View Full Version : Complete list/online rarity guide for pc games?
JustPlainFreak
10-08-2005, 03:52 PM
I remember someone giving me a site for such a list back in the day but Ive seem to lost it.
anyone have a link or site with a complete list of pc games?
thanks guys
robotriot
10-08-2005, 03:54 PM
Well, I doubt that a complete list exists for PC, but www.mobygames.com has a large database. www.thelegacy.de has a couple of games listed as well ... no rarity information on either of them though.
Skinhead
10-09-2005, 12:03 AM
It will be impossible to make such a list. But that's just my opinion.
CYRiX
10-09-2005, 08:08 PM
its not an opinion its basically a fact...
kevincure
10-09-2005, 09:56 PM
We've discussed making a PC list a number of times here - run a search through to read the discussions. The summary is that it's very difficult to track b/c a) there are tens of thousands of games, b) there are very few collectors. You can find lists online for things like text adventures, Ultima-style RPGs, etc. (they all have large collector groups), but it is very, very hard to make a fuller list.
Griking
10-10-2005, 12:01 AM
I understand that making a complete PC game rarity list would be next to impossible but I still think it would be a great idea to at least start one and begin with the most popular and valuable franchizes. After all, I think that most people who ask about rarity and value of PC games are asking about adventure and/or RPGs by companys such as Sierra, Infocom, Origin and Sir-Tech, etc...
You have to start somewhere I suppose.
YoshiM
10-10-2005, 12:23 AM
That would be a huge undertaking. Do you catalog retail packages or do you include old mail order only titles as well. Shareware? Then there's the issue of actual rarity: do you look at the actual media the game came on or the rarity of the "1's and 0's" themselves? Old diskettes tend to succumb to bit-rot so how do you take that into consideration for rarity? Let's not also forget the re-releases of popular titles either individually or in compilation packs. Software is the same, packaging and delivery is different.
I'd say just catalog that the games existed, kinda like what Mobygames and The Underdogs do. That'd be about the best anyone can do and then for rarity mention the number of initial disks released and/or how hard it was to track down.
Haoie
10-10-2005, 12:54 AM
Then there are national differences. Many PC titles from non english areas never get cataloged.
JustPlainFreak
12-07-2005, 01:38 AM
Why not bump this for more discussion?
Buyatari
12-07-2005, 02:30 AM
Forget it. Not gonna happen.
pseudonym
12-07-2005, 02:38 AM
it can be done for more popular games.
Sothy
12-07-2005, 02:40 AM
How about a rarity list for mac games.... all 7 titles.
Austin
12-07-2005, 06:03 AM
This would be super difficult to do. I could see it being a possibility with the more popular and well-known games from a single company (say, Sierra or Lucasarts) but even with those, games are reissued so many different ways under different labels that it'd be too tough to keep track of.
FantasiaWHT
12-07-2005, 10:23 AM
Starting with publishers would be interesting. I'd love to see a list of all Sierra games!
The whole shebang tho? How many thousands of publishers are there out there that just compile crap onto a single jewel case CD and have Walgreens stick it somewhere? Do you count flash games? Do you count pay-to-download games? The total number would be insanely high.
hydr0x
12-07-2005, 10:31 AM
just my 2 cents on this. I'd be no BIG problem to make a list only (no rarity/price) for all major publishers and add games 1by1 as people request them. It'd just take somebody who'd want to do it
googlefest1
12-07-2005, 10:53 AM
i dont know about any others but id say "in to the void" must be one of the rarest pc games - theres one for the list
edit: and civilization 2 is common as dirt - still gets released every now and then - i think it would be dificult to gauge a rarity for floppy disk games
Lothars
12-07-2005, 05:50 PM
I don't necessarily think it would be impossible
really hard definitly
next to impossible yes probaly
but it can be done
just needs someone willing to do it
but there is so many releases and the whole lot just wouldn't be that great to do.
hmm....i bet eventually it will happen.
Griking
12-07-2005, 09:22 PM
Forget it. Not gonna happen.
I'm sure somebody once said that about NES or other videogames. As I said in an earlier post, just start with what you know and add to it as you go. I agree that it'll probably never be complete (or even close to it) but even a somewhat complete database that has many of the classics would be helpful to many.
First of all something like this would have to be a labor of love to maintain. Second of all it would require a team to maintain. One or two people just couldn't handle it alone. I'd recommend starting with a favorite genre such as adventure and RPGs only and then moving on to other game types later down the road.
davepesc
12-07-2005, 09:34 PM
Sure, a list could be compiled, but unlike a console, where there is a finite number of games and most of them were licensed by a single company and sold in stores, there are thousands upon thousands of PC games, many that never existed in physical form.
I own Guild Wars, Everquest 2, Warcraft 2, Starcraft Shareware, Caesar 2, You Don't Know Jack and some Finding Nemo game my daughter likes. You could add those to the list.
I also have that updated King's Quest 1 that was made like 5 years ago. I don't believe it was ever sold on physical media, so I don't know how you will count that.
Griking
12-07-2005, 09:50 PM
I also have that updated King's Quest 1 that was made like 5 years ago. I don't believe it was ever sold on physical media, so I don't know how you will count that.
Personally I wouldn't count it. I wouldn't count shareware either unless there was a full retail version of it for sale with box and manuals. It wouldn''t be that much different than videogames.
pseudonym
12-08-2005, 09:34 PM
it's not too hard if you focus on a certain era, say 1980-1990 and it doesn't have to be every single piece of software that has been released, only the more popular titles (infocom, sierra, etc).
i woudn't mind to see an apple II, atari st, or a atari 400/800 (disk-based) list of games personally. if anyone actually starts a list/rarity list i would help out. i have a couple of hundred older software for computers myself.
kevincure
12-10-2005, 01:39 PM
If your list includes a) games with any commercial success and b) particularly notable small releases (say Mt. Drash), it's quite doable. I can't imagine there are more than 100 computer games released in a given year with any type of collector aftermarket.
Jorpho
12-10-2005, 03:12 PM
Well, consider another example: Wasn't someone trying to catalog all the games released on tape for the C-64 (or was it the Vic-20) a few years ago, only to find it a nearly impossible task?
A C-64 database is already there, on one of the Retro Gamer CDs.
Lists about 15.000 titles on Tape/Disk/ and or Cart.
it's online as well, but the www escapes me right now, but ask Mayhem, he should know....
Austin
12-11-2005, 07:57 AM
The Underdogs' website would be an excellent place for anyone to start if they decided to take up this project. They've got all types of box art, manual scans, and etc.
hydr0x
12-12-2005, 03:27 AM
The Underdogs' website would be an excellent place for anyone to start if they decided to take up this project. They've got all types of box art, manual scans, and etc.
but they ONLY list the not-so-popular titles, so you'd be missing out on a lot of important releases to start with
a better way would be just to find someone with a complete run of some pc gaming mags (i do have 1994-1999) and just list all reviewed games. That would be a good way to start, of course you'd have to find proof that they exist for the unfamiliar ones.
anagrama
12-12-2005, 01:27 PM
And I thought the Playstation guys were crazy... LOL
You need a good source of PC specific gaming magazines, especially USA magazines like CGW (which I used to have from 1985 onwards to 1997, but they gotten lost in moving house). That was an excellent magazine (are they still going?)
I still have Strategy Plus (Computer Games), which was a UK/USA magazine. I have most issues from 1990 till 1999, but they miss the non-strategy stuff.
kevincure
12-13-2005, 12:14 AM
There ya go. CGW has been going since the mid-80s or so. Just a list of the games they reviewed (plus a few other notables) would be a relatively easy and quite interesting undertaking!
hydr0x
12-13-2005, 04:29 AM
There ya go. CGW has been going since the mid-80s or so. Just a list of the games they reviewed (plus a few other notables) would be a relatively easy and quite interesting undertaking!
yup, just like i said, a list of all reviewed games is a perfect start, most mags even had complete lists in special issues or something. After that's done just go through underdogs and search for missing stuff and you should have 98% of the stuff people have. Now, obviously, there's always sth missing but those could be added on a 1by1 basis on user request.
Hell, if no one wants to do it and Joe wants a PC list i might even do the 90s stuff someday next year.