This is the second in the series of articles giving an overview of a specific Tolkien Collecting area. It is not a completest list of everything to do with the area (see the Visual Collecting Guides for that), but an introduction to the area to give people an idea of what the area is about.
Size of the Area
Computer and Video Games is suprisingly a medium sized Tolkien area to collect, there are only 12 categories within it, with approximately 38 games, however, there are a large number of versions, releases and editions of each game, and there are also a lot of related items, which makes it actually a bigger area than you would expect.
Overview, History and Scope
This scope is not meant to specifically set boundaries to any individual collection, but purely to define the scope of what is covered within this article and, to a lesser extent, what I consider the collecting area to includes.
The Computer and Video Games area consists roughly of 12 categories and approximately 38 games, which in itself is not that many.
Please note that the game images given below are just examples, there are many more editions and variations of each game.
80s independents – a variety of small individual games by different companies for the very early Computer and games consoles. These are mostly unlicensed, some with quite tenuous Tolkien connections (only name references etc) and some being Tolkien parodies. These games are Akalabeth (California Pacific), Lord of the Rings (Kansas), Shadowfax (Postern), Lord of the Balrogs (Supersoft), Moria (Severn), Gandalf the Sorcerer (Game Gems), Bord of the Rings (Delta4), Boggit (Delta4), An Everyday tale of a Seeker of Gold series (Zenobi).
Melbourne House/Addison-Wesley – this was the first licenced series of games based directly on the books and produced for various computers and consoles. It was distributed by Addison-Wesley in the US and had very different packaging. The games within the series are The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings: Part 1 (Fellowship of the Ring in the US), Shadows of Mordor, The Crack of Doom (US only), War in Middle Earth.
Interplay – this is a very small series of games based on the books. The games are Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings Part 1, The Two Towers.
Konami - produced just a single game, Riders of Rohan, based on the books.
Sierra – this series was released at the same time as the movies but is not movie based. The games in the series are Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, War of the Ring.
Electronic Arts (EA) Lord of the Rings Movies – these are the official series of games based on the movies (there was no Fellowship game). The games in this series are The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Third Age, Tactics.
Warner Brothers Individuals – these are individual stand alone games which are not movie based. The games are Aragorn’s Quest, War in the North, Guardians.
Electronic Arts (EA) Battle for Middle Earth – a strategy based series by EA which are based on the movies. Games are Battle for Middle Earth, Battle for Middle Earth II, Rise of the Witch-King (expansion).
Warner Brother Lord of the Rings Online – a huge online world not movie based, with a lot of expansions (although most of these are download only, so not collectable). This is the first series to have a lot of different ‘editions’ of games. The games are Shadow of Angmar, Mines of Moria (expansion).
Electronic Arts (EA) Individuals - this is just a single game, Conquest, based on the movies.
Lego – these are movie based (Lord of the Rings and Hobbit) but with the Lego twist. Lego dimensions is not Tolkien specific, but it does have Tolkien figures, including a Gandalf which comes with the basic system.
Warner Brothers ‘Shadows’ – these are the most recent games and the most advanced. They are not movie based. There are 2 games, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, however there is a large number of editions and different packaging releases for each game.
However there is a lot more to the Computer and Video Games area than just the individual games.
Firstly, for each of the games, there are multiple versions available for different Computers and Consoles.
As well as this there are also multiple releases of the same game and the same version, all with different packaging.
And often different ‘editions’ (i.e. Limited, Collectors, Mithril, Final, etc) of the same game, particularly the more recent games.
Games within a series are often re-packaged and re-released together.
All these different variations together mean that overall there are quite a lot of items available to collect.
Overlaps with other Areas
There is quite a lot of overlap with other Tolkien Collecting areas.
Some versions of Games, particularly the higher end versions come with additional items including Statues, Minifigures, Maps etc.
The US release of the Sierra series of games included Collectors Cards.
There are also a lot of Computer and Video Games Magazines featuring Tolkien Game covers and articles.
Although other computing/console items are generally out of scope (see below) some of those items are included if they are ‘branded’ specifically to a game.
A lot of the games have printed Game Guide books.
Out of Scope
Importantly, as we are looking at collecting and therefore are only interested in physical items which were/are commercially available, the computer world allows for non-packaged software to be purchased and downloaded, there are also a lot of other games which were/are either freeware/shareware or directly downloadable with nothing physical to collect, these games are not included in this overview (see the Tolkien Computer Games site for comprehensive details of all Tolkien games).
This area is looking at games only, out of scope are other computer items such as hardware, non-game software, peripherals etc, unless they are branded specifically to a game.
Promotional
There are quite a lot of promotional items for Computer and Video Games including Posters, T-Shirts and other branded items. These are very collectable as they are quite hard to find.
There are also quite a lot of shop promotional items including Posters, Standups and Flyers.
Away from the Normal
Nearly all the games were also published in multiple Countries around the World, a lot of which had different packaging, particularly with different languages.
Specialisations
As with most collecting, the main specialisation is to focus on a specific Countries releases, or expanding this to a specific language.
The obvious area of specialisation within Computer and Video Games is to collect a specific series.
You could also focus on a specific production company i.e. all EA games.
Another idea is to collect games for a specific Computer or Console i.e. XBOX Games only.
High End
There are not many high end items within Computer and Video games. The only ones are the Mithril Editions of the later games. These often include statues and other additional items, as well as the best versions of the games themselves.
Rare, Unusual and Interesting Items
The following are some of the rarer, unusual and interesting items to be found within the Computer and Video Game area.
Atari 2600 Prototype
Atari planned to release a Lord of the Rings game for the Atari 2600 Console. Although this was never actually released the game was actually created and a prototype produced. As well as this some packaging was designed and displayed at shows. Being one off’s these items are extremely rare (see AtariAge).
Akalabeth
This was the first Tolkien related game, although only vaguely related. This self published version is very very rare with only 12 copies produced. The game was officially released and became the pre-curser to the hugely successful Ultima series (not Tolkien related in any way).
Tandy Lord of the Rings Game
The Tandy Lord of the Rings Game by Kansas was the first specifically Tolkien related game and is extremely rare. I have never seen one for sale.
Battle for Middle Earth Rise of the Witchking
This expansion is not too hard to find, but is quite sort after and as such is relatively expensive.
Shadow of War Mithril
This was an expensive high-end limited edition item which came with a lot of extras including a limited edition 12” statue, premium case with magnetic ring, lithographs, stickers, parchment map, soundtrack. These are not hard to find but are expensive.
Lord of the Rings Online Collectors Limited Edition
This is a numbered Limited Edition and as such there are not that many around. It is however not impossible to find these.
Return of the King Sega Bootleg
This is an unofficial bootleg game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. It’s not an original game but a skin of a fighting game. I’m not exactly sure what the actual produced packaging is.
Sierra Lord of the Rings Collectors Cards Set
Not an actual game however these cards came free with Lord of the Rings game in the Sierra series (only in the US version). You did not know which one you would get and I’m not even sure how many are in the set (I have identified 23 to date). As people usually only purchase one copy of the game, it is almost impossible to find a completed set. Note: there are also smaller card sets with the other games in the series.
SNES Lord the Rings by Interplay
This is not particularly hard to find, however it is getting more and more expensive to buy.
What to watch out for
Computer Software used to be easy to copy and pirate, therefore you should be very wary of copies (tapes, disks, cd’s and dvd’s etc).
As with most collecting the condition of the item is important. Sealed items are obviously best, although theses cost the most. For used items the quality of the packaging is important, particularly for boxed games, and it is important that all the extras are there, particularly the instruction booklets. For Computer and Video Games the condition of the actual game itself (disc/tape/cd/dvd) is important, does it work, how scratched is it.
One thing to look out for when buying Computer and Video Games from eBay is to be certain of the actual version you are buying, sellers sometimes show images of a different version from the one they supply, be sure that the image shown is of the actual item.
Storage and Display
Computer and Arcade Games are relatively small and compact and as such are easy to store.
Bookshelves of games do make quite a good display, although in themselves they are not very ornamental.
What makes this area Interesting?
This is actually a very interesting Tolkien Area to collect. There is such a verity of releases, versions, editions etc of the games. It covers a reasonable period of time (not just the movies) and follows quite a good evolution of Computer and Video games in General. Computer and Video Games as a topic in its own right is quite collectable, particularly from a retro perspective.
Computer and Video Games is a reasonable sized area, but not overly big, with some good options for specialisation.
The majority of items in the area are very affordable.
Resources
As well as the reference given above, the following resources have a lot more details about Tolkien Computer and Video Games.
I would also recommend looking at websites which focus on a particular console/system, these have very good details about individual games albeit for that system, although you will have to search for specific games.
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