This will solve all your problems
I use this currently to store 260+ games on one disc and does wonders.

https://www.amazon.ca/Panasonic-Blu-ray-Rewritable-Triple-Single/dp/B004VC9ZMW


if anything updates I just rewrite it on the disc and move on in life so you save space and time and condense it to just 1 or 2 portable storage unites and 200gb should be enough for 500 games tops from what I am experiencing.

This.

Seriously, burned media can deteriorate in as little as 5 years depending on the media and other factors. The amount of cost, time and effort to burn potentially hundreds of games that probably wont ever be used, then have to reburn them again every 5 years to be sure the backup is safe and reliable seems like a huge waste of time and effort. Gotta figure out what the real purpose is first.

1) To have a backup in case it is needed and GOG goes out of business or something? Fastest cheapest easiest solution is to back everything up onto a single large enough HDD and keep it offline in a firebox or similar. To be extra safe, make two copies, have one off site. This would take the least time and effort, and probably the cheapest solution as well and most practical.

2) For artistic aesthetic purposes of a nice physically big library? Seems like a huge amount of expense of money, time and effort which then recurs every 5 years to ensure the backups are actually valid, and lets face it... nobody really uses CD/DVD/BR much these days on PCs anyway and in 5 years time the hardware is going to be around still but quite obsolete. Some would say it is rather obsolete already even. Solution: Use solution #1 and with the money you save and the time you save converted into money - hire a good 3D artist to design a virtual 3D library bookshelf for you in Blender or Maya or something. You can buy a $200 front projector to mount on the ceiling in front of an empty wall and project the virtual 3D bookshelf onto the wall.

3) Is there any other possible reason I may have missed? :)

I mean, why not back everything up onto floppy disks instead. Record the entire process on video and make a website for the project. The publicity you get from it will make a mint if you set up monetization properly. True, the end result will be useless and impractical but at least it might generate money from the publicity or something and thus indirectly be useful. :)


Update:
4) Buy a tape backup unit and some backup tapes. They last a lot longer and can store a lot more for much cheaper cost and are designed specifically for the purpose of backups. Store backups in a firebox (can get on Amazon for probably $20-40 or so)

Sorry i have no suggestions, but I just find that... odd. The very reason I like my DRM-free digital games so much is so that I can avoid... that. I want to free my shelves from physical games, not to populate them.

I already have like 7 big crates of physical games (mainly PC (without the boxes so that they fit in a smaller room), but also many PSX and PS2 games), and it already blows my mind that on a small 2.5" USB hard drive, I already have many more times more PC (mainly GOG) games than all those physical games combined.

I see only downsides doing something that you are going to do. It would take lots of space (I have 1338 GOG games, plus all the other stuff elsewhere), it would take insurmountable amount of time to burn them to e.g. optical discs one by one (let alone keep them up to date), and it is just so much easier to find a certain game installer on the external hard drive, than trying to find it from a shelf among hundreds of other games.

Then again you say you already have the games also on a hard drive... so apparently those shelf pieces wouldn't really be for use at all, but just some kind of decoration that you like to look at? Does it really matter then if the boxes inside have any actual game, if you have them on the hard drive already?

EDIT: Ok I guess you already explained why you want to do it, you like to build physical collections or something...

About a year or two ago I started a project (pretty much the opposite what you are doing) to move all the stuff and data from my old CD-R and DVD-R discs to a hard drive. Frankly lots of the stuff is already long obsolete but my meaning was to first move it all the one place (a big ass hard drive), and then check there which is safe to remove for good. Much easier to do that when they are in one central place.

Anyway. I encountered quite a lot of dicsc that have problems reading now. Admittedly the age of the optical discs varies a lot (some were a few years old, some more than decade), but it just left a bad taste to my mouth, data is not really safe on a writable optical discs. Those things will become unreadable over time, even in storage. Plus, my future PCs don't necessarily even have an optical disc to read them, at least an internal drive.

Maybe they are not on hard drives either (ie. data can become corrupted on them as well)... but at least it is quite easy to just copy all your data from an older hard drive to a newer and even bigger once in a while, than from hundreds of optical discs.

Flash memory is not a reliable backup solution. The memory degrades in time even without use. I would use external HDDs which are mostly powered off, except when copying the stuff over.

You are right, I did not explain the purpose of that collection.

It all comes down to nostalgic and downright stupid reasons.

I agree, from your perspective it does seem odd, let me show you my perspective, I hope it will clear things up a bit, since people tend to concentrate on a non usefulness of that kind of collection. And I don't like to build collections, I like to create stuff in general (assembling, painting, ...), so building a collection like this would be a very satisfactory activity for me. That being said, I will not create something just for the sake of it, this is why I would make this collection.

Throughout childhood I had around 10-15 rightfully owned games, and around 20 or so pirated ones, different 20 through different time periods, but, around 30 or 40 games at any given moment. Here is a picture of every game I own physically now, and I do mean every single one (for all platforms). Picture shows those 10-15 games minus some that have been lost to time and space. I never had any consoles except NES and I only had two cartridges for it (Super Mario, and some demo ones), and I have only had that until five years old, when it broke. Ok I'm lying, I had PS2 for 5-6 years, but I only ever had one game for it, NFS: Underground 2. And I am not kidding, I only played one game on PS2 through entire 5-6 year period of owning it. I sold it after that.

Fast forward to 2008, I entered my collage days and started to have my own income in some form or another. I could finally buy games, and although I had nostalgic connection to boxed retail versions, steam sales where much more appealing. I was gradually moving to GOG and HB over time because I have grown to like DRM Free stuff.

I never had nothing like a shelf full of games, but I'd be damn right lying if I said I did not want to have. This collection for me would be very personal, it would try to recreate that feeling of 90's game shelf. And yes those backups won't be as practical, but I'm definitely not going for empty boxes. Also, I do have a bit of shelf space, and I am truly sorry if that offends someone.

I don't know, call me crazy, but I am a nostalgic person, and this would be a nostalgic project, a childhood dream come true. Since we are on game store that started with old games, I thought there will be more people that would understand this kind of project, but, it is what it is, you may not like but I do. I just wanted to choose the best medium for that kind of collection, and I will get back on that topic after work.

Seems like most people here didn't even read or understand OPs intro post. He apparently already has HDD back-ups, and isn't asking for opinions on this idea -- he's just trying to figure out what data media he should use for it. :P

Do you intend to store each game ( or game series ) on a separate disc?

What's the current state of data storage technology anyway? Wasn't there news of some 3D glass based storage discs a while ago? Are those still in development?

As others pointed out, most of the current options do have downsides, especially for long term storage. Not sure how reliable SD cards etc. are for that purpose.

If GOGs website was se up a bit differently one could have a wall mounted (touch)screen with a tiny computer on a stick stuck to it linking to your GOG library so anyone visiting could browse through your collection. Some limits need to be setup so noone could do anything but look at what you want to show. Crazy idea? Sure but trying to think of ways and means here.

One point: "obsolete" /= "useless". 3.5" floppies are supposedly obsolete, too, yet I still have a specific need for them and can find disks and drives for cheap.

Aaaaaanyway...

Here's what I would do, to save a bunch of time and money and yet scratch that creative itch:

1. The backup on HDD.
2. Instead of boxes / cases, make a panel that resembles a shelf of cases, as in your previously attached (and still linked) photo. You could store other stuff behind the panels.

The downside comes from adding new titles alphabetically, but you could print new labels / panels faces periodically.

Another option would be really oldschool - ring binders. Yes, ring binders. Put manuals, guides, maps or anything else relevant to play the game inside and you have your nostalgia fix including some purpose for the stuff ;-)

While I went the opposite route (DVDs, music and so on got ripped on external HDDs, the cases are in big plastic boxes and hidden with minimum space requirements in the cabin) I can understand what you want. But as also want to handcraft something, why not leave the normal route (generic DVD cases with printed out covers) and make some more personal and special?

Edit: To go more in detail, use small binders for Din A5 pages (148mm x 210mm), create a nice front label and then use the big front for a nice cover. Like in the early days software were distributed from IBM and co.

Ok, I'm not sure I'd call it stupid (who are any of us to judge...), but it sounds like more of an artistic/aesthetic thing that you might derive personal pleasure/enjoyment from the act of creating. It does seem like a lot of work/effort to do to an outsider from the perspective of practicality, but your goals sound aesthetic rather than practical so that's a really personal thing.

I've never had an organized game shelf personally, but I do honour and respect the concept of having things kept in such order and it's something I struggle to do throughout other areas in life. As such, I've actually went the other way in preferring to not have physical boxes of games/movies/CDs etc. around the house - unsuccessfully so far mind you hehehe... but in my personal disorganized space, I prefer to one day have all these things boxed up neatly in the basement and out of sight. :) I'd like to have everything digitally organized however so I settle for the nice gaming clients we have these days even though none of them fully fits the bill. :)

Now you have me wanting to roam around and collect all my game/CD/etc. boxes, books etc. and organize them into boxes. LOL