Onion game Cases

[larryinc64]

Or a Mario Paint case that holds the mouse?

[scarmullet]

It may be a bit large, but a case to hold the Nintendo Zapper.

[Seymor Onion]

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions!
I'm making note of all of them, and please keep em coming if ya'll think of anything else. 

Oh I was also thinking the other day, I know this is probably a ridiculous idea, but what about cases for Consoles?

Later on down the line, I was planning on making Cardboard Boxes with Styrofoam Inserts for all of the Classic Consoles.
They would really come in handy when you want to ship a System + Accessories + a few Games, and no longer own the OEM packaging.
I figured it would probably be a good idea to ship Replacement Console Shells in packaging like that,
so it could be dual-purpose,
as well as allow the option to buy/ship each separately.

Is that what you were thinking about, or were ya thinking about something more sturdy,
like a Travel Case made of Plastic and/or Metal, with soft foam inserts/cut-outs inside, and a Handle?

BTW the website stoneagegamer.com may be interested in your cases. They use UGS's for there everdrives and are unhappy with how they hold some carts. I suggest throwing a email over to them.

Thanks for the Linkage!
I took a look at the pictures they have for their EverDrives, and it appears that they are all (except for the Bare Circuit Board Versions)
inside Game Cases that look to be exactly the same dimensions as OEM Carts.
If that's the case, then my future cases will work great with them.

If I can also add a place to store SD Cards within the Cases,
and/or make sure nothing obstructs the areas where the SD Card Inserts into the Carts,
ya'll won't have to remove the SD Card from the Cart when ya put it in the case.

I'll shoot them an e-mail when I'm about to start making cases that should work with their EverDrives,
and ask if they have any feature requests / suggestions. 

[larryinc64]

Your handheld cases are going to be the same height as DS cases, Right? You should make a case the size of a Gamegear Box or whatever is large enough to hold a manual but the same dimensions of the art. Of a DS case that holds the Guitar Hero hand thing and the game and the adapter for the new or old DS models, which is the size of a GBA game. You should also make a case for Rockband, the Drum set, 2 Guitars and 3 Microphones. (Ths first was a joke but a travel case for all the stuff would be useful.) and System travel cases can be useful too. I bring my retro systems around a lot to friend's homes because most of my friends do not own retro systems.

Also I'm good at art and could probably make a logo for you to make your site look a bit less shady. I am also working on one for TCP. I really should finish that one, its been almost done for months.

[Seymor Onion]

Your handheld cases are going to be the same height as DS cases, Right?

Yup!
I'm sticking to the DS Case external dimensions, whenever possible, for handheld games.

You should make a case the size of a Gamegear Box or whatever is large enough to hold a manual but the same dimensions of the art. Of a DS case that holds the Guitar Hero hand thing and the game and the adapter for the new or old DS models, which is the size of a GBA game.

I'm not familiar with any of the Guitar Hero Games, but will look into them, if ya can be a bit more specific. 

You should also make a case for Rockband, the Drum Set, 2 Guitars and 3 Microphones.

I'm surprised no one has made a travel case for those instruments. O_o
I'll add it to the list.

Also I'm good at art and could probably make a logo for you to make your site look a bit less shady.
I am also working on one for TCP. I really should finish that one, its been almost done for months.

Your interim TCP logo looks pretty sweet!
If you could make me a new logo, once you are done with the TCP Logo, to replace the Title Frame Text, that'd be cool.
The area you have to work with is [800 Pixels Wide] by [90 Pixels Tall], but I can re-size it if necessary.

If you can somehow incorporate, or leave a space for, the "View Cart" button, I'd appreciate it.


I'm not quite sure what you have in mind, but if you could also include Miku somehow,
or at least a Leek/Spring Onion or something, it would fit with the theme rather well.

                                  Miku Mario?

Including Miku is only a suggestion; she isn't mandatory or anything.   

[TyrannicalFascist]

Wow, how did I miss this tread!?

This is fantastic! There's a ton of potential here, and after the recent UGC drought and undoubtedly more to come, this very well could be the better choice in the future.

Here's a couple more ideas, take them as you will. All the Nintendo handheld systems themselves fit in UGCs except the original Game Boy and original Nintendo DS (there are even covers for GBPocket and DSLite), and even then the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance are so snug that they press the buttons in potentially damaging them, and there's little room for any kind of booklets for the system. It'd be great if you could develop a slightly thicker UGC option for those systems, which could also be used to hold certain thicker controllers, and even thicker games like the Super Game Boy, or games that have very thick manuals.

A case for the original Game Boy might have to be a unique case (maybe could be the same as a power brick case?), but the rest could fit just fine if it were essentially a slightly thicker UGC. Game Gear and other larger handhelds (Sega Nomad and Supaboy/other portable clones) would definitely require a special box, but many accessories and controllers could be made to work in thicker UGC variations. For example the SNES mouse or a Wii Remote could fit in the same width box as the Game Boy. I think a lot of cool possibilities open up simply with thicker versions of what we have been using.

Game Boy game cases and special ones to accommodate games like Pokemon Pinball sound great, and I'll just throw out there that it would be really cool if you eventually made cases for Virtual Boy games. I wonder if they are thin enough that the cartridge and manual could fit in a 3DS-sized case? Obviously it's kind of a niche and not any kind of priority, but it would be nice to have them stored in special cases one day.

Maybe I missed this information earlier too, but would these cases be clear plastic like UGCs, or opaque (black or colored)?

[Seymor Onion]

I have a combo case design on paper [OGC-VB-NGCP] that will support:
Virtual Boy, and NeoGeo Pocket, and NeoGeo Color (handheld) games & Manuals.  

I think I'm going to have to go with colored (most likely Black) so the plastic itself will have the proper balance of
Rigidity, Flexibility, and Longevity, because the dyes themselves can alter certain plastics' properties.
I'm still looking in to this.
Once I am able to get it sorted out, I'll put up another thread and ask about color options.
To keep costs down, the first run of each case design (50k or 100k or more) will be either Black or Clear (again, most likely Black).

If possible, I would like to offer a variety of case colors, especially for the Zelda Games.
It would be Very Cool to have Gold Editions of cases for them.  

EDITED TO ADD:
I've been looking in to making larger "Blank" cases, and Foam Cutouts.
I think this would be a better route to take for System Cases & Musical Instrument-Type Gaming Accessories.
If you accidentally drop a case with those items in it, the foam should protect em from damage.
This is especially important if you went through the trouble of having a GBA System modded with that Afterburner Light Kit. From what I can see, he no longer sells it. >_<

Speaking of Handhelds...
If any of you all have handhelds with broken or dead screens, please don't throw them away.
The costs associated in fabricating OLED Screens should become affordable in another 5 to 10 years. 

[Gill35]

Since we're all throwing ideas around here, how about something to accommodate some Dreamcast VMUs? I know there are already some cases out there made by Performance (or Pelican, maybe). I have one actually:


But these are tricky to find in good shape, and I don't particularly want to have to buy another 3rd party memory card just so I can put my VMUs in proper storage. On a side note, I can remember being at a Walmart once and they were having a closeout on these style memory cards and cases. They had one of their huge containers full of these things and I remember digging through, moving boxes by the handful trying to find an 800 block memory card, completely ignoring the piles of standard 200 block cards and cases. I only ended up buying one 800 block card and kick myself every time I think about it for not stocking up these cases for like $5 a pop. This experience has furthered my desire for an appropriate VMU storage solution.

[TyrannicalFascist]

Foam inserts are a great idea, especially since those handhelds, controllers and accessories are all the same size for everyone (unless you get into off-brand controllers, but personally I have no desire to case the 2 that I have).

If you do go that route, you might leave a spot on the GBA SP - 3DS for the charger.

And careful with the colors option....you might be opening Pandora's Box... 

[Seymor Onion]

How many VMUs can you put in a UGC, that has had all of it's tabs removed?
I'd check for myself, but I sold all of my VMUs last year.
I will pick some more up when it comes time to make cases for the VMUs.
I'll also make some cases for the Dreamcast Jump Pack Rumble Thing.

Speaking of VMUs, did you know that USA Citizens can buy Energizer Brand CR 2032 Batteries,
Online, In Bulk, For Cheap, at Digi-Key?
There's some other places that do that too, but I can't recall their names...

Yeah, I'm going to keep the Colors Options rather limited, at least until after I can build a 2 or 3 story warehouse... 
I may have to have the Master Molds, of all of my Game Case Designs, up and running, before I can offer any color options.
I will look in to doing limited runs, every so often, for certain Colored Cases though.
If I set up a pre-order system, it could work out in the short-term.

I might be able to still qualify for the lower pricing of a large run, for a short run of colored cases,
if I ask them to make X number of colored cases at the end of a main run of 100K+ cases.
I'll have to ask about that, once I pick an Injection Molding company.
Since they'll already have the huge, heavy mold in place in the machine, at the end of the standard run,
it should be fast and easy to switch from one color to another.

Lemme put it this way...
I've been on some tours of Injection Molding companies, and some of them volunteered the option to switch to other colors on the fly,
for no additional fee. 
However, Storage Space and Demand may present an issue (in the short-term).

[larryinc64]

I realy think you should release the NES cases first sence there is the largest market for them, maybe normal handheld cases. And from there release standerd cases for most of the systems before the specal cases come in.

[Seymor Onion]

I really think you should release the NES cases first, since there is the largest market for them, and maybe normal handheld cases. And from there, release standard cases for most of the systems before the special cases come in.

The NES Cases moved to the Second Spot on my List the other day.
It might move back up to # 1 status soon.
It all depends on the responses I get from some Thermoforming Plastic Manufacturers.
I should start getting responses sometime this week.
I'd like to know if my HuCard CD-Jewel Case Tray Design can be made with the Thermoforming Process, or if they have to be made with Injection Molding.

If they can make em through Thermoforming, and the cost is as low as I estimate it will be, then I just need to sell about 9k more HuCard Sleeves before I can start making the Trays.
The Startup Costs for Thermoforming Plastics is roughly 80% less than Injection Molding, if wikipedia is to be believed, but it has limits on what it can accomplish.
Even if they say Yes, I have to test some Thermoformed Plastic samples, to make sure the end product wouldn't turn out to be flimsy or otherwise weird.
That'll take a month to determine, at least, if I can only work with an out-of state TPM.

Either way, I need to sell about 115K more HuCard Sleeves before I can do any Injection Molding.
AFAIK, the UGC-Style, DS Style, and DVD Style Cases have to use the Injection Molding Process.

I bet that most of you guys are probably going to hold out until I make the DVD Style Cases for SegaCard Games, as it will also be compatible with HuCards, because you all already have a bunch of covers for that style of case. (Example)

However, diversification is a good thing; it'll pull in money faster...
I have had a large number of inquiries from the PCE Crowd, about the availability of the HuCard Trays, since I started to sell the HuCard Sleeves. 

[Arseen]

If you could make these:
http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=10230.msg69240;topicseen#new

So the poor SNES games would not get skinned and innards left discarded.

[Seymor Onion]

Good News!
Replacement Shells for Cartridge-Based Games are already on my To Do List:
NES, SNES, n64, Master System, Genesis & 32X.

The Bad News is that they are low-priority items, so it's gonna be a while.

Say, has anyone made, or is selling, a Famicom-to-NES Adapter,
and include an empty NES Cart Shell with it, that has the proper screw hole alignment?

If no one else is doing that, when I start making the NES Shells, then I will do that as well. 

[Arseen]

Good News!
Replacement Shells for Cartridge-Based Games are already on my To Do List:
NES, SNES, n64, Master System, Genesis & 32X.

The Bad News is that they are low-priority items, so it's gonna be a while.

Good to hear.

Say, has anyone made, or is selling, a Famicom-to-NES Adapter,
and include an empty NES Cart Shell with it, that has the proper screw hole alignment?

If no one else is doing that, when I start making the NES Shells, then I will do that as well. 

Nobody makes those to my knowledge.
The adapter part is the hard part with all the fine metal parts.
Buit I'd love to have those, if the price is reasonable.

-----------------------------

I just recieved (while typing this message) 2 Famicom games in interesting plastic cases.
I'll take pictures and post them here in few minutes.