Feelie - Wikipedia
A feelie is a physical item included to supplement a video game. Likely deriving their name from the fictional media in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World, feelies were popularized by the American video game company Infocom in the 1980s and subsequently adopted by such companies as Origin Systems and Sierra Entertainment in the United States and Namco and ASCII in Japan. Becoming less prevalent since the rise of digital distribution, feelies are now limited primarily to deluxe editions that are sold at a premium.
Feelies may take various forms, with common ones including reproductions of game objects, printed materials, cosmetics, and figurines. Historically, feelies allowed video game developers to implement copy protection and minimize the amount of digital space used for supplemental materials while simultaneously distinguishing their products from those of competitors. For players, feelies could provide assistance during gameplay, opportunities for continued play elsewhere, and improved immersion. Scholars have explored feelies as paratexts, while video game journalists have recalled them fondly.
The word "feelie" was used by the video game company Infocom to refer to the physical items packaged with its games.[ 1] It had previously been used to describe a form of entertainment that also stimulates the senses of touch and smell by Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World (1932), which likely provides the etymology.[ 2] In a 2013 interview, Infocom founder Dave Lebling recalled the team as having drawn inspiration from the board games of Dennis Wheatley, which had included dossiers, interviews, and even locks of hair.[ 3]
