For those of us old enough to remember playing the original Doom, you probably have fond memories of the process, which starts with inserting the old 1.44MB floppy disk into your PC. And these days, nostalgia looks to be quite the lucrative market, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that UK collectibles company Fanattik has presented the world with this item. It’s the “DOOM – Floppy Disk Limited Edition Imitation Gold Replica”, and it’s an officially licensed but limited edition item.
The item description reads “what’s more retro than obsolete technology? Celebrating the humble 3½-inch, 1.44MB floppy disk that the game was originally released on back in 1993, this limited edition DOOM Floppy Disk Replica plated with imitation gold comes in a box displaying the original game artwork, has a display stand included, and is individually numbered as one of 5,000 worldwide”. To be clear, it’s not a real floppy disk, so don’t expect to be able to insert this into a drive and play the game.
Appropriately or otherwise, this imitation floppy costs GBP19.99, US$23 or RM94, depending on the currency you select at the bottom of the page, before shipping costs. But it’s not the only commemorative display piece that the company has on offer. Similarly, Fanattik lists a commemorative Resident Evil 30th Anniversary Limited Edition CD-ROM Collectible for GBP29.99, US$35 and RM141. There’s also an equivalent for World of Warcraft with the same price, but that one’s already sold out.
Then there’s GameStop in the US, which lists the Doom floppy disk for US$29.99, the Resident Evil CD for US$39.99 and the World of Warcraft CD for US$44.99. So company CEO Ryan Cohen might be onto something when he said that videogames sales doesn’t matter as it pivots to collectibles.
(Source: Fanattik [1], [2], [3], GameStop [1], [2], [3])
