I would think a big obstacle to re-releasing these in any form would be getting permission from the rightsholders to distribute the bonus content, as Erik alluded to
here.
I'm not sure there is a comprehensive list anywhere of what was included on all the discs, so I decided to make one.
Journey to Rooted Hold
Click here to view the secret text
×The only bonus content on this release appears to be a bunch of demos for other games. According to
this post, the earliest release included a 26 page booklet, but my copy only has a single page insert with the cover art on the front and credits on the back. I've always wondered was took up the other 24 pages.
King Dugan's Dungeon
Click here to view the secret text
×This release includes two holds, King Dugan's Dungeon 2.0 by The Caravel Team and The Choice by Neil Frederick.
Again, the only bonus content is a collection of game demos.
Fall 2005: Perfection
Click here to view the secret text
×This release features the hold Perfection by Larry Murk.
No bonus content save for some game demos.
Winter 2005: Halph Stories
Click here to view the secret text
×This release includes two holds,
Beethro and the Secret Society by Jacob Grinfeld and
Halph Has a Bad Day by Eytan Zweig.
This was the first release to be treated as a sort of quarterly magazine, with extra content in addition to the holds. The bonus content is comprised of:
The Shadowman - Part 1, an audio drama by Holodio Theatre
A text interview with Jon Sonnenberg
Two songs by Jon Sonnenberg, "
Hospital"
and "
You and I"
Three songs by Erik from the JtRH soundtrack, "
Delver,"
"
Construction,"
and "
Devious"
More game demos
Holodio Theatre's
website is still up and it appears that you can still buy
The Shadowman directly from them, but it looks like the site hasn't been updated since 2005 or so.
The two Sonnenberg songs are from the Travelogue album
Imaginary Hospitals and can be purchased directly from his
website. The interview was conducted by Erik and I don't think it's been reproduced anywhere.
The three JtRH songs have since been released as part of
Deadly Music of Death - Volume 2.
Spring 2006 - Beethro's Teacher
Click here to view the secret text
×This release features the hold
Beethro's Teacher by Henri Kareinen.
Bonus content:
The Shadowman - Part 2, an audio drama by Holodio Theatre
The CONvergence, an audio drama by Jeffrey Adams
Two songs from
Morning's Wrath, "
Morning's Room"
and "
Lost Battle"
Three songs from JtRH, "
Without Fear,"
"
Sneaking Around the Docks,"
and "
My Small Box"
An audio interview with Thom Robertson of Aggressive Games from the Indie Game Development Podcast
A map of The High Path (also printed on the back of the cover art)
Game demos
The Shadowman is available from
Holodio Theatre,
The CONvergence is available from
Amazon,
Apple Music, and various other places, the
Morning's Wrath soundtrack is available on
Soundcloud, the JtRH songs can all be found on
Deadly Music of Death - Volume 2, and the Thom Robertson interview is available
here. The High Path map can be seen
here, but it looks like a scan of the printed version.
Summer/Fall 2006 - Journey's End
Click here to view the secret text
×This release includes two (three?) holds,
Smitemastery 101 by Jacob Grinfeld and
Master Locks (and
Master Locks Expert) by Larry Murk.
Bonus content:
The Shadowman - Part 3, an audio drama by Holodio Theatre
This Pointless Thing Called Life - Chapter 1, an audio drama by Alan Marshall
Two versions of the song "
I Saw Isosceles"
from
Perfection, the original and an instrumental version
A song by Erik called "
I Don't Really Hate Putting Up the Christmas Tree"
Audio interviews with Erik Hermansen and Joe Lieberman from the Indie Game Development Podcast
Indie Superstar - Episode 1
Game demos
Also, on the back of the cover art, there's an explanation from Erik of why Beethro has grey skin.
All four episodes of
This Pointless Thing Called Life are available on the CaravelNet downloads page of the forum. I think these are available to anyone who has CaravelNet, not just people who bought the SMS, at least, that's what
this thread suggests. I also found the whole thing on
YouTube.
The original version of "
I Saw Isosceles"
was included in the
Perfection hold, but, as far as I know, the instrumental version has never been released elsewhere. "
I Don't Really Hate Putting Up the Christmas Tree"
is an instrumental with printed lyrics, which I'm pretty sure has also never been released elsewhere.
The interview with Erik can be heard
here and the interview with Joe Lieberman can be heard
here.
Indie Superstar is a show about independent games in a mock-newscast style, created by Ichiro Lambe. The Wayback Machine has an
archived page about it with YouTube links to some of the episodes. They're unlisted, but the links still work.
The City Beneath
Click here to view the secret text
×The main hold is, of course,
The City Beneath by the Caravel Team.
Bonus content:
A small hold called
Danforth's Pad that collects all of Danforth Strout's sales pitches from the first three games
The map of the High Path
A Tale of Two Kingdoms and
Subterra II by Crystal Shard
Fish Fillets Next Generation by Altair Interactive
The deluxe boxed edition also includes a printed map of Dugandy drawn by Brett Boyette.
I think the bonus games on this release are all full versions, not demos. It looks like
A Tale of Two Kingdoms is still available from
Crystal Shard, but Subterra II is not.
Fish Fillets Next Generation is available
here.
Summer 2008 - Devilishly Dangerous Dungeons of Doom
Click here to view the secret text
×One hold,
Devilishly Dangerous Dungeons of Doom by Roger Barnett
Bonus Content:
This Pointless Thing Called Life - Chapter 2, an audio drama by Alan Marshall
"
A Stalwart's Ballad,"
a song written to promote DROD RPG
A high resolution version of the CD cover art by Roger Barnett
Indie Superstar - Episode 3
Game demos
Not much new here, but "
A Stalwart's Ballad"
can be found
here.
Spring 2009 - Smitemaster for Hire
Click here to view the secret text
×This release includes two holds,
Suit Pursuit by Jason Fedor and
Complex Complex by Rasmus Björling.
Bonus content:
This Pointless Thing Called Life - Chapter 3, an audio drama by Alan Marshall
"
Uncovered,"
a song from JtRH
High resolution CD cover art by Brett Boyette
Custom character portrait of a Negotiator from TCB, licensed for use in user holds
Indie Superstar - Episode 4
A single game demo, for
Wonderful End of the World
"
Uncovered"
was released under a Creative Commons license at silver's request and can be downloaded
here. It's also included with
Deadly Music of Death. You can get
Wonderful End of the World from
Steam
Spring 2011 - The Truthlock Method
Click here to view the secret text
×This release includes a single hold,
Finding the First Truth by George Wanfried.
Bonus content:
This Pointless Thing Called Life - Chapter 4, an audio drama by Alan Marshall
"
Beethro Hears the Universal Song,"
a story by Erik Hermansen
High resolution CD cover art by Brett Boyette
Custom character portrait of Bombus Gadhan from TCB, licensed for use in user holds
Indie Superstar - Episode 5
"
Beethro Hears the Universal Song"
is reproduced from the
website.
Gunthro and the Epic Blunder
Click here to view the secret text
×In addition to the main hold, this release includes a bonus hold, Flood Warning by TFMurphy.
Bonus content:
GatEB audio teaser
GatEB video trailer
Custom character portraits for Fake Rasarun Court Leader, Real Rasarun Court Leader, Patron and Tuenan Captain
To sum up, there's not a whole lot here that's actually exclusive. Honestly, I think the greatest appeal of the SMS CDs is the physical objects themselves.
Some things I think Caravel could release more broadly without a great deal of effort are the maps of the High Path and Dugandy, the instrumental version of "
I Saw Isosceles,"
and the interview with Jon Sonnenberg. It would be nice to have high quality cover art for all the releases, but I think Erik lost a lot of the original artwork in a hard drive crash some time back, so that's probably not feasible. The custom character portraits might be better packaged into something like Custom Character Graphics Packs for their respective holds, similar to the TSS Custom Elements Bonus Pack.
Erik indicates in the release notes that "
I Don't Really Hate Putting Up the Christmas Tree"
should be considered public domain, so I've attached it here. Lyrics are behind the secret tag.
Click here to view the secret text
×Oh, I don't really hate
putting up the Christmas tree
it just seems that way
to you but not to me.
Sure I swear while heaving boxes
and I guess that is obnoxious.
No, I don't really hate
putting up the Christmas tree.
I could easily run away and then I would be free.
From arguments concerning ornament placement
and frequent trips down to the basement.
I don't hate it. I would rate it...
a solid 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.
To say I hate it, is overstated
can we just carry on and still be friends?
I don't hate it, although I'm fated
to wrestle that spiky thing up the stairs.
I've compensated for being jaded,
by writing you this song to show I care.
About you, but not really the tree,
that you're happy and even mer-ry.
That crappy, plastic tree
can burn in tree hell...