How do you store your loose handheld games?
I'm wanting to organize my loose handheld cartridge games better for easier access. I currently store them games in a drawer. I'm considering organizing them better in a binder with sleeves to hold each game individually. Something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/StoreSMART-9-Pocket-Cartridges-10-Pack-SPT1823F-10/dp/B01N4TJ04R
If you have any pics or examples of different ways to store loose handheld games that would be great.
https://www.amazon.com/StoreSMART-9-Pocket-Cartridges-10-Pack-SPT1823F-10/dp/B01N4TJ04R
If you have any pics or examples of different ways to store loose handheld games that would be great.
Comments
But you as a kid I had a binder for came boy games, like Pokemon cards.
Currently, my (several hundred) loose Game Boy Games are sitting in 8 or 9 identical boxes that are 3 carts wide. They fit about 72 carts comfortably, any more than that and it gets hard to rifle through them to find the game I want. They're cardboard boxes that I gleeped from the IT dept at work, they originally housed some sort of Jabra headset. It's pretty low-class, but they really are exactly 3 carts wide and they've been working well enough. I'd love to move to something better. Ideally, something very similar to what NintendoTwizer did: https://imgur.com/a/qr2Qp
For some reason I've never really taken to the baseball-card binder idea. it just seems kinda sloppy since the games slide around in the slot. And I'd need a LOT of binders to hold my carts.
I like the gray (and black) GB games because they're flat on both sides. They stack well against each other. Clear GBC games, GBA games, Lynx games, NGPC games, and Game Gear games (you can kinda make it work) don't stack well because they're not flat. I guess you can store GG and GBC games in their respective plastic cases, but Nintendo never made anything like that for GBA, so you have to use 3rd party ones. Lynx games don't have anything like that, even aftermarket (that I've seen). So even though I'd love those wooden shelves, I can only store GB, black GBC, and GG games like that unless I want to constantly fight with them and keep them lined up. Maybe something sitting on the inside of the shelf to keep the carts aligned? It makes the binder idea look much better, since the shape of the cart doesn't matter. Until I find something I really like though, I'm just going to keep stealing Jabra boxes from IT.
I use a binder to store all my games with baseball card protectors to hold them in. Not sure if its the band i bought but sometimes if i go to pick up the binder the game in the top right corner (row 1 slot 3) the cartridge will fall out of its holder. They seem to out of the 9 on one page one of the slots will be much looser then the others. Hopefully the flap on the protectors yo showed off actually work.
This is genius.
I'm going to bookmark this for future reference.
http://vintage.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=123887
I do have the issue with the games on the top row sometimes falling out. And reordering games when I get new ones is a huge pain that I tend to put off for a long time. Other than that, I dig the binders and the ability to flip through them and see the art easily.
Now I just have a drawer with everything and 3D printed alphabetic spacers so I can find things easily. I agree that Game Boy carts aren't really worth displaying (compared to almost anything else) and like the 4 that are can just sit in a little stand on a real shelf.
Or custom DS-like cases
Think I have a pic from years ago buried somewhere.
edit: Not the best but you get the gist of it.
You basically shrink the original box art and print it onto sturdy paper, maybe photo paper, and when it's folded it's just big enough to fit the cart into it. Then they don't take up a lot of space, you can see the game title from the top/side, and they're protected from dust. But it's a ton of work per game.
I keep my 450+ GB carts in a large, but flat, Amazon.com box. Amazon boxes are codes so tomorrow I'll have to check which size it is, but I cut strips of cardboard to make rows and so far I been able to fit all of my carts in one box, though Inknow by the end of my collecting I'll need a bigger box. Anyway, the box is about half an inch taller than a cart, and Amazon has about 3-4 boxes that height, so you can probably find one that's right for any collection. If I didn't have this solution, I'd probably dump the many baseball cards I have and just use those boxes, but IMHO there's just to much wasted space with those, or you have to pack some in sideways which just feels unorganized to me. Regarding Game Gear games, I only have about 30 (but growing) but they have to be neatly aligned in stacks or rows. So, yeah, keeping OG Game Gear cases on hand is a must.
Here are the boxes I have from Amazon that I've used in the past. The inside of the box is about 3.5" tall. The box type is a P8 B72 for the big one. I put 56 games in one row but you can probably get 58 in there snug. That's 504-522 games per box. Of course, these boxes from Amazon are actually kind of rare. I'm not sure what we bought to get this, but the smaller ones that are about 3.75" tall are pretty common. If you only have 50-100 games, then those are easy to come by.
https://www.customgamecases.com/
And here's my Gameboy color set I'm working through:
https://www.amazon.com/mDesign-Countertop-Organizer-Sweeteners-Creamers/dp/B077ZDV4ZX/ref=sr_1_11_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1550019195&sr=8-11-spons&keywords=tea+bag+organizer+plastic&psc=1
I have some pull out drawers I keep my games rowed into from A-Z first with the gray carts for GB, then a mix of the black and transparent black GBC stuff after it as it's easier to find that way because I have probably like a 100 games or something as I don't really keep count. For systems with far less stuff like the NGPC I keep the games in the snap cases in one of those cheap Target(probably) brand plastic bin trays usually meant for kitchens or bathrooms as it holds it all very well and it's practical when you have under 20 of the things. When it comes to the DS/3DS family I only buy complete so they basically fit standing or lying down on a shelf like any other CD jewel case style type item.
The only one I'm having issue with so far is Virtual Boy. They don't stand well, they don't lay flat exactly well either. I've seen solutions online, and I may go that route which would put them into modified cut out DS cases and printing off some box art for the fold over of the case. Sure it would take up more room but headache resolved.
I forgot I did find one strangely practical thing to do for real space savings. PC Engine HuCards that are all alone, clear plastic baseball card cases. One that should hold around 100 cards I think will probably hold about 20 HuCards. They fit almost perfectly vertically but have a bit of room horizontally so you can get a finger tip in there or just tilt them so the just slide out.
I've been debating recently how I feel about doing cassette cases. I've seen them in other peoples collections and they're ok looking...I always thought DS cases looked better but...with cassette cases you don't have to cut parts off.
Game Gear is so unloved lol...I just toss them in two black Tupperware brand index card holders. Found them both at a thrift store so no idea if they still sell them but they looked new. They fit in those pretty well.