Feelies: Difference between revisions

[[File:lurkinghorrorfeelies02 9462.png|link=Infocom|frame|Along with the game disk, you get an orientation guide, an ID card, and... '''[[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|GAAA]][[Nightmare Fuel|HHHH!!!]]''']]

 

 

Software today tends to come with little more than a disc and a "quick install guide"—often there won't even be a CD jewel case, and sometimes the only thing you get is a file downloaded from the Internet. Yet in those halcyon golden days, things were very, very different. The absolute minimum you could expect with a game was a [[All There in the Manual|printed manual]], often a thick tome containing instructions, backstory, and even hints.

 

 

Nowadays, game publishers sometimes make [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition|"collector's editions"]] of certain games, which usually means that if one pays extra for the game one gets various feelies and supplemental materials included with the purchase.

 

{{examples}}

 

* The NES game ''[[StarTropics]]'' included a letter from the main character's uncle. To get past a certain point in the game, a player needed to dunk the letter in water to get a secret code. Enough players lost the letter or bought the game secondhand that the code ({{spoiler|747}}) was even printed in an issue of Nintendo Power. The [[Virtual Console]] release includes a digital version of the letter that you can click with the Wiimote to "dunk" it in a bucket of water and reveal the code.

* ''[[Kid Icarus|Kid Icarus: Uprising]]'' comes with a 3DS stand and with six trading/AR cards.

 

 

* ''Shadow of the Comet'' had a envelope which contained some of Bolskines letters and a report from the mental institution he was committed to, detailing his mental health decline.

** However, it was fellow Infocom production ''Deadline'' that actually started the tradition. ''Deadline'', a police drama text adventure, packaged a LONG list of items with the game including a police folder, an inspector's casebook, a bag with three (plastic) pills, notes from police interrogations, coroner's notes from the "victim", an official memo from an in-game officer, a lab report of a piece of evidence in-game, and finally, a photo of the crime scene, complete with chalk outline.

*** The "pills", of course, turned out to actually be candies similar to SweeTarts, for anyone brave enough to try them.

** Infocom's adaptation of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' included peril-sensitive (read: opaque) sunglasses, a packaged microscopic space fleet, lint, a "Don't Panic" badge, demolition orders for your [http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/hhgttg/order-yellow.jpg home] and [http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/hhgttg/order-silver.jpg planet], and no tea. Also no small towel; Infocom did its audience the honor of assuming they already knew where their towel was.

*** The text of the second demolition order is pretty much the same as the first, run through a simple substitution cipher, but with a few amusing differences. Anyone got a bar code scanner to check out what names are signed?

* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure|Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade]]'' came packaged with a hard-paper Grail Diary. The very detailed 63-page booklet contains Henry's field research about the Grail and doubles as a subtle [[Copy Protection]] method, as the in-game information and metapuzzles resort to it. The high quality of the book made it look like a collector’s item and some editors didn't realize the booklet was not a cosmetic addition so it was not included in any form in some versions. [http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/07/grail-diary/ Wired] wrote an article praising the quality of this feelie. The Steam version fortunately included it in a PDF file

 

 

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' video games tend to come with actual promo cards.

 

 

* The Japanese version of ''[[Gran Turismo]] 4'' features a 300-page book about cars, mechanics, and driving technique. Now guess how the manual is in the American release...

* ''[[Need for Speed]] Carbon'' also had a special edition of the game as well. This version has 4 cars that are not in the standard version of the game, along with 3 unique challenges, unique vinyls, and a second DVD that goes over how the game was made.

 

 

* The ''[[Carmen Sandiego]]'' games of years past often included special editions of commercial information manuals, such as the Fodor's travel guide, from which vital case info needed to be mined.

** The USA and World games came with ''The World Almanac and Book of Facts'', which made for quite a large package.

 

 

* The ''[[Halo 3]]'' Legendary Edition came with all the bonus features of the deluxe edition, plus a mock-up of Master Chief's helmet—though not a wearable one. Unless your head was slot shaped.

* ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'' came in a "Balls of Steel" edition which included a desktop-size bust of his Dukeness, as well as a pair of dice, poker chips, a deck of cards, a numbered certificate of authenticity, postcards, a foldable paper standee, a comic book, and an art booklet.

 

 

* Likewise, the "Big Box Version" of ''[[Civilization]] III'' comes with a Humongous (with capital H) 150-page gameplay manual tome; the [[Vanilla Edition]] features this same manual in a puny little Adobe PDF file.

* Illwinter's [[4X]] strategy game ''[[Dominions]] 3'' comes with a ''three hundred page'' spiral-bound manual, written in a personable and readable tone and including a complete spell grimoire. Yet it doesn't even come close to explaining everything...

 

 

* Inverted in the modern trend of including software games (or at least a code for an online game) with many otherwise substandard toys. Also, due to the small size of USB drives, the toy itself often serves as the software!

* Many video games based on toys come with an exclusive toy not seen in the normal toyline, such as [[Bakugan]], [[Beyblade]], [[Zoobles]], [[Lalaloopsy]], and even Zhu-Zhu Pets.

 

 

* ''[[Dofus]]'' is an MMORPG that can be downloaded for free, meaning there's usually no case or boxe available for Feelies. However, for their fifth birthday (and release of ''Dofus 2.0''), a Collector's Pack was released. This pack included: one DVD with links to download the update, one leather-map of the game, one exclusive OST disc, one foil card of their [[Trading Card Game]], one VIP-member card (giving acces to a specific house in game, a life-long reduction on their online shop, and other advantages yet to come), one month worth of subscribing to the game, and a limited-edition resina replica of the Ochre Dofus (a [[MacGuffin]] from the game), wich will never be sold again in the future. And that's not even counting some in-game advantages, like a complete exclusive panoply. For all the hardcore fans, it was US$30 very well spent!

* Every retail version of [[EverQuest]]'s expansion packs came with a cloth or paper map of the world of Norrath and the new area that the expansion focused on. The Planes of Power went one step further and featured a figurine of the game's mascot character, Firiona Vie.

 

 

* ''[[De Blob]]'' comes with refrigerator magnets. Seriously.

 

 

* Interplay's ''[[Lexi-Cross]]'' shipped with an "HV Guide" that contained fake program listings. If you were playing the game for the first time, you would be asked for the title of a program scheduled for a certain time and channel.

* ''[[Lemmings]] 2: The Tribes'' was packaged with a full-colour illustrated children's book detailing the adventures of Jimmy McLemming of the [[Bonnie Scotland|Highland Tribe]], travelling the island as he enlisted the other tribes' help in "the evacuation" i.e. you playing the game. There was also a fold-out chart of all the new lemming skills.

 

 

* Example of a collector's edition: The CE for ''Medieval: [[Total War]] II'' includes the following, in addition to the game itself: figurine in its own packaging, four high-quality artcards, "Making Of" documentary, soundtrack, game map

** A special Collector's Edition "Building Planner" poster

** Exclusive game packaging

** Blizzard is generally very good about this. The collector's edition of ''[[Warcraft]] III'' had lithographs featuring the four different box artworks; a thick manual signed by the games' designers; a DVD featuring the rendered cinematics from the game (as well as trailers and movies from previous Blizzard games); and a ''hardcover'' book containing concept art, high-quality screenshots, and backstory notes; and a music CD with the orchestral music from the game (though for some reason the cinematic music wasn't separated into individual tracks, but all in one suite); all packaged in a vinyl-covered slipcase. It was about $80 Canadian. Boo. Yah.

*** Even the standard edition of ''[[Warcraft]] III'' came with a hundred-page manual featuring concept art, detailed descriptions of every unit and a dozen pages of backstory for the entire setting.

*** The same can be found with ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' as the core game, ''Burning Crusade'', ''Wrath of the Lich King'', and ''Cataclysm'' had collectors editions with similar content to that given with Warcraft III. Wrath and Burning Crusade also included two decks for the [[Collectible Card Game]]. They all also included Virtual Feelies in the form of codes for Ingame pets.

** The ''[[Diablo]] II'' Battle Chest came with a similar set of goodies, including Diablo I.

* The first ''[[Homeworld]]'' game's manual is over one hundred pages long, describing in exhausting detail the society and politics of the planet the mothership comes from {{spoiler|which gets blown up in the third mission.}}

* The collector's edition of ''[[World in Conflict]]'' comes with an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall.

* ''[[Total Annihilation Kingdoms]]'' came with a complete foldout map of the world of Darien and a huge backstory in the manual.

* The preorder premium for ''Anno 1404'' was a bag of natural almonds. Seriously. Three years after you get tired of the game you can enjoy a nice nutty topping on your cereal. That's nice of the marketing department, isn't it?

* The Earth Universe Edition, published by German publisher Zuxxez, included all parts of the Earth game series (Earth 2140, 2150, The Moon Project, Lost Souls and 2160, including all patches up to that point, even community map packs), a T-Shirt, a leather organizer with matching pen (both of remarkable quality), a manual with almost 400 pages and a soundtrack CD. The price for the whole pack was around 15€.

 

 

* The manuals for the first two ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' games (the second moreso than the first) fall somewhat into this:

** The second is titled "Guitar Hero Magazine" and is set up like an actual rock magazine. The cover outlines articles such as "A Rare Interview With Axel Steel" and "Clive Winston Retrospective" (all of which actually exist in the "magazine"), and the top mini-headline is "Getting Started | Controls | How To Rock | Star Power". The Table of Contents is designed like one in a magazine, and there's even a "Letters to the Editor" department.

 

 

** The screwdrivers were perfect for disassembling computers.

* Most of the ''[[Ultima]]'' games came with a cloth map of Britannia, along with other game-specific feelies.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' (both the original SNES and the DS remake) came with fold-out posters of art scenes depicting the characters.

* Some versions of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' came with a cloth map of the world.

* Atlus USA provides Feelies with some of its larger-profile titles through its Atlus Spoils program, which offers things like soundtracks, artbooks, and sometimes even plushes related to the game at no extra cost.

** The initial release of ''[[Persona 3]]'' was delayed a few weeks so they could get their art book just right. The art book itself was full of interesting sketches and minor spoilers; some of the material never made it into the game (including concept art of the main character [[Man, I Feel Like a Woman|as a girl]]).

** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]]'' came with an OST. Unfortunately, the ones packaged with the game were defective. Upon being informed of the problem, Atlus set up a page on their site where a replacement could be ordered free of charge.

* The indie lab Introversion pretty much kicked this trope in the 21st century with ''[[Uplink]]'' and the completely game-separate digital riddles you have to crack to access the goodies. The /Misc folder of the game CD contains, in addition to "Diary of a Hacker.txt" and a few screenshots from the developers' desktops during the game's development, a mysterious file called "GameBible.zip" that's been passworded with no explanation - with the password nowhere to be found unless you {{spoiler|take a gander at the game's box and convert the seemingly out-of-place symbol string on the back from hexadecimal to ASCII.}} After the .zip cracks, inside you'll find {{spoiler|the directories book1, book2 and book3. The readme.txt in the directory has the lead designer Chris Delay congratulating you for discovering the first Book, hinting at where the remaining two Books can be found. The second one is said to be found on the Uplink bonus disk available from Introversion. And the third one, "who knows where that might be hidden".}} The Last of the Bedroom Programmers, indeed.

** ''[[Mother 3]]'' was available in a Deluxe Box limited edition, which accompanied the game with a specially-printed [[Game Boy Micro]] and a Franklin Badge. [[Crack is Cheaper|Good luck getting one of these now]].

* The Level-5 and [[Studio Ghibli]] game ''[[Ni no Kuni]]'' is set to come with an ''entire spellbook,'' with its spells actually usable (and required!) in-game. By referencing the book, you can figure out what you need to do in the game.

** A leather organizer with matching multi-purpose pen (red biro, black biro and pencil)

** A set of playing cards

* [[Record of Agarest War]]. Really Naughty Limited Edition. Ellis. Pillowcase. Vira-Lorr. Boobie mousepad. That is all.

 

* ''[[Buzz Aldrin Race Into Space]]'' had a huge manual which detailed the history of the space race and provided all the context needed to enjoy the game.

* ''[[Loom (video game)|Loom]]'' and ''The President Is Missing'' both shipped with audio cassettes that gave supplemental information for the game.

* Origin was generally pretty good about feelies. The manuals for the first, third, and fifth ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' games, along with the [[Xbox Live Arcade]] game ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Arena'', were presented in the format of an in-universe magazine.

** The first ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' also included blueprint posters for several of the fighters you would pilot over the course of the game. The stats on these posters were also used as answers for the games' [[Copy Protection]] questions.

* ''Zoo Tycoon 2'' came with a good quality writing pen that had a sculpted animal on top.

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' pre-orders typically come with stuffed farm animal toys, usually their [[Series Mascot]] which is a cow.

* The Collector's Edition of [[Il-2 Sturmovik|Il-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover]] comes with an extensive hardcover "Pilot's Instructions"-handbook, a reprint of pilot's notes for the Mk.I Spitfire and a fabric map of the English Channel area.

 

 

* ''Caveman Ugh-lympics'' came with a very funny one-sheet newspaper, 'The Ugh-zaminer'.

 

 

* The ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' games had fold-out newsletters, and much of the manuals was written in an "in-world" format. Incidentally, if you kept track of the dates and events in said fold-outs, it becomes clear that ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'', ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'', and ''[[System Shock]]'' are all, in fact set in the same universe!

*** As do the Gear-shaped "dog tags" that EB offered as a pre-order bonus in Australia.

 

 

* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] II and III'' come with fold-out cards showing creature statistics and town construction dependencies and a manual nearly reaching 150 pages.

* ''Colonization'' came with a large manual and nice fold out "cheat sheet" showing all the unit types and the buildable structures.

 

 

* Games by Purple Moon, another production house exclusive to [[The Nineties]], always came with them. ''Rockett's World'' games had dolls of the characters and ''Secret Paths'' games had plastic stones like those won from the puzzles; both came with cards for a series-specific card game. The rest of the dolls and stones, as well as booster packs, were sold separately. And if ''that'' wasn't enough, the first editions of the first games (released simultaneously) came with a shirt, a lip gloss and a backpack.

* A Japan-only limited edition of ''[[Ace Attorney]] Investigations: Miles Edgeworth'' came with a "Gyakuten Meets Orchestra 2008" pamphlet, character illustrations and portraits, a DS cartridge case, the "Melodies of Gyakuten Kenji" soundtrack, and a "Memories of Gyakuten" Promotional Trailers DVD. (A limited-edition ''[[Ace Attorney]] Investigations''-themed Nintendo [[D Si]] was also released.)

 

 

* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games came with maps. The original on PC actually came with three maps on two poster-sized sheets, which contained maps of Liberty and Vice cities, as well as San Andreas.

* The special collector's edition of ''[[Spore]]'' came with not only 2 DVDs (one about the making of the game and another from National Geographic about how Nature and evolution inspired the game) but also a Art of Spore book that had early concepts, development pics, and ads for even more books about Spore.

 

 

* Sometimes even TV special editions have them - ''especially'' in anime releases, with one of the most common inclusions being an "art box" meant to house further volumes.

* Some releases go really whole hog, though: just check out Bandai's English release of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi|The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'': cosplay items, single CDs, iron-ons, pillowcases with the three main girls on them...

** ''[[Lucky Star]]'' came with T-shirts [[Sarcasm Mode|that everyone can wear in public]] packed into its limited editions.

* The German version of ''[[Ikki Tousen]]'' shipped its collector's edition box with a pair of girl's panties.

** ''[[SHUFFLE!]]'' did this recently for one of its DVD boxes.

* The first printing of the ''[[FUNimation]]'' ''[[Hetalia]]'' Part 1 and 2 dvds came with a limited edition bandana. This kicked off Funi bringing back limited editions dvd for some of there shows. The Limited editions for the movie and world series have continued to come with bandanas. Also a Con excursive white one was a freelie for spending 50 dollars at their booth, though some did turn up at an Anime News Network Panel.

* Really, Funimation is pretty good for feelies - [[Kodomo no Omocha]] (aka [[Kodocha]] )'s English release by Funimation came with a fold-out art box and a little wallet-type bag with the series' cute animal mascot...thing, on it, too.

* Sometimes the feelies and other extras are cooler then the actual series; a prime example being the American release of the first volume of the otherwise rather forgettable ''Comic Party'' series, which came with an ''awesome'' art box - a white box covered in sketchy, pencil-drawing-like art, with a clear slipcover that had animation-cel-like full-color character art that matched up perfectly to some of the drawings. It also came with a guide booklet filled with pop-culture notes (helpful, since the series is about the underground world of [[Doujinshi]] and thus features ''tons'' of Japan-specific or doujin-community-specific references), as well as a mini-[[Pencil Board]] that was ''autographed'' (by one of the English dub's voice actors).

 

 

* An issue of Fantagraphics' anthology comic ''Critters'' included a flexidisk of a song from one of the stories...with a B-Side written ''and sung'' by [[Alan Moore]]!

 

 

* When the film ''[[Film/Zotz|Zotz]]'', based on the book by Walter Karig, was in theaters, patrons were given plastic versions of the amulets.

 

 

 

* All the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' sets released by Shout! Factory (Volume 13 onward) have come with 50s-style movie posters for the four episodes in the set. In addition, the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Volume 13) came with a Crow figurine, Volume 16 a Tom Servo, and Volume 19, Gypsy.

** A copy of the original volume 1 of the "[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] Shorts," came with a pair of real boxer shorts.

* The ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' "Adventures in Friendship" DVD contains a red cardigan sweater cover with a zipper. Would this make it a [[Just for Pun|McFeely]]?

 

 

** There were a few examples of LPs shipped with swag in the 70s and 80s when the record companies liked to throw a lot of money behind record releases. Stickers, posters and even iron-ons in the sleeve were common, such as Prince's album ''Controversy'' which contained a large poster of [[Squick|Prince showering in his underwear.]] Notably, the Rolling Stones album ''Sticky Fingers'' in 1971 featured a cover photo taken by Andy Warhol of a man's crotch in blue jeans with a WORKING ZIPPER. The [[Public Image Ltd]] album ''Metal Box'' (1979) was originally shipped in a 16mm metal film cannister instead of a sleeve, and in 1980, The Durutti Column, borrowing an idea from PIL, released an album with a cover made of sandpaper meant to destroy the artwork of the albums on the shelf next to it.

** ''Live at Leeds'', by [[The Who]], was in its vinyl release packaged with several replicas of documents from the group's early days, including a rejection letter from EMI and their contract from Woodstock. The replicas were convincing enough that a good many people, upon coming across them secondhand, were at first convinced they'd discovered the genuine article.

*** One of those contracts showed up on an episode of [[Pawn Stars]] and went for $200, but only because Rick (who did know what it was) didn't handle the sale.

 

 

* The VHS release of ''[[Quest for Camelot]]'' came with a necklace whose charm featured the two-headed dragon. Annoyingly, said necklace was under not the shrinkwrap on the new movie, but under the plastic of the clamshell cover—meaning that you either had to partly ruin the cover to get the blasted thing out, or you had a heck of a time lining it up neatly on your video shelf.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Paratext]]

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]