Gaming GBA Games in DS Cases!

[thaddius]

So I wanted to organize my 70+ GBA games into cases. When I first got a GBA SP in '03 or '04, I got Mario & Luigi: Super Saga with it. Soon after, I got a flash cart and never bought another GBA game while they were still being made. Now,for the last few years I've been slowly collecting all the best games for the GBA (still ended up with some not-so-greats, but whatever). Now all these great games have just been sitting in a box. Recently I decided I wanted to do something special.

So I went to Nintendo.com's store (50 max per order) and bought some extra cases, and then went to The Cover Project and downloaded a bunch of pre-formatted DS-case-sized GBA covers. You can saunter down to your local Staples (like I did) and get their print shop to print them up as is, without changing the size, onto regular 8.5 X 11 inch paper. Tell them to get as much of the image on the paper as possible, and you're set.

I printed off a bunch of the covers, and cut them myself (with an xacto knife/box cutter and a ruler):

Here's my DS cases:

Now, as some of you know, some GBA games are not the standard size, so for some games you have to modify the cases. I did this to one with a box cutter:

And Drill Dozer fits perfectly in there now:

And this is the end result:

Now, because I can only get 50 at a time, some games didn't end up in cases this time:

Also, there are the large games that didn't make the cut (haha):

And there are others that I couldn't find covers for:

(Secret Agent Barbie makes sense, but not the others)

And of course, no one makes covers for flash carts:

And none of these things will ever fit in any cases:

(WarioWare Twisted is too thick to ever fit in a case)

And, sadly, manuals don't fit in either:

Even vertically:

And this is what they all look like now:

Hooray!

Now, they're not perfect looking (they don't go all the way to the edges, they're not perfect colours, etc) but they seem fine to me! You can get it done on expensive paper if you like, but I felt like that'd be a waste. Now I can set them up on a shelf next to my DS and 3DS collection!

Just in case anyone cares, here's a list of GBA games I'm still looking for:

Spoiler

Alien Hominid (European)
Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey & Minnie
Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie
Disney's Magical Quest 3 Starring Mickey & Donald
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Final Fantasy VI Advance
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Megaman & Bass
Megaman Battle Network Series (except for 3 Blue)
NES Classics (the rest of them)
Ninja 5-O
Pokemon Emerald
River City Ransom EX
Sonic Advance Series
Super Puzzle Fighter II
THPS series
Bit Generations games (Japan) (except Orbital)
Gulroz Chang Poo/Guru Logic Champ (Japan)
Mother 3 (Japan)
Mother 1+2 (Japan)

 

[Bart Lemming]

They look great! That's how Ninty should've packaged all the Gameboy games in the first place! I though that ever since the NGPC was released over here with the lovely boxes for its games...

I'm sure they'll look pretty on your shelves. I plan on doing something similar with my N64 collection once it's completed but maybe I'll do the same for my GBA games too as I have quite a large collection. Hmm, I wonder if I can even buy replacement DS cases over here... *Goes off to check on the Big N's site...*

 

[Deleted-236924]

Awesome!
That Nintendo.com link is broken BTW.

I want to make a case for Pokémon Ruby and Emerald now.
If I print them with my regular printer at home, would that do the job?

 

[linuxGuru]

Whoa! Those cases look really cool.

 

[adamshinoda]

A bunch of great games, even games with special cartridges like WarioWare Twisted, Boktai and Yoshi Topsy Turvy o.O you sir are a great GBA game collector
I'm feeling jealous like a six-year-old kid

 

[thaddius]

Awesome!
That Nintendo.com link is broken BTW.

Really? Works for me. I didn't use the exact link to the cases, if that's what you mean. I just gave a link to the store.

For those who want to find it their own way, go to store.nintendo.com (if your'e Canadian, click on the Canadian flag that shows up when you get there), click on 'Part, Accessories, & Manuals', then on 'All Game Boy Models' or 'Nintendo DS', then choose a system, then Parts & Accessories. The cases should be there.

For a direct link (if it works), go here.

You can buy 1 for $1, 5 for $4, or 10 for $7.

I want to make a case for Pokémon Ruby and Emerald now.
If I print them with my regular printer at home, would that do the job?

If wouldn't be the best quality... I spent something like $25 for 63 of them (it's hard to tell because I got a school project done at the same time on expensive paper, so don't quote that price) at Staples, so it's not that expensive to get a couple done there.

EDIT: Just so people know, I also got some DS covers done. Like this little number that launch DS owners might remember:

 

[Deleted-236924]

Awesome!
That Nintendo.com link is broken BTW.

Really? Works for me. I didn't use the exact link to the cases, if that's what you mean. I just gave a link to the store.

For those who want to find it their own way, go to store.nintendo.com (if your'e Canadian, click on the Canadian flag that shows up when you get there), click on 'Part, Accessories, & Manuals', then on 'All Game Boy Models' or 'Nintendo DS', then choose a system, then Parts & Accessories. The cases should be there.

For a direct link (if it works), go here.

You can buy 1 for $1, 5 for $4, or 10 for $7.

I want to make a case for Pokémon Ruby and Emerald now.
If I print them with my regular printer at home, would that do the job?

If wouldn't be the best quality... I spent something like $25 for 63 of them (it's hard to tell because I got a school project done at the same time on expensive paper, so don't quote that price) at Staples, so it's not that expensive to get a couple done there.

Do you have an idea on how the quality would be?
I could use the best quality, if needed.

 

[thaddius]

Do you have an idea on how the quality would be?
I could use the best quality, if needed.

Not sure, no. You can certainly try it, but my experience with home printing is that it's washed out. If I were you, I'd test it out on one before I tried anything else. And when you go to print, make sure you tell it NOT to fit the image to the size of the page. That'll mess up the proportions.

 

[TripleSMoon]

This is actually seriously impressive. Awesome work!

 

[431unknown]

I've been looking at doing this exact same thing for my GBA games. How would this work for GB/GBC games? Have you done any for them yet?

 

[thaddius]

I've been looking at doing this exact same thing for my GBA games. How would this work for GB/GBC games? Have you done any for them yet?

It would work the same way, you just have to cut out a portion of the DS holder to get them to fit.

I might do that next...

 

[Another World]

want to sell that m3 lite in the gba case you got pictured there? =)

this is a cool project, a nice way to organize your games.

-another world

 

[Uranium]

Very nice job! I think I may do this when I have time.

 

[DinohScene]

Nice!

I still got a lot of the original GBA cardboard boxes but this looks really neat!

 

[h8uthemost]

Nifty. I have a ton of loose GBA cartridges that I would like to do something with.

Way back when the Babagges in my local mall would sell GBA games by their empty box. So they had no cartridges on the floor, just empty boxes. So I would get in and steal the boxes(most had the manual too) of the games I needed. I'm sure they're no longer doing this, so your method might be a good substitute(not to mention safer).

 

[thaddius]

I still got a lot of the original GBA cardboard boxes but this looks really neat!

I have a few of the original boxes, but it keep those folded up in a storage container somewhere. I find this method to be a lot neater looking. Not to mention that I sort of enjoy meticulous tasks like this one.

 

[astrangeone]

Awesome!

I sold most of my gba collection back then. I kept Pokemon Ruby, Emerald, leafgreen....although.

 

[Todderbert]

Nice cases. Lovin your gba flash collection. I'm gaining on you, was able to pick up a M3 Perfect Mini the other day.

 

[mjax]

Very neat! I really like this...

 

[thaddius]

Small update:

Not only did the rest of my cases arrive (so now all my GBA games have cases, not all have covers though :/), but I also found out that you can cut a piece out of the cases to make GBA manuals fit.

(credit goes to tutorial I found at The Cover Project)

Also I'm in the process of using some templates (also found at The Cover Project) to make covers for some of my flash carts as well as some games that don't have covers yet. Huzzah!