Item #: SCP-4761

Object Class: Uncontained/Euclid

Digital photo taken from an SCP-4761-1 instance. The image does not match any retail stores currently in operation.

Special Containment Procedures: Online marketplaces available to the general public should be monitored for listings made by SCP-4761-1. Once identified, they are to be removed and relevant staff should conduct contact tracing to identify those who may have been in communication with SCP-4761. Specific details of SCP-4761-1 such as price, item listed, and location should also be noted for further analysis.

Instances of SCP-4761-A should always be seized before they can be activated. Customers affected by SCP-4761-A are to be given amnestics and have their electronics collections liquidated, with funds going into the containment general fund.

Site-77 research personnel have been assigned responsibility for evaluating and containing any anomalous objects originating from within SCP-4761. Although SCP-4761 originally manifested through analog formats, this is no longer the case and as such monitoring of phone books, magazines, and other similar media has been discontinued.

Description: SCP-4761 is an anomalous capitalistic entity operating through online commerce platforms. All interactions with SCP-4761 go through a single anonymous individual and whom describes themselves as a "licensed Arcadia dealer" (designated SCP-4761-1). SCP-4761 operates under the brand name Finished|||Instant|||Fortune and exclusively sells vintage electronics, primarily video games.

Posts relating to SCP-4761 are only viewable by individuals with experience consuming interactive media and have no prior knowledge of SCP-4761's effect.1 Such subjects will be served listings for things they owned during childhood and their adolescence.

Transactions between buyers and SCP-4761 are conducted by SCP-4761-1, an unknown entity with extensive knowledge of the secondhand gaming market. It has spoken about little else in conversations that the Foundation has been able to monitor or otherwise analyze. The only exception to this is when being asked about the nature of SCP-4761, in which case the response has been to try to steer the conversation towards a purchase.

Any items purchased from SCP-4761 are classified as instances of SCP-4761-A.

Example of SCP-4761-1 profile picture. The profile itself has always been set as private.

Players utilizing SCP-4761-A will report the games as being altered in some form, such as through glitching or deliberate modification. The only major point of consistency has been each subject recollecting strong and often traumatic memories associated with the period of their life in which they originally utilized the device(s)/game(s) SCP-4761-A is replicating. Attempts by a person other than the buyer to utilize an instance of SCP-4761-A will result in the device not activating or immediately ceasing to be functional.

The first known sample of SCP-4761-related material was recovered in 1995 from the Atlanta Hilton & Towers convention center by Foundation personnel attending the North American Science Fiction Convention and DragonCon.

SCP-4761 Interview Logs: Interviews were conducted under specified cover stories and have been truncated to show relevant sections only.

Interview 4761-B

Access Granted

Interview Date: 08/05/2015

SCP-4761-A Instance: A Sega Genesis system, along with Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition

Foreword: Subject 1 is a 31 year old analyst for a financial institution, who purchased the SCP-4761-A instance three weeks prior to the interview. Interview was conducted under the pretense of a fraud investigation. The subject was subsequently amnesticized.

<Begin Log>

Agent Long: We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today. So, tell us about what drew you to vintage games?

Subject B: Sure. I don't have the energy or time to invest in these big modern games, after you're stuffed in a cube, crouched over a keyboard for 9 hours a day. You just want to turn your brain off and play. And sometimes you just miss what it was like to be a kid again.

Agent Long: Sure, sure.

Subject B: Playing games all day, not having to worry about anything. You know, it's funny. Just a few days before I saw that listing, I was just thinking about how my older brother and I used to always play Street Fighter when we were kids. Any time we had an argument, it had to be settled in Street Fighter.

Agent Long: I hear ya. Brings back fond memories for me too.

Subject B: So it was just my luck that a listing popped up a few days after, and I thought, 'Ah, what the hell. Might as well buy it, right?' For old time's sake?

Agent Long: Right. And how was playing it again?

Subject B: For a little bit, it was great. I literally couldn't wait to get home after work that Tuesday and tear through the game. It was fun at first. But then, playing through my old characters made me remember how much my brother and I used to play it, and how he'd absolutely cream me. He just knew all the moves; plus, he made me use the bad controller with the sticky buttons. That's when it got weird.

Agent Long: Weird in a good way, or weird in a bad way?

Subject B: Chun-Li's screams started sounding familiar. I couldn't, didn't want to remember where they came from at first. Who it was. But I knew. I always knew, even though I kept going until all I could hear in the game was the sound they make when you get hit.

Subject B pauses.

Subject B: I don't know why he wouldn't stop when I was home. I remember turning up the volume every time the walls shook so I wouldn't have to hear it. Probably why I have tinnitus now. I thought it'd be different now that I'm not a kid. But the fear came back exactly the same.

<End Log>

Interview 4761-F

Access Granted

Interview Date: 10/06/2015

SCP-4761-A Instance: Double Dragon for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Foreword: Subject 2 is a 44 year old Asian male software engineer, originally from Kyoto, Japan, though now residing in ██████, United States. Subject was discreetly interviewed during a transaction in which he was attempting to re-sell the SCP-4761-A instance that he had purchased. Foundation assets intercepted the sale and successfully bid for the anomaly, which is now under containment at Site 77.

<Begin Log>

Agent Lee: Wow, I can't believe you really have it. I've been looking for this thing for ages.

Subject F: Yes. Original Double Dragon for the Famicom.

Agent Lee: Can't believe you'd sell something like this. It's a collectible, man. Mind if I ask why? Sorry if I'm intruding.

Subject F: No, it's alright. I…played this game a lot when I moved to the US. It was a hard game, but I liked the challenge. It gave me something to focus on when I was struggling to adapt. Something concrete, if that makes sense.

Agent Lee: Sure, I'm following you so far my guy.

Subject F: I got good. I could beat the whole game over and over again, so it was always a good distraction over the years. When I got to college though, my parents threw it out while tidying up, so I forgot about it for years. Then, a few weeks ago, I saw an ad on Facebook for an original copy, and I got really excited. (Chuckles.) But I guess I've gotten old. I can hardly beat the first few levels, let alone the whole game like I used to.

Agent Lee: Bit rusty, eh?

Subject F: Yes, I suppose. And yet…

Agent Lee: Did you say something? Didn't catch you, sorry.

Subject F: Sorry, it's just….you'll think I'm crazy.

Agent Lee: We're all friends here, guy.

Subject F: When I first moved here, it was hard. Hard. America was so new, so foreign, and Double Dragon was a familiar sign from my mother country. I had to deal with a lot of…turmoil. It was a different time. The children here were not exactly taught right from wrong, especially when it came to an awkward child with a funny name and appearance.

Agent Lee: Jeez, I'm sorry. That sounds hard.

Subject F: (Softly) It was. This game was familiar though, so it was my security blanket of sorts. And yet, playing it now, I feel as though we are no longer speaking the same language. The more I played, the less I seemed to understand and the more that it felt as though it was shutting me out. The dialogue was harsher, the sounds louder and more aggressive. I swear, at one point, even the button layout changed-a glitch perhaps, but I took it as a sign. I was no longer welcome. And I don't think I'll ever be again.

<End Log>

Interview 4761-K

Access Granted

Foreword: Subject 3 purchased a copy of Puyo Puyo Champions but instead recieved a copy of Call of Duty. Agent Hawkins was posing as a representative of the Better Business Bureau.

<Begin Log>

Agent Hawkins: What sort of games do you like to play?

Subject K: Puzzle games. When I was a kid I played a lot of first person shooters but I'm not really as much now.

Agent Hawkins: Not really as much now?

Subject K: Not as into them, sorry.

Agent Hawkins: No need to apologize! I'm just curious as to the story there.

Subject K: If I… still reminds me of that dusty period in my life where I had come out as trans but I was still trying to latch onto and reason with various masculine parts of my identity.

Agent Hawkins: That led to your loss of interest in shooters?

Subject K: Every time I play one I feel like a fucking man.

<End Log>

Addendum: Following extensive screening, D-25313 was identified as a viable candidate who could access SCP-4761 after seeing an ad for an original copy of the game Ultima IV. After making contact with SCP-4761, Agent Boyd took remote control of the account communicating with SCP-4761. The following is an unedited transcript of their conversation, conducted through Facebook Messenger.

Boyd: Is this available?

SCP-4761: it always is

Boyd: When can I come pick it up?

SCP-4761: not any time soon, buddy.

Boyd: What do you mean? I'm willing to pay full price, and I can come pick it up any time.

SCP-4761: nah, i know who u are

Boyd: I dunno what you mean, man. Is the game available or not?

SCP-4761: not for u, like i said. u just don't get it do u? THEIR NOT FOR SALE TO U

Boyd: Why not?

SCP-4761: listen, bud. u and all ur buddies living in ur lil' govt surveillance hideout arent who im trying to sell to, okay? u just dont get what this is about.

Boyd: What do you mean? Why?

SCP-4761: these are for ppl looking for a lil' escape, the kind of guys who like to remembr the good ol' days, u kno?? not for folks like u who are just gonna put it in a box somewhere and forget.

SCP-4761 remains "typing" for a few minutes.

SCP-4761: ppl like u cant afford to be sentimental. its what gets u killed.