Greetings and welcome to an LGR thing! And today I just wanna relax a little bit, no
script, nothing too involved. And just take a look at some product catalogs, some computer
game software booklets and magazine type things that you would get with boxed PC game releases
back in the day. Specifically the 90s, it was sort of a golden era for these product
catalogs like this one: the GT Interactive Software catalog from spring of 1998. “High-performance
GT,” whatever that means. And I showed this one not too long ago in my Unreal 20th anniversary
retrospective. And it just got me in the mood to look at some more catalogs like this because
I enjoy these a whole lot! And I did a video like this I thought not terribly long ago,
but it turns out it's been 5 years. So, I guess that means it's time to do another one.
Anyway, here we are. We're gonna take a look at five catalogs overall, starting with this
one right here. But I'm also going throughout the rest of my collection and just taking
a pick of different boxes. I'm gonna pick out four more, these right here, to bring
together a total of five different software catalogs from five different companies. I
have just an absolute ton of these, but I don't know I was feeling this particular selection.
So yeah back to this catalog right here though and check it out: Blood II The Chosen wasn't
out yet. You never know what's gonna be in some of these catalogs, it is just sort of
a snippet in time. And especially fun to see these certain releases that I was so enamored
with back in the day like the Duke Nukem Kill-A-Ton Collection. I didn't see it in a catalog I
saw it in a Toys R Us for the first time. a friend of mine ended up getting it, I never
did. It had a cool t-shirt and everything, he wore that shirt and I was like “dang
it you suck I want that.” But anyway, one of these days I'll get that boxed collection.
Yeah, look at all these GT Interactive had: Balls of Steel, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior,
Oddworld Abe's Oddysee, Total Annihilation, Blood. NAM, that's a pretty neat little game.
Unreal, of course. And they were even advertising the Unreal level editor, I guess that was
potentially a boxed version of UnrealEd that they maybe were gonna release physically but
I don't believe ever did. Got some early box aren't there for the expansion to Unreal which
became Return to Napali and did not look like that when it came out. And on the other side
here this ad for Duke Nukem Forever just cracked me up as soon as I saw it, I had to put it
in that Unreal video, but it's worth looking at once again Duke Nukem Forever coming in
winter of 1998 that would have been amazing. I still want to play that version, augh. But
anyway, I mean they didn't actually say which winter, they just said winter. So hey! Leave
it open for interpretation! Catalogs like this are just, I don't know, they're neat.
Let's take a look at another one. And this one I found in the original box to release
of Bullfrog’s Syndicate Wars for MS-DOS from 1996. Had a bunch of cool stuff inside
but this catalog is what we're gonna be looking at for this moment in time. And check out
that website screenshot or photo of sorts on the front. What is that, Netscape or something?
Ah man, autumn 1996. Ooh the internet just so exciting, everything about the internet
oh my goodness. Although I'm not entirely sure why they have these pronunciation guides
for EA dos cahm: “place of interest.” Or dubya dubya dubya dot EA dot cahm. “The
biggest brands in PC gaming all under one roof.” Yeah, like Electronic Arts did have
quite a bunch even in 1996. I don't think they had Westwood or Maxis yet but yeah, they
had Bullfrog, Jane’s, Origin. Of course EA themselves. Check out this 90s dude. Everybody
was just screaming and angry and like really hyped up on everything all the time of the
90s, that's just how it was. “Expect the unexpected.” I guess so but you’re telling
me what to expect here like Dungeon Keeper: “Evil Is Good.” That wasn't even out yet
some alternate box art -- potential box art there, they did not go with that for the retail
release, but I do like that art. Yeah, Syndicate Wars the game that this catalog was packed
inside of. Gene Wars, that's a game that I never played. In fact, I still -- I don't
think I actually own a copy. Yeah, “crossbreed your way to universal supremacy.” Don't
know if it's actually any good or not it just always seemed intriguing. Theme Hospital wasn't
out yet either, ha. That's such a great game. And this one I've never heard of? “Creation:
It's up to you as caretaker the beautiful unspoiled Creation to implement the spreading
of new life throughout the planet's oceans.” Did this even come out? I mean, this is one
of the questions sometimes you run across in these catalogs like this. Ah yes and all
the Jane’s combat simulations, these were pretty great. I never played Longbow, unfortunately.
I always liked helicopter sims, but I do have it now, just never made the time to play it.
ATF was a good one. So was USNF 97. ATF NATO Fighters, never actually played that one either.
Privateer 2: The Darkening [chuckles] I love titles like that that are just so generically
video game-y. “The darkening, you know the reckoning.” Ah Wing Commander IV, good stuff.
Lots of FMV, like quality FMV. Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga that was coming soon, remaster
of Wing Commander was that one, two, and three. “Speed adjusted: all three games run at
normal speed on today's PCs.” They did come out, but I have never tried it. Ah Crusader
No Regret. I've been meaning to cover that for a long time along with No Remorse, but
still haven't done it. And Ultima Online. Yeah, there don't even have any box art or
anything yet. I was never an MMO person but I remember several people playing and being
like, “holy crap this is the future of everything.” Oh yeah, here we go The Need for Speed Special
Edition, “seriously fast.” They're also mentioning that this is for the 3DO, the PlayStation,
and the Saturn, and those they're not all equal versions. In fact, the special edition
only came out for DOS and Windows. And yeah it looks like they have to qualify that with
some of these statements here it's like “oh, you know modem a direct link racing is PC
only, but the Saturn, the link up is only for the PlayStation. And oh, yeah, you know
you can do all these things with the eight tracks but there's only three on 3DO.” And
yeah they had to shovel it all into one ad because there's so many versions of Need for
Speed. And Road Rash though, this was a 3DO game as well and then they converted it to
Windows, sort of updated it and this does not mention the 3DO version at all, so oh
well. Ah Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Rose Tattoo. That was an interesting game,
I've played it a little bit. A lot of pre-rendered backgrounds and stuff that look pretty cool
at the time: 256-color ooh! And then the CD-ROM Classics, you know, these were neat back then
because you know. I didn't have a lot of money and it was just like “hey I want some EA
games for cheap” and you could get a lot of cheap EA games. Noctropolis, Privateer,
Theme Park, Ultima 8 -- eh, whatever. But all these classics: Extreme Pinball, BioForge,
Magic Carpet, Relentless Twinsen’s, you know. A bunch of cool stuff they released
on the CD-ROM Classics label, but annoying now as a collector that doesn't want those
cheaply made boxes with like nothing inside of them. Alright, so let's move on to this
catalog here, this is the Viacom New Media catalog. And this arrived inside the box release
for MTV’s Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity for Windows 95. It's actually a
pretty darn good adventure game, and it came with a catalog so that's what we're gonna
take a look at. Viacom New Media, that's a company that I don't really talk about. In
fact, I don't know if I've ever talked about it on LGR, but I find them fascinating because
they had a bunch of different properties that you may not associate with Viacom first and
foremost. Like Zoop. I remember that, sort of an action puzzle-y thing for yeah, all
sorts of systems. Mostly remember the console versions, I don't know if I've ever even played
a PC one but it existed I guess. And of course the aforementioned Beavis and Butthead in
Virtual Stupidity. “Uh, it’s supposed to be a CD-ROM misadventure game or something."
Got Star Trek Deep Space 9 Harbinger. Never played it, but I'd know that the package was
really cool, itt had this super awesome design. I still want to try to find one of those boxes,
it looks like a physical kind of -- I dunno, it was a cool box. Congo The Movie never played
that! I remember being underwhelmed by the movie though. MTV Unplugged. See that’s
something that's kind of different that you don't really think about getting but yeah,
there was an MTV Unplugged -- not a game but sort of a software package. Shows and performances
and all this by Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney and REM and all sorts of people on CD-ROM.
And this is Another Sherlock Holmes game, unrelated to the other series that EA was
doing. This is the Consulting Detective series by Icom, volumes 1, 2, and 3, I only have
the third one. And of course, they also have the Nickelodeon stuff going on. So Nick Jr.
here, “Where kids play to learn!” Play Math. I don't know what that is. I don't recognize
those characters but sure why not. I do recognize that though. “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.”
They had a game for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES, never played that. Never was like
a console kid, never had consoles until much later on. Got the Nickelodeon Director’s
Lab. One of many, many director-type software along with you know Director's Chair, Opening
Night, and American Girls Premiere, and Storybook Weaver to a degree. There were so many of
those but Nickelodeon had theirs as well, that one would probably be kind of fun. Now
that was a neat adventure-y kind of game there, “Are You afraid of the Dark? The Tale of
Orpheo’s Curse.” Or-fey-oh? I don't know. But it has “state of the art animation and
over 400 graphics and 1500 3D rendered images,” ooh. The Indian in the Cupboard, that sure
was a movie and a book -- a little bit of both, column A column B. Did not know that
there was a game or at least there was going to be at one point or something. Phantom 2049,
I don't know what that is, but I like the art. “Based on the animated TV series.”
Oh Phantom 2040, not 2049 I'm thinking of Blade Runner. Yeah, Richard Scarry in Busytown
-- How Things Work in Busytown rather. That's an interesting one developed my Novotrade
if I recall. I recently was just sort of diving into them because of edutainment month them
doing Museum Madness. There was going to be an Aeon Flux game apparently? “Coming ‘96”
maybe there was and I'm just not aware of it I don't remember one. And then Star Trek
Voyager coming in 96 that's vague. They were definitely Voyager games but like not ‘96
if I -- I don't remember any, I don't know. And we got Zoop again just sort of bookending
this little booklet. Zoop. Zoop zoop. Okay, moving on to another catalog here and this
one is pretty substantial. This is the Sierra winter catalog for ‘94 going into ‘95.
And this comes from inside the box of Outpost. Oft-maligned, was potentially interesting
but ended up being kind of “ehh.” Not a huge fan of the game but I certainly am
glad that it came with this catalog because well, actually this was also in the box and
yeah. Sierra didn't always release catalogs inside of their game boxes. It was often taken
care of by InterAction Magazine. It was Sierra's own periodical and these were really cool
I mean it was like a proper magazine. It had interviews and articles and of course product
coverage everywhere. But I do have a few Sierra catalogs, this is one of them. It's still
kind of structured like a magazine though. You've got this introduction from Mr. Ken
Williams and his magnificent mustache as you always did in all these Sierra things. And
it's got a table of contents laid out very much like a magazine, this is almost like
a mini InterAction issue. Aces of the Deep, one of many many Aces games. As well as the
first EarthSiege, love that game, a Dynamix classic. All these simulations. Honestly,
I associated Sierra more with simulations than I did, say, adventure games back in the
day because. I don't know that's just what I was into more than just about anything else,
you know A-10 Tank Killer, Red Baron, more of the Aces games. Look you can get a VHS
with that one. Outpost, “Absolutely the best science fiction software ever published.”
I disagree with that, random magazine, but you know. A lot of potential and Alien Legacy
as well. I still never played that, I did pick up a box copy a while back, I want to
play it because it kind of looks like some of the aesthetic of Outpost but different
kind of game. Battle Bugs, that was really neat, picked that one up at Goodwill on the
39th episode of LGR Thrifts I believe. The Front Page Sports games I never played cuz
honestly, they looked a little bit boring from the front covers. They look like a newspaper,
it’s like “nyeww who wants a newspaper game.” But like the gameplay itself looks
pretty cool. I don't know. I'd like to try them out eventually. Yeah Battledrome, yes.
Sort of a spin-off or -- I'm not really sure how you'd qualify that but it's in the EarthSiege
universe, ya got HERCS and stuff instead of mechs just like EarthSiege, sort of a one-on-one
combat game though. Loderunner The Legend Returns, love that game. Although I was more
into the follow-up of sorts the online version just Loderunner Online The Mad Monks Revenge,
but it's really just this they just expanded it rereleased it. And here we go. King's Quest
VII “magical adventures that will touch your heart.” Or they'll at least touch your
patience. That doesn't make sense. There was a definite problem with these early releases
of King’s Quest VII, like I have a couple of them the two variants, they have different
box art. There was this one, which honestly I think is the better box art, and they had
two one that was like a castle, you know the lightning on front. And yeah there was like
a one-point something-or-other patch on a disk and there's a 2.0, and man. King's Quest
Collector's Edition, that's a really neat pack, comes with a lot of cool stuff inside
of it. King's Quest VI of course is just a friggin classic. Same with King's Quest V.
I like that they put the good box art on there, there is our really crappy version of the
box art for that game. A little write-up here on Roberta Williams. Yeah, like this -- this
really is looking like an InterAction Magazine but just a lot smaller. Phantasmagoria. Now
there's a game. “A sinister game in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, Alfred Hitchcock,
and Stephen King.” You know, that's one way to put it. Ah yes Leisure Suit Larry.
Leisure Suit Larry 6, very enjoyable little game. I mean they’re all enjoyable in their
own weird ways, these games are -- they are what they are. Same with Freddy Pharkas I
mean, you know there's there's parts to enjoy about it. Uh. And I can say that with a lot
of these. Like this game, Open Season. Yeah, like good grief talk about some controversies.
Gabriel Knight, what a fantastic box that came in originally. I have the other one too,
like the more basic looking box. But that one's just amazing with the trapezoid kind
of, you know, dual triangle thing going on, it was great. Quest for Glory Shadows of Darkness,
never played that one, but the Quest for Glory games have a lot to offer in each iteration
so I imagine there's something to like about that one, I don't know. I've never played
it. Space Quest Collector's Edition, digging this artwork. And how much are these by the
way, I was not noticing. Yeah, the collector's edition was sixty bucks. All right. Ah yeah
here we're going in to get a couple Coktel Vision games, got Inca and Inca II. Always
loved the box art to the first Inca, especially. Dagger of Amon Ra, super good game the second
of the Laura Bow series. Lost in Time, another Coktel Vision thing never played this one
at all. I don't think I own that one. Hm. Adventures of Willy Beamish, quite like that.
It's got its flaws and whatnot but a really cool adventure game by Dynamix. Gobliiins,
there's only one “I” there. I only have the first one. That's really the only one
I have any experience with but yeah. If you like strange humor and really cool art, object
puzzles and logic puzzles, you know. They're interesting games. Not quite adventure games,
not quite pure puzzle games. They're just, they're interesting. Betrayal at Krondor,
heck yeah. I don't know man, there's something about those that I was always drawn to, I
never played them much. But yeah, I need to play more of those. Shadow of Yserbius, I
do have that. Unfortunately I don't think you can make use of the online component anymore,
The INN Network. “I-N-N.” But yeah it had an online thing going on with that one.
Incredible Toon Machine. I’ve still never played this one. And then there was also like
Sid and Al's Incredible Toons, I believe that was a separate product, but maybe maybe not
I don't know. Johnny Castaway, a classic screensaver thing, which is a little bit more than just
your typical screensaver, it told a story. I’ve been meaning to cover that forever.
Dang it, I need to do that. Incredible Machine 2, very much just Incredible Machine all over
again. Ah, here we go check this box out, I've always wanted to get this: The Even More
Incredible Machine. The top of this just sort of moves around in there and it's like a machine
in and of itself. What a cool box. And all these other kind of things that Sierra was
releasing: Hoyle Classic Card Games, Take A Break Crosswords, Take A Break Pinball.
I have all these too, but it's just like for the most part who cares? Like this was not
a great pinball game, or at least I never thought it was back then compared to like
3D Ultra Pinball. But it's a little unfair to directly compare them but it's okay. Stellar
7 Draxon’s Revenge, never played that at all. Played the original Stellar 7 but this
was like on the yeah -- getting into the Sega CD/3DO area of the catalog. Stellar Fire,
you know, I've pretty much never played in any of these. Beamish yes and Rise of the
Dragon but not in the CD. A little section for parents choosing the right software for
your child. “Look for games that match your child's learning stage. Pick software that’s
educational and entertaining,” otherwise known as edutainment. “Look for a point-and-click
interface. There's nothing that pleases a child more than saying ‘I can do it all
by myself.’ With point and click interfaces children will be able to play the games even
if they don't know how to type or read yet!” All right. And these kids things, Beginning
Reading, Alphabet Blocks. I've never heard of those. Early Math. Mixed Up Mother Goose,
of course I’ve heard of it that's pretty classic. Kids Typing. Yeah. Mega Math, Spelling
Blizzard, Spelling Jungle. So many things! Eco Quest, there's one I've been wanting to
get for a long time. Castle of Dr. Brain, classic. Island of Dr. Brain, heck yeah. “Get
the CD advantage!” Flip through any computer magazine and you'll see that CDs are quickly
revolutionising the way we think,” er -- yeah that too. “The way we work and play with
PCs. So, what's the hype about?” Gosh! “One CD can hold up to 600 megabytes, the equivalent
of over 400 floppy disks!” I love mid-90s CD-ROM excitement. “This is just the beginning.
Every day CD technology opens up tremendous new opportunities to make electronic adventures
more creative, complex, and exciting” and oh man! CDs! I always liked this with Sierra
too, “If for any reason you're not pleased with any product return it within 30 days.”
Friend of mine got a couple things replaced, it was like no problem whatsoever. Just you
know, upgraded to a CD-ROM version for like 5 bucks or something like that, they had a
floppy disk. Anyway, Sierra! Good times. And then lastly I want to look at this catalog
that was found in the box of Zork Zero: a graphic Infocom interactive fiction game for
the Apple II and other systems released in 1988. As you can see here this one has a bit
of a different shape. It folds up like this to fit in the box but and it opens up more
like a size of a proper magazine. “Infocom’s new graphics will blow you out of the water,”
like that. Oh yeah, I love pre-Activision Infocom products. They went all out every
step of the way, you know with feelies and catalogs and manuals and just really cool
packaging, boxes. Just amazing company back before Activision went all Activision on them
and their products got released a lot cheaper and whatever. But anyway, this is the catalog
here, we've got the ad for Zork Zero “a much more graphical take on the classic Zork
series.” I just recently completed my original collection -- well not it's not the original
releases of Zork, but it's the ones that came in the -- anyway, I'll show them at some point,
they're really cool boxes and I've been wanting to find all of them. Anyway, here we go let's
just keep opening it up because it just keeps going. And here's an ad right in the middle
here for James Clavell’s Shogun. I've never played that but apparently this was one of
the games to sort of introduce people to the Infocom “graphic” style. They were really
getting their butt handed do them by Sierra and whatnot so, yeah, it's no wonder that
they were trying to move on to this “graphic future,” ooh. No more text only. Looks pretty
cool though, I like the art there. That interlaced Image that they have going on there is pretty
neat those -- I mean, they look like actual just photographs of a monitor. Journey, never
played this one either. In fact, I pretty much have never played any of -- I’ve played
this one, but. I've not played many the graphic Infocom things, it's sort of a unfortunate
gap in my experience with computer gaming. It was just never a company that I was too
familiar with growing up. And so any exposure that I've had to them has been collecting
them as an adult and playing them whenever I get a chance. But I hear good things about
several of them. Don’t really know anything about Journey but yeah Battletech Crescent
Hawks Inception, have played this one. Any FASA Battletech tie-in I am all for and these
came out before the MechWarrior games or anything like that. It's Battletech Crescent Hawks
Inception followed up by Crescent Hawks Revenge. Both of those they're really neat games worth
worth checking out. Here's one I don't even know if I heard of Quarterstaff The Tomb of
Setmoth. “Three months ago the tree druid colony vanished without a trace. A search
party is set to discover what fate befell these peaceful people and to save any who
may survive. The first computer role-playing game to capture the mood and feel of pen and
paper RPGs,” the first? I mean if you say so, Infocom [chuckles] And it's just sort
of letting you know all the different things that they're doing. And plus they have some
classics like Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Hitchhockers -- heh, Hitchhokers Guide to
the Goloxy, Planotefoll, and Wishbronger. Yeah man, get those for 15 bucks I believe
these were the cheaper packaging. And we have the InfoComics was, you know comic books really
in a computer-y form. It was neat at the time! “Sophisticated cinematic effects like panning,
zooming, and animation.” Wow! Panning and zooming! And yeah, there's the price list
for all these so. Infocom. Innnfooocooommm. All right. Well. Pretty much it for this video.
I really just wanted to take a look at a handful of rather randomly-chosen catalogs and just
you know, I don't know. So I hope that you found these enjoyable to take a look through
with me. And if you did let me know, I like doing these things every so often. You know
every four or five years apparently. And if this is not your kind of thing then I guess
now you know. I got plenty of other stuff posted and more to come as always every Monday
and Friday here on LGR. So as always thank you very much for watching!