GOG Brings Back Retro Big Box PC Games With Printable DIY Scans
The rationale is simple preserving the hobby of PC gaming doesn't just mean preserving the games. There is a rich culture in the manuals, maps, and other accoutrements included with classic PC games, and the boxes are included in that too. Many of them featured elaborate art intended to catch the eye while the game sat on a store shelf. Often, the box was the only place to find a concise listing of a game's system requirements, although the paper manual would usually have the full details. Simply seeing some of the old developer logos is enough to bring a tear to the eye as middle-aged gamers (who are the ones old enough to remember these physical releases) recall classic game developers long since defunct.
GOG's offering here is possible as part of a collaboration with the Big Box Collection, which is a website that has grown out of the passion project of a preservationist known as Benjamin Wimmer. GOG is currently offering the box visuals as 3D models and downloads for five games. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog are the two newest additions, joining Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, and Myst as the first titles where you can check out a full 3D model of the original game box featuring scanned art and download a PDF designed to be printed and then folded so as to recreate the original box.
However, the Big Box Collection itself has an incredible wealth of detail on the boxes and box contents of 891 games from not only IBM PC compatibles, but also from other classic home computers like the Commodore 64 and Amiga. Each game's profile page includes the spinnable 3D model viewable on the web, and has tons of detail about developers, publishers, platforms, release dates, and so on. There's even a feature called the Nerdwall where you can see all the games Wimmer owns lined up on his shelf in a massive, zoomable 207-megapixel panorama photo. It's quite a sight!
GOG's blog post laments the death of physical media, which has been a hot topic after Sony announced that it would stop the production of PlayStation game discs in 2028. It's been a long time coming for console games; the transition to digital happened ages ago for PC gamers. It is somewhat an inevitability no matter how we feel about it because there are simply too many factors that make digital distribution compelling for both publishers and players. That doesn't mean we have to accept consumer-hostile policies that allow publishers to revoke access to games whenever they want and leave us with no recourse to enjoy the content we paid for, though.
If you feel strongly about the death of physical media, rather than railing against inevitability by screeching at Sony in a vain attempt to force the company to produce physical games forever, why not simply purchase your games from GOG? The site offers DRM-free downloads for all of its games, allowing you to preserve the installers so that you can keep copies of them for yourself even if the whole internet falls apart. While this might not be as comforting as a mass-produced piece of physical media you can stare at lovingly, it is the only cold comfort available in a world that absolutely hates consumer agency.
