Hello and please help with an original Doom on PC

[JohnHem]

Good evening everyone,

Let me make a quick introduction - I originally started playing Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny on PC in 1992, and when Doom was released a few of us at work set up a LAN and spent countless hours after work playing through all three episodes.

Since then I have had less and less time to play games due to wife, kids, work etc so it has been very interesting to read a lot of the posts on this forum, which brought back lots of memories of a game which we often played until one of us noticed the time and realised we were due to start work again in a few hours.

Anyway I digress, the reason for the post is we are currently in the process of moving house and whilst going through all my storage boxes (I won't repeat what the wife calls them) I found the big boxed version of Doom with instructions and 3.5inch disks.

Since we are E-baying a load of our stuff before we move I thought I would check to see how much I should list it for. What I thought would be a 2 minute E-bay search turned into about an hour of web searching (which brought me here) and I am still none the wiser. There is lots of talk about V1.1, V1.2, Registered disks etc but the set I have doesn't seem to match anything else I have seen exactly (i.e. the disks don't have the version printed on them).

I was hoping to just post some pictures but I do not use forums in general and there appears to be rules around posting pictures / attachments etc. and I didn't want to break a rule with my first post.

If someone could advise the easiest way for me to post the pictures I would appreciate it thanks.

In the meantime what I have is the following:
Large box with picture of marine on front being attacked by Demons and the three episodes listed on the back.
Large Doom booklet (16 pages) with Instructions etc.
x4 Doom 3.5 inch disks with Doom in Blue font and labelled Disks 1 to 4.
x1 Doom update 3.5 inch disk Registered V1.1 to V1.2.
x2 Doom Shareware Version 3.5 inch disks and labelled Disks 1 to 2.

The other problem is I don't have a computer with a 3.5 inch drive anymore, but if it's important I can get access to one to see what files are on the disks (assuming they're still readable).

Apologies for the length of the post, but if someone can give some advice as to what I have or any more information required I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[VGA]

Take some pictures, upload them to imgur and paste the links here, people can recognise the version you have.

Take pictures of everything, you will need them for the listing anyway. Condition of the boxes is important.

[JohnHem]

Many thanks, hope I have done it correctly.

Imgur links below:

http://imgur.com/9GztTPm

http://imgur.com/eCnup32

http://imgur.com/HHYYuIy

http://imgur.com/nnrivWW

http://imgur.com/gKS2PHJ

As previously, any feedback appreciated.

[fraggle]

Obviously it's the registered (mail order) version. Blue disks are consistent with a v1.1 release; it's a shame you don't have a version number on the disk to confirm this. The fact that you have a v1.1 -> v1.2 upgrade disk is further evidence that it's probably v1.1. It would be good to double check and confirm though I appreciate that it's probably going to be a huge hassle to find a floppy drive these days.

This is a weird looking set of disks though. I've seen the "DISK n of 4" labels before but they're usually on red labels rather than blue ones. Disk 2 looks to have been printed with a dot matrix printer while the others are daisywheel. The upgrade disk isn't the usual label. Did this come from a reseller and not directly from id? (The similarities between the upgrade disk and the shareware disks suggests so).

v1.1 is the first, earliest registered release, so it's quite sought-after. A quick check of ebay found this recent sale of a v1.1 registered release that went for ~$250 about a month ago. You'll notice what I mean about the labels looking different. I'd probably suggest you list it for a minimum of $100; if you can find a floppy drive and confirm that it's definitely 1.1 then people are probably going to be willing to pay more. Similarly, if you have any accompanying documentation or bits with it (like receipts or details of how you bought it) then hang on to those too and don't throw them out - people may be interested in them.

[JohnHem]

Thanks for the advice.

I did take the discs into work today and tried to check them on a USB 3.5 drive.
Only the 2 Shareware discs would read on the USB drive (see images below):

Shareware Disk 1: http://imgur.com/3SpMVp6

Shareware Disk 2: http://imgur.com/sYhPkPq

One of the I.T. guys at work thought it may be to do with the PC the USB was connected to, so went to their storeroom and dug out an old laptop with a 3.5 drive that did read the 4 Doom disks (see images below):

Doom Disk 1: http://imgur.com/aRLb4Df

Doom Disk 2: http://imgur.com/1eIVsps

Doom Disk 3: http://imgur.com/W3vMoPi

Doom Disk 4: http://imgur.com/QSJxkNW

I didn't check the upgrade disc since it is in a sealed packet and would prefer not to open.

From my limited knowledge it does appear that it is a version 1.1 of Doom.
I take your point about the version not been printed on the discs, and whilst previously checking the internet to try and ascertain if it was worth anything I had already noticed that most of the discs had a version number on, or the words "Registered" or were in red font - all of which are different to what I have?

I honestly cannot remember where I bought it from (nearly 25 years ago), although I do remember receiving Spear of Destiny and Doom through the post so I guess it was mail order. Unfortunately I don't have any receipts etc.

Another thing I haven't made clear is that I live in the UK, so not sure if that would make a difference to the version I have?

Not sure what else to say, apart from a couple of days ago I was clearing out all my old stuff to list on ebay (much of which went straight in the dustbin as worthless) and even if this doesn't turn out to be worth much it has been an interesting couple of days trying to find out and thank you to those that took time to reply.

Once again any feedback appreciated.

[fraggle]

Yes, that's v1.1.

JohnHem said:

Another thing I haven't made clear is that I live in the UK, so not sure if that would make a difference to the version I have?

Ah, this explains a lot then. It does make a difference, yes, though I'm not sure how much it would affect market price in practice.

A bit of history: the first releases of Doom were sold by mail order only. In the US you had to call id software directly and buy from them over the phone; they'd send you the box in the mail. Here's the original order.frm file that was included with the shareware copies if you're curious.

Outside of the US they had resellers. I'm not sure who the UK resellers were but a good guess would be that "Precision Software Publishing", as listed on one of your labels there, may have been one of them. Maybe someone knows for sure; I don't know myself.

The copies bought directly from id have labels that look like this:



These labels are printed in two stages: it seems they had a large number of "blank" labels manufactured; that's everything except the "REGISTERED Disk 1" and "V1.1" parts. Then it seems they ran these labels through a regular printer to add the version numbers and other details. You can tell this because: these parts are obviously printed via a different method; the text is in a different colour (black instead of blue); the "extra" parts don't always align from one label to the next; Mobygames even has a photo of one of the "blank" labels.

The v1.1 disks are blue, but from v1.2 onwards they changed to red:



Now, these are just what the disks look like that came directly from id in the US. In the case of foreign resellers, it looks like id probably gave these resellers a load of the basic material: probably a big batch of empty cardboard boxes, manuals and "blank" labels. It was then the job of the resellers to do their own label printing on top of the "blank" labels, to source their own floppy disks and copy the game onto them, and then assemble and ship the finished product.

This accounts for some of the regional variation seen between different copies, especially from different countries. The "DISK N OF 4"-style labels are something I've seen before plenty of times - one artist even made cushions out of the design. It also explains why your upgrade disk looks different to the id-made ones.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on. All this is probably far more information than you're interested in hearing, but maybe it answers some of your questions. Honestly I expect you'll get a good price if you list this on eBay - it's v1.1 and in what appears to be very nice condition. You probably won't get as much as you would for a US copy that came direct from id but it's nice nonetheless.

The shareware disks are v1.0 (first shareware release) and are far less interesting than the registered version, but interesting nonetheless. I'd probably recommend selling them together with the registered ones rather than splitting them up.

[JohnHem]

That is really helpful thanks, and definitely not more information than I am interested in hearing since it does explain the discrepancies between what I have and all the items online. Plus the full history was very interesting and I appreciate the time and effort made.

Apologies for not making it clear I was from the UK earlier, it was when someone quoted a figure in dollars that it occurred to me it was probably important.

As far as listing it on Ebay, I'm not sure if I will.
Judging by the reaction I got from the I.T. guys at work who normally aren't overly interested when I approach them, whereas today I have never seen them so animated and they were falling over themselves to help. I guess it is a pretty cool thing to have and if I ever get a man cave / den (UK houses tend to be small) then it's the kind of thing I would like to display.

Don't get me wrong, if it was worth thousands then I think it would have to go but assuming I might get a maximum £200 for it ($240 post-Brexit exchange rate if that means anything to you) then I'm tempted to keep it. At least now I have a rough idea of value, especially considering it nearly ended up in landfill.

I just wish I had more free time, since reading these forums has brought back some great memories and I would like to take a look at some of the new stuff.

[chungy]

It is a very worthy item of display for a collection. I wouldn't part with it either. :-)

Even though the disks seem like they're intact, the contents aren't really important. You can get Doom on newer formats (including Steam and GOG), so this is basically of value only for the rarity, nostalgia, and novelty. Nobody can really brag about having Doom on Steam, but having the original mail-order box is special.

[fraggle]

JohnHem said:

Judging by the reaction I got from the I.T. guys at work who normally aren't overly interested when I approach them, whereas today I have never seen them so animated and they were falling over themselves to help. I guess it is a pretty cool thing to have and if I ever get a man cave / den (UK houses tend to be small) then it's the kind of thing I would like to display.

Haha, that's funny to hear about their reaction. Yeah, it's a really nice item that you've got there and definitely deserves to be on display somewhere.

And I'm British (ex-pat) myself so yes, I totally understand where you're coming from. Glad I could be of help.