Zombie's Ultimate X-COM Collection

[Thorondor]

• Offline cataloguing: ckeck.

 

• Online logistics update: check.

 

One thing is for sure - there's no shortage of mislabeled games merchandise on sale out there and, beyond that, there's always room for obfuscation in collections where some titles take the headlines while the rest get buried in the small print.

 

Then there's the sort of merchandise that never got any visibility or wasn't made public in the first place, which makes it very hard to even properly search if you can't guess the right criteria.

 

The truth is you've managed to dig up a heck of a lot as it is. So, seek and you shall find, Zombie!

[Zombie]

Then there's the sort of merchandise that never got any visibility or wasn't made public in the first place, which makes it very hard to even properly search if you can't guess the right criteria.

 

Quoted for truth. If you don't know it exists, it can be very difficult finding it. Most of the time I just rely on a combination of persistence and dumb luck. Then when you find something you also have to determine if it is authentic merchandise and not a remake.

 

Just a quick update: I was on vacation this past week so nothing new arrived. I made a slight mistake on one item I purchased: the auction pics showed XCOM dog tags as gold colored when in reality they were silver (bad picture, be warned silver can look like gold in some light). So now I have a second set. Not a big deal, I can wear one of the tags now so it all worked out.

 

Picked up a bottle of a different variety of UFO beer while on vacation too:

 

 

UFO White: orange peel and coriander. Sounds odd, but it's actually quite pleasant. You can taste the orange peel which is good, but I was hoping for a little more orange kick (maybe brew it with some orange juice). That said, the coriander is the last thing to finish in the mouth so it kinda covers up the orange taste and evens things out. Interesting to say the least.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Thy speaketh of oddities, strange sightings and sensations. That be Flavor Adventures of the UFO variety!!

 

Orange peel and coriander, no less. Whatever will they think of next, eh, Zombie?

 

Here's a slogan for them: "A taste of alien goodness."

[Zombie]

I recently purchased a GameStar (November 2013) Vollversion German magazine compilation so I added scans of that to the Magazine Compilations page. On it is a 16+ minute interview of Christian Weigel (not a Dev, just an author/writer/fan/expert from what I can make out). Interesting as it's in 720p HD. Unfortunately, this didn't come with a sleeve so I still need to look for that sometime.

 

Oh, and before I forget, I rescanned and added the images of the PC PowerPlay XCOM:EU demo disk back to the page again. Hurray! I did a little more research on it and found that the issue of the magazine was #210. That corresponds to the December 2012 issue. And what's this? It says December 2012 on the spline of the sleeve. Guess I should have opened my eyes and read the darn thing first.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

GameStar's Bonus CD is a veritable technological time machine, Zombie. Looking at it one is reminded of both software and hardware that was in use back then.

 

Indirectly, it also puts into perspective the importance of such discs when Internet usage was not that profusely widespread (not to mention the speeds you could download stuff at) and the storage capacity meant you could cram quite a lot into one of these.

 

PC PowerPlay XCOM:EU demo disk - your sleuthing is noteworthy. Issue #210 is hidden in plain sight right at the center of the saucer on both the A and B sides. Worry not, it happens the best of us, and I don't mind counting myself in that number.

[Zombie]

GameStar's Bonus CD is a veritable technological time machine, Zombie. Looking at it one is reminded of both software and hardware that was in use back then.

 

Indirectly, it also puts into perspective the importance of such discs when Internet usage was not that profusely widespread (not to mention the speeds you could download stuff at) and the storage capacity meant you could cram quite a lot into one of these.

 

Oh, I was talking about the GameStar November 2013 disc - not the October 1998 disc. But, yes they had their place back then.

 

PC PowerPlay XCOM:EU demo disk - your sleuthing is noteworthy. Issue #210 is hidden in plain sight right at the center of the saucer on both the A and B sides. Worry not, it happens the best of us, and I don't mind counting myself in that number.

 

Jeez, there too?

 

Time to drool a little bit folks, check out the XCOM 2 promotional items page for some cool pics of an awesome (and big) Vigilo Confido pin which comes in a jewelry box and a steelbook sleeve. I got this from a Spanish seller on eBay and he claims that it's from a XCOM 2 collector's edition of some sort, but my searches didn't turn up anything useful. If any of you have more information about the pin, please let me know!

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

As expected, Zombie, some salivation did occur at the sight of that seemingly quite well made pin.

 

I like the nice box it comes in but it's the material and the finish of the pin itself that really draws the eye. Looks great and is built to last!

[Zombie]

I was browsing through some auction listings today and ran across an advert from 1989 featuring Bill Stealey. Lo and behold he is wearing a MicroProse Software Inc patch on his flight suit!

 

 

Is my used patch the same one as in the ad? It's hard to say, but I'd have to say "maybe not" as my patch is modified due to the velcro and thus the white border isn't as large as in the ad. However, I cannot discount this possibility completely as my patch could have been originally affixed with the iron-on coating and then modified in the future to add the velcro. Would make sense as my patch has seen a bit of wear. Nevertheless it's a good theory.

 

Btw, added this pic to the MicroProse (Other) promotional items page.

 

Edit: I purchased the ad. Hoping I can get a decent scan off of it to maybe get a closer look at the patch which could help. (My used patch can be identified by the uneven border and a red thread which runs from the R in REAL underline to the red border).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Those were the days, Zombie: a seven day vacation on the Caribbean and they even threw in pocket money as part of the prize!

 

Even if the patch turns out not to be the one seen in the ad it's still a cool item to own, especially now that MicroProse is poised to make a comeback.

[Space Voyager]

It is? MicroProse, I mean.

[Thorondor]

@SV: as I recall I did alert to it in a timely fashion...

[Zombie]

So I had a closer look at that ad. I first grabbed a magnifying glass to see if I could make out any features of the patch (like that red thread), but alas, the "pixels" which make up the ad are a little too big to get to the resolution I need. Scanned the thing next and ran it through some filters to see if any of those would clear things up, but no. Oh well, it was worth a shot at least.

 

And here's something interesting - I found a Red Ant copy of UFO: EU for sale on eBay today. I got my copy from NKF ages and ages ago (if my PM's are correct then it's more than 13 years now). That's before I even started this thread in fact. I'm trying to remember if I ever saw a Red Ant copy for sale on eBay... maybe(?), but I'm leaning to "probably not". Must be pretty rare. So thanks again NKF!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Was doing my usual XCOM,X-COM searches on eBay and found out that the second pen on the XCOM: EU promo items page was actually given away as swag during Gamescom 2012 in Germany. That's why it doesn't come in any packaging. I love finding out information on my items as much as the items themselves sometimes.

 

Otherwise not much has been happening with my collection mostly due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Before this whole mess started though, I managed to pick up a 3-page (6 pages total, front and back) ad booklet by MicroProse and one of the games mentioned in it was X-COM: Alliance of all things. This was an awesome find as it's hard to come across Alliance items anyway. I'll probably be adding some scans of this soon-ish (like maybe next week). The other games featured in it are:

1. Falcon 4.0
   
2. Top Gun: Hornet's Nest
   
3. European Air War
   
4. Civilization II Gold Edition
   
5. Civilization II: Test Of Time
   
6. Star Trek: TNG Birth Of The Federation
   
7. Star Trek: TNG Klingon Honor Guard (which I believe Dave Ellis helped worked on)
   
8. Roller Coaster Tycoon
   
9. MechCommander
   
10. MechWarrior 3
    
11. M1 Tank Platoon II
    
12. Worms 2
    

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Quite a roster of classic titles in that MicroProse ad booklet, Zombie.

 

Considering the page to game ratio, though, with 6 pages to 13 games there's bound to be a game that got the shorter end of it.

 

Regardless, it's great that X-COM: Alliance is featured in there.

[Zombie]

Considering the page to game ratio, though, with 6 pages to 13 games there's bound to be a game that got the shorter end of it.

 

To be honest, all of the games got the short end of the stick as the amount of space dedicated to each title is the same.

 

I added some pics of the advertisement to the Alliance promotional items page today. Apologies if the Alliance closeup is a little washed out as the camera got flash-happy on me. Maybe at a later date I'll take a scan of it but it should be good enough for now.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

At least the booklet is full of colourful illustrations, so there's that, Zombie.

 

It's certainly true that your camera got on the flashy side, as the obfuscation on the imagery of the XCOM: Alliance bit on the center pic demonstrates.

 

Still, your rightmost snap redeems that, making the addition relevant.

[Zombie]

Hello again folks!

 

I've been doing my normal X-COMXCOM searches religiously again and managed to nab myself a set of 3 rather large speaker tags for the Astro A40 gaming headset featuring Borderlands, Bioshock and XCOM. Put this up in the XCOM Promotional Items page. It wasn't exactly a cheap purchase, but I put in a best offer which was accepted so I feel this was a fair price considering how rare it is.

 

The searches continue!

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

HA, who would have though such promo items exist! So, you can decorate the headset with the sign from the game you love most?

 

Nice catch!

[Zombie]

While doing my searches I came across a PSX promotional flier for X-COM Enemy Unknown (EU PSX version for the first game). It has the cover art for the EU version so I assume this is from overseas even though the seller is from the US. Even stranger? There were 2 for sale, so I purchased them outright. From the photos it looks like it's only 4 pages long - we'll know for sure when they arrive.

 

And now for some BIG news! Ran across a Russian PSX version of TFTD! It had a buy now option so I purchased it - was quite reasonable at $9+$9 shipping considering it's coming from Kiev, Ukraine. Then again, the delivery window is 15-34 business days so it might not get here till next month. Will be waiting patiently for it to arrive. Who am I kidding, you know I can't wait!

 

Also picked up a December 1995 issue of Next Generation Magazine which has an article on the PSX version of X-COM: UFO Defense. Looks interesting from the single page I can read in the photos - hope there are multiple pages though. Btw, the PSX version was supposedly released Oct 25, 1995 but according to the article here it was still getting finishing touches in December 1995 so the real release date would probably be early Q1 1996.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Congrats! Still, new items of interest emerge from the past.

[Thorondor]

I hadn't thought the PSX side of the X-COM equation was so prolific, Zombie!

 

All three items sound appealing to me to tell you the truth.

 

Don't know if that Russian PSX version of TFTD comes shrink-wrapped or not, but if not would you even be able to run it in a PlayStation given region locking and all that? Anyway, if the data is still readable on the disc I'd at least consider duplicating it for safeguarding.

[Zombie]

Don't know if that Russian PSX version of TFTD comes shrink-wrapped or not, but if not would you even be able to run it in a PlayStation given region locking and all that?

 

It's used, but runs. Looks to be in good condition overall. You would need to get and install a mod chip in a PSX to get around the region codes. I'm not sure if that would be enough as the video format will be different - though this was the case years ago, by now there probably is software that can do this.

 

Anyway, if the data is still readable on the disc I'd at least consider duplicating it for safeguarding.

 

Yeah, I'll probably copy it to my hard drive and backup drive.

 

- Zombie

[magic9mushroom]

I do have to ask, Zombie; with all the stuff you know and have and some of it not publicised (like the annotated source code of TFTD), have you thought through what happens to safeguard it if you were to die? This sort of thing has a nasty tendency to slip between the cracks, since relatives won't have your passwords to get into things and frequently won't even know that they're supposed to be looking, never mind what for.

 

Very morbid, I know, but I just want to be sure we don't lose some of this stuff.

[NKF]

Having seen some of the aforementioned unpublicised items - there's some things there that I would really like to see preserved as well such as some really neat TFTD early concept images. Alas, Zombie's hands are tied to some degree.

 

By the way, Zombie - have you tried using a Playstation emulator? The issue around PAL or NTSC formats would be a non-issue then. Most PCs these days have no trouble emulating the PSX, even on Raspberry Pis.

 

You can get a tool such as ImgBurn to convert your PSX disc into an ISO file and then get an emulator such as ePSXe to run it. Alternately you can obtain a multi emulator front-end environment called RetroArch on Steam that can download the ePSXe core to emulate PSX ISO files.

 

I've been getting really into emulation these last few years and have been gradually converting my favourite Playstation titles (up to the PS3) into ISOs and have been playing them through emulators.

 

This is mostly as a preservation measure as the hardware and storage media are ageing. Being able to play the games on modern hardware is also a plus.

[Zombie]

I do have to ask, Zombie; with all the stuff you know and have and some of it not publicised (like the annotated source code of TFTD), have you thought through what happens to safeguard it if you were to die? This sort of thing has a nasty tendency to slip between the cracks, since relatives won't have your passwords to get into things and frequently won't even know that they're supposed to be looking, never mind what for.

 

Very morbid, I know, but I just want to be sure we don't lose some of this stuff.

 

Sorta taken care of already. Scared shitless over Covid since March so I took some steps. One of the things I still have yet to do is catalog exactly what I have and label everything, but it's mostly boxed together.

 

Having seen some of the aforementioned unpublicised items - there's some things there that I would really like to see preserved as well such as some really neat TFTD early concept images. Alas, Zombie's hands are tied to some degree.

 

By the way, Zombie - have you tried using a Playstation emulator? The issue around PAL or NTSC formats would be a non-issue then. Most PCs these days have no trouble emulating the PSX, even on Raspberry Pis.

 

You can get a tool such as ImgBurn to convert your PSX disc into an ISO file and then get an emulator such as ePSXe to run it. Alternately you can obtain a multi emulator front-end environment called RetroArch on Steam that can download the ePSXe core to emulate PSX ISO files.

 

I've been getting really into emulation these last few years and have been gradually converting my favourite Playstation titles (up to the PS3) into ISOs and have been playing them through emulators.

 

This is mostly as a preservation measure as the hardware and storage media are ageing. Being able to play the games on modern hardware is also a plus.

 

I believe I tried the ISO thing maybe 10 years ago (for the Japanese version of UFO: EU?) but found the software was very lacking and not at all user friendly for noobs like myself. Not sure what it's like these days - I'm assuming it's much better but still very technical and piddly.

 

On a related tangent, I received the NEXT Generation magazine the other day and just as I expected it was lackluster. The UFO Defense article was only 2 pages long and beside that, there are no advertisements for the game (or any other MicroProse game for that matter) in the magazine. The PSX promotional flyer is shown as being delivered but I haven't seen it yet (had it delivered to work so I could keep an eye out for it maybe it'll be here Monday). The Russian PSX version of TFTD is being prepared for shipment by the Ukraine postal service (whatever that means) and the eta for it is now Nov 3-Dec 2. Crikey!

 

- Zombie