Original Doom 2 3.5-inch Floppies on Sale From John Romero

They are on eBay for $900 now, and bidding ends tomorrow morning.

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In a variation of "What Would You Do For a Klondike Bar," the question here is "What would you pay for original 3.5-inch floppies of Doom 2?" If your answer is $900, then you are in the ball park of an auction currently on eBay. Why so high? They are being sold by id co-founder John Romero, one of the masterminds behind the game and the franchise.

The auction is indeed legit, as Romero has even promoted it on his official Twitter account. He may not have been expecting much interest, as he started bidding at $10. But 60 bids later, it has hit the $900 mark, with the auction scheduled to end at 6:13 a.m. PT / 9:13 a.m. ET tomorrow.

Romero lists the disks in "very good" condition. These disks look great - no defects other than they are 23 years old so the glue from the label is slowly coming through (as they all do over time)." the listing reads. There is no box, just the five disks, and they are the original v1.7 version of the game.  

Now, 3.5-inch floppy drives have gone the way of the dodo, but you can own a piece of history even if you don't intend to boot it up. And Romero will even sign them if you like, so make a bid sometime before tomorrow morning. 

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 27, 2017 4:50 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Original Doom 2 3.5-inch Floppies on Sale From John Romero

    • reply
      June 27, 2017 5:10 PM

      So does Romero need the money or what?

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        June 27, 2017 5:15 PM

        Maybe he just doesn't need them anymore

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          June 27, 2017 5:20 PM

          Probably just bought it in the Steam sale.

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        June 27, 2017 5:21 PM

        If he started out at $10 then he may just be unloading some crap to an audience that might appreciate it. May have had no idea it would get so high, and the general rule of eBay is that the crazy high bidders are generally kidding.

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        June 27, 2017 5:36 PM

        This question comes up every time Romero sells something on eBay (if search actually worked for once I would just copy and paste my replies). The guy has been around the internet for a while, they were the first to distribute their games over it as shareware. For example he sold his car over the ebay years ago.
        The guy also has a gigantic gaming collection and a passion for preservation of the old games. He probably isn't going to hang out at a flea market to offload his spare stuff and this is a nice thing to do for other collectors. He supplied the mod community with quake map sources, missing doom animations etc and was alway very approachable for mod developers and gaming fans alike. Part of his collection was loaned/given a while back to a museum iirc

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      June 27, 2017 6:07 PM

      I still have these, a friend made this for my birthday a few years ago. One of the best gifts I've ever received.

      http://chattypics.com/files/shackbrowseUpload_jgkm2fuex2.jpg

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      June 27, 2017 6:10 PM

      It doesn't really seem all that interesting as an article of video game history. I guess if Romero signs it that's something.

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        June 27, 2017 9:27 PM

        There were a lot of retail copies of Doom 2 sold it's not really unique but it is hard to find now a days. I have searched eBay a lot for original Doom 1 floppies that weren't sold in stores but mailed in a glad lock zipper bag like a drug deal or something. Even those typically go for less than this, minus the Romero signature.

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      June 27, 2017 10:49 PM

      I finally threw mine away like 11 or 12 years ago, along with all my other floppies. Even my Sim Ant on 5.25" floppies had to go!

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        June 27, 2017 10:50 PM

        And my Win95 on floppies. Store was out of cd-roms the day I went to buy it. What a fucking nightmare installing it from floppy.

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