Will there ever be a TG16 price crash?

[Winniez]

The EURO DC cases are indeed bad but atleast they are interchangeable. The Saturn cases are a unholy mixture of cheap cardboard and bad jewel case design.

[Gypsy]

The EURO DC cases are indeed bad but atleast they are interchangeable. The Saturn cases are a unholy mixture of cheap cardboard and bad jewel case design.

The only good Saturn cases are the Japanese ones for sure.

[Winniez]

Indeed, it seems that Japan got it right instantly. Normal jewel cases, good design, compact and no need to do anything else. In the West however it seems that CD games had to look bigger and more impressive on the shelves, hence all the funky cases.

[Gypsy]

Indeed, it seems that Japan got it right instantly. Normal jewel cases, good design, compact and no need to do anything else. In the West however it seems that CD games had to look bigger and more impressive on the shelves, hence all the funky cases.

Yeah America likes things BIGGER or something. Just look at the Turbografx lol.

I avoid buying the US version of Saturn games when I can, even cheapies, if I can play the Japanese version that's what I get. So much easier to store and not damage.

[Arkhan]

The TG16 is the only system I know of with long boxes, and they are only "long" by a couple of cm making them %100 pointless. CD long boxes at least were designed to make CDs as tall as a record so stores wouldn't have to buy new racks.

Of course it only worked so well, mainly because a longbox is twice the volume of a regular CD case and four times as big as a record so you suddenly had less room in your store for a format that supposedly saved space.

Btw, IMO Euro DC cases are even worse than the Saturn ones.

The only longboxes I like to buy sometimes are the PSX game longboxes wtih the cardboard/plastic, and it's purely because of how goddamn stupid they are, and that it reminds me of how stupid they were and how we laughed at them when they came out.

I have maybe 4 games in those cases.



I routinely bitch at them when I realize they are f*cking my shelf space up.

[SignOfZeta]

That's not what a longbox is. A longbox is when you have a perfectly suitable jewel case, done and dusted, and then you go and put all that into another box, just because.

The dumb tall cases that originated with Sega CD and lasted all the way through US Saturn and a large part of US PS weren't long boxes. They aren't boxes of any kind, they are shitty jewel cases. The Sony ones, honeslty, being way nicer than the Sega ones, which basically shatter on sight. My favorite is Panzer Dragoon Saga, which has three of its four CDs in paper envelopes banging around in the box because that giant ass case can't hold more than 1CD, despite being twice as big as a standard 4xCD audio CD case (which is what the JP version came in).

American audio CDs from major labels from the beginning up until about 1990 had long boxes (mostly hollow) to make the CD packaging 12" high. It's mostly hollow since CD cases are less than 6".

Turbo games have a "longbox" that isn't even long. Doesn't help it fit into special shelving. Doesn't increase visibility (which is why Sega and Sony did what they did). Doesn't even have extra info on it or anything TOTALLY POINTLESS.

[Winniez]

Ah, interesting. I didn't know that. Like I said by longbox I just ment those tall jewel cases, just used a wrong terminology.
And yeah, I have the japanese Panzer Dragoon Saga and it does indeed have that standard double CD case.

[StarDust4Ever]

The TG16 is the only system I know of with long boxes, and they are only "long" by a couple of cm making them %100 pointless. CD long boxes at least were designed to make CDs as tall as a record so stores wouldn't have to buy new racks.

Of course it only worked so well, mainly because a longbox is twice the volume of a regular CD case and four times as big as a record so you suddenly had less room in your store for a format that supposedly saved space.

Btw, IMO Euro DC cases are even worse than the Saturn ones.

Could somebody point to an example of the CD "long box?" I have never heard of these. Sams Club comes to mind as they used to do extra long paper cases for DVD movies as a type of theft deterrence, which I believe were only exclusive to their stores.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox

[esteban]

The TG16 is the only system I know of with long boxes, and they are only "long" by a couple of cm making them %100 pointless. CD long boxes at least were designed to make CDs as tall as a record so stores wouldn't have to buy new racks.

Of course it only worked so well, mainly because a longbox is twice the volume of a regular CD case and four times as big as a record so you suddenly had less room in your store for a format that supposedly saved space.

Btw, IMO Euro DC cases are even worse than the Saturn ones.

Could somebody point to an example of the CD "long box?" I have never heard of these. Sams Club comes to mind as they used to do extra long paper cases for DVD movies as a type of theft deterrence, which I believe were only exclusive to their stores.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox

Yes, generic cardboard longboxes were used at Costco/Sams Club/etc. for many, many years...after 99% of retailers stopped bothering (or switched to plastic reusable anti-theft devices).

Longboxes were very common during the first few years of retail CD sales. I bought my first CD player in 1985-86 and even MAIL ORDER CDs arrived in longboxes (Kraftwerk's Autobahn or Electric Cafe, for example...I ordered that via mail order because many local stores had very limited CD selection in first few years).

It was just "normal" to see hundreds of shrinkwrapped longboxes at a store ....now, what Zeta forgot is that some longboxes actually had some artwork/design on them (an "extension" of the Cd/album art, but never anything that you would be upset at losing), but that specialized art/design/packaging quickly faded away (production costs, I reckon) in favor of generic  long boxes.

Then, later, as an anti-theft measure, stores just started using plastic security cases that were essentially the same size ( a little bigger) than the CD longboxes...

It was my understanding that longboxes helped with transition from records--> CDs...customer could flip through CDs in same manner, at the same shelves...

I haven't googled any images yet, but it would be fun to see *creative kool* longbox art vs. *lame* "why bother?" design....I am pretty sure that often a record label logo would be on a longbox (no art/design unique to the album itself).

[esteban]

^ I never had that album, surprisingly!

Here is Electric Cafe (I don't even remember this):

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, I was going to mention that some longboxes had more art than the standard jewel case but in every case I can recall it's the same art used for the LP and the CD itself just layed out for a vertical format. Whereas many times obi on Japanese releases would have on them something, a little blurb or ads for other releases, I can't think of any longboxes that did...you know, actuality use the thing in an interesting way.

The early Warner issues of New Order's Substance 1987 (a 2CD set) actually mostly filled up the longbox. Each CD was in its own jewel case, one at the top, one at the bottom. Later issues switched to a standard double case.

[esteban]

Yeah, I was going to mention that some longboxes had more art than the standard jewel case but in every case I can recall it's the same art used for the LP and the CD itself just layed out for a vertical format. Whereas many times obi on Japanese releases would have on them something, a little blurb or ads for other releases, I can't think of any longboxes that did...you know, actuality use the thing in an interesting way.

The early Warner issues of New Order's Substance 1987 (a 2CD set) actually mostly filled up the longbox. Each CD was in its own jewel case, one at the top, one at the bottom. Later issues switched to a standard double case.

Ha, I had some bootleg New Order Substance Remixes (not too great) and it came in two separate jewel boxes (I think I bought them at separate times, too)...it never occurred to me that it might have actually been an "homage" to the original CD release....

[TheClash603]

I got my first CD player in 1992 and I did a bunch of CD shopping after that.  My only value in this discussion is to confirm by 1992 long boxes were a thing of the past.

[SignOfZeta]

If your record store never had anything more than two years old in it, sure. That's a pretty shitty store though.

[Winniez]

For me the CD longbox was unknown aswell.  I would imagine we had them in Europe aswell but not sure, I'm really not that familiar with record formats.
In defence of the PAL DC cases - as bad as they are - atleast they served a purpose (like the CD longboxes I suppose), their thickness allowed them to house a large instruction manual in several European languages. I think the original PAL DS cases were made thick for the same reason.