Ghosts of Christmas Past

Ho ho ho, this is the third Electronics Boutique catalog from 1991 I've scanned and posted in 2011 so I'm totally out of things to say about them. Since this one is for the Christmas season it's the largest but still not drastically different than the spring and fall catalogs.

Cover & Contents

You can tell right from the offset that they were really getting into the holiday spirit with this catalog. The newly cemented mascot ELBO will be covering all the holiday cliches over the next 60 or so pages.

Super Nintendo

This was the first Christmas season for the Super Nintendo and their game selection was small but strong. I've never played Final Fantasy II and always assumed it was an RPG, but according to the screenshot in this catalog it's some kind of street brawler.

Nintendo Entertainment System

This is the first I heard of the Treasure Master Challenge. I wonder if anyone won?

Sega Genesis

Good holiday selection for the Genesis, nearly every game in this catalog is a classic.

Game Boy and Game Gear

Game Boy and Game Gear

It was also a great season for the Game Boy - almost every game up there is still fun today. The Game Gear just couldn't produce a library that compared. There were memorable Game Game titles of course but they were dwarfed 20:1 by the Game Boy library..

The Other Systems

Here we've got three systems with dedicated followings that couldn't muster more than a single page each. All would survive beyond 1991 but the amount of space Electronics Boutique dedicated to them shrank to a tiny corner in the back of the store.

PC Gaming

I was thinking about doing a "where are they now" for all the Electronics Boutique employees pictured in this catalog but I'm too lazy. Whenever they Google themselves maybe they'll find this page and let me know... either that or demand I remove their picture.

PC Education

PC Productivity

I get a kick out of looking at the old programming stuff. I'm probably the only one who does.

PC Hardware

It's overpriced hardware time again! Complain all you want about the trade gap with China, I'm perfectly happy not paying $329.99 for a black & white scanner. So that will wrap up Christmas 1991. I hope you all find a copy of Wing Commander II Speech Pak under your tree.

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