chinny22 wrote on 2025-10-05, 09:30:

...the game's not that good. The box says "Race around Bathurst, Adelaide, Queensland, Melbourne and other international tracks […]
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...the game's not that good.
The box says "Race around Bathurst, Adelaide, Queensland, Melbourne and other international tracks.
Those first 4 tracks are the only Australian tracks so about half the championship tracks are missing.
And the international tracks? Famous ones such as Le-Mans or Nürburgring? Nope 4 Swedish tracks, why Swedish?
Because V8 Challenge is actually a reworked copy of "Swedish Touring Car Championship 2"

The game is also missing a lot of the teams but does have a few of the big ones including the Holden Factory Team which were the championship winners at the time.
So you have the number 1 team and the number 1 track, We could have made do.

Sadly the cars handle terribly and is unforgiving, even taking it easy you end up spinning alot. In the end we went back to Need for Speed 3,4, Even Porsche was more forgiving!

Interesting read! So EA took their existing Swedish game, replaced some of the tracks with Australian and shipped it? Why not replace all of them? Was it possible they had a license for just certain tracks but not for all of them, or was it simply a case of time constraints?

dr_st wrote on 2025-10-05, 20:23:

Interesting read! So EA took their existing Swedish game, replaced some of the tracks with Australian and shipped it? Why not replace all of them? Was it possible they had a license for just certain tracks but not for all of them, or was it simply a case of time constraints?

I suspect it was due to licensing more then time but that's just a guess on my part.
I may have to try the Swedish game as it apparently did quite well.
Maybe it's me but the handling in this game is terrible!

Really nice selection of games, Matchstick! But this isn't just a showcase thread, it's a show-n-tell, so you should say something about them too! 😁

Well, I will add a little triva for the first game on the shelf "Pool of Radiance". As everyone knows, it is the greatest CRPG of all time and for this reason alone there would be a lot to talk about. One of the things that is loosely related to this game is the Dungeons & Dragons module "Ruins of Adventure" (based on Pool of Radiance). So if you are interested in an additional detailed read to imerse yourself into the Lore of the Forgotten Realms with additional maps and background, you can get the D&D Book as an extended manual (unfortunately its too big to fit into the Box 😉 )

Aui wrote on 2025-11-14, 05:28:

Well, I will add a little triva for the first game on the shelf "Pool of Radiance". As everyone knows, it is the greatest CRPG o […]
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Really nice selection of games, Matchstick! But this isn't just a showcase thread, it's a show-n-tell, so you should say something about them too! 😁

Well, I will add a little triva for the first game on the shelf "Pool of Radiance". As everyone knows, it is the greatest CRPG of all time and for this reason alone there would be a lot to talk about. One of the things that is loosely related to this game is the Dungeons & Dragons module "Ruins of Adventure" (based on Pool of Radiance). So if you are interested in an additional detailed read to imerse yourself into the Lore of the Forgotten Realms with additional maps and background, you can get the D&D Book as an extended manual (unfortunately its too big to fit into the Box 😉 )

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Nice to show that connection, there's quite a bit of AD&D in classic rpg games, from early to more recent times. Artwork looks great in this module

Yes, I very much like the artwork that came with the D&D books and adventures. A similar style of very nice illustrations also came with the " Fighting Fantasy" books by Steve Jackson Ian Livingstone. I love these books as well (although I am not sure if I ever honestly completed (won!) any one of their books. "Choose your own adventure" usually meant to start fighting rats

before more serious encounters usually ended the adventure (is this my imagination or does this figure looks like the Baldurs Gate 1 villain...?)

Ah, D&D and Forgotten Realms. My own encounter with this lore is limited only to "The Legend of Drizzt" series by R.A. Salvatore. I definitely enjoyed those books, but the copies I own have no illustrations other than the cover art.

I do own boxed copies of Baldur's Gate (with the expansion) and Baldur's Gate II (without the expansion), but I only came by them through a relative who got them from a friend's friend who was cleaning their house.
They look nice on my shelf, but I haven't played them (at least not yet), and don't have any meaningful attachment to them or stories to share.

Just thought of another one of mine possibly worth mentioning.

Rayman Gold (original UK Big Box release, 1997)

Rayman is one of my favorite game series, possibly the favorite. I have many physical copies, but this is the only "big box" in my collection. My Rayman 1 and Rayman 2 games probably came in boxes as well, but I have not kept these - only the CDs and manuals.

"Rayman Gold" is basically the original Rayman 1 game + the Rayman Designer expansion. The expansion is 24 original levels + the mapper which allowed you to build your own custom levels, and you could share them online back in the day. I never got into this aspect, but I did enjoy the new levels that came with the game. This release comes with a manual, and almost one half of it is dedicated to explaining how the map editor works and how to build new levels. Not many platformers back in the day offered anything like this.

I got this copy still shrink-wrapped on a very good sale a few years back. Nowadays they appear sometimes for ridiculously high prices. I wanted the original release, not just for the box and manual, but also because some later copies sold in the UK had buggy CDs with the audio tracks missing. Imagine playing the game with no music.

Another thing I only recently realized - the 3D Rayman model used in the box art is unique to this edition, and was never used in any other Rayman releases (that I know of), nor does it appear anywhere in the game. Most versions use the standard Rayman sprite.

Great ! I never played Rayman at all - until your highly possitive evaluation above ($1.49 at GOG - what a bargain!). And wow - even just a few levels in I already like it a lot. This proves that in the DOS world there are always more hidden gems. Now I need to find me a physical copy...

Aui wrote on 2025-11-26, 07:53:

Great ! I never played Rayman at all - until your highly possitive evaluation above ($1.49 at GOG - what a bargain!). And wow - even just a few levels in I already like it a lot. This proves that in the DOS world there are always more hidden gems. Now I need to find me a physical copy...

Indeed, GOG frequently has the series on sale. I bought most of the games there, despite already having multiple physical copies, just to have easy access to digital installers, with patches etc.

Rayman 1 is a very likeable game, but has got a reputation of being quite challenging, sometimes unfairly so, in certain spots. With that said, I managed to beat it as a teenager back in the day, and even though some sections took many attempts, I didn't feel all the hoo-ha about the difficulty. There are definitely many much more grueling platformers out there.

Arctic Fox – not a Box

An early DYNAMIX title released by EA in a vinyl record LP – style. The size of the case is somewhere between a “Full LP” and a smaller “Single Record” The manual is usually in the front flap and the entire packing is illustrated with various cover art. Most notable is the idea to cast and promote the game developers together with their game. While I’m not so sure about the late 70s – early 80s rock star aesthetic, I certainly think that game developers in general should get more appreciation. While I like this style a lot, I think it only made sense as long as floppy disks really were kind of floppy. For neither cassette tapes nor 3.5-inch disks is the packing sturdy enough.

The game itself is an advanced Battlezone clone in charming peak CGA awfulness. I think one of the main reasons to put the game into the Antarctic was to avoid pink pastures in a moderate climate combat zone. To be fair all other versions - C64, Atari ST and Amiga look better. Thus, the screenshots on the back of the game also look much better than what you actually get on the PC. While I find this amusing nowadays, I imagine some people must have been really annoyed by this back in the day. Your box or manual shows the AMIGA graphic, but your PC only shows CGA.

In addition, a number of grating sound effects are coming from the speaker as soon as you start your mission. So, all in all this game gives a very authentic experience of early PC-gaming. If you can accept all these shortcomings and want to give the game a try, expect the first 30 min to figure out the basics and adapt your eye to an incredible coarse vector representation of your surroundings. However, once you got past that hurdle, the game is actually quite a lot of fun!

ahh the days of the box art showing the cut scenes or an entirely different platform as "gameplay" That's one thing I don't miss!
But that Game Dev page is so cheesy its brilliant

chinny22 wrote on 2025-12-01, 04:02:

ahh the days of the box art showing the cut scenes or an entirely different platform as "gameplay" That's one thing I don't miss!

You're saying this was actually a thing?

Aui wrote on 2025-11-29, 03:18:

In addition, a number of grating sound effects are coming from the speaker as soon as you start your mission. So, all in all this game gives a very authentic experience of early PC-gaming. If you can accept all these shortcomings and want to give the game a try, expect the first 30 min to figure out the basics and adapt your eye to an incredible coarse vector representation of your surroundings. However, once you got past that hurdle, the game is actually quite a lot of fun!

I do recall a few CGA / PC speaker titles fondly. Alleycat, Paratrooper, Pharaoh's Tomb... The last one can at least be beaten. The first two are just about getting as high a score as you can before you are defeated (no real 'end' to either of them).

Aui wrote on 2025-11-29, 03:18:

Most notable is the idea to cast and promote the game developers together with their game.

Hey, now I finally know how Jeff Tunnell used to look! I recognize him as the creator of The Incredible Machine, under Sierra/Dynamix. According to Wikipedia, Arcticfox might be the first game he was credited with.

Anyhow, since we have departed a bit from the 'Big Box' format, I think I will have another entry to present soon. 😀

dr_st wrote on 2025-12-02, 05:04:

chinny22 wrote on 2025-12-01, 04:02:

ahh the days of the box art showing the cut scenes or an entirely different platform as "gameplay" That's one thing I don't miss!

You're saying this was actually a thing?

i remember that too, as example i remember for PCs i think sometimes the Amiga screenshots were used - back when Amiga looked better that typical PC with ega,cga. And i guess if VGA was an option that was always shown.

Going back to the first game series I've presented in this thread - here is another one of my favorite bundles:

Prince of Persia (2008 reboot) Pre-order Bonus Kit

As you can see - it is not quite "big" - the box is just large enough to hold a standard DVD keep-case and a few extras, but the fit-n-finish is very pretty, down to the magnetic catch in the front flap. Included are a few standard clichés for 'special editions' (bonus multimedia, comic book, code to unlock in-game goodies).

This promotional bundle was available in Europe, but I didn't buy it when it was new. In fact, it is a mix of two different "pre-order" kits - one which was the base game with custom artwork on the DVD inlay, the other one was all the goodies in the collector's box. I found them separately, years later, but they just fit together so nicely that they may have been a set to begin with.

Blog entry for more reading and pictures.

Very nice - I am currently playing the (2003) Sands of Time and while I like the athmosphere a lot and also the platforming and puzzles, combat is infuriating. Especially the ability of the enemies to " beam " around feels really unfair. How do these later modern 3D reboot play?

Aui wrote on 2025-12-26, 01:38:

Very nice - I am currently playing the (2003) Sands of Time and while I like the athmosphere a lot and also the platforming and puzzles, combat is infuriating. Especially the ability of the enemies to " beam " around feels really unfair. How do these later modern 3D reboot play?

It's been a looong while since I've played the Sands of Time, and now that you bring it back, I do recall that on occasion, when low on health and trying to catch my breath, I would get really nervous with enemies literally teleporting around chasing me. I guess this feature was because on the whole the enemies on Sands of Time are soooo slow, that without this ability you would be able to just run away from them all the time.

If you find this particular aspect infuriating, you may feel some encouragement from me telling you, that in the two immediate sequels - WW and TTT - combat has been overhauled to feel more naturally flowing, and less scripted. IMO, a bit less interesting too. In SoT - each enemy is a puzzle - you need to figure out which moves they are susceptible to, and you need to absorb their sand, or else they never die... In the sequels it's a more mundane hack and slash at everyone, for the most part. To compensate for that, the sequels have more unique boss battles.

Now - the 2008 reboot that was the subject of my last post - it's a very different game. Like completely different. For starts, there is no time reversal mechanic, instead you have the magical companion, and there is no 'death' per se - failing colossally will only take you back to the beginning of the platforming sequence, or a few stages back in combat. That doesn't necessarily make the game easier overall - as those sequences can be challenging in different ways. However, combat is definitely more 'scripted', often requiring you to take very specific actions at certain points to progress, and frequently it is spelled out for you...

Gameplay-wise, I sense it's a little weaker than the Sands of Time trilogy, and less atmospheric too. It is mostly very beautiful with a unique art style not seen in the franchise before or after that, and the huge amount of conversation between your character and your sidekick makes it feel, at times, like a graphical adventure with action sequences intermixed. The ending is annoying as hell.

CAESAR 3
As everyone knows, we are all thinking daily about the Roman Empire, but this of course is not enough. We also have to BUILD IT!

This game was released in 1998 and therefore during a period when Big Box releases were increasingly lackluster and often a flimsy box would only hold a CD case and a few ads. However, this game is an exception as it comes with a massive handbook, flyers and a Sierra catalog that also publishes Blizzard Ads (?!). The system requirements are surprisingly low for 1998 with a P90 and 16MB RAM being enough. There is a “normal release and a platinum edition which includes part I and II.

The Caesar series started in the early 90s and was inspired by Sim City but even the first Caesar game is much more complex than the Maxis template with many more options and requirements to manage your emerging Roman province. Caesar 3 is the pinnacle of the series and the city builder genre in general. You are a Roman politician who must build and manage increasingly larger and more demanding provinces receiving your orders directly from Caesar. The locations are all around the Mediterranean (but also beyond the Alps, e.g. Londinium”) done with a superb artwork of either a Tuscan landscape or in a more arid barren land of southern Italy or North Africa. As your city grows the music changes in a subtle crescendo from a plain idyllic tune of the barren land to a bombastic march when your city becomes a large thriving town. You can play either a civil career in peaceful provinces (higher ratings in culture and Caesars favor needed) or a military career with frequent attacks from neighboring barbarians. In either case the gameplay is slow, and military success is only a matter of providing the infrastructure (there is almost no RTS element in the gameplay). Every campaign eventually turns military if you anger Caesar too much. If you don’t comply with his requests for a long time, he will eventually send his legions to destroy your city.

The appeal of the game lies in its contemplative almost meditative nature. It does not get boring to watch the city slowly grow with all the different citizens going about their business and really getting the impression you are watching a day in the ancient Roman Empire. I would also argue that it is educational in many respects. All individual people will also tell you what they think about your efforts with some really funny responses. To completely satisfy the needs of your citizens is a very tricky (and sometimes frustrating) task. They rise from simple tent dwellers who even gather their own food and water to wealthy patricians who demand several kinds of food and wine, entertainment, education and a myriad of other amenities. Like Sim City (where your city turns to brown and black ruins when its out of balance) your beautiful Roman villas will crumble when even the slightest demand is no longer met.

The success of the game has spawned several spin offs in similar ancient historical settings (Greece, Egypt, China) and also lives on in the modern fan made Augustus engine.
Almost 30 years old but still an awesome classic – highly recommended.

Aui wrote on 2026-01-23, 02:14:

CAESAR 3 As everyone knows, we are all thinking daily about the Roman Empire, but this of course is not enough. We also have to […]
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CAESAR 3
As everyone knows, we are all thinking daily about the Roman Empire, but this of course is not enough. We also have to BUILD IT!
..
The success of the game has spawned several spin offs in similar ancient historical settings (Greece, Egypt, China) and also lives on in the modern fan made Augustus engine.
Almost 30 years old but still an awesome classic – highly recommended.

nice example! i remember liking the pharaoh version, taking many hours to make many bricks and blocks to make pyramids!

All the games have guides for optimal arrangements, i remember some seemed counter intuitive, like blocking some paths etc

All the games have guides for optimal arrangements, i remember some seemed counter intuitive, like blocking some paths etc

Yes - there is a lot of information out there how to make these cities work "perfectly" (e.g. https://caesar3.heavengames.com/)

but I could never be bothered. To me this level of optimization kills the fun, because once you start it you probably feel compelled to build everything perfectly - all the time, which in turn probably makes it more like a crossword puzzle. On the other hand - I do admit that its highly anoying when one wrongly placed statue diverts some school children on their way home and an entire street falls back to the stone age. I have not yet tried the Egypt scenario but I will give that a try soon...

Aui wrote on 2026-01-28, 04:09:

All the games have guides for optimal arrangements, i remember some seemed counter intuitive, like blocking some paths etc

Yes - there is a lot of information out there how to make these cities work "perfectly" (e.g. https://caesar3.heavengames.com/)

but I could never be bothered. To me this level of optimization kills the fun, because once you start it you probably feel compelled to build everything perfectly - all the time, which in turn probably makes it more like a crossword puzzle. On the other hand - I do admit that its highly anoying when one wrongly placed statue diverts some school children on their way home and an entire street falls back to the stone age. I have not yet tried the Egypt scenario but I will give that a try soon...

that's true, over optimisation guides take it from imagined city to actual spreadsheet, still - some of these cities could take so many hours to develop 😀