Acclaim/Arena/Flying Edge - A Genesis Collecting Guide

[RoyalT | 161]

Full credit to SuperGamBoy for this OP - his guides come in very handy when collecting on the Genesis, where case/reg card/poster swaps happen all the time, it's nice to know exactly what belongs where. 

 

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In this mini guide I’ll be focusing on all of the titles that Acclaim published for the Sega Genesis.  

This guide will not include games published by Flying Edge or Arena.  Both Flying Edge and Arena appear to have become associated with Acclaim in 1992.  Arena had been formed as a division of Mirrorsoft Ltd. in 1991 to publish Mirrorsoft’s games (with the Arena label) games for the Sega Genesis.  The arrangement was related to contract issues with Nintendo.  Acclaim acquired Mirrorsoft (and the Arena label) on January 6, 1992.  Acclaim also created the subsidiary Flying Edge in 1992 and debuted it at Summer CES in June of that year.  The final games for each label came out in 1994, after which Acclaim used its name on all of the titles it published.  In the second post of this thread, I’ll post full lists of games published by Flying Edge and Arena.

There are 27 Acclaim published releases for the Sega Genesis.

#	Title	Year	Poster Style	Case Style	Additional Inserts
1	Batman Forever	1995	Black/Silver	Regular
2	College Slam	1996	Black/Silver	Wide
3	Cutthroat Island	1996	Black/Silver	Wide
4	Demolition Man	1995	Dream Team	Regular
5	Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story	1994	Dream Team	Regular
6	Foreman For Real	1995	Dream Team	Regular
7	Frank Thomas: Big Hurt Baseball	1995	Black/Silver	Regular	Baseball Card
8	Judge Dredd	1995	Dream Team	Regular	AOL Disk
9	Justice League Task Force	1995	Dream Team	Regular
10	Mortal Kombat II	1994	Dream Team	Regular
11	NBA Jam: T.E.	1994	Dream Team	Regular	Orange Tip Card
12	Newman Haas IndyCar featuring Nigel Mansell	1994	Dream Team	Regular
13	NFL Quarterback Club	1994	Offense/Defense	Regular
14	NFL Quarterback Club 96	1995	Hyper Audibles and Black/Silver	Regular	NFL Merchandise Catalog
15	Revolution X	1995	Black/Silver	Wide
16	Scooby-Doo Mystery	1995	Black/Silver	Regular
17	Spider-Man: The Animated Series	1995	Dream Team	Regular
18	Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage	1994	VG Blockbusters	Regular
19	Spot Goes to Hollywood	1995	Black/Silver	Wide
20	Stargate	1995	Dream Team	Regular
21	True Lies	1995	Dream Team	Regular
22	Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety	1995	Black/Silver	Wide
23	Virtual Bart	1994	Dream Team	Regular
24	Warlock	1994	Dream Team	Regular
25	Wolverine: Adamantium Rage	1994	Dream Team	Regular
26	WWF Raw	1994	Dream Team	Regular	Aura Interactor
27	WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game	1995	Black/Silver	Regular

I’ve labeled this guide as a “mini” guide because the contents for all of these Acclaim releases are pretty similar.  Every single Acclaim release includes a game-specific registration card and an Acclaim poster/insert.  The main point of this guide is to direct you to which posters came with which games while also highlighting any additional inserts that came with certain games.

To begin, there are two main posters that were packed in with Acclaim published games for the Sega Genesis.  Games published in 1994, along with a few games in 1995, included a poster/insert with the text “Acclaim’s Dream Team!”  Later in 1995, and for both releases in 1996, Acclaim instead packed in an insert that I refer to as the “Black/Silver” poster.  The word Genesis is written in silver on a black background. For each insert I’ve tried to show what it looks like when it’s folded up and when it’s completely unfolded.  Both of those posters are blank on the opposite side.



Acclaim’s Dream Team!



Black/Silver Poster

Here are all of the games that used the “Acclaim’s Dream Team!” poster:


And here are the games that included the Black/Silver poster:


Acclaim (and its subsidiary labels) also used a poster that read “Video Game Blockbusters.”  This poster has Acclaim, Arena, Flying Edge, and LJN logos in the top right corner.  I have seen the poster packed in with some Arena games and at least one Flying Edge game.  

Maximum Carnage is the only Acclaim title to include the “Video Game Blockbusters” poster.




A note on Maximum Carnange: this game has two releases, one with a black cart and one with a red cart.  The boxes, manuals, and inserts for the games are identical.  The only difference between the two releases is the color of the cart.  When sealed, the red cart release had a sticker on the outside indicating that the cartridge was red.



Maximum Carnage was also packaged with a comic book, three lapel pins, and a certificate of authenticity for a release through QVC. The release for that package was the one with the red cartridge, and the game itself was sealed, just as it would have been at retail.  The box holding the game and the pack-in items was also sealed.  As this package was released through QVC, I don’t count it as something that Acclaim “published.”

NFL Quarterback Club had its own poster that was two-sided.  One side shows offensive plays and the other defensive plays:



NFL Quarterback Club 96 included a hybrid poster.  One side of the poster is the Black/Silver poster included with games released in 1995 and 1996, and the other side features “Hyper Audibles”:

NFL Quarterback Club 96 also included an NFL Merchandise Catalog:


In addition to NFL Quarterback Club 96, four other releases had additional inserts that came with the games.

Frank Thomas: Big Hurt Baseball included a Frank Thomas baseball card.  The card has an acclaim logo on the back and appears to be unique to this game:



Judge Dredd came with an AOL diskette in a special sleeve that was adhered to the back of the clamshell, underneath the shrink wrap.  The art design on the sleeve matches the back of the boxes artwork so that the sleeve blends in:


NBA JAM T.E. included an orange insert that reads “Read Carefully Before You Lace Up The Shoes!”:


WWF Raw appears to have included an insert for Aura Interactor.  This insert is a more recent discovery for me, but I’ve seen it with two separate copies of the game.



For Acclaim releases, there were two kinds of cases.  The vast majority of games use a clamshell case with a cart holder that is the same size as a normal Genesis cart.  A few titles in 1995 and 1996 used a new case with a larger cart holder, one that could have accommodated an EA games cart.  The games that I know about that used the new case style are: College Slam, Cutthroat Island, Revolution X, Separation Anxiety, and Spot Goes to Hollywood.  There may be others, but those are the five that I have observed.

Regular case:


Wide Case:

[RoyalT | 161]

Part 2: 

Arena

#	Title	Year	Case Style	Poster	Reg Card	Additional Inserts
1	Alien 3	1992	Sega
2	Back to the Future: Part III	1991	Sega
3	Battlemaster	1991	Sega			Battlemaster Poster
4	Mortal Kombat	1993	Acclaim	VG Blockbusters	Yes	CD single insert
5	NBA Jam	1994	Acclaim	VG Blockbusters	Yes	Fleer Cards
6	Predator 2	1992	Sega
7	Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe	1991	Sega
8	Super High Impact	1992	Sega
9	T2: The Arcade Game	1992	Acclaim

A couple of notes:

Arena Entertainment was a publishing label for Mirrosoft and it released games prior to Acclaim’s purchase of the company in January 1992.  As a result, some Arena games used normal Sega branded clamshells, even though the company is often associated with Acclaim.  Even after the acquisition, it appears that games continued to use Sega cases for a time.  Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam definitely used Acclaim style cases, and I’m pretty sure T2: The Arcade Game did as well.  It is possible that other games also did, and perhaps some games were released in both case styles.  I haven’t seen observed in both cases, but I’m learning about these subtle differences for the first time while researching these releases, and it seems reasonable that some of these games could have gotten a second print run with updated clamshells.  

Similarly, the “Video Game Blockbusters” poster doesn’t appear to pop up until the Arena releases in 1993 and 1994.

NBA Jam has two releases, one whose cover mentions the ‘NBA Jam Session Fleer Cards,” and one that does not.  I presume the release without the cards is a second, later release.


I presume Mortal Kombat had more than one release and that not all releases of the game included the CD single insert, but I’m really not certain one way or the other.


Flying Edge
 

#	Title	Year	Case Style	Poster	Reg Card	Additional Inserts
1	The Addams Family	1994	Sega		Yes
2	Arch Rivals: The Arcade Game	1992	Sega
3	Champions World Class Soccer	1994	Acclaim	VG Blockbusters	Yes
4	Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game	1992	Sega
5	Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge	1992	Sega
6	George Foreman’s KO Boxing	1992	Sega
7	The Incredible Crash Dummies	1994	Sega		Yes
8	Krusty’s Super Fun House	1992	Sega
9	NBA All-Star Challenge	1992	Acclaim
10	Robocop 3	1993	Acclaim		Yes
11	Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball	1992	Sega
12	The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants	1992	Sega		No
13	The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare	1993	Sega
14	Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge	1993	Sega	Dream Team	Yes	Inserts only in Mexico release
15	Steel Empire	1992	Sega
16	Super Smash TV	1992	Sega
17	Terminator 2: Judgement Day	1993	Acclaim	VG Blockbusters	Yes
18	WWF Super Wrestlemania	1992	Sega
19	WWF Royal Rumble	1993	Acclaim		Yes

I’m sure the chart above on Flying Edge isn’t complete, and I welcome input of any of the other games have registration cards or posters.  I don’t think any of the Flying Edge games have additional inserts.
Lastly, I figure I’ll mention Williams, since they were the publisher for two Mortal Kombat games.  In total it appears that Williams published three games for the Sega Genesis:

1.    Mortal Kombat 3
2.    Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
3.    Williams Arcade’s Greatest Hits

Mortal Kombat 3 is a clamshell release. From checking eBay, it appears that this game was released in both styles of Acclaim case, regular and wide – though, I am not certain.  My sealed copy very clearly has the regular style case:


All the copies I have seen of Mortal Kombat 3 (regardless of the uncertainly over case style) have come with a vertical “Williams Warranty Registration & Free Drawing” card.


 


In addition, it appears that a black sticker is covering the acclaim logo. I presume this would also be the case in a wide case-style release.


There are two separate releases of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.  The first release includes a color manual and two inserts.  One insert is a poster for the Midway game NBA Hangtime, and the second insert is a “Williams Warranty Registration & Free Drawing” card.  This registration card is similar to the one included with Mortal Kombat 3; however, the text on the card is read horizontally instead of vertically.

 
 
 


The second release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 includes a black and white manual and a Midway registration card.



I believe this is also the same Midway registration card that was packed in with the Paper Boy games.

Similar to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Williams Arcade’s Greatest Hits also has two releases, one with a color manual and one with a black and white manual.  The inserts for each release mirror those of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Also of note, the first release of each game (UMK3 and Williams) has a cardboard tray with white inner cardboard; however, in the second releases the cardboard inside of the slide tray is brown, which is probably more "basic" or slightly cheaper to manufacture.


Color manual release

Black and white manual release

My main goal in this “guide” was to cover Acclaim games, but in the end, I decided I wasn’t able to do that adequately without touching on Arena, Flying Edge, and Williams.  I’m open to improving my guides, and if you see anything that seems off, please post in the thread!

[mideast | 144]

Great post! I've found your guides very helpful for my collection.

I just wanted to point out though my copy of NFL Quarterback Club 96 does have a wide Acclaim case.

And I've searched ebay and found 3 others with it as well.

Is it possible they released it with the regular Acclaim case and wide case at different times? Thanks!

[Retromangia | 3]

Such a terrific and invaluable post. Thank you for taking the time to post and preserve this information .  Keep them coming brotha.