How Do You Store PC Game Boxes?

[tubeway]

I'm just curious how you folks store your large PC game boxes. If they're not the "board game" style box with two pieces, I usually unfold the box so it's flat and stick it in a pile, and put its contents in another pile.

How do you store yours?

[aaron7]

I'm just curious how you folks store your large PC game boxes. If they're not the "board game" style box with two pieces, I usually unfold the box so it's flat and stick it in a pile, and put its contents in another pile.

How do you store yours?

I just lay mine down.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/aaron7/DSC02625.jpg

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Cornelius]

I just have them in 4 different boxes in the basement (3 large, one small for jewel case only games). They are all hodge-podged together however they fit since they are all different sizes (and shapes). It would be more efficient to collapse the boxes, but it seems like the chance of loosing stuff is greater that way.

[roushimsx]

I keep most of the big box stuff stacked up in a closet. For the smaller boxes, I store them in cardboard boxes. It makes me sad to think of the hundreds of PC game boxes that I've chucked over the years, but it just wasn't remotely practical to keep them while moving around so much :'(

[Misto]

Yea I just stack mine up similar to aaron7 up there, although I don't have taht many pc games so it was never an issue for space.

[Gameguy]

Mostly kept in boxes, I don't really have them on display. I always keep the games in the original boxes though, I don't want everything scattered apart.

[Kitsune Sniper]

They're in eight 12x12x12 Priority Mail Boxes and a couple of plastic tubs.

And don't get me started with the loose CDs...

[Jorpho]

I've also flattened everything and put it in a box. (I went a bit crazy labelling all the cardboard inserts.)

Very few of them (System Shock 2 comes to mind) do indeed come in the unflattenable 2-piece "board-game" style.

[Push Upstairs]

I don't, my mom threw out all my boxes after I moved out. :frustrated:

Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, Doom, Marathon, Age of Empires 1+2, Serious Sam...all gone. :grrr:

[robotriot]

I keep my big box PC games in three large boxes in the basement. I do have my Amiga big boxes on display though - they're mostly upright in the rack.

[Ed Oscuro]

I try to stand any game boxes with magnetic media in them upright - this was recommended some time ago to help prevent the earth's magnetic field from wiping the data. Sounds kooky but seems correct in theory.

[tubeway]

I try to stand any game boxes with magnetic media in them upright - this was recommended some time ago to help prevent the earth's magnetic field from wiping the data. Sounds kooky but seems correct in theory.

It's Sage advice. A friend that worked in film told me about the naturally occurring magnetic field, and its effects on magnetic media and tapes. He said that if you store VHS tapes for a long period of time, the tape on the very outside of the reel will become corrupted, so it's best to rewind the tape all the way to the beginning, to where any damage to the usual "blank" area will be inconsequential. I went and watched a couple tapes that I hadn't played in something like 20 years, and he was right. Those spots in the video had some static.

[Jorpho]

It's Sage advice. A friend that worked in film told me about the naturally occurring magnetic field, and its effects on magnetic media and tapes. He said that if you store VHS tapes for a long period of time, the tape on the very outside of the reel will become corrupted, so it's best to rewind the tape all the way to the beginning, to where any damage to the usual "blank" area will be inconsequential. I went and watched a couple tapes that I hadn't played in something like 20 years, and he was right. Those spots in the video had some static.No, that doesn't make any sense, logically or empirically.

If you had stored for twenty years a variety of tapes from different manufactures stored in a variety of different states of rewinding, and if tapes that were not rewound consistently (on various different VCRs) had more static than the other tapes, then you might have a case.

[tubeway]

No, that doesn't make any sense, logically or empirically.

If you had stored for twenty years a variety of tapes from different manufactures stored in a variety of different states of rewinding, and if tapes that were not rewound consistently (on various different VCRs) had more static than the other tapes, then you might have a case.

Hrm.... What I'm saying is that they're going to get some corruption regardless of where they're wound to if they're just left sitting for the long term. You're just choosing where on the tape it will happen. Rewinding them to the beginning where the tape is just a black screen and then letting them sit means that's the part that will end up with static, instead of the middle of the movie or whatever.

[Jorpho]

Hrm.... What I'm saying is that they're going to get some corruption regardless of where they're wound to if they're just left sitting for the long term. You're just choosing where on the tape it will happen. Rewinding them to the beginning where the tape is just a black screen and then letting them sit means that's the part that will end up with static, instead of the middle of the movie or whatever.Sir, that does not make sense! There is no reason why the region of the tape not wound on the reels (?) would degrade faster than some other part!

[Ed Oscuro]

There is no reason why the region of the tape not wound on the reels (?) would degrade faster than some other part!
Sure there is. Not necessarily magnetism, but exposure to humidity will do it:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/estimation_of_les.html

[tubeway]

Sir, that does not make sense! There is no reason why the region of the tape not wound on the reels (?) would degrade faster than some other part!

Well, I figured since the tape further inside the reel isn't exposed, and has many, many layers of tape covering it....

[Cornelius]

Too funny! I had a post typed up about how all this magnetism stuff didn't make sense, but it came off really snotty when I re-read it, and I didn't have time to fix it. Anyway, the gist was that magnetic fields don't really 'care' about the layers of tape. All of those layers would be affected identically. Oxidation, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.

[tubeway]

Too funny! I had a post typed up about how all this magnetism stuff didn't make sense, but it came off really snotty when I re-read it, and I didn't have time to fix it. Anyway, the gist was that magnetic fields don't really 'care' about the layers of tape. All of those layers would be affected identically. Oxidation, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.

lol, alright, I'll take your word for it. :)