[game_preservation] Frank Cifaldi's preservation article on 1Up

[Frank Cifaldi]

My best sources for 1990 release dates right now are the "Review Crew"
section of Electronic Gaming Monthly (which occasionally gives a release
date) and the release calendar in the back of each issue of Nintendo Power
(combined with Nintendo's internal database of course, which has some
inconsistencies and intentionally omits some games). I have also been
digging through press releases archived on HighBeam and Lexis, though
getting actual dates through that method is rare. Most releases just
announce a title with a quarterly window.

With the exception of high profile titles like Mario 3, I don't know how
"hard" dates were back then, I think shops just sold games whenever
shipments happened to come in. The reason I specified Toys R Us as a good
resource is that its relationship with Nintendo in the early 90s was so
tight that I can't imagine many instances where other shops sold games
earlier, therefore (in the absence of any official word) I think it's a safe
assumption that the earliest Toys R Us sell date for a game in the early 90s
is more or less its release date. Exception is of course made for the
Nintendo launch (which I think was at FAO Schwarz), titles exclusive to a
particular retailer (I'm pretty sure The Flintstones 2 was exclusively a
rental game), etc.

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 11:01 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


> I'm going to at some point contact UK retailers, once I have somewhere to

> put the data. Amazon, AFAIK, has a lot of 3rd parties telling them when a

> product was released whenever they list it as for sale from a 3rd party -

> I've seen games which are not too old (or even some relatively new ones)

> with dozens of entries, from lots of different re-releases and packaging,

> none with a uniform release date, and likely none of them correct anyway. :)

>

> I think maybe if Amazon has their own record of when a product was

> available from their own warehouse, that'd be more accurate - after all,

> what is a more accurate release date then the date the shops sell it?

>

> But as Martin said, the availability date versus release date does differ -

> so Amazon would only have the former not the latter. Worldwide, for

> instance, the UK has different stock dates (when things get put on store

> shelves) to the USA, so even a worldwide release will likely mean delays

> from one location to another apart from for big items. It's not exactly a

> hard science, more like guesswork. For this idea of look at shop stocks from

> years ago - well, it depends I guess on the company I'd guess. There's no

> real way to tell without asking. Would still be useful information even if

> it was inaccurate in places anyway - since at the moment, as far as I can

> tell, it is as Martin says - asking people who were around at the time or

> guessing based on adverts and other near-to-the-date things (trade shows and

> suchlike). Would be nice to have harder sources.

>

> Andrew

>

>

> On 10/01/2010 06:26, Mike Melanson wrote:

>

>> Frank Cifaldi wrote:

>>

>>> I wonder if Toys R Us would be willing to provide that sort of

>>> information?

>>>

>>

>> This sounds like an interesting approach to investigate. However, then I

>> remember that Amazon.com, the leading online retailer as well as innovator

>> in the ways of tracking intricate details of merchandising, can rarely help

>> me nail down the release date of a (relatively minor) game that's only a few

>> years old.

>>

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