For years, the Nintendo PlayStation existed only in the hushed whispers shared between geeks at comic-book conventions. Nintendo and Sony working together to bring out a games console?

It couldn’t possibly be real. It would be like Coke and Pepsi teaming up to make cola. But the rumours were true. Sony and Nintendo, today arch-rivals in the gaming sphere, had indeed collaborated to make a console in the early 1990s.

Two hundred prototype Nintendo PlayStations were created in around 1992 and 199 are said to have been destroyed when the partnership ended early. Just one model survived and it was kept by Olaf Olafsson, the first president of Sony Computer Entertainment. Olafsson went to work for the Advanta banking corporation and took the console with him. But it was left behind when Olafsson changed jobs again in 1999. When Advanta later went bust, the PlayStation was sold.

Now it has surfaced again – this time as part of an online sale with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The highest bid stands at $420,000, with fees. For sure, it is a strange beast, worthy of any 21st-century curiosity cabinet. Part Sony and part Nintendo, at first glance it resembles a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or “SNES” to those of us who grew up with it (it hit the shelves in Britain in 1992).

The controller is almost identical. Except, look closely and the controller reads Sony PlayStation. Presumably, Nintendo chose to recycle parts of the design after the plug was pulled on the project. The console has been restored to full working order and it can play music CDs. Stranger still, it can apparently even play the games meant for the SNES. Incidentally, the video games themselves are fetching ever higher prices.

Heritage Auctions is also selling a rare copy of Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness, which was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987. It has been given a 9.2 A+ grade rating by video-game grading group WataGames, which means it’s in pretty good nick. The current bid is $54,000 – for a video game! Games for the NES are particularly collectable. Still, maybe Nintendo should have tried harder to hold the collaboration together. Sony went on to sell 103 million PlayStations.

The SNES “only” sold 49 million units. Nintendo would lag the market for years, while Sega, another big player in the 1990s, stopped making consoles in 2001 to concentrate on video games. That same year, Microsoft entered the fray with its popular Xbox – but not popular enough to worry Sony, as it turned out. The best-selling console of all time at 159 million units sold is the Sony PlayStation 2. With the release of PlayStation 5 slated for later this year that market dominance may continue.

The hottest investments in games, are the games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, which popularised characters such as Link, Mega Man and Mario in the 1980s. A collector who spent almost $1,500 on one game was able to resell it for $12,000. Nostalgia is one reason. Collectors who are now in their 30s and 40s are fond of the video games from their childhoods.

The market really took off in 2018, when WataGames began grading game boxes, cartridges and manuals according to its ten-point scale, much in the same way baseball cards and comic books are graded. That gave the market a certain respectability, leading to a rush among collectors to get in early, and prices have been rising ever since. Last February an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros, from 1985, set an auction record of $100,150 with Heritage Auctions. 

Some see a bubble. Some suspect companies with vested interests of stoking the market higher by creating hype. Still, there’s no reason why video games shouldn’t be considered collectable. Rarity and condition are crucial, so do your research.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

 Dear Streetwise Customer,

I want to inform you of a new Facebook group Andi, a member of our staff has set up for Streetwise customers.  This group is for Streetwise customers only. It is a private members only group and we would like to invite you to join it.  

Andi suggested that he would like to host a series of live online training sessions starting next week. These live sessions will cover a range of important topics from creating the right mind set for success – which will be very handy if you have to stay in isolation for weeks or months at a time! – to the many different ways to make money online from home.  

Including how one man made $30,000 a month sharing untruths. Seriously. 

The reason for doing these live sessions is that if you are going to be in isolation for a few weeks then that is a great time to think about your future, your future income and learn new valuable skills.  

It is our way of giving back to you during this strange time and it is also a way that we can interact with our customers better. We can let you know of future products and what we are doing as a business. 

Andi knows a lot about online business and making money online after making quite a bit of it through his websites and various projects. He is the perfect person to be holding live training sessions in the Facebook group… it also helps with him being the only one out of us all who actually knows how to do it! 

To access these training sessions you need to join the group so please click the link below or the image above and request to join The Streetwise Private Members Only Club. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/

Being indoors for such a long time could have you climbing the walls and so you are going to need a healthy distraction. Something to take your mind off being imprisoned within your own four walls. 

This time will be a great opportunity to learn some new life changing skills and ways to earn an income. 

From what Andi has said to me, I believe the group is going to be invaluable to you. There is a lot of great stuff which he plans to share into the group. Stuff which I personally believe will make you see the internet and online businesses in a whole new light. 

To join the group click here: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/