TOKYO — Got Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross? Oh, I’m sorry — your collection isn’t complete until you have this, too.
That’s a copy of Radical Dreamers, in the flesh. Square released this game exclusively on the Bandai Satellaview, an add-on for the Japanese Super NES that let users download games from their satellite TV hookups. You inserted the BS-X cartridge into your Super Famicom, and put in an 8 megabit memory card to save game data. So, of course, while it’s relatively easy to find these cards in Tokyo, finding one with the game you want on it is near-impossible — especially when it’s a highly desirable one like this. This is the first copy I’ve ever seen in years of looking.
Radical Dreamers is sort of a graphical text adventure, in which the player reads a story with accompanying graphic stills and selects actions from a menu. Its story served as the inspiration for Chrono Cross, and it’s the first time that several of Yasunori Mitsuda’s themes from that game appeared. It has never been re-released.
But it can be yours at Mandarake in Nakano, for a mere $550. (The price is going up as the dollar drops, so cash in now.)
__Note: __As several readers have pointed out in the comments, I perpetuated a longstanding urban legend by saying that Bandai had something to do with Satellaview. It does not.
Image: Chris Kohler/Wired.com