Some interesting promotional videos popped up on eBay this week. According to the seller of these VCD’s (see below), they were used by stores like KMart and Walmart back in the late 90’s. Representatives from Nintendo (you know, those guys with Nintendo t-shirts that walks in the video games department and fixes and tidy up all the Nintendo 1st party games – these days you’ll often see them at Best Buy and GameStop) probably distributed them. As with most promotional and advertising paraphernalia, they end up staying at the store to be used and abused until someone like this seller rescues it and sells it on eBay 10 to 15 years later.
VCD (short for VideoCD) was an early digital format that features a full length movie on a regular cd that can be played on VCD players. VCD’s we primarily huge in Asian countries such as China and Japan. The format was popular due to the fact that it uses regular cd’s instead of a proprietary disc such as the DVD or Bluray. Since these VCD’s are just regular cd’s, they can be accessed through any laptop or macs. VCD’s were also popular because it was one of the first video formats to be distributed illegally over the internet.
Version #33 (Banjo Kazooie) – $29.99 to start almost 4 days left
Version #31 (Kirby on the disc) – same price almost the same ending time.
The seller also has a Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess preview DVD for E3 2005 (another one here but with a picture), and a Smash Bros. Melee orchestra cd.