First and foremost, I found another game that was distributed as a Taco Bell promotion sometime last year: Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2011:

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So I have 3 games from this promotion (the others are 3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures 2 and Dance Masters). These Taco Bell disc-based promotions have traditionally been in groups of 4 (though the earliest one was only 3). I finally found a Wiki page that seems to have authoritative information of this whole promotion (including a photo of the promotion copy). It seems there were 5 games and I need to keep a look out for 2 more: Frogger and 3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures 2: Reloaded.

Anyway, the other game photographed is Lenny’s Time Machine. Copyright is 1994, platform is Windows 3.1, developed by Music Pen Inc. and published by Paramount Interactive.

Here’s a strange pair I picked up at the thrift shop today– 2 discs in a franchise called Elemen of Periodica:

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The 2 specific titles here are: Case of the Missing Doughnuts and The Missing Maze. Copyright 2001, Elemen of Periodica, LLC., an entire limited liability corporation for this enterprise. The domain is home to a squatter these days.

I wasn’t sure if they were audio CDs or CD-ROMs as they were both still newly wrapped. They’re audio CDs. Each comes with a story book, musical narrative CD, and 4 trading cards (I guess that copy on the front of each disc should have tipped me off that these weren’t necessarily games; but I probably would have bought these anyway).

Obviously, each disc revolves around the adventures of 4 of the Elemen, each of whom are based on a chemical element. Here’s a closer look at the contents of Case of the Missing Doughnuts:

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This one revolves around Nitro (nitrogen), Cop (copper), Silica (silicon), and Einstein (einsteinium). Einsteinium is the 99th element. I don’t know if they actually created characters for all 109 or so elements that had names as of the year 2001. It’s pretty hard to google this title as the search engine insists on correcting the name something involving “periodic table of elements”. However, I was able to track down this old page via the Internet Archive which indicates that there was a 3rd CD with 5 more characters. So, only 13 total elements were represented, presumably before the LLC ran out of money.

Here’s another unusual item I picked up at the thrift store today:

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By the look of it, I figured it’s another of those shady game controllers that’s loaded with dozens of classic game ROMs and connects directly to a TV. I couldn’t find any additional markings on the controller (though the inside of the battery compartment may have something when I unscrew it). However, take a closer look at the yellow and red connectors (click for larger image)– they’re both 1/8″ connectors. I know what to do with the red audio cable (which is dual-ring for stereo). But the yellow cable is also 1/8″. Not sure what to do with that.

Update: I found this same thing described in detail over at Benj Edwards’ Vintage Computing & Gaming blog. It’s Polaroid Instant Video Games. The original package comes with connectors to convert the 1/8″ connectors to regular composite cables.

This reminds me of another acquisition more than a year ago– the Sega Genesis Arcade Motion:

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Brand new and I still haven’t opened it. The thing looks pretty official, aping the logos of Sega and Genesis. It also mentions something about copyright and all rights reserved by Sega. Still, I have my doubts that this thing is legit. This item is on Amazon and some of the reviews provide more details: The box says that you can download more games and load them via SD card; one review notes that said ROMs come packaged in .BIN and .GENS files (indicating the presence of, or compatibility with, the GENS emulator). The same reviewer found it strange that a Genesis-compatible product blessed by Sega would have a 4-button controller.

Moving along, here are some more recent acquisitions, some of which are missing from MobyGames:

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In order:

• Capitalism II by Enlight
• Marine Park Empire by Enlight
• F/A-18 Precision Strike Fighter by Xicat Interactive
• Video Gambling by Lasersoft

And a few more acquisitions that are already in MobyGames:

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• The Complete Ultima VII
• Lamborghini: American Challenge
• Finding Nemo
• Disney’s 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue (Sega Dreamcast)