Games and their boxes

[Cassidy Nolen]

All my boxed 2600 (except the sealed ones, of course!!) do get play. I keep all the games in oversized comic book bags, with tags on the top sides with which issue it was, and whether its sealed (so I dont accidentally open one!). If you are careful, you can open and close them quite a bit without wear.

 

I find Nintendo boxes do not fair as well as 2600. Wierd.

 

Cassidy

[The Night Phantom]

My method might be heretical among this crowd, but here goes.

 

To save space, I separate the cartridges from the boxes. I actually flatten the boxes and put them into a binder. Most of the boxes are made in such a way that this can be done without damaging (i.e., bending or tearing) the boxes. In some cases, you may have to undo a little glue, but otherwise it's usually a matter of untucking the top and bottom flaps and then pressing down the box so that one of the spines (depending on the particular box design) becomes flush with the front. A notable exception is the standard Parker Bros. box, which is a quality product that doesn't take well to my methods. For most other boxes, though, no problem. Once flattened, the box goes into an Avery sheet protector (taped at the top to prevent the box from slipping out), then into a three-ring binder.

 

All this work (which really isn't all that tough) keeps the boxes out of the way until I want to look at that fabulous cover art and those witty game descriptions.

[Paul Slocum]

I don't collect boxes, but I still don't like to handle my cartridges any more than I have to. So I usually use a multicart to play games on the Atari. The one I have is limited to 4k games, but I'm working on one that will support 8k and 16k games. Cuttle Cart is nice too, but I use mine more for development than playing. But I admit, sometimes you just have to play the real cart.

[dwh]

About ten years ago,when I was twenty something and Stupid,I threw away my box of atari game boxes.unfortunately,my copies of Atari Age & Numb Thumb magazines, and the membership cards, were also in that box.What few boxes I do have,I just store in a bookshelf.It costs more to get the boxes,so I have been collecting just the game cartridges lately,but there is always the Lottery!...

[Lemmi]

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all i can say is OUCH

[StanJr]

I just bought a boxed Pac-man Jr., its the first game with a box in my collection.

So those of you with boxed games, let me ask, how do you store them? Do you leave the game in the box and take it out everytime you want to play them(and doesn't this add wear and tear to the box)?

Do you keep the cart out of the box and store the box seperate?

Or do you just wait for a second copy of the game to come along so you can preserve the one in the box?

 

All boxed in-Stan

[videotwit]

If its a game I play often, I keep an extra copy next to my VCS. Not the most cost-effective way of doing things, but it works for me.

 

Otherwise I just leave the games in their boxes, and line them up on my shelves. As long as you are somewhat careful, there's not too much wear an tear on the boxes.

 

(Please note: If I had, say, a boxed Glib and wanted to play it often, maybe I'd rethink my actions. But, hey, this is as about as unlikely of a scenario as I can think of. Who would actually want to play Glib?!?!)

[ren.dhark]

I take it out when I want to play the game (I have 91 boxed Atari/135 boxed INTV games at the moment).

But I think you´re right and it would be better to buy some big plastic boxes to store the cartridges, so the Game-Box couldn´t be damaged.

 

Günther

[digitalpress]

Ooh! Boxes!

 

I do a combination of the things you listed. I have two shelves of boxed 2600 games, and these have the games with the boxes I'm most proud of (Texas Chainsaw, Halloween, Demolition Herby, Chuck Wagon, etc), and the games are stashed inside and only come out for special occasions!

 

The rest of them are stored in an organizer that I had built years ago.

 

I have a pic online (Game Rooms), mine are the pics on the top row, the Atari stuff is on the far right).

[videotwit]

Those organizers are beautiful, Joe! I think I need to set aside a Saturday afternoon in my wood shop -- my loose carts are a bit unorganized at the moment.

[King Atari]

It depends. For example, I have a boxed "Pac-Man" and a boxed "Combat", but since I have more than enought spare copies, I leave them in their boxes. In the case of my boxed "Astroblast" and "Space Attack" carts (which I don't have spares of), I leave them out of their boxes and keep them with the rest of my loose carts, while the boxes are housed in another box. Of course, I have a sealed "Dark Chambers" which I don't plan on opening (it's not rare but I love that game ).

[NE146]

Well what I've pretty much done with ALL my 2600 games is:

 

1) open box

2) remove cart and instructions

3) throw box away (usually after being on the floor for a few days and getting stomped on a bit)

 

..mind you this is the 70's and 80's we're talking about.

 

However, I've found that some straggler boxes WERE saved because maybe they fell behind some junk or were incidentally placed in some bookshelf sometime years ago..

 

But yeah, thats how I store my boxes. i.e. "accidentally"

[digitalpress]

Thanks, Ultra-T! Hey, one thing to think about if you decide to custom-build a cartridge organizer - account for the odd-length games like Xonox and CommaVid. I didn't consider that when building mine, and they flop out of the unit when stored inside. So I have to lie them on top of the thing (or keep them in their boxes somewhere else).

[jahfish]

i have the atari suitcase containing a bootleg console (with 1024 games/ probably about 256) the paddles and joysticks, and 13 multicarts (brasilian, HES 2pak and sean kellys) containing most of the games i like to play ...

 

that's a pretty cool set, so i don't need to access all my items too often if i want to play ...

[StanJr]

JAH FISH is posting again! Yippeee!

 

Thanks for all the advice about this guys. I think I'm going to keep it out of the box as long as I am playing it heavy, then pop it back in when I lose interest!

[moycon]

Boxed games rule Stan. I used to have about 70 different ones but sold alot of them a few years back. I still have about 25 left....Not counting doubles.