Big Boxed PC Games - And Collecting Them

[McBacon]

Is anyone a Big Box fan? I plan to get all my fav adventures purely for retrospective fun, grew up playing Monkey Island and the likes.

But what about you guys, any sweet collections, a tonne of big FPS boxes around your PC rig? A full lucas arts adventure collection?

Hook us up to some pics, stories and opinions!

[c0ldb33r]

Loose discs in a CD binder for me.

I suck. :D

Day of the Tentacle CD version fo' life!

[tylerwillis]

I have 20ish big boxes; I really try not to keep them unless I really want them - take up too much space and come in a variety of oddball sizes. Makes the type-A antsy.

Highlights?
QFG 1-3, 5
Hero's Quest (original QFG)
Space Quest IV
Secret, Escape Monkey Island
King's Quest 1, 5, 6
Lemmings
Baldur's Gate
Diablo
Starcraft
Warcraft II
The Wheel of Time

[jajaja]

The old big box PC games owns :) Sad they stopped with it, atleast here in Europe. Now all PC games, so to say, are in DVD cases. I have about 30 big box games myself, all old stuff.

[Iron Draggon]

I was keeping all my boxes for a while, but it got to a point where I had way too many of them, and nowhere to put them all, so I threw them all out except for a select few. Now I just have the boxes for the entire Roller Coaster Tycoon series (1-3 and all expansions for each) and all the other rollercoaster/theme park related games that I own.

On a side note, I was stacking all the other boxes that I had on top of a CD rack, leaning against a wall. I never noticed it until I threw them all out, but the weight of all the boxes was enough that it actually warped the top rack of the CD rack. Pissed me off. I never thought that a bunch of empty boxes could have such an effect on anything, but they did. I guess I should've stacked them all elsewhere.

[CYRiX]

I threw out all my big boxes except my quake 3 arena one (Which is a tin). But I'm starting to collect the smaller boxed games.

[Cirrus]

The only Big Box I ever really kept was my original release Sim City, which I gave to a friend as a graduation present (he became a Civil Engineer... I had no choice!).

I'm keeping my WC3, Diablo 2, and Starcraft "Battle Chests", since they are nice looking, and contain a lot of good stuff.

However, I'm really LIKING the new DVD Case approach to packaging PC games. To me, it makes them much easier to display... or actually hold onto.

It also makes them a bit more appealing to the console gamers, which is a good thing for everyone.

[CYRiX]

They need to figure out like a template though for PC games instead of having them look like movies.

[Cirrus]

They need to figure out like a template though for PC games instead of having them look like movies.

So are you saying that all ps2, xbox, and gc games look like movies since they are in DVD cases?

Edit: And that all PS1 and dreamcast games look like Audio CDs? :)

[Cirrus]

Check out this guy's collection:
http://www.if-legends.org/~yois/vault.php

It's actually a really cool site he has (if-legends hosts it).

(Doesn't display his stuff all that well, but he's got quite a collection!)

[scorch56]

I have over 500 PC games.. but I slowed WAY down on my buying them several years ago when I switched my priorities over to console collecting (in fact.. I haven't bought a PC game since they started coming out in little boxes).

It got so bad that I actually had to rent a storage unit just to store a bunch of empty boxes (because I kept the games & manuals on my shelf). After paying about $40 a month for over 2 years; one day I just realized how stupid it was, and threw them all away and gave up the unit (save for just a few boxes for games I deemed as rare at the time). Now I'm kicking myself for doing that as I've seen older PC games gain in collecting popularity lately. Oh well

[incubus421]

I have the following in their big boxes and totally complete in good condition:
- Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
- Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
- The Sims: Hot Date (not a big box)
- Diablo Battle Chest
- World of Warcraft (not a big box)

And I think that is about it.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I threw away many of my old boxes when I was younger. Blade Runner, Gabriel Knight Mysteries, Gabriel Knight 3, Septerra Core, Tachyon: The Fringe... God, I hate myself for doing this.

Nowadays I keep the boxes. Many of them are stored in my desk, others are inside shoeboxes. :)

[o2william]

I've got a few, and I have mixed feelings about it. The really big boxes are so wasteful of space, yet most of them are games I really like, so the collector in me wants to keep them. Without going through my big box of big boxes, I can remember having these:

Master of Orion
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Atari 2600 Action Pack 1 & 2
King's Quest 1 & 4
Hero's Quest
Lightspeed
Castlevania (yep, there's a PC version)
Ninja Gaiden II (ditto)
Starflight 1 & 2 (I have the gatefold version, but also the big-box reissue of SF1)

The most pointless big box I have is probably Castle of the Winds I: A Question of Vengeance. Unbelievably, some company actually made an oversized box to distribute the shareware version of this Win 3.1 game that fits on one 3.5" disk. I have a similar box labeled "Terror of the Catacombs" which is actually just the shareware version of The Catacomb Abyss 3-D. I had a lot fun with both games so I'm hanging onto the boxes. I'm crazy.

[Joker T]

Threw away most of mine, others are put away. My games are on a cd rack.

[Jibbajaba]

http://alaimolabs.com/P1010233.JPG

http://alaimolabs.com/P1010234.JPG

Might and Magic: Clounds of Xeen
Starcraft
Sim City 2000
Railroad Tycoon
The Oregon Trail
Civilization III
Wolfpack
Operation Flashpoint
King's Quest VI Multimedia Upgrade
The Ancient Art of War in the Skies
Masters of Orion
Might and Magic III
Battlechess
Mario Teaches Typing (MAC)
Heart of China
Star Trek: Judgement Rites
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
Mega Man
Double Dragon II
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella Ithis one is extra cool because my best friend's dad was one of the programmers
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne
Gold Rush
Lesiure Suit Larry V
Space Quest IV
The Legend of Robin Hood: Conquests of the Long Bow
Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle (3.5 inch disks)
Sim City (DOS)
Sim City (Win 3.1)
Ultima Collection
Street Fighter II
Warcraft (very first release on floppies)

Not pictured: Original release of X-Wing

Chris

[Damaramu]

I used to keep my PC game boxes, had them stacked up in my closet....then one day I stopped and asked myself: "What the fuck am I keeping these for?" So I threw them all out.

Nowadays, I keep all my pc game discs in a big fat CD binder.

[Julio III]

I still have all my big boxes from back in the day, only got about 25 though. A couple of them have got crushed though. I really do not like the new DVD cases compared to the old big boxes. However, they were mostly pointless waste of spaces, especially when they started to just contain a CD jewel case and manual. When they held a dozen floppies, a manual and usually something else it kind of made sense to have a box that big.

[Sosage]

http://www.drunkentemple.com/pcshelf.gif (http://www.drunkentemple.com/pcshelf.jpg)
Hit pic to enlarge.

Modestly small PC collection (most of it is packed away somewhere), but I do collect them. As you can see, they take up a lot of room in comparison to other stuff (although the Apple II C era stuff is cool for space...lots of folder style boxes).

If you want a lot of cool box art, occasionally mysterious or unheard of products and unique manuals/pack ins -- this is definitely the game medium to look into.

[dojosky]

I have over 200+ for the PC and about 75+ for the amiga .. and some others for atari st and atari computers as well some for commodore 64.. and vic 20 etc apple and many more etc .. 99% of them are boxed in the storage ...

[Captain Qb]

I have some Big Box PC games..

Grand Theft Auto (CiB)
Metal Gear Solid (CiB)

Still looking Warcraft and Warcraft II..

[ClubNinja]

I've always prefered the old Electronics Arts games in the gatefold LP style sleeves.

[CYRiX]

They need to figure out like a template though for PC games instead of having them look like movies.

So are you saying that all ps2, xbox, and gc games look like movies since they are in DVD cases?

Edit: And that all PS1 and dreamcast games look like Audio CDs? :)
Not at all. But when you look at the Call of Duty 2 DVD case, it doesn't have like a bar on the top saying "PC Software" like a PS2 cover says "Playstation 2"

[SNKFan75]

There is a used book store that also carries PC games. They are in excellent condition and all are long boxes. I am going there tomorrow to pick up some stuff.

I used the have tons, but sold all of them. I may get back into collecting again. It will be tough to track them all down, but I have seen lucasArts collections there for cheap.


SNKFan75

[InsaneDavid]

I only kept a few, then again, I only kept a few PC games anyway.

MiG-29 Fulcrum (first PC game I ever bought)
The 7th Guest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Guest) (original release with the making of VHS tape)
The Last Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Express) (original release with the strategy guide - also my favorite PC game box art)

[Videogamerdaryll]

I have a whole bunch that I've aquired throughout the years..Nothing that I know of within them is special to note on/....as I don't play PC games-know nothing about them..

One of these days I'm going to stack them all up and sell them on Ebay..

[almostgotthemall]

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/309/gamecollectionresized9yf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Some of my big box collection.

I keep an old Pentium 166 with Windows 95 on it hooked up and ready to play under the stairs in my basement. It has two 5.25 inch floppy drives, as most of my big box games are of that older standard.

Playing some of the older Space Quests right off the floppy actually added to the ambience of the gameplay. It had to load every screen!
And those drives are noisy. Also most of them use the PC's internal speaker.

EDIT: resized picture

[chaoticjelly]

I've had a lot of big box PC games in the past, some great titles. I don't play old PC games now, mostly because of hardware problems etc with these old games..

One of my favourite big box games was "Fragile Allegiance" by Gremlin.

That game was SO awesome.

[Trebuken]

I started pick them up when I noticed how cheap they could be had. SOme used book stores around here sell them for $5 and under. I try to always pick them up when I see them. Might have 50, many not too exciting, but for a buck or two I'll buy them.

Anything that looks playable on my Pentium II laptop...

Later,
Trebuken

[dougman999]

I never really collected them, but up in my closet is a bunch of empty boxes of various games from 96-98.

I did run across this today, and threw it up on ebay after seeing that complete ones are rather rare:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120010292045

Heroes of Might and Magic Compendium. Works just fine on windows XP.

[secretvampire]

Woo-hoo! I found a complete and mint Ultima Collection for $20 (worth about $50-60) and a complete and mint Wing Commander III for $5 at a local used bookstore yesterday. I'm happy. I love big-box PC games, I plan to keep collecting them (I think I've got around 100 right now, a lot of which are vintage).