The Weird PC Game Boxes of Hock Wah Yeo
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- čas přidán 11. 01. 2022
- Flipping through the 2021 book "The Boxes of Hock Wah Yeo" and checking out my collection of said boxes. These are some of my absolute favorite items in my PC game collection and I really need no excuse to talk about them, but here we are.
Here's where I bought the book:
www.colpapress.com/collection...
Here's that Obscuritory article:
obscuritory.com/essay/incredi...
So check this out! The book was successful enough that it has received a second edition reprint, now with more copies available. Nice! www.colpapress.com/collections/frontpage/products/the-boxes-of-hock-wah-yeo#.Yjy5hy-B2qR
I am delighted that you have my book and even more talking about it. Thank you. The book is published by Colpa Press, San Francisco. The first edition was only 100 copies. There seems to be a paper shortage. The publisher informed me that they were going to print more hopefully next month. BTW my name is pronounced "YO" like you would yell out to a friend across the street.
Thanks so much for stopping by, sir! Your portfolio of work is legendary and I love having a book about these things straight from the source.
I appreciate the clarification too, I'll know what to say in the future.
@@LGRBlerbs I am humbled by the generally positive response to the book. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help.
These boxes and displays are fantastic! The effort that went into this is an inspiration. And yes, there is a global paper shortage right now, a real headache for design and publishing…
I had no idea that one guy designed all of those boxes, I figured it was just a minor fad. That's awesome.
@@ericp3645 He wasn't the forefront, he was the entire industry. He was who you went to if you wanted a box that stood out on the shelf.
@@rich1051414 It was a minor fad, but he was at the forefront.
@yarrak there an echo in here?
It was a minor fad, but he was at the forefront...... there an echo in here?...... Yes, there's an echo in here, pass it on!
Clint literally has a tactile library of 90's software package design history here; and in light of nearly all software being something we download off the internet these days, it's a history that we'll likely never see again beyond the odd limited release
nowadays it's only the special collectors limited premium editions that get a box at all, and the boxes are rarely anything special. In a way I miss buying games in boxes, but then on the other hand we mostly only got the cheap crappy boxes so I never kept them.
Considering that software package design degraded into the same boring DVD cases just containing a disc and a piece of paper saying the manual can be found on the disc, it probably wouldn't be interesting to look at other than the odd limited releases. Limited editions also often only adds a small booklet and perhaps the soundtrack, so it is often only those really big special editions only invested fans would splurge their money on that makes any sense nowadays in my opinion. If physical releases tended to have small merchandise/goods, posters, or the like, actually getting the physical releases instead of the digital one would have been a lot more interesting.
Honestly, even though the _Prince of Persia 2_ box is just _1_ upside down, and it was probably just to save money, it's actually kind of brilliant. They're visually distinct and eye-catching while clearly being thematically linked.
I thought it was to evoke an hourglass, such that had to be inverted after the sand emptied from the top bulb.
I remember walking into Best Buy and seeing all the funky boxes from across the store. They were always on the top shelf, since that's where they had the most free space. It was the best advertising.
Never thought about that! Very "two birds with one stone" thing. I wonder of that was ever on their minds when designing these. LOL
stores generally also worry that people ruin the funky boxes because it makes it impossible to sell them, so they're put on the top shelf and behind glass doors so the majority can't touch them
And it also encouraged people who bought the game to keep the boxes and display them instead of just throwing them away or putting them in storage, which likely gave the games some post-sale exposure as someone will inevitably ask about that cool box and the game that came in it.
I worked in a software sales warehouse in the mid 90s when these things were common. When somebody groaned, we knew he’d just been handed an order pick sheet with one or more of those dang boxes on it.
"I don't want them to ask '_____', i want them to ask 'What the hell is this'" is a good philosophy for all art TBH
Truth
I love this vibe of real artiste, high-concept type people just getting free reign on commercial products. You see really out there, but lovingly crafted stuff like these boxes.
Just would have thought those odd boxes had been a ”thing” back in the days. Then there is a BOOK?!
I was working at Babbage's when these packages were all the rage. They made shelf stock an absolute nightmare.
I worked at a wholesaler warehouse that supplied you retail stores with the things. It was just as big a pain in the butt to pick, pack, and ship ‘em to you.
Unorthodox boxes always caught my eye and sparked interest - if they made the effort to give the game a special box, it likely is a special game. Or so my young self thought. 🤭
As a graphic designer for almost 30 years, this tickles my funny bone. Thanks Clint!
Spectre "Challenger" (Demo) came on my family's Macintosh Performa 400, and we played it to death. It was challenging enough that I had no idea it was a demo. The game felt impossibly futuristic and surreal. The box would have really underlined that - but, since we had only the demo, I never got to see the box!
My older brother still greets me with a flat, "Hello, Man," which is what the enemy tanks say when they spawn in if you take too long to collect the flags.
I recently restored a 1998 original iMac for my kids to use as a non-internet computer, and Spectre is once again filling the house with gunshots and chuckle-dings and "Hello, Man."
I did a side course on box design back in high school and he was mentioned the course subjects. He also does conventional art, but it's neat to see where creative mind sends you, outside norms (with boxes) when allowed. With the loss of physical releases, we're also losing this and any potential to expand upon something that's genuinely cool, neat, and all the words usually heard on excited LGR videos. A shame.
@@tspawn35 Yeah there's probably a reason why the vast majority of game buyers just threw out the packaging-along with the manual-until the PlayStation came along and just used shrink-wrapped CD cases as their only packaging. Big boxes may be eye-catching at the store, but they're kind of inconvenient to make room for at home.
@@stevethepocket assume that's why we in Europe very quickly switched to smaller boxes once the 3.5" floppy and the CD became the norm. Stores here aren't very big and shelf space is a premium, so anything to maximize how much product can fit on the shelves is welcomed with open arms. Also why we got a lot of games in regular DVD cases almost immediately after the DVD launch in 1998, where the double width cases were pretty much only used by EA and the occasional game that came on multiple CDs.
You could say that he thinks outside the box...
As a graphic designer that occasionally does box designs, these had to have been an absolute pain in the dick to design, especially back then with the hardware and software of the time.
They were designed by people familiar with origami, which usually makes it relatively easy to figure out how to put them together. Believe the hardest part of it is figuring out how to make machines fold them correctly, but CAD and CAM software has existed since the early 70s, and by the 80s it was actually fairly capable. It's just mainframe stuff and PC had nothing like those tools until the late 90s
Right? Back when we had to do mock-ups completely by hand and pray they worked on press. I can't imagine the pressure of these box designs these designers had.
@@thesteelrodent1796 - *THIS!!*
Wow, I remember quite a few of those boxes. One of the hardest things to do was figure out how to open some of them without damaging them. They felt incredibly fragile. I definitely loved the creative genius, but man, there's a reason so few of those boxes survived.
5:44 fun fact: once paper is foamed up to make egg trays, and stuff like this, it cannot be recycled again. The process breaks down the fibres too much so it no longer has the strength to be normal paper again, so any paper like this is only good for fuel in the incinerator.
But it's really cool someone actually made a book about all these weird boxes, and that you have so many of them. Also made me wish I'd been able to buy a lot of these games, instead of only getting them as "copy from friends". Although I do wonder if we ever had those boxes here since I don't recall ever seeing any unusual box, and I went through the games store every day on my way home from school
It just kills me that I only saw this book for sale last night and is now already sold out.
I’ve always been a fan and own 7 or 8 game boxes by Hock Wah Yeo.
There's a second edition available now!
Who did the Marathon boxes??? Those were AMAZING.
This talk of odd shaped boxes reminds me of the box the game Tau Ceti came in. This was for the ZX Spectrum back in 1985. The box housed the normal cassette box and looked really good - you can see the "flattened diamond shape" if you image search. Not many of them kicking around in good condition these days, but I do have one myself :)
Ah yes, great game Tau Ceti as well. You could customise the view and instruments if I remember correctly.
I graduated HS in the mid 90's, and in HS we could take drafting classes for our art credit requirement. I took four years of drafting and design class, and one semester we did our own packaging designs inspired by this designer.
I remember most of those from the days I worked at Egghead Software in the early 90's! Yes they are cool, and yes they were a bit of a pain for retail display.
The internal conflict of really appreciating the graphic design work of all of these, vs. how happy I am that we no longer waste this much damn paper and plastic making game boxes any more.
I appreciate unique graphic / industrial design and unusual packaging, so this was really cool, especially having seen many of these boxes in person over the years.
I love videos like this. Should be on the main channel. Also would love to see an updated video walk-through of your entire big box PC software collection at this point. Must have grown quite a bit since you did it last. Good stuff. The careful archiving and filming of all these boxes and designs is always a treat!
That orginal POP box is awesome. Great art. Basic. Classic. And easy on the eyes. Also iconic. Takes me back.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery. The Marathon boxes were gorgeous.
Typhoon Thompson was a fantastic game. Seeing it brought back many memories.
CZcams: "Clint made another video about something you've never heard of."
Me: "Oh, word?"
Book is Sold out. :(
Thanks for sharing though Clint! This is fascinating.
Fine art is wonderful and all, but there's something noble about the way commercial art can bring beauty and intrigue directly to the masses.
Interesting to see a designer lean so heavily into the Form aspect of package design.
Could have been a regular LGR production. I remember displaying some of theses from the plan-o-grams at Staples. Love learning new information about that era.
The 'Comanche: Maximum Overkill' package dredged up some weird memories. I remember buying that game and having the box on my shelf (that's how distinctive it was), but I cannot recall ever actually playing the game at all. I checked some gameplay footage on CZcams and don't remember it at all, which is strange because it seems like a pretty advanced game for its time, something you'd remember. Now that I think about it, I think it might have been that my computer at the time was not strong enough to run it (or I couldn't free up enough conventional memory or something) and I was just never able to get around to playing it. That's such a bummer because it wasn't a cheap game and I didn't buy a lot of games, most were of the 'borrowed' kind. Weird. Anyway, thanks for the video.
Maybe they flipped the PoP box to represent flipping an hour glass.
There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where packaging like this was the norm on games and dvds/blurays. While I don't have any of the wacky game boxes, I still have a bunch of the wild dvd/blueray ones like the Dr. Manhattan head 'Watchmen' bluray, the Necronimicon 'Evil Dead' box set and the file folder 'Memento' case. Amazing product packaging that we will likely never see again due to media being streamed, and box sets being reserved for high end, expensive 'super mega gold extreme edition' versions that are strictly made for collectors with money to burn.
Thanks for sharing that! Being a guy that wasn't into PC at all during that era, really gave me an appreciation and education on the subject!
Would have never thought at a video about a book which is about boxes, be this interesting. Learn something new everyday.
ULTRABOTS!!!! I have been trying to think of the name of that game for YEARS! I used to play it all the time in 1993-94. Then, I start your video and see the box in the background! Now I've got to find a copy and get one of my old DOS machines up and running... or at least an emulator. Even though it was unintentional, thanks LOL!
I miss boxed games. I wish someone still sold them. Even with new games, like, I dunno, Elden Ring, for example. They could make a box with cool artwork on it. Make a printed manual. Maybe throw in a poster or something. And then just include a code to download the game or put the installer on a tiny thumb drive. I'd totally buy that. No one even does special or collector's editions like that anymore. The last one of those I bought was Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. It came in this big cube shaped box and had a desktop figurine of Darth Malgus. It had a fob for 2FA. It had nice art books, a cool map, and a printed game manual. That was back in 2011. That's the last time I bought a game in a box.
My security key for that just finally stopped generating usable codes a couple of months ago...
video game boxes, another video I didn't know I needed until now
I remember getting Jetfighter II and the box just kept unfolding, it was wild!
"The straight line is a godless line" -Hundertwasser
Books like this don't speak to everyone, but when one comes along that speaks to you, you gotta snap it up!
The moment I started this video I opened twitter to see your yard cat thread, how sweet! They are adorable!
A video about a book about boxes. This is peak internet.
Those must have been very expensive to produce! I wonder how much of a game's cost went into the packaging?
I think the coolest boxes I ever had, and still have somewhere, were the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King collectors boxes. Always saw those neat pc game boxes in store but back in the day we didn't have a gaming PC at home. We relied on our trusty old NES and N64. I love this kind of stuff. Thanks for another great video, Clint.
I know you put this on the secondary channel but this is top tier material!
This is why I hope physical copy never die. It 's beautiful.
When you pulled out the Jetfighter box, I was like, "That's a normal box... Whoa!" XD
Wow, what a treat. So many excellent box designs to be tracked back to one designer.
Would not have been surprised to also see the Dongleware Oxyd "3D" Big Box there, which you've shown off in other videos before.
I'm in the packaging business and these are really great boxes. Wow. What a colletion!
What a trip back in time! How I miss packaged software in this day and age of Steam, GOG and other electronic delivery services for games. I still have various boxed games in my library as well, including the Original Ultima VI box with the cloth map, Orb of the Moon gemstone and seven 5-1/4" floppies! Same with the Prey Limited Collector's Edition in the Tin box with 2 pewter figurines. There was just something so satisfying holding physical boxes of your software. These days, if it's still packaged, it's now in just a plain old DVD case. Nothing exciting.
I had, and might still have Spectre complete in box. I've never seen anyone talk about that game. Very nice!
Can we have a minute of Silence for 'NovaLogic' ? RIP 2016.
Ah crap, I didn't realize they were gone :/
DeltaForce :(
Aw, man. I loved NovaLogic games.
Gotta say, i love both Prince of Persia boxes. The original has a nice art and the second one is so videogamey that i love it.
Flying colors! I've been looking what this program was that I used to play as a kid for a long time! This was it! I finally found it hah. I can't seem to get the color cycling to work on windows 10 though, but still very nice!
This would be a great sequel to your first video about weird PC game boxes on your main channel. :)
The box for Wolfpack looks VERY similar to the ones for the macintosh Marathon series.
So let me get this straight, this is a book about game boxes.... That is pretty Cool!
Flying Colors was an art program a la Kid Pix (significantly beefed up in comparison); fitting that it would have an artistic box to go with it.
I know that these boxes were a pain for retailers to stock and that most PC boxes were the shape they were for a reason, but you can't deny that Mr. Yeo's box designs were incredibly eye-catching.
The "box within a box" design also applies to Nintendo's "Famicom Mini" series in Japan for the Game Boy Advance (sadly, its American and European counterparts used boring convential packaging). The cartridges were packaged inside a box replicating the original Famicom game packaging in miniaturized form, placed in an indentation of a bigger box holding the paper stuff such as the manual, then placed inside a plastic cover layer.
Looks like the book is sold out with no indication of when or if it'll become available again. :( I hope so, this looks amazing!
I actually had that Ultrabots version back in the day. I barely played the game because it's so impenetrable (at least at the time) and I either gave it away or sold it, which I am really kicking myself for. So cool!
Nowadays, those kinds of boxes would be for "special/ultimate edition" pre--orders. These were just how they came on the store shelves
Good times...
I wish my Marathon box survived, all I've left of that is the manual and the serial number drilled into my permanent memory from all the times I reinstalled the game at university computers. Love this era of weird boxes.
Back when buying a game was an event, big box packaging added to the feeling you were getting something a bit special that had effort and thought put into it. I Still remember buying Wing Commander on 5.25" floppy and it came with loads of game world immersing stuff such as fighter posters & the Claw Marks newsletter booklet with stories and news snippets about the war. Nowadays it's just a steam key you get, no need for design or marketing when don't provide any physical product.
Very cool. Reminds me of a company that designed a lot of really iconic album covers back in the 60’s and 70’s…. “Hipgnosis”. Dark Side of the Moon, all those Zepplin covers, etc.
Those boxes are funky! I like them, but they also make my brain hurt when thinking about storing them. 😅
3:22 I didn't even realize that flying colors came with a box like that! I've been playing around with that program on and off for the past couple of months, it's a very interesting art program that uses color cycling for animated effects, a similar vibe to kid pix but more "mature" in a way? and with extremely good art assets by the talented mark ferrari! Honestly would be an interesting video topic in and of itself, the box design absolutely does it justice.
Only one specific release of Flying Colors came in that box, otherwise it came in rather standard, somewhat boring package. Haven't been able to find the Yeo box yet!
It’s super fun to see this kind of strange packaging which HAD to stand out and bring also value which these days of digital stores is sort of hard to experience. I guess it wouldn’t be appreciated today as much because of sustainability of paper products and so on. I bet it brought some wrinkles from logistical point of view too! Oh man, I miss 90’s and early 10’s because this weirdness!
There was a dos game my dad bought in the early 90's, I was never able to play it because I had no idea what I was doing. I think it was a horror game but I'm not totally sure. The one thing I do remember was that when you opened the box there was fake spider webs in it and it played spooky noises. In the hopes of being able to play it finally I tried looking it up but I never was able come up with anything.
Purchased this as well when it was first announced. It's a great companion for design and big box aficionados. It’s not meant to be an all out historical guide. This is more a guide of Hock’s big box designs and branding work. The oddness in Hock's work is what set them apart from the other boxes on retail store shelves (heck I clearly remember seeing his boxes on the shelves more than others (remember the box for UltraBots?) and he inspired a lot of designers and competing studios at the time.
How beautiful. I wonder where such strange shapes was in germany that times. As i remember, there were almost only quaders. The most "exotic" shape in my collection is dark seed 1. And i love it.😍
JetFighter 2 may have been the first game I ever played. Either that or Commander Keen 4. They were the only two games my (sysadmin) uncle had on his 386 in the early 90s. It was such a contrast - a colorful jump&run that was a lot of fun to play, and this "realistic" flight simulator with a day/night cycle that felt super immersive.
Jetfighter II was one of my all time favourite DOS flight sims back in the day. Was never really good at it but I played the heck out of it.
I had a bunch of those back in the day, too. I never stopped to think that they were all done by the same guy, but it certainly makes sense in retrospect. They sure looked cool on the shelf, but they absolutely fall apart almost instantly after being opened once or twice. No longevity.
1:32 Given my knowledge of how self space functions in a retail environment, that might always be the best reaction to aim for with potential customers.
Unique big box PC games are a lost art form.
Weird boxes was a thing back then?.
I did not know that.
Good to know. 😌👍
Heck yea! I still have my Spectre box. Great game that ran on my Mac IIsi.
I actually loved that game (spectre and spectre vr)Brings back memories
amazing to see. loved this
I remember seeing many of these boxes in the stores when they were new. To this day I remember the Ultrabots box on the shelf. I really wanted to buy it even though at the time I didn't have a machine that could run it. I think it might be the coolest video game box of all time.
@6:27 to remove glue from stickers use gun oil. It's a slight solvent and works great. It doesn't even seem to ruin or discolor any type of plastic I've used it on yet.
Happy new year folks
I had the Prince of Persia box. I remember seeing the box for Spectre and getting super excited to own it but I never did.
Nice video man 😎!
The Spectre box reminds me that the box of a video game should be structurally solid enough to protect the content. Back in the N64 era people threw away the boxes of games and with these special shaped boxes it feels like you need an external regular brown shipping box to protect them. That Supreme Warrior with the clear box looks like a protective box they sell today to keep your old game collection safe but that also looks like something that needs a lot of extra protection. Neat designs, but functionally lacking. I think retailers hated the weird shapes of the Tomb Raider boxes but they are almost normal compared to these.
I don't know about you but when something has this elaborade box I'd rather don't even want to open it to take out the contents or when the contents are out I don't want to put it back in because every time I open it and move stuff I feel like I'm slowly damaging the packaging. 17:38 - I think you are on the same page by that comment :)
Is the Prince of Persia supposed to be an hourglass? Looks more like those toys that are water filled and you have to shoot the rings on the pegs (Waterful Ring Toss, you already made a review on it :D )
I looked up Xcar - Experimental Racing, it makes sense that the box has an X shape (or close to it). Maybe the game was named after the box and the box was made to ripoff Hock Wah Yeo's design, so it all went backwards in Bethesda's case. I tried to work in some joke about Xbox but I just couldn't think of anything funny...
I actually had that game! The box itself now that I think back that far was a real work of art. Yet another thing I shame myself for tossing out... That was Spectre.
I think he created the boxes for the Marathon series on Mac as well. They were much this style. I remember seeing the Spectre boxes at Software Etc. or Gamestop in Madison Square Mall in the 90's. They really stood out. His was a cool trip down memory lane. Thank you!
Those weren’t his designs, although they do look similar!
I never knew any of these existed. I've only ever seen the Thief trapezoidal boxes before.
For sure those boxes were designed to be eyecatching on shelves, and i think that they worked very well for this purpose, one of the best box i remember from back in the day (not from this designer) was the one from the 11th hours game (sequel to 7th guest) the box itself was splitting open like a diorama and you had hidden compartments where you could find the CD's box, manual and stuff, that was super cool ! Very sad to have lost track of this game box over the years ;-(
The Guardian Legend... Rented the shiznit out of that title when I was a kid from the local town's video library. Never did finish it. Nor did my mother ever understand how it could be rewound so fast. :p
Loved Spectre back in the day. Was really fun on a LAN.
Package design is awesome.
Jetfighter was my first “flight sim” - never knew it came in such a cool box because “reasons” :p
Came for the boxes, stayed for the Doom shirt
Thanks I was thinking what to add for retro games for my Toshiba 510CDT.