Preferences?

[Dravenae]

Hey guys!

When printing out covers for my SNES and N64 games, I always used the vertical custom covers, just to keep my collection looking universal on my shelves, however, lately I'm being drawn to the idea of printing out the retail box art for all my SNES and N64 games, to go along with my NES, Master System and Mega Drive games, all of which use the retail box art. So I guess the point of this post is, to;

 1, Ask you what you guys use?

and

 2, Why did you choose one over the other?

I would just be interested to see what your guys thoughts and opinions are!

Another thing I would be interested to see your opinion on, is reproduction box's and manuals. I have a few games that are boxed and complete, but some of those games are either missing manuals, the manuals are missing pages, and/or the box is held together with sellotape. The vast majority of my boxed games, are nigh pristine bar a few stuffs here and there. I'm just wondering, is it worth buying reproduction boxes and manuals for these games? Will it affect the value of my game if I make the switch from the original messed up box and manual?

Regards, Drav.

[segamer]

I decided vertical for N64 and SNES because they are visually appealing to me.

[sniperlobster]

I had all my SNES Vertical and my N64 Horizontal but I decided to buy better paper and reprint everything (ugh) and I went all vertical this time and they look amazing. My pet peeve with the N64 Retail was that some spines were green and some were blue and it was driving me crazy

[Arseen]

1, Ask you what you guys use?

Black Euro Verticals for N64, US Verticals for SNES.

2, Why did you choose one over the other?

Verticals as covers in this format are easier to do as you don't need all the pieces in retail looking condition thus giving you bit more wiggle room, I mean you just need good front image, few screenshots and to know what the back text says. I know you can do Horizontals this way too but, Verticals still give bit more freedom.
I also like that I don't have to spin the cover when checking front image and back, but both are orientated sameway (I guess this was actually my main point when choosing the style).

On N64 I prefer the black over red, and on SNES I preferred the US gray bars over the PAL 4 color circles on back's background.

Another thing I would be interested to see your opinion on, is reproduction box's and manuals. I have a few games that are boxed and complete, but some of those games are either missing manuals, the manuals are missing pages, and/or the box is held together with sellotape. The vast majority of my boxed games, are nigh pristine bar a few stuffs here and there. I'm just wondering, is it worth buying reproduction boxes and manuals for these games? Will it affect the value of my game if I make the switch from the original messed up box and manual?

Repro boxes don't interest me that much, but repro manuals are OK for games that I can't locate genuine one at reasonable price or easyness.

I guess I'd value game with pristine repro box and manual just bit higher than game with really crappy genuine box and manual.

[wiggy]

Well I make all of my own covers at this point and they're all non-retail except for my N64 covers (did those first, don't have the desire to go back and start over). 

I started with retail because it was easy to rip the N64 verticals from the site and plop them into my own template.  But, I eventually came across a game or two who's covers weren't on the site or were really poor quality (Mario Golf 64 and Beast Wars).   That's when I made my first two customs and was sorta hooked after that.  I still do retail on my N64 carts that I pick up. 

Everything else is 95% custom at this point.  About the only things I use from the retail covers are the barcode and the title graphic, and I don't even use that a large portion of the time since I often build the titles in vector form from scratch.


Retail SNES looks terrible cased up IMO.  There's no consistency whatsoever.  If you're gonna take the time to print and cut covers in order to case games and put them on a shelf, then I don't see why anyone would want them looking all hodge-podge.  It's one thing if they're actual retail boxes (since they're rare and stuff), but for UGC casing it makes no sense in my world of OCD, clean and tidy shelf appearance needs.

N64 retail is pretty damned consistent, I just can't stand the purple and green spines with the busy-ass graphics behind the game's title.  Ick. 


As far as repro boxes/manuals go, that's not at all my thing.  I keep my original boxes in boxes, in other boxes because I want to keep them nice and because they're fragile.  Repro boxes are just as fragile, and I don't want to fiddle with them while tying to access my games.  They don't ad value like retail boxes do, so there's no interest from me.    I don't care about manuals at all.  Retail or repro.  I don't collect as a financial investment, and I can use the web to figure out which button makes Mario jump if I can't figure it out on my own for some reason.

[Dravenae]

I keep my original boxes in boxes, in other boxes because I want to keep them nice and because they're fragile.  Repro boxes are just as fragile, and I don't want to fiddle with them while tying to access my games.

That's an interesting point!

I generally keep all my games in UGC's, even if they are complete. I made that choice early on to prevent wear and tear to the boxes. All my boxes and manuals are put away safely in box protectors at this time.

I like the vertical covers for both SNES and N64 games, because much like Wiggy, I'm a tad OCD about how the games look on my shelf. I guess instead of printing retail covers for those games, I could make my own custom covers for my Mega Drive games, which is the real problem for me at the moment. I find the spines just to inconsistent, and I'm not just talking about the black grid covers vs the blue spines, I mean that the logo's generally go all over the place! Unfortunately, I'm pretty terrible with anything to do with graphic design... LOL! I think I may nag one of my good friends to help me.  

[wiggy]

I have a Mega Drive template if you're interested.  Just haven't picked up any MD games to go with it yet

[Dravenae]

Yes please! That would be awesome!     

Actually Wiggy... Can I have your PS1 and Gamecube memory card templates too please? There awesome! Definitely going to try that once I have a spare CD case!

[kaysow]

PAL ps2 spines mixed with NTSC,, ps3 switching logos halfway through the gen, psp redoing their default layout. i don't mind hodge-podge, that's how most my legit covers look. too clean and/or uniform doesn't look natural. i'll go with retails. not to say some of those customs aren't pretty as hell, it's totally a viable option.

[Dravenae]

@Kaysow. I don't print covers for my disc based games. I will only buy disk based games that are complete. I would prefer my disc based games to be more uniform, but I'm much more picky about my cartridge based games, as I don't display the boxes to keep them safe, I'm free to do what I want with the cover of the UGC's. Again, good point is good!

[JDavis]

I originally kept going back and forth between wanting to do full retail (to recreate the original boxes) or vertical (because it looks better on the cases)...

... For my first "solution" I decided to go completely original, with an exceptionally minimalist look, inspired by the Japanese box art for Studio Ghibli's films on Blu-ray.



... But I soon realized that while that looked great for games that I could create iconic silhouettes for, it would fall flat once I started making covers for things like S.F. Rush or Blades of Steel.

My second solution was actually to take uniformity to the next level: I shouldn't just make my cartridge cases match each other, I should make them match my disc cases as well. That began my "Neo Retail" project (which I'm seriously thinking about renaming).



I've only completed one cover so far (second one's about half done), and it's going to slow process since I'm really customizing each one, but I think it'll be worth the effort in the end.

Early example pic showing multiple options for NES and how the cases will all line up:

[larryinc64]

I use Retail Horizontal front and back, with custom spines and some have inlays.

I like to have it the way the original boxed looked, but with custom spines so it looks good on my shelf.

I may make all my Genesis games Red spines.

[pumanchero]

I don't like vertical covers for SNES games but I admit that retail spines don't help on the uniformity subject, so I use this style of spines:

[zakurowrath]

Well since the N64 was my main system growing up I love the look of the horizontal retail boxes. Ask for the SNES and NES, I actually like the fusion style that isn't too popular but it gives the NES a uniform look I like.

[madrocsz]

i started with snes retail but eventually went vertical, just makes things much more uniform in my opinion. As far as 64 they are retail and would prefer to go vertical but last i checked would be a bunch of games without verticals made yet