Universal Game Case

I'm sure most of you have seen these. Some of you may already own some.

I had been reading about them on line for a while and finally decided after seeing so many people sing the praises of these cases, I decided I wanted some.

This is my adventure began.

After looking on line I found that my options were buy just a few at a high price or buy a whole case of them at a lower each price but higher price over all.

I really didn't need that many so I figured I would just buy a case of 100 units and that would put the price down to .75 each. At that price I thought I could sell off the excess ones and be out less cash than I would had I just bought the few I needed.

The day came when the carton of game cases arrived and I was so excited.

Here are my thoughts.

First I don't like the outer sleeve. I think I would like it more if it were clear rather than a textured diffusion. Also, it would have been nice if it had been more of a pocket and closed on the bottom. I can only guess that the inserts are held in place by a combination of air pressure, surface tension, and molecular attraction. Anyhow I don't care for it too much, but the price was right so I over look it.

Next up the box its self. The first one I inspected it seemed the back of the case was bowed in some. With that I checked another, and another. Well they all look like that. Seems that is part of how it holds a compact disc. Again yet another feature I don't much care for, but the price was right so I'll over look it.

I then decided to print myself some artwork. Now, it's interesting that the artwork needs to be about 11.22 inches, just longer than the common A4 paper. Well, I soon find out that no place in my city sells any paper that I can print high quality onto in any size larger than A4 and smaller than Super B. And what they do sell is over 1 dollar a sheet, higher mil than I wanted and not the right sheen. So, I had to order some on line. Due to the design of the case there is some wasted space on the interior that could have been changed and would have decreased the width of the case enough that I borderless A4 print would have been just a tiny bit longer than the case sleeve. I measured it out just because I was curious. Again this is dog shit, but the price is right.

Anyhow on to what they were made for, holding games. As, I'm sure you already know the case won't hold an NES game pak without being modified. That's okay, I knew that going in.

First I put in a Famicom cart. And it holds it, but so would a coffee can. It rattles around and looks like dog shit.

Next up a Genesis cart. Same as above.

Then a Master System cart. Same as above.

Next a Super Famicom cart. Same as above.

Next a Super Nintendo cart. Same as above.

The only thing that it actually holds nice and secure is a CD. That also happens to be the only thing I don't give a shit about putting in one of these cases.

Again I feel this is pure and utter dog shit, the price is not really making up for the useless ness of this turd.

Oddly enough, the Mastery System and Super Nintendo carts were the two carts that it held the best. I don't have any other carts to try out in this thing so I can't comment on anything else.

Well, I get to looking on line and find people doing mods to the cases to make them hold things better. Some people are using adhesive weather stripping, sponge, cutting tabs out and doing all sorts of things. Mostly just to make them hold NES games. Seems most people are happy with how other games are held. I guess I'm the exception.

I decided to take one of the cases and modify it myself and see what I can come up with. I designed an insert to place in the case.

I start with some chipboard templates I drew up and then made some plastic ones. After that I hand made a an insert to test the idea. Here is the test unit. (It is just hand made from crap I had handy so not very well refined.)





It was designed to hold Famicom, Master System and Genesis carts securely.







Now, please keep in mind that is just a poorly and quickly made test piece. I've went ahead and designed up some nice files for a better one, as well as inserts for other games.

To use them it requires one remove all the interior plastics from the case. Fairly easy to do but I could have done the same thing using a VHS case or some other case, but I have a carton or 100 of these stupid things.

Anyhow, I'm now in talks with about a half dozen different facilities about having my designs professionally produced. Depending if I can get the price right and what minimum quantities I'll have to order I may just start having some of these made.

I'm curious if anyone here would be interested in such a thing, and what your opinion of the idea is because If everyone thinks this is a shit idea the it would be silly to proceed.

You're going to have to make these things by the thousands to make it cost effective. The only games that really need a case are the ones that came in card board boxes so that basically rules out the sega stuff. Snes fits nicely so what are you left with? Nes? They already make a nice case for that. The fact that things rattle a bit isnt a major issue, they are carts, they can handle it.

I bought a case of these too about a year back and was just as disappointed with them as you are. I think I still have about 80+ of these shitty things.

I thought they'd be great for holding my SNES games + manuals, but the manuals wont fit, and the case wont close/the cart wont fit if it has its plastic clip on it.

They also do a shitty job of holding 32X games and Jaguar games.

IMO the universal game cases are just a copout to not spend the cash on actual boxes.

Ouch. When I was buying shockboxes for mvs carts, I bought like 2 to try out and made sure I liked them before ordering those in bulk.

I have a lot of these and don't have issues holding carts at all. Maybe something has been skewed on production end, dunno. They fit N64 and SNES / SFC relatively well, they certainly aren't floating around. The fit NES very well by removing 2 nubs. I think I paid $73 shipped for 100. They aren't an amazing product, but for $0.73/each I think the price is more than fair. The snap-fit is good, the artwork plastic is decent, i'm just not sure what you were expecting tbh. I haven't tried GEN games, I imagine those could be loose in these.

As for the insert - it's a good idea but I don't think the market is there - you'd need to do the entire case yourself with the insert I think. Maybe I read too fast but if I understand correctly, people would need to remove all the interior plastic to put the instert in? Way too much work for what these are. Not to mention if people want a higher quality case with better fit; they are available via the bit-boxes.

Well, I've gotten a bit more info on this. Right now the estimated cost per unit would be under 2.00 for 100 units.

I'm not sure that it is something I want to go ahead with just yet as I really am not sure there is much need. However on the other hand I could just have 100 made for myself and would have a very snugly held Famicom collection.

I ordered these cases in bulk a couple times. I think for the price point they are decent and versatile enough. However I did notice that the first batch I ordered had a textured plastic outer sleeve while my second order had a nice smooth and clear one.

I think about the time I spent modding these with a dremel to fit NES games.... yes, I would like that time back.

Well, so far I've got it down to 1.45 each price after shipping. However I'm going to rework the design some. I believe that I can remove the bottom layer and make the top layer thicker, add some finger holes and lay out cut outs into the foam for the plastic inserts that are in the case and make it so you just lay the foam in without having to mod the case.

Who knows, maybe it will work. If I can get it down to about 1.00 - 1.25 cost that would not be too bad and if I could get it where no modification to the case was needed I think that would be a big plus.