The hardest-to-find PC game I have ever tried to find? The only SimCity 2000 expansion, SimCity 2000 Scenarios Vol. 1 - Great Disasters. I have never seen one on eBay in almost a decade of looking, I have never seen it listed anywhere at all, period, for sale. I only recently found it on a list on a Dutch forum, somebody had the boxed American game and I bought it off them.
If anyone can find this, boxed or otherwise, I will be HIGHLY impressed, as it eluded me for many years. I'm not sure how many were even made as it didn't go retail (mail-order only as far as I know), but it can't be much as Maxis started bundling the expansion with SimCity 2000 very shortly after and stopped selling it individually.
Last edited by phreakindee; 07-15-2009 at 06:07 PM.
Wow. This is a good list.
PC gaming is what I grew up on - didn't have an NES or anything until much later. As such, I have sort of a soft spot for these games. I really think that some of the best, richest gameplay experiences I've had were with PC games. Console games are fun, and usually entertaining, but they always seem a bit more like candy to me, whereas PC games seem to have a lot more substance.
It's sort of a bummer that there isn't a comprehensive database out there of PC games along with all of their releases. MobyGames has a lot of info, but it's not really geared towards someone that actually wants to go out and collect / acquire the games (nor does it divulge which versions or editions exist). Not only would it be useful, but I think it might encourage people to take an interest in some amazing games. I really view ~ 1990-2000 PC games as the greatest games of all time, on any system.
All that being said: I was pretty surprised not to see System Shock / System Shock 2 on this list. That game series still commands a decent price, and IMO SS2 is actually better in many ways than Bioshock, its progeny.
You are startled by a grim snarl. Before you, you see 1 Red dragon. Will your stalwart band choose to (F)ight or (R)un?
I've been waiting for a thread like this one:
My co-worker knows that I'm into classic video games, and he asked me for advice on pricing some PC games he had. He had a number of great titles, like Sam & Max, etc. He also had a copy of Day of the Tentacle which was unlike any other I have seen. Keep in mind, I don't collect or play PC games, so I know very little.
When searching eBay or google, all the copies I have seen come in run-of-the-mill rectangular boxes. His on the other hand comes in a triangular shaped box. Is it worth anything? Could anyone shed some light on it for me? Both he and I would really appreciate it.
Kidfenris.com: Never Updated.
That version is rare and is worth a lot. It was available as a CD-ROM as well, not just floppy disk.
http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/game....&game_id=10955
I'll just post a quote from another website.
http://www.mixnmojo.com/features/rea...entacle&page=3A limited release version of this game came packaged in a tall, vertical prism shaped package. This "triangle box" release is a highly sought after collectible that commands top dollar when sold on eBay.
That's the one!!! You are the man!
Any idea what it would be worth?
Thanks, and yes, System Shock is a major oversight that belongs on this list since SS2, anyway, is worth a bit and is just a great game. I'd like to put Star Control on as well, being a personal favorite, but it doesn't look like SC 1 or 2 really commands much. Same goes for Master of Orion: Battle of Antares... I played the crap out of that, and would love to see it on a 'valuable' list, but it just isn't worth enough.
Last edited by Cornelius; 07-15-2009 at 08:08 PM.
Sorry, I really don't have any idea how much that version is worth. I've never seen one for sale on ebay, and usually I limit myself to $5 max for any PC game regardless what they sell for elsewhere so I'm not all that current with prices in general.
I'm kind of hoping to come across a copy of that someday, I really like the LucasArts games and that's an interesting version of the game. There's so many different versions of LucasArts games in general it's hard to collect them.
I've redone the list (page 3). I'm kinda having fun with this thread, if you can't tell. Anyway, I've decided to more strictly adhere to the 'must have sold on eBay recently' rule. I think that focuses in on games we actually have a good shot of finding in the wild. I will make exceptions if given some firsthand accounts that it does show up with at least some regularity. If you don't see something you've recommended, that may be why. Another possibility is that it seems a lot of things have dropped in value, and stuff worth less than about 15 bucks I don't think should be on the list (unless it is a game I just love to death ).
Here's some that I had to take off (or didn't put on) since they seem to be too scarce:
Afterlife
Akalabeth: World of Doom
Alter Ego
Commander Keen (any? Boxed full versions)
Jazz Jackrabbit (CIB, not '2')
Knights of Xentar (?)
Lula the Empire Cums Back
Man Enough
Mystery House
One Unit Whole Blood
SimHealth (?)
Spellcasting series
Ultima IX Ascension: Dragon Edition
Zork (original CIB)
Other oddly-shaped boxes include FFVII PC, The Incredible Machine (or at least one version of The Incredible Machine), and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
Looks like Constructor is fetching pretty good prices right now.
Some more rare adventure games that come to mind are Flight of the Amazon Queen, Beneath a Steel Sky, and the three Discworld games, but we might be venturing into "too rare" territory again with those.
If you're only interested in the content, I'm pretty sure it was included in the Special Edition of SC2K, along with the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit - which, come to think of it, is something else I never saw in stores. I did once see the SimCity Classics Graphics Pack, at least.
In a similar vein, the standalone expansion packs for X-Wing and Tie Fighter are also probably pretty rare, but were likewise included in more easily-found deluxe editions.
I can tell you that at one point Maxis cleared out all its stock of that game at $1.99 each, but that was a long time ago. More importantly, the game will absolutely not run under Windows 2K/XP/Vista.
I bet the 1&2 combo pack gets a good price. (I'm pretty sure there was a combo pack.)
Last edited by J'orfeaux; 07-15-2009 at 08:57 PM.
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)
Can anyone tell me about this auction for Jill of the Jungle? I played a lot of this game (and some current hip-hop song uses the tune from it, which is from something else, I'm sure, just not sure what) way back when, but this box doesn't look right. I think it must be something else entirely, but not sure.
MVP Baseball 2005 is without a doubt the best baseball game ever made. The PC version is so expensive b/c of the mods. People have created total conversion mods that have rosters, statistics, player ratings, and stadiums for not only the current season but for other seasons as well. While it is expensive (I paid $80 for my copy), you get a ton of mileage out of it and never have to buy another baseball game again. The 2k series is crap. I found 2k7 to be ok but it was glitchy and it eventually got worse the more I played it on the 260. 2k8 and 2k9 were terrible b/c of how they changed the pitching controls.
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that I'm the resident Journeyman freak here. I followed the series from the beginning, so I have all five releases. I'm missing the original jewel case insert for JMP, but I still have the box. JMP Turbo, I got as a jewel-case release, so that's complete. BiT is complete save for the catalog, which I would LOVE to find again, I really wanted that TSA coffee mug... LoT is complete, I think, might have a reference card sitting around somewhere that I haven't put back in recently. They're all PC releases, so I wouldn't mind finding the original Mac ones as collectables. I bought PP about two years ago, so that's complete, think I even threw the shrinkwrap back in the box. There was one guy selling them new (still had a CompUSA sticker on it), so check eBay on that one. I wish I had a real Mac to play it on though, because emulation sucks and my PowerBook is too old to have a CD drive.
I was actually on that team that was doing a remake of JMP in the Source Engine. THAT was an interesting experience. Needless to say, all that came out of that was some neat concept art, which actually just lost hosting recently... I can ask if I could post some of it if anybody here is a fan.
Urrrgh, I want that DoTT triangle box now. I played that game too much as a kid, and my original copy got dented. Soon after I got the Archives Vol 1, but that disk was color printed, the original is silver. I've still got the box and hintbook for DoTT, so I'd like to make that a complete copy someday, or go for the triangle box.
I've got FF7PC complete, save for the numpad cutout. That thing didn't survive. Those Eidos triangle boxes don't hold up very well, mine's not holding its shape these days. The disk holder is even more beat up, but I played the hell out of FF7 back then.
Yeah, I got everything to work, but swapping disks is a pain and doesn't always work, or flat out crashes it. I also can't get audio to work in Spaceship Warlock... A lot of disks show up as blank depending on which version of MacOS I use, particularly Pegasus Prime.
To make matters worse, trying to install any game with QuickTime breaks the installed QuickTime. I got Pegasus Prime to work because the Presto Studios site backup has a "patch" that lets you play the game without installing. All the installer did was install QuickTime and a shortcut to the game.
I still want a real Mac, for the same reason I play DOS games on a Pentium II.
aside from the id Anthology I have a few more suggestions to add.
pick these up while you have the chance.
Diablo II Collector's Edition
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn Collector's Edition
Neverwinter Nights Collector's Edition