I finally found the means to actually play all the Super Nintendo games that I have been acquiring over the past few years with the purchase of a [[My Journey to Playing with Super Power – Thoughts on the Super NT|Super NT]]. I love the system. Now that I can actually play these games, I felt like my cartridges needed some sort of upgrade too. I’m a bit of a completionist when it comes to collecting and displaying my game collection. I love showing off the boxes and I have an immense attachment to the little paper booklets games used to come with called instruction manuals. When it is a game or series I care for, I try to own a complete copy of that game. I did it with all the GameCube _Zelda_ games about a year ago. I feel satisfied when a set is complete. For my SNES games, they are all loose carts. Most of the games I own for the SNES come in around $100+ for a complete-in-box set. Buying the box, manual, and game separate can sometimes be cheaper, but still is costly. Outside of the price, these boxes are 30-year-old cardboard boxes that vary in condition. These are inherently more applicable to showcasing than storing cartridges these days. A personal example of this is my N64 copy of _Ocarina of Time_: The box still has the original shrink wrap around all sides except the opening flap. I’ve removed the game and sealed that box right back up in its protective plastic casing. Looks real nice on a shelf (or stored in a cabinet in my case), but still leaves the game loose. Some of my SNES games came with [tiny plastic dust covers](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1007/9564/products/sac006b_df9199a6-3348-4960-bc73-b95948dbdf81_grande.jpg?v=1457307413) that slide over the bottom of the cartridge. I have three of them, so I chose the three games I wanted to protect the most. Not a fair shake to the other gems I do happen to own. All of this to say, I found a solution that meets my needs quite nicely. I happened across these [SNES game cases dubbed BitBoxes from Stone Age Gamer](https://stoneagegamer.com/bitbox-snes-sfc-game-case.html). They offer these sturdy looking boxes in bundles and provide art that you may either print yourself or have their printer create and cut for a fee. They were exactly what I was looking for. Great looking boxes with even nicer art to protect my carts and show them off at the same time. I ordered 10 of them without the document straps and printed the art myself. ![[img_9749.jpg.webp]] The art selection is real expansive. For most games I looked at, there was an option for a horizontal layout that matches the original boxes and a vertical option that takes the art of the original boxes and unifies the design. [A good example is _Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island_](http://bitbox.zone/bitbox_art_order/snes_cover_order.php?mode=preview). The vertical art captures the spirit of the original box. The back text and images are identical; even the barcodes match! If you can’t already tell, I opted for the vertical design. They all came out of my printer looking sharp and clean. When the boxes arrived, I was surprised at how thick and sturdy the plastic was. The whole box’s thickness reminds me of a VHS tape box. The inside has a cross cutout in the middle. US SNES game cartridges go vertically, while Japanese and PAL game cartridges go horizontally. The sleeve the art goes into has only one way in with the bottom being sealed off, kind of like a protective sleeve for a playing card. These are high quality boxes. I do wish I had gotten the document straps though. They are just little plastic straps the cross the left side of the box interior for holding the instruction manuals. I only have one SNES manual (_Super Metroid_ and it is missing the cover). It fits perfectly in the prepared area, but it doesn’t stay put when opening the box, since there is no strap. Certainly something to keep in mind if you have or plan on buying instruction manuals for any games. ![[sm_manual.jpg.webp]] Top to bottom, I am throughly impressed. Stone Age Gamer sells boxes for NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Master System, Genesis, 32X, and Game Gear. I am already tallying up what it will cost me some day to buy boxes for my N64 and Game Boy collections.