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Thread: How do you store loose Atari 2600 carts?

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    Default How do you store loose Atari 2600 carts?

    I've never found a good solution to this. Atari carts are short, fat, and generally not shelf-friendly. How do you display them on your shelves? Sideways with the label facing you? Standing up? Loose in a box?

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    Apple (Level 5) Arkhan's Avatar
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    I stack them label out in shelving units.

    These shelving units are known to most as milk-crates. I prefer to call them stackable shelving units.
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    My 2600 collection is small so I can store them easily enough in a tub. When the collection grows, the solution is clear: bigger tub. (and a bigger clear tub, at that.)

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    Sideways with label facing out. I have customizable shelving, so I space it to match the cart size. This proves to be a problem with the M2 carts or other "weird" carts, but any shelving solution is going to have issues taking those into account.



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    Just stack `em, like so.

    Most the carts aren't a problem with respect to size and proportion. Imagic titles jut out a little bit, and there are some oddball brands like Xonox, Commavid or Konami which just go off to the side.

    The worst ones of course are M-Network which don't lend themselves to stacking at all but I found a neat way to stack them too: Alternate M-Network carts with Imagics. Put an Imagic on the bottom of the pile and then place the skinny side of the M-Cart on top of it with the wider cartridge edge hanging off the back. Makes for a nice tall stack. I'll post a picture later tonight to show what I'm talking about.

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    Standing up on the shelf like this:

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    In the garbage......

    Joke guys, joke please don't send a Ninja Assassin after me.


    Seriously though I have mine in a plastic bin. The kind that slides under the bed. Keeps them nice and neat and dust free.

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    I store mine in an actual 2600 Console/Games storage case made for the purpose, has a sort of smoked/clear cover on top, and a wood grain bottom. Holds about 30 games or so, which is about all I have anyways. If I had more I am not sure what I'd do with them. Actually, got my Atari + all the games, the container, controllers, everything, for 5 bucks at a garage sale about 10 years ago!

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    I'm trying to make them fit well, but they just seem so out of place no matter where I put them or how they're stacked.

    Here's my shelving setup:


    And here's the only way I can think of to store more than a few carts:


    If I give them their own shelves, I can't fit as much other stuff on the shelves that would normally fit perfectly. As they are, they're a big funny looking tower. I like the standing-up idea, but I don't have a shelf deep enough to do it.

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    I put most of my cartridges in drawers of some sort. My Genesis games get a cartridge organizer (an idea i took from another thread here on DP.) My atari games look like so:



    EDIT - just realized that Star Raiders and Video Chess were swapped. I suck at alphabetizing.

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    i store mine in candy boxes

    Mexican Hats and Red Hot Dollars boxes actually
    the only problem is the boxes wont fit the Imagic or any other cart thats longer than a normal 2600 cart



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    I currently have mine stored in a box under my DVDs. When I get around to building shelving for my games, I plan on just stacking them alphabetically.
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    The only satisfactory solution for me was to use these shelves specially made for VCS games:



    I don't know how easy to find they are these days, but they look great and are wall mountable.

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    I actually bought a dresser and i am making inserts for all the games. After that all the games will go in there perfectly with about 20 slots open for homebrews.


    I have some of those wall mount ones somewhere that I never use. Probably find them in a few weeks as I'm in the process of moving which is why dresser is not finished.

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    Quote Originally Posted by boatofcar View Post
    The only satisfactory solution for me was to use these shelves specially made for VCS games:



    I don't know how easy to find they are these days, but they look great and are wall mountable.

    Ooh, I found one of those this weekend. It came with a 7800 lot that I snapped up at the local flea market for $20. It reminds me of an old 8 track tape case/holder.

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    I put all mine in shoeboxes, then stack the shoeboxes. Not exactly good for display purposes, but works fine for me.

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    Quote Originally Posted by boatofcar View Post
    The only satisfactory solution for me was to use these shelves specially made for VCS games:
    I find these especially helpful for M-Network games. I actually keep all my VCS games (not boxed) in drawers, but even in drawers the M-Network titles need to be coralled.

    At one point I had so many boxed VCS games I considered going all-boxed. Ahh, youth.

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    a nice white or black custom built shelf (black looks nice with atari games) is a great way to display atari games or any game IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ze_ro View Post
    I put all mine in shoeboxes, then stack the shoeboxes. Not exactly good for display purposes, but works fine for me.
    I did that for many, many years. Currently I use sterlite containers that are stored under the bed. Quick snap...



    Fits 96 cartridges per container comfortably, alphabetized of course. Looking at my VCS games it's nice to finally have my duplicates pushed down to a more manageable level.

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    Okay, here's my Imagic/M-Network solution:



    and here's the bulk of my 2600 collection (~325 carts), which is stored on a vertical shelf:

    Last edited by Pantechnicon; 11-11-2009 at 01:44 AM.

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