Gaming's Rarest Consoles - Game History Secrets

to preserve the history of game consoles in all their varieties that is the mission statement of console variations the site founded in the netherlands is a comprehensive database tracking official video game console variants side of game history that is often overlooked for this video i've partnered with console variations yet again to give you a look at some of the rarest items in their collection and to bring to light why so few of them were produced in the first place in the run-up to the gamecube's release before it was even officially named gamecube the console was first dubbed project dolphin in may 1999 as such many of nintendo's projects related to the system carried this dolphin theme a key example of this is flipper which was the code name for the gamecube's graphics processor this piece of custom built technology was created by the canadian company ati in 2001. it went through various revisions on its road to completion but the end result was one nintendo was pleased with as a show of gratitude nintendo gifted them a series of unique gamecube models made exclusively for the staff at ati who had helped them realize their ambitions these purple gamecube sported a unique faceplate with an ati logo on top and a thank you message beneath it the text read thank you for your outstanding effort on flipper furthermore the faceplate can actually be removed revealing underneath it to nod to the flipper design team and the original dolphin logo that was used internally the ati gamecube was never made available outside of the 100 or so produced for the flipper team and is therefore regarded as highly rare in the years since they were made a handful of them have been auctioned off online by former ati staff and found their way into the hands of collectors according to console variations these have been sold for as much as three to four thousand dollars in the past due to their strong relationship nintendo and ati partnered for the gamecube's successor the wii and once again nintendo thanked them with a unique variant of the hardware this launch edition of the wii featured a custom engraving on the plastic cover over the gamecube controller ports as well as the logos of nintendo and ati the enthusiastic pun we did it was inscribed above them on both the gamecube and wii ati variations nintendo even went through the trouble of embedding one of the dyes a part of each ati gpu into the consoles silburn the poster who originally discovered the custom wii claimed that somewhere between just 50 to 100 of this variant were made in total saw nintendo engaging in a number of adventurous marketing deals one that never left japan but still garnered its share of coverage in the west was a collaboration with pepsi this campaign created primarily to push a new lemon-flavored version of pepsi jointly promoted some of nintendo's brands like mario in february 2005 a region-wide media blitz advertised the crossover for a time it appeared regularly in magazines and flyers found in convenience stores special edition pepsi twist products were sold throughout the year such as rolls of super mario themed tape and a range of bottles with novelty bottle caps in blind bags a total of 30 different variations were made each one inspired by the 8-bit super mario brothers sprites the crux of the promotion however was a giveaway of limited edition nintendo ds systems with the pepsi branding participants had to collect a total of seven tickets from pepsi twist products and send them off to enter winners received a bundle of gadgetry emblazoned with the pepsi twist logo this included the main prize a customized blue ds a protective case to keep it in a pair of clip-on pepsi headphones to use with it and a set of game card holders console variations says that the consoles on their own have been known to sell for around 500 dollars but a complete pepsi ds bundle can go for around four times that amount as the eighth generation of consoles beckoned titanfall made its debut closing out microsoft's 2013 e3 press conference where they revealed the xbox one exclusive to their platforms this multiplayer first person shooter developed by infinity ward alumni was much hyped in the run-up to release to capitalize upon the excitement microsoft began planning a number of tie-in products to be made available around its launch one of these was a limited edition xbox one controller with white orange and black stylings inspired by the titanfall universe originally however microsoft was considering releasing an entire titanfall xbox one console alongside it for a limited run in 2014 according to a microsoft source who was a part of the design process despite some rallying from the developers to make them available to everyone microsoft determined that they would be enabled to since they already had another limited line of xbox ones in production at the time these were the day one edition consoles which came with a block controller labeled day one 2013. instead microsoft produced only 300 of them and gave most of them away to titanfall's development staff at respawn entertainment like the limited edition controller that did make it to retail the console was painted with decals lending inspiration from the world of titanfall to accurately capture its aesthetic microsoft worked directly with respawn's narrative and our teams while creating it it was primarily designed after the car smg weapon from the game which had a similar colour scheme to top it off they even went so far as to add custom sound effects to the console as was shown off during an xbox on segment we've got a custom sound for power on have a listen to this nice disc eject and power off as well not only that its main designer ryan lastemosa was able to include a number of subtle personal easter eggs on it on top of the console a code can be found referencing his online handle and gamertag brockhart another series of digits featured on it is made up of the initials of both him and his wife alongside the date of their wedding around 30 of the unreleased systems were retained by microsoft and kept inside their offices some of the developer consoles have been auctioned off online by x respawn employees sealed in its original box these can sometimes sell as high as four to five thousand dollars in the case of console variations they were given their titanfall xbox by a microsoft designer who happened to be a fan of their site throughout the gamecube era it was common to find nintendo partnering with channels like mtv to promote the console sponsorships and other marketing deals were given but it was in 2004 that nintendo took their arrangement to the next level leading to the creation of some of the rarest gamecube variations of all time for part of a christmas celebration mtv radio was hosting they wanted to give away a selection of gamecubes with unique colour schemes throughout the month of december just 29 of these were created in total by german designer stephen leckies using parts given to him from nintendo directly five different paint schemes were commissioned including pearl white canadian maple wood and camouflage the gamecubes were quickly assembled in december 2004 and sent out to listeners who had called in to enter the competition beyond that the consoles have slipped into relative obscurity and very few have since made their way online console variation shares that in the past they have been sold privately for between two and a half and three thousand dollars after the mtv line was completed stefan leckies went on to design a number of other rare console variations including a one-of-a-kind star fox assault gamecube at the height of the nintendo 64 in 1997 came multi-racing championship a racer by genki it was published by ocean software in the west but was brought to japan by imagineer who marked its launch there with a competition players of mrc were challenged to submit their fastest time on the mountain racetrack in the game's time trial mode this contest which was advertised on the back of the game's box ran only for the first couple of months following its release the winners were determined at the end of september 1997. the highest ranking 2000 players were intended to receive imagineers top prize a glow-in-the-dark game boy pocket made specially for this event however research by youtuber the retro feature has shown that the competition was not as popular as imagineer had hoped and that under 2 000 people ended up entering it as a result imagineer was left with a surplus of around a few hundred game boys the remaining units were distributed through another contest this time to promote their japanese exclusive game boy rpg medarot later that year the handhelds which were officially manufactured by nintendo never went on sale to the public as a result they were often sold for as much as 1 000 to 1 500 it should be noted that despite the fact that the system's shell does glow in the dark it cannot ideally be played in the dark since the game boy pocket screen is not backlit in september 2018 prominent japanese streetwear designer hiroshi fujiwara announced a surprise collaboration with the pokemon company his brand fragment planned to give their own take on pokemon with a limited timeline of merchandise including plush toys and clothing this range went under the name thunderbolt x pokemon and was made available throughout asia between 2018 and 2020 it even had its own pop-up stores and eventually spawned its own console design first shown off in 2019 the thunderbolt project nintendo switch is one of the console's most rare and pricey variants based upon the standard grey switch it sports a minimalist design with the thunderbolt logo on the back and text that reads thunderbolt project by fragment and pokemon it also comes with a unique pair of joycon the left features the same thunderbolt logo and the right has a silhouette of pikachu it was sold with a matching switch carry case bundled in its unique black and white box somewhere between 500 to 1 000 of these units were produced and were sold at the end of 2019 initially for around 400 since this limited run came to an end however it has been sold online for several times that amount in some cases the next console on our list is entirely one of a kind and was the result of a partnership between game publisher thq and a german media outlet endzone and officially licensed nintendo magazine launched a series of competitions to advertise various thq games coming to gamecube and gameboy advance in 2004. readers could write in for a chance to win prizes such as skateboards video games and posters but one of these items generated significantly more buzz than the others a gamecube made to promote pixar's the incredibles and thq's tie-in game only one of these was ever made for a contest that was held in celebration of the magazine's eighth anniversary as it turns out though this console never made it into the hands of readers sources from end zone told console variations that the competition was cancelled due to internal reasons instead it ended up in the collection of an end zone staffer who sold it years after leaving the company the rare gamecube includes mr incredible on its lid and is plastered with the logos of the various companies who are involved in the tying game such as the now defunct disney interactive the console has been traded around by various collectors over the years and is valued somewhere between 1 500 and 2 000 2015 marked 30 years of rare the british studio responsible for such hits as banjo-kazooie and perfect dark to celebrate this milestone the company created a monument to its legacy in the form of rare replay a compilation of 30 games from its history for the xbox one they topped this off with a series of special events throughout the year and created a highly coveted line of xbox ones as prizes the rare replay console boasted a gold finish and a collage of rare's most iconic characters such as conker and joanna dark only six were ever produced and all but one were given away in various different ways one was given away at san diego comic-con in a sweepstakes one to a twitter follower and another on facebook the last machine was awarded to the winner of a competition held at gamescom 2015. attendees competed in an endless version of the infamous turbo tunnel stage from battletoads the player to survive the longest was declared the victor in early 2017 console variations acquired one of the rare replay consoles and was invited by the company to attend a tour of their offices in twycross england it was there that the studio's staff volunteered to sign the machine multiplying its value by an untold amount the regular devices are valued by console variations somewhere in the region of 2000 to 2500 the signed console on the other hand is regarded by them as priceless thank you so much for watching please don't forget to subscribe for more videos just like this one for more content from me you can support the show at patreon.com liam robertson just like these kind people did you

Channel: DidYouKnowGaming?

Views: 170,333

Rating: 4.9367089 out of 5

Keywords: rare, rare consoles, rarest consoles, pikachu switch, nintendo switch, gamecube, nintendo gamecube, ds, nds, nintendo ds, did you know gaming, didyouknowgaming, dykgaming, dykg, gaming

Id: 8feMPtnbhkc

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/francisgreenslade]

Console variants rather than actual consoles. I was expecting seeing things like the TurboExpress, or Fairchild F or something.