Is there a board around for PC game collectors?

[Solar77]

I'm not a PC game collector and probably never will be, but it would be interesting to read up on.

[D_N_G]

i would like to know too :D

[SoulBlazer]

Unlike console games, there's only about 100 titles or so that might be considered 'rare' or 'uncommon' titles, that are worth any money. Most can be cheaply had for just afew bucks. I put together a partial list a while ago of the valuable titles which I can share.

Home of the Underdogs has a good computer forum. I've seen others online also.

[Griking]

I really don't know of one but there should at least be a dedicated forum for PC Games here.

[calthaer]

Most people here don't discriminate against PC games, even if they are of the consoliocentric persuasion. It's just that nowadays there aren't too many PC games of note to remark upon - they're all FPS clones of the Halo persuasion or crappy RTSes of the Command & Conquer persuasion.

[pseudonym]

the closest thing would be this site. http://www.if-legends.org/~yois/

he seems to know what's pc games are worth, older ones anyway.

[Ed Oscuro]

Most people here don't discriminate against PC games, even if they are of the consoliocentric persuasion.
Erm, the Otto Awards don't agree with you there =P

Not to say people don't have a right to like Halo 2, but having that game beat DOOM 3 or Half-Life 2 for graphics, or have people say "wow Halo 2 for the online component!" (as opposed to...all the :Source games? lol) strikes me as indicative of some strong bias against the PC. :/

Anyhow, you just bring up a question about PC gaming, we'll treat it the same as any other topic ;)

[cityside75]

I put together a partial list a while ago of the valuable titles which I can share.

I'd love to see that list...

[esquire]

Most people here don't discriminate against PC games, even if they are of the consoliocentric persuasion.
Erm, the Otto Awards don't agree with you there =P

Not to say people don't have a right to like Halo 2, but having that game beat DOOM 3 or Half-Life 2 for graphics, or have people say "wow Halo 2 for the online component!" (as opposed to...all the :Source games? lol) strikes me as indicative of some strong bias against the PC. :/

Anyhow, you just bring up a question about PC gaming, we'll treat it the same as any other topic ;)

I don't think it's necessarily a bias as far as those games are concerned. In order to really appreciate those games for their graphics, most computer users will have to go out and spend $400+ on a new video card. Something many people will not do. It's a shame too. I played Doom III originally on my then PC Gaming Rig which was an Athlon XP 1800+ with a Geforce 3TI 128MB and 512 MB of Ram. I recently built an Athlon 64 3500+ with a Geforce 6800 GT 256MB and 1 GB of Ram, and it's like night and day from before.

Anyways, back on topic. I would like to see a forum dedicated to PC gaming, and even an online rarity guide started just as to the really rare games. I frequent many of the resale shops and it seams like more and more PC games are popping up, and I don't mean the junk either. I've seen some classic Lucasarts games and old Might & Magic games that I've been tempted to buy, but I don't even know if I'd be able to run them. It's almost as if you have to keep an old computer with Windows 98 running so you can play some of them.

[Promophile]

I would love to collect Sierra stuff, I LOVE kings quest, police quest, quest for glory, and all of their old stuff, but it's SO damne xpensive.

[esquire]

Try 3DO stuff, especially since they are out of business. I've seen Heroes of Might and Magic IV go for as much as $100 or more, complete. I sold a couple myself for $80.

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't think it's necessarily a bias as far as those games are concerned.
Not bias as you've loosely defined it to mean something along the lines of fanboyism. No, with one exception I don't see much evidence of that. That doesn't mean that "bias" has a new definiton, however. I have no problem with your following rationale.


I would like to see a forum dedicated to PC gaming, and even an online rarity guide started just as to the really rare games.
We had a forum du jour, and an online rarity guide would be INSANELY hard to finish up. Anybody into Finnish cavefliers? :D

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I'm heading off to bed, but off the top of my head anything from Sierra as far as their collections go is rather big bucks (Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, etc.). So are a lot of Infocom and Ultima games. The Might and Magic series is worth some money, as are games like Axis and Allies: Iron Blitz, Wing Commander: Kirathi Saga, PTO II, and most of Legend's adventure games.

There are many sites set up to help you run old games. As long as you have some patience, programs like a boot disk, a DOS emulator, and MoSlo, and a little persitence and 99 percent of all PC games will work. I agree that it is a hassle, but things have gotten a lot better in that sence recently.

And whoever says PC games are dead has'nt played DOOM 3, Half Life 2, or Pirates. ;) Yes, they are all sequels or remixes, but they are AMAZING games.

Finally, PC gaming has oen big advantage -- small companies and single people can still make their own games and sell them from a website for a low charge download. Less then 10 people making a game has'nt been possible with consoles for over 10 years. There are DOZENS of great games out there that are VERY good.

[-hellvin-]

Wow....an online rarity guide for the pc would be very, very, very, very big. Damn.

That'd be cool though ;D

[Ed Oscuro]

And whoever says PC games are dead has'nt played DOOM 3, Half Life 2, or Pirates. ;) Yes, they are all sequels or remixes, but they are AMAZING games.
DOOM III is pretty much the same thing we've come to expect, just a bit more linear this time LOL

[SoulBlazer]

A complete PC gaming guide would be IMPOSSIBLE. But I could see someone like DP doing a short version, just focusing on the rare games -- say, R8 and above -- and the ones that sell for $50 or more on a regular basis. That would be mangable. I think you'd have around 500.

[Promophile]

A complete PC gaming guide would be IMPOSSIBLE

Well it's not impossible, I bet you could whip one out in a few years/decades ;) .

[calthaer]

Yes, you're right, Ed; it's probably not a bias per se, but it is sort of a shame that all the major PC game devs can't make a game that will run on anything less than the top 5% of computers out there - a good reason, perhaps, why PC gaming is on the wane in terms of sales. Like Soul says, though, the awesome thing is that there are lots of small indie games out there - some of them good games - for dirt-cheap, just being sold right off the website. Devil Whisky comes to mind.

With all of us working together and adding information, you're right - we could probably come pretty close. There are lots of small releases out there like Soul says (Moonbase Commander comes to mind - what a great game whose obscurity is so undeserved!), but I'm sure there are enough of us here (and possibly out there) to come up with some sort of compendium on PC games.

[Griking]

I would love to collect Sierra stuff, I LOVE kings quest, police quest, quest for glory, and all of their old stuff, but it's SO damne xpensive.


Actually, most older Sierra & Ultima games aren't that hard or expensive to come across. The collection set (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8159201671&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW) usually go for $100+ each but you can but usually find the individual games (http://search.ebay.com/Kings-Quest_Video-Games_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR40QQsacategoryZ1249QQs atitleZKingQ27sQ20Q51uestQQsojsZ1QQsosortpropertyZ 1) for about $5-20 each. Even most of the Infocom games can be had somewhat inexpensively unless you're looking for a rare variant

[kevincure]

I don't think a PC guide would be that hard to do - there are no more than a couple thousand titles "of interest" - that is, worth playing, with any name recognition, or rare/valuable in some sense. I've been casually tracking a few titles that don't pop up on ebay too often, but don't have time to take on the whole project; I would love to see someone else step up to the plate.

[charitycasegreg]

I would love to collect Sierra stuff, I LOVE kings quest, police quest, quest for glory, and all of their old stuff, but it's SO damne xpensive.

Kings quest is so awesome, I have the 4th on diskets, and the 5th and 6th on cds, I wish we still had the boxes though... I never finished the 4th one... got pretty far though(pointwise)

[poe]

Yes, you're right, Ed; it's probably not a bias per se, but it is sort of a shame that all the major PC game devs can't make a game that will run on anything less than the top 5% of computers out there - a good reason, perhaps, why PC gaming is on the wane in terms of sales.

I don't know enough numbers to argue sales, but I will point out that my Athlon 1700 based Compaq I bought 2 years ago, with only a budget-line GeForce 4 added since purchase, can run Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 well enough to be playable (albeit only at an average of 15-20 fps on higher detail configs).

I will also second some of the other posters' love for the indie developers, pointing out that despite the string of high-profile PC releases in the last few months, I've put about 50 hours into just a couple games purchased off www.hamumu.com. I've also really been considering Starscape and Crimsonland, after reading more about them on gametunnel.com.

[portnoyd]

DP would be the best place to do it, you know. Not to say I would have any idea where to start.

Here's a rare title: Day of the Tentacle on official 5 1/4" floppies. :D

dave

[-hellvin-]

DP would be the best place to do it, you know. Not to say I would have any idea where to start.

Here's a rare title: Day of the Tentacle on official 5 1/4" floppies. :D

dave

Niiice. I've got the original lucasarts adventure collection on 5 1/4 floppies but only one problem...missing disk 1. Maybe some day I'll find it. That brings back some great memories. It's an AWESOME compilation:

Indian Jones & Last Crusade
Maniac Mansion
LOOM
Secret Of Monkey Island
Zak Mckracken

I think I still have the hint guide that came with it too, somewhere.

[tyranthraxus]

With the magic of google you can find collector sites with pics and info on
Infocom, Sierra and Ultima games. And more info can be found by searching boards for old computers, Apple II, Commodore, etc. Also there is a good
following for collecting the early EA boxes which were 'LP' style. Most
aren't very valuable $1-5 but MULE sells for up to $100.

[Iron Draggon]

Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz is rare? How rare? Maybe it's time to part with mine...

I'd like to see a PC gaming forum here too, and especially one devoted to modding PC games, that would be better! BTW, speaking of modding, IMO that's one advantage that PC games have over console games that I think the console gaming industry really needs to find some ways to tap into soon.

Give me the PC over any of the modern consoles anytime, regardless of cost!

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, 'nuff said! :D

[soniko_karuto]

are game alphas rare?

I have the original age of mythology alpha discs. about 10k were done.

[SoulBlazer]

Do a search on EBay to see how expensive they go for. :)

[Iron Draggon]

WOW! Not bad! But still not enough to sell mine! I sure do wish that I had an extra copy of it now though! I had no idea that it went for that much!

[Cryomancer]

I've been finding a lot of complete PC games at my local thrifts lately for about 2-4 dollars each, I've found both a floppy and CD version fo Kings Quest VI, powermonger, planet's edge, red baron, and camelot. No lucasarts adventures though, unfortunetly.