A Mythically Beautiful Girl Sleeping in the Muddy Waters of Mercari

Will a collector wager the gamble of his life on two images of "Little Samson"?

■ ① Game History, Context, and On-Site Enthusiasm

The Japanese retro game market has been wrapped in an unprecedented, abnormal frenzy in recent years—pulling in even collectors and investors from overseas.

Those square cartridges that we once bought at the local toy store with pocket change clutched in our hands have now, decades later, reached an era when they are traded at prices that could buy a used luxury car.

Within this market that could be called madness, there is a title that reigns at the absolute peak as the “mythical holy grail” of the late-stage Famicom era.

That would be the action game Little Samson (Seirei Densetsu Lickle), released by Taito in 1992.

The sheer degree of “completeness” of this game is simply miles ahead. Beautiful pixel art that pushed past the limits of the Famicom, fluid character animations, a meticulously composed soundtrack, and a sophisticated system where the player progresses by switching between four protagonists.

Based on execution alone, nearly everyone who plays it gives it a glowing stamp of approval as a “masterpiece.”

However, it was released in 1992 when the Super Famicom was already dominating the market as the “next-gen console.” Because of that, Little Samson’s shipment numbers were exceptionally low at the time, and it quietly became buried in the darkness of history.

However, time caught up. The game’s overwhelming quality and rarity were critically reassessed in later generations, and in the current collector’s market, a Complete-in-Box (CIB) unit including the box and manual is treated like a “Holy Grail” worth hundreds of thousands of yen.

While Little Samson is such an unachievable prize, for those of us who dig, the true allure in our search is not in buying “high-ticket items beautifully displayed in glass cases.”

Rather, it lies in finding, faster than anyone else, “the exact moment a seller casually lists an item for dirt cheap without knowing the real value” in the dark corners of the internet sea–especially peer-to-peer marketplace platforms like Mercari and Yahoo! Auctions.

Actually, I am one of the “lucky ones” who had a miracle-like experience before: I was able to buy a copy of Little Samson at an unbelievably cheap price compared to the market rate.

No matter how many years pass, I can never forget the sensation of my hands shaking while holding the screen as my heart pounded furiously. This is why I cannot stop digging for retro games.

However, behind such lucrative stories, there is always a “gamble” lurking where one wrong move means taking a massive financial hit.

The true thrill of the internet secondhand market, and at the same time the most headache-inducing, is the treacherous territory of “junk items.”

The words “operation unconfirmed” or “signs of dirt” written casually in the item description field. Cartridges that, at first glance, look like mere garbage. However, we enthusiasts possess the “alchemy” to turn them into gold.

First, we gently examine the condition after placing the acquired junk item on the desk. Then, we dab the tip of a cotton swab with “anhydrous alcohol (IPA)” and painstakingly yet patiently clean the cartridge contacts.

The moment the multi-year layer of dust and oxidized grime transfer onto the swab in pitch black, the contacts regain their original dull metallic shine.

And then, with a praying feeling, we insert it into the console and flip the power switch with a click—.