Game Compilations

[linkster]

I borrowed 4.95 to buy Soft Aid in 1985

[stevosowl]

On the C64 that was good....very good. But being a Speccy Owner at the time, Thalamus games were pretty poor compared to the amazing Commie versions.

i had a compilation with

spy hunter

tapper

buck rogers

zaxon

was fantastic on the spectrum

[gone fishin]

There was a compilation for the C64 called 5 Star Games. It had Scarabeus, Batalyx, Spindizzy, Zoids and Equinox on it.

Now that's a great compilation.

Beau Jolly did some great compilations (the Supreme Challenge one, I mentioned previously, being one of them), although they only seemed to do compilations, nothing else. (20 Chart Busters, a compilation of re-released budget titles, or original budget titles was another favourite of mine- Park Patrol was absolutely fantastic).

Anyway, it's a shame that there's no console equivalent. There's plenty of games that just don't get the sales/recognition they deserve at full price and sometimes it's because they just don't warrant a full price. But part of a compilation, then they really could be enjoyed.

I was thinking of the whole logistics point of filling games on a DVD- how much does it really cost to produce a disc? It must be pretty fractional, in the bigger scheme of things. With most games not even taking up a single layer DVD, they could easily stick 4 or 5 on 2 DVDs.

It does seem quite strange that once a game has been released, and had it's initial sales surge, there really aren't that many ways to make more money from that game. There's basically little in terms of "budget" labels and there's no compilations (well, almost none). It's just strange that the publishers don't try and look for more ways to get more revenue out of "dead" titles, be that in budget re-releases or compilations.

[gone fishin]

i had a compilation with

spy hunter

tapper

buck rogers

zaxon

was fantastic on the spectrum

The Sega Collection? I never quite got it why Spy Hunter and Tapper had "Official Sega Arcade" stamps on them, when they weren't even made by Sega!!! But great collection.

[Asura]

It does seem quite strange that once a game has been released, and had it's initial sales surge, there really aren't that many ways to make more money from that game. There's basically little in terms of "budget" labels and there's no compilations (well, almost none). It's just strange that the publishers don't try and look for more ways to get more revenue out of "dead" titles, be that in budget re-releases or compilations.

As I said in the retro folder when a forumite was asking why Sega don't do more Dreamcast and Saturn re-releases, there's a simple answer to this - it just must not be financially sound. What I mean is every publisher will have a team that investigates this thing every quarter, looking at whether now is the right time for an XBLA Crazy Taxi, or a PSN version of Power Stone.

Publishers are in business to make money. No-one sits over at THQ, Capcom or EA saying "how do we not make money this week?". Also, if they can do it, they want to please their fans (because that's good business too as long as it's financially sound), and re-releases of older titles will do that.

What I'm saying is the reason we don't have Power Stone Collection on XBLA can only be because of either a crippling legal issue or because investigations have been carried out that have revealed that, sadly, it just won't make money.

[stevosowl]

The Sega Collection? I never quite got it why Spy Hunter and Tapper had "Official Sega Arcade" stamps on them, when they weren't even made by Sega!!! But great collection.

thats the one

i got it in a pack with a protek joystick [QS2 clone] and a swtichable interface

i still play those 4 spectrum games even now 20 years later, talk about value for money!

[Gabe]

As I said in the retro folder when a forumite was asking why Sega don't do more Dreamcast and Saturn re-releases, there's a simple answer to this - it just must not be financially sound. What I mean is every publisher will have a team that investigates this thing every quarter, looking at whether now is the right time for an XBLA Crazy Taxi, or a PSN version of Power Stone.

Publishers are in business to make money. No-one sits over at THQ, Capcom or EA saying "how do we not make money this week?". Also, if they can do it, they want to please their fans (because that's good business too as long as it's financially sound), and re-releases of older titles will do that.

What I'm saying is the reason we don't have Power Stone Collection on XBLA can only be because of either a crippling legal issue or because investigations have been carried out that have revealed that, sadly, it just won't make money.

So what I already said then.

Compilations would have been easier to do back in the day because teams would have (largely) been in-house employees, rather than separate studios working for a range of companies - plus ownership would have more than likely (again) belonged to companies rather than individuals/teams.

[gone fishin]

As I said in the retro folder when a forumite was asking why Sega don't do more Dreamcast and Saturn re-releases, there's a simple answer to this - it just must not be financially sound. What I mean is every publisher will have a team that investigates this thing every quarter, looking at whether now is the right time for an XBLA Crazy Taxi, or a PSN version of Power Stone.

Publishers are in business to make money. No-one sits over at THQ, Capcom or EA saying "how do we not make money this week?". Also, if they can do it, they want to please their fans (because that's good business too as long as it's financially sound), and re-releases of older titles will do that.

What I'm saying is the reason we don't have Power Stone Collection on XBLA can only be because of either a crippling legal issue or because investigations have been carried out that have revealed that, sadly, it just won't make money.

I don't mean re-releases of pre-current generation games (maybe like the original post), there is the argument that you can re-release titles on VC for the Wii, but I was meaning re-releasing games for this generation. Sony have the Platinum range, but Nintendo seem to have dropped the "Gamers Choice" range (or whatever it was called on the Wii). However, I did read that they're kind of bringing it back in Japan.

Take, for example, Muramasa on the Wii- the sales will eventually tail off after only maybe getting about 250k sales. Now, in order to try and get more sales from that title the publisher could a) re-release it at budget (with some marketing push) or B) put it in a compilation -say with other Rising Star games like Little Kings Story or Harvest Moon. But the current model means that because there aren't those options, the title will just sell in tiny dribs and drabs, maybe another 20k in it's lifetime. If it were in the above compilation, I would bet that they would get much more sales from people who would want 1 of the titles and would see the other 2 as a bonus. And they may actually prefer those games!

There are some games, mostly by Nintendo, that will keep on selling 1-2 years after release- but those titles are few and far between. I'm surprised that some of the other publishers haven't tried something to extend sales- like compilations. Unless Nintendo are quite restrictive on releasing compilations, of course.

[JohnC]

Beau Jolly did some great compilations (the Supreme Challenge one, I mentioned previously, being one of them), although they only seemed to do compilations, nothing else. (20 Chart Busters, a compilation of re-released budget titles, or original budget titles was another favourite of mine- Park Patrol was absolutely fantastic).

I had a C64 compilation with 20 or 30 games in a big box. I was racking my brain trying to remember what exactly it was, to no avail, and I'm pretty certain it was a Beau Jolly pack.

[Asura]

So what I already said then.

Kind of, yes - just not purely due to licensing issues - it may just be that the publisher's research has revealed that even if that's not too much of an issue, the proposed compilation product would not sell.

[Dimahoo]

On the C64 I had one that had James Bond's - License to Kill on it (i think every C64 comp had that) \

- plus that Elite 4 pack they did with BJ, Paperboy, Frank Bruno and GnG (i think).

Its a real shame the Codies, Firebird, Powerhaus, Players and Bulldog didn't do some budget ones. They frankly ruled my C64 life in its dying days.

[George Clooney]

God this brings back memories. I guess part of the reason you dont see this that much anymore is that at the time, they tended to be games that cost at the most a tenner, and would be in a compilation for about 15 quid, with half the games being budget ones that you could get for a couple of quid. At least on the spectrum anyway. My favourite one was an Ultimate Play The Game one which I got dead cheap as an offer for joining this mail order games "club". I loved this thing and wish I still had it. Hell, I wish I never got rid of all my spectrum stuff now, even though I have no room for it, and wanted a snes at the time.

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...lectedWorks.jpg

I think most of my spectrum game collection (400+, all originals!) were either budget releases or on a compilation. Some top ones I had;

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...ions/BizThe.jpg

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...mCollection.jpg

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...heelsOfFire.jpg

I like how in the last advert, each car's license plate it the name of the games publisher. Although it was more common to simply have a compilation done by a single publisher featuring their own games. I never bought Oceans games at full price purely because I knew at some point they would be released as on a compilation. Its surprising how many names I can remember that arent around any more. Names like U.S. Gold and Ocean were huge at the time, virtually every decent arcade hit or film title went through them. I may have to look up what happened to them one day.

As for now, I still see the odd package, but it seems to happen less and less. There were a bunch of triple packs released on PS2 and Xbox, but I cant remember what was in them, just when I was working at game they didnt sell that great. Same with the ones I can remember on PS1, they generally sold as part of the deals on consoles because they were dirt cheap. I guess with the lower end of games now being around the 15-20 quid area (yes I know you can get them for less though) most publishers would rather do that than clog up the shelves with 3-4 game packs that would either make less money, or not sell.

EDIT; For some reason the pics I am trying to link to arent working, havent got time to sort it out now, but will just post the link for now.

[The Liberal Elite]

Jesus, I'm sure that the Wheels on Fire compilation was the only way you could buy the absolutely piss poor c64 version of Hard Drivin'.

Thalamus collection 'ftw', as they say.

[gone fishin]

I had a C64 compilation with 20 or 30 games in a big box. I was racking my brain trying to remember what exactly it was, to no avail, and I'm pretty certain it was a Beau Jolly pack.

Lol- are you not thinking of the Beau Jolly compilation Big Box? It was 30 Activision games... in a big box!

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...ions/BigBox.jpg

"30 Amazing Games In One Big Box"

Some good games on that- Barry McGuigan, Knightmare, Park Patrol...

Or it could have been "30 Red Hot Hits" which was Chartbusters plus some others. And a photo of a giant fist.

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...tHits_Front.jpg

Bring back compilations!!!!

[gone fishin]

I never bought Oceans games at full price purely because I knew at some point they would be released as on a compilation.

Its surprising how many names I can remember that arent around any more. Names like U.S. Gold and Ocean were huge at the time, virtually every decent arcade hit or film title went through them. I may have to look up what happened to them one day.

That might be part of the problem, and why publishers are a bit hesitant to do compilations now. A lot of people could potentially hold off buying a new game, knowing it will come out in a compilation or on budget. But it's really no different to cheap bastards like me who wait for a title to be reduced in price, anyway!

Oh... don't read about US Gold and Ocean... it's pretty soul destroying to read what happened to them US Gold = Eidos (and eventually Square Enix) and Ocean.. well, they were bought out by Infogrames and then turned to Atari. And then disappeared. Kind of sums up the UK games publishing situation, really.

[trickytree]

Codemasters did a 30 game compilation for the Spectrum on CD-ROM

There should be a modern equivalent - perhaps 30 PS3/360 games released on USB SSD.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Wouldn't it be nice to see a compilation pack with all Mario games into one or zelda or Metroid (with Metroid GBA, GB, SNES, Wii into one) and more. and perhaps Final Fantasy Pack with 1 - 12 into one boxset for PS3 or whatever.

It is a shame

[JohnC]

Lol- are you not thinking of the Beau Jolly compilation Big Box? It was 30 Activision games... in a big box!

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclai...ions/BigBox.jpg

"30 Amazing Games In One Big Box"

That was it! Hacker was a source of frustration. I had the game solution figured out, I just could never get it all done before the time limit ran out.

[Asura]

perhaps Final Fantasy Pack with 1 - 12 into one boxset for PS3 or whatever.

This has made me think, perhaps one of the reasons we see fewer of these packs today is that often, each game we play will be a more compartmentalised experience. For example, when I played through Mirror's Edge, I played it pretty much end-to-end over a two week period without playing much else, apart from non-story-based stuff like Street Fighter II HDR.

Thinking back, many of these packages had arcadey games on; racing games, platformers, 2D shooters - stuff that you expect to play in bursts, one after the other.

A collection of Final Fantasy games, 1-12, on one disc, would be useless for me as I know that I'm never going to play them all. NEVER. By which I mean that I long ago accepted that, one day, I'm going to be dead, and all the matter in the galaxy will coalesce into one pinpoint again in the Big Crunch - and when that time comes, in trillions of years, I still will not have played all of the Final Fantasy games - but an HD rework of Final Fantasy VII or XII? That I would pay for.

Conversely, stick a compilation of Outrun 2, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Cop 1&2 and GunBlade together on the Wii and I'd be on that like flies on shit.

I'm actually still really surprised that there isn't a collection of Virtua Cop 1, 2, 3 and maybe Confidential Mission on the Wii as it is - perhaps the House of the Dead collection performed badly (though I didn't buy that purely because House of the Dead 1 wasn't on it - I'd much have preferred 1 and 2 over 2 and 3.).

[Qazimod]

Hmm, you could easily stick a few more card-holders in the mould of your average DS game box; how about a Phoenix Wright collection? I was going to suggest a full-blown Ace Attorney collection, but there's no telling whether there will be further Apollo Justice games, and then there's the Ace Attorney Investigations series to consider...

[Troublegum]

Hmm, you could easily stick a few more card-holders in the mould of your average DS game box; how about a Phoenix Wright collection? I was going to suggest a full-blown Ace Attorney collection, but there's no telling whether there will be further Apollo Justice games, and then there's the Ace Attorney Investigations series to consider...

Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to put them on one card or is there a size limit on DS cards?

[Asura]

Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to put them on one card or is there a size limit on DS cards?

It may well be that putting them on one card requires that you first have to edit the game, creating a menu system etc. to choose from them, and then secondly, whilst you could make cards big enough to have them all on, the economy of scale means 1 large card does not necessarily cost the price of 1 small card x4.

4 small carts could just be identical to the ones they sell individually now, just in one box.

[Gabe]

This has made me think, perhaps one of the reasons we see fewer of these packs today is that often, each game we play will be a more compartmentalised experience. For example, when I played through Mirror's Edge, I played it pretty much end-to-end over a two week period without playing much else, apart from non-story-based stuff like Street Fighter II HDR.

Thinking back, many of these packages had arcadey games on; racing games, platformers, 2D shooters - stuff that you expect to play in bursts, one after the other.

I don't really think that's a reason, though I understand what you are saying. Using FF (or any RPG series for that matter) isn't really a good example, because I'm not sure there has ever been a collection of RPGs, has there? Game length would certainly be a reason for that, you would think.

But in terms of the other genres, the biggest reason is probably that it the compilation model has never really been a console-thing, has it? All these great collections are computer-based, I don't really recall it ever being a thing on consoles (where you have to pay the platform-holder for every copy that is duplicated for starters). You would think there is even less incentive now, what with XBL's Games-on-Demand releasing early-gen games (though the prices are awful).

[Ketchup]

The games industry should really follow the DVD and music industry. Where are the double and triple packs of games? When gears of war 2 came out why didn't they release a gears of war 1 and 2 double pack at the same time? The industry moans that second hand games are taking all their money, yet when the sequels come out the only way to buy the originals is second hand. It'd probably cost a couple of quid to put an extra dvd and manual in the box, no reason that can't add an extra £10 to £15 though to a double or tripple box set.

[Unofficial Who]

On the C64 that was good....very good. But being a Speccy Owner at the time, Thalamus games were pretty poor compared to the amazing Commie versions.

I always thought Supreme Challenge may be one of the greatest compilations ever...

It was a great example of the 8bit home computer era- Elite, Sentinel, Tetris, Starglider and.... erm, Ace II!!! Well, apart from Ace II it was an amazing compilation.

So good I wanted to ditch going to the school formal to play the copy I'd picked up.

In retrospect a night of Elite would have been far better than the formal.

[Unofficial Who]

Hmm, you could easily stick a few more card-holders in the mould of your average DS game box; how about a Phoenix Wright collection? I was going to suggest a full-blown Ace Attorney collection, but there's no telling whether there will be further Apollo Justice games, and then there's the Ace Attorney Investigations series to consider...

Wasn't the first Phoenix Wright game a compliation of the seperate GBA games with a new DS specific case at the end?

[masterhand]

It may well be that putting them on one card requires that you first have to edit the game, creating a menu system etc. to choose from them, and then secondly, whilst you could make cards big enough to have them all on, the economy of scale means 1 large card does not necessarily cost the price of 1 small card x4.

4 small carts could just be identical to the ones they sell individually now, just in one box.

Don't forget that you are saving on packaging and parts of 4 cards. I think it could be cheaper. for example. What's the price of a big SD card now?

[Qazimod]

Wasn't the first Phoenix Wright game a compliation of the seperate GBA games with a new DS specific case at the end?

Each DS Wright game has been a localisation of a respective GBA Gyakuten Saiban game, if I'm not mistaken, so Gyakuten Saiban 1 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (plus the bonus case you mention); Gyakuten Saiban 2 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All, Gyakuten Saiban 3 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations...

[Unofficial Who]

Each DS Wright game has been a localisation of a respective GBA Gyakuten Saiban game, if I'm not mistaken, so Gyakuten Saiban 1 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (plus the bonus case you mention); Gyakuten Saiban 2 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All, Gyakuten Saiban 3 = Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations...

Ah, my mistake. Wish they had released the third game here though.

[Qazimod]

Hate to have to point out another mistake, but Gyakuten Saiban 3/Phoenix Wright 3 was eventually released in the UK (god knows why it took so long!) Even though I imported it originally I still bought it again because it didn't sit right with my fat western boxes; for shame...