Stone Age Gamer's NES BitBoxes

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wiggy:
^^^ the bit cases are NES-only I believe.

@Stoneage - Will most definitely check em out in a couple of weeks! (And buy some)

I 1000% support something made in the US, not to mention a fellow retro game vendor. If the bit-cases are nice, then you'll have no probs selling thousands to the folks here (including myself) alone. I know I'm already sick of cutting up UGCs :/

StoneAgeGamer:

--- Quote from: Dravenae on June 06, 2013, 07:54:07 AM ---When looking for a replacement for UGC, I have four questions that if any answers are no to, then I'm just not interested.

1) Are they cheaper than UGC?
2) Are they more available in Europe than UGC?
3) Are they truly universal without modification?
4) Are they as or more durable than UGC?

If any of the answers to those questions are no, in particular question 1 and 2, then I'm just not interested.

Another question that could be a make or break is, what are the cover dimensions for the new case. In comparison to the other four questions, this question is pretty trivial, but if the cover dimensions aren't as close to 3366px x 2100px as possible, again I'm not interested. I don't really want to have to go through editing my templates after I just made them.

Just my two cents as a consumer.

--- End quote ---

They are probably are not the product for you. These are not Universal. They are NES cases. They are not even close to as cheap as the UGC and any injection molded type of case. This process is quite a bit more expensive per unit to make. IMO having dealt with thousands of UGC for a few years now with EverDrives, I find them to be pretty terrible overall. They are for sure a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing. That being said they do have the advantage of being super cheap and somewhat universal.

Again, these were originally just going to be for our EverDrive-N8 (NES) Deluxe Edition, but we figured since we are getting them made might as well just sell them as a separate product as well. Maybe they won't sell well. I do not know, if they sell well enough next time we will order way more to get price down more. We would also consider doing other systems as well.

As for cover art. The dimensions are not exactly the same as the UGC. We wanted them to be, but due to the process of these type of cases and the size of the NES cart it just was not possible. However, we created a tutorial showing how you can easily adapt UGC cover art for these cases here: http://www.stoneagegamer.com/tutorial-printing-bitbox-cover-art.html
Personally the few that I have done so far look really good IMO.

These cases are not for everyone. However I think some of the people who posted here are misguided in the idea that these are somewhat low quality or will break easy. The first thing I did when I received the prototypes was try to break them. Dropping them from a normal height doesn't really affect them. I have spiked them into the floor like a football with really not damage besides some slightly bent corners that were easily bent back. Tossed them across the room like a basketball without really any damage. I even tried dropping them with a game inside to see if the case would pop open spilling the game. To my surprise they did not come open with a game inside when dropping them from a normal height. Sure, like anything if you step on them or do anything crazy it will most likely break or crush the case.

We wanted to keep these made in the U.S.A., which did add a bit on to the price. I know this doesn't matter to most people, but it does matter to us. We are looking to design and manufacture more products in the future (not just cases) and we want to keep as much of the production in the U.S.A. as possible. These cases are kind of us getting our toes wet. Whether they are your cup of tea or not, I am sure you guys at least appreciate there being more options available. I am actually in the market for a our own injection molding machine and CNC machine. SAG is not the only company I own. It actually started as a more "for fun" side thing, but in the last 3 years or so has blown up to the point where we will soon be looking to hire more people. I also own another company that does software and service for industrial machines and automation so I do have a lot of connections to companies who buy and sell this type of equipment. I would like to keep as much as I can in-house in the future.

StoneAgeGamer:

--- Quote from: wiggy on June 06, 2013, 07:56:18 AM ---^^^ the bit cases are NES-only I believe.

@Stoneage - Will most definitely check em out in a couple of weeks! (And buy some)

I 1000% support something made in the US, not to mention a fellow retro game vendor. If the bit-cases are nice, then you'll have no probs selling thousands to the folks here (including myself) alone. I know I'm already sick of cutting up UGCs :/

--- End quote ---

I look forward to meeting you. I too am tired of the UGC. Its nice to see a few people like Seymour making some alternatives.

wiggy:

--- Quote from: StoneAgeGamer on June 06, 2013, 10:12:37 AM ---
--- Quote from: wiggy on June 06, 2013, 07:56:18 AM ---^^^ the bit cases are NES-only I believe.

@Stoneage - Will most definitely check em out in a couple of weeks! (And buy some)

I 1000% support something made in the US, not to mention a fellow retro game vendor. If the bit-cases are nice, then you'll have no probs selling thousands to the folks here (including myself) alone. I know I'm already sick of cutting up UGCs :/

--- End quote ---

I look forward to meeting you. I too am tired of the UGC. Its nice to see a few people like Seymour making some alternatives.

--- End quote ---

As do I!

I listened to a podcast interview with you. My beginnings seem to mirror yours pretty closely. You started with the flash carts and I with the GBA backlight kits, both sourced from overseas, both products sorta boutique, and both tricky to obtain (I think you mentioned western union as the payment option for the flash carts? Ick.). I would really like to speak with you at some point about your biz and how you dealt and are dealing with the growth. I never expected for this stuff that I do to become a full-time job for me, but it has, and rather quickly. I've also started outsourcing and may have just hired my first employee as of last night :)

Also, I should mention that my thoughts/concerns with the vac-formed parts had/have absolutely nothing to do with your product specifically. It's just been my experience having worked in used game/music/movie retail for a number of years coupled with my post-college work (industrial designer) that have somewhat put me off of vac-forming as anything but a prototyping process. It's an especially crippling process for us designers, since, as you probably know, the forms one can create are stifled by the process. Nice to hear that you've been putting them through some serious endurance tests ;)

I think many, if not most of us would agree that the UGC is far from a perfect product. Of course it was never intended for us collectors, but the fact remains that they do the job, and that's about it. There's nothing to be excited about with them.

I feel strongly that made in the US is important to a lot of folks here and elsewhere (though a LOT of the members here reside outside the US, which probably makes them largely indifferent). In an age where most everything is outsourced to overseas manufacturers, and where domestic jobs are drying up, I think people will really appreciate the effort to stay domestic. I will GLADLY pay more for a domestically-made product and applaud the effort!

Polygon:

--- Quote from: Azarkhel on April 19, 2013, 08:11:34 PM ---Really hoping those arnt vacuum formed.

--- End quote ---

This is what they look like to me. Those cheap vacuum formed VHS cases that Disney movies used to come in. They're flimsy, they're cheap looking, and our covers wouldn't fit. Personally, I'm not interested in the least. However, If I'm wrong about them being vacuum formed and they don't look cheap I can see them being viable. Still, they wouldn't fit our covers which would be a dealbreaker for me. I wish him the best of luck.

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