What older PC games are hard to find/worth money?

[Sega Hitman]

Today I was at the flea market and found a box full of complete games. These are complete right down to the maps, manauls, posters, journals, and all the other stuff that came with them: (Note that these are all IBM versions)

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Ultimate V: Warriors of Destiny
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire
Ultima Worlds of Adventures 2: Martian Dreams
Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Ultima VII: The Black Gate
AD&D: Shadow Sorcerer
Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Maniac Mansion
Magic Candle II: The Four and Forty
AD&D Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
AD&D Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
AD&D: Menzoberranzan
AD&D: Al-Qadim The Genie's Curse
Shadow Caster

I paid $16 for the whole box, so I already knew from that I had gotten a good deal. A quick eBay check confirms that, as these Ultima games can go for $20+, and it appears Maniac Mansion is worth more than $50. My question is though, what should I look out for when I'm out hunting? What are the big name titles that are worth a lot? If I wouldn't have found all these at once like this, chaces are I would have never bought them. I see older PC stuff often, so this concerns me. I don't like passing up stuff thats worth this much. Another question, for older PC games like this, is there are general price that all games are worth? I left behind stuff that I never heard of. If, for example, any late 80's-early 90's PC game is worth at least $3 or $4, maybe I should go back. Anyway, in general, I'd like some hints from you more experienced folk.

If you're a PC collector, and you know what these are worth, please let me know what I can expect to get. If you're interested in buying/trading for any of these, there'll all trade bait as well :D .

-Hitman-

[Tritoch]

Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga (or something like that) fetches around $300 complete. That's really the only ultra-rare PC game I know of.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I only can said...GOOD STUFF!!!!!, i love the old RPG pc games

[Achika]

I think it was Maxlords who found the Space Quest collection packs ( I would imagine the originals go for a lot too) go for about $50.

I sold one last week that went for $51

[calthaer]

The original System Shock (CD version ONLY) can sometimes fetch a hefty fee. The floppy disk version isn't worth nearly as much (because it doesn't have voice). The original Ultima Underworld and Underworld II might fetch a good price.

Those things being "rare" is kind of a matter of opinion or perspective. The Ultima games are all readily available more or less if you just want to play the game itself. They released 1-8 + Akalabeth as part of the Ultima Collection, and most of those maps are available on PDF and whatnot. Maniac Mansion was also available as part of something like the "Lucasarts Collection" that had MM, Zak McKraken, Loom, Indy Jones, and Monkey Island. The "Gold Box" AD&D stuff had a collection-ized re-release, too.

The only value that any of those individual games have is for people who want to have all the original maps and fake newspapers and pewter ankh pendants and all that other little junk that PC games usually come with. While some of that stuff is pretty neat, practical collectors who just want to play the games can get the re-released versions at far better prices.

That being said, some people are just very particular about their collecting and really want all those little doohickeys. Keep in mind some of the following things:

-EA has swallowed several great PC companies whole, digesting the contents, depriving them of any and all nutritional gaming value, and vomiting them back at the general public. Among these greats are Westwood and Origin. Richard Garriott is a famous guy and any of his stuff will most likely go for a lot of cash. Ultima fans are also fairly rabid about the games...although Bioware has made some good games they just don't have anywhere near the personality that the Ultimas did (IMO this is in no small part because of all their plastic, pre-rendered graphics). If you were ever able to find any of the original hand-bagged stuff that he made in the early 80s (i.e. - Akalabeth) I'd bet it's worth quite a bit. Any other company that EA devoured or any early EA stuff might go for quite a bit. *The Bard's Tale* is also known as one of the greatest early RPG series ever.

For some odd reason Final Fantasy VII PC is also a hot item.

The Quest for Glory series might be worth something - *especially* the original EGA version when it was still known as Hero's Quest (they had to change the name because of some Milton Bradley game with the same name).

Any of Capcom's CD-releases on PC might be worth something. They released several Mega Man X games on PC (maybe all of them) but they are very difficult to find.

X-Com: UFO Defense (the original) is also one of the greatest games of all time. Anybody who thinks that "Final Fantasy Tactics" or "Vandal Hearts" is a good game just doesn't know jack - X-Com is the perhaps the greatest turn-based strategy game ever. EVAR I SAY!!! EDIT: Not that those aren't good games, but...

Infocom adventure games are also great. We're talking the Zork adventures, Mines of Titan, stuff like that.

Maybe the original Sim City or other Maxis games would be worth something. Sid Meier's games are also generally worth money - I know for a fact that the expansion pack to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (I think it's called...uh...never mind I forget but it's an easy search on google) is worth lots of teh moneys.

Let's also not forget Fallout. Fallout 2 wasn't as good and probably isn't worth as much. Again - these were re-released.

LucasArts games: I've already listed some. Besides MM, you have Loom, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle (When I'm on the road, I'm invincible...I CAN'T BE STOPPED!), Monkey Island series, and I'm probably forgetting some. Another similar game (don't think it's by Lucasarts) that is somewhat rare is The Neverhood.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head...maybe someone else can add.
You know what? Thief Gold is kind of hard to find. If you ever came across a copy of that (doesn't even have to be complete and mint), I'd be more than willing to take it off your hands.

[SoulBlazer]

To add to what has been said:

Other rare PC games are anything Koei released for the PC, especily if it's complete. The Holy Grail would be their PC release of PTO 2 -- it was their last PC game for the American market. I've seen copies go for over $100 easy. And I still kick myself for not buying it new when I had the chance.....

Also, the add-on from Hasbro for Axis and Allies called Iron Blitz is kinda rare and often goes for $75-125 on EBay.

Anything released by Infocom back in the day that is complete, with the freebies and what not, is PROMISED to fetch a good price. So will the complete collections, either original or re-print, of Sierra's great line of adventure games -- King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Gabriel Knight. None of them are made anymore and I sold mine last year for BIG money.

And curiously enough, I've seen CD copies of True Love, considered by many to be the best dating sim/hentai released in the United States back in 1995, go for good money as well.

System Shock is not that valuable, though. I can still find CD re-prints of the game at my local EB for like $5. ;)

[zemmix]

Hey I have this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3537044139&category=11047

First printing of Space Quest. I never knew that this was worth so much! I wonder what my complete copy of Ultima I (C64 version) fetches...

Hey SoulBlazer, you the same one from the underdogs forums?

[briskbc]

I wonder what my complete copy of Ultima I (C64 version) fetches...


I would say $50 to $75 depending on condition and how complete it is. I was wathching this series on the c-64 when I was getting ready to seel my Ultima 4 & 5.

Gold Rush by Sierra is another good title. I have sold 2 of them one for $109 and one for $29 (not complete)

[SoulBlazer]

Yuh, that be me. :) Although I've been so busy these days I don't have much time to do much else but lurk and use my Mod powers now and then. :D

[Jorpho]

FF7 PC was actually rereleased once. FF8 PC, on the other hand, is only getting rarer.

There are numerous obscure adventure games that can fetch ridiculous prices. Things like the Neverhood, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Bad Mojo, Alice: An Interactive Museum, Gothic, and The Lost Adventures of Legend are worth a lot to the right people.
________
Expert insurance (http://xpertinsurance.com/)

[maxlords]

It almost seems like it's kinda random what goes for good $. I have a HUGE stack of boxed complete old PC games back home cause I used to buy them and just save them, but I can never guess what'll be worth $ till I pop it on eBay. I've had Quest for Glory games, Ultima games, and Space Quest games all go for both $3-5 each as well as $30-50 each. Almost totally random. SOme stuff like the Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga ALWAYS goes for high $, while other stuff only does occasionally. I'm sitting on a factory sealed CD-ROM Star Control 2 right now :) I figure that's good money, but apparently, it's not spendy right now (which is ok, cause I love the game and hate to sell it!).

I never knew Bad Mojo was worth money...taht game's kinda cooL! I did know about Iron Blitz and the Infocom stuff, especially the PC version of "Lost Treasures of Infocom" volumes 1 and 2...those are easy money. I even have the original disk version of System Shock, cause sadly, when I went to buy it back in the day, they were sold out of hte CD one! *sob*

The Quest for Glory and X-Com games don't go for good money...BUT, I'd be happy to take complete copies of X-Com: UFO Defense or X-Com: Terror From the Deep off anyone's hands, cause I'm a HUGE fan of that series! They're not worth much tho, cause they were reprinted alont with Apocalypse in the giveaway "X-Com: Collector's Edition" that you got free with X-Com: Enforcer (which I'd also love to get a complete copy of, even tho I know it sucks!).

The Fallout games, even in the original boxes are worth less than nothing, cause they were heavily reprinted and are still available as a discount 2 pak (Fallout 1 and 2) at Wal-Mart and other places with bargain software. But if you have the originals, they're damn cool boxes and packins!

Oh...and Hitman? If you want to dump that Al Quadim: The Genie's Curse, I'd be happy to take it off your hands! I'm a huge D&D Al Quadim fan and I'd love to get the original box and packin stuff, as I only have the reprint CD-ROM!

[calthaer]

The original System Shock CD version must have gone down in price, then, because last I checked (this was probably a year ago or so) it was going for $70 on eBay.

I doubt that the price you can get for some of those games is completely random. Some of it's probably due to things like Exult and other fan-made "remakes" that allow the games to be played on modern systems and require the original disks to run. When one of those gets released, or when a fan-made patch for XCom or something gets released (i.e. - even that collected edition for Win95 will not work on WinXP), I've seen the prices on eBay for that stuff go up.

When DosBox becomes fully functional I expect lots of old DOS classics to at least temporarily increase in value.

[hezeuschrist]

Holy crap, I have the Kilrathi Saga. Never would have known.

[BenT]

The original System Shock (CD version ONLY) can sometimes fetch a hefty fee. The floppy disk version isn't worth nearly as much (because it doesn't have voice).

And high res. And other features. SS actually became a much better realized game with the CD edition.

I didn't know the games in Kilrathi Saga were ported to Win 95. Hmm! Wonder if they'd work fine in XP? I'd love to try out WC again.

[TreeHouse]

I was thinking of getting rid of itthough, along with the other older stuff I have, like the TB-16 setup and all. If I have everything but the box for Kilrathi Saga and Wing Commander IV, what should I sell it for? Should I split them up?

TreeHouse

[Scoots]

Well, alright.... I have 2 copies of the Lost Treasures of Infocom Vol 1, as well as some Ultima stuff. I really need to get rid of them since they're not doing me any good. Pretty sure I still have my boxed copy of Wasteland too, but I'm keeping that for sentimental reasons.

[Sega Hitman]

Just to give anyone interested in an update, sell your Ultima games now! LOL . I sold all those for $20-$40. Maniac Mansion went for $70 something. I spent $16 total, and when the auctions were over I had gotten a little under $300.

Just a word of adivice though, if you're going to list your old PC games, make sure you're willing to ship outside the US. A couple of the AD&D games were bought in the states, but I had to ship the rest to Germany, UK, South Korea, and France. Maybe PC collecting isn't really big in the states, but it must be huge overseas.

-Hitman-