I’m a CIB kinda guy but there’s something about a pile of carts that makes me smile. It brings me back to being a kid when the carpet would be literered with loose carts and potatoe chips.
We all had our initials written in sharpie on the back of our carts and we’d throw them into a pile and draw one at random with our eyes closed. That was our next game to play!
Loose discs just seems like a careless mess and a spindle of burnt games never had the same appeal as a pile of carts.
I’m not a CIB guy and never will be, but I can understand why people would want to do that if they want to do that for their collections. As for me the game is the most important thing to have so I don’t care for the box or manual.
I understand that loose carts are fine and loose discs aren’t fine for many people, but personally at this point I don’t even do CIB for discs as I don’t have the space and I don’t need the box/case anymore for discs anyways. I do use disc spindles and keep them in a storage bin as well and I don’t have issues with that. When I get over 100 discs for each game system there’s simply no way I can fit all that in the storage bins I have in my room, definitely since I have a lot of consoles.
So for me, loose media is fine as long as it’s taken care of well and to save on space.
I buy loose carts because I only recently started experiencing the SNES. It’s annoying but the CIB are just way too expensive for what it is, and the box is usually too worn out for my taste anyway. TBH I don’t know what I would have done with the box had I been a Nintendo player in the 90s. Based on my Game Gear collection, I would have discarded the box but kept the manual preciously. Then again, those were portable games stored in a special carry bag. I try to buy the manual whenever it’s meaningful, but they’re difficult to find too.
I want to buy those new plastic boxes with custom inserts, but the shipping price makes it prohibitive to buy fewer than like 50 at a time. So I’m still waiting and collecting loose cartridges 
If I can’t admire the box and read the manual I’d rather just download the rom
That’s why I do CIB and it’s definitely quality over quantity with today’s prices.
I do love me some boxes and manuals, don’t get me wrong. I just know that it’s way too expensive to collect that way for NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64, GBA… that came in the cardboard. I would love to have that stuff, but I’d rather play the original carts more, hence me buying a lot of loose carts and being unhappy they have no print on the top of the Japanese ones!
Genesis games I usually try to get the box and manual, though. I dunno… those just don’t feel complete otherwise. Same goes for all the disc based media. I want all the original stuff then even if I am running out of room for storage in the open where it can be seen.
That said, some Genesis games, price has precluded the box and manual for me and I bought the loose cart.
I like CIB JP games when the price isn’t much more but I end up taking the games out of the boxes anyway and leaving the boxes as decoration. Why? Because every time you open those cardboard boxes you damage them just a bit more.
Hard to argue with having some of these fantastic boxes though:
OMG yes… I do love those Japanese boxes of that era. I would buy more of them if I could.
Front Mission: Gun Hazard music is amazing. It’s a fun game too, only about 3 hours in.
Composers via wikipedia:
Nobuo Uematsu
Yasunori Mitsuda
Junya Nakano
Masashi Hamauzu
[edit] for the record I game on a PVM with the built in mono speaker (smh) and it’s still amazing.
[edit 2] If I edit a reply it bumps the thread to the top?
[quote=“Timu321, post:203, topic:300”]I do use disc spindles and keep them in a storage bin as well and I don’t have issues with that
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I remember reading that you should store discs vertically since they might warp over time if they’re in a horizontal position, so that’s how I store mine on my shelf. But I never really questioned it. Is there any truth to that? Maybe it’s only true for vinyl records?
Omfg. That FFIV commercial.
I’ve never heard of that before. As for vinyl records that’s more likely to happen.
Nah. Vinyl is a soft material that can bend due to weight, temperature and gravity, but CDs are much sturdier. You shouldn’t worry about that. Humidity is a much bigger factor in CD degradation.
Polycarbonate can absolutely warp from gravity over time. At CD size I don’t think it is worth worrying about for the near term but if you want to try to keep your CD games in playable condition well into retirement age it is worth considering.
I don’t know why it took so long but I finally finished off my Megaman/Rockman collection with a copy of Rockman & Forte
Any worthwhile SNES arcade sticks to look into?
Briefly searching, the Capcom Fighter Power Stick comes up pretty well reviewed(?). I had a NES Advantage back in the day and thought it was pretty legit. The Super Advantage doesn’t seem to be as good per the reviews I have seen online though, which is disappointing.
The Hori Fighting Stick HSJ-12 is a great looking stick. Supposedly ‘easy’ to mod with a Seimitsu LS-32 and 30mm buttons. It’s a steel case too which is cool. Button positioning is a little forward of the stick compared to the DC/Agetec, High Grade and T.E. MadCatz sticks if that matters.
I purchased this a few months ago purely on the aesthetic…it’s garbage lol. Maybe I can mod it.
The Capcom Fighter Power Stick is probably the best mainstream option. They sold a lot of those so it’s easier to get. The Hori looks a lot nicer but I imagine that’s pricey?
I have a Fighter Stick SN which is the Ascii one. Never been much of a fan of it unfortunately. I should pull it out to try it again now 25 years later though…
Good point, it does seem pricey looking at current eBay listings. It’s a little more reasonable if you can get a proxy to ship a yahoo auction win over to you but then you risk import duty.
That Fighter Stick SN looks like it uses similar buttons and stick to the score master, does the stick click as you input directions? The score master is completely silent and has a spongy resistance to it, feels odd.
The Fighter Stick SN makes no noise. It is weridly spongy, yeah. It’s probably the worst stick I own the more I think about it, and I have the Sega Saturn official one too.
In hindsight, I’m sure it contributed to my frustration with the SNES and my love of the Sega Genesis where it was like everything was awesome when it came to arcade action on Sega’s system.
