Weirdness: This Has To Be The Most Underhanded Way Of Obtaining The N64's Rarest Fighter

the good old days of renting games at the video store. Now my local library loans games for all the systems which is quite nice, they get new stuff fairly quickly too.

Clay Fighter was great because it sucked.
It was just a great laugh, terrible puns, terrible gameplay.
I had a blast playing this with my friends.

Shoot. I had some good laughs and some fun with Clayfighter 63 1/3. Though i never play fighting games outside of Smash. Usually bore me.
I remember renting Sculptures Cut too. I wish I could have got me a cart. Could use the cash right now.

One that is complete in box is currently bid up to 2,100$, with 3 1/2 days to go: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clay-Fighter-Sculptors-Cut-RARE-Nintendo-64-Blockbuster-Exclusive-COMPLETE-CIB/252333246081

And thanks a lot NL for not just posting a video and calling it done but adding a nice amount of detail into the write up. Appreciated.

@LemonSlice on a side note apparently there is a competitive version of Star Fox called "Star Fox Weekend" that is the first couple of levels and they are timed. Sort of like the old Nintendo World Championship carts. I never seen outside of a YouTube vid.

@DarthNocturnal ha, I was shocked when I first saw it too. It's saved me a lot of money on rentals/buys.

@Mr_Zurkon Seems like there are plenty of very rare games like that that most collectors don't even know about. There's also Donkey Kong Country Competition.

@DarthNocturnal Close to where I grew up there was one that had adventure games, educational games and interactive fiction, and they even had computers there where people could play them.

Use to own this, loved it. Wish I still had it for the money it's worth.

...what's a rental store?? Haha

@DarthNocturnal Well not just educational games, normal adventure games too, graphical and text. LucasArts, Sierra, Infocom and others. Basically games that were story based and had a lot of reading. Of course not things like Doom and Quake.

How can you steal from something that does not exist?

Huh. That explains how I'd never seen this game in person before. The block buster in my hometown was super barren even during the company's heyday.

Isn't this rhe version with Earthworm Jim!? I'd have never guessed this game would become so rare. I rented it once upon a time as a kid too... should have pulled the same trick! Lol.

@Mr_Zurkon Video games at the library? Wow. I guess that's as good a use of tax dollars as most things the government spends money on these days.

Nice one. lol

I rented this once.....took it back to swap for another game the same day. It was awful!! I used to rent games allot back in the day, seems a distant memory now

I can certainly think of more underhanded ways of obtaining a copy, but maybe I've just got a sick mind.

I bought this game from a blockbuster forever ago for near nothing. I had no idea it was worth something. I hope I can find it.

@ULTRA-64 I used to rent games quite a lot too. I'd often clean our whole house (wan't as big a chore as it sounds) to have my mom rent me a SNES game for a weekend. After that I would take on a paper route and sweep and clean a local Jr High School to make money to buy an N64 and games. Back then before I sold most of my collection I even had bought an N64 component (RGB) cable directly from Nintendo. Ah, the good old days.

I think Blockbuster is rolling in its grave right now...

I don't find rare games that great or even worth anything if they suck. It's just another game that I didn't want and still don't want.

Rare N64 games here in Australia that are CIB go for crazy money.
StarCraft 64, Kirby 64 go for around the $500 to $600 mark, Conker goes for around $350 to $500, Resi Evil 2 for around $250 to $350, Smash 3 for around $350, Rush 2049 for around $400, Majora's Mask for around $200 and Snowboard Kids 2 for around the $1,000 to $1,200 mark.
Ive seen all of those listed above go for more than those prices but on average that is what you can pay for them, they have to have the Australian rating on them though or the price drops a fair bit.
As an Australian N64 game collector it has been an exhausting time sourcing my cib games.
I'm over halfway though and the most I've paid is $140 for Kirby, which was a bargain at a garage sale.
I bought all those games mentioned above for far less, before the prices went through the roof.

@DarthNocturnal My Wife's librarian and video games are one of their most popular items. If you think this story is bad consider that up until recently the library would count games as returned but missing/incomplete if the borrower brought back the game case without the game. This meant that they wouldn't be charged for not returning it, but a note did go on the account. Some kid got wise to it and had like 20 games, they changed the policy and called the parents threatening to charge them for the games and he came in with all of them on a CD stack with the library stickers removed. lol. It took them like 2 years to close that loophole. Like seriously how stupid is that, who cares about the case. Government funded programs/institutions can be so dumb.

@CHET_SWINGLINE It does cause a lot of additional patrons to come into the library, many of which will sometimes end up getting books as well. Also the library has rented out movies and CD's for a long long time, at least here in Canada, and i don't really see the difference. With 1 dollar per day late fees, books are like 5 cents, i'd imagine that over the course of a video games shelf life they actually pay for about half of it, as late video game returns are along with movies the most common late fees issued. Also if the game isn't returned it costs the individual the cost of the game and something like 20 dollars for a restocking fee. It's a good way to keep libraries relevant.

@Kevlar44 I actually don't care that much about any of this, but since you brought it up, I also think cd's and movies are a waste of library funds, especially when most counties in the US are perpetually complaining about not having enough money. It's not the job of libraries to provide free entertainment and internet for everyone. But in keeping with the main point of my first comment, it's all just a drop in the bucket of taxpayer dollars that the government dumps down the drain on a regular basis, so whatever.

On the subject of libraries carrying newer forms of media - I think it depends. It does seem a bit weird when my local library gets 10 copies of all the latest blockbusters that are already readily available elsewhere. On the other hand, I'd say that there's absolutely a place in libraries for documentaries, foreign, and classic films - ones that have a lot more educational, historical, and/or artistic value than "Grown Ups 2."

Film was the major new art form of the last century, so it makes since for them to carry some of the best films of, say, Alfred Hitchcock or Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa. Many of their movies are still relevant and culturally significant 50+ years later, and anyone wanting to get a well-rounded education in the modern arts would do well to become acquainted with them.

I don't think we'll ever be saying the same about "The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse."

It's the same with CDs - I'm not sure they need every Kanye West or Taylor Swift album, but a good classical and even a foundational "greatest pop and rock albums" collection wouldn't seem out of place.

I mean, they have at least as much educational value as the latest Dan Brown or James Patterson novel. And that way those who are looking to expand their horizons beyond the latest Hollywood and Top 40 radio fare have a good (and affordable) starting point. That seems perfectly in keeping with a library's mission.

"Welcome to my mind. Surprised you didn't recognize it."
Hats off to any Gravity Falls fan who gets this joke.

I love stories like this. I miss going to Blockbuster and renting games! I love how they somehow had exclusives. My favorite as a kid was the Beast Wars game that is now also rare and expensive because it was a BB exclusive. I must have rented that thing 10x.

I have this game, I somehow managed to obtain it many years ago secondhand. I think it was in a used game pile in some superstore. But I knew this was a Blockbuster exclusive, and I knew it was terrible, but by gum, nostalgia is a strong one!

@Yorumi At its height, Blockbuster had about 3000 stores. They probably only needed like 3-5 copies per store (that feels like how many copies of a game they had from what I remember renting SNES games). So maybe 10-15k total. Which isn't super RARE but when we're talking 20 years of collectible demand.

I wonder how Clayfighter Tournament Edition for the SNES did? I recall that variation was made SPECIFICALLY for a game tournament run by Blockbuster, with the special edition carts being offered for rent so people could practice it.

I remember showing off my n64 with dk64 and the expansion as well as majoras mask. A friend then rented both games and dk64 came with expansion in the rental! He simply never returned any of it. He got it all for like $10.

According to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx_uiFKQgY0 - Only 20,000 were produced. The issue you run into is that the carts that didn't sell after clearance were most likely destroyed. And because virtually all copies were rented out many times before sold to customers, it's EXTREMELY hard to find one of these in mint condition - let alone complete in box.

Snagged a copy of this game at my local brick and mortar video game store ten years ago. Not sure how it landed there in the first place, nor do I remember how much it sold for. It came with the manual too, but no original box. I just remembered it being quite cheap and worth the laughs. I'm glad I still have this. Perhaps a repo box is in order.

I never had an N64, but I remember renting one with Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64 one glorious weekend! The waiting list to get that was huge, good times!

So if it's Clayfighter 63 1/3 then did he steal the extra 3/4 of a complete game? My maths isn't that good.

The game however is terrible. It got one of the worst review scores and a humorous review from British-published N64 Magazine. That was the best part of the whole thing

@CHET_SWINGLINE In Canada those issues don't really apply as libraries are municipally funded. The reality is that in this day and age many patrons of the library are there for programs, tech help, printing, multi-media, and most of all computer use. The vast majority of patrons who actually borrow books are elderly, as most people just use the internet to find the information they need or seek entertainment through other mean. Furthrmore those who are younger and do read either have school libraries as a reading source or prefer to purchase their own copies of books. You're suggestion is to allow for libraries to become obsolete.

The younger generations don't value them as much as the previous ones, at least not for books, the reality is reading, writing, and language skills can be acquired through all of the muti-media being offered and as the contemporary society of today seeks out these new ways to learn and be entertained the libraries are forced to adapt or be left behind. If you want more young people to read the first step is getting them into the libraries in the first place.

@Kevlar44 What is the difference between municipally funded, county funded, or any other government body funded? You do realize that every level of government, even in Canada, gets their money from various forms of taxes, right? They don't produce or sell anything, so they have to take money from the people in their jurisdictions. That's how the government pays for "services" like the library. And what is my "suggestion," exactly? I don't recall having made a suggestion. But I'm assuming you work for the library, or else benefit from it in some other way, since you are clearly so offended by the slightest of insults to its usefulness.

@Chabrolesque Very well said.

@CHET_SWINGLINE The municipalities aren't broke... We're i'm from the province is barely in debt and the city isn't at all. City tax comes from property tax and whatever the province allots them, that money couldn't be used for anything outside it's jurisdiction. If my tax money is being used to fund a service that's actively being used i can think of a worse use of tax payer funds. On the list of poor use of tax money i can think of a lot worse uses, like say building sport teams arenas. I love sports but the amount of subsidization that goes into pro sports at all levels of governements is truly absurd. There are a ton of other wasteful ventures too.

You clearly were "suggesting" or implying that the library shouldn't offer multi-media like video games. duh. I already said my wife works for the library, but that's not the reason for my argument she'd still have a job if they only offered books so my "benefit" has nothing to do with that. My point is about adapting to the times, and i think i made a pretty strong one that you manged to ignore. You need to understand the demographics and the changing roles that libraries have had to embrace to stay relevant. I wouldn't mind some of their services being made more efficient and i'd love to drastically reduce tax dollars spent but the library isn't a problem here and it's far from the most pressing. Like i said kids come in for games, and end up with books, taking parts in programs, using computers they don't have access to, and staying out of trouble in a safe place. If the library was just for books and perhaps computer use, most of which is used to play games btw, then current usage for the service would be dwindling and far lower. The video games they buy may end up costing more than one would like, although like i said late fees help offset the expense a fair bit, but it also ensures that the staff on hand is keeping busy and helping a lot of people. For some poorer kids the library is where they get most of the games they play, and in doing so they create a life long connection to the service.

@Chabrolesque Are libraries only for educational purposes? I don't think Archie Comics, or many magazines have a ton of educational value apart from the reading, and even then video games have a ton of reading too. Here's a random library mission statement i pulled from google, "Our vision is a vibrant community where all people are informed, literate and entertained." That last word is key, the library is not just here to provide a place to learn but to entertain, and it's been that way for a long time and the current trends are necessitating that.

Movies and music are a subjective medium, and especially in the case of music it's a matter of one's POV if Yo Yo Ma really is more essential to the cultural foundation of our citizens. Hey i'd love for the library to throw out the Bieber and Swift and get truly talented individuals like Andrew Bird, Classical music, Miles Davis, ect... But as of now we have to be content with the fact that they offer all of those. When you say the best movies, that's a value statement, and as much as i agree that the vast majority of hollywood blockbusters are garbage our opinions aren't the only relevant ones. Some could argue Sharknado appeals to them as a satirical piece that uses humor to criticize the over the top action movies devoid of plot that are common place today.

If the library only offered education it would be a far less busy place, and the chance of someone wanting to use it for learning would dramatically decrease. It's a slippery slope at both sides of the argument, but ultimately they need to appeal to as wide a variety of individuals as possible to stay relevant and avoid projecting any inherent individual values in regards to subjective medium as the library is a service for everyone and thus needs to value the values of everyone in the community. Sadly if you polled most tax payers, the ones who fund the library, on what music and movies have the most value to them i don't think it's going to be documentaries and Classical music...

@Kevlar44 You should know that if you make a comment to someone that's not me, there's almost a 100% chance that I'm not going to read it. Thus, I didn't see your comment about your wife working for the library, but that explains a lot.

"If my tax money is being used to fund a service that's actively being used i can think of a worse use of tax payer funds."

This is essentially the whole point of my original comment on this issue. I specifically said that the government wastes a lot of money on a wide variety of very stupid things, and my whole point was, what's one more thing on the pile of non-essential government "services", like video games for people who can't or don't want to pay for them?

@CHET_SWINGLINE And you should understand if you make a snarky comment questioning the legitimacy of my motives i'm going to point out my relation and i may not be super friendly, although i was far from rude, the comment is literally one comment above the reply to yours.

But is it a waste? If it's within the library's current mandate i don't understand why it's wasteful, is it because you've arbitrarily decided on your own subjective grounds as to what aspects and to what degree of their mandate they ought to carry out? Its within their mandate, to inform and educate. Playing video games does have quite a bit of educational value, reading, spatial awareness, problem solving, technological understanding and comfort, and understanding and relating to various forms of entertainment all have inherent value in eliminating personal ignorance.

Good debate, i'm sure you'll still disagree and i do find it odd you've still manged to ignore essentially everything i've saidexcept for a couple minor points on taxes and my wife's occuption, especially considering i pointed out my main point a second time, but that's your loss.

@Kevlar44 What was my snarky comment? This "conversation" has gotten so far off point, and your comments are all so insanely over-reactive to my original comment, that I honestly don't know what you're referring to. And if you think that your comment being "literally one comment above" mine means that I would have seen it, then I guess you don't know how this site works. I get a notification saying someone replied to me, I click on it, and it takes me directly to that comment. Why would I scroll up to read random comments on the off chance someone said something in another comment that wasn't directed to me, but that I might find pertinent to the conversation at hand? Sorry, but I don't have the desire to read everything that gets posted on every article I've ever commented on.

As for the library's "mandate," you know that the need for the library to provide video games, or at least most of them, is obviously very debatable, right? That's why most libraries don't carry video games, and why most librarians would probably take the position that video games should not be a high priority for libraries. Most of them are not educational and are no more useful in the areas you mentioned than are a ball and bat, or a punching bag, so then perhaps the library can provide those too, since you're now claiming it's the library's job to help people develop hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

And this is all coming from someone who loves games and thinks they get a bad rap in society. I just don't see how taxpayers should be funding "entertainment," or how any library thinks that entertaining people to remain relevant is of any real use to society. But then I'm a small-government, limited-taxes minded person. I guess it all comes down to personal political persuasion.

@dereq Why would I argue with that? I think the government funnels far too much money into military spending, and I don't agree with it at all. Any other questions?

@CHET_SWINGLINE "But I'm assuming you work for the library, or else benefit from it in some other way, since you are clearly so offended by the slightest of insults to its usefulness."

That's not snarky? I was hardly acting offended by replying with a concise and well thought out reply. I didn't insult your POV I simply stated how the current times doesn't support that idea of a library that only offers books and edutainment.

I also don't know what you mean by "overreacting". I'm a philosophy guy, as such i love a good debate. This is fun to me. Debating the merits of our particular viewpoints isn't overreacting, it's essential to a more considerate and progressive society.

@Kevlar44 How is that snarky? I made a comment to someone else, not you, about my personal take on video games in libraries, which was really a pretty mild and only partially serious commentary on the usefulness of video games as far as the library is concerned, and it launched this entire pages-long diatribe from you. I'm glad you like to debate, but I think your personal attachment to this topic is clouding your judgment at least a little, so I don't really see much benefit to me continuing to argue about it with you. No offense.

@dereq Oh. Well yeah, I definitely resent the fact that we spend such egregious sums on military activities. I believe in defending our borders and maintaining an active military so we don't end up entirely unprepared like we did at the start of WW2, but the current level of military spending is just utterly absurd. But hey, we gotta police the entire globe and keep at least one war going at all times, apparently.

@CHET_SWINGLINE Personal attachment? That just sounds like an excuse to not consider the merits of my argument, you know the one you've ignored the entire time, that's why you keep making straw man arguments like "personal attachment", "benefit from it in some personal way" to discredit me without actually rebutting my particular position. I don't take games out at the library and my wife will still have a job for the foreseeable future if they don't lend them out, my personal connection to the issue has only provided my with an educated opinion not any kind of bias that doesn't allow me to consider the merits of your argument or any other. In fact i've addressed each one of your points specifically, which apparently is a "diatribe" to you and not a well thought out argument as it would be considered in any objective setting, while you've attempted to pass off straw men arguments while making personal assumptions about people you don't know such as generalizing librarians and their opinions, or by alluding to my "political persuasion" which you clearly know nothing of.

Trust me my "political persuasions" are almost assuredly far more educated and complex than yours, i actually understand the political philosophy that's shaped our current governments like Hobbes, Locke, Smith, Voltaire, and so on and so forth. Ideology ought to be shaped by facts, not the other way around, although i'm sure that point will be lost on you. Wisdom is when pragmatism (right side, self interest) and prudence (left side, idealism) are one in the same, or lacking that possibility a fair and balanced consideration of both realities. That means an intelligent and considerate view point considers the specific realities and merits of each particular situation and is not a generalization, so it ought to not adhere to the left or the right but rather the most relevant and fully realized perspectives and empirical data.

I'm attempting to consider the merits of all view points, it's why i bother to debate you, if i can't prove it wrong or you prove me wrong then i probably need to reconsider my position as i have had to do before on other issues, however if you fail to address my actual position i can assure you you will never convince anyone with a shred of self worth and confidence anything.

Enjoy life and perhaps learn something from this, i know you probably dislike me now and will prefer to ignore any point i make but i'm confident in saying that it would be your loss.

@Kevlar44 "Trust me my "political persuasions" are almost assuredly far more educated and complex than yours, i actually understand the political philosophy that's shaped our current governments like Hobbes, Locke, Smith, Voltaire, and so on and so forth."

Bahahaha. Well hey, who am I to question your self-proclaimed intellectual superiority over someone you've never met and know nothing about when you can type a bunch of fancy shmancy names and stuff your comments with a couple paragraphs worth of first-hit search results on thesaurus.com? I bow to your philosophical mastery, oh wise Canadian! I'm going to throw my degree and all of my books and everything else I've learned over the last 32 years in the trash, because I've met the internet messiah, and nothing else can ever compare to His knowledge and power.

Lolol is this real life? So, so weird.

Ideologies are shaped by ideas, which in turn shape identities. What planet is this guy on? And I tutor politics so consider yourself Donald Trumped.

@CHET_SWINGLINE @Kevlar44 Been a most interesting read, arguing over the semantics of libraries renting out video games. Sometimes I enjoy a good forum drama, so long as it doesn't devolve into insults...

@StarDust4Ever I'm honestly just intrigued by this type of internet phenomenon of the bored/delusional web warrior who desperately needs people to know that they are in the presence of the ultimate authority on whatever topic people are talking about. It doesn't matter what you say in comment sections, there's always someone that's going to go defcon 1 over it, or make sure you pay for your lack of reverence for their genius. Fun times on the internet.

@CHET_SWINGLINE Yup.

@CHET_SWINGLINE

Actually that's EXACTLY the job of the library: to provide entertainment, information, access to arts, news, etc. When libraries started, those things were only in books, newspapers, and magazines. Those are now dying media forms. Libraries are just keeping up with the times. You should too.

@tuckera78 Way to dig up a dead article and reignite an old argument. But okay, I'll bite. No, the point of a library is absolutely not to entertain. That is almost just patently opposite to the actual purpose of libraries, which is to inform people and provide them with materials and resources that society deems important or of any degree of academic or public interest. The fact that many modern libraries are having to stock their shelves with popular entertainment just to get people in the door does not change the fact that the main objective of libraries is and always has been to provide people with information.

@-DEMISE-

First off: "Way to change your name because you've said WAY too many stupid things as Chet_Swingline."

A dead article? It was 6 days old LOL! And I'm afraid you're all too wrong. A library's purpose from the very beginning is to provide access to MEDIA including the arts, which include fictional works of art, whose sole purpose is to ... oh wait ... ENTERTAIN. Library comes form the latin 'liber' meaning 'book', so even the word itself in no way dictates that it should be for just knowledge or education. It simply means 'book' (which includes fiction). Even some of the earliest Greek and Roman libraries were established to be quote "central to knowledge, scholarship, and the imagination".

I don't even use my local library, so i could really care less what they carry .. I just know a douche when I see one.

@tuckera78 Six days old? This article was posted on March 31. I have zero interest in rehashing this. I regret that I replied to you the first time.

@-DEMISE-

No, I'm afraid you're all too wrong again! (Don't you get TIRED of being WRONG?) The last post in this LINE of messages of everyone hating you was posted on April 3rd. Since that's the only one thing in my reply you want to try to debate.

@tuckera78 Lolz "everyone hating" me? There was one single guy that disagreed with me, and he spent a couple days overkilling his argument, and then he just gave up or fell off the face of the earth or something. Based on how bizarre your comments are, and the fact that this article was posted two weeks ago, I'm legitimately wondering if you aren't that same person.

Anyway, I'm not going to debate f**king libraries with you anymore. I sincerely couldn't care less. This is weird. Have a nice life. The end.

@tuckera78 hahaha, yup you got me! I changed my name to try to hide my tracks! Not like you can change your name every 90 days and your history follows you regardless of how many times you change it. Yeah, the shame of my past comments thing. That's why I did it.

Way to edit your comment to add that part in three days after the fact, smart guy. But hey, you apparently joined this site specifically to reply to my comments on this one article and nothing more, so I guess there's no limit to the bizarre crap you'll do.

"I'm not that other guy! I swear! I don't even go to the library! I just randomly created this account and only replied to your comments totally at random! Please believe me!"

-tuckera78 aka kevlarwhateverthef