Collecting "Vintage" Games

[TremblingBluStar]

I thought I'd post about this, and see if anybody else here is into this particular hobby. I've been collecting vintage games, from old PC and console games to board games for about 1-2 years now. I can't say I have a huge collection, because I don't really have the space for one, but I am happy with what I have so far.

A few of my favorite items include:

Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600
System Shock - I actually have 2 copies of the CD version, and one boxed floppy version.
System Shock 2 boxed

As for board games, the oldest I have is a 1930's 3 in 1 "game chest"

But I also have a few late 30's Monopoly sets.

Recently I had been on the search for an "original" 1965 copy of the game Operation with the smoking doctor. According to this article , there are several floating around that claim to be from 1965 and have the smoking doctor, but the actual first one says "the electric" game instead of Skill Game, and is pictured there. Anyway, I found one on eBay for $20.

I was very, very happy that day!
So does anybody else here collect games, and if so are there any that you are excited about?

 

[Timewalker]

First of all, a definition of "vintage" would be helpful. Some games that were a normal part of my childhood seem to be considered ancient by some people.

 

[Kor]

Board games: anything before 1985.
Video games: 16-bit or less.

Kor

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I just got a "Williams Arcade Classics" CD which only runs under DOSbox. (Defender, Defender II, Joust, Robotron, Sinistar, Bubbles). I bought it for Sinistar which I loved back in the day.

Also just got Sinistar Unleashed on CD, it's for Win 95/98 so I'm not sure what "bit" generation it is. Strangely enough, it runs fine under Win7 x64, but the patch for eliminating the need for the CD won't run due to bit-incompatibility.

I also just purchased a plug & play game cube for the TV (PacMan, Galaxian, Rally X, DigDug, Bosconian). Purchased for Bosconian, another favorite arcade game of mine. The cube is from 2003, but all the games are 80's classics.

I've had a working Merlin handheld game, 4 soma cubes/puzzles and a super spirograph set for some time.

I have several 80's-90's PC games on 5.25 & 3.5 floppys, but don't have any of those drives.

 

[John Clark]

I'm not sure I'd say that I collect them, but I still have all my Oric, Spectrum and Amiga 500 games. For slightly newer ones, I also still have DOS games onwards too. I had to get a new Amiga as the old one had died but I still use some of them from time to time.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm not sure I'd say that I collect them, but I still have all my Oric, Spectrum and Amiga 500 games. For slightly newer ones, I also still have DOS games onwards too. I had to get a new Amiga as the old one had died but I still use some of them from time to time.

I still have part of my Amiga 500. I'd love to assemble a complete one so I can play my old games again. Can you recommend any reliable sites (feel free to PM so we don't go off-topic here)?

 

[Miss Chicken]

We have an old Atari 2600 and a couple dozen games that we can no longer use but I just can't bring myself to throw them out because I had so much fun playing with my sons when they were children.

 

[Saga]

i have a few old board games from the 70s like Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman and Star Wars. i think the oldest one i had was Have Gun Will Travel. sold all my old NES stuff years ago.

 

[HIjol]

Not a video game player, but I have 1960's versions of:

Monopoly (wooden houses and hotels!)
Easy Money
The Mousetrap Game (it's original name)
The Game of Life (tri-fold board)
Axis and Allies
Battleship
Stratego
Clue
Husker Du

Of course;

Chutes and Ladders
Candyland

And, not so vintage, but;
"Monopoly: Star Trek the Next Generation" (Collectors Edition)
"Star Trek" (Hasbro, 41 years old, "vintage"?)
"Star Trek Monopoly"

Still got 'em all, and in ok shape!

Thanks for the Trip Down Memory Lane!

 

[RJDiogenes]

I have a complete collection of Infocom interactive fiction in various formats, from C64 to iPhone.

I don't know if this counts, but I have an almost complete set of all the modules and whatevers for the Buck Rogers XXVC RPG from TSR. I'm missing about three or four, which I intend to buy if I can find them, but I never get around to looking. I also have the two computer games from SSL.

 

[HIjol]

Jesu Christo, I am SUCH a fossil! I read your Post, Diogenes, and I think about the only two words I recognized/understood were "Buck" and "Rogers"!

I remember watching this on Saturday Mornings!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Jesu Christo, I am SUCH a fossil! I read your Post, Diogenes, and I think about the only two words I recognized/understood were "Buck" and "Rogers"!

I remember watching this on Saturday Mornings!

They had Saturdays when you were young?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Jesu Christo, I am SUCH a fossil! I read your Post, Diogenes, and I think about the only two words I recognized/understood were "Buck" and "Rogers"!

I remember watching this on Saturday Mornings!

I am, undoubtedly, a more fossilized fossil than you. I used to catch them randomly after Creature Double Feature or The Ghoul (i.e. Ron Sweed) on Saturday nights on Channel 56 about 45 years ago. Although they showed Flash Gordon more often than Buck Rogers. But I now have the Buck Rogers serial and all three Flash Gordon serials on DVD.

They had Saturdays when you were young?

Not only did we have Saturdays, but they were much, much longer than they are now.

 

[John Clark]

The old Flash Gordon serials (and a cartoon too) seemed to be on a lot when I was a youngster (during summer holidays especially). I don't recall them airing the older Buck Rogers where I was though

 

[HIjol]

Ming the Merciless was the ultimate bad guy of his time!

 

[publiusr]

I remember an old Flash/Buck style space rocket that was die cast in the very early 1980s, when the Star Wars look was the rage. I cannot find it on the web. Blue-painted metal

This is very cute
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Green-Toys-...-Playset-Red-Blue-Free-Shipping-/141729220504
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15-FRICTION...tg-look-New-retro-repro-Tin-Toy-/381543607590

Um..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Inert-Mortar-Rocket-ship-vintage-kids-space-toy-Rocketship-/131754219124

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Um..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Inert-Mortar-Rocket-ship-vintage-kids-space-toy-Rocketship-/131754219124

At least it's inert. "Why, back in my day we could buy an armed one"

Not only did we have Saturdays, but they were much, much longer than they are now.

Longer Saturdays? That's not a bad thing unless you're looking for TV programming (ie: nothing to watch on Saturdays).

 

[Timewalker]

Longer Saturdays? That's not a bad thing unless you're looking for TV programming (ie: nothing to watch on Saturdays).

Even living on an acreage and getting two channels if we were lucky, there were lots of shows on Saturdays. Of course that was back when most of the shows I watched were either cartoons or whatever was on CBC on Friday-Sunday (any Canadians here remember Tommy Hunter? It was THE show that people watched on Fridays at 9 pm... until years later, when Dallas started).

 

[RJDiogenes]

Ming the Merciless was the ultimate bad guy of his time!

I can't think of the name offhand, but there's a jungle movie from the 30s where Charles Middleton plays Buster Crabbe's father. That was jarring.

Longer Saturdays? That's not a bad thing unless you're looking for TV programming (ie: nothing to watch on Saturdays).

No, I meant it as a good thing. Like Summer days, Saturdays used to last forever.

 

[Timewalker]

No, I meant it as a good thing. Like Summer days, Saturdays used to last forever.

It used to seem that way. Now it just whizzes by like any other day. Faster, even, as once more it's Monday and time to do Monday-type things.

There's a reason that Monday is "Moanday" in lolspeak.