Big Box PC Game Collecting

I've decided to start collecting big box pc games. Does anyone here already collect? They're definitely cheaper than console games even for rare games it seems!

 

Yeah I caught the PC game collecting bug about 6 months ago, and I've already built up a nice collection.

What are you looking to collect? For me I've always been a huge fan of early Lucasfilm/Lucasarts games (not the star wars trash they keep pumping out thesedays) and the Ultima series. For me it's about collecting the games I grew up playing, not so much recent games. Although I do have a complete collection of the Fallout series (including the two collectors editions) plus some merchandise I've picked up off Ebay.

Carefull if you get hooked. If you think PC game collecting is cheap, wait till you start looking at factory sealed PC games. I swore I wouldn't go there, "why would you want something you can't look inside of?" I said to myself. I now have two in my Lucasfilm/Lucasarts collection and I'm looking at more which aren't going to come cheap.

Welcome to the club.

 

Yeah there's nothing like a big box game I miss the days when you'd get boxes with nice artwork and thick printed manual, full of backstory and illustrations.

You guys should post some pics of your collections!

Thankfully I've still got most of the games from my childhood:




When I moved out of home my parents threw out a heap of my stuff, luckily they left the old PC games alone but I lost the boxes to a few of the later games- mainly from the win 95/98 era. I still have some of the manuals but I'd love to track down the boxes for these ones, because each and every one of these games was fucking awesome



The 'top secret' one is for Battlezone, such a cool underrated game.

 

Quite partial to the old big boxes myself but consoles have been my focus of late. As with flamin joe I like the games I grew up with and keep an eye out for ones to complete game series I like. Mine are all still packed in boxes from my last move but nice titles you have there Donut. Heaps of loose cd games though which I have been sorting of late always seem to end up with the same Diablo, Star Craft and Command and Conquer games whenever I get a bulk lot

 

Yeah again for me it is basically early 90s-early 2000s which was the time I grew up playing PC games. I assume that most stuff is purchased through eBay? Is there any specific PC collecting forum?

 

vogons.zetafleet.com is the dosbox forum but they have a big community of people who collect old hardware and games. There's a 'retro games I bought today' thread going in the Milliways or Marvin section.

As for actually buying the games, you could try amibay.com mainly focused on amiga but there are sections for all sorts of old computers, could probably pick up some old boxed PC games from there.
I shudder to think what prices ebay commands for old boxed games....

 

I collect PC games myself been collecting since the early 90's. A few years ago I did buy a heap off ebay over a few months mostly old Sierra games. Trick is if you're not too picky and just mainly want the box, manual and game you can buy the games cheaper for other platforms other then MS-DOS like Amiga, Apple II etc. I mean I picked up Monkey Island 2 for $10 on Au ebay with box, manual, disks and wheel for $10 because it was for Amiga.

The MS-DOS versions of the games are always more expensive then the others and usually the only difference is a sticker on the box saying what system it's for. Some of the rare titles can go for a bit but if you keep your eye out you can get some cheap ones on the Au ebay. There are plenty more on the US ebay though and some are fairly cheap.

 

Already a member at Vogons, pity it doesn't have a trading forum....

 

My collection consists of purely just the games I bought to play over the last 20 years. About 3/5ths of a bookcase full.

 

I own the Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack, which is rare as hens teeth, but have misplaced the box, manuals, and guides with it.

 

Damn that sucks. SMAC was a cool game, I wish they'd make a sequel to it.
I do have all three of the novels that were written based in it though: http://www.firaxis.com/smac/story.cfm

They aren't brilliant but they do help flesh out the game world a bit.

 

Some pictures of my games collection


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Nice lot of Sierra and Blizzard games there, I see you have the diablo 2 collectors edition chock full of awesomeness

 

Awesome Sierra collection! I'm slowly building my Big Box collection but no where near as thorough as that!

 

Wow some nice collections there!

Here's a pic of my collection so far. Sorry for the flash but I couldn't get a clear pic with the lighting in my room. In case you can't quite make them out after Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis you have Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Curse of Monkey Island (factory sealed), Escape from Monkey Island, Full Throttle (limited edition) and The Dig.


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95% of my collection I purchased through Ebay with just the one coming from Amazon.com and then a handfull of games coming from my early gaming days.

Ebay is pretty good for sourcing games, I have a few saved sellers who I've dealt with in the past and have always been good with their prices and pack things well. But of course there are always rip off merchants, such as a certain guy in Germany I won't name who is well known for asking ridiculous Buy It Now prices for games. It's a shame because ocassionally he has some good stuff.

Amazon.com is OK. Can't really complain becuase I managed to pick up a factory sealed copy of the P-38 Lightning Tour of Duty Expansion for Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe for fairly cheap. The expansions can be hard to get hold of so I was happy with that. Only thing that bothers me is that unlike Ebay, very few sellers will do international sales so you may need to use a 3rd party to send it to you. They also seem to not care about putting in any detail at all as to what exactly they are selling (so you'll have to ask to confirm) and you'll get no pictures of the exact item to assess it's condition (so again you'll have to ask).

Check out Game Trader Zone. I found it recently, it has forums but it also allows you to create an account where you can catalogue your collection and also list the games you are willing to trade/sell and games you are after. This is all searchable so to facilitate trading between users. Seems pretty good.

http://gametz.com/

 

@Nevac: I spy an original Megatron, haven't seen one of them for about 20 years or so.

 

Nice Ultima collection Flamin Joe, I only have VII & IX I was looking at getting the others but Ultima games tend to be expensive especially the earlier ones. I paid quite a bit for UVII and I bought IX retail ages ago.

That's not an original Megatron either that's the masterpiece one that came out a few years ago it's a lot bigger then the original. Although I do have a re-release of the original too.

 

Thought I'd show you guys how much you can get when you're not actively collecting.

As I said earlier, I just bought games to play, not collect them. Most come from the golden era of gaming, the late 80's/90's.

Disk games 1

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l186/mv75/Image0224.jpg

Disk games 2

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l186/mv75/Image0225.jpg

CD games 1

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l186/mv75/Image0226.jpg

CD games 2

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l186/mv75/Image0227.jpg

Behind piranacon there are my more modern games that come in dvd box form size.

I also have a bunch more in my cupboard, of note are my original ultima7's and their expansions.

 

Ah reaper you have a lot of games I had in my younger days but the boxes have gone awol, great lot of memories in first 2 pics.

This thread has inspired me to get my lazy ass into gear and sort out my games, unfortunately I ran out of shelf space rather fast even after moving my dvd case games. Apologies for crusty images and reflections a phone camera is all I have.

Much like Reaper I haven't really been active in collecting, but if I spy a titles I'd like then I will grab them from time to time.


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Some of the leftovers, need another shelf or two.


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Nice collection. Are they the original seperate box expansions? Looking to sell? Absolutely loved Ultima 7! Black Gate was a fantastic game but in my mind it came a close second to Serpent Isle which was my all time favourite. It followed on from great story and refreshed the Ultima series by placing it in a new land with new towns and people to explore instead of being yet another game set in slighty changed Britannia. I have many fond memories of playing those games for hours on end.

Ultima 8 and 9 never even came close to what the Ultima 7's achieved.

Yes the earlier ones and also the two Worlds of Ultima games can get pretty expensive due to being hard to find. I already had Savage Empire from my original collection.

I won Ultima I in an auction and it went for just over $100. To be honest I wasn't expecting to win it as I wasn't prepared to pay too much for it, and by the time I put my maximum bid in before I went to bed it was already pretty close to my maximum. Woke up the next morning to find myself a winner to my suprise!

Ultima III turned out to be a bit of a bargain even though it also cost me over $100. Won it in an auction bundled with the Ultima I, II and III triology box set (which alone sells for a good price) and also the Ultima II floppy disks and manual, which you can sort of see in a plastic bag between I and III. Was happy with that.

Just need to finish it off with a complete Ultima II and Ultima IV for the main series and I'll be happy.