Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo?
I think if we start by asing the CGExpo guys we can find most of this stuff out. I'm sure they'll be happy to give us info, they seem like nice guys. I'll get a message drafted to them this week. Last week I had absolutely no time. For that we could do a quick poll right here. If this event were to happen, and assuming a 2 day event, a Vegas venue, and stellar guest speakers, a) would you go? and b) how much would you be willing to pay for admission? I'm one of the organizers, can I still vote? I'd definitely go, and I'd pay as much as $50 to get in. (More if we get really good hotel rates.) PC Gamer, Electronic Games (Arnie Katz, Bill Kunkel) or CGW might be interested, yep. EG has always been big supporters of CGE, I'm sure they'd help with ours too. Another idea I forgot before is T-shirts - selling T-shirts is a great way to make back some of the costs too. Ok, but I know one T-shirt printer we definitely SHOULDN'T use. B-) I have no trouble contacting/hunting down potential exhibitors and/or speakers, but obviously not until the rest is a bit clearer. Yeah, we should do the where / when / how first. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo?
Wow, I must REALLY be optimistic, then, I figured a few hundred would show, especially once they learn of the classic authors. (The place could get packed if the Woz shows up!) I'd prefer to plan for a larger number, just in case. - Original Message - From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 10:53 PM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo? I think this was meant for the whole group (see bottom)... -Original Message- From: Brian the Fist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 6:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo? Hugh Falk wrote: I don't mind scouting out some local places (I'm guessing hotels) for prices. We should have a ballpark idea of the size event we're looking to put on. I'm guessing it will be relatively small (smaller than PhillyClassic) due to it being a first time and a pretty focused event (compared to CGE and PhillyClassic). However, I'm slammed this week and out of town next week. So give me a couple of weeks to investigate. Thoughts on size? I'd say expecting 50 or so paying guests to show (ie. excluding the speakers and exhibitors) would be optimistic.. -- -- Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game Visit its Homepage at http://deep.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Paranoid seller and tax evasion
Well, I *would* draw a distinction between *trading* games and *buying* them. I dislike the thought of being taxed for non-cash transactions. I tried to argue the same to a customs officer. His reasoning was that I paid by sending my game. Can you argue with that? Then your customs tax should consist of something like a cheap game, or a loose manual, or a few disks! B-) -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Totally disagree here; having an item still in original shrinkwrap is a testament of time, and much rarer than an open box, of course. Really though, it's just amazing to have an item after X years still in the condition and orginal packaging that it would have been in at the little ma pa shop that originally sold it. I've always felt unbroken shrinkwrap has a kind of Schroedinger's Cat value to it. Suppose you have the only currently known copy of a rare game (long-time list people know which one I'm talking about B-). Then suppose you opened it to play, but found out the disk has deteriorated and is no longer readable. I imagine everyone here would agree you've devalued the game, whether it's from opening the shrinkwrap, or from taking a game that *could* still be playable and turning it into a game that definitely is not. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Brian the Fist schrieb: I always like to throw a bone in the gears.. It's not so hard to get access to a shrinkwrap machine. How do you know, if you get a shrinkwrapped game, that it is in the ORIGINAL shrinkwrap? Especially if there are no price tags or anything. If you never open it, how would you ever know? Carbon dating? The pungent odour? To me it is absurd to collect shrinkwrapped games at not open them - you're just opening yourself wide to scammers (not that I'd ever do that.. dum-de-dum..) Anyhow, when I get a shrinkwrapped game (rarely) the shrinkwrap is the first thing to go (unless I'm reselling it of course). When it comes to Infocom games I am pretty certain I can tell a rewrap from an original one. It's not only that I know what the shrink looked like that was used by Infocom, but there are other telltale signs as well: dust particles under the shrink, edgewear where there shouldn't be any, fingerprints, etc. Marco -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo?
If someone, like Woz, who's interesting to people outside of our immediate audience showed, it would be easier to draw bigger numbers. If we asked the VCF people about their approximate attendence it would probably reflect how many would come to an expo limited to old games. -Adam - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 9:13 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo? Wow, I must REALLY be optimistic, then, I figured a few hundred would show, especially once they learn of the classic authors. (The place could get packed if the Woz shows up!) I'd prefer to plan for a larger number, just in case. - Original Message - From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 10:53 PM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo? I think this was meant for the whole group (see bottom)... -Original Message- From: Brian the Fist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 6:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo? Hugh Falk wrote: I don't mind scouting out some local places (I'm guessing hotels) for prices. We should have a ballpark idea of the size event we're looking to put on. I'm guessing it will be relatively small (smaller than PhillyClassic) due to it being a first time and a pretty focused event (compared to CGE and PhillyClassic). However, I'm slammed this week and out of town next week. So give me a couple of weeks to investigate. Thoughts on size? I'd say expecting 50 or so paying guests to show (ie. excluding the speakers and exhibitors) would be optimistic.. -- -- Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game Visit its Homepage at http://deep.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo?
Like I said, I was at CGExpo and there were maybe 200 people tops (excluding exhibitors). Remember, these people have to come from halfway across the country in many cases, and that is a big barrier. Not everyone lives in southern California :) Plan small for a first time conference, or there won't be a second.. You can always limit attendance if you get too many applicants, but you can't do the reverse.. In fact limited seats could encourage people to sign up and pay early.. C.E. Forman wrote: Wow, I must REALLY be optimistic, then, I figured a few hundred would show, especially once they learn of the classic authors. (The place could get packed if the Woz shows up!) I'd prefer to plan for a larger number, just in case. -- -- Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game Visit its Homepage at http://deep.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
I am already doing this Chris, you've seen my site haven't you? If I am inadvertantly helping counterfeiters, I'm sorry but for me at least, the benefit (hi-res scans) outweighs the risk. Anyhow, there are only a very few games that are amenable to easy counterfeiting - basically those sold in a cardboard folder with the instructions printed right on it, and nothing else, and we know to be cautious of their origins when buying these... C.E. Forman wrote: This reminds me. Awhile back Sarinee Achavanuntakul (of Underdogs) and I were talking about setting up a site for cataloguing the exact contents of game packages. Gameprops.com, I believe it was to be called. It was to be something like a more specialized version of Moby, concentrating on package variations and lists of what was in them. Possibly scans too, though with all the counterfeiting lately I'm nervous about an undertaking like that now. I did some fundamental database design, and we got as far as actually registering the domain name, but it just never went anywhere from there. - Original Message - From: Per-Olof Karlsson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 6:12 AM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase Well, I kinda see it as preserving a legacy. How many originally shrinked versions of a game will be around in fifty years? Yeah, of course I understand this view. :) I'd much rather preserve the whole package though. I like to make scans of the contents for instance, which is rather hard when it's shrinkwrapped. ;) I think one of the more important tasks we as collectors have is to document history. - Peo -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ -- -- Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game Visit its Homepage at http://deep.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Software Collecting Expo?
On Jan 18, 2004, at 11:39 AM, Brian the Fist wrote: Like I said, I was at CGExpo and there were maybe 200 people tops (excluding exhibitors). Remember, these people have to come from halfway across the country in many cases, and that is a big barrier. Not everyone lives in southern California :) Plan small for a first time conference, or there won't be a second.. You can always limit attendance if you get too many applicants, but you can't do the reverse.. In fact limited seats could encourage people to sign up and pay early.. Another reason to go small is that packed rooms give off the impression of a busy, successful convention. Whereas large rooms partially filled give off the impression of a dying or dead convention. (Savvy grassroots political groups use this concept all the time. ;-)) -- Edward Franks -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
Per-Olof Karlsson wrote: Counterfeiters are always a problem. If the images are of high quality enough (which we all want them to be), I'm sure we'd run into problems. The only real way to solve it is by crippling the image in some way, either by introducing some watermark or just insert a logo at a crucial spot - however this makes it less enjoyable for the rest of us.. Same goes with the idea of having the pics in such a quality that it would look like crap if printed (low quality jpeg's, for instance). Nobody really wants that either. Though, the biggest problem with logos et al is that given enough Photoshop skills you can always get rid of them, or even make a low quality jpeg look exactly like the real thing. There are many ways to watermark images such that they cannot be tampered with. If this becomes a reality, bring the concept up again and I'm sure we can think of something. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Feldhamer, Stuart schrieb: It doesn't seem odd to me...Legend has abandoned its core competency - adventure games. IIRC Legend didn't have much choice. In the mid-90s the adventure market started to run dry and Legend had to move 3D in order to survive. Later they apparently also couldn't by themselves cope with the increasingly huge production costs per title and if GT Interactive hadn't stepped in, there might have been no more Legend Ent. much earlier. The pity in all this is that the 3D titles Legend did at first weren't exactly bad, but overlooked. And when Infogrames later bought GT Interactive, Legend wasn't much more than a name under many and the consequences we see now. I'm not sure I like all this concentration. We are almost at the point where only a few publishers dominate the market, because only heavyweights can afford to develop a game nowadays. And because these heavyweights have to make sure that a title gets in the production costs, we will see more and more games with a 2, 3, 4, 5 in the title and as much appeal to the mass market as possible. Creativity and originality is only an afterthought, once the calculators rule over the creative department of a gaming company. Marco -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Need advice regarding a Wasteland purchase
But I agree that for very rare items the data should be preserved as well, if a game would otherwise be lost, once the original medium is deteriorated. As long as 1 person perserves the data, it can be copied. An original shrinkwrapped box can't be copied. :) -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
Re: [SWCollect] Modern classics
Marco Thorek wrote: I'm not sure I like all this concentration. We are almost at the point where only a few publishers dominate the market, because only heavyweights can afford to develop a game nowadays. And because these heavyweights have to make sure that a title gets in the production costs, we will see more and more games with a 2, 3, 4, 5 in the title and as much appeal to the mass market as possible. Creativity and originality is only an afterthought, once the calculators rule over the creative department of a gaming company. It's not the calculators: It's what makes money. You shouldn't be scared that accountants and suits are ruining the industry; instead, you should be scared that the core sales of most computer and console gaming are the way they are. It is a hard pill to swallow that adventure games simply don't sell enough units to make a profit. There are a *few* sequels, maybe 5 a year, that are indeed worth playing. I just recently finished Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, and it was a surprisingly deep game with a lot of replay value. But that is the exception. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
