worst game boxes and packaging.

[crusto]

For me its mainly the cardboard nintendo stuff. I look after my things obsessively and the snes boxes were a total nightmare to keep looking nice. My biggest bugbear was trying to slide the instructions in to the box, you would get them 90% in and they would always snag on the flap at the bottom. Total nause! Similar problems with their other systems too.

Megadrive boxes were my favourite but iirc the EA boxes were a bit of a pain to close, due to the thickness of the instruction books. And those yellow tabs on the carts were just a bad joke!

[Jonboy1977]

The awful box that 'Rockford's Riot' on the Spectrum came in. I had one in almost new condition and just because of the shape of the things and it's flimsiness it's just battered now.

That looks terrible.

[binaryRooster]

The awful box that 'Rockford's Riot' on the Spectrum came in. I had one in almost new condition and just because of the shape of the things and it's flimsiness it's just battered now.

That looks terrible.

Ha! That's the first game i thought of when i started reading this thread. i did have one somewhere but a box like that is never going to survive god knows how many years and house moves.

[Treguard]

Got to be the Nintendo stuff up 'til the Cube, surely? Cardboard is not a good idea. the PS1 cases were a bit fragile too, not a huge fan.

Neo Geo Pocket wins best award, for me. Superb little cases, them.

I do love the Neo Geo Pocket cases but sometimes you needed a crowbar to get in the bloody things...

[richie freebird]

I love the boxes for Atari 2600 games, in particular. Also boxes from games in that era in general, but the 2600 ones the most.

I found a few of them (with games of course) in near-mint condition at a local game store relatively recently, and I take one look and am like "Holy crap BOXES!!!!11", much to the extreme bewilderment of a friend that was with me at the time.

I think I bought *all* of them from that store that they had, lol. That was a really great haul. They were good games, too. Like Reactor, I hadnt played that one before, and it's really, really good.

How much were they asking for the boxed 2600 games? I’ve got Donkey Kong for the 2600, boxed and in excellent condish. It only set me back around £12 too.

[Doddsy]

The awful box that 'Rockford's Riot' on the Spectrum came in. I had one in almost new condition and just because of the shape of the things and it's flimsiness it's just battered now.

That looks terrible.

Ha! That's the first game i thought of when i started reading this thread. i did have one somewhere but a box like that is never going to survive god knows how many years and house moves.

The Tau Ceti box for the speccy wasn't to practical either.

http://i.ebayimg.com/02/!B5d2vYw!mk~$(KGrHqMOKiUEyYeY(uL8BMt)

[noobish hat]

If you have a problem getting instructions into cardboard boxes because of the flap at the bottom of the other end, why not do what I do - slide the instructions in on TOP of the cartridge tray.

[joefish]

Yep, the ST and Amiga had the worst packaging ever. All sorts of randomly sized cardboard boxes with lift-off lids and anything from 2 to 6 floppy disks rattling around loose inside. Sometimes (with 8/16-bit multi-platform releases) you got an ill-fitting plastic insert stuffed into a double cassette box, and that was about as 'standard' as you ever got. Either that or budget re-releases in 6-inch square lidded cardboard boxes (for 3½ disks??). At least the boxes were mostly rigid, but even so they were all sorts of uncommon shapes and sizes.

Some companies made plastic cases that held single floppy disks, but no-one ever used them for game releases. Probably because they'd be invisible on a shelf next to all the bl**dy stupid huge cardboard boxes.

[crusto]

If you have a problem getting instructions into cardboard boxes because of the flap at the bottom of the other end, why not do what I do - slide the instructions in on TOP of the cartridge tray.

Thats exactly what I do (did). Needless to say its still very annoying. A nause.

[mlucifersam]

Yeah you're right about ST and Amiga boxes. The 8 bit boxes just kept getting bigger and bigger then the 16 bits seemed to carry on the trend , all trying to be the biggest on the shelf (so they'd get noticed and purchased!) Sometimes you'd get a massive box with sweet fa in it but a leaflet and 2 discs. Crap for storage, you'd need so much shelf room to what boils down to little plastic discs! You could fit hundreds in one little box if they didn't have all the extra packaging! Total waste of cardboard.

[RETROSPEC]

I gotta say I dont have a problem with how the boxes look really, its more the durability. Saturn boxes seem to have the habit of the glue loosening and falling apart which isnt a big deal to me, I just add new glue, dreamcast cases seem fairly fragile. Though I do take good care of em I do have some that I bought second hand that are broken around the hinge. Mega drive though tend to weaken around the cartridge clip are a pretty good design, dont know why they went with cardboard for sonic and knuckles. Though it looked really good as new it never stays that way. Ps1 cases were ok as I have a few games I have owned since new and have had no faults. Think alot of the time it depends how well its treated. I do agree with what was mentioned earlier bout the new cases look cheap and not as inviting but i also admit that they are fairly durable. Just my view though.

[Megamixer]

Shopping for pre-owned Wii games today reminded me just how hard it is to pick anything up that doesn't have a yellow-stained case or nasty brown dirt on the white plastic. Most games I was interested in were so manky case-wise that I just left them on the shelf. I'm not sure I want to know what people do to get them this filthy.

[clarance]

Yeah, as others have said, Amiga big boxes - I've got a sizeable collection of them, but they're all packed away in a box in the loft, no point in displaying such a variety of different sizes, it would just look a real mess.

However, the Microprose packaging was really nice (and uniform).

[Jonboy1977]

Bought a couple of Gx4000 games recently. The boxes are huge for such tiny carts.

I like the design of the boxes ( sort of like Giant sized neo geo pocket boxes ) but the artwork is pretty grim.