Unboxing: Shadowgate

Wow. I had almost forgotten that this was coming my way. Back in October of 2012, I backed the Shadowgate remake Kickstarter. 3,468 people took part, helping to release a high def remake of the game many of us played on Apple IIes and the old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Backers who pledged $100 or more would get a special boxed edition of the game. Now I normally don’t splurge for boxed copies of PC games on Kickstarter if I have a digital option even though I’ve backed some fine games like Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father 20th Anniversary Edition Dreamfall Chapters and the like, a physical copy of a PC game seems a bit daft in this day and age where a lot of computers don’t even have a CD-Rom or DVD drive. However, for Shadowgate and Shadowrun Returns before it, I made an exception. Why? Because I’m such a huge fan of both brands I decided it would be a neat collectable (something I rarely ever do) to look at enjoy down the road. Since there are only 600 copies of the boxed version of Shadowgate, I thought I’d do a quick unboxing for you. There isn’t much to it, but since it will rarely be seen, I figured our readers would at least enjoy seeing a copy of it.

Here’s the box waiting to be opened for the first time.

Here is the back/bottom of the box. Click on the picture for a larger version where you can read the sheer amount of text on the box.

Here’s what the inside of the box looks like. Pretty no frills for $100, right? Still, there’s something about having Shadowgate in physical form that thrills me. My wife was even more excited. She came home after a long day of work, sat down on the couch, started to tell me about my day and in mid-sentence was, “Holy ^&$%&^! Is that SHADOWGATE?”

What the box looks like when you remove the jewel case and its disc. Surprise! There’s a satin map folded and sealed in a bag at the bottom.

A look at the unfolded map. Oh man, it is super satiny soft.

Another look at the map.

Here’s everything in the box set displayed together.

So now, you’re probably saying, “That’s all you get for $100? That’s not much.” You’re right. Well, except about the $100. I actually pledged $130. However, there was a lot more to the pledge that this boxed version of Shadowgate. I was also an alpha tester. I received a second digital copy which I gave to Dave to review on the site. I received a card game called Quests of Shadowgate that was interesting, but nothing ground breaking. (I reviewed it for the tabletop side of the site). I also got a calendar, some posters, a few bumper stickers, a digital artbook and I’m sure some other stuff I’ve forgotten about over the past two years. Most importantly, I helped a whole new generation of gamers discover Shadowgate. The dollar amount was completely worth it to me, especially since I was also a backer of Zojoi’s first (failed) kickstarter based on their awesome Sherlock Holmes games.

So there you go a look at one of the few Shadowgate boxed sets made.