Unlike with baseball cards, there are no “rookie games” that skyrocket in value if their designers become famous (Pitfall creator David Crane’s first title, Outlaw, is worth just $5). And unlike comics, games don’t have first editions (Atari 2600 pack-in launch game Combat is worthless because it’s so common). Strange hobby, right? But collecting games is easy if you know the rules....

Where do you start?

Only chumps scour eBay for games. You get the inside track to collecting at expositions and swap meets, and you can spy a list of nearby events at www.digitpress.com/forum under Events & Gatherings. Oh, and keep a box of games for trading purposes—many collectors prefer to swap rather than sell.

Online shops GameStop.com and EBworld.com sell old titles, but you can’t be sure of the condition. For old stuff in new shape, turn to www.gooddealgames.com and www.videogameconnections.com.

What price is right?

Consider three things when buying or selling: the completeness, condition, and scarcity of the game in question. Titles with mint-condition boxes and manuals are at least twice as valuable as incomplete games. (And here’s a care tip: Store your collection away from light to keep game labels and boxes vibrant.)

Genre type also determines worth. Role-playing games, for instance, hold value longer than other kinds of games, while sports titles plummet the quickest. Games for certain systems retain or improve their value better than others, too. Neo•Geo home-system carts, for example, have held or increased in price in the last five years, whereas stone-age Odyssey2 games are dirt cheap.

Serious game obsessives rely on the Digital Press Collector’s Guide ($25 from www.digitpress.com, where you’ll also find an online version). This hefty 512-page tome packs scarcity ratings, nuggety descriptions, and street prices of games for more than 30 8-bit systems.

The rarest of the rare

The holy grail of most modern collectors is Nintendo World Championships, a special 8-bit NES combo cart (it included timed versions of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris) produced for a 1990 nationwide gaming competition. Nintendo gave away a regular version as a competition prize, while a special gold cart—of which just 26 were made—was only available from a Nintendo Power magazine contest. Gold carts have sold for $6,500, making this the most valuable game ever. Now go check under your bed to see if you’ve been sleeping on a fortune.

Bring out your dead: How to replace a bum battery in an old game cartridge...

Raid Radio Shack for a soldering iron ($10), wire, and a CR2032 3-volt battery ($3). Hit www.mcmelectronics.com and get the battery holder ($1, part #29-1675) plus one of these $3 screwdrivers: Part #22-1145 opens Nintendo carts, and part #22-1150 opens Sega carts.

After removing the security screws on the back of the cartridge (with the appropriate specialty screwdriver), open the cart and pry the battery free, along with its attached metal leads. Leave enough of these leads to act as solder points for the new battery’s holder.

Now, use solder to connect a few inches of wire between the old battery leads and the empty battery holder, making sure to match up positive with positive and negative with negative. Don’t solder the holder directly onto the leads—your cartridge will bulge and may not close.

Slide the new battery into its holder and close the cartridge. Or, for tidiness, first attach the holder to the inside of the case with two-sided tape to keep the holder from rattling around. Your classic cart now has a fresh battery that will hold save files for years. It’s alive...alive!

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.