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| Got any cool games hiding in your basement?
Bring it to the CNET
Message Boards and be the envy of the gaming
community. | | by
Hugh Falk
(1/22/99)
Some people collect
Beanie Babies; I collect PC games. For some reason, people react to
my hobby like I'm some kind of freak, but these same folks don't
think twice about collecting a sack of beans shaped like a duck. I
don't get it. PC games are a published entertainment medium, an art
form much like books, movies, or music, all of which are longtime
collectibles. Although the numbers aren't as large as those other
mediums (yet), millions of people around the world enjoy PC games.
The biggest difference is age: games are a much newer art form.
But let me clue you in, buddy. Now is the best time to start
collecting games because we're not far from their primitive
beginnings. Can you imagine how valuable an original Edison
phonograph recording is to a collector or museum? Or, to give an
example more pertinent to collecting art rather than technology, how
about a 1941 reel of Citizen
Kane? Let's not even mention those lucky enough to have one
of the first books ever printed. Similar opportunities exist today
in the realm of PC game collecting.
First, I should explain what a PC game is. In recent years, "PC"
has come to mean Intel-based personal computers (previously called
IBM-compatible computers). However, I am using PC in its truest
sense: personal computer, meaning any computer aimed at the
average home user. For the purposes of my collecting, a PC includes
(but is not limited to) products from Atari, Commodore, Apple, Texas Instruments, Tandy, and IBM.
Many collectors focus on systems and games that flourished during
the Golden Age of PCs, which started in 1977 with the release of the
Apple II and ended in 1991 with the utter dominance of Intel-based
PCs and the advent of CD-ROM. Although computer games (and game
consoles) existed well before 1977, the Apple II (and soon after,
the Atari 400/800) had the market share and the horsepower to create
a legitimate PC gaming industry. The Golden Age peaked in 1983,
right after the great video game console crash.
Hugh Falk currently owns a
TRS-80, TI 99/4A, Apple IIc, Vic-20, C-64, SX-64, Atari ST,
Commodore Amiga, two networked PCs, and several old game systems.
His goal is to someday harness them all to a hot-air balloon and use
the heat they generate to circle the globe. Got any collecting
stories you'd like to share with us? Let us
hear them. |
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