the1hatman

Nice write up! Little sad to learn Slap Shot isn't so great though. I'll still get a copy when I have a chance but little bummed to hear the original is better. NHL was the sports game my dad and I played together the most so it holds a special place for me. Maybe some of the homebrew wizards out there will churn out a fixed version of Slap Shot or even their own better version? Would be cool to see a hockey game made for Intellivoice the way World Series is too!

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the encouragement. I make reproduction boxes for my collection to house the rare carts that I have been lucky enough to come across but could never afford complete versions of, so I had a pretty good idea about how to approach this repair. It was really just a matter of printing a full repro and then splicing in the parts that were damaged instead of just putting together the whole box from scratch. I'd rather save as much original material as possible and my repro stuff is not as thick as the source packaging anyway so having the original back, flaps and 3 of the tabs was a nice bonus.

The new cart retainer and manual pocket make getting to the game and materials easier than the original center-bottom alignment. Keeps things from falling out of the bottom as well which I have always found annoying about the older boxes in my collection. i would never change a complete original box but since this one was so far gone I figured what the heck: And so the repair is complete. Not the prettiest thing in my collection but it beats having lose carts and instructions. Again, this is not something I would do to a mostly intact box or anything rare but since this had little to no collectible value left anyway I wanted to make it as complete as possible. It works for my meager collection and makes a nice placeholder until I can afford a better copy. One big happy family again:

The reassembled box is actually super sturdy from all the added cardstock support and laminate. It's almost as stiff as Parker Brothers style packaging and easily stands up on its own with all of the contents inside:

As there was no cart retention section left I had to make my own out of cardstock. I use the Coleco style since it is easier to create and mount. It also reinforces the side of the box it is mounted on and helps prevent crushing. I also added a manual pocket to keep the instructions and overlays from moving around or falling out of the bottom flap of the box. I use the same setup for the reproductions I make as well: As a bit of extra sentimental touch I mounted the pieces I had to cut away to the inside of the box. They won't really be visible once the box is complete but they will always remain a part of the original.

Again, I wanted to keep as much of the original box as possible even though cutting more away might have made for cleaner lines. I felt it was important to keep everything that did not absolutely have to go even though I was able to reprint the entire front and side. Sentimental about the product I guess. Closeup of the front seam: Closeup of the bottom seam: Closeup of the left side seam with some original box overlap:

Next I had to splice in the new section under the remaining original box sections: All of this is accomplished with a combination of double sided tape and press laminate cut into strips. Glue would not seal the edges and would not flex at the side seams properly without splitting. Doesn't look as clean but this box was destroyed anyway so the whole procedure is a bit of a Hail Mary anyway (lame football joke):

I next reinforced the crushed right side and bottom flap panels with fitted cardstock. This gives the original damaged areas new support: Closeup of the flap repair: I then printed out the new front and left side using complete images from online: I had to leave some overlap on the left edge as there is a gap in the original on that side.

So I picked up a cheap copy of Super Pro Football as I didn't have it (don't judge me, I'm poor) which was not in the greatest condition. I made the decision to try and repair it even before I hit buy it now. As you can see the front artwork and most of the left side of the box were damaged/missing and the cart retention section was completely gone: I started by cutting away and saving (more on that later) the damaged edges of the front and side. I tried to leave as much of the original box as possible but all of the artwork had to go as lining up the new print would have been beyond my skill:

The more I read about this the sadder I am that I lack the funds to go to Portland this year Game still sounds amazing though

That's another possibility. My copy was a US release with the USA marked G2 catalog. Cracked the shrinkwrap myself and never changed out the contents as they were all still mint with the small exception of the overlays leaving a slight impression on the front of the manual. You have to hold it up to the light at just the right angle to even notice it though. My guess is either there are US releases with both the G2 and G3 catalogs that changed from one to the next as time went on or a very limited run was produced with leftover G2 books at the very beginning of L'N'Cs release just to use them up. We will likely never know for sure. I really believe there is merit on keeping a checklist of newly opened games and their contents by serial number, when possible.

I have a belt sander and would a love copy after the Expo... What? I really do have a sander. STOP JUDGING ME!!!

Now you're talkin party time! Let me know if you need some more. I have some extra LV P&B shells laying around doing nothing :-)

I am terrible at Truckin as well. Even after finally getting a copy of the map I still can't get the gist of that game down.

It looks really cool though. Keep up the good work and most importantly, have fun with it!

I haven't really kept records on such a thing, just used an example I knew from the top of my head. I can keep an account going forward though. We should probably keep up a database on such a thing for research if nothing else. Many of us like to have everything in our collections be as original as possible with all items available at the time of release so such information would be very valuable for the community as a whole.

If you are in the US just message me your address and I'll send you a set. They are nothing special but they'll do the job. Call me a traditionalist, but I like to have the overlay in while playing a game. Now I only play about 15 of the games regularly, and not all of them are games that had overlays, so there aren't many overlays in my collection that are in danger. I prefer to make my own and use them to save my originals.

I have to disagree. I have opened the same game and seen multiple versions of the catalog. It all depends on the date of the particular run for that game. For instance my mint Lock'N'Chase came with the G3 version. Now is it possible some A versions were still in stock early in the run for some games? Sure, but it can never be certain as to what was originally packed with each original release. For my collection I will default to the catalog list and go with the version where each game is listed for the first time (with the known exception of Pinball).

I also try to match original catalogs and warranty cards to all of my complete games as well. Since there are multiple versions of each game released at different times you can end up with versions of the same game that came with different catalogs depending on that particular copy's release date. To simplify, and because this is one of things that we will likely never know for certain, I just use the list on the back of the catalogs as a reference. So the blue covers are the oldest (0073350) followed by the black 0007-3350A then the 0007-3350G. Since the game list grows with each release I just go with the oldest listing on the blue as the games that need that version and so on. In effect... Blue 00073350 (-G1) Games NFL Football US Ski Team Skiing Major League Baseball Auto Racing Boxing Tennis PBA Bowling NBA Basketball PGA Golf NASL Soccer NHL Hockey Armor Battle Sea Battle Snafu Triple Action Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack Las Vegas Roulette Horse Racing ABPA Backgammon Checkers Dungeons & Dragons Math Fun Word Fun Space Battle Astrosmash Space Armada Black 0007-3350A Night Stalker Sub Hunt Frog Bog Tron I (Deadly Discs) Tron II (Maze A Tron) Space Spartans Bomb Squad B-17 Bomber Royal Dealer Utopia Reversi Space Hawk Star Strike **Pinball is listed on this catalog but was delayed until 1983 yet does not appear on the more recent G3 version of the catalog. Black 0007-3350G3 Lock 'N' Chase (Tron) Solar Sailor USCF Chess All of the 1983 releases came with the G3 catalog as well even though they do not appear on the back cover. This includes Pinball from the Black A catalog. Vectron Sharp Shot Shark! Shark! Burgertime Mission-X Buzz Bombers Pinball Loco Motion AD&D Treasure of Tarmin Bump 'n' Jump Motocross Kool-AId Man The Power of He-Man Scooby Doo's Maze Craze Mind Strike Melody Blaster The Jetsons Ways With Words Mr. Basic Meets Bits 'N Bytes World Series Major League Baseball Again, we will never know for sure how accurate this is and I'm certain there were games on this list that were released with more than one version of the catalog at different times. But I think it makes sense if you are going for earliest, first run release of each game to pair them with the catalog in which they first appear on the back listing.

Here are the River Raid and Dig Dug overlays I made to use with my carts. I don't have a very good scan of the RR ones to work with and I never seem to get the color right but they are good for use in the controller. These are printed on high gloss copy stock with a half laminate backing for durability. I haven't managed to wear out a set yet but I don't imagine they will last forever. I'm working on creating ones like this for all the games I still actually play to save my originals for good.

Thank you! The Manual Pocket was an idea I was considering for years since older INTV boxes had a bad habit of letting the printed materials move around and get beat up too much or fall out of the bottom altogether. I'd love to put them in my original boxes but there is no way to secure one without taking the box apart or damaging the inside of it. No way I risk that with original materials. I figured since I can't recreate the original center-bottom INTV cart retention setup in the repros anyway, I might as well try out the manual holder in them. It works great except for the Atari releases. Their manuals are so wide there is no room to strap the sides of the pocket down. Might try a smaller overlay pocket on those though.