
Only recently, I passed on my GameCube to my nephew who was just starting college. He wanted something to play Mario Kart and GoldenEye on with new friends, and apparently it¡¯s proving a hit. But this means I don¡¯t have a GameCube. So let¡¯s check eBay...
OK, let¡¯s be sensible, you can actually pick up one of Nintendo¡¯s classic cuboid consoles for around $60 to $80. That will only get you a regular model, however, and not a pre-release Space World 2000 version of the machine.
Of all the various special edition GameCubes that appeared during the console¡¯s heyday 24 years ago, as IGN reports, the Space World is the rarest. Hence the astonishing (and yet still rather hopeful) price tag.
This particular model was a prototype design, one of five, that appeared at Nintendo¡¯s annual Space World trade show in Japan in the year 2000. It was to be the penultimate Space World, but also the beginning of the adorable machine¡¯s life, as it was unveiled at the event¡ªalongside the Game Boy Advance. The prototype was lost for a couple of decades, and then rediscovered in 2023. It¡¯s apparently 1mm bigger in all dimensions than the final retail GameCube, has a different-shaped vent at the back, and, well, didn¡¯t have a CPU or GPU inside.
Which is to say, yes, this is a $100,000 GameCube that can¡¯t play games. As the eBay description reads, ¡°This is a display unit. The only thing that works is the little LED on top.¡± And honestly, I¡¯m impressed the light still turns on a quarter of a century later.
The current owner says they¡¯re selling the model in order to fund a place where people can gather to play games, ¡°where the entire family can enjoy, people can meet other people, talk with people who feel uncomfortable with other people, and make the visitors feel young again.¡± Which sounds lovely.
But be sure before you buy. The sales page makes clear there¡¯s no-takes-backsies.
¡°I do not run a shop, please, no refunds if the console is not to your liking.¡±
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