GOG adds printable big box templates so you can rebuild your old PC game shelf

GOG is bringing back a slice of pre-Steam nostalgia with downloadable printable big box templates for a small selection of classic PC games. Owners of the five supported titles can now grab high-res packaging files and 3D models straight from the platform.

The Printable Big Box collection currently covers five games — Armikrog, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Myst, and Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. Each package includes an animated 3D box model in GLB format that shows the front flap opening, plus flat printable templates in PDF, SVG, and Adobe Illustrator formats. GOG lists these under the Goodies section on each game's store page, and existing owners can download a ZIP file right now.

GOG frames this as a preservation effort as much as a nostalgia play. "Physical media doesn't survive the way software can — boxes get lost, crushed, thrown out," the platform writes in its announcement. "Scanning them, and letting you print your own, is preservation in a different shape: the same mission that keeps these games running on modern PCs, applied to the objects they used to come in." GOG has long positioned itself as the DRM-free alternative to Steam, with a particular focus on keeping older games playable — this extends that philosophy to the physical artifacts that once surrounded them.

The collection is small for now, but the infrastructure is in place to expand it. Whether GOG rolls this out to more of its back catalogue depends on how the community responds — and given how much PC gaming culture is tied to memories of those oversized cardboard boxes lining shelves, the reception will likely be warm.