PowerA Nintendo Switch Premium Game Card Case

Nintendo Switch owners have no shortage when it comes to 3rd party accessories and supplies. While I haven't bought many things for my Switch since I grabbed it on launch day, I did recently grab this game card case as I needed something else that was portable to hold my games. I'm not familiar at all with the company that made this, PowerA, but my first impressions of this case are very positive.

PowerA made four variaties of this game card case, two for Super Mario and two for The Legend of Zelda. I opted for this Mario case. The other was a yellow question mark block. In the packaging the case felt that it had some heft to it, which was a nice change. Many of these 3rd party accessories just aren't worth their asking price. This case holds 12 Switch game cards, as well as 12 micro SD cards. I found this to be a nice touch, although I doubt I'll need the micro SD card storage.

Out of the packaging you can tell this case is quality. The red is a hard plastic that feels as if it's made of a good, sturdy plastic. The red/white circle with the classic Mario "M" has a rubbery feel to it. The whole case has some weight to it so in your hands you know that this case is built well.

The case is held closed with a buckle that snaps shut. This opens and closes good and seems to hold it firmly. I did a drop test on a carpeted flood from about 6 feet up and the case stayed closed. The inside of the case has six recessed sections on each side to hold your micro SD cards and Switch game cards. The inside had a sturdy, thick foam feel to it. While I didn't snap a picture of the case with a game card inside, I can report that it holds the cards just fine. The open area just above the game card makes it easy for you to get your finger underneath the card to pull it out, or to insert it back in.

Overall I'm very pleased with this game case. It looks great, it's easily portable and it holds a decent number of games and SD cards. It's well made and priced at $12.99 at most major retailers. If you're looking for a portable game case then you may want to consider this case.

d_skin Protective Disc Skins

Growing up in the age of video game cartridges, you really didn't worry too much about damaging your game. Yes, you had to keep the cartridge contacts clean and I can remember the various cleaning kits that used to be on the market.

Then ushered in the age of video games being on compact discs. While this afforded many advantages when it came to the games, it also brought along new worries of your games being damaged easier.

Long before I ever heard of disc rot I was worried about scratching my discs to the point where the game would mess up or just not load all together. When I started down the road of importing games from Japan for my Sega Saturn for instance, I paid good money for some of the titles I still own in my library. While I'm generally really careful with my games, I was still worried about scratches and was looking for something to help me out.

I honestly don't remember where I first came across the company called d_skin (this was before social media was the norm), but they had a product that I thought was too good to be true. Protective Disc Skins, a piece of plastic that had a semi-rigid plastic edge that clipped onto your discs. If the protection was enough, d_skin claimed you could leave the skins attached to the disc while you played it in your DVD or game console. Was this true? I had to find out for myself.

The skins were sold in various quantities at most major retail stores. I only have a few so I'm guessing I must've bought a 5 pack when I first tried them out for myself. I really thought this product was too good to be true. I had to give it a try first hand for myself to see if they lived up to how they were advertised.

I don't know of all of the skins had a bright, neon orange edge to them or not. Upon taking the sleeve out of the packaging I thought it looked pretty cheap and fragile. The plastic in the center does appear to be thin and if not careful I would imagine would wrinkle pretty easy. There is a hole in the center that perfectly aligns with the center of the disc. The edges are about as thick as a CD and easily clip onto the edges of the disc. That's it. That's all they do...they clip onto your disc. 

Once attached to your disc, I have to say the skin looks pretty good. I would have preferred the edges being a differnet color...white, black or just clear...but the orange has grown on me. The skin comes off just as easy as it went on, but I don't see it just falling off the disc on it's own.

I've used these skins on both DVDs and games and in each case found zero issues. The DVD movie played fine in a few different players and the Saturn and PS2 games I tried played w/ the skin with no problems.

Truth be told I really forgot about this product. At the time I discovered them I didn't own many games that I deemed necessary to protect. Like I said early, I'm pretty careful with my stuff and just didn't see the need. However I recently came across some games in my library w/ these skins on and it got me to wondering if I should invest in more of these or something similar. I've added several pricey (import) games to my ever growing library that I would be devastated if something were to happen to them.

So, what's your take on this product? 1) have you ever seen them before? 2) If yes, how well did they work for you? If no, would you be up to using a product like this? I'm not sure if d_skin is even in business anymore. I could only find a few Amazon sellers that had this product in stock so I'm going to guess it didn't sell very well and has fallen to the wayside. Would you use something like this on your more expensive disc based games in your collection? Why or why not?

Arcade Works Blinking Light Win

Sometime last year I remember coming across I believe it was someone's YouTube video of a Kickstarter funded item called Blinking Light Win. What it was in a nutshell was a way to fix your original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and eliminate that dreaded blinking red light on your NES when you tried to play your favorite game.

After doing a little research, I found that the company behind this product were called Arcade Works. After visiting their site, I believe I have stumbled across them before when I was researching some Neo Geo AES vs. MVS things. I took a look at their online store and saw they had pre-orders for the Blinking Light Win so I dropped the $30 they were asking and waited...

...and waited and waited and waited some more. Looking back at my original PayPal transaction receipt, I paid for the item at the end of July 2015. Well finally the package arrived two weeks ago and last weekend I sat down to install it.

The Blinking Light Win comes packaged in a small bag, nothing fancy. Inside the bag you'll find a new 72 pin connector, a new cartridge tray, a sticker and a very basic set of instructions.

To get started, simply flip over your NES and remove the 6 screws with a Phillips head screwdriver. Once you have the lid off, you simply unscrew the 9 Phillips screws to remove the RF shielding and the cartridge tray.

I should have taken more pictures while I was installing this thing, but hey I was in a hurry to play some NES games as my console hasn't worked properly in almost a year.

Once you have the original, spring loaded cartridge tray removed you have to remove the 72 pin connector from the main board. This proved to be fairly tough as it had a very snug attachment. Once I got it off, I set it aside and grabbed the new board/72 pin connector supplied in my package. You simply plug it onto the main board where you just previously removed the old connector. Then the new cartridge tray just slides down over the connector. That's it! Now simply put the RF shielding back and screw everything down. Now you're ready to put the top back on and tighten those screws and you're ready to game once again!

Once you have your NES re-assembled, there is a small gray sticker you can apply to your NES that reminds you to not press down on your cartridge. No longer will you have to press down on your inserted NES game. This process is what bent the original connection pins and would cause the game cartridge and console to not properly make a connection. Now you simply insert your game and power on!

Changing games I did notice it has a good grip on your game, but nothing too bad. I would still recommend you clean all your games before inserting them into your rejuvenated NES, but oh how sweet it was to pop in Powerblade and power on the console and it fired up the game on the first time!

I used to use a clone NES, but I was shamed by someone in the gaming community for not using the original hardware. I went out and picked up an original NES, but it didn't take long before it quit working. I'd take it apart to clean it and clean all the games, yet it still wasn't reliable. I went out and purchased the top loader model NES and was going to have it modded for at least composite since I wasn't sure if my Blinking Light Win order was ever going to be filled. However now that I have it installed and I've been using it now for about a week, I'm very happy w/ this product. It was well worth the $30 it cost me to breath life back into one of the consoles that got me into gaming. Now I just wish I hadn't sold some of my harder to find NES games!

If you are curious and want to order your own Blinking Light Win, you can check out Arcade Works' online store and place your order today!