Mercenary titles & compendium formats
I was digging out my Knight Orc manual so I could look up a keyword to get into part 2, when I noticed a "Mercenary 1" game in the same box. "Mercenary 1?" I pondered, "I thought that it was just called "Mercenary".". Soo-o-o, although I prefer the titles in the archive as they are, I thought that I'd point out a few ... errrmm ... points, as the inlays are used as the primary determinator of titles, and I know the "popularity" (err-hum) of these title trivia.
* There's a title discrepancy on the inlays between the use of "Mercenary" and "Mercenary 1".
* The smaller "Mercenary" inlay in the archive is from the 1991 re-issue - although this same picture (without the "1") was also used in the original 1987 adverts.
* The larger "Mercenary 1" inlay in the archive is unfortunately undateable as it only shows the front panel, although it would be reasonable to assume that it was from a 1987 cassette.
* The "Paul Woakes' Mercenary Compendium" was titled "Paul Woakes' Mercenary 1 Compendium" on front, back and spine. This was also released as a 2-cassette pack, although it's not separately mentioned in the archive. Is this because it was just the original tapes re-packaged?
The compendium unusually has two inlays: a regular 2-panel card inlay with game description and hints; and an extra 3-panel card inlay which wraps the two cassettes and has loading & playing instructions. The inlay text has some variations from the originals. I've got the tape version if it's wanted.
* There's a title discrepancy on the inlays between the use of "Mercenary" and "Mercenary 1".
* The smaller "Mercenary" inlay in the archive is from the 1991 re-issue - although this same picture (without the "1") was also used in the original 1987 adverts.
* The larger "Mercenary 1" inlay in the archive is unfortunately undateable as it only shows the front panel, although it would be reasonable to assume that it was from a 1987 cassette.
* The "Paul Woakes' Mercenary Compendium" was titled "Paul Woakes' Mercenary 1 Compendium" on front, back and spine. This was also released as a 2-cassette pack, although it's not separately mentioned in the archive. Is this because it was just the original tapes re-packaged?
The compendium unusually has two inlays: a regular 2-panel card inlay with game description and hints; and an extra 3-panel card inlay which wraps the two cassettes and has loading & playing instructions. The inlay text has some variations from the originals. I've got the tape version if it's wanted.
Post edited by Battle Bunny on
Comments
To make it slightly more bizarre, the game uses the roman numeral 'I', while the compendium uses '1'.
Apparently Novagen hated database folks... ;-)
Edit: further corrections were necessary:
- The compendium wasn't +3 only, seeing you mentioned tape versions;
- There was no licence. Paul Woakes was one of the 2 guys who set up Novagen and one wouldn't license a game to themselves, would one?