Systems with highest and lowest boxed/CIB game ratios?

[Blazing Lazers]

So, most likely platforms for games to still be complete:

Action Max

Nuon (would be the likeliest to be complete, if Tetris had ever come with a case to begin with)

Studio II (games were hardly ever played)

Neo Geo AES (too expensive to get rid of the cases)

Videopac (overseas Odyssey 2, due to plastic casing)

N-Gage (these do sometimes appear loose inside those thin 4x plastic game cases)

Channel F

Odyssey 2 (US)

 

Systems with games as equally likely to be complete as not:

Arcadia 2001 (mostly because nobody played the games much)

Xbox (any)

PS3

PS2

Wii

Gamecube

Dreamcast ( though I recall a LOT of people using CD wallets/binders during that time- I was one of them, to my later regret)

PS1

Master System (at least, many of it's games that I've come across still had the cases and manuals)

 

Systems with lesser odds of games being complete, but still fairly normal to find complete:

Genesis (the later games used cardboard boxes instead of the durable plastic ones, and a lot of the plastic case games seem to always be missing the damn manuals for some reason). Plenty of loose carts around, too.

Intellivision: probably due to the gatefold design, otherwise there'd be a lot more loose carts.

Jaguar: a lot of loose carts, but also a fair number of boxes.

Vectrex: a fair amount of boxes seem to still be around, but a lot more loose carts.

TG-16: the outer casing is usually missing, but the plastic case can often still be found with the game, just from what I've seen

3DO: the outer longbox is usually gone, but the cd jewel case is still around. Actually haven't seen too many loose discs at all

Sega CD and Saturn: those fragile plastic cases are almost always cracked or damaged when they are present.

 

Systems with games that are unlikely to still be complete, in descending order:

NES

Atari 2600

Colecovision (I've actually only seen boxed games for it a few times, many, many more loose carts)

SNES (boxes are worse than those from the NES)

N64 (even flimsier boxes than those used on the SNES)

Game Gear

Game Boy (any)

Edited June 27, 2017 by Blazing Lazers

[Video]

Systems with clamshell boxes are more likely to have boxes. NES vs master system, or SNES vs genesis for instance. Lots of boxes for handhelds from D's era coming forward (but with handhelds its more rare, I guess since carts are so small you can put lots into a special case for mobility) but gameboy, gamegear, lynx, etc. Boxes are a pain sometimes to find. Its easy to find boxed games for virtual boy and game.com though, odd ball out there. Placed side by six its obviously nothing to do with the games quality though.

[spacecadet]

I don't think you can ascribe Nintendo's lack of boxed games for most of their systems just down to flimsy packaging. The SNES and N64, at least, had packaging at least as good as the Atari 2600, Intellivision or ColecoVision, yet it's still much easier to find boxed games for those earlier systems despite there being even more years in between for them.

 

I've actually never really understood the lack of boxes for the SNES and N64. I sometimes think maybe it's because Nintendo historically caters to a younger crowd who doesn't care about boxes, but that's certainly not universal at all - there are plenty of older Nintendo fans, not to mention Nintendo collectors. I personally have all the N64 boxes for all the games I ever bought. So why does it seem like basically nobody else does?

 

It may partly have to do with the quality of the cartridges themselves. Genesis cartridges almost always felt kind of flimsy and in need of protection, whereas SNES and N64 carts are made of thick, heavyweight plastic. Maybe there's some "box to cartridge toughness ratio" that determines whether people kept boxes, rather than just the flimsiness of the boxes relative to other systems. If a cartridge feels tougher than the box it came in, maybe people are more likely to throw the box out.

 

Handhelds seem to operate by different rules, whereby the nature of a handheld means you want to travel light. So I think most people buy a game case for all their games and throw out the boxes. That may be less true for games with plastic clamshell cases like the DS/3DS or PSP/Vita, but I still see fewer boxed games than you'd expect if these were home systems. I'm never *not* shocked by the amount of loose PSP games out there - the entire width of the disc is exposed on these, and I'm sure a lot of people used to just dump them in their bags because the design makes them *feel* like something other than an optical disc. But it's not a whole lot different than just dumping a loose CD in your bag.

Edited June 27, 2017 by spacecadet

[CatPix]

I don't think you can tie this to cart quality, even if the idea is interesting.

The reason why NES boxes survived more than SNES and N64, is because a NES box is just "NES cart + a bit of styrofoam". You can throw the box (with the game inside) anywhere and it won't collapse.

SNES and N64 boxes (Non Japan ones at least) are in two parts : open the box, pull the inconvenient cart holder made of cardboard. If you lose it, or if, after somes years, the glue give up and it collapse, then the cart will bounce in the box, if you pile them, the boxes will get crushed under the weight of other boxes.

As for the Sega games, that VHS plastic case feel so great, you cant to keep it, you do'nt want no silly loose carts around.

 

Another case (ha ha) of system with a decent ratio of boxed titles is the PC-Engine. Unlise the US Turbochips, Hu-cards were simply in a CD-style box, with nothing else added. Well, there were two bits that easily go missing : a foam pad in early boxes to keep the card to move in the box, and those Japanese "end labels" that wrap aroung the CD Spine but are only held by the shrinkwrapping.

But as far as "box+ instructions+game" goes, PC-Engine get a good score.

Edited June 28, 2017 by CatPix

[HoshiChiri]

I've often wondered how so many Sega Master systems lost their manuals. I mean, if you're keeping the nice plastic case, wouldn't you just put the manual in it? There's a lil' clip for it and everything! But it's Damm near impossible to find master system games with a manual. It's weird.

[CatPix]

Well the Master System manual holder system is shitty. Just two small clips. Unless the manual is thick and made of stiff cardboard, there is no way it can stay stuck in the box really well.

Edited June 28, 2017 by CatPix

[spacecadet]

SNES and N64 boxes (Non Japan ones at least) are in two parts : open the box, pull the inconvenient cart holder made of cardboard. If you lose it, or if, after somes years, the glue give up and it collapse, then the cart will bounce in the box, if you pile them, the boxes will get crushed under the weight of other boxes.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "two parts". All of my US N64 boxes open and then have a couple of cardboard cross-members and a little flap you pull up to slide the cart out. I guess you could technically consider this a separate part, but Atari VCS boxes were made basically the exact same way (except that the "flap" was the flap on the box itself) and more of them survive despite being much older. The flaps on my N64 boxes are totally intact even after 20 years too.

 

The Japanese N64 boxes were actually in two parts - there's a cardboard outer box and a separate plastic insert. These are probably more durable if they're complete, but I'm sure a lot of people lost the inserts (that's just common to all two-part box designs). In Japan too, it's way more common to find loose N64 carts than boxed ones.

 

There's no way to prove any theory correct, really. But given that the US and Japan use very different box designs for the N64 yet loose carts are still far more common in both territories, I still think the carts themselves have something to do with it. People must just be comfortable throwing them around.

Edited June 29, 2017 by spacecadet

[Austin]

I'm not sure what you mean by "two parts". All of my US N64 boxes open and then have a couple of cardboard cross-members and a little flap you pull up to slide the cart out. I guess you could technically consider this a separate part, but Atari VCS boxes were made basically the exact same way (except that the "flap" was the flap on the box itself) and more of them survive despite being much older. The flaps on my N64 boxes are totally intact even after 20 years too.

 

Certain N64 boxes have the setup you are talking about. Others (often times earlier titles) have the more traditional SNES setup, where the carts come in a white tray that pulls out completely from the box itself.

[panamajoe]

Nobody talks about the Jaguar?

Although its boxes aren`t of great quality they seem to have survived pretty well.

[CatPix]

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "two parts". All of my US N64 boxes open and then have a couple of cardboard cross-members and a little flap you pull up to slide the cart out. I guess you could technically consider this a separate part, but Atari VCS boxes were made basically the exact same way (except that the "flap" was the flap on the box itself) and more of them survive despite being much older. The flaps on my N64 boxes are totally intact even after 20 years too.

 

The Japanese N64 boxes were actually in two parts - there's a cardboard outer box and a separate plastic insert. These are probably more durable if they're complete, but I'm sure a lot of people lost the inserts (that's just common to all two-part box designs). In Japan too, it's way more common to find loose N64 carts than boxed ones.

 

There's no way to prove any theory correct, really. But given that the US and Japan use very different box designs for the N64 yet loose carts are still far more common in both territories, I still think the carts themselves have something to do with it. People must just be comfortable throwing them around.

 

I've never seen the design you mention. All N64 games here come with the SNES-like cardboard tray. I saw two designs for this tray (aside from the Japanese one) :

One where the game is hold by 4 sides, SNES like, and one where it's hold by three side... But that side isn't the one where you open the box so that isn't very useful.

 

(not mine. I regret it )

For Japan, I'm not sure abbout N64, but they seems to have more SuFami boxed games than Europe, and far more than the US.

Not sure about N64 games, but I don't see alot of them, so I can't even do a wet finger estimate.

But It's sure than in Japan, the SNEs boxes having a plastic tray helped to keep boxes.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Turbografx, The jewel cases are very common. Same with PCe. Yeah the cardboard is rare but so what? Some DVDs and CDs had external cardboard, and you don't really miss it much when it's gone. My only "loose" Turbo games are the later ones that didn't come with jewel cases...

[CatPix]

All DVD and CD I got with a cardboard sleeve still have them...

[high voltage]

Pokémon mini seem to be in box most.of the time

[spacecadet]

I've never seen the design you mention. All N64 games here come with the SNES-like cardboard tray.

I completely forgot about those. Probably that's the earlier design, because I got my N64 late and only one game I have (F-Zero X) has a cardboard tray like that. I'm attaching photos of what the boxes for all my other N64 game boxes look like. The actual box pictured is Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is actually in the worst shape of any box I have because of repeated use.

[CatPix]

wow, looks pretty similar to Atari 2600 indeed.

Never saw those here. I don't know if that's a regional difference or a time based thing. Which would be odd since you can see Majora's Mask using the "older" type of box, and it was a game released in 2000.

[Zookeeper]

I'm kind of the polar opposite on Turbo collecting- I've gotta have those dang cardboard thingies (or sealed) or I'll pass. I go nuts on ebay because they're considered 'complete' without them when I look at it the other way. Arrrgh (a tired ARRRGH!).

 

But yeah, my list would be the same. Those clamshells (including O2/ Intv cardboard ones) tend to be dang common. Plain old tear 'em open cardboard boxes got chucked. TRS-80 seems kinda tough with the little cardboard sleeves.

 

Being a nitpicker, it weirds me out to see loose Genesis/ SMS games. Maybe they were rentals or game stores short on space...kinda sad to think of all those cool plastic boxes tossed away. Sniff.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Zookeeper