@Nikolau – Wow, thanks! I haven’t played Warlords III myself… sadly the wikipedia page doesn’t have much information on this game. Perhaps you can add that bit of information to the page some time

@Eduardo – Oh man, can I ever empathize with the problem of moving. Over the last 12 years I’ve moved 5 times, and each time I lose a little bit of my collection, or end up damaging it in transit. I’m not someone that’s too anal retentive about keeping my games pristine, but I hate crushing 20 games because I’ve accidentally put 100 lbs of books on top of them in the moving truck. The only part-solution I’ve found to the moving problem is giving away games to people I care about, so at least they rest in ‘good hands’. Ironically, what usually ends up happening is that people give me THEIR games because they know I’m so much into retro gaming. As far as I know, there is no middle ground beyond what you’ve done for yourself

Thanks for writing.
- Chris

Like you, I always enjoyed the extras that came in many of the old games. The Ultima series in fact, is the main responsible for this. Cloth maps, “Tomes of Lore”, interesting ilustrations that made my imagination go wild (I remember how fearsome Ultima VI’s corpsers were, and how I *refused* to go into the dungeon that had them by the dozen). The “Golden Box” games from SSI, like Pool of Radiance were also neat, with their adventure logs and wheels. I never bought many games when I was younger, due to the lack of availability (I live in South America), and when I got older and moved to the States for college, I obviously spend an unhealthy amount of time and money tracking down some of the games I couldn’t get my hands on. And here is the flip side of the coin: moving.

I move a lot. First due to my father’s job, then out of dissatisfaction with my surroundings. I’ve settled down, somewhat, but wanderlust is still strong in me. You can imagine, however, how difficult it is to move when you have piles upon piles of books, comics, and, yes, computer game boxes. For me, direct downloads have the advantage of not occupying nearly as much physical space as a box, which in turns allows me to somewhat reduce the amount of stuff that exists in my surroundings. However, like you, I enjoyed the packaging of games. In fact, Right now I’m slowly trying to recreate my golden box and ultima collections.

So, what do I do? Most of the time, I toss the package to the recycling bin, put the discs in cd books and keep the essentials. There are only a few games whose boxes I’ve kept. Those are the ones whose boxes are somehow useful or very pretty (an example for me is the Icewind Dale collection box, which, for some inexplicable reason, I find incredibly compelling).

I wonder if there’s a way to find a middle ground in this issue. I personally can’t.

Although it wasnt the best card game ever still it gave even more depth to it.
A game that invited to socialize with friends.Who knew?(sarcasm)

But i admit that i love collector s edition boxes!:D

Thinking back to it now, it would have been very powerful indeed if the Myst games included Atrus’ journal in physical form with the games. That would have really achieved what we’ve been talking about.

Other games that usually had something significant were the D&D games. I think several of them had maps in there.

I even recall my parents messing around with the contents of the Leather Goddesses of Phobos. How amusing.

It’s something I miss at times, and I wonder if someone has thought of making an installation piece of artwork purely around game packaging and its connect to games themselves. That could be an interesting project.

@Jared – I read your post, and I certainly agree. Funny how some box art was truly deceiving

@ Clean3d – One of the candidates for this article was ‘SimEarth’ which has a truly ginormous manual… the thing is like a brick. It’s better reading than most grade 10 biology textbooks!

I have played enough to miss buying more than a CD, though (or even a digital download). I bought Portal a while back, and there wasn’t even a manual included! Just a cheap little card with my serial number and the basic controls. A long time ago I opened Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and it included a nice, thick manual along with a large poster outlining the unit tree!

Spending $20 for a DVD isn’t that much fun…

@Michal – interesting. I had also considered Myst, but my limited experience with the game (I did not finish it) kept me away. As you’ve already said, the Myst books in themselves are aesthetic achievements. Take a look at this gorgeous Myst poster at the Byte Cellar.

However, I was rather fascinated by the Myst universe at the time, and what bridged the gap between the game and my world for me at the time was the availability of the Myst novels. I bought the first, and read it, and consequently loved it. Riven came out, and I loved that game too largely in part because I understood what it was all about, thanks to the first Myst book. Two other books came out after that, both of which I own. And altogether, I got a Myst map from one of the books which I ended up framing. I did very much enjoy collecting game maps ^_^.

Having the books alongside the experiences of playing Myst and Riven made the world a lot more believable for me, and the fact that the books were hardcover with beautiful covers made a big difference (link). Just like you said, there’s something different about “cracking open a leather-bound manual.”

I want it both ways. I want to end our ridiculous consumption of plastic and reduce the gargantuan amount of waste our beloved pastime contributes to the environment. Digital downloads go a long way toward doing that. For the sake of argument, consider the hundreds of lousy games buried in layers of unnecessary plastic for every one way-cool Ultima IV or special edition Elder Scrolls: Oblivion package.

As you know, I agree with your assertion that games are more than things to be consumed, and perhaps digital downloads encourage that attitude. But the question of consumption can be seen in other, equally ugly ways I think.

And my pre-order of the Amazon-exclusive Suvival edition of Fallout 3 will ship next month. What can I say?