Digital game store GOG has just announced a novel idea in the wake of heated discussions about physical media – printable big game boxes. “This time, we’re preserving more than just the code,” said the retailer in its announcement that classic titles Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog are coming to the platform.
In addition to the aforementioned games, printable boxes are also going to be available for internal 3D spaceship shooter Descent, incomprehensible point-and-click adventure Myst, and assassin simulator Hitman: Codename 47. The move is a part of the GOG Preservation Program, and developed in conjunction with Big Box Collection. It’s well worth looking at the latter’s website, a personal passion project by Benjamin Wimmer, which contains hundreds of 3D scans of classic PC game boxes.
GOG is notable for offering a large catalogue of games from the PC’s expansive back catalogue, as well as new titles, which are guaranteed to work on your new rig. While that at least gets the game running, though, it’s not the same as having the original physical box to put on your shelf.
When you purchase one of these games, you’ll get downloadable 3D scans of the original boxes, which you can view and rotate so you can see all the detail. However, you’ll also get the files to print out the box yourself, which you’ll then need to cut out, fold and stick together.
“Physical media doesn’t survive the way software can,” explains GOG. “Boxes get lost, crushed, thrown out. Scanning them, and letting you print your own, is preservation in a different shape: the same mission that keeps these games running on modern PCs, applied to the objects they used to come in.”
I’m old enough to remember the days when buying a PC game didn’t involve any downloading. Instead, you’d go to a physical shop and purchase a box full of goodies.
We’re not talking about a plastic DVD-style case here either. You’d get a proper card box, and it would feature a bundle of floppy disks (or later a CD or DVD-ROM), a manual, and sometimes a wacky form of copy protection required to get into the game. If you were lucky, you might get a map and a poster too.
Before you made your purchase, you’d have a good look at the screenshots on the back of the box and, crucially, inspect the system requirements sticker. You came home feeling like you’d really bought something with your money although, after a while, you’d also have to find room for all the boxes.
Even so, I’d love to see a return to physical game boxes – they make for great Christmas and birthday presents. I loved the Baldur’s Gate 3 boxed edition, even if the game was ultimately supplied via Steam.
In the meantime, it’s nice to see at least an acknowledgement that some veteran PC gamers might want the boxes with their retro titles. You might even enjoy the process of assembling your box, like an Airfix kit. As GOG says, this scheme gives you “a proper papercraft project for anyone who misses shelves full of PC game boxes.”
