Here there were tigers

Maps, whether they are level maps, item placement locations or the free A3 sheet you got when you bought the special edition of killbot 9, maps are everywhere in gaming.

I've been clearing out some old plastic boxes I've had lying about for years, they are where i put the art books, plastic figures and tat I get tucked inside the covers and boxes of the various special editions of games and software.

I have been slowly filling them up each time I buy one, the shops and retailers i sell games onto don't seem to care if the box has the full colour map of liberty city or the destroyed beauty book of art from inside gears of war, just as long as it has the tin box and the discs inside.





I still have the metal safety deposit box for GTA 4 long after the actual game was traded in gamestation (other game stores are available) .





The maps of champions online are still there, even though the 30 day subscription was never renewed, crack Downs islands are still blue tacked to the lid of one of the boxes even though i no longer leap its buildings in a single bound.





All these reminders of virtual, open and vibrant worlds i no longer live in or even visit, In fact some of them don't even exist any more, not that they ever did in a real sense, what I mean is that the servers they ran on and lived through are no longer active, they did not get the awe and power of a super nova to mark their passing, they were not sucker into a black hole and swallowed up by dark matter, they were simply switched off.

Phantasy star online is no longer online, Hellgate; London is now hellgate nowhere and tablo rasha is Mort.

How long before my World of warcraft Atlas is all that remains of Azeroth? when will oblivion's map of Tamrael and its free spetim coin be my only reminder of the 200 odd hours of play over the last 4 years?

I've searched over the web and located several sites dedicated to these maps of nowhere, so at least as long as they keep these archives up then at least some of these lost continents will be remembered.

Mapping the past

Maps, whether they are level maps, item placement locations or the free A3 sheet you got when you bought the special edition of killbot 9, maps are everywhere in gaming.

I've been clearing out some old plastic boxes I've had lying about for years, they are where i put the art books, plastic figures and tat I get with the special editions

Saturn shatern

After several months of good luck on eBay and other auction sites I've finally hit a brick wall.

The boxed US boxed SEGA Saturn i picked up last year (November) refuses to sell at even the low price of £25 with 4 games and 2 pads included!!

Having sold 3 in the last 12 months, all 3 boxed and in the same condition (good, slightly worn box corners) i thought this last one would sell, but it appears i was wrong.

I had good feed back from my other buyers and I'm a 100% seller with over 1000 consoles sold.

So whats the problem?

Will try it one more time, maybe adding need for speed to the games offered will tempt a buyer, hopefully one of the 20 or so watchers i get will actually bid this time.