Where can I buy old classic PC games?

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KentaZX

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Mar 18, 2014
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I'm currently thinking of finding these old ms-dos and pc games to collect and play, but unlike console games, I haven't really found any good places that sells the discs of pc games. Do you guys know where I can easily buy them and that ships to Canada? I'm talking about MS-DOS games, and Sierra games like Kings quest and Leisure suit Larry. Also I'm looking for the game DISCS, so that means no downloads.
 
I think game disks are a bit off-limits, except for CD-ROMs from collectors on ebay maybe.
Floppy disks don't have such a long lifespan for their data, so I'm not so sure you can get physical supports easily.

That said, if you're aiming at the originals and own a 64bit system, you're going to need a DOSbox VM (or anything else emulating a 32bit system that supports native 16bit emulation as well), as 16bit programs cannot work on any present 64bit system if not through emulation.

2nd hand is your best bet, and if you're lucky, you may manage to find some gems amongst the rubbish too (I, for example, found an original FF9 for PS1 for 2€). There's not much else you can do if you don't want digital copies, I'm afraid...
 



I'm only looking for CD-rom games, not floppy disks since I don't have a drive for that, and of course Im using dosbox to play them, it just like for example how Jontron use that to play his monster bash game in an episode with his CD disk of it. Thats what I wanna do for myself and try to collect these games instead of using steam, GMG or GOG to buy them or pirating them. Like I wanna put a shelve of em like i do with my other games basically.

And I'm assuming 2nd hand as in like online and pawn shops? Honestly I thought online would be my best bet but where for pc games specifically is what I'm trying to find out. I'm hoping I can find an online shop like JJgames, but that sell pc games.
 
Pawn shops, flea markets, or shops reselling 2nd hand like Gamestop are your best bet for local shops. Online (mostly ebay, but also public announcement boards like craigslist) you'll have a easier time, but you'll have to cope with not knowing the product's state, or with highly fluctuating prices (since they're a collector's ware, by now, prices may vary greatly depending on the game's succesfulness and rarity).

I believe new products are almost surely out of the question, since they're out of production (hence why you only get them digitally, nowadays), although they obviously would be the best...

As a side note, when I talked about the need of a DOSbox and all those things of 16bit compatibility, I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were going towards by asking physical supports.
Some people can think you just have to pop in a disc and you're done, while it's not always like that; once again, sorry, but I had to make sure you knew that 😛
 


Hmm so ebay and craiglist....doe ebay have a lot of those games there honestly? Though I dont really care if theyre not new, just as long they work and doesn't look like they been abused so much.

and no worries dude, Can't blame you for making sure 😛
 
Well, they're the best places I know for online 2nd hand goods, and you'll be surprised of what you can find there.

I honestly don't know about craigslist, since I'm outside the US, although it's pretty famous, but for example, I scored myself a wonderswan color final fantasy limited edition quite some time ago from eBay, and for a relatively cheap price too (should've been around 80€, if I recall correctly), considering it's a jap-only out of production handheld console. Still playing it for fun, every now and then...

You might get an easier time with pc games, since they're usually worldwide diffused.
 


worldwide diffused? Does that mean region free? because I was thinking of finding American/Canadian copies of these PC games. and when I checked ebay for leisure suit larry for example, its usually shows in Europe.
 
No, I mean that it's easier to find a copy, be it from your region or not or in your language or not.
Besides, the only region lock you should worry about on PC, for single player games obviously, is for Japan/Korean games, and it can be easily avoided by Applocale usage.
Anything else pretty much works on any machine, or PC games and their import/export related operations would be dead already.

Basicly, you needn't worry about regions unless you're on console 😛
 


Ahhhhh gotcha. so it looks like ebay and craigslist are my best bet.
 
I know that RC, and I agree with you. He stated already that he knows he needs a DOSbox.

Getting them digital is a huge time saver and a good money saver, but I feel like him anyway. Getting the physical copy just has more of a meaning for me too, and if it takes some additional hoops to jump through to use it, so be it 😛

Worst case scenario, he could get some old hardware for a cheap price and get windows 95/98 on it 😀
 
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