How about something even weirder or wilder?

June 3, 2022 10:13 AM

The incredible boxes of Hock Wah Yeo is a deep look into the video game packaging design work of Hock Wah Yeo, by Phil Salvador at The Obscuritory. "Yeo is a graphic designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and through the 80s and 90s, he created the boldest, most unusual packaging in the game industry. While other game publishers were trying to get attention with flashy, colorful, in-your-face aesthetics, Yeo was deconstructing the idea of what a game box could be altogether."

The Obscuritory previously on MetaFilter:

• The Obscuritory, a blog about odd, lesser-known games and software.
• The Story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery
• A review of Wolf, the 1994 computer game, written for wolves.
• Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness

posted by Lirp (13 comments total)

Nice documentaiton, as I lived through that era and I even recall touching some of those oddly shaped boxes.

An additional context: I used to work at a logistics place that would have assembled those boxes together for the retail shelves. Our company didn't handle games, but we conceivably *could* have. So I have extra appreciation on how complex those boxes would be to put together.
posted by kschang at 10:33 AM on June 3, 2022

I had Jetfighter II and I might still have the box around somewhere. The box was a pain because once the shrinkwrap came off, the triangular part on the front just wouldn't stay closed. Once most of it's content had fallen out and become lost, I think I just gave up and flattened the box.

I was also a little too young to really know what to do with a tactical flight simulator game and most of the time I'd just end up attempting to fly under the Golden Gate bridge without crashing.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:46 AM on June 3, 2022

Aaaaaaaa that gorgeous box for the Mac version of Prince of Persia!! I had that and loved it (the game, and also the box...very dramatic, somehow, and fitting the overall tone).

Thanks for posting this--it's something I didn't know about, and didn't know how much I would enjoy learning about it!
posted by theatro at 10:55 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember most of these, and while striking I recall they were kind of a pain for the consumer, especially if you wanted to keep the boxes. There was no good place to put them... I don't know how anyone was to store that PS2 concept packaging.
posted by keep_evolving at 10:58 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Given that Iron Helix box, I'm surprised he also didn't do the earlier original Sim City box art.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:00 AM on June 3, 2022

One theme throughout this piece is that those boxes are hard to find anymore. That's because unlike jewel CD cases or DVD cases, they are far more disposable. While I can see the argument for the FIFA 20xx boxes being more ecofriendly, as a game fan, I like durability. It increases resale value, while protecting printed materials. I feel a bit sad that my n64 boxes have basically all destroyed themselves and the instruction manuals disappeared or warped to the shape of a ziplock bag.

But man, I'd sure love to see something happen in the boardgame space, where things seem to started where this guy's career ended. While I may have lent NES carts to friends without the box, board game boxes tend to be far more integral to the game and yet, far less standardized than the DVD case. A good box needs to not only keep all the pieces and rules sheets from getting lost but also protect them in storage and transit. But like, there are only bad options for storing many together on a shelf or in a bag-- storing them upright tends to stress and disrupt any box inlay, as it was designed for lay flat. But storing them flat on top of one another tends to stress the box on bottom, and when the box is sized "for marketing purposes" rather than the insides of the box, that may end up breaking it.

As for the designer's more recent works, should we really be surprised they sold NFT collection?
posted by pwnguin at 12:49 PM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

There was a book published about Yeo's work. I know about it primarily from an LGR YouTube video that shows the book and several of the boxes that it describes.
posted by ElKevbo at 2:15 PM on June 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is really cool. Some of the boxes are vaguely familar, and I did own The Incredible Machine but I don't think in that packaging.

RonButNotStupid: I was also a little too young to really know what to do with a tactical flight simulator game and most of the time I'd just end up attempting to fly under the Golden Gate bridge without crashing.

This is the quintessential 90s flight sim experience, especially if you had a shareware copy and didn't own a version of the manual. So many landing attempts in MSFS...
posted by JauntyFedora at 3:05 PM on June 3, 2022

Some things are eternal.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:49 PM on June 3, 2022

I loved Spectre the game, and Spectre the box (the teal one) had a prominent position in the center of my bookshelf. Such a great design. I was doing some package work then and I spent quite a bit of time carefully disassembling that box to understand how it worked and, importantly, how it could be efficiently put together. I don't remember now whether there was a trick to it or if it was just brute manpower.
posted by jwest at 6:08 PM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wonder if there was an advance in packaging technology that allowed these boxes to be made at anything other than ridiculous prices?
posted by scruss at 6:39 PM on June 3, 2022

Not his work but my favourite packaging was the actual paint can that Painter was sold in. They looked pretty cool stacked in pyramids.
posted by brachiopod at 6:55 PM on June 3, 2022

@scruss wrote: I wonder if there was an advance in packaging technology that allowed these boxes to be made at anything other than ridiculous prices?

I wonder if there's a way to shrink it to 8.5x11 page, print it on cardboard stock, and just let us hobbyists assemble miniature versions of the packaging? Most of us don't have large format printers that can handle card stock...
posted by kschang at 8:02 AM on June 4, 2022