Zombie's Ultimate X-COM Collection

[Zombie]

Let's see how you guys like this: I just scanned and uploaded all of my TFTD game covers to a new site page. Apologies about the PowerPlus front cover, I just removed a sticker from it with paint thinner and the surface didn't quite dry enough, that's why it's stained in the corner. (It'll go away though, and when it does I'll rescan the cover). I'm most proud of the fact that I have all the UK and German releases (both on Floppies and CD). This particular collection is nearly complete. The only one I need yet is the US version on CD. Luckily there are plenty of those floating around.

 

Both site pages are now in the left menu for ease of navigation too.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

'Tis a thang 'o beauty!

 

Or it will be when formatted and labeled.

 

Hey, now that I take a second look, I see you don't have the "Sold Out Software" UFO box. I wonder if my friend still has that.

[Ki-tat Chung]

Oh my. Quite the collection. Do you have a page for your Apoc collection?

[Zombie]

I'll get that up tonight. Scanning/resizing/uploading takes the better part of an evening, especially with all the copies I have.

 

@Bomb Bloke: I think there are two different versions in the "Sold Out Software" line. There may even be 3, but I don't remember anymore. I don't have these copies yet, though I occasionally have seen them floating around

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

All-righty, I suspect there are more than a few people who were patiently waiting to see all the Apocalypse game versions. Well, the wait is finally over! I scanned the remainder of the game versions and uploaded them to the site today. Everything is now accessible from the left menu on the site, but just in case you are too lazy, here are the direct links:

• UFO
  
• TFTD
  
• Apocalypse
  
• Interceptor
  
• Em@il
  
• Enforcer
  

The only items remaining to scan are the Collector's Edition and the X-COM Collection so there isn't much left to do besides formatting the pages. But let me tell you that scanning took a lot of work. Hope you guys like it!

 

- Zombie

[Slaughter]

Good stuff Zombie! With descriptions and stuff, that's quite a nice little digital museum

[Ki-tat Chung]

*Sigh*

 

I still remember some years back, seeing a big pile of big red Apoc boxes at my local department store's electronics section. I so wanted to buy one back then. It was shrink wrapped! But alas, I was but a poor lad, and $50AUD was all but too much for me to afford. =[

[Knan]

Hmm. My 1-euro UK Enforcer looks like the topmost of your german versions, but with english text.

[Zombie]

Is your copy in a large box, or does it come in a DVD case (like the German versions)? I seem to recall seeing an Enforcer European-boxed version, but haven't seen it offered for a long time.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

DVD case. Haven't seen big box games around here for ages, except fancy special editions.

[Thorondor]

A most excellent collection, Zombie!

 

::

 

Thanks for sharing

[Zombie]

No problem, Thorondor!

 

Well, I formatted all the game version pages so that the images are all in table format and have titles. So hopefully that will make it easier to see what is what.

 

BTW: My CD32 version was first shipped yesterday, so it will take a little bit longer than anticipated to arrive. I'll say it'll take 2 weeks.

 

Late Edit: Just purchased 2 copies of the German Amiga 1200 UFO. Why 2? Well, the labels on the Floppies were different. I figured if they turned out to be identical, I could always sell the other one.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Will there be a separate section for compilations like Terror Unknown and CE? I was wondering where those would fit into the lot.

 

Everyone's already said it, but it does feel like walking through a museum gallery.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Will there be a separate section for compilations like Terror Unknown and CE? I was wondering where those would fit into the lot.

Yes, there will be a section for those. I was figuring on putting that in the main X-COM category as that seemed like the best place. Don't have much to put in there yet. I have the CE, and the X-COM Collection which came with one of my lucky auctions (the box was cut up to fit in a carton, but I may be able to scan it and crop off the jagged edges). Don't have Unknown Terror yet, and haven't found a copy offered anywhere for a long time as well.

 

Everyone's already said it, but it does feel like walking through a museum gallery.

Not everyone said it, so it's good to hear again. Thanks!

 

If I ever run across a good chunk of cash, I'd like to possibly buy or rent a storefront somewhere to make a proper museum. Seeing it online is interesting, but getting up-close and personal to everything would definitely leave an impression I'd imagine. There's a lot of stuff inside those boxes which is cool to look at as well (at least for me). Still, I doubt I'd get many visitors here in the US. I'd need to move to Europe somewhere.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Just as an update, I of course have the CD32 and those 2 German Amiga versions of Enemy Unknown coming soon. Now there are a few more on the way as well. I finally got the US version of UFO Defense on CD-ROM and also, the US version of Interceptor! Those have been on my list for a while but for some reason were hard to find for a reasonable price. Strange but true.

 

The other day I was taking stock of my collection and comparing it to Moby Games. It's definitely rivaling theirs, and in some respects better because all of my games are in one place. But I noticed that my Amiga version of EU is a little bit different from the one at Moby. Then it hit me: I must have the American version, and Moby must be the UK version (hence the "Acid" logo on their cover). Amazingly, I checked on eBay and found a copy for rather cheap. So now that version is accounted for too.

 

It's kind of interesting putting together a collection like this. I really learned a lot of things and put in some long hours (or days, or months, it all tends to fade together) researching the different versions, tracking them down, and then trying to purchase them for a reasonable price (not to mention cleaning the covers, scanning them, uploading them to the site and formatting everything). When I started out I didn't realize there were so many versions out there. This has spiraled out of control. It's still fun, but getting out of hand. I mean, I blew my entire economic stimulus check on X-COM games from overseas. But I at least can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

A couple more X-COM versions arrived in the last few days so I managed to scan the covers and add them to the appropriate site pages. I added the American Interceptor version and at long last, the American CD version of TFTD. So right now there appears to be three game sections which are complete: TFTD, Apocalypse and Interceptor. Hurray! I'll keep looking for different versions of those games, but it's doubtful whether there are any more out there.

 

Enemy Unknown is still a work in progress I'm afraid. There are a few versions which should be arriving any day now, but a good chunk of them are from overseas and will take a while to show up. I know for a fact that the local postman doesn't deliver packages as they arrive - he stockpiles them for a couple of days and delivers them all in one clip. While I can appreciate the forethought of combining shipments into one trip to save on gas, those packages have all been paid for in full delivery-wise and should go out as they arrive. The United States Postal Service is not the best mail service by any means. Ah well, I'll let you guys know if anything shows up.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Heh. Even MobyGames doesn't have your italian apocalypse cover. Nice find!

 

 

(And if you can manage to navigate amazon's japanese page with a little help from translate.google.com, there looks to be a japanese psx version here:

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%87...5/dp/B000069S1J

 

edit: darn. "Foreign shipping restrictions: This product is in countries we can not." Sounds negative. Machine translation still is hilarious, at times.)

[Zombie]

Heh. Even MobyGames doesn't have your italian apocalypse cover. Nice find!

Thanks, I nearly flipped when I first saw it. All the foreign language versions are really cool in my opinion.

 

(And if you can manage to navigate amazon's japanese page with a little help from translate.google.com, there looks to be a japanese psx version here:

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%87...5/dp/B000069S1J

 

edit: darn. "Foreign shipping restrictions: This product is in countries we can not." Sounds negative. Machine translation still is hilarious, at times.)

Yup, there are certainly copies out there, but Japanese Amazon sellers don't ship outside the country. Bummer.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Got two more Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense games in the mail today, so I scanned them and added the covers to the UFO Game Versions page. Knan, you will be happy to see the Amiga CD32 is finally up.

 

The other version is the American CD of UFO Defense. Looking pretty good so far if I do say so myself!

 

Late Edit: I was looking at the Amiga versions today and realized they are probably not American releases since they lack an ISBN code. I think ISBN's are either required here in the States or usually added (I read that software didn't need it after a certain date, but the Amigas certainly had to have it). Anyway, I'll have to take a closer look at the "Acid" version when it arrives to see if there is a difference.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Microsoft Ltd., The Ridge, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol BS17 6AY, UK also is a nice hint that this originates from the UK.

 

I don't think there was a north american amiga release. At least not according to the USG and a cursory googling.

[Knan]

BTW, this one looks a bit interesting. Jowood + Apocalypse = what? Does your german cdrom look like that?

 

(only shipping to germany, but in my experience sellers might change that if you ask nicely)

 

... and this one, seemingly ufo: enemy unknown for pc on a PC Player cover cd...

Edited September 19, 2008 by Knan

[Knan]

And regarding Acid ... that's a budget rerelease for Amiga.

 

Linky: https://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/DBM1/UFO3.html

[Zombie]

Ah, so Acid was a rerelease? No wonder.

 

As for those auction listings you show, I don't have them and none of my versions look like them. Unfortunately, you can't just look at shipping. You also have to factor in payment. Those auctions require direct bank transfer of funds, not paypal. Inter-country direct transfer fees are very small, but when you live outside the country (not to mention across the pond), those fees are literally huge. Last time I checked it was something like $25-50. So there's no way I'm going to even bid on those. My current search parameters have Paypal and worldwide shipping as necessary, anything else I ignore.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Hehe. International bank transfer is ... less than good. Agreed. Been there with Strange American Government Suppliers who want nothing to do with any non-traditional (ie. invented after the war) payment or shipping.

 

They probably supply things to X-COM. Cash is traditional, after all.

 

Paying by Visa tends to be manageable in fees, but that's not too common on ebay either. Abebooks for games would be ideal.

[Zombie]

I just wish there was some universal payment method everyone would adopt. (I'm not talking cash, this is the electronic age mind you). But alas, everyone has their own ideas. Paypal is good for a lot of auctions in the US, but start venturing further away and it isn't accepted much.

 

Oh, before I forget, I found a rare little gem inside the UFO Defense CD ROM version's box the other day: the original sales receipt from Babbages dated June 20, 1994! Well, it's technically not the original since this was a return but still... a truly great find. You don't see too many people who keep their sales receipts with the box. Amazing. I took a scan of it in case you guys want a peek (blacked out the ticket numbers just to be safe):

 

 

$49.99 retail for UFO? That's a lot more than I got it for now ($15).

 

- Zombie