why collect old computer games?

[christianscott27]

do you collect old computer games? just the carts or disk games too? i've been thinking about unloading my TI-99, coco, C64, atari 8 bit, vic 20 collections and going straight console...i just dont have the childhood love for these beasts, yet its part of classic gaming and thus belongs in my "museum". right now i'm down to only games and only carts and only classic computers.

what do you think, why do you collect them?
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LIST OF PRODUCTS (http://www.yamaha-tech.com/wiki/List_of_Yamaha_products)

[scooterb23]

I collect TI99 and C64. I collect Ti because it was my first computer, and some of my top 20 games of all time still come from that system. The C64 was my gaming machine, I had over 300 original disks with it back before my mom sold the whole setup, C64, disk drive, 300+ disks, and 5 joystick for $25 just because we were getting a 386 PC...

I do have the attachment to those machines, even more than my 2600 and NES...I have been buying copied C64 disks recently, just to find some of the old games, but I would so much prefer to have the original disks. I have found a few lately (Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy, Grand Prix Circuit, and Skate Or Die).

Without a doubt, I do consider these my two favorites, though most wouldn't call them true systems...

[Anonymous]

I find it interesting to think that some of us have an old 486 set up with some weird switched dual boot version of DOS 3.0 and DOS 5.0 and an ad lib sound card.

[Raedon]

I don't collect any sort of media at all.. I have 500 C64 games on disk but only a few are original. I have a cable that connects my computer to my 1541 drive. I have one cd-r with 5840 C64 discs and TAP's I just copy them when I want to play. I also record Tapes off of TAP format which works great as you get all the intro graphix.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/300_c64_games.jpg

I do the same with all cd-rom games, I have no love for collecting discs.. I just have backups of most cd games except a few I got really great deals on like Metal Slug for Saturn and Tekken 3 for PS1 (which I got free..)

I'm all about the hardware media.. carts carts carts..

[Raedon]

.. now that I think about it I do have 40-50 Amiga games that are original :indeed:

[SuperPsycho]

Well, I don't really have any original copies of games for them yet, but I'd like to get some original copies of games for my Apple IIGS and Commodore64..untill then it's all copies and nothing really special.

I have an old 386 I plan on installing a used CD rom drive in someday so that I can play old DOS games on it... (I have a 6 CD pack of MS-DOS shareware games sitting in a drawer here somewhere)... but I really don't have any original copies there either.... well exept for Tank Wars and Commander Keen.. I got those on 5.25" floppies in the original plastic cases in a drawer in that black desk in the room next door....

I have a couple original copies of software for Apple II, but nothing IIGS specific; just F-15 Strike Eagle and Dragon Wars... Both have manuals and boxes..Dragon Wars has a poster of the box art inside it's box.

[Mayhem]

I have probably over 1,000 originals for the C64 of which nearly 300 are carts. It's just a collecting thing :D

[Griking]

I collect old computer games.

I primarily collect Apple II games since I grew up with the system but I'll pick up classic Adventure or RPGs from any system. I focus mostly on Adventure and RPGs but will pick up others that I have memories of playing as a kid as well.

Oh, nad they're mostly all 5 1/4 floppy games.

[YoshiM]

The only computer I collect for is the CoCo, as it was the only computer until 1992 that I used and am attached to. As Joe says in the last DP guide, the CoCo does not have very good cart games. Many of the great games came out on tape, disk, or magazine (ie you had to type in the suckers into BASIC). I don't haul the system out often as there is just too much crap to connect and I don't have room for a permanent place for it. That's where MESS comes in. One of the best CoCo 3 emulators out.

[digdug]

I collect EVERYTHING that pertains to videogames and computer games. I collect Hintbooks (I have over 6k). I collect different variations of computers. I collect every format of games from the newest PC games to the oldest Vic-20 or CoCo games.

The point I am maiking is you collect the stuff you want and know that YOU enjoy. If computer games is not really your type of collecting then stick to console. There is no rule to collecting, that is the beauty of it. You do it because YOU like it.


If you are willing to part with your stuff I would be interested in hering what you have.

Thanks For listening to me Rant & Rave.

Chris :D

[den68]

I collect some computer games. I don't actively seek them out but if I happen across the at a thrift I'll pick them up.

I still have my original C64 and VIC-20. I don't have any games for the VIC but recently found a tape drive for it. I've got about 300 C64 games, about half copied and half original and maybe 16 carts.

I've got a Mattel Aquarius, no games but I have the printer, tape drive, memory expansion, and a couple unopened home office programs.

I have an Atari 400 and an Atari 800 XL with about 25 carts.

I'd like to find an original MAC.

[ClubNinja]

Actively, I don't collect the classic computers games, but I do collect the computers themselves. I've got my Atari 800, Sinclair 1000, Amiga 2000, C128, etc. The only games that I pick up for these are the ones I will actually play. The whole Commodore floppy drive hooked up to the PC that was mentioned already is something I've got set up too. So yeah, I've got a ton of Commdore and Amiga floppies loaded with yummy games. For the 800, I've got about 8 carts, and that's all. I used to have a Vic 20 and about 8 carts, but I traded those away (to Christian, in fact, hehe.)

While I quite enjoy the classic computers, I stick to consoles for collecting purposes.

[zemmix]

Well for me growing up the systems I spent most of the time playing on was computers like the 386 and macs. I always pick up boxed disk games that I don't have for any system. Sure the boxes maybe be 4x the size of an NES box.. but the do have better art for the most part I think. Not only that but you have a load of wargames for computer systems that never made it to consoles. I always love finding old wargames in the wild.

[mythicon]

Because there are so many great computer-only games! I just played Thrust for the C64 and it's a joy to play, great controls and itchy itchy tension. I saw that version for the 2600 and that's cool, too, but there's nothing like the original. I could say that about a gazillion other games, too.

True, a lot of games are fine to have on emulators (better that way, less clutter), but there's something nice about having the originals, especially for games that require a lot of documentation, or that included a lot of extras.

There's also something kind of beautiful about owning a bunch of 5 1/4" disks that you know are going to be useless piles of bit-rot pretty soon... it makes you aware of the transitory nature of all possessions, etc. etc. Maybe that's why I'm so into cassettes and CD-R's as well.

[Raedon]

speaking of this.. I picked up a set of DOS 6.0 install disks for .25 cents at the thrift store today.. figured it might come in handy some time in the future

[theaveng]

I have probably over 1,000 originals for the C64 of which nearly 300 are carts. It's just a collecting thing :D



I didn't collect "originals" during the 80's... why would I start now? <ducking and running>

Troy (who owned perhaps 1 original... and 100 "borrowed" games) ;-)

[slapdash]

I basically collect only cartridges when it comes to computers, though I've debated at least ADAM tapes too. For me, cartridges are cooler, and also, since they were costlier to make, you don't get all the micro-releases that you got on tape & disc, and even CD now.

I can't say that I don't collect CD/xDs, but I'm certainly not into collecting PC/Mac games, and would probably shy away from other computer-like CD-based systems (that's partly why I don't have a Pippin yet I suppose).

[Raedon]

Well, I plan on getting a CD32 some day. Amiga console.. *drooool*

[kainemaxwell]

Many the older computer and DOS games are more fun then what's out now. i'd love to be able to play Tie Fighter, Tempest 2k and some the classics agian myself.

[vintagegamecrazy]

I collect very old pc games because of the nostalgia of them and they are fun just to play sometimes.

[nate1749]

SuperPsycho - there are dos emulators out for windows xp (assuming that's what you're running now) so you won't need to boot up those old machines. I've used it and it works quite well!

[kainemaxwell]

I think somewhere in my house are the C=64 disks for most my stepfather and mine games. I know in my closet I have the disks for a few of mine, along with some disks with multiple games on it, from Contact and other magazines.

[calthaer]

Let me just go out on a limb here and say:

I collect old PC games to play them. Choplifter rules. Bard's Tale rules even more.

And: SEA DRAGON! ALRIGHT CAPTAIN. THE SHIP'S COMPUTER IS NOW READY. PLEASE WAIT WHILE I FIX GUIDANCE SYSTEMS.

[Kamino]

do you collect old computer games? just the carts or disk games too? i've been thinking about unloading my TI-99, coco, C64, atari 8 bit, vic 20 collections and going straight console...i just dont have the childhood love for these beasts, yet its part of classic gaming and thus belongs in my "museum". right now i'm down to only games and only carts and only classic computers.

what do you think, why do you collect them?
1) If you've got atari 8 bit carts to unload....I NEED THEM.
2) I do collect for ti-99/4A, and atari 8 bit PC. Atari 8 bit was first, partly because i got it for three bucks, partly because it's a better alternative to the atari 5200. Ti i got cheap. not as cheap as the xe, but a good deal.
I like both systems. The XE, i might add, looks like another console anyway, since I leave the keyboard in my storage bins ;)

[Griking]

Wow, another moldy oldie thread brought back from the dead.

Well, it's been 2 1/2 years since I first replied to this thread and I have to report that nothing's changed. I still pick up old adventure and RPG games whenever I run into them. It's my nostalgia.

[Iron Draggon]

I'm wondering why alot more people don't collect them, and why some of them aren't alot more expensive. Typically you can pick up any old computer game for practically nothing, no matter what game it is. I know that some old computer games are very expensive, but there are very few games that fall into that category right now. So I think what will happen is that as more and more console games become rare and valuable moldie oldies, more and more people will start to realize that the oldest and rarest computer games should be just as valuable as the oldest and rarest console games. Someday I hope to see all the obscure budget titles that I tend to collect more of than any other computer games become extremely rare and valuable and highly sought after. I know that most of them won't, because most of them are pure crap, but there are a few gems hidden amongst the mounds of pure rubbish, and I hope that someday more people will become interested in them and those games will begin to be considered collector's items. Maybe then I'll sell my whole collection, and make a fortune in profits on them all!

[robotriot]

I'm collecting Amiga games because I started out on that machine. And there are quite a bunch of rarities, although they hardly fetch the prices of console games. The most expensive I've seen so far was Moonstone, at €120 to 150 ^^

[vespertillio]

Huge Epyx (Automated Simulations, not their distribution stuff) and Ultima collector here. I also look for old EA gatefolds and Infocomm items. Anyone got any? Anyone? :evil:

[Lady Jaye]

I don't collect old computer games, although I still have my old System 6- (or early System 7-) compatible Mac games: Where in the World / When in Time is Carmen Sandiego, SimEarth... Even though I no longer have the diskettes (they fell prey to data rot), I could always run these games through emulation (actually, SimEarth DOES work under OS 9, but of course it runs much too fast for its own good).

The manual for SimEarth could have been used for a physical geography class (in fact, I played it in college in the semester I took physical geography; it felt very pertinent to me). It's too bad that there never was an improved remake of SimEarth, one that'd combine the whole physical geography aspect of the game to the improvements in sim games brought forward since via SimCity.

As for the Carmen Sandiego games, they're early editions of the game, with inserted foldout poster of Carmen and her gang (portrayed by real people, not the cartoony Carmen that was later used). You needed to use the reference book included with the game (Where in the World shipped with the 1990 World Almanach, while When in Time included a pocket encyclopedia paperback). I have to admit that the current Carmen games are probably more interesting for kids because of the addition of multimedia.

There was this other Mac game I used to have (Infocom's Arthur), but it was a copy and it required the use of a booklet (which we photocopied back then, but threw away since). For some reason, that's one game for which you'll find very little information on the Web, as it came out in the later years of Infocom (it was a graphical adventure game) and as far as its Mac compatibility went, it was no longer usable when one switched from System 6 to System 7. Still, if I could find a rom dump of that game, along with the text file of the reference booklet, I'd love to play it again (even though it's a pretty linear game with a very low replayability level).