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Limited Run editions arrive

As most people around here know, the third party company dedicated to making limited collector’s editions of retro video games, Limited Run Games, did a run of Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, back in April. Obviously orders were limited for these, but they have finally begun to arrive at peoples’ homes over the last few weeks. I personally ordered the PC version of both JO and JA, and thought people might be interested in details of these editions.

First off, these come with a lot of stuff. I’ll be posting pictures of all of it, and go into a little detail on each thing.

Jedi Outcast (Overview)

Jedi Academy (Overview)

Jedi Outcast Concept Art

The concept art post cards are really cool. I’m sure these were somewhere on the internet before, but this was the first time I had seen them. One looks like the howler NPC that we didn’t end up seeing until JKA. Another is showing the Doomgiver’s underbelly, and the last is the outside of Kejim Outpost.

Jedi Academy Concept Art

I love saber hilt concept art and these are pretty darn close to what they look like in-game. The Yavin Runner shuttle design is pretty cool and I always thought it looked like something you’d see zooming around Coruscant. The other cards just basically show shots from random levels, which isn’t nearly as cool.

Retrospectives

Each come with a small booklet that has a little statement from Edwin Evans-Thirwell and Ed Smith, who I believe are gaming journalists. I feel this was a huge missed opportunity to have retrospectives from the developers themselves. These are very wordy and one talks mostly about Movie Battles, which I won’t deny is the most popular mode these days, but is odd to mention in a retrospective meant to talk about the game’s history itself, not a fan made mod. Nonetheless, still cool.

Thumb drive installers

One of the interesting parts of these bundles is the thumb drive. Both include an .exe installer for the game, and a PDF of the original guide that was included with the game back in the day. The installers seem to be brand new, and allow you to install each game without a disc at all. I verified that you can copy the installer, remove the drive, and install it from anywhere. Each is the latest version of the game (JK2 SP 1.03, MP 1.04 | JKA 1.01) and don’t need the disc to run. 😳 I was glad for this because I didn’t want to ever have to open the CD packaging (not that I’d need the installers anyway, but if Steam or GOG ever magically disappear, I’m still safe. It’s just nice that they actually are useful. I wasn’t expecting anything on these 2GB drives, but when I saw installers, I half expected them to just be disc dumps.

Thoughts?

Overall these are awesome collector’s editions. Huge thanks to Limited Run Games for making these and still giving so much love to games considered to be dead. These games will always live on here on JKHub, on the servers, in the communities, and now on our shelves and walls. I will be hanging at least one of the posters at my place, and the pins are going on my car sun visor, for sure. Anyone else get theirs? Any non-PC editions to share?