Non-Game Items
by Infocom
(Poster - Activision game library)
Writing to Activision and expressing an interest in their product line
in the early to mid-1990s got you a promo kit containing their current
catalogs, glossies of some of their full-page magazine ads, and other
goodies. The most interesting of these items was a large fold-out
poster showing both released and soon-to-be-released titles, several
of which, as it turns out, were never to be released.
Please keep in mind that I don't actually own these packages: The scans
you see below came off the poster, and I'm including them here as a bit
of obscure history. It's doubtful any of these actually exist beyond
the original workup cover art.
This is the early mockup box art for Zork Nemesis. Kind of plain
compared to the cool Zorkian symbols on the finished package. Notice
Activision mentions both IBM CD-ROM and just plain "IBM" releases. If
they were in fact planning to release Zork Nem on 3.5" floppies
as well, this must have been a very early ad, as the final game ended
up occupying three CDs.
Activision's infamous Planetfall game, better known as Planetfall
2: The Search for Floyd (yes, "Planetfall 2", even though Stationfall
was already a sequel). It was never released, but here's the prototype cover.
Some versions of either the Return to Zork or Zork Anthology
CD-ROM (I forget which) have a demo of the actual game.
That's Activision's vision of Floyd hanging from your character's ankle.
This is also listed as coming soon for "IBM and IBM CD-ROM". (Activision
was really fighting the move to CD-only games, weren't they? Remember
the billions and billions of disks that came with Leather Goddesses
of Phobos 2 and the non-CD version of Return to Zork?)
Last I checked, Activision was still denying any knowledge of why the
project was killed. Personally, I suspect the thing turned out a big
bloated sucky mess like LGoP2 and Activision, rather than release
another bomb, took the loss and quietly swept it under the rug, hoping
we'd all forget. Steve Meretzky,
you out there, bud? We'd appreciate hearing the Shocking True Story (TM).
Here's an odd one, an early cover for the game that would eventually
become Spycraft. Seems Activision had plans originally to publish
it under the Infocom label!
Copyright © 2000 - 2024 Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe. All rights reserved.
(Best viewed at 800 x 600.)