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Retro consoles: Here are the most expensive with some surprising results

The most expensive retro video game station? Sega’s Multi-Mega Console is trading at £680 ($825) between collectors.

Young man playing a video game. Image by Vadermonk - (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Young man playing a video game. Image by Vadermonk - (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Video gaming has advanced considerably yet there remains a fondness for gaming devices of the past and many are collectable. New research has revealed the most valuable retro consoles, with the Sega Multi-Mega Console coming out on top.

The review comes from the gaming site GuideStrats.com, who have passed on the findings to Digital Journal.  The data is based on which retro consoles can be traded for the highest amounts.

This shows that Sega’s Multi-Mega Console is trading at £680 ($825) between collectors. Released in 1994 as a combination of the Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD and Portable CD Player, it had a very short production life compared to other consoles released then, making it rarer and much more expensive nowadays.

Coming in second place is the Atari Jaguar CD, which can be traded in for £675 ($820) in its best condition. Released just one year after the Multi-Mega in 1995, poor sales meant that it had a short production life and, therefore, is now very rare, with just 11 games being produced for the console during its lifetime.

Third place goes to Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, which can be traded in for £288 ($350). This is one of the first examples of a Virtual Reality console, with the technology nowadays being much more developed. Upon its release in 1995, it became a commercial failure due to its poor ergonomics, high price, and health concerns, and is therefore very rare.

The top ten are:

RankConsoleYear releasedTrade-in value (Best condition – sterling)U.S dollars price
1Sega Multi-Mega Console1994£680$825
2Atari Jaguar CD1995£675$820
3Nintendo Virtual Boy1995£288$350
4Atari Jaguar1994£210$300
5Atari Lynx II1991£172$210
6Atari Lynx1990£136$200
7Super NES1992£129$195
8NES1986£127$180
Sega Saturn1995£127$180
9Sega Master System1987£126$175
Game Gear1991£126$175
10Sega Dreamcast1999£112$170

The Atari Jaguar comes in fourth place and can be traded in for £210 ($300) in its best condition. Suffering from the same sales problems as the Jaguar CD at its release in 1994, it is now another rare find, although it had more production units than the Jaguar CD.

Rounding out the top five is the Atari Lynx II, which can be traded in for £172 ($210). Released as a new version of the original Lynx in 1991, it came with a new design, better battery life, and better hardware; with declining sales, Atari shifted its focus to developing the Jaguar, although surprisingly, the Lynx II ended up having a longer lifespan.

Some of the prices on this list highlight how volatile the console market was in the 1990s, with many companies having either failed experiments or just poor sales, leading to some rare finds today.

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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