Best collectable PC games?

[MrEco]

I wasn't sure what to title this thread, so bear with me.

A couple of weeks ago I played Ultima 4 for the first time, and it really captivated me. I've never played an RPG, or any game for that matter, with quite the same setup as Ultima 4. I also found that, despite the games age, it wasn't hard to get into at all. So after playing around for a bit my only complaint was that I wished there was a map I could use to keep track of my general position and help find my way to the various towns and places in the game world. Turns out that exact sort of thing exists, and it was part of the games original release back in 1985.

So I looked it up and found myself impressed once again. I had heard tales from ages long past of how PC games use to release with big impressive boxes full of collectible material like maps, clue books, etc, but I had never really seen a good example of it. Ultima 4 has a cloth map, manual, a book describing all 27 of the games spells, and another book of about 30 pages describing the history of the games world as well as the geography and some other details. So now about two weeks since I found this out, and with a bit of time spent examining Ebay, I picked up an original copy of Ultima 4 just so I could have all those awesome collectible pieces. I'm very excited to play the game in full with the map and books beside me, it's shaping up to be an entirely new experience.


So with the explanation now out of the way, I come to my humble questions for you all. I'm curious if anyone else here is familiar with older PC game physical releases? I'm very much interested in hearing about some of the better examples of games that come with a lot of material worth collecting, stuff that could add to the experience of the game (i.e. not just manuals, but things like maps or the history book that comes with Ultima 4). And I don't want the thread to be all about me, I'd also like to hear what everyone else's favorite collectables from older games are.

[Tanooki]

Well in the Win95 era Wing Commander 1-3 got re-released in a Kirathi Saga big box edition. It came with quite a few inserts with a big guide/instruction booklet with some story to it, a calendar, fold out keyboard sheet, and all the 5 CDs had their own box and art, plus spine art that lined up to have the Saga name on it. Historically it has been an easy $100+ buy online as it's tricky to get but due to some people recently trying to undercut themselves on ebay it has gone down around $50 +/- with a bad listing or dumb bid which I just don't get. Some of them I think (mine from retail and extras I got since) had the WC1 'Claw Marks' blue book included but I think people are just throwing it in there to try and call it even more complete. I'd almost wonder if all the cheap GOG sales hurt it to a degree, but other games on there still retail box value.

This release fixes the speed throttling problem and a few others (while introducing a background bug with the rotating planets vanishing) so it would run in a directX win98+ environment. But with the newer OS's like 7 it was a pain to run and 8+ won't run it at all due to directx limitations/cut off from older releases. There is a patch fix up called WCDX up on the Wing Commander CIC forums that has completely fixed WC1+addon package and WC2 but not its addon so far.

[ElkinFencer10]

I don't collect physical PC games (it's the one platform I actually prefer digital), but I do have some physical Star Trek games. I used to have more, but my CD case went missing in my move from Blowing Rock to Henderson. The Star Trek PC games (except for Legacy) are both REALLY freaking good and (for the most part) pretty rare. Having a Bridge Commander, Armada II, or Starfleet Command 3 jewel case on your shelf is definitely a nice showpiece.

[8bit]

Go watch some of MetalJesusRocks big box PC collection videos. He does a great job bestowing the virtues of collecting retro PC games and how to enjoy them today.

[ElkinFencer10]

Go watch some of MetalJesusRocks big box PC collection videos. He does a great job bestowing the virtues of collecting retro PC games and how to enjoy them today.

He's also got a bitchin' collection of physical PC games. I may not collect physical PC releases, but I'm still in awe every time I see his collection in the background in one of his videos.

[isiolia]

There are still some good examples - Blizzard puts out excellent collector's editions, for instance.
The first couple Witcher games (at least) had pretty great physical releases too, even for just the standard editions. Might be slimmed down now with reprints/etc.

Stuff like maps are still pretty common for RPGs with physical releases.


I remember the old Warcraft/etc games still coming with larger manuals and all too that were fairly nice. However, a lot of that was fairly typical. With larger boxes, you had a tendency for the "standard" manuals to be a bit bigger. 'course, some were minimal too, especially when you got collections or bundles.
The downside to this is that it wasn't uncommon to need to reference those manuals, or other "extras" like cardboard wheels when you booted the game up, as a form of DRM.

If you're looking for extra, flight sims usually had a lot. The "manuals" for the Falcon series games were literally three ring binders. Even the Jane's games typically had thick spiral-bound books for them, though those are similar to what a lot of the original releases of things like Baldur's Gate had too. Baldur's Gate II is one of the first I remember having a real Collector's Edition too, which was an even bigger box.

[fastbilly1]

Some boxes had neat swag, or feelies if you are an infocom fan. Red Alert 2 CE came with a pewter figure of either a Chrono Legionnaire or a Tesla Trooper:



And the Ultima Onlines often came with cloth maps, and Blackthornes Revenge came with a figure of him:

[BoneSnapDeez]

Hard to beat this one:

[Tanooki]

I don't collect physical PC games (it's the one platform I actually prefer digital), but I do have some physical Star Trek games. I used to have more, but my CD case went missing in my move from Blowing Rock to Henderson. The Star Trek PC games (except for Legacy) are both REALLY freaking good and (for the most part) pretty rare. Having a Bridge Commander, Armada II, or Starfleet Command 3 jewel case on your shelf is definitely a nice showpiece.

I'd agree, with the early stuff. Loved the original Interplay stuff now on GoG -- 25th anniversary and judgment rites which are point and click games mostly with some basic ship fighting too and then the original starfleet academy that dual hit SNES(and 32X) along with PC. The care they put into those were stunning. Those 2 click games came with like a 1/2 inch thick book, a novel of sorts in the mask of a guide. Even around the games I loved to read them as the work behind at least one of the two was done by (or in part) with DC Fontana and other original TOS script writers which was amazing. They are digitally on GoG so I have them, but I'd love to have the real book again too though I suppose I could dump the PDFs to my kindle as they weren't in color (other than cover) anyway.


On that other post I made about Wing Commander those original boxed releases were solid too as it did have those Claw Marks books and other info sheets which were cool, even the old Tie Fighter game had the full 1+ inch guide inside the box too much like Blizzard did with their Battle Chests for Diablo1+2 and Starcraft.

[o.pwuaioc]

A few standard sets: