GOG Brings Back 'Big Box' PC Games, One Printable Template At a Time (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0185546630
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/09/09/0618254/gog-brings-back-big-box-pc-games-one-printable-template-at-a-time
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/gog-brings-back-big-box-pc-games-one-printable-template-at-a-time/
> Those who remember PC gaming in the days before Steam may have fond memories of the "big box" packaging that made those games stand out as shelf eye candy and sought-after in-home collectibles. Today, PC gaming platform GOG is hoping to reignite some of the nostalgia for those days by [1]adding downloadable 3D models and printable, foldable high-res packaging scans for a handful of PC games on the platform.
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> Thus far, the "Printable Big Box" collection on GOG is limited to just five games: Armikrog, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Myst, and Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. Players browsing those games on the GOG store will now see "3D Boxes" listed among the included "Goodies" before purchase. Owners of those games on GOG can download a ZIP file containing a version of the box art as an animated 3D object file (in an easy-to-open [2]GLB format ) and a "flat printable template" in PDF, SVG, and Adobe Illustrator formats. Those downloads allow for what GOG calls "a proper papercraft project for anyone who misses shelves full of PC game boxes."
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> The physically focused expansion of the existing GOG Preservation Program comes through a partnership with Benjamin Wimmer's [3]Big Box Collection website, which has grown since 2015 to include over 1,000 3D scans from [4]his private collection of physical PC games. In [5]an interview with GOG , Wimmer said that while he appreciates the artistry of a good old-fashioned big box, he also appreciates their evolution into the "interactive cards" on modern digital storefronts that "provid[e] us art, screenshots, gameplay videos and whatnot and that not shown as a box, [it] is just good UX."
"Physical media doesn't survive the way software can -- boxes get lost, crushed, thrown out," GOG writes in [6]today's announcement . "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."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/gog-brings-back-big-box-pc-games-one-printable-template-at-a-time/
[2] https://vsquad.art/blog/articles/glb-file-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-why-this-3d-format-matters/
[3] https://bigboxcollection.com/
[4] https://bigboxcollection.com/NerdWall
[5] https://www.gog.com/en/news/gog_preservation_program_brings_the_big_box_nostalgia_check_new_additions_and_an_interview_with_big_box_collection_creator
[6] https://www.gog.com/pressroom/gog-preservation-program-brings-the-big-box-nostalgia/
Iâ(TM)d rather (Score:3)
Iâ(TM)d rather see them bring back the big manuals. Microprose games came with great supplemental info.
The first 'big box' game - Sabre Wulf (Score:2)
I remember the very first big box game in the UK. It was [1]Sabre Wulf [wikipedia.org], from [2]Ultimate Play The Game [wikipedia.org]. At the time, games were around £5.99 to £7.99 - Sabre Wulf was the first £9.99 game in the UK and they part justified it by having a bigger box.
Since everything at that point came on cassette, this was annoying as hell because you couldn't fit it into your cassette holders that you definitely, definitely had as an 8 bit gamer in the UK. No stranger to later price gouging, Ultimate became Ra
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_Wulf
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Play_the_Game
Actually... (Score:1)
I'm more interested in the game than in the packaging.
Re: (Score:2)
The nostalgia is not so much about the box themselves (although collectors love displaying them) but more so about the physical media, Pring manuals Add for upcoming games and the other doo-dads that came in the box. Some games had these funny little wheel things for copy protection but the Game makers made them fun to play with in there own right like "Dial-a-pirate" Interactive Dial-a-pirate found here [1]https://ia801405.us.archive.or... [archive.org]
[1] https://ia801405.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/19/items/20220917_20220917_0541/Docs/Secret%20of%20Monkey%20Island%2C%20The%20(EGA)%20(1990)%20(IBM%20PC)%20-%20Docs.zip&file=Secret%20of%20Monkey%20Island%2C%20The%20-%20Dial-A-Pirate%20Code%20Wheel%20(1990)%20(409811).html
Re: (Score:2)
lol, yes, people are printing these boxes to recreate the nostalgia of throwing the box away.
Re: (Score:2)
All that savings undone when you buy one cheap usb flash drive encased in a hard plastic clam shell in the store to backup the game's download files. Don't forget the scissors you buy to open that flash drive package also came in a plastic clam shell. But those scissors broke when you tried to cut the plastic. So you drove back out in your gas guzzler to buy a nice sharp knife that also comes in an even thicker bigger plastic clam shell. Oh and those broken scissors? not recyclable so it and those plastic h