I think this is the most popular game at cyber café at the time.
Warcraft III and the expansion Frozen Throne.
Below is the big box copy of the game, with the Warcraft III Orcs, there some rare copy of different box art like Human, Elves and Undead
All the copy also available in small DVD box size, since that time is a transition from big to small box era.
*The Frozen Throne below is Asia Pacific edition, I think it missing a "notepad" bundle to cut cost.

haha not really since i only found it last year, previous owner kept it well.

yeah humidity is quite high in Malaysia. books tend to yellow fast. floppy diskettes especially the 5.25 ones are easy to get moldy. they even marketed some floppies that are suited to our climate xD



other than New World Interactive which is also in Thailand and Singapore, and Sendi Mutiara, TSB, were there other big distributors?



yeah i remember playing some DOTA at cybercafe haha, didn't really play the main campaign till much later, the look changed a lot from Warcraft II. i have some cybercafe versions, it has a big LAN sticker on the front cover.

This post has been edited by svfn: Jul 30 2021, 02:12 PM

There are only 2 big distributer I am familiar with, New Era and gamers.com.my. For me TSB more like authorized dealer than distributor, cause they do sell New Era game.


This game from TSB shop

New Era was huge back then, some boxes even have their printed logo (not sticker), mean they do mass production in local region, this is from my Supreme Commander


And this also an example of rare distributor, found it on my Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000



Sometimes New Era do re-release older budget game in ugly case, like my Quake III Arena

I love Spider-Man and don't think we have enough Spidy game for PC
This is the Ultimate Spider-Man from 2005



The front art is emboss, give you the 3D look, I love this kind of printing, make me think that the publisher give more attention for the box art.

fui yoh

carbon and pro street is my favorite nfs ever

TSB version that i kept is not the thick box but the thin DVD box type deng it

This round is the NASCAR RACING 2003 SEASON. Personally I think not very popular here, I think most people I know would rather play Need for Speed.
But interesting about this release is Asia Pacific Edition, it came in the old school big box!
My understanding is that US already change to small box (at ebay only found small box for sale)

I tried Carbon recently, still works on ultrawide lol, luckily got pcgamingwiki to guide which patches.



Wah got so many licensing logo on the back haha. Nice version even though is Asia Pacific it has gatefold, some Asia Pacific version don't have the front cover fold out.. but at least contents are the same.

That's all I got. The last few good NFS.
Games were also really cheap back then, the NFS titles I remember was only ~RM70 pre-order.
Nowadays we talking about RM250 for new releases, it's insanity...
So I just play F2P game mostly nowadays...

Finally got a 3 boxes for StarCraft II! Thank to a Lowyat member to get me the last missing copy.
The supply disc now purely for decoration as the new update making the data disc pretty useless.
Even this a small box but definitely not budget version, as the box are beautifully printed, emboss and shinning, especially The Legacy of The Void, the shining look more "golden" feel, like represent the Protoss Golden Armada.
My next target is to get StarCraft big box from 1998.






This post has been edited by ngks: Oct 1 2021, 09:35 PM

This time is the legendary Diablo from 1996 that define the standard of action role-playing today.
This copy is from Japan, their official distributor Sourcenext import the entire game box and add in some Japan goodies such as Japanese manual and registration instruction.
All other item are exactly same as the US version.

Haha same

Never bought a NFS after prostreet till GHOST GAMES rebooted last 3 games

Well i only bought RM300 preorder once a year

The rest i always buy 75%-85% off

Thats how i juggled new steam games already hahahaha

This post has been edited by skylinelover: Nov 29 2021, 04:40 PM

Nice thread bro! But lately quite busy with shoots and work so will take a while before I post some pics haha.

Counter-Strike, is must have game for any cybercafe in the 2000. This time is to share the later version of CS which is the lesser known Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. It have some improve graphics and single player mission, and it also compatible with the original CS map. This game do not have a great popularity and Counter-Strike Source launch 8 months after this.
This big box version do have a bonus disc of the upcoming Half-Life 2 footage.

wow nostalgic. good times. i used to collect pcgamer. now all hiding in parents house.

If the game are in the cardboard box type then have the check it once a while, Malaysia high humid easily damage paper and the disc, mold/fungus love them. Even the normal DVD keep case also need to take care of the disc itself, I have few DVD damage by those annoying mold/fungus.

Today want to share a popular shooting game from 1998, Forsaken. It have very similar game play like Decent, a 6 dimension shooter.
It's pretty hard to control at first as you control a floating vehicle, fly around and start shooting.
This copy is a localize Taiwan release, comes with Chinese manual but the game is still English version.
Earlier copy comes with 1998 6 months calendar.
My understanding is not all country got the calendar, at least EU don't have this, they have a totally different version of box art.

The model name is Donna DeCianni, if anyone wonder.




1998 game trailer


There is also a remastered version at 2018

One of the popular RTS game on years 2000 is Red Alert 2, joined by the expansion Yuri's Revenge on 2001 (a year before Warcraft III launch). Many cybercafe have them as the game enjoy by many.
This example is the Yuri's Revenge limited edition, one of the early print that include a mouse pad. Well, who doesn't like to swap their mouse on Yuri's face?
As usual this expansion require the full version of Red Alert 2 to run.

International Rally Championship, a rally game from 1997 for MS-DOS. It is not as popular as the Colin McRae Rally (1998), but still a solid rally game.
One of the things the caught my eye is the cover art is none other than our Proton Wira. I think this is the only game title I ever saw having our national car as the main cover, which is pretty impressive.

If you can find pro race driver damm nice

That one got Proton Satria can play at Bathurst

Didn't aware of that game, a little Google search found this, nice!