Zork Nemesis
by Infocom
(Large promotional store display box)
Ah, my Zork Nemesis promotional store display box!
(Side-by-side comparison with an actual game box.)
This is one of those oversized versions of the game package, sent to retailers to display before and during the title's shelf life, then either sent back or discarded. (I got different answers depending on where and whom I asked.)
I had the damnedest time acquiring this. After trying and failing to get one from local shops (two promised to hold it for me and then didn't), I chanced upon one in a used computer and software store in the Chicago area that TomMage and I always hit. Problem was, the guy who runs it is a total cornflake and decided he'd rather have it sitting on a shelf gathering dust than make some money selling to a collector who'd really appreciate it, but he said find something else to occupy its shelf and maybe he'd trade it. (This guy's notorious for keeping older titles he thinks are neat on a shelf behind the counter and sometimes saying they're not for sale, or sometimes maybe he'll consider it, but then he always wants way too much.)
So after multiple attempts to get a couple from a Babbage's or Electronics Boutique with the same results (they never saved any for me, you just can't depend on store people for anything), Tom and I hit their sister store where I convinced the guy there to part with some of his for a few dollars. Took them back and, this time with both the Mage and Jim Leonard of MobyGames in tow, I was able to complete the trade... even though the guy already had those particular boxes, and one was a bit dented. Go figure. He's still got another Zork Nem, but it's all sun-faded from years of being left in a window.
There were most likely only a few thousand of these ever made, and most were either sent back to Activision or thrown out. I don't remember any similar boxes being displayed for Return to Zork or Grand Inquisitor.
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