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