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Lovingly handcrafted box?

Well not quite, but apparently Access used to save money by packaging the games all by themselves:
http://www.romsteady.net/blog/2004/09/l ... s-way.html
...Finally, in order to get the game packed and shipped to stores in time, he called in on his secret weapon: every employee at Access.

Any other time, his skeleton crew could handle the packaging and shipping, but not on day one. Most of the developers were salaried. Everyone else was pretty cheap. So for one day, he sent everyone in the company over to the warehouse, and the entire company packed up the game. I shifted between slipping the liner art into the front cover of the jewel case and putting disk #3 [of Links] in the case.
I don't know why, but the possibility that any of the Tex Murphy games were packaged this way seems really cool to me :) Just imagine what geniuses may have handled your actual CD.
Every little bit to save a Penny... Every company is the same when it comes to that... It's the People like AC and CJ that go un-noticed in the background... The creators of the games that do it because they enjoy it and want to entertain... They don't do it for the money... Unlike the companies that they work for that are worried about "How Much Can We Get For This?" "How Can We Squeeze The Most Out Of This Product, While We Cut Corners To Save A Buck?"...

Just the way it goes...
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...


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*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Bafitis wrote:Every little bit to save a Penny... Every company is the same when it comes to that... It's the People like AC and CJ that go un-noticed in the background... The creators of the games that do it because they enjoy it and want to entertain... They don't do it for the money... Unlike the companies that they work for that are worried about "How Much Can We Get For This?" "How Can We Squeeze The Most Out Of This Product, While We Cut Corners To Save A Buck?"...

Just the way it goes...
That is the way it goes, but that's not the way this went-- Bruce Carver spent less on better packaging, and when Microsoft bought them, they spent more on inferior packaging:
On Microsoft Golf 2001 Edition, a plain, non-embossed box with a paper sleeve to hold the disk and no manual had a total materials cost of goods of nearly $10, whereas the LS99 packaging, with multiple CD's, Arnold Palmer embossed on the package, a real jewel case, a full manual, etc., and a flap on the box was sub-$5.
The blogger feels that this undercut Access' ability to be a profitable company... and I imagine that by proxy this includes the Tex Murphy series' ability to be profitable.