Rare Pokémon game that deletes itself found 20 years later
A rare Nintendo DS cartridge connected to the 2005 Pokémon game PokéPark Fishing Contest DS has appeared on eBay, drawing bids of more than $9,000. The game matters to preservationists because it was designed as a temporary Download Play experience and effectively deleted itself after limited use, making original material exceptionally scarce.
Players caught Pokémon and earned scores based on size, level and rarity, which could be submitted at Pokémon Centre locations in Japan. The game first ran at a Japanese theme park for six months, then at events and shops, but became inaccessible after 12 hours or when the DS was switched off; while fans recreated it in 2021, the original ROM is not publicly archived, and it remains unclear whether the auctioned cartridge contains the full game or only score-submission data.
In short
- A rare self-expiring Pokémon DS game cartridge is bidding above $9,000.
- Preservationists hope to prevent it disappearing into a private collection.
- The cartridge may not contain the complete original game.
Explained simply
PokéPark Fishing Contest DS was a Pokémon game released in 2005 for Nintendo's DS handheld console, available only in Japan. What made it unusual was that it was designed to self-destruct, automatically erasing itself from the cartridge after limited use, which means very few original copies are likely to have survived to the present day.
The game worked differently from standard Pokémon titles. Players caught Pokémon in fishing competitions and earned scores based on their catches, which could be submitted at Pokémon Centre locations throughout Japan. It originally ran at a theme park for six months, then appeared at various events and shops, but the cartridge became unplayable after 12 hours of use or whenever the DS was switched off.
Because the game was designed to delete itself, the original has never been preserved in any public archive, making any surviving cartridge valuable to video game preservationists and historians. Fans created an unofficial recreation in 2021, but the authentic version remains inaccessible. This leaves original cartridges as the only remaining physical evidence of what the complete game contained.