Framed some of the greats from the Age of Incline

[mindx2]

Paging mindx2 , as he's one of our most prestigious collectors and he might like this.

I did see this but my first reaction was, "You cut up your boxes?!!" then realized he just used the CD covers/manuals. It's "okay" but doesn't look like he thought out a theme for each frame (one for cRPGs, one for shooters, etc. is how I would have done it). Each to his own of course. However, I'll take my complete boxes with manuals, maps, trinkets, etc. sitting on my shelves thank you. I want to open up those games every so often, pull out the manuals and maps, loading up the program and relive those glory days of computer gaming goodness!

 

[Calthaer]

Paging mindx2 , as he's one of our most prestigious collectors and he might like this.

I did see this but my first reaction was, "You cut up your boxes?!!" then realized he just used the CD covers/manuals. It's "okay" but doesn't look like he thought out a theme for each frame (one for cRPGs, one for shooters, etc. is how I would have done it). Each to his own of course. However, I'll take my complete boxes with manuals, maps, trinkets, etc. sitting on my shelves thank you. I want to open up those games every so often, pull out the manuals and maps, loading up the program and relive those glory days of computer gaming goodness!

It's organized somewhat more by color than genre, with a line of "warmer" colors in the diagonals, and the neon Half-Life drawing the eye towards the center as the brightest color. Lots of cooler colors in '90s-era PC games (a ton of blue and black), so wanted to break that up and make it interesting to look at. Maybe I should have put AOE2 in the upper right.

The other thing is that these games are ones that I'm not going to bring out and play, as you say it - so I selected games that I not only really liked, but that I didn't actually use. I either already own them on Steam or there are other versions I have. StarCraft, for example, is free on Battle.net. EverQuest is free-to-play, and if I were to play it I'd go with Project 1999 (which is IMO way better than modern EQ). Thief has a "Gold" version that would be my preferred method of playing, were I to go back...etc. I have been cleaning out my CDs recently and these were in the group that had no function at all - they're coasters, more or less. But I can't get rid of them, either - or I don't want to, since I had so much fun playing these games in the '90s. Wanted something fun to look at while I'm stuck here working from home rather than just a blank white wall.

 

[mindx2]

Calthaer you have much more artistic style than myself (which means I have NONE)! The use of "warmer colors" didn't even cross my mind

 

[Alienman]

Nice idea, but I would probably just get posters or print artwork from the games. With having them like that it kinda looks like you made them, like those musicians having their best selling albums on the wall.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

A few months ago I threw all of my games in the trash... Only saved the Command & Conquer games pre-RA2.

Oh no! How come??

They'd been lying tucked away in a box for so long that I was finally able to separate from them.

I wish I were able to keep everything that that I have ever cherished, but as life moves on you have to leave certain parts of it behind. Mostly due to space restrictions.

 

[J_C]

Nice one.

One day alien visitors will dig through the rubbles of our distroyed civilization, and find these discs. They will see the glorious games of the '90s.

 

[Catacombs]

Calthaer: Do you mind sharing details about how you made these frames and what the costs were?

 

[Calthaer]

Calthaer: Do you mind sharing details about how you made these frames and what the costs were?

Catacombs : Posted it a little further up but didn't include a link. I bought them, didn't make them, from a place called Hobby Frames: http://hobbyframes.com/CDs.htm. They're ~$52 per frame (Triple Display Frame / Horizontal in Studio Black with a black Mat color).

You could probably make them for a lot cheaper, but it would be tricky. The mat is comprised of two separate layers, a solid foam back that fills the entire frame with a cut-out backing layer on top of it with holes for the media, and the CD / cover cutouts are sized perfectly to fit a CD and paper cover snugly. They must have either a laser or a tooled something to cut the holes that perfectly and to have them spaced precisely for the frame - pretty tough to do with a round hole; it would be a lot easier for a square hole to do it with just an exacto knife. If you have access to that kind of hardware (or your skills with an exacto are a lot better than mine), go for it - but I figured the time and the effort to make it myself would far outweigh even the relatively high cost of these frames.

I'm sure you're thinking to yourself that the frames are worth more than the games themselves, and you are right - they almost certainly are. Maybe if I were going to do more than just this it would be worth it, but...

There's value to me in having them on the wall, is how I figure it. This is fine art for me - these games represent the pinnacle of the medium. Probably as good as it's going to get, and I like to look back on it. At some level people realize this, because the price for games like these with their original boxes is expensive...I just thought to myself that I already have them (without the boxes) and I might as well display them.

 

[lightbane]

I still have some of my game boxes stored somewhere, even for games that likely don't work anymore like Dreams (a French game), or Sacrifice. They're still cool to look at that.

 

[Beowulf]

I honestly thought that the OP will describe in this thread how he hijacked the twatter account of this chick that accused Avellone and comes out to tell us about how he deceived everyone.
Alas ...