New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Discuss Your Gaming Environments and AV Setups
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Westane
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New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by Westane »

Welcome to my game room, affectionately referred to as "the living room". One day I'll have my own space, but until then I thought I'd show off my collection and setup as it stands now...

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To the left is my current shelving setup...

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All cartridge games are in universal game cases with printed inserts, several of which are custom.

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The PS1 games have all had their jewel cases stored away and have been placed in much more durable DVD cases. This also makes browsing PS1 games much easier. I was never able to read the spines on the original cases. I need to fix the spine on the Suikoden case, but I'm particularly fond of the Final Fantasy collection, and the Tomb Raider collection, even though I kind of hate the games!

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The SNES games are all in custom cases, and some of the games have custom labels. I opted to get reproductions of my FF games, as now I can have FF4 at its proper difficulty and better translation, a SNES version of FF5, and the uncensored and better translated version of FF6.

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Super Metroid and Mega Man X are both SFC versions that I placed in NTSC shells with the custom labels. My SNES is modded to play SFC carts, but I wanted the custom shells :)

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The Genesis cases are all completely custom, as my OCD simply would not allow the mismatched stock cases! I still go back and forth, as they take a lot of time to make and I hate wasting the original clamshells... I may revisit them in the future once I start collecting for the Genesis in a month or so.

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GBA/GBC/GB games are all stored in custom DS sized cases fitted to hold all three cartridge sizes. Inserts are original box art when available.

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The consoles...

1-Chip SNES and Model 2 Genesis. I prefer the Model 2 because I don't want to have to deal with a wonky cable just to get stereo sound. I have a Model 1 in the garage if I feel so inclined. Also, space is a premium.

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Super Slim PS2 on top, then an N64, then the RGB modded NES.

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Wii U with GC adapter up top, then Super Slim PS3, then an OG Xbox. The Xbox wont be long for this setup, as my brother just donated me his 360. If the backwards compatibility works well enough, it will replace it.

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The Gamecube with GBA Player, and the Dreamcast...

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Finally, the Xbox One.

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More importantly, below that you'll see my Hama SCART switch on the left for the SNES, Genesis and NES, and to the right is my XRGB Framemeister, which is what allows me to hook everything up to my 50" HDTV without any input latency and with a crystal clear picture.

Proof!

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And that's it for now. I'd like to get some decorations going on the walls and eventually I'll be adding more shelves. I already have a growing stack of games that need plastic homes...
Last edited by Westane on Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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flojocabron
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Re: New Gaming Area - Work in Progress

Post by flojocabron »

custom cases!

SO PURTY!
2600 and jr,5200,nes/top loader, master system, intellivision, TG-16, genesis 1,2,3, SNES, snesJR, CDX, 3DOfz10, gamegear, gameboy and pocket, GBC, sega saturn, PSOne w/screen, Virtual Boy, N64, NGPC, Gameboy Advance sp, Dreamcast, Black Dreamcast, oXBOX, Playstation 2, PStwo, Gamecube, gameboy player, DS lite,DSi XL, PSP1000/3000,Wii,PS3 120gb,3DSXL, xbox 360, PSvita, PS4
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Hobie-wan
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Re: New Gaming Area - Work in Progress

Post by Hobie-wan »

Whee custom case madness!
alienjesus
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by alienjesus »

I'm thinking of getting custom cases for all of my GBA games too - what quality and size of paper do you use for printing labels? I can't imagine standard paper looking that great, and I wonder if standard paper size is big enough for an unfolded DS label.
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Westane
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by Westane »

alienjesus wrote:I'm thinking of getting custom cases for all of my GBA games too - what quality and size of paper do you use for printing labels? I can't imagine standard paper looking that great, and I wonder if standard paper size is big enough for an unfolded DS label.


Hey thanks!

So yeah, the secret is always in the paper, and I'll tend to use different paper for different cases. For example, the Genesis cases are printed on regular copy paper so as to get that slightly more faded blue tone, where as the bolder and darker SNES cases are printed on heavier paper.

Either way you want to get Legal Size, 8.5" x 14" paper. I believe that's A4 universally.

For heavy paper I use 50lb double sided matte
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/50lb-premium-matte-double-sided.html

For DVD and DS cases I use a lighter paper, as it handles in the cases better. Specifically, 32lb Premium Gloss paper.
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/32lb-premium-gloss.html

You actually don't need glossy paper at all, and should be able to save money going with matte from another website. I just prefer ordering my paper from Red River.

For DS cases you have two good options outside of tracking down official cases with the GBA insert. The first is the cheap route:

http://www.genesysdtp.com/nintendodsblk1d14mm.htm

Those cases are super cheap but definitely on the flimsy side. You'll want to order more than you need as breaking them is an actual possibility. Also, they need to be modded. See that plastic strip on the upper left side of the case? That has to go. This is easy. I take a pair of need-nose pliers and twist out a gap of the strip on either end, then press down and snap the whole thing out. GenesysDTP is also where I get replacement cases for all my DVD games. They're pretty great.

Your other option is more expensive, but worth it.

http://www.customgamecases.com/#!blank-gb-cases/ckqy

Again, much more expensive but the quality justifies it. These things are STURDY and all set to hold GB/GBC and GBA games. A 50 pack runs almost a hundred shipped, but I love them.

Hope this helps! I was thinking about making some guides for this sort of thing if the interest is there.
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alienjesus
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by alienjesus »

Westane wrote:
alienjesus wrote:I'm thinking of getting custom cases for all of my GBA games too - what quality and size of paper do you use for printing labels? I can't imagine standard paper looking that great, and I wonder if standard paper size is big enough for an unfolded DS label.


Hey thanks!

So yeah, the secret is always in the paper, and I'll tend to use different paper for different cases. For example, the Genesis cases are printed on regular copy paper so as to get that slightly more faded blue tone, where as the bolder and darker SNES cases are printed on heavier paper.

Either way you want to get Legal Size, 8.5" x 14" paper. I believe that's A4 universally.

For heavy paper I use 50lb double sided matte
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/50lb-premium-matte-double-sided.html

For DVD and DS cases I use a lighter paper, as it handles in the cases better. Specifically, 32lb Premium Gloss paper.
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/32lb-premium-gloss.html

You actually don't need glossy paper at all, and should be able to save money going with matte from another website. I just prefer ordering my paper from Red River.

For DS cases you have two good options outside of tracking down official cases with the GBA insert. The first is the cheap route:

http://www.genesysdtp.com/nintendodsblk1d14mm.htm

Those cases are super cheap but definitely on the flimsy side. You'll want to order more than you need as breaking them is an actual possibility. Also, they need to be modded. See that plastic strip on the upper left side of the case? That has to go. This is easy. I take a pair of need-nose pliers and twist out a gap of the strip on either end, then press down and snap the whole thing out. GenesysDTP is also where I get replacement cases for all my DVD games. They're pretty great.

Your other option is more expensive, but worth it.

http://www.customgamecases.com/#!blank-gb-cases/ckqy

Again, much more expensive but the quality justifies it. These things are STURDY and all set to hold GB/GBC and GBA games. A 50 pack runs almost a hundred shipped, but I love them.

Hope this helps! I was thinking about making some guides for this sort of thing if the interest is there.


Hey, this was helpful thanks.

Those more expensive cases looked pretty great, but the costs of shipping $75 worth of them to the UK is almost the same again, so I don't think I'll be going that route (at least for now - maybe when I get around to making custom cases for my original GB games). Official cases are the cheaper option for me I think.

Being in PAL region though, I imagine I'm going to have to customise the artwork a bit - the spine of a DS case is wider over here.
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Westane
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by Westane »

Ah, then that's probably the best way then, and actually you reminded me of something. The covers are all pulled from The Cover Project, but they don't quite work as is. With my US cases I have to extend the width (without proportion constraints) to exactly 11" for it to fit end to end. If your spines are wider you'll want to extend it a little more than that.
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Ziggy
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by Ziggy »

Those custom cases look great! I especially like the Tomb Raider Collection and DKC Trilogy.

It's a shame that Squire didn't give FF3 the same treatment as 1 and 2 on the PS1 (surely 3 is more worthy than 2). Now there's a gap, it would have been great to have FF 1-9 on the one console.
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by alienjesus »

Westane wrote:Ah, then that's probably the best way then, and actually you reminded me of something. The covers are all pulled from The Cover Project, but they don't quite work as is. With my US cases I have to extend the width (without proportion constraints) to exactly 11" for it to fit end to end. If your spines are wider you'll want to extend it a little more than that.


Good to know. Lots to figure out here.

It's mainly been intimidating to me to get started with my game boy cases because of how many there are to do. Around 100 cases to buy between my GB, GBC and GBA collections.
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Sano
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Re: New Gaming Area - Custom Cases, XRGB Upscaling & More!

Post by Sano »

Very nice setup man. I like the custom cases.
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