Systems with highest and lowest boxed/CIB game ratios?

[Blazing Lazers]

I was going through my Studio II spares just now, and it seems to me that the games that come up for sale, either on Ebay or Craigslist, individually or in lots, are CIB much, much more often than they are loose. This got me thinking about which platforms have games that are the most and least likely to be complete, or at least boxed, when the games come up for sale. I'd love to hear if anyone else has noticed this as well, or what systems they'd say have games with the best and worst completeness ratios.

 

I'd have to say that Studio II games are right at or near the top in terms of them still being complete from what I've noticed over the years. The systems rarely are, but the games usually are, though that could just be because they weren't really played much by their original owners. Only the US Neo Geo AES titles really seem to come close (likely due to their cost) prior to the more recent generations of DVD/Blu-Ray based games, and even a lot of those games for the post-2000 years are disc only. Nuon might actually be the platform with the next best game-completeness ratios, likely for much the same reasons as the Studio II.

 

Games for the Gameboys, NES and 2600 seem to be the least likely to still be complete or even boxed, with the SNES and N64 not far behind. Intellivision and Colecovision don't have particularly good ratios there, either, from what I've noticed.

 

I've also noticed some systems' games, like those on the Genesis, actually do have a fairly good chance of still having their boxes (at least around here in the wild), but the manuals are almost always missing. It's as if nobody ever could be bothered to keep them. Missing manuals also seems to be a thing with a lot of disc based games, too. Though on a lot of newer stuff I've often passed on a copy of a game in the wild or at a store because it was missing a manual, only to later find out the game didn't come with one in the first place due to publishers cheaping out "environmentally friendly packaging".

 

[Seob]

In europe the later released videopac games are also mostly complete in box, due to the sturdy plastic clamshell packaging.

Edited June 12, 2017 by Seob

[DickNixonArisen]

yeah obv. the hard plastic cases for SMS/GEN titles tend to stick around... INTV boxes were pretty nice and I think they way most of them opened like a book kind of encouraged people to keep them more than ones that opened at the top maybe? I see way more INTV boxes retained than Atari boxes. Not that either are really 'common' in the wild.

[carlsson]

It is also much harder for e.g. an eager kid to rip apart a Genesis plastic case than a cardboard box for most other systems. The hard plastic Videopac games probably requires a hammer or other tool to actually smash, if your inclination in life is to break things.

[enoofu]

Generally Computer games such as DOS and C64 had their boxes saved since boxes use to be filled with goodies

[Blazing Lazers]

I hadn't considered the later Videopac releases- never even seen them in the wild. Only at shows and with other collectors. Yep, those would definitely still be around. The mention of the gatefold opening on the Inty boxes reminds me of how Arcadia 2001 games here in the US have a similar flap that opens up, and that's a platform where I'd have to say a lot of the games have a good chance of still being complete or boxed. Definitely loose games for both systems that turn up for sale, but a surprising amount still have the box too- certainly more than most other systems from the time.

[carlsson]

For a similar gatefold opening reason, it seems a vast majority of the Interton VC-4000 (which coincidentally is an older "cousin" to the Arcadia) games also are boxed, though some might lack the controller overlays and the boxes may be rather tatty.

[high voltage]

N-Gage, usually boxed

[godslabrat]

It actually almost enrages me how many Sega games AREN'T boxed, considering you got a really nice box with the game. Some people just can't care for their stuff.

 

And disc games that are disc-only? That's almost criminal.

[BassGuitari]

When I read the topic title, my first thought was the RCA Studio II for most boxed games.

For least, it's hard to say. At the risk of stating the obvious, I think anything that came in a cardboard or card-stock box (which wasn't supposed to be used to store stuff, like Intellivision, Odyssey 2, Studio II, Channel F, or Atari VCS gatefolds) had far greater chance of being disposed of. Speaking from experience, when I was growing up we had NES, Game Boy, Genesis, Game Gear, PlayStation, and briefly, N64; only the Genesis and PlayStation box/cases survived.

Maybe NES? The PlayStation had more games than the NES IIRC, but they had those nice jewel cases people tended to keep (though they were also prone to breakage); the NES had gobs of games too, but card-stock boxes for the vast majority of them which a lot of people chucked.

Edited June 12, 2017 by BassGuitari

[carlsson]

Possibly the SNES fared even worse than the NES when it came to getting rid of boxes, or at least I believe the difference in collector value between loose and complete in box is even greater on the Super Nintendo.

[enoofu]

Possibly the SNES fared even worse than the NES when it came to getting rid of boxes, or at least I believe the difference in collector value between loose and complete in box is even greater on the Super Nintendo.

Remembered it was troublesome to rebox the carts since they had those box inserts plus SNES cart had those plastic dust-covers which worked ok

[crazydean]

SNES and GB boxes were super thin and cheap, even compared to NES and other cardboard boxes. So it's no surprise they are hard to find.

 

TG-16 boxes are difficult to find too. Many of those games would come in a case with a thin cardboard box around it to make it a little bigger. The cardboard was typically tossed while the case was kept to hold the game.

[icemanxp300]

Cardboard vs plastic pretty much sums it up. Plastic was saved, cardboard was tossed.

[StopDrop&Retro]

GameBoy and GameGear probably have the lowest CIB game ratio. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a GameGear game CIB out in the wild.

 

Highest I'm betting would be Switch, even though it's cheating because it's so new. But the carts are so small that you can't just leave them around and even if you carry them in a pocket while on the go, I'm sure you still keep the cases where you keep your dock.

[7800fan]

Oddysey^2 seems to have a very high boxed rate. I figure 2 out of 3 O^2 games I find in the wild are CIB and that's easy about 50 CIB games in my collection (and about 25 loose) Box tended to fall apart easily so it can't be that. I guess it's because O^2 didn't have a large market share and seemed to favor older gamer that more games remained boxed for many years.

[Tanooki]

Possibly the SNES fared even worse than the NES when it came to getting rid of boxes, or at least I believe the difference in collector value between loose and complete in box is even greater on the Super Nintendo.

I'd argue N64. They went with an even cheaper ink, slightly yet thinner box. Then to compound ruining of the things you had a really flimsy removable tray or you had these bended glued on paper tabs inside you had to pull out and away to get the game out. Those who would keep games in the box on a shelf knows those things don't take much to rip or ruin entirely. You can't well clean the boxes either because they use such horribly cheap materials, like the cart stickers, that tend to fall apart (ink lifts, ruins itself) cleaned with anything much harsher than a damp rag. Yet the games, with their thick plastic frames, the carts inside sandwiched between two pieces of plate metal with 2 screws holding it in check is the opposite (cheapo sticker aside.) It's easy to find a heap of N64 carts but not boxes.

[CatPix]

Remembered it was troublesome to rebox the carts since they had those box inserts plus SNES cart had those plastic dust-covers which worked ok

True in the US, not in Europe.

That the trouble with SNES boxes is that huge cardboard casing that make it a PITA to store easily, and over time, if you store your boxes in a crate, it all get squished because those housing weren't glued efficiently, and boxes got crushed under thei weight of other carts. SAme goes for the N64.

At least the NES box was more snuggily fitted around the cart, making it a bit easier to use.

Edited June 13, 2017 by CatPix

[carlsson]

So basically Nintendo, who probably is the biggest selling video game maker of all times (and I state this on an Atari oriented forum, despite I personally don't care much for Nintendo at all) and also the most desired brand to collect, also constantly produced the worst packaging of their games, for every generation of consoles even worse packages until possibly the Gamecube with DVD like plastic cases.

 

It is rather spectacular to think that the biggest player on the market, and the one most people desire, also would produce the worst quality products, at least when it comes to the exterior.

[Tanooki]

Doesn't surprise me in the least bit. Pretend for a minute you're a normal person, not a game collector. Now transport yourself with no knowledge of the stupidity of today around, and see what you do with a box. It's a colorful condom to protect the goods on the inside, meant to be used once and thrown away once it has been used.

 

It's not Nintendo's fault they didn't understand a giant wave of collectards was coming around the time of the Gamecube and Wii era forward. Boxes were nothing more than wall art to sell a game and make it a bit harder to steal while using up some shelf space at a store to get attention so you would buy it. Nothing else in the least bit. Sega on the other hand was always about being blowhards and attention getting while also being disgustingly stupid for years with their money, so they consistently went with the most expensive and at times pathetically fragile (Saturn) box style/art for games which did nothing good for their bottom line but the collectors love it as it was a happy coincidence they held up nicer than disposable cardboard.

[carlsson]

Well, my parents are not collecting anything but they teached me to keep boxes of most everything I might have use of in the future. Perhaps not for display, but carefully packed away. We might not be your typical family in that respect, but when I got or bought computer games in the 80's, I for sure kept everything and tried to be careful about it, considering it as one entity.

 

Video game boxes to me should be more like convolutes to your vinyl records than the clear plastic packages action figure toys are supplied in. Howrever flimsy, hard to open boxes that easily rip or break entirely make them closer to the action figure analogy.

[CatPix]

Doesn't surprise me in the least bit. Pretend for a minute you're a normal person, not a game collector. Now transport yourself with no knowledge of the stupidity of today around, and see what you do with a box. It's a colorful condom to protect the goods on the inside, meant to be used once and thrown away once it has been used.

I never got that mindset really, it thows me off, even. I mean first, the box allow you to keep the game manual stored safely and not juwt randomly tossed and lost. If you have a game with codes, you can note them on a paper and in the box.

I mean maybe if he boxes had been plain brown cardboard boxes that looks like delivery boxes, maybe. But the boxes are part of the game, with the colourful artwork the game explanatio and the game screens on it. I mean pretty much how you could store cassettes tapes bare, but almost everyone I know still kept and stored them into the plastic box it came with.

 

Plus when you store your game, you can SEE the game title. I know US carts have and end label, but for me that is bullshit, what you need are SIDE labels. You store carts with the connector DOWN, not sideway

I'm not saying that I treated my game box with utter respect, but each and every game I owned from BITD still have it's box. Many of them are tattered, especially the SNES one, but that's because of the "cart tray" that get unglued, collapsed and made the box getting crushed.

Edited June 13, 2017 by CatPix

[Reaperman]

Not only are most Action Max games complete in box, most systems are too.

 

Make of that what you will...

[Eltigro]

I think this may have been somewhat talked about in another thread, but I don't mind throwing another two cents in...

 

Based on my experience, I will agree with Master System, Genesis, and Intellivision games having a high percentage of games still available CIB. As others have stated, the nice clamshells of the first two and the Intellivision boxes having the added utility of holding manual and overlays are factors contributing to box retention.

 

After that, I'd say probably more recent cd based games. There are still a lot of these loose or in generic "Gamestop" cases. My personal Playstation collection was beginning to take up too much space so I put most of my collection in one of those big Case Logic CD binders with the manuals and tossed most of the actual jewel cases (I kept a few of the nicer ones). That proved to be my downfall as that binder got "lost".

 

After that, I'd say NES, SNES, and N64, because of cheap boxes as has already been mentioned.

 

Then, near the bottom, I'd say 2600... simply because, we're talking percentages, there are tons of loose 2600 carts floating around. Plus, with increasing age, I bet there are more boxes deteriorating every day.

 

TurboGrafx games are probably somewhere near the bottom as well. I mean, to be truly complete in box, you would have to still have the cardboard box they originally came in (and the little styrofoam spacer block). I'm sure many of these got thrown away because there just was no need for it to be retained. You take off the shrink wrap, open the box, take out the jewel case that holds the game and manual, and the box is just no longer needed. I used to have several of these stored in a drawer at my house, but I think my step mom threw them out when I moved out. I think my copy of Time Cruise was one of the casualties as well. There weren't many that I bought new with the box, but I probably had three or so including Legenday Axe, Blazing Lazers, and the aforementioned Time Cruise which I don't think came with a jewel case... I think it was just a flimsy plastic insert in the box that held the hucard and sleeve. It was near the end for the TG-16 and I think they were cutting costs. I remember I had ordered it from TTI...

 

Anyway, there's my thoughts on the systems I'm familiar with.

[Blazing Lazers]

Not only are most Action Max games complete in box, most systems are too.

 

Make of that what you will...

This!!! ActionMax might be the one system I've never (at least, not knowingly) even seen a loose game for. Aside from a few on Ebay, but anything can be found loose on there.