History KeepCirculatingTheTapes / Rescued

* For years, the vast majority of ''Oyako Club'' was very rare due to a lack of a home media or streaming release. This finally changed when Eiken began streaming select episodes of the series on their official [[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLugBVcBml6ZO8bAj_DUMvwMOR_AFQpOMq YouTube channel]] on November 1, 2021. Since then, the company has uploaded episodes on a weekly basis.

* ''VideoGame/TooHuman'' is a particularly surprising case -- due to losing a lawsuit with Creator/EpicGames in 2013 over the use of the the latter's UsefulNotes/{{game engine}} Unreal 3, Silicon Knights was order to recall and destroy all unsold copies of games they had created using the engine; those being ''Too Human'' and ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny''. Silicon Knights, being a skeleton crew by this point, didn't have the resources to actually pull this off and thus simply delisted the game from the Xbox storefront. In 2019, however, to everyone's surprise, the game was added to the Xbox One's backwards compatibility list and relisted on the Xbox store - for free, to boot. When Major Nelson was announcing the addition, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDODX8dZa4c&t=5408s he even stated]] that it was "One I bet you never thought would happen." (''VideoGame/XMenDestiny'', which was wrapped up in the same lawsuit, will likely remain MIA due to the X-Men license.)
* After years of being insanely hard to attain out of Japan, the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' finally broke through in May of 2015 with Playism's digital release of Double Dealing Character, plus a couple of fangames. Whether other games in the series will follow suit remains to be seen.
** Then, in November 3, 2017, ZUN announced that the two most recent entries: ''Hidden Star in Four Seasons'' and ''Antinomy of Common Flowers'' will be released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Soon after, the official Steam page for the former was revealed, and ''[=HSiFS=]'' was finally released in November 17, 2017. ''[=AoCF=]'' was also confirmed to be released on Steam worldwide in 2018.
** As of this writing (November 2019), every game from ''[[VideoGame/DoubleSpoilerTouhouBunkachou Double Spoiler]]'' to the most recent ''[[VideoGame/TouhouKikeijuuWilyBeastAndWeakestCreature Wily Beast and Weakest Creature]]'' had been released on Steam. The exceptions are ''[[VideoGame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade Hopeless Masquerade]]'' (unknown reason at the time of this writing) and ''[[VideoGame/TouhouShinpirokuUrbanLegendInLimbo Urban Legend in Limbo]]'' (likely due to the existence of the official UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 port).

* When Creator/VizMedia took over publishing duties for ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the website's flash content was converted to [=HTML5=], with any that couldn't make the transition instead rendered as [=YouTube=] showcases. In addition, while the original ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' website was officially backed up, the original InterfaceScrew urls were lost, and the flash content was rendered unplayable due to the shutdown of UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash on all popular browsers. To rectify this, fans made ''[[https://bambosh.github.io/unofficial-homestuck-collection/ The Unofficial Homestuck Collection]]'', a software package preserving the original site's format and playability by including Adobe Flash Player, as well as keeping an archive of many of Andrew Hussie's related comics, stories, forums, and blog posts for needed context.

* When Creator/VizMedia took over publishing duties for ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', the website's flash content was converted to [=HTML5=], with any that couldn't make the transition instead rendered as [=YouTube=] showcases. In addition, while the original ''Website/MSPaintAdventures'' website was officially backed up, the original InterfaceScrew urls were lost, and the flash content was rendered unplayable due to the shutdown of AdobeFlash on all popular browsers. To rectify this, fans made ''[[https://bambosh.github.io/unofficial-homestuck-collection/ The Unofficial Homestuck Collection]]'', a software package preserving the original site's format and playability by including Adobe Flash Player, as well as keeping an archive of many of Andrew Hussie's related comics, stories, forums, and blog posts for needed context.

* The ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' shorts "Marshmallow's Last Stand" and "A Jumping Jack Contest" were removed from the site for unknown reasons (though [[http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Club_Aquatica_Interview_-_29_Oct_2003 an interview]] reveals that they "had to" remove them for undisclosed personal reasons and want to put them back), but they have been recovered on numerous other websites, and on the Homestar Runner: Everything Else Vol. 2 DVD.

* ''The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm'', a George Pal superproduction that was one of only two non-documentary films shot in the specialty Cinerama format[[note]]the other being ''How the West Was Won''[[/note]], has never had a DVD release; Turner Classic Movies occasionally airs it but only in a letterbox format which distorts the wraparound imagery. While it was believed the original negative was too water-damaged to restore without prohibitive expense for a niche title, [[https://www.in70mm.com/news/2020/grimm/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR29rxmuNjjFVDJfPKefbCYKGqqjHPG4Yd1l63QAA7xJu-KTPJTxFyq5xg8 this proved not to be the case]]. Warner Archive's 4K restoration is tentatively slated for 2022, and will feature both letterboxed and non-distorted versions.

* Music/PinkFloyd's cancelled non-album single "Scream Thy Last Scream"/"Vegetable Man" went unreleased for decades after being junked. They were among the last songs completed with Music/SydBarrett, who was already [[CreatorBreakdown so far off the deep end]] at that time that the surviving members of the band chose to [[BuryYourArt withhold them from release]] due to the songs being too voyeuristically illustrative of his mental state. The tracks would eventually surface on the 2016 BoxedSet ''The Early Years 1965--1972''.

** For PC gaming, UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GOGDotCom offer some old games that are either {{abandonware}} or will have compatibility issues if people try to run from the original.

* The arcade version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' was rereleased on UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade for a while, until Empire Interactive went bankrupt, also erasing hopes of a rerelease of the second game. Luckily, all three arcade games were rescued in the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} CompilationRerelease ''Double Dragon Trilogy''.

** Likewise, the [[GaidenGame spin-off]] games ''[[VideoGame/AnElderScrollsLegendBattlespire Battlespire]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsAdventuresRedguard Redguard]]'' were victims of this trope until August 2015 when [[https://www.gog.com/news/release_the_elder_scrolls they were made available]] on Website/GOGDotCom. As a bonus, versions of ''Arena'' and ''Daggerfall'' that have a DOS emulator included and set up were also made available to anyone that bought another ''Elder Scrolls'' game on GOG.

* The entire ''VideoGame/RaySeries'', especially ''[=RayCrisis=]'', were lost in time a few past-generation console or limited PC releases, with ''[=RayStorm=] HD'' being only available on Xbox 360 outside of Japan as a downloadable title. However, they've been brought back to [=iOS=] and Android systems based on their arcade counterparts.

* For nearly two decades, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' didn't see any kind of re-release, so the original release was the only way to legally play it. In 2020, it was finally re-released as a part of the time-limited ''[[CompilationRerelease Super Mario 3D All-Stars]].

* ''Film/{{Tron}}'' lapsed into this after its 20th anniversary DVD release went out of print around 2008. In 2010, when the sequel ''Film/TronLegacy'' hit theaters, the film was reaching prices of up to $215 on Amazon, and even Netflix was having availability problems (the lack of re-release at such a propicious time [[http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/11/10/tron-dvd-is-hard-to-find/ was questioned]], [[http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/11/16/tron-dvd/ raised]] [[http://io9.com/#!5690466/is-disney-deliberately-keeping-tron-out-of-print-on-dvd theories]], [[http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/new-strategy-for-tron-dvd/ and boosted piracy]]). But at least it got a re-release, on both DVD and Blu-Ray, when ''Legacy'' hit shelves in 2011.

* During the 1990s, the Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN had an [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil anti-piracy awareness message]] to help viewers of their programs recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It included a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette (also called inlays), and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested in taking a scan of the ad (or even posting it online). In February 14, 2022, an [=YouTube=] channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLI9SfUpe8 Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia]]", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian [=VHSs=] he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video. The Lost Media Archive Wikia even had an article about it [[https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Southeast_Asian_VHS_Inlay_Warning_Messages here,]] which made a few months after its discovery.

* During the 1990s, the Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN had an [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil anti-piracy awareness message]] to help viewers of their programs recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It includes a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette (also called inlays), and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested in taking a scan of the ad (or even posting it online). In February 14, 2022, an [=YouTube=] channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLI9SfUpe8 Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia]]", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian [=VHSs=] he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video.

* The Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN, during the 1990s, had an [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil anti-piracy awareness message]] to help viewers of their programs to recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It includes a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette (also called inlays), and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested to take a scan of the ad (or even post it online). In February 14, 2022, an [=YouTube=] channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLI9SfUpe8 Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia]]", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian [=VHSs=] he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video.

* The Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN, during the 1990s, had an anti-piracy awareness promo to help viewers of their programs to recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It includes a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette, and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested to take a scan of the ad. In February 14, 2022, an [=YouTube=] channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLI9SfUpe8 Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia]]", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian [=VHSs=] he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video.

* The Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN, during the 1990s, had an anti-piracy awareness promo to help viewers of their programs to recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It includes a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette, and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested to take a scan of the ad. In February 14, 2022, an [=YouTube=] channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLI9SfUpe8 Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia]", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian [=VHSs=] he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video.

* The Malaysian VHS/VCD company Berjaya HVN, during the 1990s, had an anti-piracy awareness promo to help viewers of their programs to recognize a genuine HVN VHS. It includes a genuine label hologram (either a Disney hologram for Disney tapes or just a white sticker with copies of the HVN logo on it) on either the spine of the cover or the cassette's spine, a blue videocassette skin, etc. However, it was inside the VHS which stores the cassette, and now HVN's tapes are long out-of-print, with seemingly no one being interested to take a scan of the ad. In February 14, 2022, an YouTube channel named "The Video Archive" posted a video called "Quick-Fire Collections: Malaysia", in which the video uploader showcased a few Malaysian VHSs he bought and also showed the inlay warning message for a while. However, these were taken from too far away, the texts weren't clearly readable and parts of them were hidden by the fingers, but at least the inlay warning messages were finally discovered. CIC Video Malaysia did a similar thing for their genuine VHS release, but like the HVN one, it wasn't discovered for many years until The Video Archive showed it on an video.

* Disney Channel licensed an English dub of ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'', specifically the season ''Joys of Seasons'', to air in certain parts of Asia. Once the dub stopped airing, it became extremely hard to find until iflix picked up the dub for streaming on their service... and even then, [[NoExportForYou they're region-blocked outside of certain Asian countries]] and they only have 50 of the season's 100 episodes. In 2020, the official English [=YouTube=] channel for ''Pleasant Goat'' uploaded all 100 dubbed ''Joys of Seasons'' episodes.

* ''Anime/RingingBell'': A major factor with this movie being very obscure in the West is because the 1983 English Dub was only sold on VHS tapes (back when affording an actual VHS was expensive). The VHS tapes later went out of print making it difficult for Americans to watch the film. Once Discotek Media picked up the movie in 2013, it was able to get re-released on DVD which includes audios tracks for the English and Japanese versions and subtitles for both languages. The movie is also available to watch on Amazon Prime and Pluto TV in America.

* For almost 20 years, the English Dub for both of Creator/{{Sanrio}}'s feature films adaptations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Manga/{{Unico}} series (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'') was only released on VHS which later went out of print in recent years. Once Main/TheNewTens rolled around, Creator/DiscotekMedia was able to re-release both Unico movies on DVD in the West (complete with an English and Japanese audio track). As a bonus, both Unico movies gained a special Blu-Ray boxset called "Unico Double Feature" which contains both movies on two separate discs. Fittingly, both movies were re-released a year after the original manga series gained an official English translation (as a result of a successful kickstarter by a group of Western fans) in 2012. Both movies are also available to watch on Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, and Tubi.

* For almost 20 years, the English Dub for both of Creator/{{Sanrio}}'s feature films adaptations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Manga/{{Unico}} series (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'') was only released on VHS which later went out of print in recent years. Once Main/TheNewTens rolled around, Creator/DiscotekMedia was able to re-release both Unico movies on DVD in the West (complete with an English and Japanese audio track). As a bonus, both Unico movies gained a special Blu-Ray boxset called "Unico Double Feature" which contains both movies on two separate discs. Fittingly, both movies were re-released the same year as the original manga series gained an official English translation (as a result of a successful kickstarter by a group of Western fans). Both movies are also available to watch on Amazon Prime.

* For years, ''[[VideoGame/SimCity Sim City 3000]]'' was the only game of the series not to have any sort of legitimate digital release after going out of print. This wasn't because of poor reception or sales, but because it couldn't run on UsefulNotes/DOSBox like its predecessors (and couldn't run natively on modern Windows like Sim City 4 can). After many years of remaining a conspicuous gap in the series, EA and Website/GOGDotCom finally teamed up to bring it back in mid-2016, and this time it's compatible up to and including Windows 10.
* ''VideoGame/JudgementSilversword'' was one of the most sought after UsefulNotes/WonderSwan games, being developed as a homebrew title during the [=WonderWitch=] contest in 2004 and gained a cult following in the shoot 'em up crowd. Due to its obscurity and limited print run, the game could go for upwards of ''hundreds'' of dollars at auction. Its {{gaiden game}}, ''Cardinal Sins'', was released as freeware for the [=WonderSwan=], but not in a form playable on emulators. These games however did see a re-release on the Xbox 360 bundled with their {{spiritual successor}}, ''VideoGame/{{ESCHATOS}}'', albeit was a Japan-only region-free import title, but it was later ported overseas to PC via Steam for a much more wallet-friendly price of $5 USD. It also became bundled with the [=PlayStation=] 4 and Nintendo Switch remasters of ''ESCHATOS''.
* For a time, ''VideoGame/MafiaTheCityOfLostHeaven'' was pulled off Steam due to undisclosed reasons, but was eventually re-released in October 2017 on GOG, albeit without the licensed soundtrack due to issues with the songs.
* Despite being considered one of the greatest and most important videogames of all time and becoming a best-seller for the platform, ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' was only available on the Dreamcast for nearly 20 years after its first release--arguably due to [[AcclaimedFlop the game failing to recoup its high development costs]], which also added to Sega's financial debt that ultimately led them to bow out of the industry as a console maker. Its equally well-regarded sequel, ''Shenmue II'', underperformed in sales[[note]]despite made on a significantly cheaper budget, some of the budget for the first game went into the sequel[[/note]]; the only place to obtain the game outside of the Dreamcast release is the subsequent Xbox port. And even those two releases have their own issues of NoExportForYou: only Europe received both versions of the game; with the Dreamcast release skipping America and the Xbox release skipping Japan. Years later, however, series creator Yu Suzuki (who left Sega to create his own studio, Ys Net) got the license from Sega and enough funding [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell to start production on a long-awaited third entry]]; re-igniting hope from fans that the first two games can finally see a modern re-release someday. These hopes eventually came to fruition in 2018, when Sega announced a UsefulNotes/HighDefinition CompilationRerelease of the first 2 Shemmue games for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and PC.
* For a long time, the only way to experience ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'' -- a Japan-only Xbox game by Creator/FromSoftware about the 47th President of the United States taking on a military coup armed lead by his running man armed with a mini-mecha and red-hot American justice that was deemed "too American to be released in America"[[note]](it was however later explained part of the reason for the game not releasing in the US was the game's use of the Seal of the President of the United States, which is considered illegal when used outside of official government business, so the Seal was redesigned to feature the bald eagle holding a mini-gun and missiles with its talons for the ''XD'' version; the other reason being the the events of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism changed the developer's mind of releasing a game with over-the-top patriotic overtone given the political climate of the time)[[/note]] -- was to import a copy of the game, which became one of the most sought after original Xbox games with prices drastically increasing over time, reaching upwards of hundreds of dollars on auction and online retailers, and buy a Japanese Xbox to play it (or soft-mod a North American one). In 2016, Devolver Digital had expressed interest in localizing the game overseas thanks to popular demand generated from various Let's Plays of the game (especially from [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Super Best Friends]]), and in 2018, this came to pass as they, along with General Arcade, released a remastered version of the game through digital distribution for Xbox One, [=PlayStation=] 4, and PC via Steam and GOG.com for $24.99.
* Until 2018, ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' and ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'' were the only ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' games not to be re-released on modern platforms. ''Escape'' isn't very severe, but ''Curse'' commonly goes for almost $20-$30 for something that should only cost about $10 at the most. In March 2018, ''Curse'' was released on Steam and GOG, and ''Escape'' was released on GOG in June, and later Steam as well.
* Possibly due to copyright issues with the magazine of the same name, as well as the use of the likeness of real-life mercenary John F. Mullins, neither of the classic ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' games (''[[InNameOnly Payback]]'' [[FanonDiscontinuity doesn't count]]) were reissued on Steam, GOG, or other digital storefronts for quite some time. That changed in October 2018, when both games [[https://www.gog.com/news/release_soldier_of_fortune_series made a surprise appearance on GOG]] as part of the service's 10th anniversary celebration.[[labelnote:*]]...All right, ''Payback'' was rereleased, too.[[/labelnote]]
* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'':
** The English version of the first arcade ''VideoGame/{{Puyo Puyo|1992}}'', so obscure that it used to be CommonKnowledge that it was an unlicensed bootleg, is included in the 2019 Nintendo Switch "SEGA Ages" version of the first ''Puyo Puyo''. The closest this version has come to being ported elsewhere is the hidden translation in the Game Gear version (that never left Japan) some 25 years prior.
** Despite the rights to ''Puyo Puyo'' and parent series ''VideoGame/MadouMonogatari'' being divorced following Sega's receipt of the ''Puyo'' series, the vast majority of the ''Madou Monogatari'' games have been released on PC throughout TheNewTens thanks to D4 Enterprise (who owns the rights to the ''Madou Monogatari'' games themselves) working with Sega.
* The only rerelease of ''VideoGame/{{Crystalis}}'' used to be the 2000 port to the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor. This was one of the few games Creator/{{SNK}} originally created for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem rather than for arcades, and their Virtual Console support was usually limited to UsefulNotes/NeoGeo games. (SNK's pre-Neo Geo arcade games, however, are well represented on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork.) This changed with the 2018 release of ''SNK [=40th=] Anniversary Collection'', which includes the NES version of ''Crystalis''.
* ''Keen Dreams'' was often referred to as the "lost chapter" in the ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' series, and follows Billy having a dream where he has to fight a potato king in a vegetable kingdom. It has a confusing rights history -- developed by Softdisk Publishing and published by id Software, with the rights to the game being owned by Flat Rock Software from 2005-2014. The game was considered freeware for quite some time (although this wasn't the case), and copies passed freely between collectors. In 2013, an Android port was made available, but the original game still hasn't been officially released. Instead, the source code was bought by a crowdfunding campaign, and there is an attempt to get the game ported to Steam through its Greenlight program. It was later released on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch [=eShop=] in early 2019.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' had to deal with a complete lack of ports and rereleases compared to other console ''Castlevania'' games of its time for 25 years, until 2019 when SEGA announced the [[http://genesismini.sega.com/ SEGA Genesis Mini]], with ''Bloodlines'' being one of the first games to be announced for the collection and ''then'' releasing it as part of ''Castlevania Anniversary Collection'' for those who didn't want to wait for the Genesis Mini to be released.
* ''VideoGame/TooHuman'' is a particularly surprising case - due to losing a lawsuit with Creator/EpicGames in 2013 over the use of the the latter's UsefulNotes/{{game engine}} Unreal 3, Silicon Knights was order to recall and destroy all unsold copies of games they had created using the engine; those being ''Too Human'' and ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny''. Silicon Knights, being a skeleton crew by this point, didn't have the resources to actually pull this off and thus simply delisted the game from the Xbox storefront. In 2019, however, to everyone's surprise, the game was added to the Xbox One's backwards compatibility list and relisted on the Xbox store - for free, to boot. When Major Nelson was announcing the addition, [[https://youtu.be/xDODX8dZa4c?t=5408 he even stated]] that it was "One I bet you never thought would happen." (''VideoGame/XMenDestiny'', which was wrapped up in the same lawsuit, will likely remain MIA due to the X-Men license.)
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom 64]]''. An original entry to the classic ''Doom'' series that was unfortunately mistaken as just another port of the original ''Doom'' due to the [[SuperTitle64Advance "64" in the title]] has never left the Nintendo 64, and to make things worse, came out around time when ''Turok'' and ''[=GoldenEye=] 007'' were considered state-of-the-art for their time. Thankfully some copies of the original Nintendo 64 cartridges are floating around for a reasonable price on Amazon and [=eBay=], and numerous fans have made remakes that are compatible with Doom source ports. However, in September 2019, Nintendo and Bethesda announced that a remastered port of the original game would be coming to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}}, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and [[UsefulNotes/{{IBMPersonalComputer}} PC]], courtesy of Creator/NightdiveStudios, and included as a pre-order bonus of ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' as an apology for the delaying the game from its original Q4 2019 release.
* The entire ''VideoGame/RaySeries'', especially ''[=RayCrisis=]'', were lost in time a few past-generation console or limited PC releases, with ''[=RayStorm=] HD'' being only available on Xbox 360 outside of Japan as a downloadable title, however, they've been brought back to [=iOS=] and Android systems based on their arcade counterparts.
* The arcade version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' was rereleased on UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade for a while, until Empire Interactive went bankrupt, also erasing hopes of a rerelease of the second game. Luckily, all three arcade games were rescued in the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} CompilationRerelease ''Double Dragon Trilogy''.
* Around August 8, 2019, ''VideoGame/DuckTales: Remastered'' was removed from digital distribution via Xbox LIVE, Wii U [=eShop=], [=PlayStation=] Network followed by the game being removed on Steam days later, leaving many to either hunt down a copy of the console versions or get their hands dirty to play on PC. On March 3, 2020, however, Capcom was able to [[https://delistedgames.com/ducktales-remastered-is-relisted-on-consoles-and-pc/ get the game back]] to digital storefronts.
* Over 6 years after its sudden disappearance, Ubisoft [[https://nintendoeverything.com/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-the-game-complete-edition-official-announcement-and-screenshots-digital-only-price/ announced]] the re-release of ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldTheGame'' on September 10th, 2020, albeit on digital-only fronts outside of the ''Limited Run'' physical editions.
* ''VideoGame/JustDance Summer Party'' is a compilation of all the DLC and Best Buy-exclusive tracks that were released for the game at that point; this was a wise move, as at the time the series was still a Wii exclusive, and the aforementioned DLC was rendered inaccessible due to the shutdown of the Wii Shop Channel in 2019. Despite being a "limited edition", it is still pretty easy to find at reasonable prices.
* Before ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} I'' and ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} I'' and ''II'' were added to [[Website/GOGDotCom GOG]] in March 2019, any Creator/BlizzardEntertainment games older than the original ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' (1998) were largely inaccessible. ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'', ''VideoGame/{{Blackthorne}}'' and ''VideoGame/RockNRollRacing'' were available for free for a time on Blizzard's official website, but the download links have since been removed and there was no way to legally acquire digital copies until 2021, when all three games were rereleased as the ''Blizzard Arcade Collection''.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManTheWilyWars'' was only released in the U.S. and Canada for a brief time on the Sega Channel and had no physical release in those regions whereas the Japanese and European versions were released physically. After the Sega Channel service ended at the end of the Sega Genesis' lifespan, there was no legal way to obtain the game unless you imported and either put up with playing the game in Japanese if you couldn't read the language or playing the game at 5/6 of the original speed. The game would later get another release as one of the games included in the Sega Genesis Mini in 2019 and later as a limited edition reprint by an official partnership with Retro-Bit in 2021 with a few framerate issues ironed out.
* ''VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers'', the prototype to ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', was only released for the Satellaview add-on for the Super Nintendo, and only in Japan, so the only way to keep it in circulation used to be via sharing its ROM. Fortunately, it would eventually see an official worldwide release in 2022, via an HD remaster of ''Chrono Cross'' for Nintendo Switch, [=PlayStation=] 4, Xbox One, and Steam.
* For decades, ''VideoGame/RedEarth'' was the only game made for CP System III arcade board to have never received any kind of home console release. To make matters even worse, while the arcade cabinet was fairly easy to come by in Japan, it wasn't widely distributed overseas, making the game virtually impossible for Western players to get their hands on legitimately. In 2022, Creator/{{Capcom}} announced that the game would receive its first-ever console port in the ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' compilation.

* ''VideoGame/AlisiaDragoon'' never sold well in any territory, making copies of this CultClassic Genesis game somewhat rare. It ''finally'' saw a re-release in 2019 after being included on the Sega Genesis Mini.

** The GBC version of the original ''Harvest Moon GB'' was released on the 3DS Virtual Console in the summer of 2013, which was followed by Virtual Console releases of the second and third 8-bit Game Boy games. The Game Boy Color version of ''VideoGame/LegendOfTheRiverKing'', an obscure fishing-themed game that shares Harvest Moon's developers and publishers, was also re-released on the 3DS VC (on the same day as Harvest Moon GB no less), with its sequel later getting the same treatment.
* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' is long out of print, and was unlikely to ever see rerelease as the sequel (which did not involve the series creators) proved to be a FranchiseKiller. Fortunately, SC's creators were nice enough to make the game Open Source in 2002, and a lovingly made fan version called ''The Ur-Quan Masters'' (the title "Star Control" is still under trademark) is freely downloadable.
** And then Atari re-released it on [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/star_control_1_2 GOG.com]] along with the original.
* The Wii compilation ''Data East Arcade Classics'' was a bit of a surprise, since Creator/DataEast had been defunct for almost a decade by the time of its release. (Most of Data East's assets are handled by a company called G-Mode, who pretty much solely exist to archive their old game library. However, the rights to a few Data East games, including ''VideoGame/{{Karnov}}'', are held by a different company.)
* ''[[VideoGame/TacticsOgre Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together]]'': The [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] version of this classic game never made it to the West due to it being released around the same time the UsefulNotes/PlayStation came into existence, and the [=PS1=] re-release (which did get localized) was super-rare even at launch, not to mention being a notoriously shoddy port (and for English-speaking gamers, a notoriously even-worse translation). Sixteen years later, Creator/SquareEnix released an enhanced remake of the game, overjoying fans and enraging speculators the world over.
* Sierra released VanillaEdition {{Compilation Rerelease}}s of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'', ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'', ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'', and ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' in 2006. The ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' series, on the other hand, wouldn't see daylight until it was [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/quest_for_glory finally]] released on GOG. The compilations themselves are lacking, though. Besides lacking the original versions of their first games (using just their remakes):
** ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'': ''[[VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity Mask of Eternity]]'' (which did eventually get on GOG) wasn't in the compilation, perhaps owing to the game's [[FanonDiscontinuity dubious standing]] among the series fans, making it a case of CanonDiscontinuity.
** ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'': Since the collection shipped on just one CD, they had to use the floppy version of ''Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out'' instead of the talkie CD version, and ''Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail'' is missing entirely, so as far as Al Lowe is concerned, the definitive ''Leisure Suit Larry'' compilation is still the Ultimate Pleasure Pack, which includes the talkie version of ''Larry 6'', as well as ''Love for Sail'' and ''Larry's Casino''.
*** GOG.com's version of the collection eventually included talkie version of ''Larry 6'' (after initially claiming that they couldn't make it run well enough on modern computers), and at the same time as that, they released ''Larry 7'' as a separate purchase (after a claim from Creator/{{Codemasters}} that they didn't own the rights to it).
* For the longest time, late-entering fans of the ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series had an extremely tough time getting ahold of it. The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube version went out of print, and the game is so well-loved used copies would almost '''never''' pop up anywhere. They were eventually granted a Wii re-release of the game with enhanced controls in 2009.
** The sequel, ''Pikmin 2'' was hit harder, as those lucky to find that game at a local [=GameStop=] would have to fork out $40, while Amazon had a minimum asking price for $60 used. A enhanced Wii version was also made, and was released shortly after the Wii version first game in 2009... but only for European and Japanese markets. It took until 2012 for the Wii version to be released in America under the Nintendo Selects label, for a much more reasonable price of $20. In both cases, the fandom rejoiced.
* ''VideoGame/{{ICO}}'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' sold poorly on the [=PS2=], and are some of the rarest games on the console. But then in Fall 2011, Sony released a compilation pack for the [=PS3=] containing both games on one disc, with loads of bonus features, and the UK release of ''ICO'' instead of the American release (which had easier and altered puzzles than the UK/JPN versions). This pleased both those who had played the games before, and those who never got to play them due to their rarity. ''Shadow of the Colossus'' would later receive a built-from-the-ground-up (but still faithful to the original) remake for the [=PS4=] in 2018, this time handled by Bluepoint Games with assistance from SIE Japan Studio.
* Remember the old Toys/{{Bionicle}} games on the LEGO website? Remember how cool they were? Now remember how sad you were when they were taken down? Cry no more, Bionicle fans, the ''Bionicle Online Game Archive'' has full working versions of every Bionicle game released online by LEGO, ever. The Bionicle creators and LEGO have turned a blind eye to the website, so no links to it here, but rest assured Google is a very helpful friend.
** LEGO has a reputation to take games off their web pages, but leave the SWF files buried in the FTP. As such, once they're removed, they still have a chance of being recovered. In most cases the Wayback Machine will do the trick, but an interesting case was the ''VideoGame/LEGOIsland Comic Adventures''. While they were somewhat functional on the Wayback Machine, they usually froze on some minigames. They were thought to be lost forever, until a fan from [=BZPower=] finally found the sources and put them up for download.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' was for the longest time almost impossible to find on any modern PC digital distribution method. However, finally the game has seen a full re-release through GOG.com, which along with being configured to work effortlessly on modern machines, includes tons of extra stuff to boot. The first game eventually followed suit in mid 2015 with ''System Shock: Enhanced Edition'' which allows the game to be played natively on modern Windows operating systems with some extra enhancements such as widescreen and mouse-looking.
* In a strange -- though brief -- case of circulating the tapes, Rare's original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' trilogy were mysteriously delisted from the Wii Virtual Console in November 2012, with Nintendo giving no reason as to why. Nintendo owns all the rights to the games (in contrast to the majority of Nintendo games developed by Rare), new ''Donkey Kong (Country)'' games continue to be produced for their platforms, and Rare's Game Boy ''Donkey Kong Land'' trilogy was re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console, so the removal of the games was certainly not because of licensing issues. Thankfully [[NetworkToTheRescue Nintendo re-released the DKC trilogy on the Wii U Virtual Console]] throughout late 2014/early 2015 (it was even re-listed on the Wii Virtual Console as well!), but it's still odd that one of Nintendo's biggest franchises could see their games fall under such a situation (despite the time period of their lack of legal availability being nowhere near as severe as other entries in this list).
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' was absent from the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole for years, for [[http://web.archive.org/web/20100210103051/http://www.rareware.com/extras/scribes/18sep09/index.html whatever]] [[https://twitter.com/RareLtd/status/25013528136 reason]]. The most popular theory due to its absence were the inclusions of ''VideoGame/{{Jetpac}}'' and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' as playable mandatory mini-games within the game (you have to play them if you want to fight the final boss and complete the game, so removing them isn't an option unless they were to heavily alter the game's code)--''Jetpac'' as it's owned by Rare themselves, and ''Donkey Kong'' as the version Rare ported to ''[=DK64=]'' is the original arcade version, to which Nintendo doesn't own the rights. An alternative theory was Rareware's N64 games need a certain code to run on Virtual Console that Rare may have access to, but Nintendo may not--which was evident when people have tried to inject Wii Virtual Console files with [=ROMs=] of Rare's N64 games to no or very little success. Fortunately, the situation was eventually remedied when ''Donkey Kong 64'' was released on the Wii U's Virtual Console in April 2015.
* Ironically enough, ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s debut games ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' used to suffer from this in the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS era due to the Game Boy Advance and DS/DS Lite being discontinued, ruling out the remakes (''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'' on the [=GBA=]), and the original games not being released on 3DS UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole (likely because trading, which is a major, nearly mandatory part of the game, can't be done without a Link Cable, a peripheral exclusive to the Game Boy [Color]). With the Johto and Hoenn gap being closed on remakes playable on the Nintendo 3DS, they were the only Pokémon games not playable on it in either original or remade form. However, they were released on 3DS Virtual Console (with trading and multiplayer battling intact, now done through local wireless connections as opposed to Link Cables) for their [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] on February 27, 2016. ''Yellow'' also suffered from this problem even worse, as almost none of its differences were implemented into the remakes, but it too was re-released. The following year, the original forms of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' were released on the eShop in September 2017, once again being able to trade and battle wirelessly (the former also being possible with ''Red'', ''Blue'', and ''Yellow'' once the Time Capsule is unlocked), as well as retaining the ability to use Mystery Gift via the system's built-in infrared port (a feature the 3DS shares with the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, as the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance dropped the infrared port). Then, ''VideoGame/PokemonCrystal'' was announced for a Virtual Console release on the 3DS eShop in January 2018.
* After its unfortunate initial performance in 1995, ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' saw no re-release in America for nearly two decades, not even on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole. Its Masterpiece demo in the Japanese version of ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', and its appearance in a Nintendo Direct press release regarding the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console (losing its position to -- of all games -- ''VideoGame/PunchOut Featuring Mr. Dream''), were even explicitly removed from international versions! Rumors abound as to why this was this was the case, the most common ones involving legal issues over [[{{Sampling}} its music]], but nothing was ever confirmed by Nintendo and plenty of arguments against those theories surfaced too. [[note]]The real reason for it being kept from a Western re-release for so long was actually due to concerns involving its frequent use of flashing and flickering effects, which had to be blurred in the Virtual Console release[[/note]] At any rate, it became very rare to find someone who actually played the game on a console rather than just emulating it. Being a very famous game, during the years where it was difficult to find, it was selling for anywhere between $80 and ''$200'', making it a true standout. Finally, after plenty of patience and plenty of waiting, Nintendo at last announced its release for the Wii U Virtual Console, later making good on their promise in July 2013. There is still no word on its sequel, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.
* ''VideoGame/Shantae2002'' was a very late release UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor game by Creator/WayForwardTechnologies. It sold less than 100k copies during its release (only about 77k, if numbers are to be believed), [[AcclaimedFlop but word of mouth (and reviews) spread stories of the game's excellent quality]]. Copies routinely go for ''over $100'' on eBay, and people who attempted to play the game through [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil slightly cheaper methods]] were out of luck, as the most common Game Boy Color emulator did not even ''run'' it correctly. Its rarity was even lampshaded by WFT themselves on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STfLWs6XGkM official Risky's Revenge soundtrack release video]]. Come 2013, when WFT announced that they were working on a port of the game for the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console, and eventually released said port in July that year. Another enhanced port of the game was later for the Nintendo Switch in 2021.
* For nearly two decades, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' didn't see any kind of re-release, so the original release was the only way to legally play it. In 2020, it finally got re-released as a part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
* ''VideoGame/TheRedStar'' had been this for the longest time, until a recent PSN re-release.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceHarrier'' received a Master System port, and its sequel received a Genesis port, and that was it. As years passed, the series got many references in other video games, such as ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' (which has a whole segment that plays like ''Space Harrier'', complete with a pop remix of the main theme) and ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed]]'' (which has a remix of the main theme in the final race track), but no sign of a port or remake. Because of these references and homages, fans constantly demanded some kind of re-release of the series, and so Sega finally listened and released a 3DS port of the first game in late 2013.
* ''VideoGame/ChuTeng'', a sequel to the similarly obscure ''Eastern Mind'' from the same creator as ''LSD'', was for a long time considered the most obscure game ever and a lost video game. A massive investigation began in 2013 to find it, but Osamu Sato himself told them he didn't own a copy and the only collector known to have it refused to upload the content. Eventually someone revealed that they had a copy in their attic and uploaded the game.
* Creator/LucasArts, Creator/DoubleFine, Creator/{{Sony}}, and Website/GOGDotCom have recently embarked on a quest to rescue largely popular games in the former's library that have been stuck in circulation limbo. To wit:
** Up until 2015, ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' was known for being notoriously hard to obtain, as there had been exactly zero re-releases up until that point, and the game suffered from extremely low sales (it was released during the same time as the more anticipated titles of '98). Thankfully Double Fine released a remastered version of the game was released in February 2015 for Sony systems ([[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 PS4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita PS Vita]]) and personal computers (Windows, Mac, and Linux).
** ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' goes for notoriously high prices, hardly ever going below $50 in the US. There was a DVD re-release in Europe, but it too has gone out of print, though it's somewhat cheaper ($30 onward). Frustratingly, this almost wasn't the case -- [[https://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/385237807230230528 some sources report that an HD remake was 80% done before it was shelved, never to be greenlit.]] Like ''Grim Fandango'', a remaster for the [=PS4=], PS Vita, and PC was released by Double Fine in March 2016.
** ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxHitTheRoad''. Outside of its CD-ROM re-release in 1995, the game did not receive another re-release (except in Europe) due to [=LucasArts=] dropping the license for ''Sam and Max'' games. Not even on Steam or Good Old Games (GOG chose to put the Telltale series on their service instead). The only way to play it was to buy a used copy, or to [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil illegally download it]]...until October 2014, when, thanks to a fresh new deal with Creator/{{Disney}} (who owns the entire [=LucasArts=] catalog per their ownership of Lucasfilm), GOG.com made the game available yet again.
** ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' was, for the longest time, only ever released on floppy - with the exception of a super-rare [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] FM-TOWNS VGA port. This was until March 2015, when it was finally released on GOG - and the best part is, it includes not only the DOS version, ''but the FM-TOWNS port as well!''
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' for the Wii originally went out of print in record time thanks to its really good word-of-mouth advertising and hilariously tiny print size, among other reasons. Due to its popularity, it eventually received a exclusive port to the 3DS's hardware revision (New Nintendo 3DS) and a subsequent Wii U Virtual Console re-release, opening it up to the audience that couldn't get it in time. This is followed by a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch that overhauled the graphics and added new content.
* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime Trilogy'': When Nintendo and Creator/RetroStudios hawked this compilation of all three ''Prime'' games as a "[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited Edition release]]", for once, ''they weren't kidding''. It's cheap enough (and easy, due to the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}'s backward compatibility, but... not for those with a UsefulNotes/WiiU, as ''Trilogy'' is the only way to play the first two ''Prime'' games on that system, or play them in [[AspectRatio widescreen]] on either) to get all three games by themselves, but those looking for this triple-pack including all three games on one disk with Wii Remote controls and bonus features were left searching for pre-owned copies that could run up to $100 for ''the disk alone''. Fortunately, in January 2015, Nintendo announced that ''Trilogy'' would become available to download from the Wii U eShop by the end of the month for $20 (initially available for $10 during the first week of its release).
* Before [[ArtifactTitle branching out into indie games and movies]], Website/GOGDotCom originally existed for this purpose, as if the original "Good Old Games" wasn't obvious enough.
* After a while, ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'' became surprisingly expensive to acquire, with copies running up to $80/£50. However, it eventually got re-released on the Wii U eShop.
* The original version of ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay''. Given its Mature rating in a cutesy setting and ''barely'' any promotion (it was released the same year the [=GameCube=] would debut and was generally ignored by Nintendo), it was hard to get then, and it sure as hell is even harder to get now. Rare did indeed fully remake the game for Xbox under the title ''Conker: Live & Reloaded'' but this remake received a massive backlash from fans of the original because it [[{{Bowdlerization}} censored a great deal of content from the original]]. However, at E3 2015 Microsoft announced ''Rare Replay'', a massive CompilationRerelease for Xbox One that includes not only the original, uncensored version of Conker, but 29 other classic Rare games, many of which will also be rescued from limbo. (That said, this also had the side effect of putting the ''Live & Reloaded'' version into limbo -- like the 20th Anniversary Edition of E.T. -- though not many are complaining.)
** As of April 14, 2018, ''Live & Reloaded'' was finally re-released through the Xbox One's Original Xbox backwards compatability.
* After years of being insanely hard to attain out of Japan, the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' finally broke through in May of 2015 with Playism's digital release of Double Dealing Character, plus a couple of fangames. Whether other games in the series will follow suit remains to be seen.
** Then, in November 3, 2017, ZUN announced that the two most recent entries: ''Hidden Star in Four Seasons'' and ''Antinomy of Common Flowers'' will be released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Soon after, the official Steam page for the former was revealed, and ''[=HSiFS=]'' was finally released in November 17, 2017. ''[=AoCF=]'' was also confirmed to be released on Steam worldwide in 2018.
** As of this writing (November 2019), every game from ''[[VideoGame/DoubleSpoilerTouhouBunkachou Double Spoiler]]'' to the most recent ''[[VideoGame/TouhouKikeijuuWilyBeastAndWeakestCreature Wily Beast and Weakest Creature]]'' had been released on Steam. The exceptions are ''[[VideoGame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade Hopeless Masquerade]]'' (unknown reason at the time of this writing) and ''[[VideoGame/TouhouShinpirokuUrbanLegendInLimbo Urban Legend in Limbo]]'' (likely due to the existence of the official UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 port).
** In June 2020, ''[[VideoGame/TouhouFuujinrokuMountainOfFaith Mountain of Faith]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism Subterranean Animism]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject Undefined Fantastic Object]]'', were all released in Steam.
** And then, in June 18, 2021, ''[[VideoGame/TouhouBunkachouShootTheBullet Shoot the Bullet]]'' was released in Steam.
* ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood: Actress Again Current Code'' is an interesting case: the game was never released on its own like its predecessors (the original, ''Re-ACT'', and ''Act Cadenza Ver.B'') but instead was shipped with the third season Blu-ray of ''Carnival Phantasm''. The Blu-ray set however became sought-after item [[JustHereForGodzilla simply for the game alone]] and it eventually ran out of print with the Blu-ray set going for as much as $150 ''used'', almost twice that for a brand-new copy, and it wasn't put through any digital distribution services such as [=DLsite=]. The game was eventually released overseas through Steam by Creator/ArcSystemWorks in 2016 along with a PC port of ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth''.
* The Game Boy Advance title [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] was one of the very few RTS games for the system and received a limited release in only France and Japan. Because of this, copies are hard to come by and are expensive for Game Boy Advance titles. However, the game was recently released for the Wii U in 2015.
* For the longest time, ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'' was one of the rarest games for the [=PS1=] owing to its very limited print and low initial sales, much to the chagrin of fans as it is often cited as one of the greatest [=JRPGs=] ever. Thankfully in late 2014, it was finally uploaded to the PSN, to the joy of fans worldwide.

* Both ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' games had DLC on the Xbox Live Marketplace that was delisted due to licensing issues. The first game at least had a gold edition that included the DLC, but it commanded a high price on the used market; there was no such option for the second game, and the regular versions of both were already expensive used anyways. Both games were released digitally in late 2015, and included the DLC in the download.
** ''VideoGame/{{Deadpool}}'' and ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' also went through this process for the same reasons until re-releases of the games in 2016; the former for [[Film/Deadpool2016 the movie releasing around the time]] and the later [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite for the announcement for its sequel]].
* A similar situation to ''Chu-Teng'' happened to another obscure japanese game: ''[[VideoGame/GarageBadDreamAdventure Garage: Bad Dream Adventure]]'' by the developer Kinotrope. While the other two games by Kinotrope, ''Alice on the Borderlines'' and ''Sarara's Little Shop'', which are equally as obscure, can at least be found on the internet if you search hard enough (with the latter even receiving a non-translated release in the American PSN), ''Garage'' was thought to be a legitimate piece of lost media... Until a copy of the game was put up on Yahoo Actions Japan, and a user on the ''[[Website/HardcoreGaming101 Hardcore Gaming 101]]'' forums bought it and subsequently ripped it for the world to enjoy, along with various scans and photographs of the manual, box and other included feelies.

** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon64'' took such a long time to see a rerelease that said rerelease came out on the UsefulNotes/WiiU in 2017, the year that system was discontinued. It is a CultClassic and considered the best Harvest Moon game by many, but it never received a UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Virtual Console release, an enhanced remake (a la the [=PS1=] games to GBA), or a port release (like the [=PS1=] games). Only the original SNES game ended up having a Virtual Console release on the Wii, and the same game's Wii U Virtual Console release came when the system was still in production. [[http://www.destructoid.com/harvest-moon-64-not-coming-to-the-virtual-console-181459.phtml Interviews with]] [[http://www.siliconera.com/2015/03/18/harvest-moon-beyond-whats-next-natsume/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+siliconera%2FMkOc+%28Siliconera%29 Natsume executives]] reported that technical problems concerning the source code made the notion of any possible remake or port impossible; despite the fact that this game was supposedly one of the first games they planned for a Virtual Console release. But to everyone's surprise, [[http://www.natsume.com/community/showthread.php?p=160863#post160863 it was finally announced for a Wii U Virtual Console release]]--not only for North America, but for Europe as well, even though the game was never originally released there.

* ''VideoGame/{{ICO}}'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' sold poorly on the [=PS2=], and are some of the rarest games on the console. But then in Fall 2011, Sony released a compilation pack for the [=PS3=] containing both games on one disc, with loads of bonus features, and the UK release of ''ICO'' instead of the American release (which had easier and altered puzzles than the UK/JPN versions). This pleased both those who had played the games before, and those who never got to play them due to their rarity.

* ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood: Actress Again Current Code'' is an interesting case: the game was never released on its own like its predecessors (the original, ''Re-ACT'', and ''Act Cadenza Ver.B'') but instead was shipped with the third season Blu-ray of ''Carnival Phantasm''. The Blu-ray set however became sought-after item [[JustHereForGodzilla simply for the game alone]] and it eventually ran out of print with the Blu-ray set going for as much as $150 ''used'', almost twice that for a brand-new copy, and it wasn't put through any digital distribution services such as [=DLsite=]. The game was eventually released overseas through Steam by Arc System Works in 2016 along with a PC port of ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth''.

** ''VideoGame/{{Deadpool}}'' and ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' also went through this process for the same reasons until re-releases of the games in 2016; the former for [[Film/Deadpool2016 the movie releasing around the time]] and the later [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite for the announcement for its sequel.]]

* ''VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers'', the prototype to ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' , was only released for the Satellaview add-on for the Super Nintendo, and only in Japan, so the only way to keep it in circulation used to be via sharing its ROM. Fortunately, it would eventually see an official worldwide release in 2022, via an HD remaster of ''Chrono Cross'' for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One.
* For decades, ''VideoGame/RedEarth'' was the only game made for CP System III arcade board to have never received any kind of home console release. To make matters even worse, while the arcade cabinet was fairly easy to come by in Japan, it wasn't widely distributed overseas, making the game virtually impossible for Western players to get their hands on legitimately. In 2022, Capcom announced that the game would receive its first-ever console port in the ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' compilation.

* For years, Music/PaulMcCartney released the ''Thrillington'' album under the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington only on vinyl. It's an orchestral version of his ''Ram'' album. It hasn't gotten an official CD release until 2012 as part of a deluxe edition box set reissue of the ''Ram'' album.
*** The following year, the Music/{{Wings}} concert film ''Rockshow'', which was considerably harder to find than ''Wings Over America'', the live album for that tour, was officially remastered and re-released (alongside ''Wings Over America'') on DVD and Blu-ray.

* ''Animation/{{Akis}}'' is the first Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} cartoon to be produced in an Asian country (specifically Malaysia). After the show originally in 2012, the episodes became extremely hard if not impossible to find online until Nickelodeon Asia's official Website/{{Facebook}} page uploaded all 12 episodes. Only the English dub was rescued this way, however, with the Malay dub not receiving the same treatment.