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I completed the entire Philips CDi US longbox set. Or did I? Plus, general CDi collecting gems.


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Something you could try to collect for shits if you want, are Sears associate training discs for the CD-i. On them were everything from sales, product, management and POS training. Features, benefits and specs for lawn and garden, tools, TV's, stereo, home office, computer, etc. I'm even in some of them, as my picture was taken for some still shots! ha

 

The interactive courses were pretty well done, with tests you needed to pass throughout. Would be neat to check out some of the gear we sold during the 90's-mid 2000's. I'd try to track these down for you, but the two Sears stores I worked at are long gone.  :(

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9 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

So the CDi is basically a 70s Asian console but released in the 90s? I didn't know that the CDi was this deep when it comes to its software.

Philips had the rather good idea to let their local offices "adapts" the Cd-i as they saw fit. Allowing them to release softwares that would appeal to the local tastes, but also different packagings (Apparently France got "big box games" that weren't released as big boxes anywhere else).

Also most software list available only list the public released software. The CD-i was intented and was used for professionnal uses.

For example it's near impossible to know what CD-i "titles" were released for the CD-i by Peugeot for their sales network, or by museums for their expositions.

660247859_CD-ititlePeugeot.thumb.jpg.49446cf2019ad83cc3298916de9feb76.jpg

 

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I just wanted to say that I am enjoying this thread very much, I love when there are still obscure things to discover in the past when you look past the known "full sets" on common systems. I'm very happy for you obtaining that Euro longbox game to make your complete set even more complete!

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Same here, I had one of these systems back when it was kind of alive in the US moderately into the rapid price drops it had post Mario/Zelda release time.  I had a few long box games like Lords of the Rising Sun, but most were standard with the slip cover over them like how NEC did it with the TG.  It was lacking in some ways, but they did find interesting ways around it with some games so they actually ended up quite decent.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello Atari Age forum, I'm good friends with Blazers and a fellow CD-I collector. I'm looking for your help if that's possible please.... calling anyone on here who lives in or near Charlotte, N.C. - as on Facebook Marketplace there is a seller who has 3 portable CD-I 370's for sale @ $220.00 each and I would very much like to buy one of them!! I'd definitely recommend this machine too for anyone who wants to start their own CD-I collection, as the player is one of the very few that has a CR2032 replacement battery for the CD-I's memory. If you are able to help me buy one of these players, I'd happily pay you extra for your help :-) Here is a link to the Marketplace article: https://m.facebook.com/marketplace/item/425081761735382/  . I really appreciate your help and time, and look forward to hearing back (I'll check back tomorrow) :-) Best wishes, Al

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  • 6 months later...

When it comes to Cdi collecting, a lot of the information out there is incomplete. It might be the one system for which nobody will ever have a full set or complete collection, even for those focusing only on US releases. Even titles sold directly by Philips from their US catalogs and via various retail US Philips dealers are immensely difficult to locate nowadays. I noticed that a lot of collectors for various systems often try to excuse certain rare titles from full set lists because they are too difficult to obtain (Stadium Events, Gamma Attack, Birthday Mania, etc, for example) and were tough to find even back in the day due to their limited distribution status. Well, if somebody could buy it back in the day, if it was advertised, if was sold both in catalogs and in stores, then it counts as part of the set and your collection is incomplete if you don't have it! It doesn't matter if the distibution was limited or even if the title was recalled, it counts.

 

Now, that all being said, there should be proof that the rarer titles were indeed sold and available, and that uncertainties regarding a few releases ought to be cleared up. So, the following are selections of all the rare titles from the US set, which were indeed sold here in the US and which do count towards the full set. I have copies of them, and have been loaning them to the ReDump preservation project so that everyone who is interested can enjoy them. The rest of the following posts are provided as a verification service to any potential collectors who might be interested in learning about the rarer Cdi titles.

 

At least one other US Cdi title does count as part of the US retail set, as it was indeed available for public purchase back in the day. The Bell Atlantic Info-Active electronic directory was made available to residents of the Washington, D.C. Area. Only one or two copies are known to still exist.

 

It should also be noted that many, many hundreds of Cdi titles were made for various corporate, educational, governmental, and institutional uses. Those do not count toward the full retail set, as they weren't available for public purchase nor sold outside of professional contexts. Previously unknown titles are still being discovered, and will be far into the future. We will never even know all that were made.

 

For international Cdi releases, many of the rarer retail titles were available through mail order catalogs from companies such as XDRA/McNo and the MMC catalogs, in addition to specialty independent shops. Their catalogs are immensely useful for collectors and preservationists nowadays, as they help complete the checklists of known titles. These catalogs are themselves quite difficult to find nowadays, and while scans do exist online, I've put together pictures of the really interesting (rare) titles to save any interested collectors the trouble of scouring through scans for information.

 

From the US catalog, the rarest ones are as follows:

Charting a New World

Earth: The Changing Environment

The Human Body

Gnomes

The Weather Kitchen

Wings Over the Gulf (this is actually a CDi branded VCD)

The Forbidden City

Light and Shadow/ Luces y Sombras

Pyramid Adventures

Web-i

Discover Sport Fishing: Northern Edition

NFL Instant Replay

 

 

 

0211211035a.jpg

chartingproof.jpg

fishingandreplayproof.jpg

forbidden city proof.jpg

gnomesproof.jpg

human body proof.jpg

lightandshadowproof.jpg

pyramid adventureproof.jpg

US catalog rares.jpg

weather kitchen proof.jpg

webiproof (1).jpg

webiproof (2).jpg

wingsoverthegulfproof.jpg

worldofwondersfullset.jpg

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The McNo (formerly XDRA) CDi catalogs also were the main, and sometimes only, way to buy a few CDi titles back in  the day. These aren't US releases, to note. Several of these catalogs have been scanned and are available online. The rare titles that will trip up collectors are as follows:

 

Wimbledon Challenge

Do You Remember the 1960's?

Making the Grade (originally available from BP, but evidently McNo bought up the unsold stock)

1995: All the News and Views

KISS

Space Safari

Peaches

Gateshead 1900

Bill Brandt: the Post years

Photo Journalism: the best of 1992

Vegas Girls

mcnoxdrarares.jpg

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I’m always surprised how many Dutch exclusive CD-I games there are, it seems that the Wikipedia page only lists 5 Dutch exclusives, while there are way more than that. I even found a game with no info on it just by glancing over some advertisements on marktplaats.nl. 
 

The cdi is actually pretty common here, I got mine at a flea market, and most games are just seen as a cd and are pretty much being given away for free. If anyone wants a cheap CD-I, just pm me, lol. 
 

Also, Philips dubbed most of their popular games in Dutch, so when I bought hotel Mario none of the famous quotes where there :sad: 

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On 2/13/2021 at 11:49 AM, WilcoL said:

I’m always surprised how many Dutch exclusive CD-I games there are, it seems that the Wikipedia page only lists 5 Dutch exclusives, while there are way more than that. I even found a game with no info on it just by glancing over some advertisements on marktplaats.nl. 
 

The cdi is actually pretty common here, I got mine at a flea market, and most games are just seen as a cd and are pretty much being given away for free. If anyone wants a cheap CD-I, just pm me, lol. 
 

Also, Philips dubbed most of their popular games in Dutch, so when I bought hotel Mario none of the famous quotes where there :sad: 

Well Phillips is dutch after all.

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Here's a very old photocopy of an internal Philips dealer sheet from 1992 that has some interesting release date info for a lot of the early CDi titles, along with minor sales data. A few unreleased titles are mentioned, which suggests that they were close to retail readiness by Spring of '92. It's also interesting to see what titles aren't mentioned...

0211211022a.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

@Blazing Lazers this thread has officially made it to eBay (lol)... "If you're a longbox collector this is one of the rarest - Blazing Lazers from Atariage listed it as #5 in the top 10 rarest CDi longboxes." fwiw, I picked this title up a week or so ago for $10 and it had the manual, unlike this listing, but mine was missing the slip cover (drats!)...

 

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4 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

@Blazing Lazers this thread has officially made it to eBay (lol)... "If you're a longbox collector this is one of the rarest - Blazing Lazers from Atariage listed it as #5 in the top 10 rarest CDi longboxes." fwiw, I picked this title up a week or so ago for $10 and it had the manual, unlike this listing, but mine was missing the slip cover (drats!)...

 

Made my day!:)

 

I actually a new version of the list coming out sometime. I did make a few adjustments to the rarities of several longboxes, based on another year of data. Berenstain is rare in the longbox format, though. It seems to have been one of the last ones made before the switch to the jewel-case versions.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Dutch Homecomputer Museum in Helmond, should have nearly all official released games. From most released titles they kept one in Eindhoven. When they stopped, everything went to Dutch collector Jorg Kennis. He has now collaborated with the homecomputer museum to display it. Nice museum to visit when you are in the Netherlands. https://cdii.blogspot.com/2020/08/our-cd-i-exhibition-in-home-computer.html

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  • 1 month later...

Nice extensive list!   I have passively collected games and demos over the years with several oddities.   I do not have a set and like mentioned, many are not well documented and seem to have been made for specific regions making them  near impossible to track down.  I do have one of the Sears Marketing Discs mentioned and made a video about it here:

 

https://fb.watch/7_lhedmWxK/

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  • 2 months later...

This list has been super helpful as I have been building out my US longbox CD-i collection. I started down the CD-i rabbit hole in early June 2021, so I've been at this for approximately five months. At this point, I'm down to the single digits, with 89 titles acquired and only nine eight to go! In case anyone is curious, here are the eight that I still need:

  1. A Revolution in Color
  2. Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tar Baby
  3. CD-I Music Book: Classical Guitar Volume 1
  4. Classical Jukebox
  5. David and Goliath
  6. More Dark Fables from Aesop
  7. Stamps: Windows on the World
  8. The ACT College Search ‘92
  9. The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe

Anyone else here going for the complete US longbox set?

 

 

 

 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Two Years later, it turns out that there are indeed a few US longbox CD-i releases that I had overlooked: the bi-lingual versions of How the Camel Got His Hump and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. They have different disc content, different titles, and most importantly different Catalog Numbers. Philips sold them as distinct titles back in the day, per every single Catalog and brochure/booklet included with most retail CDititles. They count as separate titles. They are a bit easy to overlook, as their covers are very similar, but look closely and you will see the differences. It should also be noted that while the bilingual version of Rhino Skin is not terribly difficult to find, it took me almost two years to find a complete with the outer slipcover copy of the bi-lingual Camel Hump. I just this week took delivery of a complete copy, the first one I had seen since putting together this longbox guide. It is a true rarity, and now that I've been able to finally get a copy to verify it and coupled with an additional year or so of data from Ebay and my fellow CDi collectors, an updated version of the longbox guide is in order.

 

In version 2.0, the big changes are the addition of the two US bi-lingual titles mentioned above, the addition to the end of the list of the European exclusive Lenting van Etten (which, mercifully for collectors, does NOT count towards the US longbox set), and an expanded listing of the rarest longbox titles. Pictures will follow soon, and the initial posts will be updated.

 

US CDi Longbox Collecting Guide and Checklist Version 2.0

  1. A National Parks Tour

  2. A Revolution in Color

  3. A Visit to Sesame Street: Letters

  4. A Visit to Sesame Street: Numbers

  5. A Visit to the Valley of the Pueblo and the Amparo Museum

  6. Alice In Wonderland

  7. Anne Willan Presents the Food of France

  8. Backgammon

  9. Battleship

  10. Beauty and the Beast

  11. Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tar Baby

  12. Caesar’s World of Gambling

  13. Cartoon Jukebox

  14. CD Shoot

  15. CD-I Music Book: Classical Guitar Volume 1

  16. Children’s Musical Theater

  17. Classical Guitar

  18. Classical Jukebox

  19. Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia

  20. Connect Four

  21. Cool Oldies Jukebox

  22. Dark Castle

  23. David and Goliath

  24. Defender of the Crown

  25. Dutch Masters of the 17th Century

  26. Earth Rhythms

  27. Escape From the Cyber City

  28. Gardening By Choice: Flowers and Foliage

  29. Gifts to Behold

  30. Girl’s Club

  31. Golden Oldies Jukebox

  32. Harvest of the Sun

  33. How the Camel Got His Hump

  34. How the Camel Got His Hump Bi-lingual

  35. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin

  36. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin Bi-lingual

  37. How to Photograph Nature

  38. International Tennis Open

  39. James Brown Nonstop Hit Machine

  40. Jazz Giants

  41. Jazz Guitar

  42. Jigsaw

  43. Laser Lords

  44. Lords of the Rising Sun

  45. Louis Armstrong

  46. More Dark Fables from Aesop

  47. Moses: Bound for the Promised Land

  48. Moses: The Exodus

  49. Mother Goose Hidden Pictures

  50. Mother Goose Rhymes to Color

  51. Mozart: A Musical Biography

  52. Mystic Midway Rest in Pieces

  53. NFL Football Trivia Challenge

  54. Noah’s Ark

  55. Paint School I

  56. Paint School II

  57. Pavarotti

  58. Pecos Bill

  59. Pegasus

  60. Pinball

  61. Power Hitter

  62. Prelude

  63. Rand McNally’s America: U.S. Atlas

  64. Rembrandt: His Art and the Music of His Era

  65. Rhythm Maker

  66. Richard Scarry’s Best Neighborhood Disc

  67. Richard Scarry’s Busiest Neighborhood Disc

  68. Rock Guitar

  69. Sailing: A Guide to Sailing and Seamanship

  70. Sandy’s Circus Adventure

  71. Sargon Chess

  72. Stamps: Windows on the World

  73. Stickybear Reading

  74. Story Machine: Magic Tales

  75. Story Machine: Star Dreams

  76. Tell Me Why I

  77. Tell Me Why II

  78. Tetris

  79. Text Tiles

  80. The ACT College Search ‘92

  81. The Art of the Czars

  82. The Berenstain Bears: On Their Own and You On Your Own

  83. The Best of Draw 50

  84. The Dark Fables of Aesop

  85. The Emperor’s New Clothes

  86. The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe

  87. The French Impressionists

  88. The Palm Springs Open

  89. The Renaissance Gallery

  90. The Renaissance of Florence

  91. The Riches of Coins

  92. The Story of Jonah

  93. The Story of Samson

  94. The World of Impressionism

  95. Time Life Photography

  96. Treasures of the Smithsonian

  97. Video Speedway

  98. You Sing Christmas Favorites

  99. Zombie Dinos from the Planet Zeltoid

  100. European exclusive: Lenting van Etten

  101.  

 

Notes, and the 25 Rarest longbox releases:

  1. Anne Willan Presents the Food of France and

  2.  2) ACT College Search ’92 were among a few titles that were “de-emphasized” in later Catalogs by Philips. A former Philips VP that helped me with my collection even mentioned that ACT was soon considered outdated. Anne Willan Food of France did receive a release in the UK and Europe in the original “eurocase” format and is slightly easier to find in that overseas version. ACT is a US longbox exclusive.

  3. It took me almost two years to find a complete copy of the bi-lingual version of How the Camel Got His Hump once I realized that it existed. It, and the more common Rhino Skin bi-lingual version, is a US longbox exclusive. They have unique content, different titles, different Catalog Numbers, and were advertised as separate titles.

  4. CD-i Music Book Volume 1 (there were no other Volumes) is another US longbox exclusive. It’s a real stealth rarity, and many collectors had been unaware that it existed for a long time.

  5. Sailing is another US longbox exclusive. Amazon had unsold stock until recently, but that is now all gone. It should not be confused with the similar sailing Cdi title Sail to Win by XDRA, which was also available in the US. The generic name doesn’t help when searching for a copy, so get ready for a lot of motor parts results. You can probably guess how much there was in the way of overlap between sailing enthusiasts and Cdi owners back in the day, which with the passage of time has made it very difficult to locate all these Decades later.

  6. More Dark Fables from Aesop was actually sold at the same time as the first Dark Fables from Aesop, and both also received overseas releases. The first Dark Fables title is quite common, and will throw off your search results. Somehow the US version of More Dark Fables just never seems to show up.

  7. Earth Rhythms is not actually a US longbox exclusive, as it also had a release as part of the Japanese Cdi set. Unlike most of the music related Cdi titles, it is not believed to have had a UK or European release, though I’d love to be proven wrong on that. It also isn’t just anybody’s cup of tea, but is a very relaxing and pleasant title to just sit back and watch on a proper CRT set with good speakers. I just happened to get my copy in a large lot, and have only seen it about 3 times in the past few Years.

  8. David and Goliath is the rarest of several biblically-themed storybook titles aimed at children. All of them are fairly tough to find, but David and Goliath is the toughest. It is possibly a US longbox exclusive, though some of its companion titles did get overseas releases. This particular bit of information is subject to change pending additional research.

  9. James Brown Non-Stop Hit Machine. This had releases outside the US, but is still very tough to find. There are many more James Brown fans than there are Cdi collectors, and most of the copies that come up draw their attention. Due to Copyright issues, this is one collection that will never, ever see any sort of re-release.

  10. The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe is not NSFW in the slightest bit, and is possibly the very tamest Cdi of them all in terms of the on-disc content. It’s just a slideshow of pictures of flowers. “Oh, what a nice man the artist must be! I should look up his other works…” Don’t. Just don’t. Absolutely do not ever look up anything about this title or Robert Mapplethorpe in general on anything other than your personal device with safe search settings enabled. You have been warned. Flowers of R.M. is another US longbox exclusive, and one that sold very poorly. Like a lot of other expensive Cdi titles, it draws attention from non-Cdi interest groups, in this case the gay art community. I had two extra copies that I put up for sale once and got some very generous offers from some very unusual sources that had been looking long and hard for copies of this particular title. You can expect the next copies that pop up on Ebay to go for large amounts. This is also one of the hybrid Cdi/PhotoCD longbox titles, all three of which are very rare nowadays.

  11. A Revolution in Color had releases outside the US, but the US longbox version is still difficult to find anywhere. It doesn’t help that the title will lead to a lot of results that have nothing to do with the Philips Cdi at all.

  12. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin bi-lingual version seems to be much more common than the equivalent Camel Hump, but is still a very rare title. I’ve seen it less than ten times ever. As with the bi-lingual Camel Hump, check your copy of the normal version, as you might already have this one and not realize it.

  13. Berenstain Bears had a re-release in the later jewel-case with slipcover format, and is fairly common to find that way. It is the earlier longbox version that you will rarely ever see. It was one of the last longbox releases before Philips switched case formats, and few copies of the longbox version were ever printed.

  14. Moses: The Exodus and

  15. Moses: Bound for The Promised Land are about equally rare, though both also had releases outside the US. They are often also found together in the same lot, so unless you find a lone copy for a really good price you can probably wait for a lot with both of them in it.

  16. How to Photograph Nature is another hybrid PhotoCD/Cdi longbox title, and also a US longbox exclusive as far as anyone knows. There’s absolutely no demand for it besides from fullset collectors, most of whom already have it.

  17. Gifts to Behold had releases outside the US (even in Japan!) but the US longbox version is tough to find and does not show up very often outside of random lots. If you see a copy in decent shape buy it!

  18. Amparo Museum (full name: A Visit to the Valley of Peubla and the Amparo Museum) was one of the early titles to be developed for the Cdi, and did get a release outside the US. While much more common than a lot of the other titles on this list, it is still very rare compared to other Cdi titles and games in general. There was only one early print run that did not sell well, and nowadays only shows up in a random lot or so. The low numbers that were made make it rare by default, and you won’t have a convenient time finding a copy.  

  19. You Sing Christmas Favorites- ever hook up a mic to your Cdi? Me neither, but that was the intent behind this title. It was re-named for the equally limited overseas Euro release, and nowadays hardly ever shows up for sale.

  20. Girl’s Club did have a fairly large print run and had overseas releases, but a lot of the copies of the US longbox version went to Blockbuster Video stores for rental (see above post) and now complete copies are tough to find, though there’s usally an overpriced BIN on Ebay. There aren’t many other girls dating “games” in general, and it has very much become an unintentional time capsule all these years later.

  21. A National Parks Tour is the third and most common of the longbox PhotoCD/Cdi hybrid titles, and while a US exclusive it did get a later jewel-case re-release. Neither version is particularly common, nor will it be an easy challenge to try and find a nice complete longbox copy.

  22. Rhythm Maker is an obscure title that seems to have been a US longbox exclusive and which only had a small print run. It tends to only show up in lots and almost never as a lone BIN or open auction. Numbers alone make it rare, but this one is particularly difficult to get by itself.

  23. Prelude is a title that had releases in all regions, but the US longbox version is a stealth rarity compared to most of the rest of the set. The complete lack of demand for it apart from dedicated Cdi collectors makes it look deceptively common when it really is not.

  24. Gardening: Flowers and Foliage is not a common title to begin with, and is even tougher to find outside of a large lot. The longbox version only had the one print run, though there was an overseas release in the “eurocase” format. While it remains quite a useful and easy to use program to use in planning your garden, nowadays only the most die-hard Cdi collector would want a copy.

  25. Rock Guitar is one of several guitar titles for the Cdi, and is by far the toughest of them to find. Part of this is due to the generic title, and also because very few people bought it back in the day by itself.

Edited by Blazing Lazers
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Thanks for the updates, @Blazing Lazers! Definitely interesting info. Personally, I consider the bilingual versions of How the Camel Got His Hump and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin as variants and do not plan on purchasing them and will consider my US longbox set complete without them. I fully understand why Philips would give the bilingual versions their own catalog numbers, as they had to differentiate them somehow from the standard releases, but from a personal collecting standpoint, they seem rather redundant, and I'll stick to unique titles. Still neat to know these exist!

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For local curiosities, I took pics of the French "big box" releases. Which are not the US longboxes (I have asked and that format seems to have never been released in Europe in general... At least not enough to have left memories of such a thing)

Anyway; it seems that the French branch of Philips Media tried to release CD-i games in big boxes, maybe to make the systems looks even more "computer" than it was perceived?

From what I could find, only 7 titles were released in that format (I do not own them all).

image.thumb.png.656825b1149b42bc2b8d42306a52cf54.png

As you can see from the LBA box, it's pretty much PC standard.

Also yes, there is even at least one "third party" title, as the 7st Guest is also the CD-i version.

image.thumb.png.dee1e504ca80a38849086b0e87ea5614.png

 

image.thumb.png.20a20ba95f03bebdc726f1c6f1599a5d.png

 

Once inside, the "real" CD is a standard European version :

image.thumb.png.2c61d69d573ec44d8ba88fee086488c6.png

 

So overall it's a fancier extra case for a regular CD-i software, with an added, "better" instruction manual in French only, and sometime goodies (like here, an envelope with game codes. Still sealed :D )

 

image.png

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