Twenty Years Later a Seemingly Lost Pokémon PokePark Fishing Contest DS Cartridge Surfaces for Nearly Nine Thousand Dollars

Photo credit: Tiramisu090401
A Nintendo DS development cartridge listed on eBay for just under $9,100 has collectors and preservationists watching the auction closely. The cart powers on to a Japanese-language screen that describes a high-score ranking communication program. Fans believe the hardware connects to PokéPark Fishing Contest DS, a short-lived promotional title from 2005 that disappeared almost as soon as players finished their sessions.

Visitors at Japan’s PokéPark theme park in Nagoya in the summer of 2005 could download a fishing mini-game directly onto their Nintendo DS from the comfort of their seats. Download stations appeared at Pokémon Centers and other events across the country a little later. You’d toss a digital fishing line into a river that ran directly into the sea on the top screen, with Pokémon silhouettes floating just beneath the surface. When your line landed, you’d furiously press the A button to reel it in as soon as possible. Your score was based on the Pokémon’s size, level, and rarity. Water-type Pokémon like as Magikarp, Feebas, Gyarados, Dratini, Goldeen, and, let’s be honest, a host of others were in the race. You could carry up to 5 catches at one time. Top scores were displayed on machines inside Pokémon Centers for everyone to see.

The game was designed such that you would lose everything as soon as your DS turned off or after 12 hours of gaming, as there was no permanent save option. The park only lasted a few months, and after all of the events were completed, the game was little more than a memory for old-timers, some images of the download kiosks, and a few stray high score lists. However, a fan was able to replicate it in 2021 using current technology.

Now, a physical copy of the game has surfaced in Germany as part of a private collection for sale. The vendor can’t explain much about how it wound up in the collection, other than that it was part of a much larger harvest of artifacts. Tests have been done on a standard DS unit, and the ranking screen appears after a clean boot. The big question is whether the cart contains the real fishing game or just a tool for uploading scores to the leaderboards.

A group of fans immediately began discussing a pooled purchase, hoping to seize hold of the cart and dump its contents, ensuring that the experience would not be lost in another private collection. At the present, the price is just over $9,000. As you would think, there isn’t much time remaining in this auction. The first PokéPark only lasted a season, yet it remains one of those memories that many people treasure today. Its fishing mini-game was only one of many attractions designed to keep the series in the spotlight between major releases.
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