1993 was my second Christmas season working at Electronics Boutique and I remember it well. Mortal Kombat was of course a hot item but the really interesting part was seeing the Genesis vs Super Nintendo console war in full swing. The Super Nintendo was winning for most of 1993 (anecdotally) but it lost ground due to its inferior port of Mortal Kombat. By Christmas season the two rivals were back to a neck-and-neck brawl. The PC side of the store was interesting too with more gamers making the big (and pricey) upgrade to CD.
The catalog itself is quite festive with Santa's elves decorating every page. As an extra bonus there are a few pieces of vaporware hiding in here, I wonder if anyone will find them?
Cover
This family really hit the Santa jackbot.
Page 2 - CD-i and table of contents
The Electronics Boutique location I worked at did not carry the CD-i. It does not appear in the January 1993 catalog so I don't know what's going here. Maybe it was at a couple locations.
Page 3 - Super Nintendo
The free Super Mario All-Stars promotion with Super Nintendo bundles was a great deal.
Page 4 - Super Nintendo
Yeah, Super Mario All-Stars was a $60 game by itself. Great deal to get it for free. I think it was actually worth the original price tag.
Page 5 - Super Nintendo
I can't get over that a first party Super Nintendo controller was only $17.99.
Page 6 - Super Nintendo
I always find it amusing when someone posts a "discovery" about an old NES game and it was in the Top Secret Password Hintbook the whole time.
Page 7 - Super Nintendo
Victormaxx Stuntmaster - the extra X is for the eXtra strength migraine you get from using it.
Page 8 - Super Nintendo
Instead of the naughty & nice list they have the good & bad list. This leaves me concerned that some department store took out a trademark on "naughty & nice" in like 1950 and maybe technically still owns it. You know, like how store ads will never say Super Bowl for their Super Bowl promotions.
Page 9 - Super Nintendo
Before you share this somewhere to discuss historic game prices, let me note these are the highest hypothetical prices. At most locations these $68 games were at most $60. Still a lot of course. High rent locations may have kept these higher prices points, they are probably the locations that carried the CD-i too.
Page 10 - Super Nintendo
Pre-release cover art for WCW Super Brawl pictured here.
Page 11 - Super Nintendo
OK, Street Fighter II Turbo was actually $74 at our location. It would eventually be discounted but this price point did not slow down sales.
Page 12 - Super Nintendo
Terminator 2 has two distinct games based on it. They probably could have made 10 in this era.
Page 14 - Super Nintendo
This is the mostly licensed games page.
Page 15 - Super Nintendo
$17.99 for a first party controller just keeps looking better and better.
Page 16 - Sega Genesis
Sorry but someone, not me, apparently really wanted Aladdin and Sonic Spinball.
Page 17 - Sega Genesis
You'll know I'm retired when I post an updated version of this catalog with larger images and these circles airbrushed out.
Page 18 - Sega Genesis
We had the Activator in my store and I don't think we ever sold one.
Page 19 - Sega Genesis
The description of Ecco the Dolphin helpfully explains that dolphins are mammals.
Page 20 - Sega Genesis
As of the last time I looked at this page, 3/5 of the wrestlers on the cover of Royal Rumble are dead.
Page 21 - Sega Genesis
I guess they only had the box art for the NES version of TMNT Tournament Fighters.
Page 22 - Sega Genesis
I didn't think Chuck Rock was a big enough game to get a sequel.
Page 23 - Sega Genesis
Yeah, I need to either find a new copy of this catalog or airbrush out those circles. I wonder if I can get AI to figure it out? Maybe in a couple more years.
Page 24 - Sega Genesis
They did not have a box for Mig-29 yet it seems.
Page 25 - Sega Genesis
I like how the 6-button controller has to explain it works with "almost all" games. I could intentionally write a demo that broke if a 6-button controller was connected. How people accidentally did that takes talent. What I assume is they wrote code to detect the controller type that broke if an unknown value was present. Which is a weird choice because there was only one controller type possible when they wrote this code. If you think you would enjoy a technical description of how this works read this.
Page 26 - Sega CD
I think the title of NFL's Greatest Teams: San Francisco vs Dallas confused shoppers into thinking it only had those two teams.
Page 27 - Sega CD
Vaporware and pre-release box art on this page.
Page 28 - Sega CD
The cover of the INXS game certainly didn't help.
Page 29 - Sega CD
I don't want to make the vaporware hunt too easy, but there is one on this page.
Page 30 - 3DO
The $700 price tag certainly hurt the 3DO. The game selection hurt even more. Here on the first page, the first page, are a couple brief FMV shooters and three reference discs.
Page 31 - 3DO
Total Eclipse is the best thing on this page. Battle Chess and Out of this World are fine but didn't require a $700 system to run.
Page 32 - TTI and LCD
The description of Dungeon Explorer II is actually Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest. Visitors are probably more interested in the Turbo Duo Intelligent Link.
Page 33 - NES
$50 is a great deal for the compact NES.
Page 34 - NES
Based only on personal recollection, most stores did not have quite this large of an NES selection in 1993.
Page 35 - Game Gear
I have amassed a pretty decent Game Gear library, even bought some overpriced adapter to play it on an overpriced FPGA system. Yet I never get around to trying it. There are some games that look very interesting.
Page 36 - Game Gear
I at least tried Sonic 2 and it's a good enough version.
Page 37 - Game Gear
I also tried Streets of Rage 2 which turned out pretty good on the system.
Page 38 - Game Gear
With so many people getting rid of cable I'm surprised someone hasn't made a TV tuner for [whichever portable system is doing well at the time you are reading this].
Page 39 - Game Boy
If you're going to link to this on a post about historic game prices please note how many absolutely great Game Boy games were only $20.
Page 40 - Game Boy
Even Link's Awakening all the way up at $30 is a good deal.
Page 41 - Game Boy
These are not quite as great of deals at $30.
Page 42 - PC Entertainment
And just like that we're on to the PC section, I recall Sam & Max being popular.
Page 43 - PC Entertainment
I was always thoroughly confused by all these Wing Commander products, some were expansions and others standalone games.
Page 44 - PC Entertainment
Yeah, I really need to fix or replace some of these pages. Sorry.
Page 45 - PC Entertainment
Every so often I try to get into Alone in the Dark and always fail. It seems like the type of game I would enjoy.
Page 46 - PC Entertainment
The math on the number of animations in Star Wars Chess checks out.
Page 47 - PC Entertainment
Two of the worst boxes to put on the shelf are on this page. The Comanche: Maximum Overkill one (maximum overkill?) would always fall down.
Page 48 - PC Entertainment
It's crazy that I've never played any Wizardry game despite knowing they were an influence on early JRPGs.
Page 49 - PC Entertainment
The PC version of Mortal Kombat was a good port, would recommend.
Page 50 - CD-ROM
I didn't know who Kathy Smith was, still don't I suppose, but was curious after >30 years what happened. Looks like she is still selling fitness DVDs, I guess it worked.
Page 51 - CD-ROM
I don't know if there will ever be anything like these massive CD-ROM upgrade kits again since next to nothing is upgradable.
Page 52 - CD-ROM
I can't take the guy on the Human Calculator box seriously due to the strong Brother Love resemblance.
Page 53 - CD-ROM
A couple collections of public domain videos here.
Page 54 - CD-ROM
20th Century Video Almanac... published in 1993 they probably thought all major events of the century were done. They also have Princess Di on the cover so, just sayin' that if you want to publish one of these wait a little longer.
Page 55 - PC Productivity
Yeah OK.
Page 56 - PC Productivity
The creepy elf pointing at Modern Bride is the most unsettling thing in this catalog.
Page 57 - PC Productivity
We're past due for Where in Cyberspace is Carmen Sandiego where the titular character has moved on to online scams.
Page 58 - PC Edutainment
Dr T's Sing Along - Kids Karaoke is something you'd give to a relative you despised who had young kids.
Page 59 - PC Edutainment
I dunno, something about Mario at the playground seems kinda creepy.
Page 60 - PC Edutainment
Getting a free VHS tape with purchase of software is an interesting deal.
Page 61 - PC Edutainment
Am I just noticing now that the elves are strapping rockets to the reindeer?
Page 62 - PC Productivity
I don't think Quicken the product has been around for a while, and the company that created it now lobbies heavily against free tax filing.
Page 63 - PC Productivity
The dude on the Talking Icons box sure looks like Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart.
Page 64 - PC Productivity
I feel like those calendar creations packages are something you can make at CVS for like $5 now. This is not an ad for CVS. I think you can also do the same at many Lawson's locations for even less although getting there may be more expensive.
Page 65 - PC Productivity
Customer service sure has changed over 30+ years. In 1993 we made like $5 an hour and were expected to understand all the nuances of Microsoft upgrade options. Today the person at GameStop makes less (adjusted for inflation) and is forbidden from answering anything that isn't in a script.
Page 66 - PC Productivity
TurboCAD sold better than you'd expect, mostly to people who didn't think they needed to hire an architect.
Page 67 - PC Productivity
I went to look-up whatever happened to Corel DRAW and first page in the results was AI slop so I gave up.
Page 68 - PC Productivity
WinProbe, let's get jokes about the name out of the way, had a handle on the box.
Page 69 - PC Productivity
Kids today wouldn't understand how file search used to be a separate product. Except file search on Windows, MacOS, and Android is back to being to a miserable experience. Like how in Windows you try to search for a file and it shows you random web sites, which I suspect are sponsored, instead. I think we need to bring this back.
Page 70 - PC Sound
I feel like computer speaker design peaked around this time.
Page 70 - PC Accessories
I'm kind of curious what they blacked-out on that one fax modem box.
Back cover
This might be my favorite artwork in any of these old catalogs.
Bargains
If I found a warehouse filled with that video game center I would clear it out.
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