The images on this page are from the "Electronics Boutique 1996 Spring CD".
This was a promotional CD catalog given out at Electronics Boutique & Waldensoftware stores in early 1996.
The images are only 256 color because that was the depth of the source files (keep in mind this was 1996).
Click on the thumbnails to see or download the full-size images (~488x480).
This site is in no way affiliated with Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware (now EBGames/GameStop) or the publishers of these items.
These images are simply up for nostalgic value.
If you take video games way too seriously then I guess they even serve a historical purpose by documenting the state of gaming in
early 1996.
The Sony Playstation started to pull ahead of the Saturn over Christmas
1995. It already had a pretty decent library built-up and, as everyone
knows, was on its way to conquering the gaming market.
At $299.99, the Playstation Core System was not a bad deal in the
day.
Here's the original Need for Speed, I think they're up to the
600th sequel now.
Wing Commander III, in white packaging for some reason.
Sports games were always what sold systems to mainstream shoppers. The
Playstation managed to take a lead over Sega in this area despite the
strength of the Sega Sports franchise. NBA Live '96 was one game
that helped move the system. It was leaps and bounds above the 16-bit
editions and convinced people to upgrade.
NHL Face Off was not the greatest seller, although I'm sure more
people bought it than actually watch hockey.
NFL Game Day was another sports game that helped sell the
Playstation.
Jumping Flash, featuring some cutesy airplane-thing on the cover.
Wipeout was one of my favorite Playstation launch titles, the
soundtrack is still awesome.
We ran a tape of Twisted Metal made by a store employee regularly
and it was big hit at our location.
Destruction Derby is my favorite 1st generation Playstation
game.
WarHawk is also a 1st generation PS3 title. I assume they're somewhat
different.
Battle Arena Toshinden was another great launch title for the
Playstation. I thought it absolutely crushed Virtua Fighter for the
Saturn.
Mortal Kombat 3 is when the series jumped the shark.
Despite being about the only adventure game available for the
Playstation at the time, Discworld was not very popular.
Lemmings was another lukewarm title at best.
Novastorm was great-looking game but otherwise average.
If there's one game genre that's usually bad it's the sports sampler,
like ESPN/ESPN2 Extreme Games.
It's Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer!
Assault Rigs is not ringing a bell.
Read the description for Krazy Ivan and see how many different
warnings there are that it's a bad game.
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Legal Notes
Unless otherwise noted, all content is copyright (c) 2007 Hugues Johnson and may not be redistributed in any form without express permission.
This site is in no way affiliated with Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware (now EBGames/GameStop) or the publishers of these items.
