The other day, I was at a retro game store, just looking to see what I could find. I often look through the Atari 2600 section, they’re fun games to collect and not in very high demand so they’re often pretty cheap. I came across two that I didn’t have that were a couple bucks each. One was Mouse Trap, which I wasn’t really sure what it was, and the other was a game I recognized, Tapper. Without thinking too much about it, I bought both games and went on my way.

There’s not really too much to say about Mouse Trap. It’s apparently a Pac-Man-like game, nothing too exciting. But I was pretty surprised when I added Tapper to the game collecting app I use, GamEye. According to the app, a loose copy of Tapper for the 2600 goes for about $68. I spent $2. This has to be some kind of mistake. Like I said, 2600 games are usually dirt cheap, and this store is usually priced about right with the rest of the market.

I did a little more research. I asked on the game collecting subreddit (and got the post locked because apparently that kind of question needs to be in a specific megathread) to see if anyone knew anything, as well as check eBay prices. Sure enough, the game goes for over $50 typically, sometimes as high as $70. No one on the subreddit had a real explanation for why Tapper was so much, but everyone agreed that I got some kind of deal.

So this is pretty exciting. Most of the times, when I spend a super small amount of money on a game and it ends being worth a lot, it’s something that doesn’t get that value until way later. For an example, my most valuable game according to GamEye is my loose copy of Mega Man X 3, which goes for $294. I got that game in middle school from a grocery store that had a video rental section that they were closing down for like a couple bucks. This is the first time that I’m aware of it happening where the higher price was already in place.

So this is all cool, but is Tapper for the 2600 even good? I popped the game into my 2600+, it booted up immediately, and I was pleasantly surprised with how good of a port the game is. Tapper is an arcade game originally, where you are a bartender and you’re throwing drinks to customers who are walking towards you. The Atari version captures the gameplay of the original. It’s very snappy. It also looks really nice. A lot of Atari games you kind of have to use your imagination, but everything here is very colorful and surprisingly detailed.

So yeah, that’s the story of me just lucking into a really good deal on a game. I guess the lesson is to check prices on everything, you never know what you might find. And the fact that the game turned out to be very good too is a nice bonus.