Cross-posted to PlayStation Age, but this community is much more active and gets more traffic. I'm hoping that somebody at either place has more info on these two apparent rarities.

I was recently browsing an independent game shop and noticed a title called Pocket Pool among a bunch of other PSP titles. I realized that I'd never seen or even heard of it before, and that the price was $19.99- twice what the next hghest PSP game in the store was being offered at. It was in nice shape and complete, so I bought it. One of the those general rules of collecting is that if it's something you've never seen before, buy it. Looking it up online reveals very few copies, or even really any mention at all anywhere. One mention on the Retrogaming Roundtable claims that it is very rare, one of the rarest US PSP releases. There aren't many copies on Ebay, but is it really one of the rarest US releases?

Now, I did a bit of further research, and an unsourced yet seemingly accurate claim on Wikipedia makes mention of the game having had a companion UMD movie released called Dream Models. Pocket Pool being a pool version of The Guy Game (without nudity), and Dream Models being a simple video and slideshow of the girls from Pocket Pool. I purchased the one copy I could find online (sealed!), but wanted to ask the greater PlayStation collecting community about the general rarity of these two titles. Anything at all that can be related is of interest.

Hi LS2016. My own experience is that Pocket Pool is not a common game for PSP, but is not necessarily a specially "rare" game. Personally, I'd rate it a 7 out of 10 on a rarity scale. I've seen copies in shops around me, but it really seems to depend on the region you are in. It was an Eidos game so while it was not a main game for the company, it was not one of those games from a fly-by-night studio that went bankrupt soon after the game came out. My guess is that there was only a single print run of these as well.

If you want more information, please feel free to grab the PSP collecting checklist and collecting guide I made a couple of years ago. The link is below. As far as I know, I have the only complete US PSP UMD game set. I had to spend a LOT of time verifying all physical releases in the US as no comprehensive checklist existed at the time. The link to my original thread is also below.

PSP Checklist: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ixkwki...

Original Thread: http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

Also, I have no experience or knowledge of the "Dream Models" movie being packaged with Pocket Pool. I can't find any business association between Eidos and Geneon/Conspiracy Games that made "Dream Models." Also, Dream Models came out in 2006 while Pocket Pool was released in 2007, so I don't imagine they would be released together. I'd be surprised if any relationship between them existed at the publishing level due to the mature nature/nudity of the Dream Models movie. However, I can imagine some company downstream packaging the games together (think shrinkwrapping them together) in order to sell both titles, which likely didn't fly off the shelves on their own.

Looks like there are 7 copies on Amazon and 9 on eBay right now so not the rarest gaming title of all time but it is uncommon. It looks to be of similar rarity to hexyz force and monster kingdom jewel summoner.

I actually think Yu-Gi-Oh tag force 3 (PAL version) is rarer than pocket pool. Not a U.S release though so not sure if it counts.

There's only one truly rare PSP game (or item) and that's the Hilton Training disc. I think only 3-5 are known to exist, all though they were shipped to all of the hotels for training.

I guess one of the 3-5 known to exist is up for sale right now. This seller claims 500 were made

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-DEM...-

I don’t think the link is working but, to be clear, the 3-5 I’m talking about are the ones in collector hands and about 500 does sound about right.  I imagine a bunch were thrown away and handhelds were probably taken by managers and just given to their kids.  Regardless, it is a licensed UMD and some perfectionist completionists don’t consider a set complete without one.

 

Fixed the link. Not sure why it copied like that. Not something I'd personally shell out $500 for. Glad I'm not a completionist collector.

What's the rarest PSP game besides this? And is this really a game or like a movie type thing?

Wow! Thank you so much for the quick and very informative response! I have downloaded those  guides and am immensely impressed at your efforts. You've done a great thing in sharing that knowledge. Since you're definitely the guy to ask, what do you make of the following:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070...

...it's the archived version of the Conspiracy games website, and it does seem to indicate a connection between Pocket Pool (the image is the same from the game) and how the same company was also distributing the Dream Models UMD. Which does seem to confirm what is claimed on the Wikipedia page for Pocket Pool:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Pool

...but that same page also has the odd claim that the game was originally going to have the GGW license, but it's also unsupported. Do you know if that's true?

Now in terms of rarity, Pocket Pool being an R7 or so makes sense, and I can totally see it being something that didn't sell well if at all in certain regions. All I know is that I'd never seen it prior to finding it.  How rare is the Dream Models UMD itself? I can't seem to find anything online about it beyond it being mentioned on a few checklists. Further thoughts are most welcome.

Have you ever seen it in person? I'm also in Maryland and never have until this instance. I do recall seeing Hexyz at a local EB Games when it came out. Somebody had traded one in. Hexyz is mentioned on almost every online PSP rarity discussion while Pocket Pool almost never is. Kinda makes me think that this might be a stealth rarity.
 

Which game? I've never seen pocket pool (then again I've never been looking for it). I have seen Yu-Gi-Oh tag force 3 once in a good will shoved in the corner amongst a bunch of books. Didn't realize how rare it was until later. I just picked it up because it was $2 and a Yu-Gi-Oh game and I'm a big Yu-Gi-Oh fan.

I have never seen hexyz force in person. I've seen monster kingdom jewel summoner once but not complete. Pocket pool could be one of those games people have lying around and once it gets a little hype a ton come out of the wood work and it's not super rare anymore. Ivy the kiwi is a great example of this. It was a pretty unknown Wii game with few copies online. Then it got talked about and now there are a decent amount of copies online (although still not a super crazy amount but definitely more than before people started talking about it).

I meant Pocket Pool. You're definitely right that this could actually be something that's merely uncommon at best, but that absolutely nobody cares about. This is just the first time in a long while that I've encountered anything that I hadn't previously seen, and which also seems to have some sort of odd UMD sister release.
 

I’m not an expert on this game, or for the PSP.  I just know it’s rare so I keep my eyes open for it.  $550 actually seems like a good deal.  I think one or possibly two have sold on here for more than that on here.
 

I feel like there are lots of PSP games like this waiting to be discovered or talked about. The PSP library is huge and largely un-talked about. Not only are there rare titles waiting to be discovered but there are probably some hidden gems too. Heck, the DS still had a couple hidden gems that hadn't been discovered until a couple years ago (looking at you drone tactics).

Time for someone to do the ole flippity flip. Have fun ladies and gents

This is the third Hilton I've seen publically for sale.  I have one of the three.  This should be understood to be a lesser copy because they usually come with a special PSP (or at least a PSP with a custom OS/Memory Card combo) that allows the game to run.  It will not run on a stock OS/Mem card combo.

~$500 seems about right since you won't be able to play the game.  It might be a good deal for someone who wants a complete set in name only.  
 

Yeah, you're almost certainly right. I can easily see a lot of gems that have so far flown under the radar. It might be the same for UMD releases. I can't imagine that very many people are even collecting for those. I also just attached a clear shot of the two- and both do seem to be by the same company/developer. Almost a shame that the UMD is sealed, or I'd be able to quickly verify what the Wikipedia article claims.
 

There's a difference between rarity and demand/high prices. You can have some very rare variant or shovelware game but it might not fetch much at all if no one cares. I don't see UMD movie releases ever becoming super collectible or fetching too much. After all, they're movies, not games.

I'm curious, has anyone made a good PSP hidden gems list? I haven't played enough PSP games to determine which should make the cut, and I didn't own a PSP when it first came out so idk which good games were already well known and not hidden.

Well, all things considered, I wonder if the PSP will be like the Saturn in that it might have some really good games that go mostly forgotten and could even be worth serious money, but won't be because the games are locked in frail media and hardware is hard to repair once it fails.

It's useless without the accompanying memory stick though.

Although lots of Exertainment games happily sell without the cycle, so maybe it would still be sought.    Still a few days left too.

 

So I'm going to eat my words on this.  I'm going to change my list to say that the Pocket Pool was published/distributed by Conspiracy Games instead of Eidos.  I'm saying this because all of the actual copies have conspiracy games on the cover.  I'll update my checklist on the next update with that.

Now in terms of the dual packaging, I'll wait until I see an actual physical specimen until I say that it exists, but it is possible since both discs were published by CG.

In regards to movie UMDs, there is no good checklist for those as (in my guess based on experience) there are at least 1,000+ of them.  Sony was WAY more relaxed in their standards for printing UMD movies as evidenced from all of the softcore porn that made its way to the PSP via the Sony UMD pressing facilities.  I have no interest in collecting the movies and have zero knowledge of what is and isn't rare on UMD movies.  
 

I think the PSP actually has potential to be a big collectible system down the road. It's a handheld, one that was way ahead of it's time, it has a huge library, a good one at that, and games are still relatively inexpensive. Add on top of it that it had a decent amount of gamers who bought it when it came out, and you have the ingredients for a hot collectible system.

On the flip side, I don't think we'll ever see PS Vita titles ever get up to crazy prices. It's nothing compared to the PSP.

Depends on your definition of crazy.  Not sure where you draw the line, but MMA Supremacy was flirting with $100 a few years ago.

Also haven't paid too much mind to PSP prices to know which ones would be higher priced.   I gave up on dirty reselling those when they didn't move at 2 years worth of shows in a row and blew them out to a loyal customer to get rid of them.
 

$100 isn't that crazy. I bet there's at least one game on every system that is worth $100. I'm thinking more about NES and SNES where you have lots of $100+ games, then some $1000 ones, and even $10k+.

Hmm just checked price charting and the PS Vita has a bunch of limited edition games going for $100+. I may be wrong lol. I just never hear anyone talking about collecting for PS Vita.

I got this game sealed in an amazing bundle of DS/PSP stuff from a buddy. He gets samples of games for from his job and passes along the ones he doesn't play or when he's done with them. I wonder if this game has a legit y-seal or shrink, I have a couple of psp games sealed that were shrink wrapped from the factory. I'll have to see when I get home because I'd like to know if it's legit for the future. It's been 3 years since getting the games and it turns out the ones that were sealed in the bundle, out of the large stack most were, ended up being some very valueable ones so I was pretty excited.

Definitely a niche market, but the collectors are there.   I sell a decent amount of Vita at shows.