Do you find it hard to collect for Classic Computers?

[MarioAllStar2600]

When I had my C=64 I just couldn't collect for it. To many games, most weren't complete, and alot didn't play. I don't believe there is a lot of classic computer collectors, but I may be wrong. This is the reason I sold my Commodore, just couldn't really organize it.. Anyone else found this before?

[Ze_ro]

I suppose the big question is whether you're going to concern yourself with tapes and disks, or whether you're going to stick with just cartridges. If you forget about magnetic media, you can enjoy collecting for a computer as if it were just another console, and forget about cables, disk drives, fast loaders, memory expansion, and so on... although you'll be missing out on a lot of gems.

I do collect for a number of old computers, but the thrift stores around here seem to just throw out all the disks/tapes they find, assuming no one will ever want them. One of these days I should do some dumpster diving to see if I can recover any of them.

--Zero

[swlovinist]

Being that I consider myself pretty unique when it comes to variety in collecting, I have to agree. The funny thing is, I absolutely love collecting this stuff! It has only been about a year of collecting the Astrocade, Vic 20, C64, TI-994A, Atari 800/XE and even the Co Co, and I have managed to get about 200 games between all of them. Yes it is hard to collect these for the following reasons:

1. These systems are long gone, buying on ebay is the only place to get any real scores, and sometimes takes the wild hunting factor out of it.

2. Collecting the carts is the only "for sure" way to actually play some of the games. Floppy Disks were not made for the long haul, and I find that already some of the ones I have collected are taking a crap. Unfortunately there are some great Floppy games out there, and I am pretty hardcore when it comes to emulators..........If I cant play it on the original using the original floppy, I dont play it.

3. Space, and actually catagorizing the systems in general.......I collect them for the history, but they are pretty much a overglorified gaming machine now.

The cool thing to think about is:

1. No mods, play your computer hooked up AV stlyle to any TV
2. Ususally better versions of many classic games in terms of graphics and sound over the Atari 2600
3. Many of them used a standard 2600 controller(TI 99 had an adapter)
4. Carts are usually cheap......usually
5. Freaky butt history, artwork, and names(Attack of the Mutant Camels? Only in the 80's!)

Just my 10 cents, but the more I collect, the more I am reverting to the classics!

[§ Gideon §]

Has the forum du jour changed already?

Yes, I agree. The amount of computer games available for vintage computers is like a jungle, so it's not very appealing to collect. Plus, like you hinted at, it's hard to draw the line between official and unofficial games. How do you define such terms?

It's kind of like collecting rocks as a kid or something--fun but without discrimination. Of course, if your aim is to game, that's a different story...

[christianscott27]

i collect for all the cart based vintage computers, just the carts for now. honestly its an area of my collection that almost never sees any play, i just dont get around to hooking them up very often. i'm a games purist, i unload and educational or application software (there goes half my TI-99 finds). its been pretty easy to find the stuff, and cheaply i have about 40 atari carts, 30some C-64, 30some TI-99, 20 or so vic 20...all thru finds, turned out some of them are even rare.

i think my next early computer addition will be an apple IIc set up, always wanted to take one home from school with me.

[le geek]

I have a pretty big Amiga collection (80+ games). I got most of my "new" stuff off ebay or online overstock sites though. If you just want to play c64 stuff, consider getting a PC cable for your 1541. Thats how I tranfered some of my homemade crap to D64 images...

Ben

[Griking]

It seems to me that you're getting caught up in the idea that you have to complete your computer game collection which may be a bit unrealistic. I love collecting older computer games myself. I'll pick up any game that looks interesting but my main interest is the Apple II.

[chadtower]

I find a lot of C64 games, complete even, but have no way to test them. That's my big thing, I have a big stack of complete C64 floppy games and don't have a C64 or disk drive to test them with...

[Nature Boy]

I'm *always* looking for stuff for my Atari 8-bit collection. Of course I rarely find it as well, but to me collecting is about the *hunt* more than it is about the acquiring (although the acquiring *is* necessary for the hunt to mean anything).

My favourite part of collecting for it is that it's under most classic gamers' radar, which has made things very inexpensive to come by. Plus I've always liked the games better than the Atari 2600 ones, since they looked a little cleaner and whatnot.

I also find it appealing that I can still be a pirate (although it was more my dad than me back 20 years ago). With the SIO2PC cable and APE now, though, instead of a "Happy" or "Archiver" disk drive

[Flack]

Discussions about the Commodore 64 are the easiest way to separate the collectors from the gamers.

Collectors seem to hate this system. There's no way to get a "complete collection" of the C64's 20,000+ program library, and so they don't even try. The cartridges available for the C64 represent only a very minute portion of the system's library.

Gamers, for the most part, love this system. There are so many games on the C64 that are still fun today. I keep a C64 emulator around just for games like Paradroid, Impossible Mission, Ghostbusters and River Patrol, but I literally have hundreds of C64 games on my GP32.

I think it's terrible that people would collect C64 games but not play them, or that people wouldn't explore the C64 world at all simply for the fact that they can't "own them all". That's of course coming from a gamer's viewpoint.

[Keir]

I find a lot of C64 games, complete even, but have no way to test them. That's my big thing, I have a big stack of complete C64 floppy games and don't have a C64 or disk drive to test them with...

Well, if you want one, you can get a C64 with disk drive from the guy at the Fall River flea for $20.

[chadtower]

I find a lot of C64 games, complete even, but have no way to test them. That's my big thing, I have a big stack of complete C64 floppy games and don't have a C64 or disk drive to test them with...

Well, if you want one, you can get a C64 with disk drive from the guy at the Fall River flea for $20.

Fall River flea... do you have an address or something I could use to find it?

[den68]

I have a lot of classic computers as well as games for them. I don't search specifically for them though. My method of collecting is to just hit the thrifts, fleas, garage sales or whatever and see what turns up. I could care less if ever complete anything. I find what I can and try it out. I do have a lot of C64 stuff because it's the computer I had way back when. Everything I had was on floppies and most still work. I've added several carts over the years.

I had a Mattel Aquarius for a long time before I had any games to try on it and I had some TRS-80 for quite a while before I had a TRS-80. Right now I've got a big stack of Apple II disks and TI-99 carts but no computers to play them on. No biggie, one will turn up eventually.

I can see how classic computers would be frustrating for the goal oriented collector. I'm not one, half the fun to me is once you find the stuff hooking it up and trying it for the first time.

and as everyone else has been saying a lot of the games are great.

[Wookie]

I generally only collect carts for those systems, except the 64 which I'll pick up anything that looks interesting regardless of format.

Ironically, carts are just about the only vintage computer software available from most thrifts in the area - a recently passed state law makes it illegal to resell software that came packaged with a computer. Most thrifts can't/won't tell the difference between bundled and aftermarket s/w so they just reject/toss it all, even for systems like the 64 or TI99 that don't (normally) have hard drives.

[tyranthraxus]

When buying C=64 games having the disks in working order is the least thing
on my mind. I can get a disk image off the net if I want to play. I'm more
interested in the condition and completness of the games. And if it works
thats even better but I don't devalue a non-working copy of say Ultima IV
the way I would a non working NES cart.

Cart collecting is pretty dull for computers IMHO the disk games are way
more interesting. The games are far better. And the packaging was quite
elaborate and well made by the major manufacturers. Boxed Atari games
are a little bare boned compared to what Infocom or Origin were doing
in the early 80s.

Unfortunatly the stuff gets thrown away more than NES or Atari games
because it is a computer and since a 5 year old computer is worth only a
few bucks, people assume that a 20 year old one is garbage.

[davidleeroth]

Although, I'm not particulary interested about classic computers, I have some 300 games for computers like C64, Amiga and Spectrum. This isn't the stuff I'll search on eBay but if I see games on flea markets or such, I'll take them for sure.

These games are very playable and yield some fine classics I played at my friend's back in the day. While there's no such thing as a "complete game collection" on these computers, there's very collectable game catalogs from developers/publishers like Llamasoft, Ultimate Play The Game and Sierra.

[scooterb23]

The one spot in my collection I wish I could fill is my C64 disk collection.

I used to have 300, all original, games for mine before Ihad to get rid of it.

I have a C64 again, but I don't have any sources for games...

At this point, I use emulation to play my old faves, but I really want nothing more than to fire up Skaterock on the real thing again.

[TRM]

I cannot collect for a computer due to the fact that computers take up too much space. And without the proper computer, software does nothing alone.