There are a couple of attractions about game collecting. There’s the aspect of handling the physical object. Just holding it in your hands and browsing through all the contents is probably the main thing for me. There’s a strong element of nostalgia attached to that. I like looking at my copy of Ultima VI for example, but that doesn’t give me the same feeling as looking at Ultima Underworld. Although I appreciate the former for all the care that went into the packaging, the latter provides me with lots of memories of playing it when I was a teenager, which the former can’t.

Then there’s the social aspect of course. Being able to share the passion with like-minded people is very enjoyable.

There’s also the aspect of collecting itself. Knowing that you have all the games in a particular series, or hunting down that one remaining game, is a satisfying feeling. That goes for all types of collections. In my case I’ve chosen games, but I could have just as easily chosen books, music or movies.

A main aspect for me is displaying the collection. There’s little value for me in having a lot of games if I couldn’t display them. I hate it if I have to put a game behind other games because there’s no room on the shelf. Something I had to do with the enormous Dragon Edition of Ultima IX for instance. I’m just able to discern the top of the box sticking out (and that’s with the box on it’s side!), which alleviates some of the discomfort.

Of course, displaying a collection and handling the items is most fun when the objects are beautiful. With games that’s mostly not an issue. They were designed to sell as many copies as they could and in order to do that, they had to be as attractive looking as possible. The beauty of the art is one aspect that’s widely appreciated, there are whole books dedicated to it.

Not all games have succeeded in this regard. I mentioned some games I find particularly ugly in some of my earlier writings.
At this moment in time we are quite far removed from the period in which the art of the box was all important. That makes it maybe more likely a subject of conversation. When there are almost no new experiences to be had, there’s nothing much else to do then look back, and be critical. But back in the day, it also was a topic of conversation. That became apparent to me when I browsed through some issues of Amiga Power. In issue 10 from February 1992 there’s a whole article about the good, the bad & the ugly of computer game packaging design.

In the article two games are put side by side, one good and one bad, or one good and one ugly. Sometimes the good packaging contains also the better game, like Lotus II and Champion Driver, but sometimes it’s reversed, like The Cycles and Indianapolis 500.

I enjoyed reading this article so much, that I just wanted to talk about it. I couldn’t figure out how to start however and before I knew it, I had rambled out these preceding words. Maybe way too much off topic, but I guess rambling about it is another aspect about game collecting that I enjoy!