Does anyone know how I could find out the exact month that old (1974-1983) TSR items were released? Typically all I can find are years, and even the publication dates printed in the books can be wrong. For example, the Moldvay Basic D&D rulebook says it was first printed in January 1981. There is no way it was released that early, though. It couldn't have been released until the summer of 1981 at the earliest.

One thing I've tried is searching my Dragon CDs for release dates and earliest mentions, and that helps, but it leaves something to be desired.

I imagine that it is possible, but it is definitely gooing to take some work.   I guess the best way to start is to find a good point of reference and work from there.

Geoffrey . . . what are you looking for exactly?  Everything?  Are there a few that you are particularly interested in?

What I mean is . . . if you are looking for anything/everything there is only going to be general advice on different mags, publications, etc. that might lead to clues.  If you have some specific questions, there might be some who have seen such ads or may (possibly) have some additional info to give.

Geoffrey wrote:Does anyone know how I could find out the exact month that old (1974-1983) TSR items were released? Typically all I can find are years, and even the publication dates printed in the books can be wrong. For example, the Moldvay Basic D&D rulebook says it was first printed in January 1981. There is no way it was released that early, though. It couldn't have been released until the summer of 1981 at the earliest.

One thing I've tried is searching my Dragon CDs for release dates and earliest mentions, and that helps, but it leaves something to be desired.

Well, as to how you could find them out, it's a lot of comparative analysis with "known" dates.  I've done a teensy tiny bit of this, but there are others on the forum that might be able to tell you straight away.  *cough* David *cough*

The Dragon CD is actually a good idea...I'll have to try that one.  Was there a specific item you're wondering about?

Geoffrey wrote:There are two specific items I am particularly wondering about:

First and most importantly, the month that the AD&D Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia hit the shelves.

Second, the month that the Moldvay Basic D&D set hit the shelves.

Nobody else has taken a stab at this so I'll throw out my hair-brained ideas.  

I don't know about the Deities, but I have some info, at least.  It would be between 05/1980 (date of the forward being 1 May 1980) and 12/1980.  Presumably much earlier than December, because there were three printings in 1980.  

If anyone has a 6th printing PHB (with yellow flyleaves), please check the catalog page at the back to see if there is any mention of Deities & Demigods.  My 7th does, but it's true printing date isn't known.  (After 05/80, anyway).  The MM yields similar disappointing results -- there's no mention of DDG in the 4th MM, but there is in the 5th.  So all we learned is that the 5th MM was printed after 05/80.    

There's some minor evidence that the WoG folio predated DDG, so if anyone has a firm date on that, it would help as well.  That's all I can dig up for now.

The Moldvay Basic (1st printing of that revision, listed as the 8th printing overall on Acaeum) rulebook states January, 1981.  That would be the printing date, though.  No idea when it actually hit the shelves.  (Oh wait...you knew that.   )

My sixth print PHB, with yellow flyleaves, does not list the Deities & Demigods.
I also have a PHB with white flyleaves that does not list it. I assume this one falls somewhere inbetween the 6th and 7th prints listed here.

Mike

Someone over on ENWorld pointed to a monster index excel file in the thread @ http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rp ... 1e-2e.html as a resource for determining TSR's monthly release dates schedule.  

The file itself is at http://ant.hivemind.net/Products_2008-12-30.xls and I thought folks might want to check it out.  I've done a cursory scan of it, and while I would quibble with some of the dates, it looks like a good start.

Has anyone else worked-up a similar release calendar?

grodog wrote:The file itself is at http://ant.hivemind.net/Products_2008-12-30.xls and I thought folks might want to check it out.  I've done a cursory scan of it, and while I would quibble with some of the dates, it looks like a good start.

"Quibble" = fair number of dubious earlier dates?
A good, comprehensive effort even if they could perhaps have made more use of "?" notation if attempting to state definitive release dates. (/12 is also being used for "don't know", at a guess)

The accuracy does improve for later dates.  Certainly better/more exhaustive than any other list I've seen.  It has been useful to me in researching some things.