Remember When Video Games Came In Big Boxes?

I most certainly do as I'm collecting them.

For sharing my games with other (retro) gaming heads, I decided to turn all of the 1,009 boxes* filing up my NerdWall™ into shiny 3D!

All boxes can be zoomed and rotated and some can even be looked at from top and bottom angles. Also, double click/tap a box with a gatefold cover or sleeve cover to open them up.

The site is a one-man show and done in my spare time. I do try to keep it as up-to-date as possible but sometimes, well, life happens and the time from picking up a new box until it's available in 3D with all bells and whistles does vary quite a bit. I'm trying to keep you all posted via the blog though.

Anyway, I better stop babbeling and let you jump right in.

Use the search in the top right corner or start with one of the games listed below.

Enjoy,

Benjamin

* Well, lots of boxes and some not so boxy ones

Latest Blog posts

Recently Added 3D Boxes

Most Viewed Games

3D Box Controls

Rotate: drag with left mouse button or with one finger

Pan: drag with right mouse button or with two fingers

Zoom: mouse wheel or pinch

Open/close gatefold: double click or double tap

Take on/off sleeve cover: double click or double tap

Press Talk

There have been a couple of print and online articles about BigBoxCollection.com over the past years. Click the covers above or links below for diving into bits and interviews. Enjoy :-)

	Multiplayer (01.2024)
	Time Extension (12.2023)
	Aftermath (12.2023)

Statistics

There are 1,009 games available in 3D on this site and piling them all up would result in a stack 36.7m high and with a volume of 1.59m³.

When adding up all sides there's 112.58m² of boxart, not counting the 78 gatefolds and 2 sleeve covers available to explore on this site. Further, there's a total of 950 photos showing the games' contents.

With the disks, CDs and whatnot of 974 boxes indexed, there's a total of 2,011 media. Here's a breakdown:

• 871 × CD-ROM
• 606 × Floppy (3.5")
• 257 × Floppy (5.25")
• 113 × Tape
• 92 × DVD
• 31 × Book/Comic
• 25 × Audio CD
• 6 × Flash Drive
• 4 × Download
• 4 × Cartridge
• 1 × Vinyl
• 1 × VHS

In regard of fidelity, 685 out of the 1,009 boxes have all six sides scanned. I'm working on adding more but this comes down to finding the time needed for scanning and editing. There's also 78 boxes with a gatefold cover that can be flipped open by double-clicking the box. Also, 132 boxes do have specific textures for their reflectiveness. It's a subtle effect but IMHO worth all the work, just look at Morrowind or Beneath a Steel Sky.

For 371 boxes, the artists of the box art have been identified. In total, there are 173 artists indexed and for 113 boxes, the original art is available.

Since the site's redesign on November 24, 2023, the boxes have been viewed 463,889 times. That's a whopping 28 games per hour over these past 22 months.

Similar Projects

After launching bigboxcollection.com back in June 2015, I have been in touch with like-minded folks willing to spent some time creating their own 3D Big Box Collections with either re-using or building upon my code and starting from scratch with their own vision. Either way, it's fun to exchange ideas with each other on how to improve our projects and to keep one another motivated in your quest to bring dustly ol' cardboard boxes to life.

Here's an overview over other 3D Box projects. Go, check them out:

• SCUMM game collection by Maurice Evers (07.2018: using my old 3DBBscript with some own tweaks)
• Lyonsden Blog by Steven Lyon (01.2019: using my old 3DBBscript with some own tweaks)
• Magisthans Spielekiste by Andreas Ochs (03.2019: using my old 3DBBscript with some own tweaks)
• Captain's Blog by Stuart Wilson (12.2020—02.2025: using my old 3DBBscript, now with own implementation)
• Gamebox Museum (also as VR app) by Michel Mohr (06.2021: own implementation using Unity)
• Dungeon Master Encyclopedia by Christophe Fontanel (12.2023: based on my current script but with own edits)
• BigBoxDB by Adam Zwakenberg (01.2024: shared my current code, ended up with own implementation)