John Romero Puts Pristine Daikatana Copy Up For Auction

It's part of his apparent neverending quest to aid collectors ... and clean out storage space in his home.

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In his ongoing effort to create more space in his home in Ireland, John Romero has put up some new auctions on eBay, as promised. This time, he is offering a mint condition version of Daikatana and several other rare items from his time at developers id Software and Ion Storm Austin.

The pristine unopened version of Daikatana went up earlier today with a starting price of $10. It has already hit $222.50. "This is a mint box straight from the manufacturer with the seal intact. Never shrink-wrapped," Romero said in the description. Bidding will end Monday around noon ET.

If you remember, and few will forget, Romero was tied to a rather famous phrase for Daikatana marketing that still follows him, even though he never actually uttered the words. The controversy and the condition of the box, especially if Romero signs it as he always volunteers to do, could run this auction into the thousands before it is finally over.

A couple other are items are also up for bid. One is a mint-condition 1992 PC shareware version of Wolfenstein 3-D from Aptos Software that is still shrink wrapped. Bidding has already hit $122.50 after a starting bid of $10. This is another item that could really attract a significant bid given the history behind the original Wolfenstein. Bidding will end Monday at around 3 p.m. ET.

Another rare piece is an official press kit for the original Deus Ex from 2000. While the game is not included in the box, you get the press pack shipping box from Ion Storm Dallas, a collection of pre-release reviews for the game from various computer magazines in 2000, an advertising flyer, and a prototype of the Deus Ex box that never saw the light of day. Bidding started at $10 and is now at $51.99, with a 2:30 p.m. ET Monday close date on the auction. 

Also up for auction from Romero's private collection:

  • IDKFA Doom cheat code shirt: Created in the style of the Ikea logo, with the caption of "solutions for better killing," The medium-sized shirt started with a $5 bid and is already at $41. Bidding ends Monday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
  • Apple II 2015 reunion shirt: Romero hosted an Apple II reunion in 2015 and created the short with a 1980 Apple Computer Apple II 16-sector disk label and the AppleSOFT Basic program on it. The extra-large short started bidding at $5 and is now at $30. Bidding ends Monday at 2:30 p.m.

Romero will continue to clean out his stash of stuff, so more auctions will be ibound in the coming weeks. We'll keep tabs on these until Monday afternoon to see exactly how much they rake in.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 21, 2017 2:30 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, John Romero Puts Pristine Daikatana Copy Up For Auction

    • reply
      July 21, 2017 2:40 PM

      That Wolf 3D cover is beautiful

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 21, 2017 2:42 PM

      I did have fun in the mp/deathmatch part of Daikatana.

    • reply
      July 21, 2017 3:17 PM

      In 2000 I bought Daikatana, in that same box, on day one when it was released. I had read all the stories and I just had to see how this turd turned out. I looked on GameStop.com and saw it was $29.99. When I got to Babbage's (this was before they changed everything to GameStop and it was the same one I had worked at before) I saw the price tag was $49.99. Doesn't matter, had to have it.

      It rang up as $29.99. Apparently the $49.99 price tag was applied at the warehouse and they were supposed to change it at the store but they had forgotten. Since I knew these guys from working there they didn't pull any shit (you could change the price to be higher in the POS on the fly but lower needed manager approval).

      But it just says that Babbage's/GameStop knew from day one it would be hard to sell so knock down the price from the get go.

      The game was disappointing so in that respect, it did not disappoint.

    • reply
      July 22, 2017 6:12 AM

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