Those of you who only started playing computer and video games in the late 1990s may wonder why anyone would write an article on computer game packaging. After all, today’s computer game boxes serve a largely utilitarian purpose of holding the game’s discs. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if 5 years from now computer games all come in cases similar to Playstation and Xbox games. I’ve seen several computer games come in packaging like this already. Many of today’s games don’t even come with a printed manual. You’re either left with an electronic copy or sometimes just an in-game tutorial.
It wasn’t always like this. In the early days of computer games, the design and contents of the computer game box was sometimes as important as the game itself. Box art was especially important. Publishers had to make the game look as exciting as possible to overcome the crude graphics. Many times a detailed manual was included, along with extra trinkets and foldouts.
I’ve saved every computer game I’ve ever owned. Below are some pictures of a few of my favorite games and some of the nifty items that came in their boxes.
Wing Commander was my first non-educational computer game. It came out way back in 1990. The box says that the game is a special promotional release, but the only thing special about this version was that it was the second printing. The manual was made to be like a magazine for the carrier you were stationed on in the game. It also came with some neat blueprints for the various ships you could fly in the game, and they contained many of the answers for some of the evil copy protection questions you were asked. If you needed 5¼ inch floppies there was a form you could send in. The game also came with a game catalog that I’ve long since lost.
Ultima Underworld was the first real role-playing game I played. Not only was this game incredibly addicting, it came with a lot of cool stuff. Unfortunately the game is on 5¼ inch floppies so I’ll probably never play this game again. I have a 5¼ inch floppy drive lying around somewhere but I know I’ll never get around to installing it. Included was a player’s guide, a paper map of the first level of the game, a second manual describing the background of the game’s storyline, a reference card and install guide, and a puck containing six metal runes. The metal runes didn’t serve any purpose; they were just a nifty extra. The purple paper is an advertisement. The hint book didn’t come with the game, but I included it for the sake of completeness.
Ultima VII: Serpent Isle is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, games of all time. I played and replayed this game for years after I bought it and it was still fun. The most interesting item included in this game was the cloth map of the game world. I was so much of a dork that I actually hung it on my wall for a few years. The standard stuff was included like the install guide and reference card. The booklet that came with the game was a sort of field guide to the game world which made it interesting. One interesting thing of note is that the MSRP of all the games in the Origin catalog are $79.99. A bit pricey.
I picked up Ultima VI in a bargain bin at Wal-Mart. It had to have been at least 5 years since the game had come out. I found it unappealing to play after playing the newer games in the series, not to mention that the game was difficult. This edition of the game was a reprint of the original version. It came in a smaller box and had a paper map instead of a cloth map. It was also missing the trinket that came with the original version. The game also had an odd installation program which involved inserting and reinserting the disks multiple times.
This last game is fairly recent compared to the previous games. Baldur’s Gate was a great game and its sequel was even better. It came with a glossy map of the city of Baldur’s Gate and a fat 150+ page manual. The game also happened to come with one of the worst CD cases ever created. It was made out of cardboard instead of plastic and the CDs easily fell out if you held it the wrong way.
I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past. Here is my entire collection of computer games for any of you who are curious.
And yes, that’s an MS-DOS box at the bottom of the shelf.
Excellent nostalgia this brings. Now we need to pull out the cassettes we used on the Commodore 64s, the days when the phrase “purchased games” couldn’t even reach our minds.
Who remembers those old cassettes? 30 minutes to load a game only to get an error message at the end.
Oooh the nostalgia…. *sniff* And I totally agree with you. Game boxes were really something back then.
Ahhh.. The days when game boxes were actually used for more than storing a couple of discs in paper cases
Yep, I hear you man. I too own Baldur’s Gate 1 and two, and the packaging was great. While the manuals both had some information that was a bit off, about specific spells or whatever, mostly, they were great.
I see Civ3 on your shelf, but not Civ4. Check it out. It’s far better, and the manual is nice, too.
NES and SNES games had great packaging too. The RPGs had multiple maps and really thick manuals with a lot of cool art in them.
I’ve played Civ4 and it’s definately a great game.
Did you ever own Civ2? I played a friend’s copy and I remember the manual being the size of a small novel.
Excellent blog. As a packaging designer and game enthusiast, I can appreciate great game package design. Great to see that someone else appreciates it as well. Wonderful pieces you have there.
oh man! i want your “system shock 2″ box and game… ah the nostalgia! the long lonely gruesome nights.. love it! miss it!
nice collection man!
Ahh, those were the good old days. Even before the games you mentioned, does anyone remember the Infocom text adventures? They always came with cool stuff. Wishbringer came with a plastic glow-in-the-dark rock!
Some of the most beautiful artwork I’ve seen in any medium graced the boxes of games I bought for my Atari 800XL in the early to mid 1980’s and for my Commodore Amiga from the late 1980’s though the mid 1990’s. Though I understand and (mostly) agree with the push to reduce packaging materials, I was more than a little saddened to see it happen.
Those are nice, but how about the old Infocom boxes?
Starcross came in a flying saucer.
Suspended came with a white plastic mask with a very creepy picture behind it.
Zork was a simple package, though.
Planetfall came with all sorts of goodies.
…You get the idea.
Great collection.
Remember the specci games where the packaging promised far far more than the games graphics could muster..atic attack ….Dale Thompson’s decathalon the breaker of many many sticks of joy…attack of the mutant camels
For some reason, this post reminds me of this: http://www.tapedeck.org/
Great blog, and what memories!
Somehow the excitement of a new game just isn’t what it used to be…or is it that I am simply getting older? The same seems to apply to buying a new music CD, a new DVD and the whole of Christmas…..what a sad old git! I find myself longing for the simplicity of the Atari 800 and C64…what days!
This is pretty eerie — the only games I don’t have that you do is Half Life, Privateer and Max Payne. The only games I have that you don’t (from that era) seems to be C&C Sole Survivor
I actually was a beta tester for Sole Survivor, but I didn’t think the game was ever released. I never really thought the game was that fun and my copy of the CD has been lost for a long time.
Yeah when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64, is was CRAZY!
I remember game boxes what were in crazy shapes like skulls and stuff too.
Ahh…memories…
The original Wing Commander game actually came with four seperate, single-sided “blueprints” of the Hornet, Raptor, Rapier, and Scimitar. I think you might have taken the blueprints from your blue, “Special Edition” box (which also included Secret Missions 1 and 2).
I’m not trying to nitpick or anything, just pointing out that even between the time of the original release and the re-release, they’d managed to tone down the game extras in a slight way, perhaps signalling the beginning of the end of awesome game-accompanying add-ons.
I’d think that, in an age where you have to pay $49.99 for a game versus $19.99, they’d have increased the meaningless fun goodies that come with them, rather than eliminating them.
Now if I could only find the original pocket lint that came with my Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy discs for the C64…
I was never a fan of the big boxes, but I always did love the extras they put in it. The original Grand Theft Auto came with that awesome map that was so helpful. The smaller boxes today are great though, there was so much wasted material in the bigger boxes.
To think how many of those I carelessly threw away.
Ahh, Memories …
My first role-playing game was a text adventure, but as far as the genre that came to be, in terms of graphics, et cetera, was also Ultima collection.
Baldur Gate was next. Now they have real-person-point movement, as in the Morrowind (Elder Scrolls) series that utilizes the wonders of DVD and powerful graphics now and add-on type adventures that adds to the mapping of the wonderful world created - Bloodmoon (werewolves added) and so on.
My all-time favorite in terms of adventure, flight simulation was Privateer, which I no longer have. I wish they would bring it back with all the power of today’s graphics.
Thanks for sharing your nostalgic memories and sparking mine.
Total Transformation:
I agree - wish I would have kept those classics … maps, et cetera.
And I also like the Civilization series, of which the graphics is great in series IV. Sid Meir’s also puts out “Pirates” - which is cool, but wish they would upgrade it and make more choices available. That came with a manual as well.
I forgot to mention an excellent game created by some Russian geeks entitled “Arcanum” - and wondered why they didn’t make it into a series like the Elder Scrolls chronicles like Morrowind, Bloodmoon, et cetera?
Man, this brings back sweet memories. I too have a similar cabinet with those old gaming boxes and even some cassettes. I’ll try and remember making a picture (remind me if I forget). Can’t let go of them. I was overjoyed to find out that the new Silent Hunter IV was also available in a nice Deluxe edition. Look at this: http://shop.ubi.com/SH4/UK/
I was happy as a kid when that package arrived last Thursday.
I don’t think I see anything on that shelf that isn’t amazing.
The manual that came with Falcon 4.0 was approximately the size and length of your average bible, also included was a poster sized map of the Korean Peninsula. Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams include a in-flight magazine. Damn DVD cases and PDF manuals, bloody cheapskate publishers.