I’m a collector.  You know the type.  I have the box for every PC game I’ve ever owned, in perfect condition and with all the original contents.  Except three: Myst, Riven, and Celtica.  But I don’t like to talk about the fate of those - I was young and foolish then.  As I’ve grown it’s become a source of pride for me.  I love being able to pull out a mint box and deftly explain my you-can-tell-how-much-the-devs-believe-in-this-game’s-success-by-the-effort-in-the-packaging theory.  I’ve put many games through that theory, and only one or two sleepers have ever led me astray.  Morrowind.  Alice.  Oni.  The Longest Journey.  Homeworld.  Just look at the care put into those.  It’s not the same with console games, since they come so simply adorned, naked on the shelf with only a sleeve graphic to tout their accomplishments.

But I digress.

So, the short story is that I don’t like to throw stuff away.  I like to keep it, minty and fresh, and better yet I like to display it as a badge of honor.  Also, I moved again.

Moving is an aduous process at best.  I have boxes for boxes that don’t seem to want to fit anywhere, a game library alphabetized by platform and title that’s heavy and bulky, more consoles than is practical, and all the other “things” like furniture that pile up.

Rather than moan about the specific difficulty of transporting my life, however, I’d like to discuss an issue that came up afterwards, during the unpacking process: gba games.  I have all the boxes for those too, and with the exception of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, they’re all like new.  I don’t know how ML:SS got squashed.  I try not to think on it too much.  With enough prodding it resembles its original splendor sometimes…

But I don’t store those games in their boxes.  It would be painfully inconvenient to open the box and dig them out every time I wanted to play them, not to mention the ongoing risk of box damage.  I don’t even keep PC games in their boxes, in spite of the encouragement I have received to do so.  I have display shelving for them, thank you very much.

PC games all have jewel cases or sleeves of some sort.  Console games all have their convenient and space efficient cases.  Even the DS games have their half-pint cases.  But nothing for my gba games.

That’s why half of them got lost somewhere during the move.  I found them all, eventually.  At least, I think it’s all of them.  But I found them nestled in nooks and crannies between my Series of Unfortunate Event books, in a random pocket in my backpack, in a random “office stuff” box.  Sure, I managed to bring them out of hiding, coaxing one after another back into the light, but they were like pets gone feral. There was a certain wildness about them.  Nothing tame and polished like my collection is supposed to be.  I need a solution.  I need some way to keep track of them all, and I need a way to keep them on the shelf with every other game.  They deserve at least that much.

Snackbar to my rescue.  They’ve been working on a DS/GBA case project for a while, and somehow I missed it.  Inside the half-pint DS case there’s a slot for a GBA game.  Only the omnipotent shadows who rule from on high in their giant Bowser-shaped castle can explain just why they did that, but I’d like to send them a thank-you postcard.  Apparently aforementioned rulers sell blank DS cases on the Nintendo site.  Again, I can’t imagine why, but they do.  It must be involve some far-flung future scheme. I wish them the best of luck.

So I can order a couple dozen cases, use Snackbar’s huge database to obtain sleeve graphics for my GBA games, print them off, and voila! I have attractive, space-efficient collars for my untamed catridges.  It’s genius.  It’s the perfect solution.  And it’s less than a doller per game.  In my mind such an investment to protect some of my favorite games is well worth it.

Kinko’s is going to know my face very well.  I will have 300dpi, full-color sleeves, and I will not accept anything less than perfect quality.  Employees beware.  I’m coming.

- Jinx

hazing clouds rain on my head