Old Gemstone III (GS3) Advertisements

[ThatOtherGuy]

This past August marked the 21st year since I started playing GemStone. Since that means my game experience is now officially old enough to buy alcohol, I decided I need to do something to commemorate it.

I delved into the internet and spent several hours researching to dig up any old marketing materials I could find related to GS/Simu. I found the following adverts:

1. GEnie Ad mentioning Gemstone (August 1991: Computer Gaming World #85, page 17) [Link to 600 dpi JPG]
Note: This GE ad appears again in CGW #102, page 124.

2. GemStone III "Send a Chain Letter" Ad (September 1997: Dragon Magazine #239, page 14) [Link to 600 dpi JPG]

3. GemStone III "You'll Never Know Who Will Show Up" Ad (October 1997: Dragon Magazine #240, page 10) [Link to 600 dpi JPG]

4. DragonRealms Ad (October 1997: Dragon Magazine #240, page 18) [Link to 600 dpi JPG]

I ended up buying the two Draogn Magazines on eBay and carefully removing the two 1997 GemStone ads, and framing them up along with a matching shadowbox that now displays my SimuCon 2000 program, pencil, badge, and pale blue GS lanyard as well as the two real gems I've found over the decades (a teardrop-cut blue topaz, and a ovular-cut purple amethyst). It all makes for a neat display in my office that reminds me of some fun times over the past 21 years.

As far as I can tell, each of the GS3 ads and the DR ad only ever had one run of each, and were never run again. The timing closely coincides with the announcement of the GemStone III nomination for the "1998 Online Game of the Year" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. So, the decision by Simu to suddenly run magazine ads may have been directly related to that.

I'm curious, does anyone else have any GemStone-related memorabilia they've hung onto or created to commemorate their experiences?

I have a SimuCon 2000 t-shirt, a GemStone III t-shirt with Tracy Butler's art on it, and a black embroidered GemStone III logo sweatshirt.

I used to have one of the oversized dark blue/gold traced GS3 logo mugs, but an ex-girlfriend's toddler niece shattered that over a decade past. I really wish I could find another to replace it; I would pay mint for one just to add it to my new GS display.

Anyway I thought I would share the info and the ads in case they would be useful to anyone. 500 px thumbnails attached to this message. 600 dpi high-res JPGs linked via Google Drive in message above.

-- Myharl's Player.