One person's quest (get it?) to accumulate a 'Mega Collection' of NES games has finally been achieved. FerrisonNA — who also goes by the username Ferris Bueller — is the proud owner of one thousand copies of the original Dragon Quest on the NES. Or, Dragon Warrior as it was known in the west back in 1989.
FerrisonNA (real name Christian Deitering) has been chronicling his journey to collect a huge number of copies of the NES RPG over on his website, The Unorthodox Dragon Warrior Collection. And a new update made earlier today (and shared on Twitter) revealed that the collector — who was the producer of the Mother To Earth: The Untold Story of Earth Bound documentary — has finally hit a milestone of one thousand copies.
This frankly incredible feat has been a long-standing challenge in the retro-gaming community, starting way back in 2012 on the (now defunct) NintendoAge forums. One user, K3VBOT, shared that he was given the opportunity to buy out an old game store, but then someone else, Max Velocity, spotted lots of copies of the Jurassic Park game on SNES. Cue requests for photos, and a spark of inspiration for someone known as Space Jockey decided that he wanted to start up his own giant collection of retro cartridges. His game of choice? Dragon Warrior on the NES.
As time went on, Space Jockey had to abandon his quest and eventually sold his collection, but FerrisonNA took up the sword, bought the collection, and has continued to expand it ever since. As part of his collection, FerrisonNA actually owns the prototype of the original game, called Dragon Warrior Express.
Copy number 1,000 was claimed at Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, meaning that this could potentially be the largest collection of a single video games for the NES, and maybe even all consoles.
Is FerrisonNA's quest over, though? Definitely not. The editor and collector's next goal is an eye-watering 2,500 copies. He's promised a more detailed post in the future, once he's had a chance to fully update the website, but ends his update with "a big thank you".
If you've got a copy of Dragon Warrior you want to send, then you can arrange that through The Unorthodox Dragon Warrior Collection website by clicking on the 'Talk' button. We love the Dragon Quest aesthetic of the site, and, well, perhaps we'll be back in a few years' time when we hit the 2,500 milestone.
Have you ever played the original Dragon Warrior? Would you ever want to collect tons of retro games? Let us know.
[source theunorthodoxdragonwarriorcollection.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 63
That is so unnecessarily silly lol.
The game is historically and culturally significant though, so I guess it makes sense to focus on it? Maybe not to such an insane degree though...
The game is decently fun, though nowadays you need to play it with youtube in the background to not go insane from the slow grinding (I played it this way a few years ago hehe).
Thankfully more modern versions of DQ1 increase EXP and gold gains from enemies to lessen the grinding, so I would probably not recommend the NES version unless you had a specific interest in it.
To be honest I didn’t even know there were still that many that existed.
@TheBigBlue they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
But everyone loves doing their own thing so thats the plus here! Onward to 2,500!
genuinely don't understand the point of collecting so many copies of the same game. variants? sure. the exact same game? pointless and robs other people of the ability to own it.
I am wondering how many of the copies in his collection actually boot up when inserted into an NES. Perhaps he is one of those guys that cleans them up and gets them working if they don't already.
This person must have sent a lot of letters to Nintendo Power.
Amazing! Now significantly less people on the planet can own this game because this jack ass has 1000 copies he'll never play.
I’m wondering his many copies Nintendo gave away as a Nintendo Power subscription bonus. The game didn’t originally sell, but I know tons of kids at school that got it through their $14 subscription.
Why so many of them?
Wonder what game will be next to reach 1000...
And I can’t collect one copy of DQ5 on DS…
If I found out my children were doing this I'd pick them up and throw them off of a mountain.
This is why the prices of retro games are so much now. A bunch of greedy hoarders then declare that they're "rare" (I WONDER WHY) so they can justify reselling them for a couple/few hundred.. sometimes even more. Despicable.
I got mine free just for subscribing to Nintendo power
@Zulzar well...they have spent 11 years collecting them. Who cares how much they sell them for? They could make more working at a car wash.
Puts my collection of blank a4 printer paper to shame.
Brave member of the society buying them all so we don't have to o7
That's one way to increase the resell price of the game. 😕
Soldering in new save batteries in each of these will be fun
that makes no sense i would not collect even 1 copy of the original game which i had when the nes first came out
@Snatcher Remember they were given away for free with a lot of Nintendo power subs. So its a really common game.
@Zulzar bruh Dragon Warrior 1 is still not even an expensive game. I think this is dumb and feels hoardy, but it is clearly not an attempt to make a profit. They would not do it with such a common NES game if they actually wanted to restrain the supply.
Now to finish the save game on each cart. 😉
Dragon Warrior was one of those games that were 10 cents at every yard sale in the 90s, so it seems harmless.
That said, I really do hate to see this kind of thing happen even with such a common cartridge. Eventually, it will have an impact on it's availability to those that want it and I really dislike the individual for contributing to that inevitable future.
It is always good to have a backup. 😉
Well, the prototype version thing is pretty cool, though
@Quasicat That's how I got my copy AND became a subscriber to Nintendo Power for many years after.
If acquiring thousands of copies of an identical product and consequently driving up its price is a cause for celebration, then perhaps yesterday’s article about certain individuals hoarding thousands of rare Pokémon cards should be viewed in a different light.
https://www.nintendolife.com/features/pokemon-tcg-community-engulfed-in-potential-fraud-scandal
This is not a scandal, but a glorious achievement!
Geez, and I thought having a veritable pile of Final Fantasy IV copies, thanks to all the many ports and remakes, was a little outta hand.
It'll always be Dragon Warrior to me. And I'll be keeping my copy forever, game deserves more love than sitting in a pointless hoard.
Ah, a hoarder. 🙄
It's pointless to keep 1000 copies of exactly same games for the sake of owning the things but not for playing.
Remind me of one episode from Powerpuff Girls about obsessed otaku of Powerpuff Girls merchandise.
@Maxz @Zulzar @Hajilee @bigcalsworld
A quick Google search shows you can buy a copy of Dragon Warrior for less than $20. You can get a virtual copy on the Switch for $5. This isn’t the crime to video game preservation and collecting you’re all making it out to be.
Dragon Warrior is a super common cartridge, nothing this guy is doing is going to affect its price for collectors.
@HammerKirby They were? I didn’t know that! Thank you!
Can I have a couple of those?
What an idiot. That's 999 less copies out there. This is something Elon Musk would do and tweet about.
Wish them all the best, but don't ask me to send my copy their way because I'm not going to. However, feel free to let me know when they hit 9000 so I can throw one of those insipid DBZ "It's Over 9000" memes that used to be all the rage.
All that for 186 likes on Twitter? Yikes.
@Zulzar There was a guy that collected MERELY about 20 copies of Rampart for the original Game Boy, which raised its price from about $3. By the point the guy ended his little experiment, ebay was recommending sellers ask at least $20 for the game.
The guy did ask if it was possible for him to undo the damage he'd done.
Not all of us have what it takes to be a hero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp85S2KZjCY
Rapper MCU of the Kick the Can Crew explains in this interview that he started collecting Famicom copies of "Bases Loaded", and after tweeting about it, fans at every concert and event hand him copies of the game, and now he has between 1300 to 1400 copies of it. He can't store them all at his home (in his impressive game room which is in the clip above), so they are all stored at the City Connectiom/Jaleco office in Japan.
This seems like a good way to limit the survivability of worldwide copies, but I guess the game is accessible in other forms so it won’t ever truly be lost
@Solomon_Rambling Your right it's not the biggest deal in the world. But why don't you do the opposite and explain to me how this is a good thing?
Why? Perhaps some person might have wanted to buy the game. I don’t understand hoarders.
Yes, what an incredible feat, comparable to inventing life saving medicines or exploring space. Frankly incredible indeed!
At least it’s not a rare yet sought after game (I believe).
Just reminds me of a guy I met who had bought straight from Konami Europe a box of 30 copies of Suikoden II. He already had 2-3 other copies and wouldn’t sell me one even at eBay prices. In his right to do so; also his right to be a hoarding jerk.
@Solomon_Rambling This is no doubt a fair point and one that my rather facetious comment ought to be balanced with.
Nevertheless, I still find it hard to see the merit in accumulating the same game en masse.
I wouldn’t describe myself as ‘anti-collector’. I’m frequently impressed by the care and attention many people put into displaying their prized collections; essentially creating a miniature museum that — while not directly accessible to the public — still bears gawking at through a screen.
This just looks like a massive pile of plastic though. Which is fine, but… just not particularly inspiring.
@Zulzar Yep, this one guy and his 1000 copies of the worst game in the series has single-handedly affected the classic game market.
@Hajilee
Haven’t you heard the saying, “When someone collects a hundred copies of Dragon Warrior, an angel gets its wings”? In all seriousness, it isn’t a good thing. It isn’t a bad thing. It’s a thing someone decided to do for the heck of it. If it doesn’t hurt someone and it’s what you want to do, why should you have to justify yourself to anyone?
@Maxz
I agree it doesn’t make for anything inspiring, but it has made for an interesting article!
People suddenly upset that somebody has 0.2% of the copies of a 33 year old game.
I own 1 copy. So I'm contributing I guess
@Hajilee @Zulzar Dragon Warrior is a game that one can purchase on eBay for under $10 and is readily accessible, right this very second.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1312&_nkw=dragon+warrior+nes&_sacat=0
Don't let sensational news articles skew your critical thinking.
@Cashews Are you saying that you would throw the games or you would throw your children off the mountain? Either is acceptable.
@YANDMAN Go get some reading comprehension skills and get back to me.
I don't get the appeal of doing this but to each their own I suppose.
For those worried that he did this to make the game rare and jack up the price, that doesn't look to be the case. The game is still only 20 bucks on Amazon and as low as 6 dollars on ebay, so if you want your own copy it's still very easily obtainable. It's a common game and 1000 or even 2500 copies are barely a dent in the total supply.
Would be a different story if he did this with something like Crystalis or Earthbound of course.
@Snatcher Theres a ton, probably one of the easiest NES games to get a hold of.
@Solomon_Rambling Agreed!
@SonOfDracula What on earth do you mean 'skew my critical thinking'? I'm not being influenced by the article at all, the article doesn't even share my perspective.
Just because I have a different opinion from you doesn't mean my critical thinking is flawed, that is such a leap in logic.
@RevengeFan Children for sure. The games would be sold to recuperate losses I took from clothing and feeding said child.
@Zulzar if I lacked comprehension, I would have accepted your nonsensical explanation regarding classic games, as good.
@Hajilee Opinion is fine, but wouldn't you rather let facts guide you? The game is common and readily available.
GOD: I've created you with a great purpose, I'm going to send you to.....
FerrisonNA: I'm going to spend my entire life buying the same game thousands of times.
GOD:........
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