It took quite a few years, but it now seems that the Japanese trend of releasing a standard and LE edition of a new game has completely permeated the U.S. game market. As I picked up my Fallout 3 lunchbox it made me wonder how long there has really been such a thing as a LE/CE/Premium console game. Not counting stuff where the standard edition was unusual like Earthbound, or the Working Designs releases, or preorder bonuses like the TRU N64 duffel, the Cloud Strife T-shirt, or the Grandia cloth map, what really was the first LE? The earliest one I can recall from Japan is the Skies of Arcadia LE, which I believe came with a wooden box. (I still kick myself for not trying harder to get one.) The earliest I can recall for the U.S. is maybe the Gold Ocarina carts, but I don't really count those because technically they were a standard edition. The earliest I can clearly recall being available in two different editions at launch was Robotech Battlecry. But I know there must be older ones. Surely there were some PS1 and Saturn LE's, but where there any on the SNES/SFC or Genesis/MD? Japan has obviously been keen on the practice for far longer than the U.S. I'm really asking two questions here - what were the earliest LE's in Japan and what were the earliest LE's in the U.S. Come to think of it, I'm just really interested in starting a discussion about LE's.
¿Famicom´s golden carts? , with goodies, the earliest I can remember is the deluxe pack of Super Famicom´s Fire Emblem Trachia 776: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-6s-77-1-49-en-15-fire+emblem-70-15un.html
There was a PSOne Collector's Edition of Mega Man 8. I can't recall any earlier US versions of Collector's Editions that were not in fact the regular release.
Fire Emblem Tracia boxset came in 2000 when LE boxes were already common practice. @samson7point1 You could buy it also as an SFMemory game, yes. There were boxsets with goodies way before, but then again this was in most cases also the only version available, so its not really something special to own this version of the particular game (like quite some Famicom-games from Irem, Bothmec and others). I guess the first games that were sold in two versions hit the PC-Engine. Forgotten Worlds was sold in a package with a 6-button pad, but I wouldn't really call that a "limited edition". First things I can remember right now (being sold in 2 versions at least) were released for the Saturn/PSX. Regarding the outside world, I can only guess. The first PAL-boxes I have in mind are for PSX, like Wild 9, Breath of Fire, MGS.
Sensible Soccer for the 64 and speccy was the first limited edition game according to a video game history book I have.
Not the first, but for the Master System the most well known one is the "The Lucky Dime Caper Limited Edition Gift Set" (Game, T-Shirt, Music Cassette)
The Japanese Meag Drive game J.League Pro Soccer can as a standard version or with a 4 player multitap packed it. The Japanese have been doing limited editions along side normal editions since the 8 bit times. It only really kicked off with the Saturn and PlayStation though. Yakumo
Oldest LE/CE you can remember or owned...thats my guess. That was pretty snazzy but it was a Gamestop exclusive and Gamestop makes me die. I think Lunar was the first one I can remember getting...too bad it got stolen... I think the constant CE/LE shit is getting annoying in this day and age because some games don't need them and some games don't deserve them.
If you count pack-ins, I've got Star Raiders for the Atari VCS which came with it's own "Video Touch Controller" and Omega Race, which came with it's own "Booster Grip Controller".
There was also a Ninja (Gaiden or smth?) Game for the Atari VCS, that came with a Ninja Mask and stuff. Iirc it was released in the UK and got banned for some reason, some collectors own it though.
Revenge of the Gobots on C64 - had the story narrated as an audio track on the second side of the tape. Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday, came with the story of the game as a paperback novel which was apparently also sold separately since it had an ISBN code, though that might have been the standard edition of the game. Dragonflight on the Amiga was a special edition though, signed card from the developers, full colour gloss print manual, email pin and a lot more. Btw, did all versions of Lemmings2 come in a cardboard fold-out case with a localized novel and a pin of the Bazooka Lemming? Mine did, still have the pin ^^
I remember Last Ninja 2 on the C64 having a special edition that came with a ninja cape - unfortunately i never bought this one.
