Displaying with Universal Game Case

[ElkinFencer10]

How many of yall use universal game cases to display/store your games? I'm gonna start switching my collection to those cases, but I've hit a couple of snags with my plans. One is a pretty minor one - I've got a copy of Halo 2600 but haven't been able to find a scan of a UGC cover. I can probably work something around that fairly easily. The other one is a bit more concerning for me - I've got five games in my Vectrex collection, but I've not been able to find any scans formatted for Vectrex. Does anyone know of Vectrex scans I can download or have a suggestion for getting around that problem? I'm kind of an aesthetics whore, so I want everything to look nice.

[Blu]

You could dig around on The Cover Project's forums. Put in for a request possibly if you don't see anything? You might have to pay a small commission, but beyond that it might be worth your while for uniformity's sake.

I like the look of UGC's and might get back into using them when I don't have to worry about lugging things around the country and can put down some roots.

In the past i used UGC's for my Nintendo 64 and SNES cartridges. I don't know if I'd ever use them for my NES games because I have dust sleeves for all of them.

Good luck on the endeavor!

[ElkinFencer10]

Thanks for the suggestion! I may do that. I just happened to stumble up on a GBAtemp post with a .rar with all of the Vectrex boxart scans in that format. It's mean for emulator something-or-others, but it's what I was looking for. I'm not sure if they're sized right for the UGCs, but I should be able to make it work. I'll definitely hit someone up over on TheCoverProject if it doesn't look right.

Here's the link in case anyone down the line ends up looking for it.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/cover-collections-for-emulators-with-cover-support.324714/

[Blu]

If you're worried that the Vectrex carts might be an awkward size, you can always cut some soft foam to help give it a little stay so that the carts don't shake around loose in the cases.

As for the sizes of the scans, I think it might be the right size. Looking at the NES section, that appears to be a UGC thumbnail of Tetris. The easiest way would be to download the .rar and see if a UGC scan from the cover project has the same dimensions. If not, you could probably scale them down to the right resolution without significant distortion or lack of quality.

[ElkinFencer10]

If you're worried that the Vectrex carts might be an awkward size, you can always cut some soft foam to help give it a little stay so that the carts don't shake around loose in the cases.

As for the sizes of the scans, I think it might be the right size. Looking at the NES section, that appears to be a UGC thumbnail of Tetris. The easiest way would be to download the .rar and see if a UGC scan from the cover project has the same dimensions. If not, you could probably scale them down to the right resolution without significant distortion or lack of quality.

Ooo, that foam idea is brilliant. I hadn't even thought of trying that. Thank you!

[Ziggy]

If you can't find something you're looking for, or need something fabricated, just ask. There's a few people on the forums here that can do that sort of thing. And we wont charge a commission.

[CRTGAMER]

Not for cart based games but a semi related another option for disc based games.

Shelf Space Saving Plastic Envelope
In Japan, many games and movies are protected in matched to size plastic envelope bags. The bag has a 3m glue strip that can be opened and resealed repeatedly. My local Japan owned BookOff store here in the US sells all their movies and games in the perfect space saving envelopes. I save and use the "bags" for any steel books and cardboard lined movies and games. For larger special edition cases, just look for a matched large sandwich cut to size.

The resealable plastic envelope is on the left, the 3m glue strip runs vertical in the picture.

[KalessinDB]

TCP artists are generally happy to help, my suggestions to increase the likelihood of getting something done are: Provide scans (at least 300 dpi, dunno what the stuff you downloaded is at, preferably 600) and be patient. I've seen so many people going in and bumping their request like every 3 days. There's a very small cadre of very dedicated people making covers there, and a few people that pop in and do one or two here or there. I've never had someone there look for a commission.

Also, regarding your Vectrex thing, I'll throw out that I found UGCs were juuuust slightly too thin for them. It fits but has a nearly imperceptible bulge which might annoy some people. I didn't mind it because it held the cart in there and wouldn't shake around, no foam needed. That being said, I know certain people report UGCs varying in thickness ever so slightly from batch to batch so YMMV

[ElkinFencer10]

TCP artists are generally happy to help, my suggestions to increase the likelihood of getting something done are: Provide scans (at least 300 dpi, dunno what the stuff you downloaded is at, preferably 600) and be patient. I've seen so many people going in and bumping their request like every 3 days. There's a very small cadre of very dedicated people making covers there, and a few people that pop in and do one or two here or there. I've never had someone there look for a commission.

Also, regarding your Vectrex thing, I'll throw out that I found UGCs were juuuust slightly too thin for them. It fits but has a nearly imperceptible bulge which might annoy some people. I didn't mind it because it held the cart in there and wouldn't shake around, no foam needed. That being said, I know certain people report UGCs varying in thickness ever so slightly from batch to batch so YMMV

Ooo,wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the heads up. I'm planning to do it step-by-step over several months (I'm a teacher in North Carolina, so my paychecks aren't exactly huge), so I'll see how the Vectrex games fit when I order the batch for my N64 games before I make a final decision about that.