My latest purchase of another version of Crusaders of Might and Magic made me wonder once again why publishers in different regions decided that different box art was needed. I’ve wondered about this question before, when getting my hands on another Drakkhen and another Future Wars. It’s probably got something to do with licensing and rights and so forth, but there might be an interesting story there in individual cases. Maybe it was just a matter of trying to target a local market better with different art. The sometimes wildly different appearance of Asian releases certainly seem to underwrite that reason.

The differences in box art certainly makes collecting games more interesting. But I don’t want to dive too deeply into that rabbit hole. In the past I bought US versions of Baldur’s Gate and it’s expansion to replace the European version with. In that case I liked the US versions so much more than the European releases that I didn’t keep hold of the latter ones. Although the front of the EU release of Baldur’s gate does look quite good, the spine not so much. And that is what displayed most of the time.

Alternate Versions to want

Already quite some time ago, I bought a nice version of Beneath a Steel Sky (BASS) from the US. It has a very interesting design with a sleeve that you can see through in some places. I like it. But I always wanted the black version as well, until I bought the Utopia Edition of Beyond a Steel Sky. That has the black box reminiscent of BASS and now that urge is somewhat tempered, although I guess I would buy the alternate version of BASS at the right price.

Ugly versions

Two examples of games with ugly alternate box art are The Legend of Kyrandia – Book Two: The Hand of Fate and Goblins 3. I got the ugly version of Kyrandia 2, which is so ugly that I want to hold on to it. But I would like to have a better looking version also. I noticed that there’s also another variant of Kyrandia 3 that differs from the version I have. I have no strong feelings about the other version being more or less desirable than the version I have.

And then there’s Goblins 3, a game that has beautiful box art and also was released as Goblins Quest 3 by Sierra. They changed the packaging to a questionable red-yellow-purple checkered pattern. I don’t think I that I want to own that version.

Other games that I wanted specific versions of are Shadow of the Comet and Albion. Albion comes in a very nice box with a beautiful picture on the front as well as a cutout in the middle. This version is so much better than the more common German release with a very bland green box with only the title of the game on the front.
The version of Shadow of the Comet that I have in my collection is a very dark box with an illustration that fills the entire box. There’s also another version that has a different illustration that only fills part of the box. That one has the lettering “Call of Cthulhu” above it that makes it more in line with the version of Prisoner of Ice that I have. There’s also a different version of that game, that I would like to trade my version for.

And then there are games that are something like collector’s editions in that their packaging has additional features but they are not marketed as collector’s editions as such. Examples of such games in my collection are Stonekeep and Darkseed. these games have essentially the same box art, but added features like in the case of Darkseed a cutout where the CD packaging is slightly protruding from the box.
In the case of Stonekeep, there’s a version that shaped like a tombstone. I don’t have that version and I’m perfectly fine with that. The game is not special enough to me to warrant so much shelf space. And the regular version is already very nice with a stereoscopic picture on the front.

I guess one of the more most famous examples of different box art is Daggerfall. The difference between the EU en US versions is not very great, both have a illustration of a lich on the front. But the difference is enough to make you wonder why it’s there at all. The lich on the front of the EU version looks more amateurish than the one on the US version. I would love to have the US version also at one point, especially the one with the holographic cover.