[rtrooney]

I am waaaay late getting into this. My comments may have been answered before, but there were 11 pages of messages to wade through, so I thought I would cut to the chase.

There are rare games and there are rare games.

There are rare games that are rare simply because they had such limited distribution. I think of the game Comer as an example. It was designed, directed and produced by a single individual, and the only way to purchase it was directly from him. It was well-reviewed, but I think he only sold about 1000 copies. It may still be available for purchase directly, but I would consider Comer to be a rare game.

Then there are games that simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Freddy Pharkus Frontier Pharmacist is one of those. It was the last game Sierra published for the 286 platform. A copy in the original box with the original disks and docs is rare. But you can also download a copy from various abandonware sites, and play it using dosbox. So is it really rare? (BTW, I have an original!)

Some people mentioned games such as REAH and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. They may be rare simply because they didn't sell that well when first released. Someone mentioned that REAH is no longer rare. That may be because someone found a warehouse full of unsold copies, bought them, and is now doling them out, parcel by parcel, on ebay.

Then there are the little games that have kind of a cult following. There were a fair number of copies published, but those that have them don't, or won't give them up. Amber might be an example.