Masters of the Universal Game Cases

Remember in my last post when I mentioned how cool the custom artwork on the universal game case looked when I received my Bonk's Adventure cart in the mail?  Sure you do...you think about it every night as you go to sleep...tossing...turning...

Well anyway, I took the bait and bought a case of cases (as well as a couple of new printer ink cartridges) and got to work making some of my own.  When I say a case of cases, I mean that literally.  They only come in boxes of 100 - so I've got quite a few sitting in my living room at the moment.  Interestingly enough, they are called 'universal' in that they hold all kinds of discs and cartridges, EXCEPT for original NES.  I had to take a box cutter and pair of pliers to each one in order to knock out the little tabs standing in my way...

As for the artwork...there is a GREAT website that offers up customized lables for almost every system:   www.thecoverproject.net - I recommend scanning through their forums to see pictures of some great customized case collections.

The cases look really great all put next to one another.  I'm a sucker for the sleek, uniform look of all the cases.  NES boxes are all over the map in their design and color and quite frankly, they look a mess on the shelf.  Not to mention that many boxes didn't survive the more than 2 decades since they were printed, having since long disintegrated in landfills across America.  Boxed game collectors are having to bend over and open up their wallets to finish off their sets.  This is a nice looking, cheap alternative.

So this is what I've got so far.  I'll add some more eventually - these labels will kill an ink cartridge really fast, especially on my crummy printer, so I'm being selective in what I make a label for.  Right now I've got some of my more valuable games and some of my favorites, as well as a really awesome custom MegaMan set.

#743 - Bonk's Adventure

Game #743
Bonk's Adventure
NA
6/12/12

It was nice to find a response to my 'want to buy' thread on NintendoAge from yet ANOTHER Canadian (jeez, how many of them are out there?) with an offer to purchase a very nice condition Bonk's Adventure cart.  Dude gave me a very fair deal and even shipped the custom hard case along with the game.

I really like this case.  It's a universal game case with a couple of notches cut out to fit NES carts and a nicely printed custom label.  These look really neat, especially all together on a shelf - if it wouldn't cost literally hundreds of dollars and take up WAY too much space, I would consider housing all of my NES carts in such awesome plastic.

Bonk's Adventure is, of course, a port of the TurboGrafx-16 game.  In fact, Bonk was a mascot of the TG-16, so it's still a little strange to see the character on a Nintendo cartridge.  I guess nowadays that's not so big a deal, what with Sonic and Mario playing at the Olympics together every couple of years.

Now the collection stands at 743 NES games, 673 of them are officially licensed.  There are a total of 677 licensed carts - which means I have only 4 left to find.  It's exciting to be this close to finishing up the licensed set, but looking ahead at the price tags and lack of availability on what's left is certainly daunting.  Hopefully with a little patience and a lot of luck, I'll be able to mow down at least 3 of them this year.  In the interim I'll be adding more varied content to this blog - starting with a new link on the right side of the page.  Enjoy "Game Over" another collector blog from a fellow NA member.