I've been looking forward to posting this catalog for quite a while. I'm heavily biased in my opinion that 1995 was the greatest year for video gaming. The PlayStation vs Saturn battle was lopsided but resulted in some great titles. The launch of Windows 95 in August led to a deluge of new PC games. The Genesis and Super Nintendo were far from dead with some of their premiere titles appearing in 1995. The 32X, 3DO, Jaguar, and Sega CD were on their last breath but still getting a few interesting games.
As much as I enjoy this catalog I feel it doesn't completely capture the season. The Super Nintendo and Genesis were still strong sellers but only make guest appearances. I totally get that decision of course. The catalog masterminds at Electronics Boutique wanted to push the new & exciting products. So yes, despite having 100 pages to view there was still much more in stores this year.
Cover
This is a fun era for Electronics Boutique where it was equally viable to shop there for Microsoft Money and Madden '96.
Page 2 - Interplay
It says to ask associates about an 8 ball mouse. I have zero recollection of this existing. I'm glad no one asked.
Page 3 - Interplay
The Stonekeep box was the scourge of Electronics Boutique employees.
Page 4 - CD-ROM
The BrainDead 13 box also didn't fit on shelves very well.
Page 5 - Sierra
Shivers is a super under appreciated game. There aren't any easy options for playing it today.
Page 6 - CD-ROM
One of these cube bundles says "No decompressed files." and the other says "No decompressing files." I suspect the latter is what they meant for both.
Page 7 - CD-ROM
The weirdest thing (to me) about the Beavis and Butthead game is that it has a PlayStation port in Japan but not the US.
Page 8 - CD-ROM
I didn't intend for this to be a diatribe about the most difficult boxes to fit on store shelves in 1995 but... Star Trek the Next Generation is in the top 10.
Page 9 - Mostly Maxis
Based purely off personal recollection, SimCity 2000 was one of the top selling PC games this season. I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was first.
Page 10 - Mostly Activision
MechWarrior also sold very well. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure and Earthworm Jim did alright on consoles but I don't recall the PC versions selling much.
Page 11 - CD-ROM
I forgot how big the Star Trek revival was then, here are two non-games.
Page 12 - CD-ROM
So far Druid is in the lead for worst box art in this catalog.
Page 13 - CD-ROM
That Melrose Place CD, with its disjointed collection of content, was hardly an anomaly at the time.
Page 15 - CD-ROM
Odd assortment of FMV and sports games on this page.
Page 16 - CD-ROM
All those [insert character]!Zone boxes are so tacky yet so awesome.
Page 17 - CD-ROM
We ran a promo tape for the 11th Hour like all day for weeks. The main reason is because it was long and not repetitive.
Page 18 - CD-ROM
The Myst screen saver was at some point sold as a separate item. It's just wallpaper images from the game. A play-through would have been neat.
Page 19 - CD-ROM
The game groupings grow more random as this section goes on.
Page 20 - CD-ROM
Oh, so Attack Stack contains the shareware version of Doom.
Page 21 - CD-ROM
Yeah, episode IV of Doom is much more difficult than the original three.
Page 22 - CD-ROM
I don't know if there are any good Mortal Kombat knock-offs, but Expect No Mercy is a contender for the worst.
Page 23 - CD-ROM
Now we're really getting into random selections. There are seven titles on this page and they are all different genres. These are all published by Mindscape so there's at least some logic.
Page 24 - CD-ROM
While this page has games from three different publishers.
Page 25 - CD-ROM
This is IBM published games and a Star Wars non-game.
Page 26 - CD-ROM
These are mostly games that play better on a console.
Page 27 - Edutainment
There are 8 pages in the section and I'm fairly certain nobody will ever look at them.
Page 28 - Edutainment
Like is there anyone nostalgic for old SAT prep software?
Page 29 - Edutainment
The first four things on this page I remember more from my brief time working at a Super Crown.
Page 30 - Edutainment
I don't know why or how but I own a copy of Grammar Rock today.
Page 31 - Edutainment
This line of software sold well for the genre.
Page 32 - Edutainment
We are beginning to seriously stretch the definition of "Edutainment" here.
Page 33 - Edutainment
The kids on these box covers are at least 40 now.
Page 34 - Edutainment
All that Disney stuff would later be replaced by free Flash games then nothing.
Page 35 - Windows 95 Utilities
I don't know what kind of grudge Microsoft had against Norton, but everything in Navigator and Utilities would be replicated in Windows before long.
Page 36 - Microsoft
They really put out some good stuff around this time.
Page 37 - Microsoft
This is a good era for Microsoft packing, the cloud theme looked nice and made it clear which applications were for Windows 95.
Page 38 - Windows Utilities
RAM prices must have been bonkers in 1995 for there to be three different software products trying to increase RAM.
Page 39 - Productivity
Some day I'll have to tell the story of how I came to work on a Delphi application in 2016. Yes, 2016, so very long after it was relevant.
Page 40 - Productivity
We were given free promo copies of PowerDesk. I can't tell you a single thing it actually did.
Page 41 - Productivity
Former software store employees should start a class action suit over the lifetime of back pain caused by the Corel DRAW! boxes.
Page 42 - Productivity
I used WordPerfect pretty much all the way through college. I can't recall now if it was free or heavily discounted.
Page 43 - Quicken
We're getting into another block of pages no one will read.
Page 44 - Financial
There are video games coming up soon, good ones, I promise.
Page 45 - Productivity
PlayStation, Saturn, all that stuff you care about will be here if you keep scrolling.
Page 46 - Reference
I post all kinds of weird deep dive articles here. From time to time I think about going into one of these and always talk myself out of it.
Page 47 - Productivity
The Visual C++ Starter Kit contains a full version of Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0, which was obsolete. Even more obsolete if it was the 16-bit version.
Page 48 - Softkey
You can thank all these budget Softkey titles for the existence of the TV show Shark Tank.
Page 49 - Productivity
If there's anything in this section to feel nostalgic about it's After Dark.
Page 50 - Productivity
Although digital cookbooks without 100+ pages about the author's life before each recipe is worth being nostalgic about too.
Page 51 - Productivity
I still have the free Weizen style glass the folks at Beer Hunter sent our store as a promo item. Maybe we were supposed to give it away to someone who bought it? Also, no, not that Michael Jackson.
Page 52 - Productivity
I was hopeful that The Improv Presents Windows 95 might have one future star in it. That does not appear to be the case. As of right now there is a rip of it here.
Page 53 - Productivity
If I was the catalog editor I would scrap this page and move everything to the correct genre.
Page 54 - Productivity
Jukebox Top 10 Hits is the "ultimate stocking stuffer"? What kind of giant stockings do they think people are hanging?
Page 55 - Grolier
I'm skeptical that Terror T.R.A.X. Vampire was published by Grolier.
Page 56 - Productivity
It's so wild that these massive collections of personal information were (and still are) legal. I'm talking about in the US of course.
Page 57 - Accessories
Electronics Boutique sold RAM for a while but I don't see it in this catalog. This supports my theory it was crazy expensive in 1995.
Page 58 - Accessories
The internet is very young and already people are worried about blocking x-rated sites. Whenever someone with younger kids asks what I did to block x-rated sites my go to is "so you'd prefer if they watched that at a friend's house?" The best outcome is they become experts at hacking the software you are using.
Page 59 - Accessories
These boxes are huge but very light. It's a tactic to make you think there is way more in them. For example, none of the bundled games came with boxes, CDs in envelopes only.
Page 60 - Books and Accessories
I dunno, EasyBall looks like something I would use today.
Page 61 - Accessories
The guy on the TV for PC box looks so psyched to use it.
Page 62 - Books
I have a minor hoarding problem when it comes to books about Doom.
Page 63 - Books
This is the end of the PC section. At this point video game constituted most of the store sales but PC stuff got over 60% of the catalog.
Page 64 - Sony PlayStation
Having worked both launches, and this xmas season, I assure you the competition between the PlayStation and Saturn was never close.
Page 65 - Sony PlayStation
I think we can all agree that the long box is superior to the jewel case even if a little more difficult to store.
Page 66 - Sony PlayStation
Ridge Racer was a launch game that I think clearly showed the PlayStation was going to win this round of the console wars.
Page 67 - Sony PlayStation
Lemmings is kind of the most out of place game here. Nothing against it, just an odd thing to port to PlayStation.
Page 68 - Sony PlayStation
Destruction Derby is my favorite of the PlayStation launch lineup.
Page 69 - Sony PlayStation
Some very good alternatives to the EA Sports games.
Page 70 - Sony PlayStation
Someone in our store made a promo tape of Twisted Metal, sort of. They connected a PlayStation to a VHS recorder and filled a tape of random footage. That sold more games than promo tapes from actual vendors.
Page 71 - Squaresoft
Here are three Super Nintendo games going for almost $70 each. Although I think they were actually down to $50 by the time this catalog was out.
Page 72 - Sega Saturn
The Saturn only gets one page in this catalog. This is the first holiday season for the Saturn, not a good omen.
Page 73 - Sega CD and 32X
The Sega CD was effectively a dead system at this point. There were not going to be any new games. The 32X had a new release in 1996 but would be cleared out very soon.
Page 74 - Studio 3DO
Rumors of the M2 persisted, we even had a very short promo tape, but the 3DO company was quietly pivoting to being a game publisher.
Page 75 - Studio 3DO
I heard PO'ed is OK but I haven't tried it.
Page 76 - Electronic Arts
The 16-bit games were in maintenance mode here but still sold very well.
Page 77 - Electronic Arts
The 3DO version of Road Rash doesn't even get a mention.
Page 78 - Jaguar has to share a page with Magic The Gathering
This is actually not the last appearance of the Jaguar in one of these catalogs. It would get about the same amount of space in the spring 1996 one.
Page 79 - Jaguar games
Here's what the final days of the Jaguar looked like. The Jaguar Doom port is very good at least.
Page 80 - Sega Genesis
The late Genesis library had some very good games. Also you could trade-in 10 Genesis games to get a free Genesis, we weren't going to ask for your backstory.
Page 81 - Nintendo
I'd say the same about the Super Nintendo, there were still several great games for it after the PlayStation launch.
Page 82 - Video games
Dang, $50 for the 3DO light gun.
Page 83 - 3DO
I think the most absurd thing in this catalog is that after the PlayStation launched at $299 they still kept the 3DO at the same price.
Page 84 - Video games
The 3DO version of Wolfenstein 3D is stupid expensive to buy now.
Page 85 - Video games
Two different Cowboys players had their own branded games.
Page 86 - Acclaim
"Based on the holiday season's swashbuckling movie blockbuster" - I thought Cutthroat Island set a record for biggest box office loss ever at the time? Then again, these catalogs are written in advance.
Page 87 - Acclaim
WrestleMania: The Arcade Game is still a lot of fun.
Page 88 - Video games
The last few pages are roughly grouped by publisher rather than system.
Page 89 - Video games
There are too many things going on in the title of Off-World Intercepter Extreme.
Page 90 - Video games
P.T.O. II also had a Saturn version but it must not have been released by now.
Page 91 - Video games
It's so confusing how the Saturn version of Virtua Racing was actually called Time Warner Interactive's VR Virtua Racing. That name is so awful.
Page 92 - Video games
Someone will find the listing for Virtual Hydlide interesting.
Page 93 - Game Gear
The Game Gear at least gets a full page. It does better than the Game Boy in this catalog.
Page 94 - Trading Cards
I don't know why they put some Magic cards here and some in the Jaguar section. Those cards sold like crazy at our store through.
Page 95 - Accessories
The PlayStation RFU adaptor would sell out about 5 seconds after opening on December 26.
Page 96 - Accessories
Outside of Bomberman, I can't think of any Saturn games that supported 12 players. That would be wild in a football game.
Page 97 - Books
More like the off-brand hint books section.
Page 98 - Accessories
I don't know how many TVs were broken by the Batter Up. I suspect it's equal to the number that were sold.
Page 99 - Accessories
This is the total junk page.
Back cover
About once a year I check if eboutique.com is available.
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