Moved to a new web site! More Info!

I started this little free blog to see if there would be any interest in finding out about our games.  We now have almost 200+ people visiting the site per week, so we've invested our time in a new web site so check it out:  http://blog.gamecaseworld.com  
True, I like the interface here at Blogspot better and it's easier to toss images up on, but we needed a  more robust platform to post pages and additional information. 

Some of the new items I have posted:

• Photos of the Sega cases (and the cases page)
  Photo of manual in cases (still working on more of those)
• More about having custom graphic design commissioned (for a reasonable price I might add).
• Contact information including address, phone number and even Google Chat
• More photos of EVERYTHING (whew that's a lot of work)
• What kind of paper we use and printing process etc. etc.! 

As of writing this, Christmas 2011, we are working on:
Adding a bunch of N64 and  a page about them
Adding more SNES to the web site (70+)
Offering blank cases for sell in the amount of 10 per box

A lot of the content comes from people like you sending us inquiries and asking really good questions that prompt me to build a page full of photos about it. 

So whether it's Christmas where you are or mid summer when you read this...please check us out at http://blog.gamecaseworld.com

Virtual Boy, and our Virtual Boy Game Cases

This last summer we had the good fortune of picking up a Virtual Boy and some games at a sale.  Here is a summary of what a Virtual Boy is...

Virtual Boy was a video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo and released in 1995 for $180.00 in the US. It was the first video game console that was supposed to be capable of displaying "true 3D graphics" out of the box.  Only 14 games were ever released for the North American market.  The Virtual Boy, despite price drops was considered a failure.  The 3D graphics were impressive but monochromatic. Nintendo was working on the N64 at the time of the Virtual Boy's release. 
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy

Screen shot of Mario's Tennis from Virtual Boy

 The Virtual Boy was infamous for what could be an urban legend - that it caused migraines, nausea and even, some have claimed, permanent injury.  Although I couldn't find confirmation whether this was true or not (although I've been personally told that after about five minutes a rather nasty headache ensues...) I found this quote that would logically support the idea this might not be the best head set to wear....

Nausea can and will occur in people using VR headsets because the information received from the eyes doesn't match the information received from the balancing organs in the ears. Balance is kept using both optical and gnostic information. -- source

 We have 14 covers for the original Virtual Boy Games in our shop.  They are basically Nintendo GBA cases but the clips hold the slender games.  They also line up nicely along other Nintendo games like the GBA, GBA Color etc.

Free Shipping Day is Here! And Save an Additional 10%

Freeshipping.Org

December 16th is Free Shipping Day, and we have free shipping at both our web store, GameCaseWorld.Com and our eBay Store.   Freeshipping.Org has put together thousands of businesses that guarantee your package will arrive by xmas and have free shipping.  Online shopping is the best way in the universe to beat those crappy crowds at the mall. 

This Christmas I've ordered 8 NES Catridges from eBay as presents and will be needing nice cases for them.  Game Case World is great for packaging carts for the serious gamer and it's not too late to order or to save 10% on our web site.  Just enter the coupon code  MRSPOCK to save 10% on your entire order + free shipping.  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us here at Game Case World.

Final Fantasy III for the NES in English - the game case

I wanted to show you a super cool game case cover we just finished up for a repro cart, Final Fantasy III for the NES on GameCaseWorld.Com.  This reproduction is in English and the original Final Fantasy III was only released in Japan hence Japanese.  It is also hard to put on a cartridge so reproductions can be hard to find. This is a cart we don't have in our collection - but wish we did! 

A collector contacted us and wanted to know if we could take the one of the usual Japanese covers that are out there and make an English version to match the English Final Fantasy III repro cart.  After a few questions he let us know he wasn't overly picky about the design of the case, as far as it matching the sticker on his cart.  We try to make sure that the cartridges and the cases match. 

I started with one of the Japanese covers that exist on the net. 

Japanese (Fan Made) Final Fantasy III Cover

So there are a few items on this cover that need to be changed and added in order to make it a proper English translation cover.  First it isn't in the regular NES template.  The back description is in Japanese.  Below is the finished English translation copy for Final Fantasy III.  Similar to the Japanese format we found, but of course in English and stylistic features added and re-arranged. 
 

English Language Version Final Fantasy III Cover Reboot

This prints up nicely and we used the actual gem icons from the game for bullet points and recreated the verbiage that is iconic to the early 90's gaming scene. It is not a direct translation, which we could not locate.  I darkened the front figure slightly and when printed there is a nice contrast between the FFIII logo and the image in the background.

Luckily the original Japanese language case was very simplistic which allowed me to move around the logo and play with the case far easier then my typical 'start over from scratch' method.

Photo of Finished Case

 This isn't our first reproduction cartridge game case, but definitely my favorite. 

Save 10% With Coupon Code + Free Shipping Day is the 16th! + NES Prices Lower!

Game Case World is now featured on the huge and ever growing December 16th web site Free Shipping Day.Com  Our listing is beside hundreds of great big brand stores and shops so we are very excited to have this exposure.

Additionally we wanted to help send some traffic to our main web site, GameCaseWorld.Com where we have a thousand more titles then our eBay shop.  Tons of people have already tried out Game Case World's web site and found the same top of the line service and products.  It's actually easier for us to send out products from our own web site then going through eBay.  So to help convince you....we're offering 10% off every order on every item in our web site store with the following coupon code.  MRSPOCK

Save .99 cents off of SNES
.79 cents off of all PS1 games   etc.

Save .99 on Earthbound when ordered from GameCaseWorld.Com

We dropped the price of NES from $14.99 to $10.99!

You get the math!  Save on every single game you purchase AND free shipping! 

We're taking advantage of some holiday down time to case up some loose cartridges ourselves. NES game cases are now online for sale and have been doing great.  With the influx of so many sales we were able to lower the price a full FOUR dollars. The feedback and love for these modded cases is fantastic.  We're so happy to offer them for the first time ever. 

Almost too much news for one blog post!

Our link on Free Shipping Day's Web Site

NES Titles Are Here!

First of all I would like to invite everyone to check out my page on how NES cases are made from modified SNES cases.  We didn't know if we could ever offer NES cases for sale online because of the time and complexity involved in creating the modified cases, but we've decided to give it a shot - so these cases may or may not be around forever (hint: would be a good time to order.)

And definitely check out the superb collection of 456 NES covers from our store GameCaseWorld.Com. Chances are - you will find what you are looking for, and if not e-mail us and we can probably create it or find it.   In addition this week I added a page to the blog about our SNES cases so be sure to check that out! :)

It's been a year in coming and a lot of work, but the NES project is finally here.  I hope you all like them.  

Screen shot from GameCaseWorld.com

Cheers Everyone! -Paula

SNES and NES!! Countdown to Christmas

Merry Christmas to us, our stock of SNES game cases increased by 700%  :)  Good Time. We've been busy!! We have added many new cases to our eBay offerings and will be adding many NES titles to our website Gamecaseworld.com . 

We have already put on sale many titles at eBay with more to come as we liquidate stock from the Retro Convention.

(He's guarding an Elder Scroll.) 

Fixes You Won't Notice but We Do Anyway.

Sometimes our edits to game cases are pretty small. This is an existing cover scan but the back of the case has a spelling error.*  SNES games Megaman X, X2, X3 were riddled with spelling and authentic text errors on the back of the case. So although some of our work isn't readily apparent on existing cover scans the color correction, spelling, and fixing the scans is all there.  Our covers look great because of the devotion that goes into them. 

*Thanks to Richard for catching this error.  Thanks to Jason who typically proof reads.  No thanks to myself because I'm dyslexic! :) 

NES Game Cases Added to eBay Store: Limited

At long last we are offering up two bundles of NES cartridge cases.  Legend of Zelda with Adventures of Link and a bundle of Mario, 1,2,3.  

eBay Links - good as of 11/2011

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320797745287&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320797741117&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

The 25th anniversary of Zelda just past (may we all celebrate that sacred holiday) and we wanted to release a set of NES to commemorate it along with some original art work (that is underway.)  We already had the Super Mario created.

So what was the hold up?

NES cases can't be ordered, they're not pre-made and they're impossible to just buy.  They're modified from our existing game cases.  Down in my basement work room I have a wide variety of tools and a secret method for modifying the cases to safely house a NES cartridge.  Loads can go wrong while modifying a game case and cutting through the plastic, horribly scratching the front or even burning the plastic are just a few of the many perils of the DIY NES modification project.  

Even people who make their own game cases will buy NES cases from us because I have developed a fairly reliable method for case modification.  (If you're interested in modifying your own case there are several tutorials on YouTube although they do not use our method.) 

Time consuming, expensive and risky we don't make too many NES cases (most that we do make end up on our own shelves...) but I hope we will make more in the future because they're fun to work on.  The expense we have to pass along unfortunate.  

This year we are going to work on dropping our prices - but the cost of running a printer (ever bought ink cartridges anyone?) buying the heavier weight paper and not skimping on details is expensive.   We always have an exceptional secondary printer on standby encase our large professional wide format photo printer hiccups.  

Thanks for the large forums giving us linkage love this week, we have enjoyed the traffic and Google results boost. :)  There is such a wide community supporting us that it's really humbling.  

 

Christmas In Our Gaming Library

 

Happy Holidays from our Gaming Library Here at Game Case World

Spyro and Digimon Two New Exciting Bundles

Digimon World and Spyro Game Case Spines

We've had a ton of requests for both of these sets, and after working on them for three weekends  they are now completed! "Digimon 1, 2, 3" and "Spryo the Dragon, Spyro Ripto's Revenge and Spyro Year of the Dragon!"  There are a lot of reasons to love these sets.

First request by all our collectors is make the spines relate to one another so they look great on a library media shelf. Done!

Digimon and Spyro are great collectible titles that lately have become even more popular and sought after raising the price on the used market (namely eBay) and making requests for proper game cases increase.  If these are not in your library already, now is the time to purchase them before they raise in price steadily over the coming year.  We like to think of it as our 401k!

Shows the cover prior to putting
it into a hard shell case.  Note
how all the colors and design relate!

Problem with making these cases was a lack of good scanned art work and tracking down original covers.  It was NOT easy.  And sometimes what I find is the original art work was really lousy, nearly unreadable and the graphics fuzzy.  Hard to believe that some of these covers were published at all, guess it was the 90's.  The European releases of the games had different covers and backs so in some cases the American and European covers were cannibalized to make one solid piece that met our standards. Sometimes I end up with something pretty original like on Ripto's Rage having the dragon fly buzz into Spyro's ear which is entirely new.

I know you all are going to love these, the bright colors and crisp art work rocks it out.  Sure there are game covers out there in forums and so forth, but they typically have bad scans, no remastering and no trained designer going back through and making sure the cover looks as professional as if it was published today. 

As always you know we use only the best paper and archival ink so the vibrancy and detail comes through.  They use hard cases that won't go broke like the old jewel cases (of which I have none that haven't fallen apart with age). These lovely cases are now on our library shelves, a few more games cased - many more on our list to go.  I make 1-5 cases weekly and we have many more to put on our web site we just haven't had time to.  Rare RPG's coming up next!!   Please drop by our web site or eBay store to pick a set up!  Look below for links to the cases for sale!

Click Image to go to eBay Store

Click to go to eBay Store

Click Image to go to eBay Store

Click to go to eBay Store

Click to go to eBay Store

Digimon Bundle Available at eBay

Click to go to eBay Store

eBay

Please also visit us at Game Case World.com for over a thousand game case titles to choose from! Or our Store on eBay

Creating A Game Library

Library? With a Nook, Kindle or other eBook reading device your book collection that was taking up considerable space may now be in a briefcase or purse - mine is. There is still however a need for the personal library - for the game collection.

Rare and retro games increase in value over time (unlike most books) and are great conversation pieces (how many times do your friends want to browse your books as opposed to your games?) Our library started out this way, but we needed a good way to display cartridges and replace cracked and scuffed jewel cases. Our multi-media library was how Game Case World began about five years ago. In that five years we've become very good at making game cases! Our library has advanced as well into a large room onto itself complete with a wide variety of consoles. It's the jewel of the house, no matter the age, those stepping into our library have a drop jaw moment, a holy (*&*^% moment of awe. That's what a well developed gaming library can do!

Your imagination is just about the limit, from a large LCD television set with a switch so you can play any console - to even having a mini fridge! It can be a closet outfitted with shelves or part of a basement (we would love to see photos of your gaming libraries by the way.)

The chief concern with gaming libraries is bookcases. At first we made the mistake of buying regular cases for our games, but they are far too recessed to display the cases properly. IKEA and even Walmart now carry shelving specifically for shallow media.

IKEA also sells glass cases to display miniature figurines and rare games.

Don't forget at least one regular case for your gaming manuals and of course cool lighting and my favorite as an artist -- one of a kind hand painted illustrations of great 1990's retro rpg gaming art (rpgart.net).

Choosing a good looking theme for the room doesn't have to be hard. For our library we chose to go "retro" 90's that matched our cases. Bright colors, strong geometric shapes, framed gaming artwork, mismatched comfortable chairs and a nice rug. Most of these were available used and we picked most up at Goodwill, a second hand store popular here in Oregon.

Most of the game cases we sell are for serious collectors who need archival quality cases to protect their investment. It's nice to show off those well loved games in a manner they deserve.

As a side note we also have an extensive Lego collection in drawers in our library. (I kinda think in our personal nerdom Legos and gaming go well together!)

I hope this has given you some ideas about making your own library whether large or small. Some of the shelving units start as low as $30.00 -- have fun!

What do the Spines Look Like?

We've had a lot of questions about what the spines of our cases look like when they're placed in a shelf.  I took a photo and thought I would share it here.

To view the full size image Click Here

(Page 2) Custom Designed Game Cases

 Not to many to post today, I've been trying to catch up posting the ones I do online in the gallery.

Getting more work. We had no supplies coming in for awhile and production halted except for PS1 game covers. Here are my favorites, click on the thumbnail to open a larger image.



I'm not sure if we have any of these up for sale yet. I think maybe on our eBay...
eBay Brigandine PS1 Game Case $
eBay Koudelka PS1 Game Case $
eBay Tron Bonne PS1 Game Case $

(Page 1) Custom Designed Game Cases

Greetings
I'm Paula designer for Game Case World.  This is the first page, of many to follow, of game case covers I have worked on.  Color, contrast and action game cases are a unique art style unto themselves that are under appreciated.  I hope you like seeing some of our projects.

 
Dragon Ball Z
I drew out the logo with the pen tool, even the star so it would be a super sharp vector graphic. I also drew in part of the bad guy, because over half of this cover I had to make up, that's a lot of blank space!

$ Purchase Dragon Ball Z Super Saiya Densetsu Game Case
I had to add in texture to make this cover look proper. The outfit and hair I added a vector layer so that it would pop when printed. The balls he's holding I made '3D' and added back in the text....on to the next...

YS

I had to make up a LOT on this cover but really had fun with it. I made it too large, so at the end of the day - a lot was cropped out. Here is my too large copy...

 The YS is vector (scalable art work to print top quality) and there is a lot of brush effects used and feathers added. I left a tangeant at the top - I can hear my design teachers in my head. But really -- how to resolve it!! lol...okay moving on...

$ Purchase the new YS Mask of the Sun IV SNES Game Case
This is an old Japanese broadcast title where Excitebike stars some familiar faces. The original coverscreen this is based on was so pixelated I couldn't make out parts of mario or tell what was going on with his bike. I used a Photoshop layer to trace all the outlines of Mario. I then put a layer underneath and colored him. Finally I merged a copy of the layers and added noise. The clouds and most of the image is vector - except for the background players which, when printed out, are fine at their original resolution.
Excitebike

$ Purchase Excitebike BS (Japanese Broadcast Game) Game Case
Resolution? Print quality, pixels per inch. Most graphics you might google are at 72dpi but to print properly they need to be between 150-300dpi. The Cover Project does provide 300dpi images -- but then one has to contend with - is it a good scan? Usually they are, but the Cover Project doesn't have everything and I'm working on a cover version to submit to the Cover Project.
I guess this may be a good spot to point out that not all ink is equal nor all printers. The printer used at GameCaseWorld is three foot or so wide and is used to print photographs. Super high resolution - oh, and it talks to me.

Oh No More Zombies and Heracles III
Here is a font that was originally hand drawn. I had to hand draw most of the OH NO! MORE part, match up the gradient and make the MORE stand out. This was my first job for Game Case World.

$Purchase Oh No! More Zombies Ate My Neighbors SNES Game Case
On Heracles it was fairly simple to add the III to the image, but the gradient and glow had to be matched, and for the logo to be added to the side and back it had to be seemlessly removed.

Full sized image
$Purchase Glory of Heracles III SNES Game Case

Zeldas

Here are the Zelda covers I made. I started out too complex and had to redo the first couple of tries. This was the first entire cover I had to create.
Here I traced out the font, traced the sword, added a stone effect, created the chisel and reflection.

Zelda BS No Denetsu Case Cover....click for larger images...


$ Purchase BS Zelda Map 1
No Denetsu Map II

$ Purchase BS Zelda Map 2
Star Fox Super Weekend Game Case

I created an entire realistic planet but at the end of the day it's pretty obscured by the logo but everything is a learning experience. (Green lines through the image are from making a screen shot in Photoshop - they are guidelines so I can measure that the text is even.)

$ Purchase this SNES Super Star Fox Weekend Game Case