GBA Would you buy reprinted GBA boxes?

[KenaiPhoenix]

Ok, so a little story:

When I had my GBA I didnt have money to get more games (and I asked for the expensive Gamecube games in my birthday). Around 2013 I have my first job and among the things I wanted to get was more games for my GBA. I say Metroid Zero Mission, only cartridge, for around 10 bucks (in my local currency), which I just jump to get. Years will pass and I wanted to give the game another spin, but it didnt work: it has run out of battery. "Well thats weird..." i though, and after searching I realize I had and "alternative" GBA game, and that there are A LOT of these games.

So, I searched and found a sealed Pokemon Ruby for like 25 bucks, "alternative" ofc. I Ordered it and the quality is REALLY good. The cartridge doesnt use battery from what I can see, but the quality was really good.

This got me thinking, I lost all my GBA games boxes when i was a kid, specially one of my favorite games: Mech Platoon. I searched for online used boxes but the prices are just ridiculous. So i try to see if someone reprint them, like the pokemon box of the game I got, and even if it was hard I manage to find a guy that do it (mostly just sold the Pokemon already made), and even if its quality is not as good as the one of the Pokemon, I though it was really good as you can see:

So, would you reprint the boxes of your GBA (GB or GBColor)?

 

[Deleted member 560402]

Yes, totally. Golden Sun, Dexter's Laboratory: Deesaster Strikes, Sonic Advance, i love GBA box art.

 

[Luz de Luna Luz de Luna Luz de Luna's icon]

I'd do that for literally every console -- it's just a good idea!

 

[Sotoka]

Funny I've considered doing this myself for PS2 games just because I like the box arts. I'd 100% do it

 

[Potapota]

It would be neat I guess but can regular inkjet printers do thin cardboard like this?

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Finding most GBA games as "cartridge only" on eBay has stopped me from trying to collect them. If there's a cheap & easy way to reprint good looking boxes for the games, then sure. I think a friend of mine is looking into getting spare DVD cases so they can print covers for their disc games.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Since I've gotten used to bulk storage of my games like wallets and multi cartage boxes I don't have a any nostalgia or longing for the old boxes of the few GBA titles but I did get one when I bought a reprint of FFT Advance with those plastic cases with the original box reprint stretched around it, I liked it, very nice, same with Tactics Ogre on the SNES. Maybe I like them more for being plastic than the paper box I knew they original came in that makes them feel worth keeping than try to find boxes for games that I grew up with that got discarded? Or maybe I have such a low GBA library that I don't think it's worth the effort.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Nope. It would just drive me crazy knowing it's not the real thing. I would rather just buy another authentic CIB copy no matter how much it costs.

 

[Mal]

Honestly, i would say if it doesnt bother you then go for it, right?

to me i like the idea of owning one in a box thats not completly smush to pieces by use or that its just by itself (only catridge i mean), doesnt matter if its official or not.

also i agree it looks great!

 

[qw90700]

Years will pass and I wanted to give the game another spin, but it didnt work: it has run out of battery. "Well thats weird..." i though, and after searching I realize I had and "alternative" GBA game, and that there are A LOT of these games.

So, I searched and found a sealed Pokemon Ruby for like 25 bucks, "alternative" ofc. I Ordered it and the quality is REALLY good. The cartridge doesnt use battery from what I can see, but the quality was really good.

I'm not sure what you mean by "alternative". If it means "pirated" actually official GBA games have batteries either for clock and/or saving. I know because my official ones had "died save data" issue because damn cheap Nintendo using battery, and in a Pokemon game I wanted to play it after a long time and it said "because battery died time-based in-game events can't happen" or something. That's why I threw my GBA and its games out of my window and fully transitioned to emulation.

Can't say for sure about if a game having battery or the lack of it would mean it's pirated, but battery way is cheaper way.

As to answer your question: When the games are not disc games I see no point for covers, boxes takes unnecessary space but when for disc games they are necessary to keep the disc preserved ok. Back then I bought pirated PS2 games that had no decent cover so I made my cover meself. I used to buy cheap covers from pirated movies -> print the game cover from a place that sells school stuff. I also funny cover for some games or I seriously designed fan artwork covers for my favorite games as cover art.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

It would be neat I guess but can regular inkjet printers do thin cardboard like this?

Well, the guy that made my Mech Platoon box it just some plastic cover glued to box, so I think you can do it. Back when I was researching there were some YT channels with some kind of guides about how to do this.

I'm not sure what you mean by "alternative". If it means "pirated" actually official GBA games have batteries either for clock and/or saving. I know because my official ones had "died save data" issue because damn cheap Nintendo using battery, and in a Pokemon game I wanted to play it after a long time and it said "because battery died time-based in-game events can't happen" or something. That's why I threw my GBA and its games out of my window and fully transitioned to emulation.

lol, yeah, 100% pirate. Now, from what I researched back then, most of the "real" GBA cartridge dont use battery, but mostly all of the "old" pirate one did. Now, newer pirated GBA games cartridges doesnt need it, but ofc more than one will just stick to just put a battery and call it a day.

And Metroid Zero Mission doesnt "originally" need a battery, but my pirate copy does.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

Sure, why not?

 

[qw90700]

lol, yeah, 100% pirate. Now, from what I researched back then, most of the "real" GBA cartridge dont use battery, but mostly all of the "old" pirate one did. Now, newer pirated GBA games cartridges doesnt need it, but ofc more than one will just stick to just put a battery and call it a day.

And Metroid Zero Mission doesnt "originally" need a battery, but my pirate copy does.

Sure but thinking it in the context of "most" will be misleading because for saving and to be cheap official GBA games used battery as it was very common even in Nintendo games, also pirated games used. This is not a clear sign and sure way to get which game is pirate version at all, other stuffs are needed to be checked for it.

 

[nobitakun]

I couldn't. My OCD wouln't allow me to sleep in the night thinking I don't have something original from factory, that's why I also can't buy second hand loose games, only complete, and in very good condition the very least.

But otherwise I think it is a great alternative for people to collect and display nicely their games, as long as the prints are good quality.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I couldn't. My OCD wouln't allow me to sleep in the night thinking I don't have something original from factory, that's why I also can't buy second hand loose games, only complete, and in very good condition the very least.

But otherwise I think it is a great alternative for people to collect and display nicely their games, as long as the prints are good quality.

It's kinda weird for me. I would be ok making a reprint myself, but I wouldn't be ok buying one off of eBay

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

I couldn't. My OCD wouln't allow me to sleep in the night thinking I don't have something original from factory, that's why I also can't buy second hand loose games, only complete, and in very good condition the very least.

But otherwise I think it is a great alternative for people to collect and display nicely their games, as long as the prints are good quality.

I pray for you wallet...

I tried to get some used boxes for my games... but it was incredible expensive. And I would also need to hope for the delivery company to threat the box carefully.

 

[nobitakun]

I pray for you wallet...

I tried to get some used boxes for my games... but it was incredible expensive. And I would also need to hope for the delivery company to threat the box carefully.

Yeah, but it has its ups and downs. As I have only that option I usually end not buying old games, so I save the money. I don't pay for a second hand game more than its cost new when it was released + inflation of course. The few occasions I've recently bought old games is because I found them way lower than their speculated price.

Thanks to this, I focus mainly on new games, so I don't allow them to go high in prices before I buy them, to avoid repeating the same mistakes.