Need advice on making your own game cases using Universal Game Cases.

[NoleOne]

Does anyone else make their own Atari 2600 "boxes" using Universal Game Cases? I've found that look really nice on shelves.

 

Anyway, I've been making my own cases by printing covers from "The Cover Project" (which is a great place, by the way) and inserting them into Universal Game Cases. Unfortunately, there are only 122 Atari 2600 covers in their database.

 

I've tried to make my own covers in Word, but I admittedly have very limited skills to accomplish the task. I've tried using the box scans from right here on AtariAge, but the scans obviously only include the front and the back of the boxes and not the "side" like on The Cover Project, which is important since you are looking at the "side" when you are displaying the cases on shelves. I've tried making my own "sides" by opening the front or back box scan in paint, copying the title of the game, and then rotating and resizing it to the width of the standard size. However, the results leave a lot to be desired. It's just not a true representation of what the original box looked like from the side.

 

Anyone have any advice?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Serious]

Anyone have any advice?

 

 

I have made a few of these.

 

Here is what I suggest:

 

Get Photoshop. You can buy an old version from eBay. I use version 6.0 (not CS6, but 6.0, which is about 10+ years old), and it does everything I need.

 

Download one from thecoverproject to use as a template. Wipe all of the graphics in the file. All you really need are the dimensions and ruler lines that delineate the front/spine/back.

 

You can use scans from the original box, ads, or (if it is an arcade conversion) arcade flyers as source material for the graphics.

 

If you use box scans from AtariAge, you may need to do some clean-up work on the image, as some of the boxes have blemishes and/or faded colors (especially the rarer ones). The way I clean this stuff up is using Photoshop's clone stamp tool, and also adjusting brightness and contrast. You can also sample the color in one area of the box, and use the paint bucket and magic wand to fix the color in faded/discolored areas. (Or use the clone stamp tool to copy the color from one area to another.)

 

What I typically do for the spine is make it all black, then use a logo on it that was on the box or on an arcade flyer. It looks great this way, in my opinion.

[NoleOne]

That's great. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.