Why wasn’t I notified that Taco Bell was running another CD-ROM game promotion? I’ve documented 4 series of Taco Bell game promotions before (Taco Bell Tek Kids, 3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures, Comics Constructors, and Eco-Rangers DVD games). I recently procured these 2 titles, which apparently were distributed last year. I don’t know if there were any others in the series, though that is pretty typical for these promotions.

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• 3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures 2 — I’m excited to play this since I liked the original courses so much
• Dance Masters — I suspect this is an accessory-free rhythm game

This next group appears to contain 2 games, but look closer:

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• Farm Frenzy Harvest — see? Not just one game; this is a collection of 6 games, messing with my master games spreadsheet once again:
  • Farm Frenzy 2
  • Farm Frenzy 3
  • Farm Frenzy: American Pie
  • Farm Frenzy: Ice Age
  • Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party
  • Farm Frenzy: Russian Roulette
• First Class Frenzy — time management game which I’ll probably enjoy, given how much I like Sally’s games

Here are 2 games that group nicely, if mysteriously. If the YouTube videos are any indication, these Star Shine Legacy titles are equestrian titles that incorporate some kind of adventure:

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The specific titles (which I only know via the online auctions) are:

• Star Shine Legacy: Secret of Pine Hill Mansion
• Star Shine Legacy: Mystery of the Soulriders

And 2 more items from recent auctions:

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• Monster Truck Rumble
• Safari Adventures (in English and Spanish)

I’ve already declared my adulation for Mumbo Jumbo’s brand of “Premium Casual Games”— simple games that are just plain fun (and addictive). I recently scored an impressive lot from an online auction.

This group already lives in the database:

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• Elf Bowling 7 1/7: The Last Insult
• Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
• Luxor 2
• 7 Wonders II

This next group is a little more annoying to catalog:

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A bunch of compilations, some of which have components that are already in the database. It really messes with my master games spreadsheet.

• Hotel
• Block Party 2:
  • Cubis 2
  • Mozaki Blocks Deluxe
• Casino 3 Pack
  • Slingo Quest
  • Poker Superstars III: Gold Chip Challenge
  • Power Chips & High Roller
• Games 4 Boys
  • Jungo
  • Polar Golfer
  • Reaxxion
  • Tornado Jockey

I raided the thrift shop today and found some old games. I mean, really old. I’m talking about 5.25″ floppy disc old. They are all complete packages too. However, they honestly can’t be considered games– all 5 of these packages are expansion packs. And one of them is apparently an expansion pack to other expansion packs of an original game– think about that for awhile.

This first group caught my eye because they all carried the logo of Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc.. I recognized them because I bought their game Theater of War ages ago. I really don’t remember playing it much. I think I mostly bought it because the cover art claimed that it was the “World’s first Super VGA game.”

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• Harpoon BattleSet 4: Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf: Expansion for the game Harpoon, in an odd packaging format that looks like a small vinyl album
• Megafortress Mission Disk 1: Operation Sledgehammer: Expansion for the game Megafortress, in the same small album form factor
• Harpoon Designers’ Series: Battleset Enhancer: This is the one that appears to be an expansion for other Harpoon expansion packs– “Creates 12 all new scenarios for each Harpoon BattleSet you own. Up to 48 new scenarios in all!” From this, I think we can definitively conclude that there were 4 BattleSet expansions.

Here are 2 expansion packs for the LucasArts game Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.

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• P-80 Shooting Star Tour Of Duty, on 5.25″ discs
• He 162 Volksjäger Tour of Duty, on 3.5″ discs

Here’s a grab-bag of other items from the same raid:

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• Hocus Pocus & Mystic Towers: Companion CD-ROM: I’m not absolutely certain, but this appears to be yet another expansion pack, this time for the Apogee games Hocus Pocus and Mystic Towers; either that or they’re shareware sampler discs
• Earth & Beyond: The Online Role Playing Galaxy: Space-themed MMO that was reportedly shut down in 2004
• Dr. Brain Thinking Games: IQ Adventure— oops, I already have a copy of this, but with different packaging
• Ollo in The Sunny Valley Fair: I got this early childhood-rated game against my better judgement; thankfully, it’s already in the database
• MX vs. ATV: Unleashed: It puzzles me that this has a Scholastic publisher’s label
• DinoSource: Not a game, but good, quality, ancient CD-ROM material

And a few more recent acquisitions:

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• Dogfight: Battle for the Pacific
• My Little Pony: Oops, I already had a copy of this; I guess one can never have too many
• Star Miner: Another of those novel, small, Pocketware CD-ROMs; this looks like a re-badging of a dressed-up Asteroids clone

I recently received a sizable lot of games from a seller who apparently had a penchant for game shows and board games. I find that entering game show licenses into the database always poses a challenge as there tend to be many titles with the same name but for different video gaming generations. See Wheel of Fortune licensees and Jeopardy licensees. Indeed, this batch of games appears to contain 2 distinct versions of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

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• Wheel of Fortune (DOS, 1993)
• Wheel of Fortune: 2nd Edition
• Jeopardy!
• Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Buena Vista version)
• Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Lightdog/General Mills release)
• You Don’t Know Jack Movies

Aha! So I’m not the only person interested in collecting CD-ROMs from breakfast cereal boxes. Check out all of the General Mills discs in this collection:

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• Scrabble (1996 version)
• Scrabble (General Mills release)
• Trivial Pursuit: The CD-ROM Edition
• Boggle (General Mills release)
• Operation (already covered here)
• Ultimate Yahtzee
• Monopoly

Part 1 of the balance, several quiz games in keeping with the game show theme:

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• American Civil War: From Sumter to Appomattox (GT Interactive release)
• Brainiacs
• TV Guide Trivia
• Crosswords & Word Games

And part 2:

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• Roller Coaster Tycoon
• Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon (Player’s Choice release)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator for Windows 95 (OEM)
• Redneck Rampage (Interactive Preview)
• TV Land Presents: Blast From The Past

I remember seeing this image a long time ago:

The reason I bring this up is because of 2 recent acquisitions: Hello Kitty Online and a Warhammer 40,000 game, forming just the right cohesion:

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Not only is it Hello Kitty Online (which is a free-to-play game anyway), but this is the Premium Edition! You know it has to be special.

The Warhammer 40K Game is Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution. I know this is awfully current by my standards. But I have a good excuse– I got this (new) and a new copy of Dungeon Siege III at a charity auction during the Christmas season.

2 boxed games:

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CyberMage: Darklight Awakening received an EA CD-ROM Classics edition release. That makes it sound like a big deal, though I had never heard of it before I picked it up at the thrift shop. Then there is Rescue Heroes: Mission Select– I’m determined to single-handedly get the entire Rescue Heroes series into MobyGames.

One of these games is not like the other:

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Fate: The Cursed King is a very recent game (copyright 2011). It prominently gloats that it has 10 million fans (on Facebook). Further, it features some kind of Facebook integration, something I haven’t seen for a boxed game (not that I purchase very many recent ones).

The other 2 games are Beyond Pearl Harbor: Pacific Warriors and Amazing Animals.

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• Beyond Divinity: Looks cool, but like all games that look cool, is already well-represented in the database.
• Great Adventures by Fisher-Price: Castle
• Hardwar: I picked this up at the thrift shop today; too bad they only had the second disc.
• Pinball Science: Ideally, this disc has a functional pinball game or 2.

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• Monopoly Casino: Monopoly-themed casino games; the jewel case copy also encourages you to seek out Monopoly-themed gambling games in real-world casinos.
• Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego: CD-ROM edition; I always wonder if these games are playable without the physical material that usually supplemented them (I remember the floppy version of Where in Time… came with a desktop encyclopedia).
• Peter’s Numbers Adventure: sounds like a delightfully banal educational title.
• Mega Bloks Dragons and Mega Bloks Dragons: Metal Ages: Not sure what Mega Bloks is, but the site has tie-ins with properties as diverse as Halo and Hello Kitty.
• Scooby-Doo and the Toon Tour of Mysteries (disc 4 in a series): I wanted to get this because I have some other series of Scooby-Doo discs that I wished to complete. However, this seems to be a video DVD that also has a Flash-based game on the DVD-ROM portion. So it’s not in the same series as other games I have looked at.

Look what I found in the trash– seriously, someone was just throwing it away:

A perfectly good, original Microsoft Xbox, complete with an original massive controller. At least, I assumed that it was working. It didn’t have a power cable or A/V connector. But a quick browse at Amazon and US$10 remedied that problem and I was able to certify that it works fine.

I’ve never owned or really even played any Xbox stuff (1st gen or 360). But I’m free to accumulate games now (as long as they’re free or sufficiently cheap, as per my policy). The only Xbox disc I had handy for testing was a demo disc that came with an Xbox magazine I bought many years ago, when I was just studying random optical media for fun.

The stories of the gargantuan original Xbox controller certainly were no exaggeration. I’m ordering up one of the smaller ones ASAP. The Xbox console itself is quite the beast as well– I fear I’ll hurt my back just carting it about.