Zombie's Ultimate X-COM Collection

[Zombie]

A couple new additions to my collection will be arriving soonish (August sometime). First is a demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I picked this up from a seller in Australia, but have no idea if it was only released there or other places as well. I've never seen the physical demo in any form before so this is probably a little rare.

 

And the "second" is not really one thing, it's more of a collection than anything else. I found the Bureau: XCOM Declassified Press Kit (there are a few different variants of the kit but mine includes everything)! Not only that, but the seller included a bunch of other items to make the deal even sweeter: 2 fedora hats, 3 declassified keychains, zippo lighter, what I assume is a boxed moneyclip (I forget what was all possible when it came out), the pen and paper, a couple declassified t-shirts (yellow and black), an XCOM "notebook", a promo pen (I have the pen already, but hey, why not more?), XCOM: Enemy Unknown "t-shirts" (I only see one listed in the pictures, but there may be more underneath it), a promo game for the PS3, and the pièce de résistance: an XCOM: Enemy Within dev-only Muton figurine.

 

The auction wasn't cheap by any means, but compared to other auctions with just the Press Kit, it was a good deal in that it contained so much more. Can't wait to get this.

 

- Zombie

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

For all the money your spending on this cra....collectible stuff you better make sure you update your renters/home insurance. I'm serious, with the amount of time and money you've spent over the years it'd be a damn shame to see it all get ruined or lost.

 

-NoX

[silencer_pl]

- Zombie

 

One day I will visit that museum of yours.

[Zombie]

I'd welcome the chance to show it off. Gimme a heads up before showing up at my front doorstep unannounced though, I'd need at least a day to get it all out of storage and arranged a bit. One of these days when I get a camera and find a decent (and safe) location to spread it all out I'll take some pics of the whole shebang so you can get an idea how big it really is. Safe from people I'm not worried about, safe from the elements (aka Mother Nature), that I need to think about.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

For us, less willing to travel, you could spread all the items around and photograph them in a single photo with some serious resolution so we can get a closer look!

[Zombie]

For us, less willing to travel, you could spread all the items around and photograph them in a single photo with some serious resolution so we can get a closer look!

 

Yup, that's the plan.

 

I just need to secure a location for it. And the picture(s) would probably need to be taken from above as it's a pretty big collection. And I'd need some decent lighting. Maybe a gymnasium or something along those lines.

 

Edit: put in an offer for an Italian magazine compilation which contains X-COM Apocalypse. Fingers crossed.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Edit: put in an offer for an Italian magazine compilation which contains X-COM Apocalypse. Fingers crossed.

 

Won! And saved 2 euro too. I probably could have put in an offer for even less, but I don't want to haggle too much, especially since the cost of the item was rather cheap to begin with. Now, it's too bad I can't haggle shipping costs too... anything from Italy is expensive it seems.

 

I think that this disk only has an Apocalypse Demo on it as it contains a lot of other things and the full version of the game would use quite a bit of space.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

A couple new additions to my collection will be arriving soonish (August sometime). First is a demo for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I picked this up from a seller in Australia, but have no idea if it was only released there or other places as well. I've never seen the physical demo in any form before so this is probably a little rare.

 

Got this today. This is a demo disk containing XCOM:Enemy Unknown, Carrier Command:GAEA Mission, Torchlight II and Gateways. How can you fit 4 big demos on one disk? Simple! Use a double sided disk! First time I've ever seen one so it was quite a shock when I opened the package to find that. Will maybe get some scans of this up next week. I have to work tomorrow, go to someone's birthday party in the evening, and then Sunday is my own birthday and I'd like to wash my vehicle and do a little maintenance on it before winter is upon us again.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

The other day I was looking at an X-COM/XCOM timeline and read that Spectrum HoloByte merged with MicroProse. Since I can't remember the link, I'll post a recap from the Wikipedia:

 

In December 1993, Spectrum HoloByte merged with MicroProse to form MicroProse Inc. For the following years, games from both companies were published under their respective brands, but in 1996 all titles were consolidated under the MicroProse brand.

 

Hasbro Interactive acquired the merged company in 1998, and what had been Spectrum HoloByte ceased to exist when the development studio in Alameda was closed in 1999. Hasbro subsequently sold all the assets of the various Hasbro Interactive studios to Infogrames, including the Atari brand itself.

 

So what does this have to do with my collection? Well, I have the LAST annual report (1997) from Spectrum HoloByte/MicroProse before it was purchased by Hasbro. Kinda neat, as I only realized this after seeing the dates. Still can't believe I found that on eBay, you can almost bet most of the annual reports were thrown out after the Hasbro acquisition. Somehow though, my copy survived.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

That is a strange thing to have, but congrats anyway.

[Zombie]

Thanks, had it for a while and didn't realize the significance of it till now,

 

Apparently 1997 isn't the final year Spectrum HoloByte/MicroProse Inc. released a year end report to shareholders, 1998 is. But the company was really only in business for the first half until it was bought out. (Actually I read somewhere that MicroProse sought out a buyout because it was relying totally on new releases to fuel profits). Whatever the case, I'll keep an eye out for a shareholder's report for 1998 too.

 

--------------------

 

Just got my vinyl 2-record set of the XCOM2 soundtrack from iam8bit today. The cover is pretty cool, and the vinyl itself isn't black in color, it's a transparent light blue and feels to be thicker than a normal record too. Comes with an iam8bit sticker and a code to download the digital soundtrack from a website. All in all, I'm happy with the quality, but still a little miffed about the wait and lack of communication.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Transparent light blue? Woah, very exotic, Zombie.

 

Too bad about the digital download, though I suppose that was to be expected.

 

Besides, with little effort you can always burn your own CD and print matching cover art.

 

::

 

As for the annual report, it's unique in its own right, but let's face it, the vinyl records are always going to have far more appeal to the average onlooker.

[Zombie]

As for the annual report, it's unique in its own right, but let's face it, the vinyl records are always going to have far more appeal to the average onlooker.

 

True. I will say however, that it's sometimes the small little-known things which will provide more of an impression than the run-of-the-mill commercialized items released. Even though the annual report is not pure X-COM, it does have screenshots of Apocalypse (among other games) gameplay in it and that (to me) is collectable.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

While searching eBay I finally found a complete boxed copy of Tour de Force (which contains X-COM: UFO Defense, X-COM:Terror From the Deep, Alone In The Dark 3, plus many more). Previously I only had the CD in the jewel case (still sealed). But I had two auctions to choose from (both were complete and identical in every way including condition and even location... Ohio... what are the odds?): one was $45 Or Best Offer + free shipping, while the other was $18 marked down 20% to $14.39 + free shipping. Well, DUH! I think you know which one I purchased. Should be arriving Monday or Tuesday.

 

You can see the sealed jewel case version in the Magazine Compilations site page currently, but I don't think this really belongs there as it isn't from a magazine. I'll be moving that to the Game Compilations page once I get some scans of it.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

I didn't know two sided discs exist. Like, at all, yo.

[Zombie]

I didn't know two sided discs exist. Like, at all, yo.

 

It's interesting to see how technology changes over the years. I seem to recall double sided laser disks (you know, the big vinyl record sized platters that looked like a big CD) so it's strange why this wasn't applied to CD's or DVD's. (This is actually a dual sided DVD, not a CD as I originally thought).

 

I got the Tour de Force game pack in the mail today. (Thank God the USPS still offers Saturday delivery, otherwise I'd have to wait till Monday). Pretty impressed with this, the box is in decent shape with just a little bit of it being squashed, comes with the CD (opened but basically new) and even the registration card and another slip with the License Agreement on one side and a technical support section and a converting your disks section on the other (Still have 5 1/4" disks? No problem, send us $3 and we'll send you 3 1/2"). Got a big laugh at the requirements on the back of the jewel case: 386 or greater, MS-DOS V5.0 or higher. Those were the good old days, eh?

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Two sided discs were pretty rare. A little unpractical from obvious reasons.

[Zombie]

Ok, I took scans of everything in the Tour de Force package this evening. This took longer than I anticipated as it required 10 scans + 3 stitches for the 7 items. I'll try and get that up tomorrow, and I'll try and also scan up the XCOM:EU Demo (should only take 4 scans total and possibly one stitch for the double sided disk. Then I have a bunch more scans to make of the Italian UFO:EU version (really excited to show this off, it's incredible)!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Ok, I got the Tour de Force compilation up on my Game Compilations page. Sorry about the media. The color really isn't purple but a tan-ish, and I didn't quite have the disk aligned perfectly, but it's good enough. The site software must've been updated since the last time I used it as now all the images are listed as thumbnails instead of full sized in the selection screen which is quite nice as I don't have to wait hours for it to load and also there are about 10 images per row so I don't have to scroll forever to get to the last set uploaded.

 

Hint: if you see an image you want to see full-sized but don't want it to pop up in a lightbox, right click on the image, and open it in another page or tab. Handy!

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

'Full on action game pack'...

 

I also love how they tell you, in capital letters, in the installation instructions, to first 'EXIT WINDOWS'. Makes me imagine just how many people they had to put up with before, calling the technical support department, who failed to take such an obvious initial step.

 

As game compilations go, it's actually a pretty decent mix with diverse genres.

 

Looking forward to the Italian UFO:EU version scans, Zombie.

[Zombie]

Looking forward to the Italian UFO:EU version scans, Zombie.

 

Unfortunately, it's not a complete copy, but it at least the box, disk and manual are in decent shape. So rare, I'm just glad to have something to show for it!

 

Got a little distracted today as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified press kit arrived in the mail, so I've been drooling over that for the last couple hours non-stop.

 

Then I got hit by the search bug and found a Declassified display box (16x12 inches)! Exactly the same size as the XCOM:EU boxes I have and was dirt cheap to boot!

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

You've got never ending rabbits in that hat of yours.

[Zombie]

Some of them are lucky rabbits silencer, it just so happened I did a search and found the box.

 

That press kit + collection I acquired was a sweet deal with all sorts of extras in it, so it's like killing two birds with one stone. Some of it I'd probably never find with my searches no matter how hard I tried... and to get it all on one fell swoop saves me a lot of time and effort in the future. Plus I did a lot of research into this before I purchased and came up with some information and pictures about the items too. Preserving the backstory is what makes this all worthwhile.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Ok, I made scans of the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Demo from PC PowerPlay and uploaded them to my Game Compilations page. Unfortunately, I think it should go into my Magazine Compilations page instead as PC PowerPlay is an Australian gaming magazine. Oh well, I'll do that tomorrow.

 

Will be adding scans of the Italian EU version next (probably tomorrow also).

 

Finally, I placed a bid on a July '98 PC Zone Magazine + disc earlier. Looks to be a really neat find as it's actually a 20pg insert from the magazine itself containing the making of Interceptor. The insert is supposed to be water damaged a bit but looks fine to me. I'm assuming the X-COM section is about 10 pages long and from the first page it has a lot of stuff in it including a timeline and a write-up on each game (possibly even Genesis). Gold!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Today I moved the EU Demo compilation to my Magazine Compilations page (you can find it at the very end. Luckily just copying the old code, pasting that into the new page and reuploading the scans worked just fine.

 

I also scanned the UFO Italian CD version and put that up on my Game Versions page (you can find that after the German Amiga CD32 entry in the middle of the page). Like I said earlier, I don't have a complete version of this because of the rarity so I had to take what I could find. The cover, manual and disc are in decent shape overall and I think this can be contributed to the sturdiness of the box underneath (it's really thick without a dent whatsoever).

 

I won the July '98 PC Zone magazine + disc auction for 0.99 GBP, waiting for the seller to get back to me with postage costs... shouldn't be too much I'd imagine as it's not huge, doesn't weigh a lot and the seller has nearly 2400 positive feedbacks.

 

Tomorrow I'll try and get up scans of the UFO: EU PSX French version. Yes, I said French! Don't think I mentioned buying this in this thread, but it was a great find.

 

If I have time, I need to polish up the code on the UFO EU Game Versions page yet. Shouldn't take too long but it'll make the thumbnails the same size.

 

So that's the news.

 

- Zombie