Was there ever a new game that was hard to find on release? Now with digital releases you can get any new game but even physical releases are always available. Does anyone know if there was ever a new game that was hard to find, similarly to new console releases?

>>11797839 (OP)
Plenty of 8 or 16 bit games had extremely low print runs, along the lines of 20k or 30k copies made for the entire US and usually rental stores would snatch the majority of that (which is why rentals were actually beneficial to small publishers and only big publishers like Nintendo disliked them).

I had trouble getting SOCOM.

in the 80's we couldn't find donkey kong jr math anywhere

pc games regularly

I remember certain nintendo ds games being out of print. Nintendo LOVES to create artificial scarcity to drive demand. Random shit like kirby nintendo ds games.

>>11797839 (OP)
Mortal Kombat 3 was a real bitch to get a hold of when it released.
My friend and I had the strategy guide way before we had the game. And I tried to get the game as soon as it released. It took a long time get it. I don't know if it took more than a month, but at least weeks and checking more than five stores.

Panzer Dragoon Saga

>>11797839 (OP)
Lots of em. Was nigh impossible to find Zelda 2 once upon a time at release due to "chip shortages."

Twilight Princess for Gamecube. All shops only had the damn Wii version, and I didn't buy a Wii for another 6 years.

>>11797839 (OP)
Wasn't Mario 2 so hard to find when it first came out it made national news?

There really weren’t release dates back in the day. You’d maybe hear that a new game is being made. And then it just existed.

>>11797839 (OP)
FFX

>>11797839 (OP)
Nintendo Power constantly advertised the original Shantae, but I never saw a single new copy on store shelves with the other last hurrah GBC games of the early 2000s.

I also never saw Misadventures of Tron Bonne on sale either.

>>11798957
I got the GC version at release, because I knew that was the real version, not that mirrored Wii thing.

>>11797839 (OP)
I remember reading on Hardcore gaming 101 or somewhere about a very Super Metroid like PC game made by a Canadian studio that was finished, but never shipped to stores because some retailer bought every copy manufactured and then possibly never actually sold it or maybe only trickled it out to local stores.

The US release of Faseili on NeoGeo Pocket was also never officially sold in stores, but a warehouse of copies was found in the early 2000s and you could buy a loose copy off a website for like 20 bucks. Im assuming it was just the English Euro version with maybe a new sticker. I think Cheetahman II had a similar release.

>>11797887
>dumb ass me 10 years ago passed on a boxed copy of Jr. Math for 30 dollars

How the fuck was I suppose to know this edutainment shit was so rare??? Well i atleast found a copy of that Little Howie game that is supposedly lost media.

>>11798957
Wasnt the jap cube version even rarer and only available online to purchase?

>>11798960
Yeah, I don't remember pre orders til 6th gen. Big name games had some promotion for release dates in the 5th gen but generally you'd only know from magazines and a lot of those only listed the month it was supposed to come out. First game I remember the release being treated like an event was Halo 2. Some stores you knew to check for new games on a certain day. I knew the Funcoland by my house got new game shipments on Mondays so they wouldn't be on the shelf til Tuesday and you'd have to ask them to get you something new. Toys R Us would get shipments on Tuesday and it was a crap shoot when they'd get on the shelf but they'd always mark new games.

>>11797839 (OP)
Yeah, not necessarily because they sold out, some stores just wouldn't order certain games. I remember KMart having limited selections, usually only 1st party and popular games. Things just weren't as structured back then.

>>11798927
This. I even had hard time finding first half-life game. That fucker was sold out everywhere.

>>11797839 (OP)
Mortal Kombat was impossible to get for about a month.