why are SMS carts so bland?

[pragmatic insanester]

i was looking around at a few of the sales threads..and noticed there are no graphical labels on the sms carts themselves. i know sega was young back then, but couldn't it have followed the example of stuff like the 2600? the weird blue grids on the box-art also kind of annoy me, but that's for another day's story.

[alexkidd2000]

don't dis the sms carts! haha, well they are kinda lame but I think the box design and art kicked major ass. Compare it to the NES cardboard junk.

[GarrettCRW]

One word can answer all of your questions. That word?

Tonka.

[Garry Silljo]

Do carts really need to be flashy? If you want art, keep the box, which I believe was intended by the design in the first place. after you've bought the game, the need for pizzaz is past.

[Garry Silljo]

Double post. Oops.

[-hellvin-]

Too small would be my guess. Everything on the sms made by sega is so bland anyways. Only the third party games had really unique cases and/or carts. Personally, I really like the plain style of the cases and carts. The collection I've got looks so pretty on the shelf.

[NESaholic]

The SMS labels i don't like that much either,that red/brownish colour is kinda ulgy,although i like the blue/white ones.

don't dis the sms carts! haha, well they are kinda lame but I think the box design and art kicked major ass. Compare it to the NES cardboard junk.
Ok the cardboard is a bad thing but dude c'mon the NES art of boxes are far more superior to the SMS boxes,only the ugly white background says enough IMO.

[TEXASGAMEPLAYER]

It's alot easier to find a mint sms cart than a mint nes cart. Maybe because there is less label to be scratched, peeled, written on, or otherwise destroyed!

MINT GAME + TGP = :D

[Jumpman Jr.]

Even the boxes are a little bland if you ask me. Just plain old white grid back-ground with a picture. The carts are even worse though. Good thing is, I don't collect loose SMS carts, so I never have to see them.

[chrisbid]

plastic boxes go a long way. they almost make up for the lack of label artwork and a top label title.

if i am judging the cart for itself though, i would put it in the c to c- category. yes they are plain, but at least they are stackable

[googlefest1]

i actualy liked and still like the sms carts -- they were... diferent

i liked and still like the way the cart looks and matches with the system


when i was a kid the one thing that pissed me off the most about the nes games was that the art was a misrepresentation of what the game was like. That wasnt only nes either most other games had the same labels. Action packed, exciting labels for bland games. Only a few lived up to the lables.

Back to the topic - i realy liked the sms carts -- when in the system it looked great

all you need is a title anyway

[Slimedog]

As a collector, I like the SMS boxes and covers for the overall uniformity and I really like plastic over cardboard. I would have prefered art on the cart lables, but oh well. However, I really think this issue had a major impact back when they were trying to compete with Nintendo. I thought the black box NES games were roughly comprable to the SMS grid design, but when NES games started having actual artwork on the covers I think it really hurt the SMS. As a kid, I was very much attracted to the box art. I only read a few magazines and there was no internet so a lot of my buys were uninformed and influenced by box art. Kids are like that. And a lot of kids were buying games back then. Honestly, if you put the NES and SMS versions of Alien Syndrome next to each other, which one would you grab?

[Raccoon Lad]

But they look SO GOOD sitting in the cart slot. I don't need some shitty Mega Man 1 style artwork F-ing that up!

[Graham Mitchell]

On a slightly related note, I think the cards all look pretty cool. They're a little cooler than the TG-16 cards, even (though I like seeing what color scheme they used for each game on the TG-16 cards.)

[davepesc]

As much as Nintendo didn't want the NES to look like a "toy," I think Sega is the one who really went for the "futuristic electronics" thing. The grid pattern was so everthhing looked, clean and orderly, just like the future turned out to be, what with our one-color metallic jumpsuits and flying cars.

Seriously, except for a few 3rd party releases, a set of SMS games wouldn't look out of place on a bookshelf in a living room. And the SMS, with it's idiot-proof diagram, looked more advanced than anything else in the room.

[BenJahrvi]

The Japanese SMS cassettes looked decent, because they were taller. I think the Export SMS cassettes did not have enough label space, because they were shorter and wider.

[The Plucky Little Ninja]

I love the simplicity of the early SMS boxes. They got a bit more elaborate as time went on, but the early ones just had that one little picture in the lower corner. They had a simple charm kinda like the NES "black" boxes.

I feel like going on a crotchity old man rant.

Back in my day we didn't have boxes covered in lavish faggy illustrations depicting scenes of high adventure. We had one tiny little f'n icon and that's the way we liked it.

[PDorr3]

I really like the simplicity of the boxes, and its nice they are plastic, but I hate the carts. Especialy since you cant see what games they are if you have them stacked ontop of eachother. I like the uniformity look of the boxes on a shelf though.

[CrimsonNugget]

It was the 80's. Everything was tacky in the 80's.

[Yukio]

Their are much like "first"-party MSX cartridges, even the shape is similar ... The difference is that cartridges for the old Microsoft MSX (now the copyright changed a lot) have a hole in them.

Actually, it was very good that the boxes or cardboard boxes of SEGA Master System games do use real graphics of the games and not a very good box art. Unlike most of the other systems that feature distractions for questionable translations.

Some third-party MSX2 cartridges like Aleste had a full color label and intro, but the International version (Power Strike) was only localized for the SEGA Master System. Without the censored word and the intro of the game ... Compile was very controversial on the games and magazines.

I think that the Japanese games for older systems looked a little like Atari 2600VCS or ColecoVision cartridges. The games do not fit into International Master System's.

[Greg2600]

Not a fan of the SMS carts or the boxes, but I am not a box person. Too much clutter. I may never get a SMS system/games in my collection because of the blandness of the carts. Labels are big in my book.

[megasdkirby]

I don't mind the carts at all. Simplicity at it's best.

I care more about the game than flashy design/looks.

Cases are infinitely more durable than any cardboard box. And putting them on a shelf gives it uniformity.

However, some carts stuck out like a sore thumb...those that are newer, Activision releases, RC Grand Prix, etc.

[maxlords]

I like the cartridge shape myself. If you look at the back of the carts especially, they have a very futuristic (from the 80s idea of futuristic) design to em. Neat. Never had a problem with em myself...nice and minimal...all the boxes match too. They probably saved a lot of $ on artwork and paying artists that they used to put into gameplay and stuff...Sega is wacky like that...

[scooterb23]

The cartridge is merely a vessel to get the game onto the TV screen. I can't say I've ever looked at a cart, and really gave a whole lot of though to the aesthetics of the cart. SUre I look at the labels, and notice things...I've never spent time doing this in detail. Closest I can think of is "Hey, that Odyssey 2 cart has a handle, all right."

[ApolloBoy]

but I think the box design and art kicked major ass.

Even this?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Sms_pro_wrestling_box.jpg/200px-Sms_pro_wrestling_box.jpg

[Pantechnicon]

As much as Nintendo didn't want the NES to look like a "toy," I think Sega is the one who really went for the "futuristic electronics" thing. The grid pattern was so everthhing looked, clean and orderly, just like the future turned out to be, what with our one-color metallic jumpsuits and flying cars.

Irony notwithstanding, I think you've pretty much nailed what Sega was going for with this particular aesthetic. Remember that in the mid-80's things like game consoles, while gaining market share, were still considered part of an emerging future; one that mirrored a vision still mostly considered the purview of science fiction; that every home would have a sophisticated computer device in it. From a marketing standpoint, this resonated as much with the SMS as it did with the IBM PC. The "wire grid" thing on the boxes and carts, along with the circuit-like schematic on the console, implied technological function and sophistication. It's a stark contrast to the more organic-looking consoles of the present day. I'm not saying one's a better aesthetic, merely that there's a clear difference.

I for one like the aesthetic of the carts and boxes, but I'll admit it's mostly for nostalgia. I wasn't a fan of the SMS at all in its mid-80's heyday (or the NES for that matter), and I knew literally nobody who owned one. But looking at the 20 or so boxed titles on my shelf I can still clearly recall how they looked behind the counter at Kay-Bee circa 1985.

[Yukio]

The Brazilian company named TecToy has special stickers and some "3D" TecToy seal (that was similar to that stamped on credit cards) on the cartridge. This was to tell that the game was a official SEGA release, but I think that all cartridges (the ROM chip) were manufactured by SEGA themselves .

I do not believe that the games sold that much because of this promotional stuff, like the "exclusive stickers". For those that had some complains about the type of stuff from SEGA, try to make a search and find what types of stuff the games for home personal systems had on South America and Europe ... The cassette tapes and ROM/EPROM cartridges with some stick or label on them.

Sure it helped a little, after all the '3D' TecToy seal was Much better than the ones from Nintendo or SEGA .The cool thing is that this was sticked on the labels of old cartridges!

Free Stickers.
Other things.Even trough 3D stickers were nice, I remember taking some free from a promotion about that chocolate stuff to mix in the milk,only requirement was to send by mail the label of the Nestlé NESCAL product sure this is not direct linked with home games but their were similar to radical sports ( Unfortunately I was not one of the winners, the stickers were one of the first things that I got for *FREE*) . There were some stickers about a "Big-Mac" promotion on some game for SEGA Master System, not sure who earned the "Big-Mac's".

[fairyland]

As said before, it was just the style of the 80s. You can see the same type of minimalistic futuristic on music album covers.

Human League - Dare
http://lh3.ggpht.com/vernissage.clinic/R3RWMPGaq9I/AAAAAAAAA-A/dtcSTq7-n1k/Human+League.jpg

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome
http://www.kulichki.com/cddisk/fgth/plesdome.jpg

I could show dozens of examples, it was just the fad at the time. I should know as I was a young teen at the time living and enjoying it. LOL!

[Yukio]

I could be wrong but I believe that the boxes of old Atari 2600 VCS cartridges are soft boxes, much like the Japanese SEGA games for the SG-1000 and Mark III.

If people would like more the nice labels and paper box instead of the International hardcover boxes with simple labels it is open to debate.

Sure some people think that is it weird to replace the Japanese art on the boxes and labels, but usually there is a American art that counterpart the game and manual.

Anyway, I believe that the International boxes for SEGA Master System games are similar in shape to the ones used on standard VHS tapes. The size of the cartridges is the same that was used on the Microsoft MSX standard and the controllers are Atari compatible ones ... By the way, one thing that was really missing was the MSX-Music sound chip. This was used on Japanese games for MSX and Master System games.