Any 'older game' collectors?

[JohnD]

I've always been a fan of older console games but recently have gained an interest in older 'big boxed' PC games, 90s through to early 2000 era. I like Steam as much as the next guy but I just love to have the physical boxed game on my shelf, which I usually then add to my Steam library anyway. Maybe it's just a phase but I like to have all the goodies they used to provide you with, maps, big hefty manuals. It's one of the reasons I like Bethesda so much.

Does anyone have any games they're proud of? I'd love to get hold of the original Fallouts but they fetch a hell of a lot on Ebay. I've got my eye on the original Deus Ex though. Or maybe i'm just being lame with this whole thing.

[Berzee]

I don't have a lot of big boxes except the ones we bought when I was younger,
but I *have* made a point of dropping it at thrift stores in my area on a regular basis, and so I have a pretty respectable collection of smashed-up jewelcases with good games inside.

(I always wonder about the people who drop the games off, and when I see a single Goodwill store that has Rise of Nations, Shogun, Alpha Centauri, and Full Throttle or some such bunch as that, I wonder who lives in the area that has such fine taste and is willing to pass along their treasures -- at least, treasures relative to the stacks of old Madden games you usually find).

Oh! I do have a copy of Vagrant Story, which I asked for for my birthday; which I gather is semi-rare and technically Playstation, but can be emulated. =)

gog.com has taken some of the pride out of old games for me because I know as soon as I acquire one, so will they :P

[Gwilym]

I've been proud of my semi-bruised but nevertheless complete and boxed copies of System Shock 2, Daggerfall and I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but at the moment I think I'll be prouder of the cash I get for selling them. I am quite literally a sellout in this regard. Oh, I also have SimEarth, which is in quite good condition despite being on five-inch floppies.

[Internet]

My parents would throw away any games they found, so I only have the CDs. Four Fallouts, Planescape Torment, 2 System Shock 2s, one Grim Fandango and 80 bajillion more cds. No Deus Ex though.

[Drake Sigar]

The edition doesn't really concern me. For example a magazine was once giving away a free copy of Betrayal at Krondor in a standard small CD case, so I pinched a couple. Then there was that DVD keep case of Planescape Torment which mysteriously popped up on Amazon a couple of years ago (to this day I don't know who owns it, and fear the game itself has achieved consciousness) - grabbed that too.

I make no effort to buy big box editions (and I only buy brand new so it's balls hard to find one), but my big box games include Bladerunner, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Albion, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Dune, System Shock 2, Ultima 9, Ultima Underworld, and Stonekeep (I own three Stonekeeps, one big box, two small CD cases).

I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream.

I will find you.

[bad guy]

I'm proud of my Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries boxes.
But recently I discovered I can't find my Mechwarrior 2 manual.
My favorite manual ever! It must find it.

[Dead Herald]

I have some older SNES, NES and Genesis games. None for PC though. Nor do I have a tube TV to hook up my Genesis. My SNES is shot and NES are shot.

I used to have Atari 2600 games, but they seem to have vanished.

[mashakos]

I'd love to grab some big box PC games from the mid to late '90s (especially the awesome Quake, Duke Nukem and other FPS titles) but they are so friggin' expensive!

Got lucky with a used copy of Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries that was in good condition.
Searched high and low for a sealed copy of The Neverhood. The only one I could find was at http://www.magisterrex.com. Ended up costing me $200 /w shipping.

I have since stopped collecting '90s PC games 0_0

EDIT: If I was still willing to shell out for a PC big box, I'd probably go for this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quake-II-2-Q...item3f2125bb59
Guy thinks he's selling some lame-o quake 2 pack when it's the much rare Quake: The Offering? Yeah, would have been all over that

[jnx]

Used to have quite a lot but have probably thrown them away while moving at some point of life. Not much of a collector in that sense.

[internetonsetadd]

I'm foggy on where exactly they're stored, but I kept a lot of them. I should have Syndicate Wars, all the Homeworlds, Quake, Wizardry 8, Warcraft 2, Lords of the Realm 2, Diablo, Mech2Mercs, and a bunch of other junk. Some stuff wound up in shabby condition (C&C: Red Alert) and got pitched ages ago. Now I'm curious about where I could have put it all.

[Bobtree]

I don't actively collect them, but since I nearly always keep the games I buy to play, my closet has roughly 24 feet of mostly complete 90's through early 00's boxed PC games on the shelves. I also have misc boxes without games and games missing boxes and lots of manuals and some sets that may meet up and make it to a shelf eventually. The mismatched and inaccessible stuff could be another 8 feet, and the most recent few years of PC games are in a small cabinet, around 6 feet.

They may all go to a library or museum someday. I almost never replay old games, but they're still fun to look at. I don't own a camera, but if there's interest maybe I could arrange to get some pics.

The stuff I haven't managed to keep was what didn't live in my room and got scattered when I was away from home during and after college. Much of my 90s console history is missing: NES, SNES, N64, GameBoy, etc, but I now own the house I grew up in and like to imagine one day rediscovering boxes of SNES carts or similar that were packed away somewhere and forgotten.

I still buy physical copies when it's convenient, but they're growing much scarcer. When games get tied to unique online accounts, it erodes the value of owning a hardcopy. Most console games are still on discs, but PC has made the digital distribution transition more quickly and completely and with much deeper discounts. Also, PC game boxes have gotten MUCH Much much smaller over time, and thank goodness for that.

I have most of the games mentioned in this thread (easily more than half). Long gone are the days when there existed time enough to play every good/great/interesting game that came out. I do miss the old oddball game designs and unique looking software renderers and big fat paper manuals, but now we have thriving indies, shader-based engines, better interface design all around (since nobody wants to read manuals, oh the irony), and wikis for everything.

I'll always love the classics, but the old saying is true. You can't go home again.

[L_No]

I make a habit of keeping every game I buy, even if it absolutely sucks (it does help I never buy games full priced though). I have about two large drawers of older and newer games, all in alphabetical order - not counting Steam purchases of course. The specific edition doesn't really concern me, but I do like owning physical copies of my games. For some obscure reason, I enjoy playing and owning a game more when I have a box I can put in one of my drawers. I'm still hoping for a return of the large cardboard boxes, a bit like records on vinyl have come back into fashion.

[c-Row]

(I remember mentioning this in the physical media thread, but it fits so much better in here, so...)

I made the mistake of throwing all my big boxes away years ago to make room for more important stuff. Wish I could tell my younger self not to make that mistake in the past, so whoever is currently working on a time machine - hurry up, man!

Last year I started recollecting all the games I enjoyed in my youth, plus whatever interesting or cool game I come across. Local flea markets are a great place to pick up stuff from people who just want to get rid of their old junk - an older woman even wanted to give me her Alone In The Dark box for free. :)

Currently, the items I am most fond of are the X-COM alien box and the Indiana Jones 4 CD-I box (there is no CD-I release, but boxes were produced and came with the PC version instead). Also, it's interesting to see some old Amiga game boxes for the first time (*cough*).

There are some (few) pictures on my website - expect some more updates in the future.

[NathanH]

I mostly just keep the CDs and the manuals, but I have a few boxes somewhere that have all the manuals in. Sadly I suspect I don't have the Thief box any more, but I think I might have Fantasy General and Civilization 2, which makes me happy.

I pretty much never get rid of a game CD, although I have managed to lose Final Liberation and Chaos Gate which is really bloody annoying.

[JohnD]

This is my collection, what do you all think?




Edit : This isn't really me...

[c-Row]

Mother of God!

[zephalopod]

Morrowind Collector's Edition. Nothing too fancy, just a booklet with exotic bits of Elder Scrolls lore (Tamriel's neighbouring continents and their strange races etc), plus a small metal Ordinator figurine. Mine came with a bent mace that made him look rather ridiculous.

I do have a boxed copy of Deus Ex somewhere in my "gaming cabinet". Standard version with German subtitles. Not much to look at, but it was one of the first PC games I ever bought. I hadn't even read anything about it before I picked it up, I just thought the cyberpunky cover and the blurb on the back made it look interesting. Strangely, I still remember where I bought it... must be some strange kind of nostalgia.

On another note, I was rather shocked when a few years ago my mother threw away all my Amiga games - boxes, manuals, copy protection dohickeys - keeping just the disks. Without asking my permission, of course. I should have known better than to leave the stuff in my parent's house when I moved out...

[JohnD]

Morrowind Collector's Edition. Nothing too fancy, just a booklet with exotic bits of Elder Scrolls lore (Tamriel's neighbouring continents and their strange races etc), plus a small metal Ordinator figurine. Mine came with a bent mace that made him look rather ridiculous.

You realise how much that is worth!?

[zephalopod]

You realise how much that is worth!?

Dear Lord, no. Just checked on Ebay and couldn't belive my eyes... People will shell out hundreds of pounds/dollars? Anyway, I didn't buy it as an investment and will just hold on to it. Leave it to my heirs to sell it ;)

Speaking of Collector's Editions thatwere rather meh: Half-Life 2. A metal box containing the game cd and.... a t-shirt. Un-freckin-lievable! At least it came with some extra games on cd.

[zephalopod]

There were two special editions of Neverwinter Knights 2, if I recall correctly. "Lawful good" and "Chaotic Evil" or something like that. I got the Evil one, which came with some pre-made characters of the - you guessed it - evil, hissing, cackling kind. Nicest box in my collection, it looks like an ancient tome... plus the package came with NWN 1 on CD as an added bonus.