Remember when PC games came in boxes?

I was chatting with some friends and had some nostalgia - especially for these wacky boxes Eidos was obsessed with for a time

If you bought enough games to complete the circle, a portal opened up into Croft Manor. Or so they told us. I never completed mine :-(

Personally, I still prefer disc for my consoles - but for whatever reason stopped caring ages ago about PC going, for all intents and purposes, entirely digital. GoG helps - being able to back up and copy the games legally gives me peace of mind that my hording of old favorites isn't dependent on their service. Steam... I guess at least it doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

But there are times when the collector in me still misses the pleasure of picking up and physically holding these boxes. I wonder if I still have my Thief or TR1 box in a closet somewhere...

I used to love the boxes and random stuff that came with games on both PC and consoles. However, after a while it just becomes shit that takes up space and creates clutter. I can still appreciate good packaging and extras, but I have certainly lost heart for it. I prefer digital. Simple, convenient, and tidy. :)

Bah! that's nothing.

Falcon 4.0 came in a binder the size of an old school Bible.

But yes, I do remember the days. Ahhhh I do miss them.

Not so much the discs; I definitely do not miss those tbh.

But I do miss the feeling of peeling off that plastic wrap, that smell of the packaging from some far-off land, opening that cardboard box and gently shaking out the contents.

Sometimes, disapointment...a lone disc in a paper sleave with a few pamphlets and maybe a leaflet of a manual.

Oh, but sometimes! SOMETIMES SUCH WONDERS! Dozens, maybe even hundreds of pages of manual to read. Maps! Lore and game mechanics to delve into while you install. Sometimes, you wouldn't even know the game was done installing because you were so entranced by what you were reading.

Yup, totally miss them. I remember at one time I had quite a bookshelf full of them.

I miss the artwork. Otherwise I'm glad we've gone digital. The dog would always chew my disc cases...

Yes! I thought that they still do... What do I know, I've been going digital for years.

That original World of Warcraft box with the fold-out covers was beautiful!

@xantufrog: they still come in boxes you know.

Blizzard still makes awesome boxes with cutouts for most of their games. Diablo3 and the reaper of souls expansion have awesome boxes. SC2 had one as well. They're like the last company putting any effort into standard edition game boxes.

I have in the old big boxes like that.

Broken Sword 2

Star Trek TNG interactive technical manual

Star Trek Captains Chair

Star Trek Star Fleet academy 1

Star Trek voyager elite Force

Wing commander prophecy

Wing Commander 4

Star Trek TNG interactive technical manual and Star Trek Captains Chair I got when I was in Vegas when I went to stratosphere for day to look round convention in that store and went on TNG ride. They don't work on windows 10 but did work on windows XP back in the day even in UK. Also got a Voyager com badge.

Yes, some games. None in weird boxes like I showed above, and it's always just a disk rattling around loose in a box, without a nice manual and map and other goodies. I've got a number of recent-ish boxes, like SCII, so I know they are still sold physically

Again, depends on the game and version.

My Wildlands CE came with a map and other goodies.

@FelipeInside: ok. I think you're taking the intent of this thread too seriously. And of course CEs come with more goodies.

I bought that tomb raider in that box :)

The game was so good at the time!!!

Yeah.... I have quite a few. The oldest of which is probably the OG Myst box.

I'm glad they don't really do that anymore. I already have way more junk than space to store it. There are always collector's editions in the case I want something more tangible.

This was by far my biggest PC box. I also still have the Battlefield 1942 boxes too!! But yea those days are gone now as they take up room. I'm all digital. Ultimately my favourites were the ones that came with Maps, GTA San Andreas, TES Oblivion, I would spend hours looking at them while playing. I used to buy a lot of game guides, now I switched to their digital ones as well.

I got rid of mine. I'm not really attached to games. On the other hand, I love scale model box art print from real paintings by artists with signature and all.

lol, not at all. Just saying don't give up on gaming boxes just yet ;-)

@jun_aka_pekto said:

I got rid of mine. I'm not really attached to games. On the other hand, I love scale model box art print from real paintings by artists with signature and all.

OMFG ACES OF THE PACIFIC! One of my most treasured games of all time! My dad and I would take turns flying against the aces in that game. God, I would kill for a flight simulator just like that right now.

Warms my heart to see that.

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe was another of my favorites. Had cool box art as well

I still have all my PC game boxes of my favourite games. Also kept all my NES and SNES boxes as well.

I also love the old instruction manuals that came with games and you could look at all the keyboard shortcuts while you played. The Ultima 7 manual is a piece of art... even the texture of it is weird and inside of it reads like an ancient relic. What do you get now adays, i guess you can download a PDF file, so much fun that is.

All this digital is nice for saving in storage space but games lose the nostalgic value when you have nothing physical to them.

Awwwww....yea....

I got Dark Souls 3 on disc actually.

starcraft 2 wings of liberty was in a box when i purchased it. purchased heart of the swarm digitally though, will do the same in the future for legacy of the void

I have the original Planescape: Torment shoe box with everything inside. The poster, the guide, the jewel case, the manual, etc. It's a beautiful thing.

I'd still have the original boxes of some older games such as:

• System Shock 2
• Half-Life
• Black & White
• Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
• Lords of the Realm II
• Thief
• Doom
• MechWarrior 2
• The Chosen: Blood II
• Star Wars: Episode 1 Phantom Menace
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight
• and a handful of others that I've forgotten

If my younger brother hadn't dug through stored boxes after I moved out to college. He went digging through boxes and found my collection of PC games that I didn't take with and took it upon himself to play them. The asshat that he was at the time, ruined all the boxes, almost every CD and manual/artbook that came in the boxes. From the games listed above this is what I have left of them:

• System Shock 2 - nothing, all destroyed
• Half-Life - cracked jewel case w/ game disc that has minor scratches
• Black & White - nothing, all destroyed
• Warcraft: Orcs & Humans - nothing, all destroyed
• Lords of the Realm II - cracked jewel case w/ game disc and slightly abused manual
• Thief - just the disc, I had to find a jewel case
• Doom - nothing, all destroyed
• MechWarrior 2 - nothing, all destroyed
• Star Wars: Episode 1 Phantom Menace - cracked jewel case and minor scratched game disc
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight - I don't think he ever found this one - box is dinged up a bit, but everything is still in it
• The Chosen: Blood II - game disc and box - manual and anything else that may have been in the box was destroyed
• So many others lost to the hands of a little 15 year old punk back in 2000/2001

I still have a lot of physical copies of games, but only a few are actually large game boxes. Most boxes are the height of a normal DVD case, but a couple inches thick.

I still buy physical copies of games if I find them cheap (but this is maybe a couple games a year). Granted almost all physical copies require an internet connection to download the game (even though you have the DVD in the DVD-Rom) and initiate it on a gaming platform such as Steam/UPlay or some such. I still enjoy the physical copy.

As said in another topic I did there now selling boxes with out games on amazon. Those Steel book editions where it use to be a day one limited time but now selling on there own for £14,99 with out game.

I really miss the manuals that used to come with them.

I remember when mom would take the snes away, and I would read the boxes of the games I bought. Weird, it was torture now, yet I thank her for making me read books. Maybe if she just let me play zelda and mk3 ultimate all day, I would still be a christian. Oh, the awesome irony.

@harry_james_pot: Yup some games do need them. Games like elite dangerous. You shouldn't have to go to forums or youtube to get some tutorials.

yeah i do

What a waste of space that was.Boxes and shelves full of garbage.

Good riddance.I am 100% digital on both consoles and PC.

Man! Those were the days. Today's kids will never understand the excitement of all of it! :-)

My last boxed game (as in cardboard box, not plastic) was actually Homeworld Remastered Collectors Edition, which was fairly recent (year and a half?). It came with a bunch of stuff including a small art book and 1 ft. model of the Pride of Hiigara mothership from HW2.

Here's a random YouTube unboxing video I found to give a sense of scale.

I also have the boxes (and discs) for Homeworld, Homeworld 2, FEAR, FEAR Platinum Collection, World in Conflict Collectors Edition, Divinity: Anthology, and Divinity: Original Sin Collectors Edition. I have lots more physical games, but they are in plastic boxes which usually aren't as interesting.

I still prefer physical boxed copies for collection and display purposes! <3

I remember being like 13 and seeing this box and was like "damn I need this". My mom hated violent games but my dad didn't give a shit so he bought it for me. I still say BLOOD is the best build engine game and was far better than Duke Nukem 3D.

I remember buying the Quake expansions, they were big boxes. I still buy boxed copies whenever I can, it makes me feel like i purchased something I can hold. I also could never afford games as a kid so now that I can, it's boxed copies all the way.

Some were actually complete enough to be good reading material.

I have the distinct memory of passing by the Starcraft and Warcraft boxes at Target and always flipping out because it was one of the few games that could run on my Mac.

Yeah, nice.... and then you have to type in all the stupid codes lots of letters and numbers.. and insert disc 2 then click ok. disc 3 too.. oh hell no.