Loom Fm Towns on Ebay

[dimmu--borgir]

Please remove this thread if I'm not allowed to do this.

 

Go get it!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11047&item=3540066959

 

/CC

[Calapuno]

OMG, you already have $90 for it. And there's 8 days left! Good god, i wonder how much it'll go for in the end!

 

If you don't mind me asking terribly, how much did it set you back?

[BooJaka]

The reserve isn't met so it might not go for anything...

[elTee]

I think the reserve is gonna be at least $200. ARGH! This is totally destroying me. I mean, I have enough money to buy it, and it was offered to me before he put it on Ebay, but I mean, I'm going to uni next year. I just hope this isn't the last time I ever see this item. If I was working now instead of saving to pay for accomodation and tuition I'd buy ALL the items that will be available. DAMN YOU CRUEL WORLD.

[Benny]

Just be thankful its not Zak, that would probably be even more insane.

[Justin Michaels]

Would someone please tell me why it would be worth 200 dollars to purchase a slightly different version of Loom, a game that, albeit fun, is old? Anyone who wants this version probably played the other version(s), right? So, they are in effect paying 200 for another go around?

 

Please don't say it is just to be looked at or- framed....

[Ernil]

Whoa! Though Loom is one of my favorite games ever, this price seems a bit......erm.....pricey. One thing I dont understand...(a quote from the description)

 

The Towns version has 256 VGA color and is the only one with CD-audio sound/music.

 

It is to my belief that my version is 256 color and has CD-audio sound/music. If not, then I'd be suprised, because the music for my Loom is very high quality. Hm.

 

Farewell,

Ernil

[Oystein]

Well, when I said collecting I also meant enjoying and playing. I enjoy both those aspects. I thought that was self implied in my last post, but obviously you had to go on about your whole theory on collectors and materialism. Relax, man! Start enjoying the small things in life you too, instead of just whining about what people like to do with their spare time and money.

[Wizball]

Blue Tentacle you are so wrong at least about me as a collector.

I think you can't put all of us in one basket.

 

Let me explain why I collect Lucasarts/Sierra adventure games.

In 1999 I realized that both companies are not gonna honor their glorious past anymore like I hoped before. I imagined HUGE collector collections with all their games ever produced + a lot of extras on DVD-ROMs.

Just think how beautiful that would have been...

Anyways.

I decided to try to buy every adventure game ever produced by those companies to preserve it for the generations after us.

I did and I still do believe that one day we will have museums devoted to computer games. See the kids that played the games back then are the 20-30 years old these days (the one with the money and mostly zero liabilities).

So I collected them and now I have most of my mission done.

I don't feel nearer to the companies or better than anybody else that only played the games from warez version downloaded from the internet.

I'm just happy that the beauty of the old incarnations of those once kickass companies are somehow preserved when one is looking at those detailed old boxes, read the marvelous and witty hintbooks and look through the Adventurer or InterAction magazines (examples about how advertizing is done in a cool way).

 

I'm not interested in everything LEC related however so I can't value how much the FM-Towns versions of those games would be worth to me.

I stick to PC versions only.

However I did pay over $100 US for the King's Quest VI painting signed by Roberta Williams so I better not judge

 

Hope you understand at least my view and motivitation to spend loads of money on those things.

[elTee]

Wizball's kinda right. I don't collect so that I can somehow claim to be more of a fan than someone else. I mean, if someone downloads day of the tentacle illegally from the internet, ploughing through hundreds of warez sites and porno pop-ups, completing hundreds of pointless tasks in order to access the download, they may well have gone to more trouble than me, and my ebay search engine in order to get a copy of the game. Does this mean they are a bigger fan than me? Thats pretty irrelevant.

 

So, why collect? The first issue I want to sort out is the whole "rare" thing. Loom for the FM-Towns is no so much rare as collectable. There is a difference. A rare item is worth something to anyone; its recognisably valuable. The very fact that it is rare causes its value to rise. A collectable item, however, although it might be rare, is only valuable within certain circles - that is, only collectors will be interested in it. I mean, within our community the FM-Towns games are the rarest and most collectable of all. But take those same games to an antique shop and the most you'll be offered is £20.

 

Computer games are not valuable yet. Movies were the same though - Boris Karloff memorabilia from 70 years ago is worth thousands of pounds today, but for a long time it was considered worthless. Movies were just "entertainment", not to be taken seriously by the art community. These days, of course, it is very different. Movies are considered one of the most important art forms, and as such the older memorabilia from the better, more popular movies is worth a lot of money. If you have an original print-run poster of Frankenstein from the 30's, you can expect to be able to sell it for at least $1000.

 

Games are different to movies though. They rely on technology to keep people interested, and at present it is a very "throw-away" culture. This means, people often buy a game, discard the packaging and then when they've played it, sell it on or swap it for another game. As the game gets older, its condition wanes even further and eventually it is lost or broken. And retailers know that old games don't sell, so you can't walk into your local Game store and buy, for example, Discworld. Its not that Discworld is a bad game, but it looks poor compared to newer games. The casual gamer would look at the box, laugh, and look for a more popular, newer game. This is a direct contrast to movies, where older films are readily available. As all that is important is plot, a movie made in 1920 is potentially better than a movie made in 2003. Thus, at your local DVD store you can pick up Laurel & Hardy movies, classic film noir and hundreds of other old movies on the same shelf as modern hits like Armageddon and Lord of the Rings.

 

Where am I going? Well, we've all heard of film buffs; some of us even consider ourselves as them. But film buffs weren't around in the early days of cinema, because there wasn't a history to research and over-looked gems to watch. Its the same with games now. There are no real "game buffs" because games have only really been around, in the modern sense of the word, for the last generation. In 20 years have no doubt, there will be people who are interested in the good classic games, regardless of graphics. These will be the game-buffs, so to speak. So, classics like Monkey Island that are universally agreed as being important, good games, will still be in demand. And although you'll still be able to download them, or even still buy, from some places, the original copies will be much more desirable. However, they won't be available unless there are people like us, collectors, who are prepared to look after them and ensure they survive. I'm sure you've all noticed the current trend in game packaging: dvd cases. 10 years ago, even 5, games came in big sturdy boxes. And the copy protection systems, such as the elaborate ideas used by companies including LucasArts will be seen as a novelty - unheard of to the gamer of the future.

 

So, back to the point - why collect? You collect because you want to take something that has had a positive effect on your life, and protect and store it for future generations. And sure, all LucasArts need to do is print off a new run and you have new originals, but that takes the fun out of it and really, whats the point?

 

I guess I'm taking it kinda seriously, but once you start a collection it becomes very hard to stop collecting. So, when something rare comes along you want to get it.

[Alien426]

Who wants FM Towns versions when he can have a Ball Bag?

[Benny]

Wow theres totally no contest there. I find this deeply, deeply disturbing though.

[Udvarnoky]

The fm Towns of all Lucasarts games go this high. Why is everyone suprised?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Lol, Blue Tentacle! I think you understand it about as much as anyone does already!

collecting just for the sake of having

and

So the hobby seems to me to be purposeless

Well, what's wrong with these two sentences? Anyone?

 

Absolutely nothing! That's what!

 

Collectors collect for the sake of HAVING and of course, their hobby IS completely purposeless (as ALL 'hobbies' are!).

 

(Why do people go running? Play sports? Collect stamps? Real collectors don't collect with selling in mind.)

 

Two dictionary quotes:

collector

 

n 1: a person who collects things (e.g. stamps) as a hobby

and

hob·by

n. pl. hob·bies

 

An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.

So, Blue Tentacle, you see that what you've said is absolutely spot on for 99% of hobbiests and collectors. It's a funny old thing, but it has just as much meaning as any hobby!

 

Maybe there's a book on it somewhere that could explain it to you (I can't -- I am a collector/geek, but I can't really explain why I find it enjoyable).

 

~ John