It's been decades since arcade games and video consoles first appeared on the pop culture scene. The first Nintendo console appeared in North America in 1985, following the Japanese Famicom which had already been on the market for two years. Since then, some games have faded from the gaming scene, only to return years later in emulator form well after the physical cartridges were erased from existence.
There are some games that exist only in emulator form and there are others that are simply extremely rare or priced out of most consumers' reaches. When vintage games are extremely hard to find or restrictively expensive, the modern option is to play the games on an emulator. Obviously this isn't a viable option for a dedicated collector, but for those who just want to play the game or experience it out of curiosity, it's a viable option.
10 Cheetahmen 2
The saga of the failed Cheetahmen franchise is a noted one in the history of gaming. The first game was included in the Action 52 cartridge and it was an attempt to cash in on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. It failed monumentally, and the planned sequel was never released. Internet legend has it that the only reason the second game saw the light of day at all was because of the 1500 cartridges that were found in a warehouse in Florida in 1996. Curious players who can't get their hands on one of these very rare cartridges can turn to an emulator instead.
9 Mother
Eventually, these popular RPG games did make it to North America, but not until the Super Nintendo came out. The first game players saw in North America was called Earthbound and it was actually the second game in the series, known as Mother 2 in Japan. The first game, Mother, is hard to find unless you live in Japan and own a vintage Famicom since there was never an official overseas release. Thanks to the magic of emulators, however, you can still experience the genesis of one of Nintendo's most endearing and popular franchises.
8 Nintendo World Championships
Rare, expensive, and part of gaming history, this would be the Nintendo cartridge that Indiana Jones would be dedicated to putting in a museum. It was used only as part of a competition in 1990 that was inspired by the movie The Wizard. There's also a gold version that was used as a prize in the same competition, and apparently those are even more expensive and rare.
There are reproduction cartridges with the same game, but these can be hard to find and often cost about $75, which is cheap compared to the price for an authentic cartridge. One sold on eBay for over S100,000 in 2014. The most economical option, and the only possible one for most, is to use an emulator.
7 Panic Restaurant
There's nothing amazing about Panic Restaurant at first. The game enjoyed decent reviews but its release in 1994, a few years after the Super Nintendo had already appeared in 1991. The release time, combined with some of the localization and translation issues, pushed this video game into obscurity. As a result, physical cartridges are exceptionally rare and expensive. The current price for one is almost $4000, so unless you're a dedicated collector, get the emulator version.
6 Snow Bros.
In the 1990s, Snow Bros. was the most popular arcade game in Japan, so making it available for home consoles was a natural step. It sounds like a recipe for instant success, but issues with localization, translation, and distribution made the game hard to find. Even though the game was popular, quirky, and family-friendly, it got lost in a sea of developers and platforms becoming a rarity. The game currently enjoys a cult following partly because it's available on emulators. Players can also spend $3000 on a cartridge, but that's a high price for a whole fanbase to pay.
5 Xevious: The Avenger
Another game that started out in the Japanese arcade game scene is Xevious: The Avenger, originally known as Super Xevious. It was part of a franchise that was also ported to several different consoles, but that was part of the problem.
Although the game was extremely successful in Japan it was a commercial failure in North America. The numerous names, versions, and releases were too confusing. Thankfully, today's emulators will play anything on anything. The physical game isn't too hard to find, especially if you have about $1200 to spare.
4 Nintendo Campus Challenge
The Nintendo World Championships Tournament was such a popular event that the company repeated it, this time on 60 different college campuses in 1991. However, there's one important difference. There is only one physical copy of this game known to exist, and it was bought by a collector in 2007 for more than $20,000. There's a ROM for this game that will play on several emulators, and that's the only option available.
3 Caltron: 6 in 1, The Myriad Version
It seems that a lot of multi-game collections on a single cartridge fall down the memory hole, and this is one example. Caltron: 6 in 1 includes six games from vastly different genres, so it doesn't make anyone happy, which is part of why the game failed on a commercial level. The games were of poor quality in general and didn't exactly get rave reviews, which is another common issue with compilations. Curious players or determined collectors can buy copies for a few hundred dollars, but playing them on an emulator might be easier.
2 Nightmare On Elm Street
Given that Nintendo always tried to have an image as a family-friendly company with games for everyone, every so often a title would sneak through that wasn't for kids. A Nightmare On Elm Street was a game like that, and it didn't just fail because it was a horror title before horror titles were popular.
The general design and gameplay weren't exactly impressive, and critics didn't hold back when pointing out its flaws. As a result, the game is a rare find, making owning a cartridge restrictively expensive. Fans of horror and classic Nintendo can still experience this game by using an emulator.
1 Stadium Events
Even people who don't know anything about video games have heard about this one. Every so often another copy appears for sale, always a few thousand dollars more than the last. The reasons why are surprisingly mundane, going back to a rebranding issue that made the first release of this game slightly different from the newer one. The game was given a new title and was now sold with a Power Pad.
That small change turned into a big one. Original copies of this game go for as much as $55,000, so unless there's an ATM machine in your vintage Nintendo, Stadium Events requires an emulator to play.