Zombie's Ultimate X-COM Collection

[NKF]

It might be a good idea to set up a network of acquaintances around the world who could help you buy the items locally and then ship them over to you. I've often wondered about doing something like that as I've had many occasions where I've wanted to buy something on places like Amazon that list the item as out of stock or out of print, and all the private sellers advertising on the listing will only ship in the US.

 

- NKF

[Knan]

There's actually this norwegian (?) company that makes a living that way. They rent a warehouse somewhere in the continental u.s., and give you an address there for a fee. Then they ship things on to you overseas when they arrive. Works nicely around "only ships to continental u.s." auctions and sellers.

 

I'm sure there must exist something similar for americans shopping in japanese webshops.

[Zombie]

I'm sure there must exist something similar for americans shopping in japanese webshops.

Let me know if you find something like this. Though, unless the owner speaks English, the language barrier will be a problem.

 

NKF: If you ever need something off of either eBay or Amazon, just let me know. I'll be happy to get it to you.

 

By the way, I finally got my grubby hands on a complete boxed version of the Collector's Edition! (I only had the discs before). Looking forward to seeing the limited edition Alliance poster inside!

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Zombie: This looks like one, there are probably others...

 

https://www.ebuyer-jp.com/

[Zombie]

Thanks for the link Knan, I'll have to investigate the costs and services more carefully before I decide on using them.

 

Nothing new to report in terms of games arriving. A lot of the stuff which I recently purchased must be going for a ride somewhere. Hopefully it'll end up here.

 

I did manage to pick up a boxed compilation of Enemy Unknown and Master of Orion the other day for cheap. That's good. I also purchased another Amiga copy of EU. See, the version I have right now comes with 4 floppies and those German versions also have 4 floppies. This one however has 5. It looks to be the same as the other Acid version I bought recently but I can't tell what the differences are until it arrives (the listing only showed the box). Perhaps Acid has some advertising/demos on that 5th floppy sort of like the low budget Powerpoint versions have? That's my only guess right now unless anyone knows for sure.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

_Looks_ like the Amiga 1200 version has 4 disks while the Amiga 500 version has 5 disks. Not at all sure, though. Let us know!

 

Enemy Unknown + MOO ... ah. Nice combo.

[Zombie]

I've never played Master of Orion before but have been meaning to, so this was a good excuse to get it.

 

Man, I'd faint if that version is the Amiga 500. I paid like 4 EUR (~$6 USD) for it and it comes with everything in great shape! This may turn out to be the find of a century. Well, maybe not. Can't wait for this one to arrive so I can check it out!

 

Heh, my Collector's Edition just arrived today. The box isn't in that great of shape but it was still sealed which was important. I really like the artwork underneath the front flap - I think David Ellis mentioned that it was from an artist who was working on Genesis (or Alliance? Can't remember offhand). But the best part is of course the limited edition Alliance poster. It's HUGE. Gotta see if this can be framed somehow. *drools*

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

With the arrival of a couple games over the weekend, I scanned some more covers and created a new site page for them. Introducing: X-COM Game Compilations. This page is going to be for X-COM games which are bundled with a unrelated title or another game in the X-COM series. So far I have 4: UFO/MOO, UFO/Syndicate, Enforcer/Edge of Chaos and the Collector's Edition. I also have the X-COM Collection but the box isn't intact so no scan on that. Not to worry though, I have a brand new, unopened, virgin copy arriving soon. It was pretty expensive, but I'm hoping to recoup part of the cost by selling my other copy (that one was basically free anyway).

 

Last night I installed Master of Orion. It definitely needs DosBox to run, but ignoring this hassle it didn't take much to get it to going. Surprisingly, it is very similar to Interceptor. At least, that's my first impression. It's got a heavy strategic element, that's for sure. And for a game which came out before Enemy Unknown, it's even more impressive. It will take a while getting used to all the controls and figuring out some strategies for it, but at least there's a manual.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

Introducing: X-COM Game Compilations.

Lookin' good.

[Zombie]

When it rains, it pours I guess: I just received two big boxes of X-COM games in the mail today. One box contained that Amiga version with 5 floppies and yup, it's the Amiga 500 version (at long last)! Brand spanking new and complete with everything including the warranty card. The manual is different from the other European Amiga/Dos manuals as well. Normally the manual is in color which looks like the cover of the box, well, the A500's manual is in black and white. Little bit different then.

 

I also got those two German Amiga games in the mail today as well. There isn't much difference between them, to tell you the truth. One has stickers on the floppies and on the box, while the other type is silk screened or painted on the floppies. *shrugs* Maybe they were produced in two different factories or perhaps one was a re-release at a later date? Don't know. Hopefully someone can fill me in. (The German seller I purchased them from didn't know).

 

So, I scanned those covers and added them to the UFO Game versions page today. I also started scanning the media (floppies, CD-ROM) which came with the versions today and added the German Amiga floppies to the page as a start. Eventually I'd like to get everything which comes with each game scanned and up also (like the manual, registration card, technical supplement, advertising etc). Most of the games are basically identical in this respect so I'll only need to scan them once and link to it from each game version list. That'll save some time and space.

 

- Zombie

[Pete]

With the arrival of a couple games over the weekend, I scanned some more covers and created a new site page for them. Introducing: X-COM Game Compilations. This page is going to be for X-COM games which are bundled with a unrelated title or another game in the X-COM series

 

And for anyone wondering about the inner flap carton on the green box, that comic strip was supposed to be a teaser into some of the main characters in X-COM Genesis.

 

If you check out cyke's interview with Dave Ellis at The Last Outpost (the part on Genesis naturally), you'll see that those aliens in the holding tanks as well as the crazy looking Ethereals match up to much of the artwork in that article.

[Zombie]

Didn't that artist from Genesis do some stuff for Alliance too? Maybe I was mistaken.

 

Anyhow, I got the X-COM Collection today and added scans of the covers to the Game Compilations site page here. All it comes with is 2 jewel cases. No manual, no registration, no advertising, no nothing. Why you need such a big box for 3 little CD-ROMS is beyond me. It's probably marketing: a big box hints that you are getting more. In this case you get less than the Collector's Edition (in terms of extras, not the games). It's a little bit disappointing, but there's a bright side: the box was brand new and unopened - true collector quality. Plus it's another game off my list.

 

Hopefully one of these days I can get a hold of the X-COM Unknown Terror compilation. I saw one (brand new) on eBay this summer for around $90. I could have kicked myself for not making an effort to get it as I haven't seen one since. But $90 was a little too rich for my blood at the time.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Some good things to report on my collection status. First, I found (and purchased) a copy of Enforcer which doesn't look like any of the other covers which I've seen yet. I think it may be a French version, though I can't be positive till I get it (from a seller in France obviously). As a side note, my roommate made a comment to me the other day after seeing package upon package arriving from various locations across the globe. He basically asked how I was able to find these versions from sellers from all over (short answer: eBay of course). Anyhow, I got packages from the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and now of course France. That's almost the entire continent.

 

And I saved the best news till last. I just purchased a copy of the Japanese version of X-COM today!!!!! Let's get a ticker-tape parade and some fireworks going as another one is off my list! Purchased it from an American seller who refused to sell anywhere but the United States so that kind of limited the number of bidders and bettered my odds. Condition? Acceptable. (Looked to be complete and in great shape to me). Price? $31 including shipping. Can't beat that price on any continent (except maybe Japan itself). I'll let you know when I get it. In the meantime, I think it's time to celebrate with a cold one!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

No time for celebrations, it's back to work for me. What started out this whole collection thingy was my attempt to test the different versions. Well, I finally reached my goal: an original UK copy of the game on 3.5" Floppies. See, I think all the other versions out there are v1.2 updated except for the floppy (needs some testing to completely verify but that's the theory from what I've seen). So this will act as a baseline for comparison purposes. Finally!

 

What was a great extra in the package was an original UFO v1.2 update floppy released by Microprose. Haven't seen that advertised anyplace even though I knew it existed. Nice thing to have a hard copy of it even though the update is widely distributed across the net as an electronic download.

 

You can find the cover scans as well as the floppies (including the update disk) in the UFO Game versions page. The update disk is the blue floppy with the label in the media section of the UFO UK 3.5" Floppy section (first entry). Can't miss it.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Ah, floppies. My first ever exposure to the X-Com world was with TFTD on floppy disks. What bad memories those were, what with bad sectors showing up on the disks for no apparent reason (today I think the floppy drive was to blame for that). Had to get a second copy - and even those I eventually lost to bad sectors. So I highly recommend you copy those files onto the hard drive, maybe make backups and then never use your original disks again to preserve them.

 

A friend later introduced me to UFO by copying his copy onto some disks, and it got bad sectors so the installer didn't work. Luckily, I manually used the MPS unpacker and installed the game that way. Yes, fun times. Happiest day of my life when I later bought a loose copy of the Terror Unknown compilation. Wish I still had that. Zombie, if you ever manage to spot a copy of the Terror Unknown compilation in your hunt (in any condition), give me a yell.

 

Also interesting tidbit about the TU collection that I seem to remember: Its copy of UFO is missing its intro.exe.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Ah, floppies. My first ever exposure to the X-Com world was with TFTD on floppy disks. What bad memories those were, what with bad sectors showing up on the disks for no apparent reason (today I think the floppy drive was to blame for that). Had to get a second copy - and even those I eventually lost to bad sectors. So I highly recommend you copy those files onto the hard drive, maybe make backups and then never use your original disks again to preserve them.

Hehe, I've had bad experiences with floppies as well (this goes back even further to the days of the "true" 5.25" soft floppies and even those huge "platters"). Don't know if it's the floppy or the drive which is to blame for bad sectors, but a lot of the time I think its due to overwriting. Never really had an issue with an original disk going bad, but I always make backups anyway. This one is too important to overlook.

 

A friend later introduced me to UFO by copying his copy onto some disks, and it got bad sectors so the installer didn't work. Luckily, I manually used the MPS unpacker and installed the game that way. Yes, fun times. Happiest day of my life when I later bought a loose copy of the Terror Unknown compilation. Wish I still had that. Zombie, if you ever manage to spot a copy of the Terror Unknown compilation in your hunt (in any condition), give me a yell.

 

Also interesting tidbit about the TU collection that I seem to remember: Its copy of UFO is missing its intro.exe.

You mean "Unknown Terror", not "Terror Unknown", right? (The compilation with EU, TFTD + the 2 OSG's). Haven't even found a single copy for myself yet, but if (urm, let's be pessimistic here: when) I get one, I'll be sure to keep you in mind if another one crosses my path. I'll of course need to keep the better of the two copies for my collection, and I'm sure you wouldn't mind having only the games without the OSGs if that's all I find, correct? Shipping costs would be massive with all that weight from the guides, I'd imagine.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Hehe, I've had bad experiences with floppies as well (this goes back even further to the days of the "true" 5.25" soft floppies and even those huge "platters"). Don't know if it's the floppy or the drive which is to blame for bad sectors, but a lot of the time I think its due to overwriting. Never really had an issue with an original disk going bad, but I always make backups anyway. This one is too important to overlook.

 

Definitely sure a good deal of it has to do with the disk drive. I often got bad sectors on a brand new floppy I'd just removed from the sleeve. The grinding, clicks and whirring noises really got the heart rate up every time I put a disk into the drive.

 

5" disks bring me way back, and I still have a drive somewhere. In an old book I used to own (Think back when Tandys, Commadores, ticker tape printers, Hercules graphics adapters, gaming 'paddles' and magnetic tape barrels were all the rage), I recall there was an even larger variant of the floppy disk. Not as much fun as the magnetic tape drums.

 

You mean "Unknown Terror", not "Terror Unknown", right? (The compilation with EU, TFTD + the 2 OSG's). Haven't even found a single copy for myself yet, but if (urm, let's be pessimistic here: when) I get one, I'll be sure to keep you in mind if another one crosses my path. I'll of course need to keep the better of the two copies for my collection, and I'm sure you wouldn't mind having only the games without the OSGs if that's all I find, correct? Shipping costs would be massive with all that weight from the guides, I'd imagine.

 

- Zombie

 

It's approaching a decade since I had my copy, so the order of the title eludes me, but yes that's the one I'm thinking of. Even if you can find a loose CD, that'll do just fine. It would be nice to have the books, but I think I can manage without the strategy guides. But don't go out of your way for this - I already have the games and I'm only really after them for nostalgia's sake.

 

By the way, if you do track down a second copy, if it's payable by Visa and the seller allows international shipping, I could probably make the purchase myself. That way we can avoid double handling on the postage.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

It's approaching a decade since I had my copy, so the order of the title eludes me, but yes that's the one I'm thinking of. Even if you can find a loose CD, that'll do just fine. It would be nice to have the books, but I think I can manage without the strategy guides. But don't go out of your way for this - I already have the games and I'm only really after them for nostalgia's sake.

 

By the way, if you do track down a second copy, if it's payable by Visa and the seller allows international shipping, I could probably make the purchase myself. That way we can avoid double handling on the postage.

Sure, no problem. Most sellers are willing to ship worldwide so it's not a huge issue, but there are occasions where the only copy available is from a seller who only ships to the US or a specific country. Beggars can't be choosers if this is the case. Do you have a Paypal account? Not having one of those may also pose a problem on an eBay auction.

 

On another note, I received the Japanese PSX version of X-COM in the mail today. Already took scans of it and put it on the appropriate site page.

 

Last night I was trying to take scans of some of the discs for EU, but ran into a slight problem. See, some of the discs have really reflective sections which scatters the light from the scanner rendering areas black. To combat this I tried a piece of cellophane between the disc and the scanner bed hoping that the plastic wouldn't scatter the light as much. It helps a little, but I think I'd need a thick chunk of it to prevent the scattering completely. Anybody know of a way to get around this? The only other thing I could do is get a digital camera and take some pictures with it. I'm assuming that if you get the right angle with the camera, that would eliminate the reflections. Still, it's a big investment to get a camera, so I'm looking for a work-around with my current setup to maximize efficiency. Ideas?

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Nice misprint on the A1200 version, btw. Disk 3 says IBM PC High Density.

 

Congrats on the Japanese version, obviously. Is it playable on any of your systems?

[Zombie]

Nice misprint on the A1200 version, btw. Disk 3 says IBM PC High Density.

Hehe, I was wondering when someone would notice that. Threw me a loop why that was the only disc which was different from the rest. Maybe the mastering company ran out of blanks for disc#3 and just used whatever they could get their hands on?

 

Congrats on the Japanese version, obviously. Is it playable on any of your systems?

Don't know yet. My PSX machine is at my parents place so I can't test it. From what I've heard from some other forum members, it will probably play on NTSC region 1, but the graphics might be garbled and only in B&W. We'll see though, next time I'm home I'll check.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Speaking of 3.5" floppies... today I set about to install my copy of X-COM: UFO Defense to compare against the European 1.0 version. You guessed it, the first floppy was bad. What sucked was that the UFO001 file couldn't be read (that's the data part) so I couldn't even copy it over. Looks like I may be on the market for another floppy version again.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

I'd recommend trying a second floppy drive, though. I know mine has mainly accumulated dust for years, so I wouldn't wonder if it were less than well working.

[NKF]

A second floppy drive might yield better results. 3'5" drives are really going the way of the dodo thanks to flash drives, but if you plan to get a new one, I'd probably recommend getting one via those USB card reader devices. Handy and worth investing in one if you later on decide to pick up a basic digital camera too.

 

There's a post on xcomufo by Hybridvision that I responded to who mentions he's got a copy of the floppys, and also got them damaged through bad sectors. I don't know if it'll work or if your versions are the same, but It might be worth a try to ask if his copy of ufo001 is recoverable. If it is, you could probably negotiate something. This would assist in the testing, though not in obtaining a pristine copy of the floppy version.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

A second floppy drive might yield better results. 3'5" drives are really going the way of the dodo thanks to flash drives, but if you plan to get a new one, I'd probably recommend getting one via those USB card reader devices. Handy and worth investing in one if you later on decide to pick up a basic digital camera too.

Not sure what one of those devices look like (haven't been keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies). I looked in eBay, but came up empty handed (plenty of 11 in 1 card readers which fit into a 3.5" bay, but nothing with an actual floppy drive too). I only have a laptop, so that has to be taken into consideration too as it'll have to be external.

 

There's a post on xcomufo by Hybridvision that I responded to who mentions he's got a copy of the floppys, and also got them damaged through bad sectors. I don't know if it'll work or if your versions are the same, but It might be worth a try to ask if his copy of ufo001 is recoverable. If it is, you could probably negotiate something. This would assist in the testing, though not in obtaining a pristine copy of the floppy version.

He has the European version. I wanted to install the American version. Not sure if the UFO001 files are identical, but I can't determine that with a corrupted sector... otherwise, yeah, I could use the surrogate file to rebuild it.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Not sure what one of those devices look like (haven't been keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies). I looked in eBay, but came up empty handed (plenty of 11 in 1 card readers which fit into a 3.5" bay, but nothing with an actual floppy drive too). I only have a laptop, so that has to be taken into consideration too as it'll have to be external.

 

They've been around for quite a bit. They're similar to the external USB floppy drives, just thicker and a few extra slots on the front. You could probably get some affordable store brand or off brand ones from your local electronics shop.

 

He has the European version. I wanted to install the American version. Not sure if the UFO001 files are identical, but I can't determine that with a corrupted sector... otherwise, yeah, I could use the surrogate file to rebuild it.

- Zombie

 

I believe there were some minor differences between the US and European release, so I guess that won't work too well even if the files packed into UFO001 are the same. Oh well, was worth considering all the same.

 

- NKF