Collecting of Big Boxes of old RPGs
 

Hey there!

While I actually have no place to put them on display anywhere in my 21m² apartment I am looking to buy some big boxes of some old 90s games. I guess they aint becoming any cheaper anymore. ^^

I am wondering if I am the only one collecting these. Though, I am not really a collector. I only got like maybe 30 boxes from when I originally bought them in the 90s, and now 3 additional ones I bought recently. I am only looking to buy very specific games I enjoyed playing back them and I am not buying like "All Lucas Arts Games" or anything like that.

From videos on the great LGR channel I saw there are lots of second hand goodwill stores in the USA, where you can have some luck finding these games. But something like that doesn't exist where I am living. Real Estate is just too expensive for shops like that.

So for now I rely on ebay. Interestingly I found several cheap offers in the US and I think also in australia. But it's hardly of any use if you pay 15€ instead of 20€ and then have to pay 15€ shipping costs instead of 5€.

Also I saw that there are some games which are quite expensive and mostly going for 50€ and more (not sealed). I am mostly looking for games around 20€ without shipping, which is kind of hard. And it seems like last minute sniping, maybe even from the sellers second account seems to be a common thing.

So is anyone of you also looking for stuff like that? Maybe even in europe? Any tips and tricks?

I'm a collector as well - I bought many boxes new in the 90's and 2000's years.
When ebay was new it was also a great place to get old boxes.

Being from Germany: You got any experiences with second hand shops? Saw that there is a "shop" called emmaus in cologne, but not sure whether you would be able to find any old games there.

Ebay seems to be mostly commercial these days. Started trying my luck on ebay kleinanzeigen but haven't made any deal there yet.

I don't bother collecting though I have a few old ones from games I purchased. However, I was in tokyo not so long ago and there are stores and stores with nothing but unopened big box pc games.

I knew two good PC games second hand shops in Berlin and Dortmund - but there are long gone.

I have kept all my old boxes.

I would like to get boxed copies of all the old Quest for Glory games and the original Hero Quest one. I am mostly after the manuals and maps etc that went with them but I like the art of the boxes too.

I didn't really appreciate the boxed copies until recently - now I treasure the ones with manuals, maps etc.

I'm trying to find Icewind Dale manual in good condition but hard to find one :(

How interesting, I'm a collector of 90s/early 2000 boxed copies as well.

I still collect sporadically; although I've admittedly slowed down a bit since the gradual advent of Steam.

I've got a few shelves full of old 90's-2000's PC stuff, but the main pride of my collection is definitely the C64 boxed RPG section.

@purpleblob I have that manual from my original big Icewind Dale box. It's quite beautifully presented and in pristine condition although not ring bound like my very worn BG2 one is. I bought the game again for IWD2 some years later, but sadly it doesn't have a physical manual, otherwise I'd certainly offer it!

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, second hand stores nearby very commonly had PC boxed games and other assorted retro gaming gear. I'd visit a local Salvation Army regularly and it was amazing how much material you would find and how cheap it was. This isn't so common nowadays it seems with more people aware of its potential value.

I found most of my older boxed games on Ebay.

Heh, yeah I get that. However I think that's a bit out of my league price wise and I also don't feel very "connected" to these games. I played lots of games on the C64 (see on the list linked in the sig ^^) but there is hardly any game of which I said that it had a big influence on me, or that I would recommend them.

I guess what I love most of that system is it sounds. So I could try to collect all Huelsbeck Games for example. But as mentioned in the beginning: Too expensive. ^^

This is getting more and more common:
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-why-iv…rdboard-boxes/

Ah, nice one.
I also can recommend the channel mentioned there: LGR ;)
Together with the 8-Bit Guy they are my favorite gaming youtube channels.

That said, LGR collects pretty much everything as long it's PC or before 90s. In addition he has the privilege of leaving near several goodwill stores in addition to receiving lots of fan donations. And even he has the problem of running out of space, even with an additional rented storage room he is running out of space and therefore refusing gifts by fans as it's just becoming too much. ^^

For me it's rather that I want to have these games I enjoyed back then, still like today to some degree now, and which left their imprint on myself, in a physical way.

It's also intersting to think about why we actually have old boxes from the 80s or 90s we never threw away. I mean, why did we never throw them away? Was it just because it was convenient to have a box which contained a manual and other stuff, so you don't have the individual parts flying arond? Did we already have some "pride" of having these boxes back then? Was it something which just felt "right" as in having a board game in it's original box?
I mean from practical reasons it makes absolutely no sense at all to have a cardboard box of a game which had nothing with it besides the discs and a manual and maybe a registration card. But I even have several of these registration cards still in my boxes for whatever reason. It's not like I kept them in the 90s thinking like "I am going to be a collector, it will be worth something". I guess it just felt right to do so. Like to keep receipts for games bought 10 years ago or logitech driver installation CDs (which however I both got rid of at some point).

John Romero went over why big boxes for PC died out.
http://rome.ro/bigbox

Sounds extremely simplified and anekdotal though.
Especially considering that different regions, different countries and partially even different stores had their own boxed versions.

Retail best practise soon spreads internationally and stock space is expensive. I can imagine this sort of decision rippling through all the outlets. It did take a while for some publishers to make that adjustment through - especially in Europe I hear.

Yeah, the "demands" seem also to be a bit different.

A good and maybe a bit weird example is Might and Magic X which is quite new.

It received a boxed version, but for EU only (small box, but it wasn't overpriced either). And if I remember correctly LGR had a video about boxes where he was talking about som exclusive EU box releases. Seems like the market for that is a bit bigger here.

I probably have it, but it'd cost a mint to send it to the other side of the world :D

Sad face :( Ah well, maybe I will find it on ebay one day!

I probably have an icewind Dale manual but no clue where - when I moved a bunch of stuff got boxed up and put in storage.

I unfortunately live in a tiny apartment and physical copy of a game is a luxury that I can't afford, but i loved them…

Just spottet this one on ebay:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Dungeons-Dra…gAAOSw2FVbROVm

looks like a pretty amazing deal…if you live in the US and/or are interested in the old gold box games.

If you are interested I can post other deals I find here. There is actually tons of cool stuff in the US for amazing prices…which for europeans are then doubled due to shipping. ^^
This for example is 50$ + 35$ shipping to europe. Would still be a good deal for the value I guess. (Might want to check with the seller regarding the content, EOTB 1 should come with a map which might be missing)

As mentioned, if you are interested I can post more stuff now and then if I stumble across it…and don't want to buy it myself ^^

Floppy drive required. Would have to dig around for that one!

Heh, well, it really depends on whether you are actually going to use the floppies. I mean we are not in console-land where you need the original cartridge to play.

I would guess that 2/3 of all games on 3 1/2 floppies are broken by now. That's my personal experience at least. No idea whether 5 1/4 are any better. Apparently they are. Never saw an 5 1/4 usb drive though. ^^

So for me its about the boxes and goodies inside…including the floppies, whether they actually work or not.

Yep, so right there. The maps and books. :)

And play it via a download from somewhere…

All this talk of floppy disks reminds me of the old piracy ads.



Nice to see nothing changed with the industry as Piracy is still rampant.

"Don't copy that Floppy"

Hey, at least pirates are no longer copying floppies. Industry won that one :D

Odd, mine is ring-bound. I guess yours must have fallen victim to different regional distribution.

Now you've got me thinking of checking my copy. :)

@Drithius
I think you're probably right about that Drith. I checked the bottom of the box and it says "Made in Thailand". Could have been a money saving thing. It also didn't come with the soundtrack either plus the map is only paper not cloth. Still, it's a chunky box which is preserved well and the contents are all in excellent condition. I got it around 2002 or so. Interestingly, it also has a sticker with the "Interplay hints and tips line" on the back. :) I must get an original of that soundtrack one day…
@Thrasher. Check if you could! Could potentially confirm a theory here on ring bound manuals.

My US made copy is not ring bound. Wish it were, since it sounds like the glue is starting to fade. It cracks when I open it.

You guys go me curious about the manuals, so I checked mine. My manuals for IWD, IWD II and BG 2 are all ring bound. IWD II and BG 2 are collector's editions though, and I think those were all ring bound manuals. My manuals for BG 1 and PST aren't ring bound, but I'm not sure if either of those games ever had a ring bound version. I'm pretty sure BG didn't because my big box copy is an original release.

My manuals for Fallout 1&2 are also ring bound.

And since you made me dig out that storage container, I had to snap a few extra pics. I apologize in advance for my shitty photography skills. ;)

Strange. The maps in IWD is paper not cloth. It's also not collector's edition.

I wonder if I have a Thai copy impersonating a US product. hmmmmm..

Guess it might just a re-release or maybe even just a release for a different brand.

In the US: Don't they even make different versions for chains like Walmart?

Just go to Tokyo; you can find just about any game that originally came in a big box sitting on the shelf in a big box… was rather amazed myself… though the prices was ridiculously high for a lot of stuff like diablo 1 and total whackem.

The map I have for IWD is paper. The map for IWD II (CE) is cloth. I don't think IWD ever had a cloth map unless perhaps it was in the CE, but I don't remember if IWD even had a CE.

By the time the Infinity Engine games were getting released, we weren't usually getting cloth maps in non-CE boxes.

More big box goodness… :)

I'm pretty sure I have that spiral bound fallout manual somewhere - the brown one. I also have one for one of the bg and maybe iwd. I didn't buy these my sister sent them to me and more early 2000's (3? 4?); when she grew up and stop gaming. Sadly I never grew up.

Strange, my Thief and Thief 2 games came in a plain CD casing, only the name was printed in black and white on a slip of paper…