Unless you can resell it fairly soon for a good price, I don't see the point of keeping it shrink wrapped. Holding on to games for years isn't a good investment and games were meant to be enjoyed anyways. Part of that enjoyment is the goodies you get in the box.

I'd remove the shrink wrap to prevent further bowing / damage to the underlying box.

You can always reseal it if you invest in the equipment to shrink wrap boxes.

Thanks guys, that's all I wanted to hear to be honest. It made sense to me, but I just had this image in my head of someone screaming "You damn madman!" after I'd done it.

Mog wrote on 2024-04-20, 21:56:

I've just bought a shrinkwrapped (presumably first hand) copy of Quarantine II Road Warrior and I'm trying to decide whether to remove the wrap. The box rear is bowing, presumably from the wrap shrinking and was just curious what anybody else would do in this situation. If I took the wrap off and ironed the box it would look brand spanking new and I'd be able to get to the box contents. Would removing the shrink wrap really be a big deal or am I over thinking this?

Nice score. Not as good as the first one, but still a decent sequel imo and in glorious 640x480. I picked it up in the late 1990s in a Staples middle aisle bargain bin for around $8. Remember those? I know quite a few of us would have bought up those bargain bins back then if we had known the prices would go insane like they have.

liqmat wrote on 2024-04-20, 22:58:

Mog wrote on 2024-04-20, 21:56:

I've just bought a shrinkwrapped (presumably first hand) copy of Quarantine II Road Warrior and I'm trying to decide whether to remove the wrap. The box rear is bowing, presumably from the wrap shrinking and was just curious what anybody else would do in this situation. If I took the wrap off and ironed the box it would look brand spanking new and I'd be able to get to the box contents. Would removing the shrink wrap really be a big deal or am I over thinking this?

Nice score. Not as good as the first one, but still a decent sequel imo and in glorious 640x480. I picked it up in the late 1990s in a Staples middle aisle bargain bin for around $8. Remember those? I know quite a few of us would have bought up those bargain bins back then if we had known the prices would go insane like they have.

Tbh I only ever got to play them as demos back in the day but always wanted them. I got lucky on a copy of the first one on 3do (£27) and then went a bit silly and bought this for £100 as well. Unfortunately the fixes I did to my 3do's drive arent working any more so I'm waiting on a ODE from China to give that a whirl. I've played the second one a few times and the linear nature could be considered a negative or a positive tbh. It's got style and it's DNA can clearly be seen in some of my personal faves Carmageddon and ofc GTA.

Staples probably weren't so big on games over here but the story's the same. Some great games were selling for pennies and they just couldn't get rid of them and now there's none out in the wild. I probably sold/lost/destoyed over 3/4 of my big box collection and re-bought most of it over the past 2-3 years. Some of the rares are like you said, stuff that just sat in bargain bins for month on end, back in the day.