Maybe you've heard the story of the Merzbow Mercedes? Swedish record label Releasing Eskimo put out a special limited edition of Japanese Noise musician Merzbow's "Noise Embryo" album in an unusual format: a used Mercedes 230. When you turned the car on, the CD player started playing the album, and it was impossible to stop it or turn it off without turning off the car.
This got me thinking about all the weird game-related schwag we've seen over the years. Currently, I'd say Tecmo are the reigning schwag champions, with their Kasumi body pillow and their Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball swimwear, but let's not neglect the days of yore, when Infocom classics were accompanied by magazines, pens, sundials, and more. No fantasy game worth the plastic it was printed on came without a cloth "mapkin." Even some modern freeware has associated schwag available for purchase. And who could forget the seminal Rez Trance Vibrator?
Mere t-shirts are for uncreative Philistines! What are the best pieces of gaming schwag you've encountered? What schwag would you love to see (if only to marvel at the audacity of the marketing department who okayed it)?
Well, as mentioned in the article, Infocom had some really interesting goodies with their games. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy included a "Don't Panic" button, pocket fluff, a "microscopic battle fleet", cardboard sunglasses, and a couple of other things... here's more info
Posted by: JavaKat | 03/19/2004 at 04:32 AM
Lunar: Eternal Blue for playstation came with paper dolls, a medallion, and a map. Made me feel like the 70 bucks I paid was worth it. I think the king of useful schwag right now is nintendo, their recent give aways include the zelda bonus disk, and the link cable with crystal chronicles. Maybe that doesn't count since you had to pre-order the games to get the stuff...
Posted by: Dawud | 03/19/2004 at 04:46 AM
If you preordered Donkey Kong 64 at a certain store in my area you got a little yellow plastic barrel (with DK64 on the side) full of little red plastic monkeys.
Posted by: Phincus | 03/19/2004 at 09:15 AM
I was really into the early Ultima series, which came with little trinkets that were important to the game like a moonstone, an anhk and the codex of ultimate wisdom. Didn't turn me into an avatar tho... maybe I should have sent it back as defective!
Posted by: Mr. Falcon | 03/19/2004 at 10:14 AM
Please tell me that "seminal Rez Trans vibrator" was an intentional pun. Don't let Lieberman here it, or he'll be telling everyone that video games are causing teen pregnancies.
Posted by: Noah | 03/19/2004 at 05:22 PM
Nintendo wins the swag award, hand down, no contest. Maybe their stuff never reaches the average consumers hands, but let me tell you, as former game store employee, their reps hook you up with the coolest promotional stuff. Stuff like shiny clipboards with attached nintendo pen, stainless steel and black foam drink cozies, watches, you name it. Watches were actually pretty common across the board , the Chaos Legion watch from Capcom was really cool, it clipped onto a belt loop and the face slide aside for use as a magnifying lens, not bad for free. Sony's reps never seemed to run out of travel coffee mugs that had the ps2 logo on them. The Infogrames/Atari lady was also awesome, she brought us free games, Ikaruga clingforms, and Atari t-shirts. Tons of free stuff came in that was supposed to go out on the shelves with the games, but somehow always managed to go home with us. Examples of these include the free golf balls that came in with the XBOX Hot Shots golf game, the PN03 sunglasses that made you look just like Vanessa K. Schneider, the Viewtiful Joe bobbleheads (both regular Joe and Viewtiful Joe), JSRF soundtracks, Maximo boxer shorts, I could go on and on. We used to throw tee shirts out by the dozen, they were always XL, which none but one of us wore, and wicked boring so no one wanted them.
One of the smartest things you can do as a gamer is to make friends with the hapless souls behind the counter so you can get cool free stuff.
Posted by: brandy | 03/20/2004 at 12:49 PM
When I preordered Ninja Gaiden, the store let me pick from a grab bag of gaming schwag. I talked the clerk into letting me get away with 4 FF:CC buttons, each one displaying the crest of one of the clans. My yellow Clavat pin proudly resides on the strap of my NES Controller messenger bag. I'm such a dork sometimes.
Posted by: Squeak | 03/22/2004 at 01:49 PM
There was a game called Shadow of the Beast for the Amiga. There was a "T-shirt edition" of the game, and the remarkable thing was the shirt was included with the game (no post-purchase, mail order monkey business). As such, the actual game box proportions and size were larger, in order to accommodate the prize.
You can see pics of the box and T-shirt toward the bottom on this dedicated fan's page.
Posted by: klee | 03/23/2004 at 05:54 AM
As Dawud noted above, working designs is the king of swag. Punching puppets, pocket watches, enormous maps, and more.
Posted by: BSD | 03/24/2004 at 09:42 AM
not schwag, but for gaming accesories, this beats all. onimusha3 sword controller
Posted by: nick | 04/01/2004 at 04:44 PM
Perhaps not quite schwag, but Falcon 4 (PC) had a 'limited edition' (100,000 copies I think) version in which the manual, game disks and everything that would otherwise be in the box were packaged in a Large ring binder which resembled a pilots training guide ie. no box at all. Really was quite funky and looked pretty authentic too. I have a friend who is a plane buff and he absolutely went booey over it.
Posted by: Veg | 04/04/2004 at 11:14 PM
Minitature (8" long) toilet plunger. Fits in an RV, works great. Have to go to the RV to find out what game it was for.
Posted by: Evan Robinson | 04/08/2004 at 02:03 PM
Minitature (8" long) toilet plunger. Fits in an RV, works great. Have to go to the RV to find out what game it was for.
Posted by: Evan Robinson | 04/08/2004 at 02:04 PM
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
Posted by: George S. Patton | 07/08/2004 at 06:07 AM
jpb ppyt psycholog zdrowa ywno nieruchomoci projektowanie stron agencja reklamowa soczewki kontaktowe nauka angielskiego agroturystyka opony klimatyzacja domy opieki akupunktura hydraulik projektowanie wntrz soha jpk paa ki wypadki tfrd jh sw jft pp fdr
Posted by: outsider | 04/11/2006 at 08:57 AM
Hello there
I am making plans for purchasing a new vehicle and I need help picking in between an Audi or a Mercedes?
I am trying to decide on among and Audi A4 and C class
I already own an A4 and I'm actually happy with it
however I wanna listen to those of you who own a Mercedes or have owned both
which one should I decide on
Thank you for your help
Posted by: Justin Bieber 2010 | 02/08/2011 at 02:47 PM