GOG Revives Classic PC Game Boxes with DIY Papercraft

It’s a strange feeling, walking down a now‑empty aisle of a big‑box retailer and remembering the towering cardboard cases that once cradled floppy disks and CDs. Back in the ’90s and early 2000s a fresh copy of a game meant a heftier box, glossy art, maybe a few stickers – it was an experience, not just a download.

Fast forward to today, and the world is all digital. You click “Buy” on a storefront, the game streams or installs, and the only thing you can keep is a screenshot of the cover art. That’s fine, but for a lot of us the tactile nostalgia still lingers. GOG, the longtime champion of DRM‑free classics, decided to stir that feeling up again – sort of. Their newest “Preservation Project” is less about shipping you a factory‑made box and more about giving you the files to make one yourself.

The idea grew out of The Big Box Collection, a one‑person hobbyist archive that painstakingly scanned dozens of vintage PC game boxes and turned them into interactive 3‑D models. Those models live on a website where you can spin them around, zoom in on the artwork, and basically geek out on the packaging history. GOG has now taken a handful of those scans, converted them into printable PDFs, and bundled them into its Galaxy client. When you launch a game that’s part of the Preservation Program, you’ll see a little 3‑D replica of its original case right in the interface.

But the real fun (or frustration, depending on your printer) begins when you click the “Download Papercraft” button. The zip file contains high‑resolution sheets you can print on standard A4 or Letter paper, then cut, fold, and glue together to rebuild the box. GOG calls it “a proper papercraft project for anyone who misses shelves full of PC game boxes.” It’s a modest claim, but it does capture the spirit of the endeavor.

For the launch, GOG chose five titles that span a few different eras: Armikrog, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Myst, and the Star Trekk: 25th Anniversary edition. Those aren’t random picks – each one represents a distinct slice of PC gaming history, from the point‑and‑click puzzle craze of the mid‑’90s to the early days of first‑person shooters. As a bonus, the Star Trek edition coincides with the 60th anniversary of the original TV series, a nice little tie‑in.

Now, I have to be honest: printing a box at home isn’t the same as opening a fresh, glossy retail package that smells faintly of fresh cardboard. Home printers usually lack the heavy‑weight cardstock and the spot‑UV finishes that made the originals feel substantial. You’ll likely be gluing matte paper onto a plain cardboard sleeve you source yourself, and the result will look… well, homemade. That’s part of the charm, though – it’s a craft project, not a luxury collector’s item.

If you’re the type who would rather hunt down a vintage box on eBay, you’re not alone. Original cases can fetch a pretty penny, and many of them are in terrible condition because cardboard just doesn’t age gracefully. GOG’s papercraft files offer a low‑cost alternative, even if the final product is a little rough around the edges.

There are a couple of practical hurdles, too. You’ll need a color printer that can handle the large, high‑resolution PDFs without skimping on detail. Then there’s the time commitment: cutting, folding, and gluing every piece takes a few focused minutes per box – maybe longer if you’re not particularly handy with scissors. It’s not a quick “add to cart, receive in the mail” experience, but it does give you a reason to step away from the screen for a moment.

All that said, the project feels like a love letter to a bygone era. GOG is already doing the hard part of keeping these classic games playable on modern hardware, free of DRM, and now they’re adding a visual reminder of where those games originally lived. It’s an odd hybrid of digital preservation and analog nostalgia, and it may just inspire other companies to think about how they can honor the physical side of gaming history.

So, if you have a decent printer, a steady hand, and a soft spot for the clunky cardboard sleeves of yesteryear, give it a try. Print the sheets, assemble the boxes, and maybe even line a shelf with your own DIY collection. It won’t replace the feeling of pulling a fresh case off a store shelf, but it’s the closest you can get without a time machine – and that’s something worth celebrating.