Laughing to the bank

[SoulBlazer]

It really surprises me just how much some versions of one game are over another version.

I'm a huge Final Fantasy nut, and have all the games. I had at first bought FF7 and FF8 for the PSX when they came out, but later also purchased the PC versions of both games. I bought them because I was told they would look and play better on the PC, and I had a high end system. Well, they DO look better, but not much, and the music did'nt sound quite the same, plus I did'nt care for the control scheme as much.

Still, I kept the PC versions and traded the PSX ones. Mind you, the PC version of FF7 is not that rare (I have the first run) and I can't imagine that FF8 PC is that rare either.

Fast forward to the present. Having recently upgraded my system again, I was going through my older PC games to decide what to keep and what to install, and wondering what would sitll work, when I ran into my FF games. I tried them both and they did run, but it made me wonder -- for how much longer? There may come a time when the games won't run anymore, whereas the PSX versions should run for decades to come as long as the PS2 keeps operating.

So I decided to go to Amazon and see what the PC versions were worth -- I prefer to sell stuff there as opposed to EBay.

My jaw dropped when I saw what the PC versions were going for. Lowest price for FF7 PC -- $45! Lowest price for FF8 -- $55! In both cases, those are more then I paid for them!

So I promtly listed them for sale and purchased used copies of their PSX versions for $10 each.

Well, it did'nt take long for both PC versions to sell and I mailed them today. $100-$20 minus $10 more to ship them = $70 profit for me! :-D

Not bad for selling one version of a game that does'nt play any better then another. :D

[hezeuschrist]

I don't get it either. I know they were made in much smaller numbers than their playstation counterparts, but what's the deal? I've never found any PC games to be collectable. I don't know why, but they all seem to be everywhere and just don't have any collectors appeal to me.

[Trellisaze]

Unless you've got a super-duper system, FF8 PC doesn't really run better than the PS1 version either.

I remember playing it on a P3/667, and the load times between screens were sooo ... sloooow.

[Drexel923]

I remember when FF7 came out I only had a N64. I didn't want to buy a playstation because at the time FF7 was the only game I wanted. So I went to the store and bought FF7 for the PC. It was published by Eidos which should have giving me a warning, but it didn't. When I got home the game refused to work, so I traded it in for another copy and that one also refused to work. I tried one more time and that also did not work. So in defeat I went back to the store and bought a Playstation with FF7 and GTA. So in a way I don't regret not having my FF7 pc game still around today.

An interesting side note...my friend had FF8 for the pc and just recently sold it on Amazon. He got 70 just for FF8. i wonder if you could have gotten more for both your games.

[Masco73]

I am hoping to do the sort of the same thing. I just picked up 3 everquest gold tin box editions at FYE for $49.99 each. They have been selling for between $80-$90 on ebay. That a nice profit when all is said and done.

[SoulBlazer]

Mind you, I was'nt looking to really MAKE a profit on these. :)

And there are many people who collect PC games. Granted, they may not sell as much as console games, but ask anyone who has Heart of the Kirathi, a complete Infocom game from the 80's, PTO II, or Axis and Allies: Iron Blitz how much those games go for on EBay and the like.

The games DID run just fine on my PC, but as I said, it really was'nt any better.

$60 for FF8? Possibly. Right now the lowest used price I saw for one on Amazon was $55 and a new one for $60. I always put my items a liittle bit cheaper then anything else on Amazon (about 50 cents to a dollar) to make sure it sells. Both cases it took only about 24 hours. Timing has a lot do with buying/selling things on Amazon, just like it does on EBay.

Oh, I bought a PSX also just to play FF7 and FFT. :D I still have my original copy of FFT (my oldest PSX game), but with the recent re-release it's not worth much.

[calthaer]

What can you say? Some people are dumb. I don't know why they're paying so much for those games, either. I have 'em both and I never owned the Playstation versions - just played them at friends' houses and thought they were cool.

FF7 and 8 should run on any newer or upgraded PC if you're using Windows XP - mine both run fine. If you're using 2000 then you might have trouble as that wasn't really made for games...if you're using some obscure video card then that might be the problem. I'm using a GeForce and it's smooth and clean. Some of the earlier nVidia chipsets (like the TNT / TNT2 or the Riva128) had some issues with the game. Eidos released a patch for it which cleared things up.

Who knows why they didn't go with Eidos for the second game...they really did screw up FF8 and the world map was slow as molasses. It runs fine now on my 1.6GHz AMD but man, back when I had a 266MHz Intel - maaan that was screwy.

On the sound / music: using Creative Labs' soundfont options you can actually get FF7 / 8 to sound BETTER than it does on the PSX. There are people out there who have made custom soundfonts specifically for the PC versions of FF7 and 8.

EDIT: and the control scheme...you mean you didn't use a gamepad to play the thing? If you were using a keyboard then there's the problem right there.

The other cool thing with FF8 is that you can take your chocobo in the game and put him into that desktop mini-game where he'll run around and level-up and pick up items (it was a remake of that pocket-playstation game that only came out in Japan or something). I got a crown item or something that taught one of my GFs to have +60% magic skill - which was very sweet.

It's also a little bit easier to back up your saves...*shrugs*

I prefer the PC versions myself, although I have to admit IMO that FF8 wasn't really all that great. But with the extra little perks like a) increased resolution on the character models (too bad the textures are still low-res), b) SB Soundfont making it sound better, and c) the one extra feature (chocoboworld) on FF8, die-hard fans of the series might want it. It's like - why pay $30 for a bottle of wine when you can get a cheap one at the store for $8-12? Some people are just picky and get connoisseur-ish about their games, maybe.

EDIT 2: and y'know...since the PC version does get installed to your hard drive...maybe some people are looking for a way to hack FF7 and bring back Aeris...?

[SoulBlazer]

I really did'nt want this to be a thread about the quality of the games, just a surprise at how much more one version of the game goes for then another one.

And I really could'nt get them to play any better on the PC as opposed to the PSX -- maybe if I had a rumble controller, the right type of sound card, and a bigger mointor I would felt differently.

I think you hit the nail right on the head with the 'wine' anology, though. Collectors will want the PC versions. Gamers are happy with the PSX versions.

Oh, and saves are easy either way -- I have a device to copy memory cards to my HD and back again, which I have done for a dozen or so of my PSX games, and it's also saved money on buying memory cards. :D

[Ed Oscuro]

EDIT 2: and y'know...since the PC version does get installed to your hard drive...maybe some people are looking for a way to hack FF7 and bring back Aeris...?

Ha! Man, I remember back when FF7 was new.

I've got to pick up some FF7 goodies one of these days. Thanks for the heads up about the PC version, by the way...I'll have to see if I can't find that cheap somewhere.

[YoshiM]

I remember when I was big into PC gaming that FF7 didn't get rave reviews like the console version did. Add to the fact the PC RPGs were (and still pretty much are) completely different experiences from console RPGs. Typically PC gamers are into more "complex" or "more involved" games and PC RPGs usually fit into that category as many were fairly non-linear whereas console RPGs were. To release FF7 to an RPG starved time for PCs was still a shot in the dark. It was a console game that was made a tad prettier thanks to the power of the PC. I saw it on the PC games shelf at Wal-Mart for a very short time. Soon its spot was reduced, then replaced with another title. So yeah, it's probably a collector's thing.

hezeus: actually some PC games are collectable and there definitely are people out there who want the originals. Some games just don't get rereleased in budget form and tend to disappear. Other times older games like say Police Quest I get recombobulated into something more "modern" and strays away from the nostalgia and greatness of what the original was (in this case, I think PQ1 became a click style adventure rather than the primary text adventure the original was). That's the draw.