r/retrogaming • u/CboyFloppy • 2d ago
[Discussion] Chef Boyardee Floppy Disk
Long ago when I was s kid I found a 3.5 floppy disk with the Chef Boyardee brand on it while playing around at my grandmothers. I thought nothing of it for years and eventually I gave it to my friend as a gift just for display. I thought it would be a cool little item to show off. I saw it the other day still sitting on his shelf and thought maybe I should research it a little bit and see what the contents were like as I have never had a pc to boot it up and try it out. Low and behold there is no information about this thing on the internet, not even a picture. I looked on here and multiple other places and I can't even find a conversation about this thing. I asked my friend for a picture of it and I'll post it tomorrow if this thing is indeed lost media. If it's confirmed I'll try to find a way to make a disk image of it and dump the contents online. If anyone has any information about the game please let me know. I would have posted this in [r/lostmedia](r/lostmedia) but my account is too new. If anyone knows someone over there that would be interested in this maybe discovery let me know as well. If I have a piece of lost gaming history here I'd like to let this little artifact be marked as found. Thanks in advance!
Edit: Picture included. I’m gonna try to get some time together to get a drive for the game. I could get a greaseweazel or whatever was suggested and try that. I do have a job and family so it could be a minute but I will be trying my best to make an image and share it with the community!

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u/KWhtN 2d ago
The only thing I was able to establish is that it was indeed a promotional game of some sorts on floppy disk (as opposed to a recipe collection or whatnot).
American Home Foods also had a video game that promoted Chef Boyardee that it distributed on floppy disk.
source: https://money.howstuffworks.com/advergaming.htm
It seems to be considered significant because it was one of the first in the genre of advergames. Wikipedia and a bunch of other sources describe it as such. At the same time it does seem lost media. Like you say, barely any information available. No screenshot, title, year of publication... despite its apparent significance.
I think it is worth the effort to post details about it, if you can, so this gap can be closed.
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u/CboyFloppy 2d ago
Added a photo of it. I’m not sure how in demand the thing is but proof is posted. If it is lost and needing to be dumped I’ll have to pick it up, check the mag strip and figure out a way to connect a 30 year old floppy to my modern computer and make a disk image.
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u/pacha69 2d ago
I'm pretty sure there usb floppy disk readers
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u/chandler0201 2d ago
Exactly, just the later smaller floppy disks though, right? I've been looking for years for a USB floppy disk reader that can read the large 1980s floppy disks but I guess those don't exist.
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u/CboyFloppy 2d ago
Yeah the 3.5 ones. I’m afraid to put it in a cheap one. Apparently those have a chance of messing up old hardware. And they also expect the disk to be pristine, which this disk is 30 years old. I’ll probably end up buying a nicer one just for the little added peace of mind.
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u/genital_furbies 2d ago
I think they only have the 3 3/4" floppy disk drives. I have one, and the USB powers it. I have a musical keyboard with such a drive, and I load a disk with MIDI files, and play them on it.
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u/OystersCockafeller 1d ago
If you're talking about 5 1/4 disk, not the older/rarer 8" ones, they're not that hard to read.
External drives that connect via serial or parallel exist, though they're rare. You can hook em up with a USB adapter.
The easier way though would be to just get a USB adapter for the 34-pin floppy cable. You can get em on Amazon for under $20. Then just plug in a traditional drive.
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u/Tobi1973 1d ago
Oh wow. I didn’t know this. Do you have a link for such an USB-Adapter?
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u/OystersCockafeller 1d ago
Sure. https://a.co/d/04IU9z7l
Other folks make them too. I'm pretty sure adafruit makes their own if you want something a bit higher quality.
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u/2ciggs 2d ago
Post in r/bigboxcollectors or the Big Box PC game groups on Facebook. Much more knowledgeable people about early computer games.
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u/compman007 1d ago
Yes get a USB floppy drive and make an image of it and plop it on the Internet archive!!!!!!!!!!! I want to check it out!!!
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