When doing research into prices of various old consoles and how they changed with time for the UK market most would probably look at the recently stopped Argos catalogue, and Nintendo power continues to be referenced as well, as do even older things.

However those are well known sources of information that many will have heard of, indeed for any particular field then catalogues and "trade" magazines are where most seek information on things, and are accordingly often well archived. For this thread we are after the more obscure offerings that many will not necessarily have seen and you might not have good cause to otherwise share. They can be of failed games, devices and shops or otherwise mega successful ones. Can be things stuffed in a box with a game, a flyer from a game shop, maybe a manual for a weird peripheral, junk mail for a service that failed, an advert from somewhere unexpected (remember it is parents that often buy games) or indeed just an obscure magazine (maybe even a zine). Video, audio, scan, picture you took of a contest... it really does not matter. Some background if you have it as well and it will help (or maybe help someone searching). Doesn't have to be in English either, indeed the history of games in the English and Japanese speaking worlds is reasonably well documented, though we would appreciate a translation or at least some background if it is somewhere you visited on holiday.

Some around here have been around in games for many decades but fear not if you are not so venerable; a picture of a game shop you visited 5 years ago can still showcase things some might have missed, forgotten or otherwise never known about (what is sold, size of shelves for things, any background posters/cardboard stands/... and all presumably not in a flagship shop), and in 10 years time will be another historical item. Don't worry about it being too obvious either; estimates for the NES sales in the UK are some 1.5 million, however if you have a nice copy of the paper list of example games that got stuffed in the box then by all means share here.

A house move left me devoid of most old gaming ephemera that was not games and things to play games on, and a copy of the Commodore 64 Datassette-1530 C2N manual is already online, so for to start with how about a shot of the box and manual for the unforgettable Commodore 64 classic "BMX Number Jump"

 

[raxadian]

Unfortunately all I have is old gaming magazines in spanish and an old gaming PC magazine in English that has ads for such wonders as Monkey Island 3 and some games I never played. Or maybe the ad was for Monkey Island 4?

Do you want game manuals? Oldest I got is a a few Gameboy games manuals. As in the ones included in the games not players guides.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

This has to be from an "official" source? As in, no fan sites dedicated to researching in development versions of games or anything like that?

 

[FAST6191]

Unfortunately all I have is old gaming magazines in spanish and an old gaming PC magazine in English that has ads for such wonders as Monkey Island 3 and some games I never played. Or maybe the ad was for Monkey Island 4?

Do you want game manuals? Oldest I got is a a few Gameboy games manuals. As in the ones included in the games not players guides.

It is more that I figure everybody can watch the sega does what nintendon't advert, maybe E3 going back many years (or at least read articles if video was not a thing), Nintendo's adverts in the UK, said nintendo power as an archive somewhere, clips of some popular TV shows about games and so on and so on.
It is rather harder however to know what goes locally for someone, or that maybe did not make the front pages and chapter headings of history books. If you have a flyer listing second hand prices for your local game shop at the end of the 16 bit era I want to see it, if you have a thing for a now defunct chain listing games they have for sale and incoming then I am OK with seeing that, if for some reason you have a photo of a local game shop back in the 90s or something I want to see it (though I also don't care if it was 5 years ago -- 5 years today is 15 years ago in 10 years time and memories might well have faded and things might be more noticeable, for instance there maybe still being 360 stuff on the shelf), if you have some obscure magazine that is barely remembered today then maybe share that (don't care if it is not in English -- seeing what prices, selection, design work... was used in somewhere nobody normally thinks about when it comes to games is of interest), if you had a "these games are also available" stuffed inside a box when you bought a console then maybe share that too, if you have a warranty card that might also fly, if some fly by night and long since failed company took out a game related advert in the back of a magazine you still have for some reason then share that.
Manuals and boxart for games is covered reasonably well elsewhere but by all means share some if you want, and if you have something otherwise unknown (or maybe in awful quality) then that works too -- we are not exactly issuing bans and warnings for something "too mainstream" or maybe skirting into a bit off topic.

That sort of thing most people would not make a thread for, is not a particularly funny picture so probably not going to go in funny pictures. You don't need to do all the effort either -- unbinding something to scan 50 pages is a pain but better to have a fragment of something than absolutely nothing at all so find some choice things and take a snap with a phone camera if you want.

However a collection of various pieces of "little stuff" and otherwise unknown stuff gives a nice sense, or even just a small sense, of what something was like at some point in time. That I find to be valuable* and I am hoping others do too, hence this thread. I used to have some things here but moved house and most things like that went and I only kept the games and consoles to play them on so I am going to have to go rooting around to find something, however in the bottom of the box of C64 games was the manual for the tape drive I mentioned and that box and manual so I figured I better make a token effort to do something.

*personally I just like history, others may find something of local interest, some people like collecting pricing data or availability data, some people like weird stuff (I am certainly hoping to see some nice either piracy related stuff, random peripherals that nobody remembers because they were awful, or failed remote sales businesses for games), some people are interested in the history of design by mere mortals (digital cameras and photo editing/layout software is still a relatively new concept, even more so anything resembling widespread availability and skills in it), and frankly I don't care if some film maker passing by is making something set in a 90s game shop and a picture provides a nice reference for one (though in general there is a reason we talk about the size, position and prominence of shelves in game shops, and a nice shot of one could well illustrate something happening like the rise of a console or the demise of one).

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

from an old football tape around 2001 I found. Later on had some more well known ads like the golden sun gba ad.

 

[Deleted User]

Advert for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Sony Playstation, 1997/1998)
Origins of advert are unknown.

Edit: "Flaps" is misspelled as "Faps". Makes it ever better.

 

[CeeDee]

From an old Nintendo Power issue: the original Project M.

 

[Rabbid4240]

I have the Mega Man 2 Worlds of Power book, if that counts

 

[mattyxarope]

Here's the promo for the beta of Nightmare on Elm Street. It never made it to market as originally planned (you can see screenshots of the beta version of the game that was never released). I redid the ad in 4k by hand (so it might have some weird parts). I used as many assets from the original as possible.

 

[godreborn]

might as well promote my thread. lol: https://gbatemp.net/threads/i-know-...to-see-this-dkc-competition-cartridge.570034/

 

[T-hug]

I found these last week clearing out a loft ready to rewire the electrics:



Just think, when these games came out the internet didn't exist to the public. It wasn't available and wasn't a thing.

 

[duwen]

I still have quite a bit of printed material from the days of the ZX Spectrum... not many complete magazines, but I certainly have pages (such as the complete map for Sabre Wulf, etc). From the same period I have several newsletters from the publisher Quicksilva (just tried to find an example scan online - got nothing), and some posters from the period - notably Ultimate Play The Game (who would later become Rare)... I have a large poster that used the same main image as this advert...

...and another one similar to this...

I'll see if I can unearth them and get actual pics

 

[MetoMeto]

Advert for Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Sony Playstation, 1997/1998)
Origins of advert are unknown.

Edit: "Flaps" is misspelled as "Faps". Makes it ever better.

i wish we have ads like that now.... people are so touchy today its annoying. "ohh a sex joke burn it on a stake" fuck... yeah i said FUCK!

Anyway, tbh people used to be more normal than, than they are now. True story.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

A little Resident Evil "Stuff" if you like.

The never released Nintendo64 Version from Resident Evil 0:


I do not found any verified Covers or Ads:


Also no Cartridges - The "Legend" tells they were all overwritten with MegaMan 64.....

Thank you.

 

[Cubuss]

 

[MetoMeto]

Hello.
A little Resident Evil "Stuff" if you like.
The never released Nintendo64 Version from Resident Evil 0:

Thank you.

This actually looks really good for N64 game!
Again, its "youre welcome" not "thank you"

And thank YOU for posting this! I like RE series! the older ones though, new ones are turd.

 

[nasune]

No idea how obscure this stuff is (or whether it is considered obscure at all) but here it is:
First thing is a Sonic poster with small blurbs for other games on the back (no idea where it came from, so for all I know it came with every copy of Sonic)

Spoiler

The second one is a promotional CD for Majora's Mask (again, no idea if it's obscure since it was apparently distributed by Target, and, well, I'm European so no Target here)

Spoiler

And the last one is an old C64 game which did come with a promotional booklet (picked this one up a long time ago (paid five bucks), and I know nothing about the game or company itself)

Spoiler

Other than that I do have some posters, promotional and otherwise, (namely a Diablo 3 poster and the preorder Xenoblade Chronicles posters) but I can't really grab them without causing an avalanche of boxes at the moment.
Again, no idea if this is all that obscure, but it's what I have.

 

[Stealphie]

Hello.

A little Resident Evil "Stuff" if you like.

The never released Nintendo64 Version from Resident Evil 0:


I do not found any verified Covers or Ads:
View attachment 220152 View attachment 220153

Also no Cartridges - The "Legend" tells they were all overwritten with MegaMan 64.....

Thank you.

That's soo cool

 

[Costello]

From an old Nintendo Power issue: the original Project M.

View attachment 220123View attachment 220124

this is absolute gold, the expert quotes at the bottom left made me laugh out loud
the sad part is if this came out today a bunch of people would probably believe in it

 

[CactusMan]

I got some from Nintendo, back then they gave some good promotional stuf. I also have the promotional NGC disk ft. Legend of Zelda. You got that one for free with a magazine.