Gaming History: Game Cases

Although not an integral part of the gaming experience, especially nowadays with digital copies of games being sold, the packages that video games are presented in can have an impact on various parts of gaming culture. For one thing, a boxed SNES game is worth far more than a boxed Mega Drive game on average, purely because Nintendo's cardboard boxes were often cast aside when gamers were trying to get to their cartridges, whereas Mega Drive games came in plastic cases, with a storage part for the cartridge itself, allowing Sega fans to easily store their cartridge whilst not playing the game.

(Fairchild Channel F game with box and manual - 1976)

In the first generation of consoles, most systems had inbuilt modes which didn't require the use of cartridges or seperate video games. Even those that did, such as the Magnavox Odyssey tended include the cartridges with the system, thus eliminating the need for individually packaged games. The first console to have proper boxed games, as we know them today was the Fairchild Channel F with it's 27 cartridge library. Most boxes for the system featured simple pictures related to the games on the cartridge itself.

The Atari 2600 also followed this basic structure for boxing their games, although with slightly thinner and longer boxes which had more cardboard innards due to the smaller size of Atari cartridges. 2600 games also featured much more interesting artwork on both the game boxes and the cartridges themselves, although often this lead to disappointment that the game didn't look as cool as its cover.

(Commodore Plus/4 Game - Petals Of Doom and Case - 1984)

Before many of the popular 3rd generation consoles had found their feet, a few home computers such as the Commodore 16 and ZX Spectrum had games which were being released on cassette tapes, the cases for which were very similar to those that stored music. While the cassettes themselves were often a single colour, without pictures of much text even, the insert in the case featured artwork not unlike that of Atari 2600 games, and a manual as well when folded out. While tapes weren't the optimal video game format, it's interesting to note the similarities to both tapes and earlier consoles.

(Master System game, with case and manual - 1987)

           (NES game, with box and protective styrofoam - 1990)

The most sucessful consoles of the third generation took different approaches to how their games were presented to consumers; Nintendo went for cardboard boxes to house their large, flat NES carts whereas Sega decided on plastic cases with an informational sleeve underneath a layer of clear plastic as well as a place to slot the cartridge inside the case, and somewhere to store the manual. As you can probably guess, the NES boxes were widely discarded by gamers, but Master System boxes were more likely to be kept, resulting in a scarcity of boxed NES games nowadays when compared to Master System games.

(SNES game, with protective cardboard, box and manual - 1992)

(Mega Drive game, with box and manual - 1990)  

The story was much the same  in the fourth generation with Sega opting once again for plastic cases with a place to store their games and Nintendo going for cardboard boxes and protective cardboard sleeves which made games less easily accessible. The Turbo Grafx 16 stored its small card like games in what were essentially CD cases, and the Neo Geo AES stored its frankly huge cartridges in plastic boxes, much like those of the Mega Drive. 

       (PS1 game with case and manual - 1997)

(N64 game with protective cardboard, box and manual - 1998)

As Sony introduced themselves as new competitors in the video game industry, the also introduced a new type of game case for storing discs rather than cartridges. Compact and well designed, the game title could be read from the side, and the disc was held tightly in place inside of the case. With Nintendo being the only major games company not to switch to discs from cartridges their overall package design stayed very similar, with a protective plastic holder inside of a cardboard box. Sega's design for Saturn game cases featured a thinner version of the Mega Drive design to hold its discs.

(PS2 game with case and manual - 2005)

   (Xbox game with case and manual - 2003)

In the sixth generation, both Microsoft and Sony used the standard DVD case style for the game cases, with an insert for cover art/the back of the box, clips to hold a manual in place and somewhere to store the disc itself. While the PS2 case features somewhere to put a memory card (even though you'd never have as many as you did games), the Xbox case doesn't bother with this due to the internal storage of the Microsoft device. This is very similar to designs that we still see today as it's both functional and easy to produce. The only real complaint I've ever had of these is their tendency to shatter when stepped on (unintentionally of course).

  (Dreamcast game with case and manual - 2001)

(Gamcube game with case and manual - 2003)

For Dreamcast games, Sega went with a similar design to the PS1 cases although both the front and back opened with storage for 2 discs per case as well as a manual. Although these do have better storage capacity than other cases in the 6th generation, the plastic used for both the hinges and to hold the game in place is fairly weak and can break very easily. As for the Gamecube, besides the smaller space to hold the disc it's essentially the same as a PS2 case, save for the embossed "Nintendo Gamecube" text inside.

(Wii game with case and manual - 2010)

(PS3 game with case, manual and special content - 2011)

In the seventh generation, Wii and Xbox 360 games remained very much like DVD cases with small upgrades from their previous designs. The PS3 cases however became smaller, like Blu-ray cases with internal art on the back of the insert as well as the front in some cases. With the PS4 and Xbox One both adopting similar design choices, possibly to save on the amount of plastic used in the cases, the PS3 set the benchmark for modern game cases, improving on the PS2 case design.

The final case I'll be taking a look at is that of the WiiU, the only 8th generation console not to adopt a smaller box. This isn't hugely surprising as Nintendo didn't adopt plastic cases or discs until the 6th generation and tend to different somewhat from the competition anyway. Essentially WiiU cases are light blue Wii cases; I can see very little difference between the two, but as with most companies, the overall design seems to have stabilised toward an optimal format. 

While Dreamcast and PS1 cases might have been more than a bit fragile and NES, SNES and N64 boxes ended up being thrown out as trash in many cases, it's hard to deny that game cases have come on a journey since 1976. While the Master System almost had it right in 1987 with plastic cases that had room for a manual and stored the cartridge tightly in a slot, small modifications and experiments on the design have brought us to where we are today.