Zombie Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 I highly doubt it. I've been collecting since 2006 so that's 8 years. On many of the auctions I've bid on, there hasn't been any opposition whatsoever. I'm assuming here that someone would be putting together a collection from scratch... if they were serious, I would have seen bids against me. So the flip side of the coin would be if someone already has a huge collection. Then they would not need to bid against me as they have it. If this was the case, I'm sure we would have heard something about it by now. Besides, I have a bunch of items which are almost certainly one-of-a-kind, the types of things that only an ex-MicroProse employee would have access to. The TFTD Draft Publishing plan document and the signed TFTD manual are perfect examples. And from what I gather from the owner of some of the items, many of the MicroProse items were very rare to begin with due to budget constraints and a lot were thrown out as garbage when the company got bought out and subsequently closed. I don't want to leave this post on a sad note, so I'll just say that I'm really fortunate to have the time, tenacity and budget to acquire these items over the years. It's been tight a few times, but a couple forum members here have donated to my cause which really helped a lot. - Zombie Space Voyager 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Hi folks! I spent the better part of 2 days feverishly scanning the TFTD Draft Publishing Plan (it's actually 37 pages long, the Table of Contents isn't considered a page) and getting it ready to see the light of day for the first time in 20 years. Initially I resized the scans to a maximum dimension of 1600 pixels, but that made the file balloon to gigantic proportions so I rescaled them to a maximum of 1200 pixels which helped a lot. The images were "printed" via PDF995 into an Adobe Acrobat pdf file (file size 2.7MB) and then zipped up (final size 658KB). Sorry about the condition of the screenshot images as they are hard to convert. You can find the file here in our files section. Please "like" this post if you found it interesting as I put a lot of effort into this to get it ready for it's grand anniversary re-release! - Zombie Space Voyager, silencer_pl, Nookrium and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Awesome Zombie, thanks for your dedication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 My Acrobat Reader (11.0.10) says the PDF is corrupted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nookrium Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I'm getting the same error as Silencer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Same here. I'm unliking the post until you correct the issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Not sure what the issue was. There were 2 corrupted scans for some reason and when I transferred the folder to my external HDD and saved it to my internal HDD errors popped up. Luckily I just purchased a 16GB flash drive and that worked fine. *shrugs* Check it again guys, I think it works now. BTW, the file size is significantly larger than the previous version, not that it matters too much though. - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Having it slightly larger is not an issue in this day age of anything-faster-than-dialup. Plus if it helps the clarity of the scans then all the better. Also since I'm a Facebook-like technology Luddite, Admired+1. Only scanned a bit, and am slightly horrified to read (and also very pleased that it never happened ) that they had planned to make Lobstermen invisible. Perhaps they were wanting to achieve the same effect Mutons had while standing in grass. - NKF Zombie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Only scanned a bit, and am slightly horrified to read (and also very pleased that it never happened ) that they had planned to make Lobstermen invisible. Perhaps they were wanting to achieve the same effect Mutons had while standing in grass. Scary, ain't it? Triscenes were supposed to be giant manta rays, but look how they turned out. They always seemed to be a little too mammalian for me, but maybe the Devs needed some believable land-based terror units (rays seem a little far-fetched to be on land). - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoXTheRoXStaR Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Look how I turned out. A Shark, with an upside down gauss pistol that wasn't used in the final game. Retardation at it's finest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 They had an interesting idea with the molecular control... It ended up slightly different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 They had an interesting idea with the molecular control... It ended up slightly different. Just slightly. Also the Synonium devices and bases were to assume more of a role than they currently do. I don't think the Devs realized how much work it would be to add these elements in the short amount of time they had. The game could have turned out a lot different than it did. Not sure if any of you noticed, but I rearranged the Promotional Items page a little while ago. Today I added bookmarks to the page and a menu at the top to make it easier to navigate. It's not so bad right now, but once I start adding stuff the page is going to get really long, really fast. I've been quiet on the forums as of late as I've been too busy scanning and resizing items. I got a lot accomplished, but there's still more to do. Got a start on it at least. - Zombie Space Voyager 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Ok, I did a little more work on my promotional items page yesterday and this evening. I added another (older... circa 2000) pic of David Ellis's 12x8 foot Interceptor poster which I pulled from his website. I also added another bumper sticker, another stationary folder, a letter opener and a note pad to the MicroProse section. Check it out! I have a bunch of items which aren't just generic MicroProse items, they are related to another game (from MicroProse though... I have to draw the line somewhere), so I may add another section to the page for those to reside. Yes, they are not X-COM or MicroProse related, but they are so cool, rare or interesting that they deserve a place anyway for historical reasons. More is on the way, so stay tuned! - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Now I'm starting to wish and visit that collection personally. But visiting States is so expensive. Zombie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Now I'm starting to wish and visit that collection personally. But visiting States is so expensive. Getting here is expensive, traveling or visiting, not so much. YMMV of course, depending on which area you go to. Here in the Midwest, it's fairly cheap. Ok, continuing on with my promotional items page, I added 2 new pictures of the X-COM pin. I also added some pics of the UFO+TFTD Standee a couple days ago (don't think I mentioned this). As I mentioned in my previous post, I created a MicroProse (Other) section for those items which do not fit any category. In it, I put the Spectrum HoloByte annual report, the MPS Squadron pin (along with 2 new pictures) and also a never-before seen red and silver MicroProse Wings pin (it's small, but really packs a wallop). The rationale behind the pins going in this category is because they were used to promote the flight simulator MPS games. Keep on checking back, I'll be adding more scans+pictures and info as time permits! - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 I didn't have much time to spend on the promotional items page today, but was able to add a Pirates! notepad, F-117A button and a super-duper-ultra-rare Across The Rhine Team Jacket to the MicroProse (Other) section. You have to check these out! - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Two more goodies added today. First up is a ultra-cool and ultra-rare MicroProse jean jacket produced for MPS Germany by Duke. Second is two TFTD Test disks, and both still contain data from 11/23/1994-11/24/1994! Fantastic stuff to say the least! More is on the way! - Zombie Nookrium 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 You could always get a short showcase video made for you. I'm sure there are fellow members here that have the tools or know how to get this done. True, I'm just a little worried about releasing the code into the wild right now. I think I'll try DosBox first to see if that'll work, then give it to someone to showcase it. Ok, well I didn't get as much done as I wanted today but was able to get some neat items for you all to see on the promotional items page. First up was a giant UFO:EU Trade Show poster which MicroProse used at it's booth at various trade shows promoting the game. Needless to say, ultra rare. Next up was a gold+red MicroProse pin - a small pin with a big impact. After that was a Gunship2000 Trade Show poster (same size as the EU one...aka gigantic and probably unique). I also was able to add a Silent Service II Mug (circa 1992) and a Mantis XF5700 mug (circa 1990). So all in all, a nice mix of rare stuff. Hope you all enjoy seeing it as much as I do! No guarantees about adding more stuff this week as work takes precedence, but I'm sure I'll be able to trickle out an item or two. Yup, lots of stuff still left! - Zombie Space Voyager and Nookrium 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 I worry for you... Now that your addiction grew out of the X-COM cage, it may become an endless pit of game prop material. Sure, now it is MicroProse, next it will be Firaxis and then you are DOOMED! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/old-025.gif Love the mugs. They look like a beer would fit in naturally. Nookrium and Zombie 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 I worry for you... Now that your addiction grew out of the X-COM cage, it may become an endless pit of game prop material. Sure, now it is MicroProse, next it will be Firaxis and then you are DOOMED! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/old-025.gif My collection has had MicroProse items in it for at least 6 years now so that's nothing new, same with the other MicroProse game items, I've had them represented for a while. There are a few reasons why I have more of them recently. First, I purchased quite a bit of X-COM/MicroProse stuff as a "lot" from Quentin because he wouldn't have to go through eBay and have them deduct sellers fees, shipping each item separately etc. It's much cheaper for him (and me) to manage a bulk purchase. The first lot had mostly X-COM & MPS related items, but Quentin (being the nice guy that he is) threw in a lot of the other games promo items as he knew it was going to a good home. Secondly Quentin was selling his stuff rather cheaply, so I was able to afford to pick up a few rare items from other MPS games which I found interesting or rare. Thirdly, when I purchased the second lot from him, I felt I needed to purchase some of those other game items as he had posters signed by the original programmers of the games, or really sexy prints signed by the artist himself. Those are one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime rare opportunities that will never be seen again. I'm glad I did get that second lot as there is a bunch of really neat stuff in there (most of it hasn't even been added yet) and Quentin even threw in those TFTD Test disks for free. That should give you a pretty good idea of why I have the stuff I do. Doing business with him was an absolute pleasure, and I made another friend in the process. I can't say I will not "branch" out into Firaxis stuff eventually. If it's general Firaxis stuff (not meant for any game), then that's collectible as it sort of fits my theme. As for items from "other" Firaxis games, probably not. And the big reason for that is it isn't going to be rare. For me, rarity (or even perceived rarity) is the reason to get an item, because who wants something everyone else can get? There's no fun in the hunt at all. - Zombie Space Voyager and Nookrium 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Maybe you should contact Sid? He also worked with Microprose with his Civilization series and now he is with Firaxis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 You know, that might not even be such a far-fetched idea... Presenting your existing collection and its description here at SC (perhaps some still remember the time Pete contacted them and shown how SC was keeping the legacy alive all this time) might persuade him (or Firaxis...) to send you new items. EDIT: Since it was Pete contacting them the last time he could step in again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Actually Quentin knows Sid. He was going to contact some friends who work at Firaxis first though, so we'll see if they come up with anything. I am not to keep my hopes up though. Pete appears to be MIA at the moment. Sent him an email last week and no reply yet. - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer_pl Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I don't remember if it was asked before. But have you contacted our X-COM God about any special items ? I'm betting you did, but want to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 I'm not sure who you are referring to silencer. Anyhow, I added two new items today: a UFO:EU UK promo flyer and a Fleet Defender UK promo flyer. Enjoy! - Zombie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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