NES Black Box Games for BitBox Cases

[MasterJSP]

I recently completed my loose collection of black label NES games and now I'd like to put them all in BitBoxes. Even though we already have UGC covers on the site for everything except Wild Gunman and resizing for BitBox isn't that big a deal, the inconsistency of the spines bugs me a little bit.

This thread is an attempt to make (or remake) black box covers with more uniform spines. I made spines for all 30 games with the BitBox dimensions (300px by 2180px) at 300dpi. Unfortunately, making whole covers myself is a little beyond me (I don't have Photoshop or anything like it). Regardless of which style is truer to the original boxes, I prefer italicized titles as they're more aesthetically pleasing to me. I can make non-italicized spines as well if anyone would prefer them that way.

I currently have all the spine images saved in PNG format. If there's an issue with that, I can covert them to JPEG. I just want to double check before I upload anything to Raw Scans.

Below are the spines I made all lined up. I hope you guys are interested!

[kingjohn3]

These look awesome. Would love to see them as retail also. Ive always thought that a small logo of the publisher of the game (capcom, konami, etc) would look good at the top with red & white nintendo oval like you have it here at the bottom. Im with you on the italicized title. I think larryinc64 made one almost exactly like im talking about for snes awhile back. Not a huge fan of the oversized logo, i just think it clashes with whatever color the spine is except maybe for black. Just prefer retail i guess

[shenske]

I retooled each cover and specifically spine for each BitBox cover StoneAgeGamer has on their site. I did the same things you did above that way everything lines up nicely

EDIT: This si the only preview i have available at the moment but i did the same for the black spines too

[MasterJSP]

Thanks for the reply, Shenske.

Here's a preview of the black box games currently uploaded on The Cover Project (and a fill-in for Wild Gunman).



It's great that you've adjusted these for the BitBox cases, but I'm looking for a little bit more than that. Some of the titles are italicized and some aren't, some of the colors are brighter/duller, the Nintendo logos are in different sizes/positions. I'd like all the covers (the spines especially) to be held to the same standard. If you or anyone else are willing to incorporate the spines I made to the covers we already have or remake any/all of the black box covers entirely (IMHO the Gumshoe cover is the only one that ought to be remade from scratch), you're welcome to them. Is PNG an acceptable format? If so, I can upload them to Raw Scans right away for anyone to use.

[Oobgarm]

Had these spines done before for another project, I just adjusted them to fit the bitbox style (with gutters on the sides for the bends).

All of the titles are either the same size or smaller while still retaining their original font styles, and all of them line up from the same point to create uniformity. I made them as close as I could color-wise. Hopefully someone is able to make use of them. I know they're not exactly what you're looking for, but they should provide someone with a good base to go from.

Each is directly downloadable from the image shown.

[MasterJSP]

Sounds like you guys are already on top of this stuff! Thanks for sharing, Oobgarm. I love your spines.

I humbly ask a cover guru to make full covers with these spines and upload them to Stone Age Gamer's database. The mental image of my black label collection in BitBox cases is giving me goosebumps!

[kingjohn3]

I prefer the full spine look. Bright, popping colors and very little space unused. I wish UGC covers looked like that except minus the big logo and just use the smaller one at the bottom. OR small logo left to right across the top with sprite art at the bottom. That's not retail but its close enough for me

[MasterJSP]

Hey again.

After actually previewing the covers available for StoneAgeGamer to print, shenske did a great job with converting the everything for BitBox use. Unfortunately, of the 30 black box games on the site, only one is has an italicized spine and the rest don't. I'd really like to be able to order sprints for italicized spine covers since not only is it how they are on the original box art, it also looks nicer IMO.

I remade the italicized spines for all 30 games to better match what shenske did. I'll even make a non-italicized spine for the one game on that doesn't have it (Stack-Up) for anyone who would prefer to have their printed covers that way. If anyone is willing to take my spines and work them into the existing cover art on SAG, that would be awesome.

[DekaPrime]

`Snip

Just to make sure, that means for instance if I want the Megaman collection covers that have the spine art line up to form the logo or Palmer6strings amazing Final Fantasy art that combines into one image I shouldn't have a problem on the bitboxes, correct?
I just ordered 10 of them the other day, nothing with a spine collection but soon I want to start getting more