Fan-made games and reproductions of difficult to find Super Nintendo games for sale at Voltage Video Games. Games from left to right to back: "Secret of Mana 2," "Metroid Super Zero Mission," "The Legend of Zelda: Goddess of Wisdom," "Star Ocean," "Super Mario World: Return to Dinosaur Island." Photo by Evan Lewis.

The video game "Secret of Mana 2" never officially existed. When a customer at the recent RetroGameCon at Oncenter spotted the game loaded on a Super Nintendo cartridge in a booth run by downtown Syracuse business Voltage Video Games, he immediately offered to buy it, unfazed by the $40 price tag.

Square, the company best known for the massively successful "Final Fantasy" franchise, released "Secret of Mana 2" in Japan under a different title in 1995, but never translated the game for American audiences. Years later, avid fans took it upon themselves to create localized copies of the game, and fan-translated versions like these are the ones that have made it to Syracuse store shelves.

Retro gaming culture is closely linked to the culture of game creation, and both are on the rise in the Syracuse area. The substantial growth of RetroGameCon, which more than tripled its attendance from 400 to 1,275 between 2013 and 2014, suggests that Central New York has an emerging market for both professionally developed classic games and new fan-made retro-style games.

Syracuse and neighboring communities such as Manlius and Oswego sustain several stores that boast stocks of retro games in addition to modern ones. RetroGameCon 2014 Head of Events Rita Torsney-Sullivan said that during her travels in and around the state of New York, she has not found another area with such a high density of independently managed retro game shops. She said the retro gaming industry here has developed, especially in recent years, as a result of a passionate gaming community and an unfulfilled market.

"I think that it's been more in the last couple of years that those stores have been appearing," Torsney-Sullivan said. "I don't know if it's just that the owners have a love and an interest for it and they built a business out of that or if they saw the need and are filling it. I think it's a combination of both."

Voltage Video Games Managing Owner Mike Saltzman said that demand for fan-made games like "Secret of Mana 2" in his downtown Syracuse and Manlius stores is consistent, despite the premium cost of some of the more desirable titles.

At the downtown Syracuse location of Voltage, a shelf in the store's glass display case holds an array of about a dozen different fan-made titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo, some of which are created by a local supplier, and Saltzman said he would display more if he had more space.

Retro games only account for a portion of Voltage's overall sales, and games in the fan-made sub-category account for only a portion of that. Even so, Saltzman said that his stores sell an average of three to four fan-made games each week to collectors and nostalgic players, and the prices for these games range from $30 to $60.

Saltzman said that the fan-made games he sells fall into three groups. The first group, reproductions, are fan-translated remakes of games that are otherwise difficult to find. When a fan creates a reproduction, it is usually because the original game was never released in a particular region.

Fan hacks or fan mods are altered versions of classic games. Hacks for classic games can include new content such as additional levels, modes or items.

The third category of fan-made games, according to Saltzman, is home brew games. These games are created from scratch as brand new products for retro consoles. While home brew games developed from the ground up are not as common as reproductions, Saltzman said that the games often match or even exceed the quality of Nintendo games from the system's official catalog.

"Back in the day in 1985, game makers didn't have a good rulebook on what worked, what was good, what was bad, so they were just trying things out for the first time," Saltzman said. "Now guys who make games have the advantage of looking at what worked, drawing upon it, and even pulling in some of that nostalgia too."

Recently, Syracuse and Central New York have received some attention from home brew game creators who are working to create quality retro games. Developer Joe Granato, who spoke in a panel at RetroGameCon, successfully funded a Kickstarter project called "The New 8-Bit Heroes" in October. As part of that project, Granato will create a home brew game titled "Mystic Searches" that will be partly based on his childhood exploration of his hometown of Whitesboro, near Utica.

Another home brew game designer who visited Syracuse for the convention was Michael Hayes, who designed a 16-bit game called "Antipole" for Xbox Live and DSiWare and is currently working on a new retro game project titled "Maya Breaker." Hayes said that even though the West Coast is still the top part of the country for game making culture, the Northeast's home brew scene is starting to expand.

"It's more popular on the West Coast, I've got to say that," Hayes said. "But there are some good people out here. I know them... I'm seeing more and more young faces all the time."

Saltzman thinks that city officials in Syracuse should take notice of the growing gaming trend and use it to the city's financial advantage. He said that gaming could help to define the city's cultural identity.

"Right now, what does Syracuse embrace?" Saltzman asked. "I saw an extra thousand people here the other day for [RetroGameCon]. If Syracuse is picking things to identify itself as, gaming culture would be a great thing to really embrace."