Game Storage Guide - Game Boy Carts

See Replies further down for N64, SNES Carts and Dreamcast



One of the main problems of game collectors is storing games. An ideal storage would be space saving and also easy to find a given title. Portable game carts are especially difficult, the small size makes it hard to easily see the labels unless scrutinizing at a close view. I'm focusing on Gameboy carts in this guide but the same principle can apply to the Nintendo DS, Atari Lynx, TG16 HuCards and Sega Nomad games. The solutions presented does not help for compact gaming on the go, but is designed to house the entire portable game collection. Individual game carts can be pulled and placed in a small pouch or pants pocket. The pain of a large collection is which games to take, so many to play.

Golf Ball Display Case
noise posted a great idea on his blog site thanks to Tony. A case that can hang on the wall to hold the game carts. All the games are visible for an easy search but you do have to stand and look closely. The Golf Ball Display Case can be found at Michaels Art Supplies, Golf Supply or Trophy stores.

noise's Gameboy Player Land Blog: http://www.rfgeneration.com/blogs/noise ... s-1391.php



Ring Binder
I really want to look thru the small game carts while sitting down kicked back on the couch. I hated having to dig thru a large pouch thumbing thru a pile of mixed up carts trying to find a given title. I happened to notice a seller at the Swap Meet selling old campaign buttons in a ring binder with plastic pages. The seller mentioned he got the plastic pouched pages at a coin collector store.



I knew about the coin pages already, the standard two inch pockets are designed for cardboard inserts of coins. This works great for Nintendo DS or Camera Memory Cards, but just a little small to old Gameboy, Color or Advance carts. I also had thought about Baseball card plastic pages in the past, but a lot of space is not used. Back to that seller with the campaign buttons, the coin pages he had seemed to have larger pockets. It turns out there is a 2.5 inch size for larger coins, perfect for the Gameboy games!

Right Click the Images for a larger picture
2.5 inch Coin Pocket Pages allows twelve game carts per page

I visited my local coin collector store and found different sizes and styles. Storage for flat tray and smaller binders as well as paper money holders. The paper money holder could work for holding four GBA carts per pocket, but the carts can drop out. The dollar bill holders are great for the game manuals though.

Be sure to get heavy duty vinyl plastic pages for durability

Even odd sized GBA games such as Yoshi Topsy Turvey, Drill Dozer, Boktai Sun and Wireless Adaptor carts fit just fine. The vinyl pockets will stretch a little to accommodate the carts, so the cart stays put. A thick GBA Wireless Adapter might stretch a pocket too much which would make for a loose fit if a game cart was swapped in later. Unfortunately the huge Wario Twist or Game Shark carts do not, they are kept in a regular GBA pouch along with the other hardware accessories.

I have pretty good success with the SAFET vinyl coin pages. The pages are very malleable and easily stretch to accommodate GBA carts. The pages have a "memory" so after the initial stretch that game carts literally fit like a glove. The carts stay in place, but loose enough for easy removal. Note that sometimes a pic on a sale site might be an old stock photo and not the current product.



The binder does take more room versus a pouch full of carts, but now the carts stay in place and are easy to find when alphabetized. I pull the games to play on the go and can easily return them to the appropriate pocket. Sixty games can fit in a standard three ring binder. Even though the carts stay in place, a zippered binder is more secure. The game carts are thick so a unique binder helps.

Staples has a duel flapped binder that can hold more, each side can hold seven pages of game boy carts. This adds up to 84 carts per side at a total of 168 Gameboy carts! Unlike a paired ring binder that has page interference issues, each set of rings has their own separate zipper section. One set of rings in the front and the other section in the back.

CaseIt Z175 Duel Holder Zipper Binder - UPC 022293102315



Another Game Storage Guide - Game Controllers and Accessories:
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=38291&p=625519#p625519

what about thecoverproject.net and DS cases?

The custom DS case is a great option, but very time consuming to print out the custom covers and collect enough of the older cases that have GBA holders. Regular Gameboy and Gameboy Color carts require a custom fit in the DS cases. However once all the hard work is done, a very nice display.

The binder solution in the OP is easier to accomplish for most collections that usually are just the portable game carts. The same principle can apply to different system game carts including the PSP UMDs and Camera Memory Cards, just get the correct sized matched coin holder pages. TG16 HuCards might benefit utilizing Baseball Card holder plastic pages.

Very cool guide. Think I'll get some of those coin pages. Right now I have my portable games arranged in little stacks and they look quite silly.

Thanks. Important to use heavy duty clear vinyl pages and not polyester. Some vinyl pages also do not work such as the brand LEAD DOG PRODUCTS, the pockets are brittle and tear when inserting a GBA cart.

I have pretty good success with the SAFET vinyl coin pages. The pages are very malleable and easily stretch to accommodate GBA carts. The pages have a "memory" so after the initial stretch that game carts literally fit like a glove. The carts stay in place, but loose enough for easy removal.

Note the SAFET label and rounded edges at the Ring Binder ends.


1.5 inch pockets are great for DS or camera memory cards, thirty games per page!

Very nice ideas here, CRT. I particularly like the golf ball display cases, but for a large collection, would that still be an option? And though I realize this is about handheld games, would that route work for larger cartridges, like the N64?

I personally do not have the Golfball Display Case, the idea posted from noise's site. The case is beautiful for displaying portable game carts, though a little more difficult to pull an individual title versus a binder layout. The display case looks like they might be kind of small to hold N64 carts. The thickness is fine, but the height might be an issue. Perhaps a shelf could be removed every other tier to fit taller carts.

From my CRT vs LCD Guide
I built custom wood shelves that are cut to size matching the width and height of my N64 carts stored contacts down. Keeps the dust out of the contacts and I don't have to hold eight carts to pull one. There is enough air space above each cart for my finger or a taller Game Shark cart to fit. Five shelves tall. Laminated Wood flooring makes great space saving lightweight thin shelving material. I used a finish nailer for a quick and clean fit. Shelves are held together with ¾" slats. Each shelf layer is also independent of each other, makes for easy swapping around or moves if need be. More shelves can also be easily added as the library grows.

My favorite storage for these is shelving them in their original boxes. The handful I have without the box go in my handheld carrying case/bag.

I use a CD display rack for larger loose carts (NES, SNES and N64). For Genesis and Master System I use drawers for Cassette Tapes.



I like the idea of the display case for the Game Boy games...may look into getting a small one. The short stacks on my book shelves is not ideal.

My father's a coin collector so I'm gonna see if I can snag some pages from him.

I don't know if anyone else has said it, but I find the best place to store loose GBA carts is in the GBA slot of DS games cases. I try to lump similar games together: my loose GBA cart of Phantasy Star Collection is housed in the Phantasy Star 0 DS case, I did the same with Lunar games, Lufia games, etc... Seems to work pretty well.