Remember When Video Games Came In Big Boxes?

I most certainly do as I'm collecting them. For sharing my games with other (retro) gaming heads, I decided to turn my collection of over 840 boxes* into shiny 3D

The tech behind the 3D boxes is simple: first up the game boxes sides are scanned. Then, those textures are attached to a 3D mesh based upon the boxes' actual dimensions. All boxes can be zoomed and rotated and some can even be looked at from top and bottom angles. Also, double click/tap a box with a gatefold cover to pop it up.

The site is a one-man show and done in my spare time. I do try to keep it as up-to-date as possible but sometimes, well, life happens and the time from picking up a new box until it's available in 3D with all bells and whistles does vary quite a bit. I'm trying to keep you all posted via the blog though.

Anyway, I better stop babbeling and let you jump right in. Use the search in the top right corner or start with one of the games listed below.

Enjoy,
Benjamin

* Well, lots of boxes and some not so boxy ones

Controls

Rotate: drag with left mouse button or with one finger
Pan: drag with right mouse button or with two fingers
Zoom: mouse wheel or pinch
Open/close gatefold: double click or double tap

Most viewed games

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Games, that have just been looked up

And more...

Games, that have just been added

And more...

Latest Blog posts

2024-09-11 Pixels In my second life as C64 graphician jmin I'm pixeling all kind of things for fun. Yesterday, I've submitted a pic for the currently running C64GFX.com Game Loading Screen Compo 2024 which celebrates the visuals shown while a game is loading. Rules are pretty loose, so game wise, everything goes. The first thing that popped into my head was doing a MDK pic, and guess what, IMHO it turned out pretty neat, so here it is: For those interested, the C64 file can be downloaded over at CSDb and you'll find some background info on jmin.at.
2024-09-10 Latest Pickup: Caveman Ugh-Lympics This one has been on my list for way to long. I fondly remember how my friends and I laughed our asses off playing Caveman Ugh-Lympics on the humble breadbin. Nothing beats a round of fire-making, smacking your oponent on the head when he's dying of laughter. Zoink!
2024-08-28 Latest Pickup: Another Diablo Quite some time ago, Thomas shared a pic of his French Diablo box and boy, I fell in love with it. Cut to almost two years later, I found a copy for cheap for my shelf.
2024-08-18 Latest Pickup: Test driving Super Cars With this, my Test Drive II set is finally complete.
2024-08-08 Hellish update Getting updates for games is great, getting free upgrades is even better and getting remasters for free is ace. Thanks, id Software and Nightdive Studios for bringing Doom and Doom II up to speed.
2024-07-31 Hi-tech tool Some time ago, I've started to scan the back of the box with the top lid on and thus showing the both on the back scans. It definitely looks better in the 3D box, but it also a sucks having to edit the scans a bit more for fitting the rectagular shape. Well, not anymore: low and behold, a new contraption for improving scans 1000% or more :-)
2024-07-31 Milestone: 800 Games With the upload of Space Quest 6, there's now 800(!) boxes available to click through on this site. Enjoy!
2024-07-25 Latest Pickup: Pew Pew Pew! Oh, look what landed on my doorstep today! A boxed US copy of Star Wars for C64! Misplaced my European double cassette case + inlay decades ago, so I'm more than thrilled having this one now sitting on the shelf behind me.
2024-07-15 Latest Pickups: Gandalf & Co Sure, it's a small box and yeah, I only played it with my brothers on Playstation 2, but it's a fantastic game and a great looking box. Couldn't say no to it.
2024-06-19 Tweaking Spent some time tweaking various things to speed up the page. 3D boxes are of course still quite a load, but starting up bigboxcollection.com should be a bit faster now. Also squashed a couple of bugs along the way.
2024-06-18 RetroGamer Magazin: Thief - An Enduring Legacy RetroGamer Magazine takes a look at the enduring legacy of the Thief series which first appeared on our monitors back in 1999. The article can be found in Load 260.
2024-06-16 Latest Pickups: SSI Adventures Came home from a short vacation with two more Big Boxes waiting on my door step: Al-Qadim had been on my wishlist forever and Thunderscape just had to be picked up due to having added Endomorph.
2024-06-06 Latest Pickups: R-Type and Ikari Warriors A couple of C64 games arrived today: R-Type Ikari Warriors Death or Glory
2024-06-05 RetroGamer Magazin: Making of Star Trek 25th Anniversary Another fantastic article in RetroGamer magazine load 259: The Making of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.
2024-06-04 Tetris revisited Back in the day, I definitely preferred DuoTris, but at the same time, MirrorSoft's Tetris always had a special place in my heart. It was all I had while all the boys and girls around me played the superior GameBoy version, and boy, was I jealous. Then again, there's Wally Beben's mind-blowing 20+ minutes tune and all is balanced again Cut to 2024. I've just found out on CSDb that there's a remaster, err, remix, err, recoded version out there and it has just received an update! Let's boot it up! The update is not just some graphical tweaks, no, it's a full re-implementation of Tetris following how the game played on other Platforms at the time. Further, there's an optional shadow as well as music and sfx options. It does play great, not as snappy as current versions of Tetris, but still. The addition of slow/hard drop is great and the sfx are a nice touch too. My main complaint is that the original tune is only played on the title screen and can't be selected as background music thanks to technical limitations. Bummer. Anyway, grab a copy of version 1.1b and give it a try!

Statistics

There's 840 games available in 3D on this site that have been viewed 266,870 times since the site's new version went live on Nov 24, 2023. That's 32 games per hour. Piling those 840 games all up would result in a stack 29.93m high and with a volume of 1.31m³. When adding up all sides there's 92.95m² of boxart, not counting the 66 gatefolds available to explore on this site. Further, there's a total of 784 photos showing the games' contents.

I'm not done yet getting all the data in regard of media included, but with 704 boxes indexed, there's a total of 1,424 media. Here's a breakdown

553 × CD-ROM
469 × Floppy (3.5")
225 × Floppy (5.25")
85 × Tape
59 × DVD
18 × Audio CD
6 × Cartridge
4 × Flash Drive
3 × Download
1 × Vinyl
1 × VHS

In regard of fidelity, 472 out of the 840 boxes have all six sides scanned. I'm working on adding more but this comes down to finding the time needed for scanning and editing. There's also 66 boxes with a gatefold cover that can be flipped open by double-clicking the box. Also, 127 boxes do have specific textures for their reflectiveness. It's a subtl effect but IMHO worth all the work, just look at Morrowind or Beneath a Steel Sky.

Pixels

posted 2024-09-11 21:22:56

In my second life as C64 graphician jmin I'm pixeling all kind of things for fun. Yesterday, I've submitted a pic for the currently running C64GFX.com Game Loading Screen Compo 2024 which celebrates the visuals shown while a game is loading. Rules are pretty loose, so game wise, everything goes.

The first thing that popped into my head was doing a MDK pic, and guess what, IMHO it turned out pretty neat, so here it is:

For those interested, the C64 file can be downloaded over at CSDb and you'll find some background info on jmin.at.

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Automatic service post :)

Latest Pickup: Caveman Ugh-Lympics

posted 2024-09-10 19:55:00

This one has been on my list for way to long. I fondly remember how my friends and I laughed our asses off playing Caveman Ugh-Lympics on the humble breadbin. Nothing beats a round of fire-making, smacking your oponent on the head when he's dying of laughter. Zoink!

Latest Pickup: Another Diablo

posted 2024-08-28 17:44:00

Quite some time ago, Thomas shared a pic of his French Diablo box and boy, I fell in love with it.

Cut to almost two years later, I found a copy for cheap for my shelf.

Latest Pickup: Test driving Super Cars

posted 2024-08-18 17:14:00

With this, my Test Drive II set is finally complete.

Hellish update

posted 2024-08-08 21:15:00

Getting updates for games is great, getting free upgrades is even better and getting remasters for free is ace. Thanks, id Software and Nightdive Studios for bringing Doom and Doom II up to speed.

Hi-tech tool

posted 2024-07-31 16:45:30

Some time ago, I've started to scan the back of the box with the top lid on and thus showing the both on the back scans. It definitely looks better in the 3D box, but it also a sucks having to edit the scans a bit more for fitting the rectagular shape.

Well, not anymore: low and behold, a new contraption for improving scans 1000% or more :-)

Milestone: 800 Games

posted 2024-07-31 16:41:30

With the upload of Space Quest 6, there's now 800(!) boxes available to click through on this site.

Enjoy!

Latest Pickup: Pew Pew Pew!

posted 2024-07-25 16:31:30

Oh, look what landed on my doorstep today! A boxed US copy of Star Wars for C64!

Misplaced my European double cassette case + inlay decades ago, so I'm more than thrilled having this one now sitting on the shelf behind me.

Latest Pickups: Gandalf & Co

posted 2024-07-15 20:06:00

Sure, it's a small box and yeah, I only played it with my brothers on Playstation 2, but it's a fantastic game and a great looking box.

Couldn't say no to it.

Tweaking

posted 2024-06-19 22:05:04

Spent some time tweaking various things to speed up the page. 3D boxes are of course still quite a load, but starting up bigboxcollection.com should be a bit faster now.

Also squashed a couple of bugs along the way.

RetroGamer Magazin: Thief - An Enduring Legacy

posted 2024-06-18 22:04:54

RetroGamer Magazine takes a look at the enduring legacy of the Thief series which first appeared on our monitors back in 1999.

The article can be found in Load 260.

Latest Pickups: SSI Adventures

posted 2024-06-16 21:50:00

Came home from a short vacation with two more Big Boxes waiting on my door step: Al-Qadim had been on my wishlist forever and Thunderscape just had to be picked up due to having added Endomorph.

Latest Pickups: R-Type and Ikari Warriors

posted 2024-06-06 16:15:00

A couple of C64 games arrived today:

  • R-Type
  • Ikari Warriors
  • Death or Glory

RetroGamer Magazin: Making of Star Trek 25th Anniversary

posted 2024-06-05 19:55:54

Another fantastic article in RetroGamer magazine load 259: The Making of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.

Tetris revisited

posted 2024-06-04 21:52:20

Back in the day, I definitely preferred DuoTris, but at the same time, MirrorSoft's Tetris always had a special place in my heart. It was all I had while all the boys and girls around me played the superior GameBoy version, and boy, was I jealous.

Then again, there's Wally Beben's mind-blowing 20+ minutes tune and all is balanced again

Cut to 2024. I've just found out on CSDb that there's a remaster, err, remix, err, recoded version out there and it has just received an update!

Let's boot it up!



The update is not just some graphical tweaks, no, it's a full re-implementation of Tetris following how the game played on other Platforms at the time. Further, there's an optional shadow as well as music and sfx options.


It does play great, not as snappy as current versions of Tetris, but still. The addition of slow/hard drop is great and the sfx are a nice touch too.

My main complaint is that the original tune is only played on the title screen and can't be selected as background music thanks to technical limitations. Bummer.

Anyway, grab a copy of version 1.1b and give it a try!

ToDo List

posted 2024-06-02 16:44:07

Oh boy, I'm lagging behind big time! Sry for the spare updated these post months.

Boxes are piling up everywhere but the time needed for scanning and uploading them is very, very rare at the moment but I do hope to manage at least one or two games per week from now on again.

Curious, what's gonna show up? Yeah, I thought so, so here's my backlog of unscanned big boxes:

  • Adrenix
  • Age of Empires
  • Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
  • Alien Breed: Tower Assault
  • AotD 2 (inkl 1 & JitD)
  • Archimedean Dynasty
  • Baldur's Gate III
  • Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast
  • Black Mirror II: Reigning Evil
  • Black Mirror III: Final Fear
  • BloodNet
  • Blue Force
  • Brain Dead 13
  • Burntime
  • Call to Power II
  • Cannon Fodder 2
  • Caribbean Disaster
  • Command & Conquer: Firestorm
  • Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
  • Creatures
  • Creatures 3
  • Crudader: No Regret
  • Crudader: No Remorse
  • Curse of Enchantia
  • D
  • Darklands
  • Death or Glory (C64)
  • Delta V
  • Demonworld
  • Descent: Freespace - The Great War
  • Descent 3
  • Die Höhlenwelt Saga: Der Leuchtende Kristall
  • Dominion
  • Dragon Lore II: The Heart of the Dragon Man
  • Druid: Daemons of the Mind
  • Dune
  • Dune II Battle for Arrakis
  • Dune 2000
  • Extreme Assault
  • Eye of the Beholder Trilogy
  • Fade to Black
  • FIFA International Soccer
  • Flashback: The Quest for Identity
  • Freespace 2
  • Frontier: Elite II
  • Fury of the Furries
  • Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
  • Genesia
  • Heimdall
  • Heimdall 2: Into the Hall of Worlds
  • Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller
  • Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death
  • Holiday Island
  • Ikari Warriors (C64)
  • Incubation: Battle Isle Phase Four
  • Incubation: Mission Pack
  • IndyCar Racing
  • Inferno: The Odyssey Continues
  • Innocent until Caught
  • Ishar Trilogy
  • KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child
  • Lands of Lore
  • Legends of Valour: Volume 1 - The Dawning
  • Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Adventure
  • Loopz (Amiga)
  • Lords of Magic
  • Lost Vikings
  • LucsArts Classic Adventures
  • Magic Carpet Hidden Worlds
  • Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
  • Men in Black: The Game
  • Microcosm
  • Noctropolis
  • Novastorm
  • Pandemonium
  • Pictionary: The Game of Quick Draw (C64)
  • Prehistorik 2
  • Prisoner of Ice
  • Protostar: War on the Frontier
  • Quarantine
  • Quest for Glory III: Wages of War
  • R-Type (C64)
  • R.O.M. Gold: Rings of Medusa
  • Realms (The can onl be one)
  • Realms of the Haunting
  • Rebel Moon Rising
  • Rent a Hero
  • RexNebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender
  • Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch
  • Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu
  • Rival Realms
  • Robinson's Requiem
  • S.T.O.R.M
  • Sacrifice
  • Sensible Soccer: European Champions - 92/93 Edition
  • Shannara
  • Shivers
  • Shivers Two: Harvest of Souls
  • Sid Meier's Civilization II
  • Sid Meier's Civilization III
  • SimCity 2000
  • SimCity Classic
  • Space Hulk
  • Space Marines: Der stählerne Kaiser
  • Space Quest 5: The Next Mutation
  • Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier
  • The Space Quest Saga: Roger Wilco
  • Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
  • Star Trek: Elite Force
  • Star Trek: Generations
  • Star Trek: Armada
  • Star Trek: New Worlds
  • Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
  • Star Wars: Tie Fighter
  • Star Wars: Tie Fighter
  • Star Wars: X-Wing
  • Star Wars: X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter
  • Star Wars: Rebel Assault
  • Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
  • Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
  • Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter - Balance of Power Campaigns
  • StarCraft
  • StarCraft: Brood War
  • Stellar 7
  • SuperKarts
  • Swiv 3D
  • Syndicate Plus
  • Syndicate: American Revolt
  • Synnergist
  • Tachyon: The Fringe
  • Take no Prisoners
  • Talisman
  • Tempest 2000
  • Terminal Velocity
  • The Daedalus Encounter
  • The Dagger of Amon Ra
  • The Journeyman Project
  • The Last Dynasty
  • The Lawnmower Man
  • The Settlers III
  • The Settlers IV
  • Time Commando
  • Torin's Passage
  • Transport Tycoon
  • Turrican II: The Final Fight
  • Unreal
  • Utopia: Creation of a Nation
  • WarCraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
  • Warcraft III Battle Chest
  • Waterworld
  • Whale's Voyage
  • Whale's Voyage II: Die Übermacht
  • Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 1
  • Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 2
  • Wing Commander: Privateer
  • World of Aden: Entomorph - Plague of the Darkfall
  • World of Warcraft
  • World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
  • World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
  • World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
  • World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Litch King
  • Worms
  • X-Beyond the Frontier
  • Zool
  • Zork: Grand Inquisitor

RetroGamer Magazin: Ultimate Guide to California Games

posted 2024-06-02 16:03:54

California Games was a huge hit for Epyx and thus released on a lot of platforms back in the day. RetroGamer mag takes a look at all the versions out there in Load 259.

Big Box Pixels

posted 2024-02-16 22:33:00

With pixeling for the C64 being my new love and of course still loving my big boxes too, it only was a matter of days before those two worlds crashed into each other and formed something exiting! Below, a work-in-progress screenshot of my BigBoxPixel.

It's a HiRes picture (with expanded borders) showing the first 21 games turned from 2k textures into tiny 8x40 spines using only a hint of color due to the C64's restrictions. But still, I'm sure most of the boxes are recognizable, so enjoy figuring out what's on this 8-bit shelf

Pixel Pushing

posted 2024-02-14 21:29:00

OK, I've got somewhat carried away this week by joining the C64GFX.Com CharSet Logo Compo 2024 and working on my first CharSet pix. There wasn't really any concept to follow but I stumbled along while learning the graphic modes as well as the editors (Petmate and PETSCII Editor) I used.

For the PETSCII pic, I've fooled around with tiles, as in ceramic tiles and one thing lead to another an a 3DBBG (short for my social media handle @3DBigBoxGames) thingy appeared waiting to be tweaked over and over again:

Next, I tried my luck with HiRes mode, which means, pixels and color are separated and thus easier to handle. Well, it got all out of hand and I've ended up with the whole screen filled and (almost) all the available colors used in a bright fever dream color splash. One of the problems that arised is, that there's no logo there and reworking the charset to have once again 3DBBG or something there felt too tedious. I've somewhat fixed it by making this the core and just turned it into "Oh, no! What logo?" and called it quits

The competition runs from Feb 7th to April 30th, so there's still time to join in. Voting will be May 1st to May 14th.

Make sure to check out all the submitted entries:

RetroGamer Magazine: Legay of System Shock

posted 2024-02-08 21:56:01

With Nightdive Studios working on their System Shock remaster, RetroGamer magazine sat down with them and Jon Chey, the lead programmer of Shock 2, for discussing the series' beginnings, how it could be updated and what's up with Shock 3. It's a lenghy 8-page article well worth the read.

This article appeared in Load 249.

Boxes for Ants

posted 2022-08-22 20:18:13

Downsizing.

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Hi, Benjamin here

I'm a nerd living in Vienna, Austria and host of this site. You can get in touch with me via benjamin@bigboxcollection.com and over at Twitter @3DBigBoxGames.

It all started back in 1988 on the humble C64 before moving on to DOS/Win with GameBoy, SNES, and N64 on the side, so to speak. I'm not only a gameer but also a collector, although I didn't set out to be one; I just kept all the games that I've bought over the years. Well, until 2005ish at least. That's when big box games got replaced with first smaller boxes and then later DVD cases until Steam and gog.com came around and we all went digital on PC.

However, back in 2012, I stumbled upon a new release for Commodore 64 called C64anabalt, and guess what?

It's a physical release! In a box! A (very) small one, but a box!

With finding C64anabalt, my love for boxed games was reigneted, and I began to track down all the games I had only owned as budget release, as well as all the classics that I had always wanted to play but never had the chance to. Classifieds and eBay offered almost everything for a few bucks, and soon enough, I had more games than I could keep track of.

To share my growing collection online with other retro gamers, I started taking photos of my games. Although it worked, managing multiple photo albums and a private spreadsheet with all the data became quite cumbersome and far from ideal. I realized that combining both elements was the way to go — building upon my spreadsheet and creating a website that would showcase a virtual copy of my NerdWall™.

In 2015, I launched BigBoxCollection.com. Here, I host 3D models textured with high-resolution scans of my boxes, allowing visitors to click through and explore. The site has changed over the years staring with a more dark and gritty look before restarting with a clean one in May 2016. In 2023, I thought I'd add a dark theme but instead of just tweaking the CSS files, I've reimplemented the whole site, reworked mouse & touch controls and added features that I've always wanted to have but never found the time for like panning the 3D boxes as well as visualizing gatefolds.

Privacy statement

Purpose of the privacy policy

This privacy statement is for bigboxcollection.com, a site run by me, Benjamin Wimmer, and according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), I have a duty to protect your personal data. In this statement, I outline which data is reached during the use of bigboxcollection.com, how it is collected, and also what I use this data for.

Data capture

Your data are collected by the following data processing operations.

Log data

Each time you access the website, the visit is recorded in a log file (server logs) for a period of 190 days with the following log data:

  • IP address of the enquirer
  • call method (GET, HEAD, PUT)
  • target address without HOST
  • minutes with version (e.g. HTTP/1.1)
  • name of the file retrieved and amount of data transferred
  • date and time of the retrieval
  • notification indicating whether the retrieval was successful
  • processing time of the request in microseconds
  • user agent used
  • SSL version used
  • referrer

This data is used for system security verification, error analysis and for statistical purposess.

Statistics

bigboxcollection.com counts how often a 3D box is viewed, from where the 3D box was accessed from and also tries to map those views to sessions. For this, the following data is processed:

  • 3D box accessed
  • IP address of the enquirer
  • user agent used
  • referrer

For mapping views to sessions, an anonymizised fingerprint is generated using a combination of the IP address and the user agent data. The fingerprint is generated using a one-way hash function with the given user data and other, internal data as input values. The provided input will always result in the same fixed length set of characters but it is impossible to determine what the original input was because the encryption algorithm only goes one way.

Adding other, internal data that's only known to bigboxcollection.com to the set of input data is done for forcing the result set's uniqueness, increasing its complexity and thus hightening the level of anonymization.

The fingerprint is used to clear the "Games, that have just been looked up"-panel on the starting page from the boxes that have been looked up during your current session and thus only show boxes from other sessions. Further, it is used to help spam detection.

The 3D box viewed, the provided referrer and the generated fingerprint are stored and used for internal statistics as well as for generating content for bigboxcollection.com, e.g. how often a box has been viewed so far and for generating the "Games, that have just been looked up"-panel.

Cookies

bigboxcollection.com does not use any cookies.

Data storage

To ensure the availability and reliability of bigboxcollection.com, I utilize the services of an external web hosting provider. This hosting provider securely stores and processes data associated with your interactions on the site. While I maintain responsibility for the data collected, certain technical aspects of data storage and server management are outsourced to the hosting provider. I have chosen a reputable hosting service committed to data security and privacy, and contractual agreements are in place to ensure compliance with relevant data protection laws.

Other than that, there is no transfer of your data to any other third parties.

SSL encryption

To ensure the secure transmission of data between your device and bigboxcollection.com, I utilize SSL technology. SSL is a cryptographic protocol that provides a secure connection by encrypting the data exchanged between your web browser and bigboxcollection.com. This encryption safeguards your personal information, such as IP addresses and user agents, during the transmission process, enhancing the overall security of your interactions with our website.

By using SSL, I aim to protect your data from unauthorized access and ensure that your online experience on bigboxcollection.com is conducted in a secure environment.

Data subject rights

You have the right to information about data concerning yourself, as well as the right to have data rectified or deleted. You have a right to restrict or to object to data processing, as well as the right to transfer data.

If you consider that your rights are not being complied with or are not being ad-equately complied with, you have the possibility to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority.

Contact details

Benjamin Wimmer, Vienna, Austra
benjamin@bigboxcollection.com

Impressum

bigboxcollection.com is a private website run by

Benjamin Wimmer
Vienna, Austria

benjamin@bigboxcollection.com

Fight Club

What's the best looking box?

Sry, no such game found :-(
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