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Editorial RPG Codex Top 74 PC RPGs of All Time: Boxed Edition

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Surely, you all know esteemed community member mindx2. And not just as our intrepid PAX East reporter or a quality poster on our forums, but most importantly, as an RPG connoisseur who knows a good box when he sees it.

In light of that, it shouldn't come as a surprise that our definitive Top 72 PC RPG list from last year caught his attention and made him want to fill it with boxes. Here is the result.

Early last year, the esteemed Brazilian Codexer felipepepe took on the monumental task of compiling the RPG Codex’s Top 50 RPGs of all time. That in and of itself was quite the challenge, considering people were voting for games made over a thirty year long span. After the flamewars discussions finally died down, the result was a Top 72 RPGs Of All Time list. As I looked through this admittedly well rounded list, nostalgia began to take over.

[...] Since so many of these promises for a return to “old-school” boxes were turning out to be empty, I decided to return to the true old-school games of the past. As a collector of computer games, I already owned many of the Codex’s Top 72 RPGs, so I decided to track down the ones I was missing and create a photographic archive of each one's box. In the process, I realized that in this digital distribution age, we've lost a piece of what made PC gaming great. Those old boxes did a lot to enhance our enjoyment and dare I say “immersion” in those game worlds that we spent so many hours exploring.

I have tried to collect only IBM-PC versions released in the US, as well any Collector’s or Special Editions which were produced for each game when possible. For each game, I've photographed its box's front and back cover artwork and original contents, as well as any clue books/strategy guides, tie-in novels, pre-orders, etc, that were also an important part of the overall experience. I hope you enjoy this trip down nostalgia lane as much as I did while documenting it. In the process, maybe you’ll also see that we have lost a little something along the way.

Readers, I present to you a visual record of the RPG Codex’s Top 74 RPGs of all Time “Boxed Edition” (it’s 74 rather than 72 since I had to include Blade of Destiny and Chaos Strikes Back in honor of Crooked Bee!). I’ve included some general notes and observations about many of the games as well.​

Warning: This article is extremely image-heavy.

Read the full article: RPG Codex Top 74 PC RPGs of All Time: Boxed Edition
 

Wizfall

Cipher
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Oct 3, 2012
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816
Wow some of those box...memories....
Really make you travel back in time, and i'm not even a box fan....usually.
 

mindx2

Codex Roaming East Coast Reporter
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Codex 2012 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire RPG Wokedex Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This truly was a labor of love. Going through many of those boxes brought back tons of great gaming memories. I want to thank felipepepe and Fizzii for helping me create some of the boxes for the games that didn't have any (blasphemous!) as well as Crooked Bee for allowing this to be posted and Infinitron for editing and compiling all those photos to the Gallery.

I hope everyone enjoys them... :salute:

Oh, I did forget one thing... this article is dedicated to crawlkill... :troll:
 

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
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mindx2 - you are a true collector - well done. I own ca. 90% of these titles boxed - the rest only in digital form.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
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11,076
Pure, undiluted, PORN.

:excellent:



Holy shit mindx2 , did you make custom boxes of Knights of the Chalice and Heroine's Quest ? :salute:
 

Rhuantavan

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Codex 2012
So romantic... BaK and the hint guide together. :desu:

On another note mindx2, you should throw the novelization away, it's bending that shelf.

Just kidding, I have that (terrible) book too.
 

Paul_cz

Arcane
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1,995
Fuck I want it :(

All :(

Great job, even if I do wish the photos had better quality, spoiled bitch that I am
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
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27,012
I see now that I owned only a tenth of those boxes.
I must say that I am envious only of the very old stuff.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
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That is gorgeous man. Thanks for going through the work to put this article together!
 

mindx2

Codex Roaming East Coast Reporter
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Codex 2012 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire RPG Wokedex Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Holy shit mindx2 , did you make custom boxes of Knights of the Chalice and Heroine's Quest ? :salute:

Sure did. Both felipepepe (KotC & Geneforge) and Fizzii (Herione's Quest) got the designs created and I had them printed off.

Fuck I want it :(

All :(

Great job, even if I do wish the photos had better quality, spoiled bitch that I am

I'd love to become a better "archiver" and preserve and document as many of these old gems as possible. Should Kickstart something like that to get the proper equipment to do it correctly. I have tons more PC games in my collection which is mainly focused on cRPGs of course. :obviously:
 
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felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
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BTW, I was meaning to ask you, what happened to the KotC design I did? Jewel cases aren't prestigious so you converted it into a DVD box?
 

mindx2

Codex Roaming East Coast Reporter
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Perusing his PC Museum shelves.
Codex 2012 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire RPG Wokedex Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I am both amazed and consumed by envy. Hey, mindx2, for a further brofist avalanche scan all the manuals, guides and trinkets for posterity.
That would damage some of the items especially the thicker manuals and strat guides.

ill give you 5 pesos for all of it
:rpgcodex:
For BG1, this image is posted twice, and this image isn't posted at all.

And this one has its thumbnail posted, but it's not clickable.

I was sure there would be a mistake somewhere... that's a LOT of pictures to go through.
 

PocketMine

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Serpent in the Staglands Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
Trully great collection :salute:

Im scratching my head about that ADOM CD version. Whats on the CD? Adom is like 1500kb whole.
Well atleast it was till tiles version showed up last year :M
 

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