In October 2013, Stardock will be turning 20 (incorporation date). The first software product we made was…Galactic Civilizations. 

I began working on it in early 1992 while in college and it went into public beta at the start of 1993.  It was “published” by a guy going by “Advanced Idea Machines” who also designed, ahem, the box.

Galactic Civilizations for OS/2 box (we had nothing to do with this..box)

I was going through my stuff today and found a shrink wrapped copy of Galactic Civilizations for OS/2.  This has to be about the worst retail box I have ever seen  in my life. But there it is.

A couple years later, Stardock made a sequel for OS/2 (Galactic Civilizations 2).  This time, we designed the box ourselves using Corel Draw. Mind you, we still didn’t really have any resident artists.  My long-time friend who I met during Orientation at college, Bill Zalenski, designed the GalCiv aliens.

Galactic Civilizations 2 for OS/2 box

Of course now, boxes are starting to become rare. In the digital age, why would you put a computer game inside a piece of dead tree? But I kind of miss game boxes.