CustomGameCases.com - A Review

If you are like me and take pride in how you display your collection, then you may have heard of or used CustomGameCases.com before. A lot of people are fine with just shelving their loose games on a shelf and calling it a day, but my game room is out in the open on the lower level of my home and I want the game shelves to look as nice and clean as possible. Enter custom cases.

I've printed my own DVD covers for Sega CD, Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast games in the past and even did several Game Boy Advance covers for old DS cases, but this is my first time branching out and wanting to case my loose NES and SNES game library. I had heard good things of Custom Game Cases before, especially in the forums over at The Cover Project so I decided to place an order earlier this year.

Back in January I placed an order for a 2 NES cases, 2 SNES cases, 1 N64 case and 1 Game Boy Color case. The GBC case was for an import game where they would have to build the cover so I knew it would take additional time, but I had no idea just how long it would take.

Fast forward to May of this year and I still didn't have anything from my order in hand. I sent in a few emails via their website asking for an update and eventually I got half of my order in the mail. While I appreciated the gesture, the lack of communication was frustrating to say the least. I was told that the vertical SNES and N64 artwork I had requested was still being built and was pretty far down in the que. I was also asked if I follow them on Instagram (which at the time I didn't even use Instagram) as they did post an update there that included my custom GBC cover/case. I asked if I could substitute those SNES & N64 cases with NES cases for different games and they did get me two cases out pretty quick...however they didn't ship my GBC case! Several emails went back and forth before they finally shipped my GBC case...which arrived earlier this week.

The case turned out beautifully. I've owned this loose cart of  Ketto Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Senshi Saikyo Ketteisen for several years now, acquired for fairly cheap in a Yahoo! Japan auction. I've never seen a boxed copy so having a case made was the next best thing. 

As you can see, these cases are made by Custom Game Cases themselves and specifically made for Game Boy games. In addition to Game Boy, Atari Lynx carts fit in the case great too. There is a place on the left to securely hold an instruction booklet, but as you can see that is something that my copy of the game is lacking.

Over all I LOVE these cases. At $4.00 each they won't break the bank, however shipping will...more on that later. I don't have enough room on my shelves to case my whole loose Game Boy collection, but these are so nice I may have to case some of my favorite games.

I also decided to try one of their NES cases. I've previously tried a Bit Box that Stone Age Gamer offers, but found them to be too bulky and I worried about how they would hold up in the future. These cases are very sturdy and bout the same size as your typical Sega Genesis case. The quality of the printed insert is good and mimics the original box art perfectly.

I like how the spine is laid out, with the black block at the top w/ the Nintendo Entertainment System logo. I've seen designs that leave this off and stay more true to the box art, but I love how uniform these cases look side by side on my shelf.

Similar to the Game Boy cases, the cart fits snuggly in the case on the right side. The left side has two tabs that will hold the instruction booklet securely in place. When closed, the case snaps together tight and will keep out dust or other contaminants.

The only SNES case that I was able to get with vertical artwork was for my Musya game. I'm not sure why I chose this particular game to get cased first, but it turned out beautifully. I like the vertical artwork over the original horizontal layout, simply for the fact that the spines match the NES cases. 

The interior of the SNES case is nearly identical to the NES case, only with the cartridge area shaped differently. I did find out that the cart only snaps in with the cart's spine label facing to the right as shown.

A few pros and cons regarding the cases and my first ordering experience with Custom Game Cases:

PROS:

• Fantastic quality in both the cases and the prints. At $4 each the cases are affordable.
• To save on money you can also order a blank case and print your own cover.
• Great selection of covers available for selection.

CONS:

• Shipping. I don't know how they base their shipping, but to ship 6 NES cases to my home is about $18! In my opinion they could use the flat rate shipping products from USPS, or just use normal USPS Priority mail and ship for less. The shipping is one reason I've not placed my second order yet.
• Communication is lacking. They need a better way of communicating with their customers. I understand it takes time to build custom covers, but keep the customer in the loop - don't leave them hanging!
• Not all cover art is readily available. I originally purchased a N64 case for Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth and requested the vertical artwork. I was told much later that the artwork had to be made and my order was like 19th in line...basically it wouldn't be ready anytime soon. I wish they wouldn't give the option between vertical and horizontal if they aren't ready to be printed.

I don't know if this business is the primary business for the owners or if it's more of a side project, but they seem to have a lot of orders coming through at all times that I wonder if more hired help would benefit them. As frustrated as I was that my initial order took 9 months to be completed, I do plan on placing smaller orders to case my loose NES collection. After that I'll move onto SNES and maybe N64. I'm not a fan of the Universal Game Cases so I'd like to get rid of the N64 cases I have...but it'll take a lot of time, money and patience going through these guys. Recommended, but be ready for delays.

Tomy Mini Nintendo Capsules

If you have a dedicated game room, you may be like me where you like to adorn your room or shelves with video game related toys and knick knacks. You've probably seen these red toy capsules at your local Target or other retail store in your area. When I came across a few that were on clearance I finally took the plunge and bought one out of sheer curiosity.

I believe the MSRP on these capsules is $5.99 and for that price I just wasn't willing to give one a try. Clearance price of $2? Sure, why not. After all, I had the chance of landing a cool Famicom controller I could put on my keychain.

At least with this wave, there were 5 different controllers randomly packaged inside the capsule. The classic Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, Wii and Wii w/ Motion Plus controllers. I was really hoping for either the Famicom or Super Famicom myself. Instead, I was lucky enough to pull the...

The Wii controller. At least I got the black controller w/ Motion Plus. Despite it not being the controller I was hoping for, it's actually not that bad. The level of detail put into it is quite well. The clear translucent A button can actually be depressed. The is a hole in the top of the controller and I initially thought that maybe there was an LED bulb inside...but it's hollow. None the less, it's still a neat little Nintendo branded item to place on my Nintendo gaming shelf. 

Retro Store Visit: Matt's Game Exchange

I first learned of Matt's Game Exchange when I picked up managing a few locations for my company in Greensboro, NC. I have visited the store a few times and made a few purchases over the last year or so, but I never thought to do one of these retro store visit type posts. I'm not sure when I last visited the store (I'm going to guess sometime in the fall of 2017) so these pictures are probably outdated now, but I've got them sitting on my laptop's hard drive so why not share them?

This particular store is located at 2924 West Gate City Blvd., Suite A in Greensboro, NC. The store isn't that far of I-40 and it's pretty easy to get in and out of. The store is located in a strip mall and is a rather large store. So large in fact that their shelves help create a smaller shopping area, while the rest of the store is used for storage (?). They never seem to have huge inventory of games, but their selection is pretty varied and they seem to have a good flow of trade ins.

Most of the higher end (i.e. expensive) games are kept in the glass cases over near the register, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good games out on the shelves. The first section of games that you can easily browse is their NES section. Here you can see a decent amount of loose NES carts as well as a few boxed games. Looks like I spy a few boxed SNES games too.

I swear everyone's SNES section these days seems to be filled with the same sports and low budget titles. I don't remember anything in this section standing out to me...though I have been know to buying a baseball game if I find one I don't already own.

Below the SNES section was their Genesis selection. A good bit of boxed games, something I'm always glad to see. I'll buy those cheap priced boxed Genesis games sometimes just for the clamshell case. I believe I purchased Double Dragon 3 from this location in one of my previous visits. Plenty of loose carts on the shelves below, but I rarely even look at those.

My guess is now that Hyperkin has released their Retron 77 that old Atari 2600 carts may start moving a little faster. Their selection was small, but they had a few decent games for just a few bucks each. Crystal Castles anyone?

The next section over contained GameCube games. This is one system I'd like to have more games for, but it's getting harder for me to find games that want and aren't priced too high.

Playstation 2 was the next section and I was surprised to see that it barely filled up the 4 foot section it was given. Usually finding PS2 games isn't hard. At least their selection (on this visit) wasn't all sports titles.

If I thought the PS2 selection was sparse, check out how bare the Xbox 360 section was during this visit! Either they have been moving a lot of 360 games or people just weren't trading them in.

The Playstation 3 section however had a few more games to chose from. Nothing that grabbed my attention, but I wasn't a huge fan of the PS3.

Their Xbox One and PS4 sections were filled in a little more. Decent selection from what I can remember, but I usually look for more retro stuff when I visit these type stores.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of their display cases, but they had some great retro games under the glass. Everything from NES to TurboGrafx. I enjoyed talking to the guys that worked in the store. They were courteous and I could tell that they knew their stuff. It also seemed as if this particular location was smaller than the the store located in Florence, SC. I haven't visited that location, but I'll have to try and swing by there on my next trip down to Myrtle Beach.

Overall the store is pretty cool, but like with many retro stores you may not find necessarily what you're looking for on your first visit. Stores like this you have to visit often and be ready to jump on that "rare" game when you find it as the inventory is constantly changing. Their prices overall are about what you'd expect to find in a brick & mortar retro game store. Not super cheap, but not quite eBay prices either. If you're ever in the Greensboro area or just passing through, you oughta stop in and give them a whirl.

You can find Matt's Game Exchange online or check out their Facebook pages for more information.

PlayStation Days of Play

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Initial Thoughts - Horizon Zero Dawn (Playstation 4)

My two daughters love to read and my family takes frequent trips to the public library for them to restock on books. Not too long ago my wife informed me that the library started to carry video games for modern consoles (Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One). My first trip to see what they had wasn't all that successful, ended up w/ Street Fighter II for the Switch. However last weekend I was pleased with the larger selection. They had several games for the Switch that interested me (Disgaea 5 on the Switch), one of the Forza racing games for the Xbox One and something else on the PS4 that I can't quite put my finger on at this time. I went home with Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite for the Xbox One and Horizon Zero Dawn for the PS4. I'm not a huge fighting game fan, but the Marvel vs. games usually are good. Horizon Zero Dawn was just one of those games that I've heard a little about, but never looked too much into it. Unfortunately for me it was a full week later before I had time to sit down to play. Good thing I get to keep both games for 2 weeks!

This weekend I finally had a chance to jump into Horizon Zero Dawn. I knew of the game, but really hadn't looked into the game. I watched a Facebook friend livestream some gameplay, but that's about it. When I first started the game, I really didn't know what to expect. I was a little surprised to find out I started playing the game as a young Aloy. I knew the game would be a big budget cinematic story and the story itself had to be set up. However I thought it was a little on the sluggish side starting out. Now that I've played a good 12-15 hours I now see why the beginning was necessary as it helps advance the story that much better. I was expecting combat right out the gate, but instead I was given a lot of story and a little exploration.

I knew that I needed to give this game time and I'm glad that I was patience as I am marveled by everything about the game. Of course the visuals are absolutely stunning and pleasing to the eye, but the musical score also fits the atmosphere as well. The voice acting for the most part is top notch and the story is something I actually like.

I've leveled up my character to level 16 thus far and have enjoyed every hour. I'm still getting used to the combat, but part of that is I'm not as familiar w/ a Playstation controller as I am other controllers. For the most part the controls and combat are very intuitive, however I don't like the jumping/scaling/climbing system. That's a very small complaint as overall the game is magnificent. I kinda hated I didn't pay this game any attention until now it's so good. I will most likely purchase the new version of the game that contains the DLC pack as I hate that I have to return the game to the library next weekend.

I haven't played many AAA PS4 titles, but I can see why this game has sold so well. I look forward to advancing the story and eventually getting to the aforementioned DLC as well. If you are a fan of open world style games with a action RPG element, then this game is for you. Then again, I'm sure most of you reading this have already discovered what I'm just discovering for myself.

Berzerk (Atari 2600)

Berzerk

Stern Electronics

Stern Electronics, 1982

I have a lot of fond memories of the Atari 2600 as it was the first home console my family had. Long before I received my very on NES, all of my gaming occurred on the 2600. Of the many games we owned back then, Berzerk was always one of my favorites.

The premise of the game is very simple. You control a stick looking figure across simple mazes that filled the screen. Robots were littered around the room, trying to prevent your exit. Depending on the level, there may have been one or two exits, represented by an opening in the outer wall. Your objective was to advance level from level. 

Shooting the robots was essentially optional, but necessary most of the time if you wanted to advance. Later levels the robots would return fire. A single shot from them would kill your character. You could also lose a life by touching the walls...which were apparently electrified, or by being touched by a robot. Your character's arch nemesis is Evil Otto, who in the game looks like a large smiley face. Otto is indestructible and pretty much is there to prevent you from lolly gagging on the level. He can advance through walls and be a real pain in the butt.

Two players can play the game, but alternate turns using the same controller. My older brother and I would play this game often, competing for the highest score since the levels weren't really numbered. The game still holds up well in my opinion and I often pop it in my 7800 to play when I'm in the mood. Berzerk began its lift in the arcade, but was then ported to the 2600 and eventually to the 5200 and Vectrex. The 2600 version of the game is the only version I've played and can be had for just a few dollars typically on the secondary market.

RIP Nintendo Wii Shop Channel

As most video game fans know by now, Nintendo will be closing the Wii Shop Channel in just 4 days, 03/26/18. After March 26th, you'll no longer be able to add Wii Points to your account. Come January 2019, the entire channel will be shut down.

With the deadline quickly approaching to add Wii Points, I accessed the Wii Shop channel last weekend on my Wii U and grabbed several games that I've been putting off. It's been a long time since I've even accessed the channel, so it was a little overwhelming looking at all of the titles that were offered across the different gaming platforms.

I've never been too interested in downloading NES or SNES games, so I kept to the titles in the TurboGrafx-16 library for the most part. Even though I own the original TG-16 hardware, the games have become stupid expensive on the secondary market and these digital versions were about $6 each. While I don't always care for digital games, this just made sense.

The first game I downloaded was the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. I had fond memories if playing this game at a time share resort my parents used to take the family to up in the NC mountains. The download was reasonably priced so I went with it. After playing it the other night I'm afraid to say that this is one of those games that hasn't aged well. The controls seemed really stiff and the gameplay was just average. Granted I was playing with the Wiimote and not my Classic controller. I'll have to give it another go with the better controller and see if that helps.

I already owned a few of the excellent titles that were released on the WiiWare channel, such as Blaster Master, the Konami Rebirth titles (minus Gradius, that will be my last download) and even the shmup I never see mentioned anywhere, Star Solder R.

Thanks to several recommendations online, I grabbed the Famicom game Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa. I'm a big fan of Hudson and I've always wanted to play this, however I figured I'd just pick up the actual Famicom cart instead. This is another one of those games that thanks to YouTube, the price for the cart has steadily risen so this just seemed like the logical way to own the game (for now). I already had Ice Climber (my wife's choice) and Super Mario Bros. 3.

I grabbed a few TurboGrafx-16 shmps that sadly I don't own anymore, such as Blazing Lazers and Dead Moon. Again, the US version of the games are getting expensive and so are the PC Engine versions. I'll still pick up physical copies eventually, but for now that was a good $12 spent in my book. I also grabbed Ninja Spirit, a game that I've never played but have always heard good things about. I had a great time running through that game the other night.

I looked at several Neo Geo games as well, but I own an AES console and have an MVS adapter cart and have a pretty good SNK compilation on the PS2. Between the MVS games and the PS2 collection, I am pretty well covered. I do plan on going back and downloading the CD exclusive shmup Iron Clad while I still can.

I know I and many others keep waiting for Nintendo to make some kind of announcement for the Switch, because otherwise there are a lot of great games that will be disappearing very soon. Many of these games aren't available digitally on any other platform so I hope Nintendo works something out before the WiiShop Channel closes for good in January 2019.