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)

Here’s an auction procurement that just showed up today. There’s a pretty clear theme running throughout– army.

The first group is a series of games from the Army Men franchise:

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As the auctioneer helpfully wrote on the box art, the 3 discs are the only ones remaining from an original 4-pack edition. It’s a good thing the cover art is already scanned for MobyGames because this is probably unsuitable. Anyway, the 3 titles are:

• Army Men
• Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
• Army Men: Air Attack

Then there’s this odd lot:

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This is a 3-disc set of G.I. Joe vs. Cobra. The discs state that they are PC ONLY (with a copyright date of 2003). The discs each state that there are 2 episodes contained within. It’s unclear if any gaming elements are present.

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