Picked these up earlier this week and remembered to take a picture :o
6 Likes
No pick ups today but I found a gold mine of retro stores in Charleston, SC. We’re bringing my son home from school (Navy) and took a couple days to sight see while we’re here.
Today I visited Palmetto Games (great!) and The Game Room. Let me tell you, The Game Room has so much stuff in stock that I have rarely seen lately that if you are anywhere within a couple hours or even three that you should make the trip. Bring lots of dough, but know that you will probably find what you want and lots of stuff you didn’t know you wanted.
Palmetto had Panzer Dragoon Saga in stock as well as Burning Rangers. The Game Room had everything else for Saturn that’s valuable. There was just so much that I was overwhelmed and didn’t spring for anything. Hell, I probably missed stuff on the shelves because I was floored by the selection.
The Game Room
Yes, they had Snatcher in stock…
3 Likes
Two Game Boy pickups - Snow Bros Jr. and SNK’s Funny Field.
The latter was renamed to Dexterity in North America.
1 Like
I love the older Japanese GameBoy game boxes. They were so tinny and looked so good compared to Famicom game boxes. Same with the original Japanese Game Gear boxes as well. Ah, I miss those days. Now everything is in a boring standard BluRay case 
I guess it’s a miracle that Switch cases are not BluRay cases in the West after the made game cube games come in DVD cases. That looked so silly to me.
2 Likes
Ah yes, the nonsense notion of the size of the box representing the value of the thing inside it. Irritating to say the least. I very much appreciate the modest size of the Switch packaging even if it is still hilariously oversized.
3 Likes
I really like the Switch packaging, but I’d be fine if it were half the height tbh. That would be pretty cool given how thin those cases are.
I still like the big ol’ US Sega CD/Saturn cases, even if they’re always one drop away from complete destruction.
1 Like
That would actually be really cool. They’d be like a slightly smaller and thinner DS/3DS cases.
Yeah. I’d dig that. I’m sure they don’t do it so the box indicates it’s a home console game and not portable level. Have to make it look like it competes directly with PlayStation and Xbox. Are the cases the same in Japan? I have not bought a single import.
1 Like
Yeah the Switch cases are exactly the same in all regions. And I’m sure you’re right, they didn’t want to make them smaller due to perception of value and to a lesser extent, maybe theft. On the plus side, at least we have bigger artwork and manuals (although games rarely have those, now).
Yeah, the packaging for portable systems has always been intensely interesting compared to home systems, at least out of Japan.
Vita will probably be the last system with dinky cases, as you mention it’s great the Switch has PSP-sized cases itself!
2 Likes
Switch cases arw slightly different for Japan and Asia regiosn. Same size but if you have games from there see if you can spot the difference side by side.
I’m looking at my Japanese copy of Esp Ra De and not seeing the difference side by side with my North American Switch games.
1 Like
Check the side where they open, the japan/asia cases have a taper to the inset whereas US/EU cases are more squared off. Plus japan/asia cases have a ridge on that side that extends to the top/bottom.
Even more minor the cellophane “seal” is not sealed off for japan/asia and is easier to pull apart.
Okay, I see what you’re saying. Looks like the main difference is the US version (on the right) has a little indent where you can place your thumbs to open the case. The indent is missing on the Japanese case.
Switch cases are perfect for indie releases that come with manuals etc. they’re just the right size for cart and fat manual.
1 Like
Yeah, I can understand that option. I haven’t really purchased any indie things on Switch though. It’s mostly been big publisher stuff on cart (No More Heroes III might be indie enough?) and everything else digital. Most of my digital is arcade games and similar, though. I do most of my “indie gaming” on PC if I do it at all.
Oh there it is! I can’t even begin to imagine the thought process that went into this where they would need two designs based on region that are this similar but still different. The tops and bottoms when viewed from the spine are very subtley different too. One is more flat than the other.
Honestly I did not see this until you posted the picture.
1 Like
Yeah it blew my mind when I first noticed. This was after having a Switch and a majority of my games being Japan region for nearly two years.
1 Like