Iggi (35816) on 4/17/2020 10:53 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

After having analyzed eBay listings for some time now, there seem to exist (at least) three versions of the German release. Let's not get this research work lost, so I'll just dump my results here :-)

• The original brown box typically contained one of three magazines (PC Action, PC Player or PC Joker, all of them in their highest priced edition including another full version of a game). The box is always the same and only has a sticker attached to the front, indicating the included magazine.
• Then there also seems to exist a brown box without any magazine, but this version may have a different EAN - it seems an additional sticker was put on top of the existing EAN number. Unfortunately I wasn't able to decipher that number on the only listing I found.
• A later re-release comes in a blue box with a different EAN; the included magazine (only PC Joker?) is the basic version without any CD.

All of the brown boxes contain a thin manual with installation instructions for Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures and the copy protection codes for Loom and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a note about Win95 compatibility, a registration card leaflet, the code wheels for Monkey Island 1 and Monkey Island 2 and the Zak McKracken copy protection table. Some versions also seem to contain the Maniac Mansion copy protections codes, occasionally also manuals for some of the games seem to be included. The blue box contains all the mandatory stuff of the brown box, but has the manual and Win95 note combined into one brochure.

Magazine issues found in the brown box so far:

• PC Action Plus 06/97
• PC Games 4/97
• PC Joker 5/98

Magazines from the blue box:

• PC Joker 2/2000

It seems they threw in whatever was available at the time of the current production batch...