A while back I decided to let my childhood Nintendo 64 and SNES consoles go. I have so many happy, wonderful memories playing them, but for the last long while they have sat dormant in my closet, collecting dust. With modern emulation and recompilation projects like Banjo: Recompiled, there’s no reason for me to ever return to the original systems when I can play them in a much better way on modern hardware. And knowing that there are people out in the world who would be able to use them and appreciate them for years to come, I let them go.
I’m not really one for keepsakes or sentimental items, but I didn’t want to let go of my Donkey Kong and Rare game cartridges. Instead, I thought it best to put a little bit of money into buying proper cases for them, and storing them in a way that shows how much I value them. The original cardboard cases are incredibly hard to come by, and are brittle. Instead, I opted for custom molded cases that retain a lot of the original artwork while providing more protection and a better visual appearance on the shelf. And thus, my shrine was born:
Earlier this week, I received an email from the person I bought these from on eBay:
Hello,
This message is for anyone who’s purchased a video game cartridge case from my eBay store “The Game Galaxy” in the past 12 months.
I wanted to alert you that eBay has removed all 1000+ cartridge cases I had up for sale after a 3rd party (not Nintendo) complained to eBay about > the cases. 7+ years of work is now gone.
Additionally, I can still provide cases to you if you are interested at any point in the future, simply message me using any listing that is still left in my eBay store. The URL is below.
https://www.ebay.com/str/fastshippingnogames?_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2563
I’m working on a new website so I can sell the cases there, but in the meantime, message me using the above method and I can explain how we can proceed in the near-term.
Thank you for reading all of that.
I want to sincerely thank all of you for your loyal support over the years. It meant the world to me. It was a dream come true opening and operating this retro game store and couldn’t have done it without all of you.
Be well,
Brian Yourdan The Game Galaxy
I’m not a huge fan of the concept of intellectual property, but knowing that it wasn’t even Nintendo who tried to get them shutdown makes me especially grumpy.
I don’t know anything about Brian or The Game Galaxy other than I bought a set of cases from them a few months back and have been pleased with the result, but if you’re interested in buying cases for your own cartridges I’d encourage you to consider giving them a chance. Then you, too, can have you own closet shrine!