Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog

Hey look at that, it's another Electronics Boutique catalog from 1992. I'm light on commentary this time around because August 1992 was a few months before I started worked there. Check out My Loser Phase if you want my semi-organized thoughts about the late months of 1992 in video games.

As usual I find the oddities most interesting. If I recall correctly, the "Cheap Pete" character was based on someone from home office. It felt like an attempt to capture the success of Howard Philips. His deals weren't that great and the character was quietly buried. No idea what happened to the real person behind it. I'm going to go with "probably laid off during the GameStop merger and retired in the early 2010s after bouncing around a few other retailers".

I'll also take a moment to answer a FAQ - if you want higher-res versions of these for some reason please contact me (use one of the things on the Connect menu). No guarantees because it's a pain to share them. I'm not posting the 5000x7000 versions publicly unless someone buys me more storage and bandwidth. This is usually the point where someone tells me "hey I use this $5 a month web host that has unlimited storage and bandwidth" - that person needs to learn how to read terms & conditions. I had one of those too. One link from Kotaku or Reddit to a page filled with scans caused my site to be taken down multiple times.

Anyway, enough rambling - let's enjoy the golden era of gaming that was the summer of 1992.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - front cover

Usually these scans are shared on articles like "derr look how expense consoles were after inflation" - go ahead and look it up, $99 in 1992 is a great deal compared to other consoles at the same relative age in their cycle.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 2

That's right, there were Olympics in 1992 so we get another round of button mashing games based on them. U.S. Gold was a good developer but it's hard source material to work with. Olympic Gold looked nice for its time but wasn't really all that fun to play.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 3

OK, you have my permission to poke fun at the price of Warriors of the Eternal Sun. It wasn't $70 for long as I recall, but never cheap either. It was a pretty good D&D game, maybe the best on a 16-bit console, but I can't say it was worth the price.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 4

I have a sealed Genestick in my collection. It's like my 100th backup Genesis controller at this point, one spot above the sealed Aviator 3 which may appear in a later catalog.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 5

Desert Strike was a new game in 1992 and I swear you could still find it on the shelves when the system was completely discontinued in 1998.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 6

I miss clear plastic controllers. This is one 90s fad that is due for a comeback - clear plastic all the things I say.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 7

The Super Nintendo has been out for almost a year now and these are mostly launch titles. Kind of a letdown, where's the new stuff?

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 8

Go ahead and laugh at Street Fighter II for $77.99 then remember that it was re-released in 2017 for $100, had a warning that it might set your Super Nintendo on fire, and y'all bought it anyway.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 9

Speaking of new controllers, I have a new asciiPad too. It was $5 at a Half Price Books, how could I say no? They made excellent controllers back then, at least as good as the originals.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 10

Here are the sad waning days of the TurboGrafx-16. The poor CD doesn't even get a mention despite having a couple very memorable releases in 1992.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 11

By comparison, the NES looked like a system still going strong. Just not on this page, keep going...

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 12

See, there's StarTropics. Some people claim to really like that game. I didn't get the appeal but whatever. Dr. Mario was fairly new at this time too. I didn't get the appeal of that at first either but later developed a horrible addiction to it. I don't think that will happen with StarTropics.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 13

I started at Electronics Boutique in the fall of 1992 and I'm 80% certain we didn't sell unlicensed games then. At some point I have to assume Nintendo sent our home office a note like "if you ever want another Super Nintendo in stock again you'll stop selling unlicensed games".

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 14

Looking back on this catalog, I think the Game Boy might be the clear "winner" in terms of having the best game selection.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 15

A Kid Icarus, Metroid, and Mario sequel all on the same system. We didn't get that again until the 3DS.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 16

I have some comical number of Game Gear games because I keep finding them cheap. I can't really get into the system though. Maybe if there was some kind of adapter to play it on the Genesis.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 17

Weird description on the battery pack. You can recharge it up to 300 times and it takes 8 hours to fully recharge. So I guess it lasts like a year if you were a really hardcore Game Gear player.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 18

Yeah, when I started a few months after this catalog was published the Lynx was long gone from our store. Like the Dreamcast, the Lynx is one of those systems that should have done better but the entire universe was aligned on making it fail.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 19

I wish 1992 me was smart enough to stash some $80 NES sets in a warehouse.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 20

I think Kablooey was down to $5 in a couple of months.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 21

Alright, you can also mock the Game Gear TV Tuner for $112. It was an awesome idea for the time, it really was, but that price sticker. I guess it was cheaper than a Sony Watchman, still not worth the price.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 22

1992, when selling disk compression software was still a viable business.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 23

Early CD-ROM titles were the worst rip-offs, publishers were completely shameless. The "Software Jukebox" is a collection of demos they scraped together in like 7 minutes. "Electronic Home Library" is a pile of whatever books were in public domain at the time.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 24

Also a viable business in 1992, selling a disk cache.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 25

There must have been 8,000 branded print kits released in this era.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 26

In the ~5 years I worked at Electronics Boutique I rang up roughly a thousand copies of Links 386. That's not even hyperbole.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 27

My brain is wired to always think of the AD&D Gold Box games as being from the 80s. That's a series I would be thrilled to see get a remake.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 28

That's right, 1992 was right around the peak of the Baseball Card Bubble so of course there was software to track the value of your collection.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 29

On the topic of get-rich-quick scams - lottery tracking software. Some people really have a hard time either understanding or accepting randomness.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 30

This is always the most painful section to try and comment on. Hmm, the couple on that diet software box must be pushing 80 now.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 31

You know what's pathetic? The word "Edutainment"is on my spellcheck exclusion list because of all the things like this I post. Also, what a Disney move to sell a proprietary sound system for their games.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 32

OK, I'll only re-use this joke one more time... also a viable business in 1992, selling maps on disk.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 33

Wait, can I re-use it just one more time for the family tree software?


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 34

Virtual Reality is now in it's 25th year of trying to be sold as a mainstream technology. Maybe it's just not going to happen.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 35

I suppose to anyone born after 1990-ish the idea of going into the equivalent of GameStop to buy a Windows upgrade would be difficult to understand.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 36

Alright let's get serious now people, this is business software we're talking about. Things like Norton Desktop which Windows already made totally obsolete by 1992.


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 37

..and here we have more disk compression and cache software.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 38

The Flightstick is another thing I must have rung up over a thousand times. The Gemini Joystick, exactly zero. You have no idea how badly I want one of those Elbo mascot mousepads.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - page 39

Soundblater Pro Basic is very weird name, which one is it?


Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - back cover

I don't understand the rules of this board game.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - mail order 1

Also for anyone born after 1990-ish - this is how the world worked before Amazon.

Electronics Boutique August 1992 Catalog - mail order 2

Hey, thanks for sticking this one through to the end.



Related