Those were the days...

[Dramadine]

When your videogame boxes were the size of a cereal box. For some reason it always felt good lugging a big box home even though it was just the same old cd inside....

[discobiscuits]

LOL

I remember that. Trying to remember the first game I bought that was a smaller box. If I remember correctly it was Frozen Throne. UT99/WC3/SC had those mega boxes that took up so much unused space.

Who's idea was it to make those boxes? ...

[Dramadine]

haha I'm not sure, but when I first got the small box (medal of honor i think) I was like, wtf is this? who makes small boxes, why would you do this sort of thing?

[DogRed9]

I dont know but i liked them ALOT more, you could stick them on a bookshelf and make it look like you had something.... lol The last game I bought in a large box was Rainbow Six Raven Shield, which came in both the big and small box, everything after that, for me at least, has been in a small box.

[Leviathan]

And then there was Tomb Raider which came in a giant pyramid-shaped box that was actually larger than all the others and didn't fit on shelves well

Man I miss those boxes but yeah.... so stupidly large....... whoever thought of using such a large box is bonkerz
The last one I remember is R6 Rogue Spear...

[blakey83]

look at the size of this!classic game inside.

[Taichan]

my first one one that came in the little box was HL2.. but i only buy games i know i like

[spin54]

I remember the huge debate in game magazines about small boxes. They ranted about these puny boxes weren't enough substance. When you had a big box you felt like you bought something amazing and had a huge shelf full of games. I remember thinking the same thing as I loved displaying my game collection when I was young. I still have pretty much every game box i've ever owned packed away in a garage. But now I have shelves of little boxes, Can't say I really care anymore. I don't have the room for those giant boxes. I have a few special edition games with giant boxes and they take up too much room.

[ether.real]

Back when game manuals didnt suck, the big boxes were useful

Nowadays, you are lucky if you get a two page insert for a manual. I remember CFS2....that thing has a whole book on the history of the planes and ships in the game, as well as flight maneuvers. Was a very cool book.

[Climhazard89]

Jill of the jungle was the first game I ever had in one of those big boxes on my dad's P1 with Win3.1 cant remember the last one a I had like that was prolly One Must Fall for win 95

[Leviathan]

I totally remember Jill of the Jungle.......
o_O

[Death125]

Lol, I still have a huge collection of those things in my closet, and you can still buy (big box versions of new games) for $5-$10 off if you have a sam's or a Cosco store near you.

[phlyco]

Yea, they were cool because they had a lot of artwork and stuff. Plus you felt felt like you were getting more when you were buying it even tho you weren't.

It also made it look like you got more/better presents at Christmas.

[Mindwarp]

Could you imagine how big an EB Games store would have to be if companies still used the big boxes? I think they had to go to small boxes as the number of available games went up. They were just taking up too much shelf space.

[Milkman]

TES:4 Oblivion big box, last one i bought.

[ether.real]

Oblivion came in a big box? Mine didnt....

[Milkman]

my box was pretty big.. i got the special edition one?

[Death125]

Big boxes by if they look a foot in hight. Its the special if yours has a bronze coin with it.

[Grimm]

Originally Posted by Dramadine

When your videogame boxes were the size of a cereal box. For some reason it always felt good lugging a big box home even though it was just the same old cd inside....

The last game I bought was the size of a cereal box. The Burning Crusade expansion for WoW, deluxe edition (I like the install DVD instead of CDs and the art book).

But, the larger boxes were needed when it was a stack of 5.25 floppy disks and a manual that was the size of a hardback novel.
Way back when, you couldn't go online and get tons of information about a game. You needed all the information to be in the box.
I remember a game that had 25 3.5" disks and a large manual. The 24th disk was defective. That's the day I ordered my first CD-ROM drive (a blazing 2x speed drive!).

The advent of the internet eliminated the need for including everything in the box. And the boxes could get smaller. And the CD didn't hurt either. Instead of a stack of disks one disc could take it's place, and boxes could get even smaller.

With high speed internet, games could be bought just like gift cards. Buy the card, scratch off the back and enter the number on the website. The installer runs and downloads the game, manual and patches. Boxes? Who needs them?

[baldrick]

Falcon 4 was the ultimate in big boxes, iirc came with one normal manual, another slightly thicker one, one the size of a novel, a map of Korea as well as a cheatsheet thing and an installation guide.