Re: Re: [SWCollect] New Article from The Origin Museum
Done-and-done, Jim! Joe From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2004/04/26 Mon AM 01:35:36 EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] New Article from The Origin Museum [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have complete confidence that the data will survive--I'll leave that aspect to the collector-types that dig THAT aspect of collecting (Jim, Dan, etc.--VERY capable hands!) I prefer to distinguish what WE do as 'preservation'. It shows respect for the MEDIUM, as well as the MEDIA--and with that, a fuller respect for the hobby as a whole. If I can add to this: I believe that the MEDIUM you write about isn't complete without the actual gameplay experience: Loading the game, looking at the title screen with anticipation, gameplay mechanics, looking at maps, consulting add-ins/feelies. I feel that it is imperative that the game be experienced before it can be considered truly preserved. So just collect two of everything ;-) -- 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]/ -- 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] New Article from The Origin Museum
If I can add to this: I believe that the MEDIUM you write about isn't complete without the actual gameplay experience: Loading the game, looking at the title screen with anticipation, gameplay mechanics, looking at maps, consulting add-ins/feelies. I feel that it is imperative that the game be experienced before it can be considered truly preserved. So just collect two of everything ;-) AND the original hardware to play it on, right Jim? If you want the full experience, you can't settle for 1 second load time on an emulator when you could have 45 seconds on the original Apple. 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] New Article from The Origin Museum
At 10:25 26/04/2004 -0500, you wrote: AND the original hardware to play it on, right Jim? If you want the full experience, you can't settle for 1 second load time on an emulator when you could have 45 seconds on the original Apple. B-) If it's 1 sec. in the emulator, then it's a bad emulator ;-) Vincent Joguin. -- 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] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business
What I'd like to know is how people (the same people all the time)are finding the rare items. Granted, I'm aware of a few sellers putting a ton of stuff up, so people watch their auctions. Everyone searches on Infocom, Drash, etc. But I've also seen some really obscure stuff by an atypical seller go for a lot, stuff I didn't think anybody else would have found, especially since eBay has screwed around with the categories to the point where everything is essentially buried. It's pretty much public knowledge that I wrote my own automated eBay search tool, but if a few of you don't mind sharing how you find your stuff, I'd be interested to hear it. Do you rely on eBay's saved searches and automatic notifies? Do you save the URLs for the results of a bunch of your own searches? Do you spy on other known collectors and see what they've come across? About how many searches do you do, and how often? C'mon, don't be shy. - Original Message - From: Stephane Racle To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business I was actually thinking along the same lines, and I'm sure I wasn't the only other one. Some of the prices make it seem like $100 for a game is nothing... I don't know, but to me, $100 is a lot of cash! The other thing I've noticed too is that there's at least a couple of bidders who seem to be doing more than just collecting. I think Bryron, for one, would still be ready to pay big bucks for a game even if he already had ten copies of it - perhaps an investment? I believe C.E. made a similar statement not too long ago regarding Starcross saucers and Suspended masks. I found this one particularly interesting since I got a copy off eBay only three or four months ago and I was the only bidder. Now all of a sudden, there's 10 bids:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=4315item=3091242158rd=1ssPageName=WDVWI think the fact that knowing people are bidding high is driving more people to bid even higher.While I'm glad my collection is worth more, I wouldn't be overly thrilled if this hobby became a business. I'm not exactly sure it would be a good thing if every game sold for $100+. On the other hand, I'm almost tempted to sell some of my stuff at these prices. :-)StephaneHugh Falk wrote: I was waiting for things to die down a bit before bringing this topic up, but the last few weeks have brought an extraordinary amount of activity on eBay both in the number of good, old PC games for sale and the prices being paid. My watch list has never been so full. In fact, Id say my watch list over the last few weeks was as long as the previous six months (maybe a year). At least 3 individual sellers had lots to offer: Hopey Rbgamehunter Carol!yahoo Combined with lots of one-off sellers. But what really struck me was that even with all the supply, the ending prices were just so much higher than Ive ever seen before. I would have expected prices to drop with so much stuff on the market, but it didnt happen. Things Ive seen go recently in the $10 - $30 range were going for over $100. Many of the usual suspects were bidding, but the most noticeable was Peter (sorry to call you out Peter), who by my rough calculations has dropped AT LEAST 10 grand in the last 2 months. In some ways it is really great to see games appreciating in value so much. Maybe well remember March and April 2004 as the months that Retro PC game collecting officially became big business. Hugh
RE: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business
Im obviously not doing anything special because every time I find something I am interested in I can guarantee 15 other people have also found it -josh -Original Message- From: C.E. Forman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 10:21 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business What I'd like to know is how people (the same people all the time)are finding the rare items. Granted, I'm aware of a few sellers putting a ton of stuff up, so people watch their auctions. Everyone searches on Infocom, Drash, etc. But I've also seen some really obscure stuff by an atypical seller go for a lot, stuff I didn't think anybody else would have found, especially since eBay has screwed around with the categories to the point where everything is essentially buried. It's pretty much public knowledge that I wrote my own automated eBay search tool, but if a few of you don't mind sharing how you find your stuff, I'd be interested to hear it. Do you rely on eBay's saved searches and automatic notifies? Do you save the URLs for the results of a bunch of your own searches? Do you spy on other known collectors and see what they've come across? About how many searches do you do, and how often? C'mon, don't be shy. - Original Message - From: Stephane Racle To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business I was actually thinking along the same lines, and I'm sure I wasn't the only other one. Some of the prices make it seem like $100 for a game is nothing... I don't know, but to me, $100 is a lot of cash! The other thing I've noticed too is that there's at least a couple of bidders who seem to be doing more than just collecting. I think Bryron, for one, would still be ready to pay big bucks for a game even if he already had ten copies of it - perhaps an investment? I believe C.E. made a similar statement not too long ago regarding Starcross saucers and Suspended masks. I found this one particularly interesting since I got a copy off eBay only three or four months ago and I was the only bidder. Now all of a sudden, there's 10 bids: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=4315item=3091242158rd=1ssPageName=WDVW I think the fact that knowing people are bidding high is driving more people to bid even higher. While I'm glad my collection is worth more, I wouldn't be overly thrilled if this hobby became a business. I'm not exactly sure it would be a good thing if every game sold for $100+. On the other hand, I'm almost tempted to sell some of my stuff at these prices. :-) Stephane Hugh Falk wrote: I was waiting for things to die down a bit before bringing this topic up, but the last few weeks have brought an extraordinary amount of activity on eBayboth in the number of good, old PC games for sale and the prices being paid. My watch list has never been so full. In fact, Id say my watch list over the last few weeks was as long as the previous six months (maybe a year). At least 3 individual sellers had lots to offer: Hopey Rbgamehunter Carol!yahoo Combined with lots of one-off sellers. But what really struck me was that even with all the supply, the ending prices were just so much higher than Ive ever seen before. I would have expected prices to drop with so much stuff on the market, but it didnt happen. Things Ive seen go recently in the $10 - $30 range were going for over $100. Many of the usual suspects were bidding, but the most noticeable was Peter (sorry to call you out Peter), who by my rough calculations has dropped AT LEAST 10 grand in the last 2 months. In some ways it is really great to see games appreciating in value so much. Maybe well remember March and April 2004 as the months that Retro PC game collecting officially became big business. Hugh
Re: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business
Well, I do several hours of clever manual searches, once a week. I can't tell you what I search for of course :) It has managed to find me some good bargains that other people miss (especially when people misspell things..). Lately though everyone seems to be finding all the good stuff I find too. Since everyone pretty much snipes these days, I dont bother 'spying' on what other collectors are bidding on (one of the many advantages of sniping). I also don't generally check particular users regularly, however sometimes if I find one good item, I will View Sellers Other Items and sometimes find something good that I wouldnt have found otherwise (see note about misspelling...). My best finds are usually large lots of games, sometimes mixed in with hardware - people tend to avoid these kinds of auction with lots of 'stuff' and occasionally there is a good rare game in there that the seller doesnt usually know about. I ask lots of questions in these cases. That's about all my secrets.. C.E. Forman wrote: What I'd like to know is how people (the same people all the time) are finding the rare items. Granted, I'm aware of a few sellers putting a ton of stuff up, so people watch their auctions. Everyone searches on Infocom, Drash, etc. But I've also seen some really obscure stuff by an atypical seller go for a lot, stuff I didn't think anybody else would have found, especially since eBay has screwed around with the categories to the point where everything is essentially buried. It's pretty much public knowledge that I wrote my own automated eBay search tool, but if a few of you don't mind sharing how you find your stuff, I'd be interested to hear it. Do you rely on eBay's saved searches and automatic notifies? Do you save the URLs for the results of a bunch of your own searches? Do you spy on other known collectors and see what they've come across? About how many searches do you do, and how often? C'mon, don't be shy. -- Howard Feldman Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute Author of the Search for Freedom Computer Role-Playing Game Visit its homepage at: http://home.golden.net/~feldman/SearchForFreedom/ Visit the Computer RPG/Book Museum at http://vgmuseum.chaoticmonkey.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] New Article from The Origin Museum
Vincent Joguin wrote: If it's 1 sec. in the emulator, then it's a bad emulator ;-) For those who didn't get the joke, Vincent has written several emulators. :-) -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) World's largest electronic gaming project:http://www.MobyGames.com/ A delicious slice of the demoscene:http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ -- 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] New Article from The Origin Museum
Vincent Joguin stated: At 10:25 26/04/2004 -0500, you wrote: AND the original hardware to play it on, right Jim? If you want the full experience, you can't settle for 1 second load time on an emulator when you could have 45 seconds on the original Apple. B-) If it's 1 sec. in the emulator, then it's a bad emulator ;-) All right, all right, I confess! I've occasionally set the speed of my Apple II emulator higher than 1 MHz in order to make things go faster. Whew! I feel better now that that's off my chest. 8) -- Lee K. Seitz [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] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business
When I started collecting a few years back, I had an entire 8.5 x 11 sheet of titles, search terms, publishers, etc. You name it. It would take me an hour a day to dig. I found some pretty interesting stuff. I also had more cash to buy goodies with. But I relied purely on ebay's search tool. Now-a-days I rely on a few saved searches on ebay, and rarely I will look at someone's purchase history (only to marvel at the sheer number of things that have passed me by). I deliberately don't search intensely, because I'm trying to cut back. I pretty much bottom feed these days. If I see something cool I'll low-ball it. If I win, great. If not, great. Seems when I think I have it all, I find something that I A) don't have and B) is either very rare or unique. (Ok, I'm ranting, you get the idea.) For the more obsessive who have custom search bots, perhaps they can add social engineering to their techniques, borrowing strategies from fellow collectors to augment their mighty arsenal of discovery tools :) Anyway, these days, 2 searches, 5 minutes a day to pour over the lists. I'll add stuff to my watch list just to let it go by. I also rely on the generosity of others who toss URL's and drop names of people who have gems to sell. Other than that, zilch. On Apr 26, 2004, at 11:20 AM, C.E. Forman wrote: What I'd like to know is how people (the same people all the time)are finding the rare items. Granted, I'm aware of a few sellers putting a ton of stuff up, so people watch their auctions. Everyone searches on Infocom, Drash, etc. But I've also seen some really obscure stuff by an atypical seller go for a lot, stuff I didn't think anybody else would have found, especially since eBay has screwed around with the categories to the point where everything is essentially buried. It's pretty much public knowledge that I wrote my own automated eBay search tool, but if a few of you don't mind sharing how you find your stuff, I'd be interested to hear it. Do you rely on eBay's saved searches and automatic notifies? Do you save the URLs for the results of a bunch of your own searches? Do you spy on other known collectors and see what they've come across? About how many searches do you do, and how often? C'mon, don't be shy. x-tad-bigger- Original Message -/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerFrom:/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger /x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerStephane Racle/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerTo:/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger /x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger[EMAIL PROTECTED]/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerSent:/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger Sunday, April 25, 2004 5:39 PM/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerSubject:/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger Re: [SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business/x-tad-bigger I was actually thinking along the same lines, and I'm sure I wasn't the only other one. Some of the prices make it seem like $100 for a game is nothing... I don't know, but to me, $100 is a lot of cash! The other thing I've noticed too is that there's at least a couple of bidders who seem to be doing more than just collecting. I think Bryron, for one, would still be ready to pay big bucks for a game even if he already had ten copies of it - perhaps an investment? I believe C.E. made a similar statement not too long ago regarding Starcross saucers and Suspended masks. I found this one particularly interesting since I got a copy off eBay only three or four months ago and I was the only bidder. Now all of a sudden, there's 10 bids: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=4315item=3091242158rd=1ssPageName=WDVW I think the fact that knowing people are bidding high is driving more people to bid even higher. While I'm glad my collection is worth more, I wouldn't be overly thrilled if this hobby became a business. I'm not exactly sure it would be a good thing if every game sold for $100+. On the other hand, I'm almost tempted to sell some of my stuff at these prices. :-) Stephane Hugh Falk wrote: x-tad-biggerI was waiting for things to die down a bit before bringing this topic up, but the last few weeks have brought an extraordinary amount of activity on eBayboth in the number of good, old PC games for sale and the prices being paid. My watch list has never been so full. In fact, Id say my watch list over the last few weeks was as long as the previous six months (maybe a year). At least 3 individual sellers had lots to offer:/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerHopey/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerRbgamehunter/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerCarol!yahoo/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerCombined with lots of one-off sellers./x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerBut what really struck me was that even with all the supply, the ending prices were just so much higher than Ive ever seen before. I would have expected prices to drop with so much stuff on the market, but it didnt happen. Things Ive seen go recently in the $10 - $30 range were going for over $100. Many of the usual
[SWCollect] Even marginally ethical?
Leveraging the phenomenon on ebay that one rare item selling for a wad of cash is usually followed by several more just like it, is it a possible strategy to 'sell' highly desirable vintage items amongst ourselves on ebay? We wouldn't actually transfer ownership of the goods, and sure there would be a few bucks in final value fees to pay, but it would generate awareness amongst those who might have other copies to list them for actual sale :) Evil? Immoral? Risky? There's also the risk that somehow someone outside of the um plot (or scam) would accidentally win, and then it would be tricky to get around that. I'm not actually advocating this, its just interesting to think about. -- 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] Even marginally ethical?
It's certainly unethical, but I must confess I'm lured to the idea. Of course I don't really own anything that would loosely fetch those high prices, and wouldn't afford the items that are dug out by the unaware, so I couldn't do anything but watch you guys build up your collections (or fortunes :). Of course I also feel sorry for a guy who would think he'd be selling his stuff for 10x the actual value he'd get, i.e. And even more so for a poor bastard who might think paying 400 dollars for a game is an investment, even though we artificially inflated the market price. Also, it will certainly bring out the rarities, but it will also create a distorted value on some games you could get for less if you're patient. No free lunches, in the end (or maybe just a snack :) But what explains the increase of french red wine if not a select group of producers who created credentials in order to inflate its price in the market? Taste was relatively the same (at the time, at least. I'm no wine expert). What about cognac and the age classification, with calculated limited supply? What about diamonds, which are as abundant as the ruby? I know it's not the same, but we're all subject to manipulations of groups who dominate production (or, in our case, a large cache of products). Either way, just let me know if you go out and do it. I don't want to be the sucker who pays 400 for a 20 dollar game :) Best regards, Tomas --- Dan Chisarick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Leveraging the phenomenon on ebay that one rare item selling for a wad of cash is usually followed by several more just like it, is it a possible strategy to 'sell' highly desirable vintage items amongst ourselves on ebay? We wouldn't actually transfer ownership of the goods, and sure there would be a few bucks in final value fees to pay, but it would generate awareness amongst those who might have other copies to list them for actual sale :) Evil? Immoral? Risky? There's also the risk that somehow someone outside of the um plot (or scam) would accidentally win, and then it would be tricky to get around that. I'm not actually advocating this, its just interesting to think about. -- 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]/ __ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover -- 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]/
