part of a full European set. I assume there are many collectors who started in the last several years and have this as their last NGPC game needed. And seeing how high end games continue rising in price, the average collector’s pocketbook size seems to be increasing. Between the recent drought of listings and surge in NGPC collecting, the price on Pocket Reversi is liable to explode.5
If I was asked for an expert appraisal on a mint condition complete in box European Pocket Reversi, I would appraise it at $1,500-$2,500. I would not be shocked if one ended at $1,000, nor would I be the least bit surprised if it pushed past $3,000. This is an unexciting game with little appeal outside of its rarity, but it only takes two collectors to make this game newsworthy again.
People say history repeats itself, and this time I think it will. Regardless of what happens the next time it appears, there is a good lesson contained in the history of Pocket Reversi.
Subscribe if you enjoyed this newsletter! Future editions will go straight to your inbox.
If you know anyone who would enjoy this post, consider sharing it.
Neo Geo Home carts and the rarest 2600 games were the only real exceptions. The valuations of Neo-Geo games definitely impacted early European NGPC prices
Also the buyer of the aforementioned $400 copy. He’s a rad dude - I met and traded games with him multiple times. Game collecting was a small world 15 years ago!
SNK claimed the games would be converted for sale in Japan. I’m not sure whether or not they knew it, but the flash chips in NGPC carts aren’t rewritable. The huge supply of loose NGPC games that appeared in 2003 are likely to have been the same recalled stock, alongside carts that had yet to be packaged.
Since then, a large quantity of new old stock black and white games was discovered and sold on Ebay, but they still remain among the rarest NGP/C games. I used to consider some of these black and white games rarer than Pocket Reversi, but not since that flood of stock.
I bought the Japanese version of Pocket Reversi 10 months ago because I was convinced a bidding war would happen on a Euro copy. I figured the next sale price would be set so high that it would leave many collectors priced out and they would look for similar items to fill the gap in their collection. I still think this bet may pay off.