making boxes

[dr. kwack]

Maybe this has been discussed already, but- how does one go about making custom boxes for homemade carts?

 

I've had some of my hacks put to cart and would like to make some boxes to display them.

[MayDay]

Quoted from the homebrew services section of website:

 

Boxes

 

You haven't seen very many boxes produced for homebrew games for one primary reason: It's Very Expensive. The only way to produce a high-quality box that is comparable to the boxes used for commercially released games is to have them professionally offset printed, cut, folded, and glued. And for the quantities typically needed for a homebrew game it can get prohibitively expensive. We have printed one box thus far in this fashion, for Thomas Jentzsch's Thrust Plus: DC Edition. Here are some pictures of that box:

 

This box has been widely complimented, but it was not cheap to produce so we have been researching alternative vendors. We are nearing the end of our search, and plan to work with homebrew authors soon to bring this level of quality to everyone's games. There are alternative means of creating boxes, but we have not been completely satisfied with these methods and additionally they involve a great deal of manual labor and time to produce.

 

The pictures of course are on the page, at this link. Basically, if you can find a good cheap place, please let everyone else know too.

 

-JD

[8bitclassics]

I have researched this a lot this past year and it is very expensive. Quantities have to be at least 1000 to be somewhat cost effective, but that still doesn't include tooling. We have come up with a side solution that isn't exactly what somebody is used too.

 

At a auction of a computer store that went out of business, we purchase a ton of brand new 5 1/5" disk cases. They are all clear or smoke colored and look sharp. I am finalizing pricing on custom inserts for Atari 2600/ColecoVision sized carts and another for 5200 sized carts as I feel those will be most popular. We will also be purchasing clear labels that fit the cases perfectly that can be printed on laser or inkjet printers (I believe). So while it isn't exactly what somebody is used to, it is a great way to distribute and protect your investment. I am hoping to order the inserts after we receive our samples.

 

Corey

[jaybird3rd]

I wonder if it would be possible to just build a very large batch of generic boxes for Atari cartridges and manuals, and then print up customized slip-on covers as needed for the games. I imagine this would be a lot cheaper than a custom-printed box for every game, especially for low-quantity homebrews. I think Interplay used to use a similar packaging system for some of their retail-boxed software, so even though it would be different than Atari's original packaging, it wouldn't be too much of a departure.

[8bitclassics]

Imagic did that also I believe. That is an option though. But the first up front cost is expensive again with the tooling. If I ever get heavy into this, might be an option, but for now, I think the one I am doing will work very well.

 

Corey

[jaybird3rd]

That's right, Imagic had those eight-color silver and rainbow packages (which must have been REALLY expensive).

 

I'm going to look into the slip-cover option when I finally get a homebrew ready for distribution. Up-front costs are high, to be sure, but with a very large run of generic boxes that can be used for several homebrew games, per-unit cost would be relatively low.

 

And, of course, there's always plastic baggies with stapled-on cardboard foldovers.

[MayDay]

I know "on demand" printing is all the rage these days, so if you already had the boxes, couldn't you pay someone like Harte Hanks (spelling?) to print say, 50 at a time? It might be a little more expensive for custom printing, but I think it would also make it look better than something you could do at home.

 

The inserts are an entirely different beast, I have no idea what to do there.

 

-JD

[brpocock]

Not that it's the most professional packaging ever, but there are extra-large jewelcases meant for multiple CD's (packs of 6 or . Printing jewelbox books is relatively easy. So would be cutting styro inserts for something like that, I suspect? (To make a cart fit)

[8bitclassics]

I know "on demand" printing is all the rage these days, so if you already had the boxes, couldn't you pay someone like Harte Hanks (spelling?) to print say, 50 at a time?  It might be a little more expensive for custom printing, but I think it would also make it look better than something you could do at home. 

 

The inserts are an entirely different beast, I have no idea what to do there.

 

-JD

1011667[/snapback]

Actually a generic chipboard box I think would work great, maybe just plain white with a foam insert. Then printing one's own slip cover based on need. That might work. Maybe I will check into that as a future project.

 

Corey

[Albert]

I know "on demand" printing is all the rage these days, so if you already had the boxes, couldn't you pay someone like Harte Hanks (spelling?) to print say, 50 at a time?  It might be a little more expensive for custom printing, but I think it would also make it look better than something you could do at home. 

 

The inserts are an entirely different beast, I have no idea what to do there.

 

-JD

1011667[/snapback]

Actually a generic chipboard box I think would work great, maybe just plain white with a foam insert. Then printing one's own slip cover based on need. That might work. Maybe I will check into that as a future project.

 

Corey

1014138[/snapback]

That would be interesting--I've spent a lot of time exploring box printing and to get chipboard boxes printed (which is the same type of boxes Atari and other companies used) is quite expensive for relatively low production runs. So expensive that it's often simply not even worth doing. In general I haven't been happy with other methods of producing boxes, but a slip cover over a chipboard box could work well. And I could print nice slip covers on a reasonably thick paper on the color laser printer I use for other work (I can print up to 12" x 18" on fairly thick stock, but not chipboard).

 

..Al

[Delicon]

Has anyone looked into laser cutting? I found a place that charges $2.50 a minute to cut. They say they can cut 1/8" plastic at 3secs/inch, I would assume that a heavy stock cardboard could be cut much faster. I dont know if they will cut preprinted stock or not, but it would be worth checking out. Maybe you could end up with a high quality, low quantity, cheap box. I am out of my league here, but with a wide printer, it seems like you could preprint sock and then have them cut the complex shapes.

 

So if they could cut a complex box in a minute, would $2.50 a box be worth it?

 

http://www.pololu.com/laser_cutting.html

 

Vern

[fringe1]

I've been trying to find answers to the box question for a while now. Unfortunately, the easy answer is that unless you buy bunches, it's totally impractical to try to get them printed via offset or something similar. Fortunately, there are alternatives that aren't terribly expensive if you don't mind assembling the boxes yourself. The Friday the 13th box is a prototype for how I will be doing boxes for Salem Frost's hacks (www.salemfrostgames.com). The Pink box is a test to duplicate a standard box style. It works, but I'm still working the bugs out of the insert. If there's interest, I'll post a photo of it too. These won't be insanely pricey, in my opinion, but it really depends on what you think you can get out of a boxed version of a game vs an unboxed.

 

The nice thing with using this style box is that it can be used for anything. I can set up a template for the insert so that it will house other types of carts -- 5200, INTV, Odyssy or even CDs or DVDs.

 

Of some interest -- I've found a place that makes foil label sheets, and although you can't replicate an Atari label, it may be nice to make labels different than the norm. The foil is very similar to the Imagic games instead of the somewhat matte foil on Atari games. And you can't print white for the background.

 

Rod