GOG Preservation Program grows with new games and classic box scans

GOG has added two more games to its Preservation Program, but the more interesting part of the latest update isn’t another compatibility patch. It’s cardboard. Or, more accurately, a downloadable 3D version of cardboard. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog have joined the programme, with Descent, Hitman: Codename 47 and Myst receiving new extras based on their original retail packaging. Selected releases now come with 3D scans of classic PC game boxes, created from physical copies and made available for Windows and Mac. Printable files are included too, so anyone with enough ink, patience and desk space can recreate parts of the original package at home. It’s a fairly small change to the games themselves. Myst still starts Myst. Descent still expects you to work out which way is up. Agent 47 remains bald. The difference sits around the software.

Star Trek and Armikrog join GOG’s preservation list

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is the older of the two new additions. Released in 1992, it combined bridge sections aboard the Enterprise with point-and-click away missions featuring Kirk, Spock, McCoy and other members of the original crew.

Armikrog arrived much later, in 2015. The point-and-click adventure used stop-motion animation and clay models, making it a relatively recent addition next to many DOS and early Windows games associated with GOG’s programme.

The Preservation Program centres on keeping selected releases functional on modern PCs. Old games can run into trouble with newer versions of Windows, current hardware, display settings and other changes made long after their original release. GOG handles those compatibility issues as part of the programme. This update gives some games extra material from their boxed editions too.

Descent, Myst and Hitman get 3D box scans

Descent, Myst and Hitman: Codename 47 were already in the programme. Their latest updates add downloadable scans based on original retail boxes. Users can rotate the models in compatible 3D software and inspect the front, rear and sides. It sounds slightly excessive until you remember how much information publishers once crammed onto PC packaging. Screenshots lived there. System requirements lived there. Marketing copy certainly lived there, often in quantities best described as optimistic.

Logos, publisher credits, technical notes and regional markings were part of the package too. A digital storefront tends to break those pieces into separate tabs, images and PDFs. A scanned box keeps them in one object. Printable versions are available for selected games. These can serve as reference files or be used to assemble replica packaging. No, the printer cartridge industry has not commented.

PC boxes carried more than cover art

Large PC game boxes had a job beyond protecting discs and manuals. They had to sell the game from a shelf. Publishers used front panels for artwork and logos, with rear panels carrying screenshots, feature lists, story summaries and hardware requirements. Side panels had to remain readable when shops packed games tightly together.

Some releases included large manuals, maps, reference cards and other printed material. Modern digital editions tend to separate those files from the main game, when they include them at all. GOG’s 3D scans give the original packaging a clearer place next to the digital release.

Big Box Collection creator Benjamin Wimmer has spent years cataloguing PC packaging, covering boxes, artwork, manuals and different physical editions. Material from this work now appears alongside selected games sold through GOG.

For researchers and collectors, scans can provide useful detail without requiring access to a complete physical copy. Packaging can differ between countries, publishers and later reissues, so high-resolution references have a practical use beyond decoration.

The games haven’t changed, but the download has

None of this rewrites the games. Myst remains Myst. Descent remains a first-person shooter built around six degrees of movement. Hitman: Codename 47 remains Agent 47’s first PC outing. GOG is changing the material supplied around them.

For anyone buying Star Trek: 25th Anniversary or Armikrog, the headline news is their arrival in the Preservation Program. For owners of Descent, Myst and Hitman: Codename 47, the new attraction is the extra packaging material.

It’s a modest addition, and one aimed at a fairly clear use case. Some players want the executable and little else. Others want manuals, artwork, packaging and release material sitting alongside the game. GOG is now giving selected titles more of both. And yes, in 2026, one of the more unusual extras attached to a PC game download is a box.

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