I was just reading about a guy who is making new boxes to hold MVS cartridges over on the neo forums. They are made for the mvs but he says they will house the AES carts as well. They look extremely sexy on the shelf all lined up together with their uniformed look and are made completely out of cardboard and sticker labels. Here is the thread:
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?224851-NEO-GEO-neominibox-for-MVS-(and-AES...)
The only major problem is that it is really expensive to ship these to the states since he makes them in Italy, plus his prices are a bit high for the product itself, and all it is is cardboard. Now originally I would have said to go with a "shockbox" style case, which is cool too, but I personally think these are way nicer looking, plus they take up a lot less room on the shelf as opposed to shocks. I also recall you saying that you could get custom boxes made at a low cost for shipping out cases right? well would the same manufacturer be able to make these MVS boxes? They are very simple in design.
You could contact the guy and ask him for the dimensions of the box layout, he seems eager to help out anyone who is interested in his idea. I say its worth a shot, They would be a lot cheaper than producing shock boxes..... I think?
Thanks for the link!
I
could indeed have those cardboard boxes made locally, and sell them for well under one dollar each (without labels). It would require an initial investment of around $1,500.oo, including the tooling, but not the shipping.
However, I'd rather make the NeoGeo Cases out of plastic, as they'd be more durable, support full wrap-around Cover Inserts, Manuals, and wind up costing only about 10 cents more to make (per case) than the cardboard boxes.
If any of you guys want to make the NeoGeo cardboard boxes here in the states, you can get some quotes from your local box makers. The probability of finding a local box maker in your state is rather high, as I found through my research that nearly every state has at least 1 box manufacturing plant, in the contiguous United States.
Just make sure they have the facilities to make them on site, and that they aren't just a go-between for a factory in another city, state, or country, so you can get the lowest possible price quotes.
If you are in or near the Houston Area, you can use the same cardboard box manufacturer I use,
Southern Container.
Last time I checked, they will ship to any city and out of state, but they might charge extra for that (be sure to ask).
Also, you need to tell whatever company you want quotes from, that you are unsure of the quantity you need to order, so you can meet your goal of X cents per box, so they can give you appropriate price ranges/breaks for the right quantity ranges.
If you can get a design from that guy, be sure to include it in your quote request e-mails, as well as the specs for the material used to make the boxes; ie: Flute Type (if it is corrugated), thickness, and so on. Be sure to ask the Italian guy for these additional specs. It'll speed up the quote process.
The current designs for my UGC-Variant Cases will support manuals up to 1/8 of an inch thick, and in some cases, up to 1/4 of an inch thick.
There will be two versions of the 8-Bit NES Game Cases.
One will support the small manuals that are somewhat similiar to the ones that come with a HuCard.
The other version will support both of the (similar to SNES Size) Large Manuals.
As most NES manuals are of the Small Size, I can just put like 5 patterns for Small Manual Cases in a single mold, along with a single pattern for the Large Manual case.
That way the machine will spit out 5 small + 1 large case each time it's used.
The actual ratio I'm going to use is still undecided at this time, as it will depend on the capabilities of the machines at the Injection Molding company I finally chose (I haven't chosen one just yet).
I am going to use PS2-Style Manual clips for the manuals in my cases, but they will not be exactly the same as them. They'll be tweaked a bit to ensure they'll not be too tight or loose, or too wide or too long, or even too short.
If you know of any cart manuals that are thicker than 1/8'th of an inch, please let me know.
If you know of any Sega CD, 32X CD, or Saturn Manuals, that are thicker than a Manual for games made by Working Designs, please let me know about that as well.
I'm going to buy the Andretti Racing, Saturn Game, later today or tomorrow and see if my current case designs will support it.
Is it ok if I get the American Version of that game, or do I need to import an overseas copy, in order to get the manual that's sized weird?
I'm 99% sure that they already have support for
both the Normal Extra Tall, and Near-CD Size Small Manuals, as I remember testing my tab placements with the small version of the Sewer Shark manual, as well as the really thick (and normal extra tall) Working Designs Manuals.
I'll double check that later today, or tomorrow.
One of the drawbacks of the tab design that is employed by standard DVD Cases and PS2 games,
is it's elasticity. As Arseen found, once they are stretched or bent past a certain point, they lose the ability to hold thinner printed materials.
This can be mitigated somewhat, by altering the thickness of the tabs, or the curvature.
The type of plastic that's being used for the case also affects the tab's elasticity and durability.
This also applies to Cart Tabs.
I have a number of Genesis and 32X Cart Game Cases, with broken cart holder tabs.
It's pretty easy to see why they broke (mostly due to poor design / too much stress in places that were not properly reinforced, or over reinforced, or to thin, and so on).
A lot of my attention is going into the designs of all of my tabs, and I plan to stress test them well before their first run, so I can come up with the most durable design that won't scratch up or crease any manuals, carts, or labels, and be able to accommodate the various manual thickness ranges, that are applicable to each case.
I understand that in order to be able to compete with the UGCs, I need to have a similarly priced, superior product, that also offers highly sought-after features that are not found in the UGCs, and I'm all for that!
My current timeline for product releases does indeed suck (for lack of a better term), but on the bright side, it allows for ample time to refine the designs before they go into mass production.
I am definitely going to go with the popular designs next, to generate revenue as fast as possible, so I can get all the designs done.
However, I am going to wait at least One Year before I make any NeoGeo Cases, so the Italian Guy can recover his initial investment, as well as anyone else who duplicates his design.
I also need that time so I can afford to do that house extension and/or have a new warehouse built, because those shock boxes are going to take up a lot of space.
