• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Vintage PC Collectors Thread of GLORIOUS PC Gaming. 1980s to 2005 PRE STEAM.

Douche McBaggins The 3rd

Douche McBaggins The 3rd

Junior Member
This is for those lovely collectors who love to collect those GLORIOUS Master race games throughout the decades. I'm currently collecting PC Adventure games and Sierra games. Though I do have a ton of this stuff on shelf. I'm planning to either get a full retro gaming rig or emulate Windows 95/98 on my Windows 8 laptop and set up a nice game rig through my HDTV to replay my games. Oh yeah, pictures incoming later tonight or tomorrow after my room is cleaned out.
 
Most of my big box collection is sadly long gone from this world. About the only survivors are my imported Marathon 2 Durandal, Grim Fandango and Star Wars: Behind the Magic. Been tempted to revisit older PC collecting but it's even more expensive than SNES collecting sometimes.
 
Need to take some photos of my boxes sometimes. Have a good amount of them(in near perfect quality) lying around.

Red Alert 2, Anno 1602, Ground Control, Aquanox 2, Worms Armageddon etc etc
 
Someone finally took the reigns and made one!

Even though I like how easy it is to get small titles and larger games via download, I really do miss large box PC games. I got into PC gaming on the edge of 98, but have always liked the large boxes and detailed manuals. Even some of the smaller rectangle boxes are cool.
 
Teknoman said:
Someone finally took the reigns and made one!

Even though I like how easy it is to get small titles and larger games via download, I really do miss large box PC games. I got into PC gaming on the edge of 98, but have always liked the large boxes and detailed manuals. Even some of the smaller rectangle boxes are cool.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I am only collecting the jewel cased games since they take so much space. The PC games had no standardized boxes at that time so they would be impossible to display properly. Remember that weird ass Tomb Raider box?
 
I don't have many at all, but one of my favourite big box PC games from yesteryear has to be, Tony Hawks Underground.

vM9VBls.jpg
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, my favourite Tony Hawk game, there isn't that much special to the big box, it just comes with the game(on 3 discs iirc, been a while since I played it) and a manual, but I love it a lot since it is such a fantastic game.

THUG2 is also around here somewhere in a big box, but THUG 1, oh man, definitely stole my heart.

I wish more games had big box pc releases, even if it was just the DVD, it just looks so much cooler.
 
I collect these too. The big boxes take up a lot of space compared to carts/DVD/CDs, but they certainly look cool on the shelf, and they remind me of days of my youth prowling the shelves of Egghead or Software Etc., being too young to play of them and lacking decent hard since all we had was a crappy Apple II.

I have most of Lucasarts output, a big chunk of Sierra's, several Infocom titles, and a whole bunch of those neat foldout record album-style boxes that Electronic Arts, Activision and Mindscape used to put out in the Atari 8-bit/C64 era. Plus an assortment of mid-90s PC stuff, mostly stuff from Origin, as well as assorted adventure games from Legend and other companies.

They're actually not THAT hard to collect for. It's hard to gauge prices since they're so infrequently listed, and the ones that are ten to suffer from the usual eBay BIN inflation. But if you follow auctions or check out Amazon, you can get a lot of good stuff for ~$10-15 each with shipping.

Some of the really old stuff has been exploding in value lately. A copy of Softporn Adventure for the Atari recently sold for something like $1800.
 
discoalucard said:
I collect these too. The big boxes take up a lot of space compared to carts/DVD/CDs, but they certainly look cool on the shelf, and they remind me of days of my youth prowling the shelves of Egghead or Software Etc., being too young to play of them and lacking decent hard since all we had was a crappy Apple II.

I have most of Lucasarts output, a big chunk of Sierra's, several Infocom titles, and a whole bunch of those neat foldout record album-style boxes that Electronic Arts, Activision and Mindscape used to put out in the Atari 8-bit/C64 era. Plus an assortment of mid-90s PC stuff, mostly stuff from Origin, as well as assorted adventure games from Legend and other companies.

They're actually not THAT hard to collect for. It's hard to gauge prices since they're so infrequently listed, and the ones that are ten to suffer from the usual eBay BIN inflation. But if you follow auctions or check out Amazon, you can get a lot of good stuff for ~$10-15 each with shipping.

Some of the really old stuff has been exploding in value lately. A copy of Softporn Adventure for the Atari recently sold for something like $1800.
Click to expand...

Infocom? I've actually had SEALED infocom first run prints of them. I've had a CIB Mint Enchanter and a few sealed ones. Found them at a fleamarket. I couldn't get them all, and I found out the value. Went back later that day and it was gone from my life.....
 
I have the boxed version of Rome 2, XCOM The Buraeu, Crysis trilogy, Empire: Total War, OF: Red River, WRC 4 and SC: Blacklist from "newer times".
 
fantomena said:
I have the boxed version of Rome 2, XCOM The Buraeu, Crysis trilogy, Empire: Total War, OF: Red River, WRC 4 and SC: Blacklist from "newer times".
Click to expand...

Newer games don't have that PC luster though. Ever see the mid to late 90s pc games that would NEVER come to consoles? That Sid Meier Alpha Centari manual was like 200+ pages. Thing was a damn book.
 
Douche McBaggins The 3rd said:
This is for those lovely collectors who love to collect those GLORIOUS Master race games throughout the decades. I'm currently collecting PC Adventure games and Sierra games. Though I do have a ton of this stuff on shelf. I'm planning to either get a full retro gaming rig or emulate Windows 95/98 on my Windows 8 laptop and set up a nice game rig through my HDTV to replay my games. Oh yeah, pictures incoming later tonight or tomorrow after my room is cleaned out.
Click to expand...

For dos games emulation, use dosbox, it is very easy and very light. You can have basically one folder by game, and everything runs like some isolated executable. This is how GOG deals with most of the old games.

for old adventure games, scummy can be also an option.

For windows 95-98 games, use virtual PC, it will give you no headache.

For latter games, it is more tricky, and got.com can be an option even if you have the original game on disk.
 
I've got a lot of old PC games but I wouldn't really consider it a glorious collection. Most won't install without a lot of legwork, and peripheral support ain't exactly easy either. I have em all on an old 100-disc CDR spindle.
 
I like this thread and subscribe in the hopes of it surviving for a few months!

Also, Baldur's Gate is where it's at.
 
I've been thinking of making a thread like this. So glad though that there is one now! I've been a big fan of collecting pc games, and although what I've got is small compared to others, I'm quite proud of it. Can't wait to see (and yearn) what some of you have!
 
None of my boxes really survived except for star wars related games


I have a boxed xwing collectors edition
Boxed tie fighter collectors edition
Boxed xwing vs tie fighter
Dark forces 1 and 2
Yoda adventures
 
Lucas arts games are valuable considering the lack of digital release for most of them.

I own Grim Fandango in its beautiful box.
 
I still have my boxes for Half-life, Homeworld 1 & 2, Starcraft (Protoss Variant), Mechwarrior 3, Swat 4, Rome 2, Myth 2, Diablo 2, Ultima 9, Unreal Tournament, UT2004, Quake 3, World of Warcraft CE, Warcraft 3 CE + Expansion, Dawn of War, Kohan, Company of Heroes, Vampire: The Masquerade, Ultima Online: SA, Asheron's Call + expansion, Sacrifice, Messiah, Red Alert 2 CE, Tiberian Sun and a few more which i'm forgetting. They're all kept in storage.

why I haven't sold them is beyond me but I know i'll never part with Homeworld, Myth 2, Starcraft and Half-life -- those games have a special place in my heart.
 
If you guys like all the old school PC gaming stuff, you should check out a relatively unknown guy called Matt's YouTube channel. He does chats with some of the best developers of older PC titles.

I myself don't really own any old PC games. I only got into PC gaming in around 2001.
 
I really wish I hadnt thrown out my big box copies of fallout 1 and 2. They are so expensive now.

Found jewel case copies of metal gear solid PC and resident evil 3 PC for $3 each yesterday at half price books. Re3 fetches about $40, mgs $20.
 
Man seeing the box art for MechWarrior 2 makes me want a new single player based Mechwarrior on PC. :(

Another great box:

6099_front.jpg


Plus who could ever forget:

3034_front.jpg
 
dishwasherlove said:
This thread is worthless without pictures. I'll try and grab some of my big boxes when I get home :D
Click to expand...

Thats what i'm talkin about, maybe get a banner / pictures in the op or something?

Bufbaf said:
I like this thread and subscribe in the hopes of it surviving for a few months!

Also, Baldur's Gate is where it's at.
Click to expand...

It should. Might get some recommendations here and there that you dont see in GoG.

Anyone have the original Unreal box?
 
Anyone want to guess what my favorite genre was back in the day?

rEmE9fkl.jpg


Backed so many CRPG revivals on Kickstarter but I know in my heart I will never find time to sit down for 40 hours to beat a game again.
 
dishwasherlove said:
Anyone want to guess what my favorite genre was back in the day?

rEmE9fkl.jpg


Backed so many CRPG revivals on Kickstarter but I know in my heart I will never find time to sit down for 40 hours to beat a game again.
Click to expand...

It's funny, I have most of those games on GOG, along with all the expansions, and yet, I've never even played one of them. Yet, I look at those boxes, and suddenly, I want to. It reminds me of when I wanted to play those games, but couldn't afford it (because I was a broke-ass kid) or couldn't run it on my crappy computer.

But yeah, I think the biggest thing we've lost since gaming went digital on PC is that the games just don't feel... substantial. There's no box or giant manual. You don't get that satisfying sound of the manual and CD case rattling around when you shake the box. Nothing gets you pumped up to actually play the thing.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but for all the benefits of digital distribution in PC gaming, I feel like losing the physical element of it has taken a lot away from the experience.
 
Awww yes, the good old days. I'll put up some pics when i get home later.

Simply love the big boxes, but they indeed are a bitch to store.
 
I used to be big into PC gaming in the late 90's. I would always save the boxes too as I thought there were cool. Unfortunately they all got thrown out about 8 years ago. Still have my giant pile of game manuals though.

Here's what I have now, which isn't really sorted. Also I don't have proper cases for quite a few games as I got the Lucas Arts collection which just comes with the cd's. So thats whats in most of the TDK cases.

I really need a better space for all these
3385067c.jpg

3385067b.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I cringe every time I hear master race

I lost all my big box games. Didn't have many though, Tomb Raider, Black and White, Theif, favorite was probably the Half Life big box though. I remember going to Costco with my parents as a kid and wanting every game I could see stacked there. It was weird place to be; physical PC games being so magical.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Rate the PC Gaming Show 2026
33
433
March Climber replied
“Steam/PC Version” of PS Deals?
10
358
nikos replied
[Modern Vintage Gamer] How Pre-Rendered Backgrounds Defined Early 3D Gaming
11
452
EverydayBeast replied
In this crazy time for PC gaming…
2
94
217
OLED_Gamer replied
Fresco - Official Gameplay Trailer - PC (Steam)
0
161
RedC replied
Top Bottom