Former id Software co-founder John Romero caused a bit of a nostalgia stir when he auctioned off an original Doom 2 3.5-floppy disc set. The set brought in an amazing $3,150, jumping from $900 with only about 13 hours left in the auction. The good news is that there are likely more auctions to come.
“Obviously, they went for more than I ever expected they would. Way, way more,” Romero told Shacknews of the discs. “The buyer is a hardcore DOOM fan, and I’ll be throwing in some other stuff for him, too. If anything, this points to the increasing popularity of classic games. Recently, a sealed Full Throttle went for $2,575.” He added that the buyer asked him to sign each disc, something he was happy to do.
Romero obviously doesn’t need the money, but his home in Galway, Ireland, is full of all kinds of memorabilia, and he said that he and developer wife Brenda Romero are starting to need extra space. “Brenda and I are going through our archives which, as you can imagine, are kind of ridiculous at this point,” he said. “Both of us have been in the industry for over 35 years. I saved literally everything, and Brenda likewise saved a lot. For the sake of scale, when we moved to Ireland, our archives filled an entire container. That same container was held by Irish Customs which simply could not believe – and reasonably so – that anyone would have that amount of game stuff and not be a game store business. While having one or two of something is fine, when you realize you have, say, seven or ten copies of the same thing, it’s time to let some of that stuff go. We’ve donated some to museums and will donate more, but we also figured collectors would appreciate some of it as well.”
With the collectible business booming, Romero said eBay is the best way to get the memorabilia out there. “I’m a part of several big box collectors groups and vintage game groups, and that’s where people both sell and buy vintage games. So, it seemed like the obvious choice. Among collectors of this stuff, it’s generally the way it’s done. There are things that I am still looking for, and I have eBay alerts set up just in case someone puts up one for auction.”
He has auctioned stuff before and plans to do more. “There are some things, yes,” he said when asked if he had other things planned for auction. “We have some stuff set aside for donation, some for keeps and some for collectors. It’s going to be a long process going through our archives.”
So if you are looking for memorabilia, watch Romero’s account on eBay. You will likely find some great pieces of gaming history in the coming months.
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